How many of you let the Players know the name of the adventure they are on and at what point?
For example, I did not give out the name of Life's Bazaar until the end of the adventure. While there is a little double meaning going on there, I figured my players would assume the meaning that someone was selling people.
On Flood Season though, I introduced it on their way back from the Lucky Monkey just after describing the ever increasing sheets of rain caused by the incoming monsoon season.
So how about you? Do you even let the Players know the name of the adventure?
Sean Mahoney
When I remember, I usually let them know. But typically they just end up making fun of them.
"Zenith Trajectory" is cooler, I guess, if you know they are going to meet someone named Zenith :(
"Lords of Oblivion" made them think of the band from South Park...
I never let them know.
They can refer to the events of any adventure as they see fit -- IMO it helps them establish ownership of the game and campaign.
My players know the name of the adventure path, obviously. Other than that they are not supposed to have any inside information. Still, if they do, I hope they are disciplined enough not to use it in the game.
My players know the name of the adventure path, obviously...
I'm lucky -- mine don't :)
They're not RP magazine fans, and I photocopy the adventures and put them in a binder so I can mark up and mutilate at will; thus they don't even know where the adventure is coming from.
Sure, it wouldn't be hard for them to figure it out, but luckily they aren't motivated to spoil the fun.
My players know the name of the adventure path, obviously.
Mine don't even know that!
Generally, I don't tell the players the names of the chapters/individual adventures, at least not until long after the adventure(s) is complete.
I always tell my players. As a writer I feel like it adds something to the game when, even though the events don't pause, they pass from one chapter to another. It helps the party feel like they are advancing in the storyline. I feel that the names of the chapters don't give away too much and usually when the party gets to a certain point they'll stop and go 'oh, that's what that meant'
I also tell my players the name of the campaign because I feel like that helps tie it all together better. Especially for long temp gamers that have played in several campaigns. If there is a name it doesn't degrade to "Josh's D&D Game", no the other one he ran, territory.
If I allow my players to make their own names for things they tend to be really misleading or downright silly. They have a bad enough habit of naming creatures and NPCs misleading or silly things I don't want to encourage them to do it with the game chapters or campaign too.
I have found that I like to give out the names as soon I can do so with out giving something away. For instance I told them prior to the start this was to be the Shackled City campaign. I then, but only verbally, told them that the first adventure was Life's Bazaar. I made sure to say it in such a way that they thought it meant life is strange rather than a place where life is sold. I got a lot of "oh!" when I showed them in a writing what it said at the end of the andventure.
Flood Season was given to them as they rode back to Cauldron from the lucky monkey and I was describing the first torrential downpours that had started to come down. They already knew that flooding was a potential and the name drove it home. So that worked out well to.
So I guess to answer my own question, I do give them out but wait until I can get some impact out of the name or at least not give anything away. Zenith Trajectory will probably be given right after the meeting in the Cusp of Sunrise.
Sean Mahoney
I let them know but I play in French and the title don't always traduce easily and I usually change it.
Campaign title is: Les enchainés = The shakcled, because every npc seems shackled by something, power, madness....
I don't remember the great title I gave for 1st chapter but there was: Jzadirune and the Malachite fortress as subtitle.
Flood season stayed the same with The Lucky Monkey, The forgotten ruins (change name for the caverns part) and The Flood festival.
We start Zenith Trajectory but for me it's The prisonner of Darkness (physically and mentally) with subtitle like The King and the Dragon (for the meeting with the bard), The Maw or the Jaws for the entrance cavern, I don't know the name for the last part, the temple.
When we all got underway finally I said the name of the first chapter, Life's Bazaar, and my wife immediately said she assumed it was life's bazaar like a place where life is sold and not life's bizarre like life is strange. I really expected it to last at least a little while before anyone made that jump of logic. Ultimately it doesn't hurt the game at all. Now they know to look for word games in the way things are presented and that perhaps everything is not what it seems at first. It's a good thing I changed Orbius Vhalatru from a beholder to something else or they might have put that clue together WAY too soon.
It's a good thing I changed Orbius Vhalatru from a beholder to something else or they might have put that clue together WAY too soon.
I just always called him Vhalantru, never using his first name. My players would have made that link immediately.
I just always called him Vhalantru, never using his first name.
There's a lot of name games like this in the first chapter. The Vhalantru one was way over the top, I thought. I hear they changed his name in the hardcover.
Creative Director
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I just always called him Vhalantru, never using his first name.There's a lot of name games like this in the first chapter. The Vhalantru one was way over the top, I thought. I hear they changed his name in the hardcover.
Yes. His name did change in the hardcover; we just call him Vhalantru, or Lord Vhalantru at times. Orbius is too cute and too obvious.
I like to stick all the details of any adventure I'm running into DMGenie. That way if the characters drift off the main adventure into something I added or even if they are so far from the plot I'm adlibing my backside off, they don't necessarily know. I don't tell them the name of the adventure they are playing but I do tell them when they have completed one.
Blakey