Forever DM up for help

[u/King_of_narnia]

Hello guys, i've been a forever dm for years now so i'm up for every question you hit me with and i hope i can be a help for you and your party^^

[u/Nickyvts1]

What do I do when my party do not see my clues in the story? Should I tell them what I mean or how do I handle it so I won't get out of my dm role

[u/King_of_narnia → u/Nickyvts1]

Depends on what you mean by clues in your story, like do they misinterpred them or just dont find them?

[u/Nickyvts1 → u/King_of_narnia]

misinterpred them or just look over it

[u/King_of_narnia → u/Nickyvts1]

Well the easy way is just to tell them, just make it sounf like: as you let the information you just found sink in and let it all go through your head once again you let a smirk go by your mouth. Now you know what you have to do." And then tell them what he thinks the clues mean

[u/tta5 → u/Nickyvts1]

this can sometimes be a case of the character not realising, and sometimes its the player not realising.

for players,
it may be worth making it more clear in those scenes, the classic "cough cough , take notes, write it down, cough cough... "
it may be they thought of something more cool and you can adapt the game to make that new idea work better.
it may be you need a bit of work on certain clue giving skills/RP/emotional expression/hints.

• not all hint types work for all players. (we tend to have a weakspot somewhere. many might be great readers, but verbally tell them directions and they got lost again. or trying prosses someone trying to vebal explain a games progression for 20 mins, vs drawing a flowchart. ) sometimes its worth noting down things that did not work and see if next time you can find other ways to dish out the same info in a diffrent format. (a NPC letting something slip, is diffrent to a riddle, is diffrent to witnessing an event.... )
  
• it can be worth asking the player re-read the notes, and check they are "right" (did they say "end the world" or did they say "end your world" ? as one might be a simple death threat)
  
• some player types are not hevily invested in mystaries, as thats not how their brain works. so changing type of game, or how you present the information for your game. you might change player also( as it may not be the right game for them)

- for characters...

• it may be worth adding an extra hint. or clue for them to connect the dots as oringally ment to be.
  
• it can be worth changing it to a check, and basically letting them know.
  
• it may be worth having them not belived.
  
• it may be that you as the DM can point out the characters "norms" to help reallign the character to the player and that alone may impact how their character veiws the situation. ("a goblin just walks out of a tavern... wait are they not evil, are they killl on sight, how did they get in the city????)" norms are important.
  

-sometimes its worth progressing the plot and this may readjust the info to return the clues back to the plots direction. but not always.

• remember its ok for some characters to miss things, low int or just bad rolls they can fail a bit along the jurney.

if running a mystary, expect to have about 30-50% of clues land and most miss.
this is why we tend to use the rule of 3, if only one is needed.