| Michael Zenke |
Something that I've found is helpful to introduce background information is to put a 'meta' handout into the game.
Ex: Say the party has killed the leader of an evil church, and they sack her quarters. In her desk they find a number of pieces of correspondence. It's cool to actually write all those out, and if you want to there is a portion of the party that will really enjoy that.
What would be quicker and get more of their attention, though, is if you just summarize for them, and only give them the pieces of information that are salient to their interests.
eg: "Looks like there's a slave manifest, and guess whose name is on there?" ... only more detailed. :)
If you want to give them handouts, I've found that after the fact usually works better, especially in an online format. If you're maintaining a web page for your game, put the handout online and then give the link to the players. Those that will get a kick out of that stuff can read at their leisure, and everybody else can ignore it.