Player Handouts

[Ranes]

I use handouts (have done for many for many years) but, where they involve written text, they're short. The nearest I've got to a gazetteer took up less than a single side of A4. That was in 12pt and half of it was house rules.

Maps, definitely. World maps? Depends on your campaign, of course, but usually not, in my case. Not to begin with at any rate. Down the line, when they've discovered a lost library, that's a different matter.

 

[grodog]

The maps have been worn out from use to the point where the originals are now in plastic sleeves and multiple copies exist.

The gazetteer? I'm not sure if anybody looked at it. Ever.

This mimics my general experience with casual games; the folks who really want to get an edge on the other players' PCs, who want DM brownie points, and who genuinely like your world will read the written materials, too. The maps, however, are the key: if you provide a map, and a short key with 0-4 sentence annotations for the keyed locations, you'll be in great shape to start, especially if the PCs are 1st level and don't know much about their world beyond their village and the roads that lead to the other nearest villages.

 

[Sound of Azure]

You may want to check some of our editable handouts.http://www.roninarts.com/store/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=handouts&x=0&y=0 They may save you some time.

For a moment, I thought that read edible handouts...

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As others have said, it really depends on how engaged your players are. The last "Player's manual" I gave out had little mini-comics on every other page relating to the text in some way (I had a friend draw them, since I'm rubbish at drawing). I was fairly popular. Everyone said they read it for the articles, but I'm not sure I believed them...

 

[BobbyMac]

You may want to check some of our editable handouts.http://www.roninarts.com/store/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=handouts&x=0&y=0 They may save you some time.

Dude when are yall gonna put out the consolidated "Behind the Spells" pdf...????

 

[philreed]

For a moment, I thought that read edible handouts...

Coming soon, chocolate handouts! Reward your players with a tasty temptation.

"Do I use the handout to gain an in-game benefit or do I eat it?"

 

[philreed]

Dude when are yall gonna put out the consolidated "Behind the Spells" pdf...????

Working on it. The cover art's currently being worked on.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

I am a big fan of handouts. I have done them for years. Along comes Ptolus, which proves the point that you can take a lot of gaming groups, pass out a 20 page handout, and have at least 50% read it with interest.

Handouts can address several key points:

1. Location, location, location or "Where can I buy stuff?"
2. Where am I from?
3. Where the heck are we?
4. What's cool about this place?

Now, the key here is to know your group. If they are all beer and pretzel guys who show up "to kill things" and don't even pick up the PH much, then yeah, a handout is wasted. Past that point, a good amount of gamers will read the material. The trick is not to make it dry or useless.

Put another way, who cares how many types of wool there are locally?

Give the players the stuff they need - maps are definitely good - and then refer to it over the course of the first few sessions. Players will get the idea that stuff is at their fingertips. (I also recommend collating common materials for their reference into a game binder that can sit on the table.)

 

[Doghead Thirteen]

Handouts are a double-edged sword, like a lot of GMing techniques.

I've seen them become a vital part of a campaign; I've seen them be completely disregarded because they were the most boring piece of reading material on Earth.

If done right, they're a good thing. If not...

 

[TarionzCousin]

Coming soon, chocolate handouts! Reward your players with a tasty temptation.

"Do I use the handout to gain an in-game benefit or do I eat it?"

Reminds me of my old "Playing Poker with M&M's" days.

I've used a short handout and extensive handouts. If your game is uber-challenging, and your playes are into that sort of thing, they will pore over 200 pages of printed material and a huge website to find out what they are missing.

But usually less is more. Keep it to one page if you can.

 

[RainOfSteel]

I'm in the middle of creating handouts for players in my campaign. It's basically a gazeteer of my campaign world. Has anyone done such a thing? And what information did you include? I'm basically trying to give the players the sort of information their characters would know about the game world. Also, I'm toying with the idea of making it a PDF that I would send to the players with photoshop maps to accompany the information. How much effort should I put into this?

I've done that.

I wrote a complete milieu gazateer, creation myth, history, nations, geography, gods, religion, races, classes, feats, languages, prices.

It was 200+ pages long.

The amount of effort you should put into your should be based on how much time and effort you think your players will put into reading it.

If they're all busy people who devote their out-of-game time to their own pursuits and life, chances are, they may not get to read it all, or if they do, they probably won't retain critical information for long. You may want to write all thumb-nail sketches and keep everything as brief as possible. Stick more to the cruch of necessary game mechanics.

If they all have plenty of spare time and you know they'll give your material the time it deserves, then you may want to be more detailed and extensive in what you produce. You can lavish more on the milieu and expect it to have a cognizant impact.

Your group may contain a mixed population of both types.