As a DM, do you ever find yourself reminding players about certain details from previous sessions, or is it the players' responsibility to take notes/remember their adventures? Should you remind them if they seem oblivious to certain plot hooks? The case that brings up this question is as follows:
We're about 8 sessions into the campaign. During the third session, the players encountered a statue and soon learned it was a petrified man, and he had been in his current state for decades. More recently, the players acquired the means to reverse his condition. Briefly, they fought a reskinned gorgon, and I wanted to offer them one freebie to undo its breath weapon in case someone whiffed the saving throws. If more than one person was petrified, they'd have to spend some gold getting additional allies unfrozen, but miraculously, they all succeeded on their saving throws despite multiple attacks from the breath weapon.
Now they've got a spare reverse petrification, but I don't think it will ever occur to them to use it on the statue, which only made a brief appearance at a session two months ago. It's certainly not necessary for them to heal him to progress on their quest, but he would be a major boon to their objectives, and a cool addition to the story.
If you were in my shoes, would you remind the players? Would you do it in game (maybe a dream sequence, or they see another real statue which reminds them of the petrified human). Or would you just bring it up to the players as a possible side quest?
I'd remind the players by telling them. For the players it's 2 months ago, for their characters it may be way less. Plus the players have work/study with lots toccupy their mind, while for their characters this may be something significant. Plus reminding them gives them a signal that you remembered and have something prepared for them there.
I take notes, and I will usually open a session with a brief recap of where the last session started, what goals were accomplished in that last session, and where that last session ended. I find that helps everyone get on the same page, and it usually takes less than five minutes.
I also encourage the players to take notes. Each player can do this individually, or they can nominate a player each session to jot down important things. When I played (the group I played in alternated the responsibility for DM'ing) I was usually elected the note taker because I was fairly thorough (and because I would occasionally jot down important notes that the nominated note taker wouldn't).
I will remind players only of obvious details that they may have forgotten. The ones their PCs would not have forgotten. For the rest, I will give a flat intelligence check to the appropraite PCs if/when the situation warrants it. Failure means the PC has forgotten and no further reminders or chances will be forthcoming.
Nevvur wrote:
I like to reward players in some way who remember it themselves, but I will also remind them with no punishment if they've forgotten something that their PC would definitely remember.
If I think it's questionable whether or not the PC would remember, and the player doesn't, I might ask for an Intelligence check. Usually, though, I'll just answer their questions; to me, the act of remembering enough to ask the question (like 'what was that guy's name?') says that they remembered enough that their PC would remember it.
Between meeting the petrified man and obtaining the means to cure him, it has been 2 months real time, 3 week in game.
I do a last session recap at the beginning of every new session (who doesn't??), but we're talking about a decent amount of time both IC and OOC. I see a couple players jotting down notes on their character sheets regularly. Next session I'm going to ask for everyone's sheet and scan to see if they even noted the petrified man. If so, I'll give them a few more sessions to come up with the idea on their own. If they never do, or if no one noted the petrified man, I'll probably give them an in-game hint, and I already have a few ideas on how to pull that off.
I'm still curious to know how other DMs treat a situation like this on a more general level, and maybe some examples from their own campaigns.
Nevvur wrote:
I like the idea of giving Inspiration to any player who remembers & acts on a plot point from many sessions ago.
Otherwise I feel it's only fair to remind them. Folks do have lives outside of gaming, of course they're going to forget stuff. Even if they take notes, thry're sure to forget to look at the darned things, or even take them accurately.
Barky wrote:
If it moves the sotry along, I would just find a way to obliquely remind the players. You can give them an intelligence check, but if it's necessary that they know, then it's pointless, if they fail the check you'll still to tell them. Quite honestly, my belief is that as players we don't have the same connection to the worl that our characters do. What might be easy for a player to forget as being irrelevant might have a lot more significance to a character. For example, in your text you describe a petrified man, but your players never physically saw it, your PCs however might have witnessed a a tortured face frozen into a horrific rictus that haunts their dreams and has far more emotional weight that a mere description can ever hope to capture. For this reason, I'm happy to prompt players and given them reminders, though where ever possible I will try to do so in such a way that it makes the players think it's their idea. It can take longer to set up but it's ultimately more rewarding for them.
Glimjack wrote:
A relative of the pertrified man turns up at the next tavern and begs the PCs for help rescuing him. Standard rats-in-the-cellar trope.
Remembering events from several sessions ago is *hard*. It's got to be something particularly relevant to the plot so that everyone remembers it. It's one reason why running mystery adventures in RPGs works best in single-session play rather than campaigns. I mean, I take notes in the Deadlands Noir game I play, but remembering a small passing detail from three months ago? Not so easy.
Even when making notes of important plot points, it can be hard. During running Hoard of the Dragon Queen, I told the players that they needed to meet Leosin and - if they couldn't find him - Onthar. I told them to make a note of it. It became important 3-4 weeks later. And when people went looking for Leosin, no-one remembered about Onthar.
Sigh!
So, I'd remind players of key plot points (I tend to begin sessions with recaps), but not of other side issues. That way, remembering the link between two occurences becomes a cool bonus which can lead to greater rewards.
Cheers,
Merric
At the start of every session we always do a quick recap of the story. I usually allow the players to recap it themselves, and then I fill in some of the blanks, and highlight some important plot points that they may have forgotten about. I also occasionally remind them of something during the session, if I think they may have forgotten.
LIke a lot of others, I do a recap of what happened in the last session and make sure to mention the important details. Then, if something else comes up that the characters know, but the players have forgotten, I just tell them. It's hard to keep track of all the details sometimes so I don't want to penalize them just because they missed a bit here and there or didn't realize it was important at the time.
We do joint recap at the start of the session of the last session and maybe even important events from session before that.
DM's should fill in any blanks that players forgot.
While having a player that writes everything down can be usefull, I dont know how much fun is for that player to do so. For me it breaks immersion in game, unless I'm RPing a bookish guy that writes everything down in-game.
We are roleplaying our characters not our character's secretaries or personal assistants.
I have some players who write down the names of any characters they meet, but occasionally I'll simply tell my players "You might want to write this down".
Nevvur wrote:
If it's necessary for the plot to move forward, I'll tell them.
If it's not important for the plot to advance, I will throw a casual offhand reference to it into the bull sessions before or after the game; then the player who catches it can feel teh smartzorz when the next game starts. and they "remember it" in character*. And if no one catches it, oh well, the game rolls on.
(Yes, that's metagaming. Not all metagaming is bad. Only a Sith sees things in black and white.)
Sure, I'd remind them. Players are always forgetting the awesome stuff I put in the game.
I'd say, "Yo do remember that statue that was once a man, way back in that earlier location, don't you?"
Now they have quandry. Do they go back and rescue the man imprisoned in the statue and risk taking time or do they push on?
If they go back, possibly the man rewards them in some way, or becomes an ally, or becomes critical to the plot. You do have the freedom to adapt your plot.
If it was a big deal to a particular PC when they learned the info, I'll generally remind that player.
If I'm not sure, I give an int check.
I always write game summaries for me and my players (in blog) and I encourage them to read those between games.
And before we start a session I recap or ask one of the players to recap to start the session.
I'm kind of surprised by the number of responses suggesting to handle it OOC. Just seems more fun to remind them in IC, which is my intent.
I discussed this with my players before we started to play and they said they don't want me to help them directly like that. If they are missing something obvious I should just say something along the lines of "Are you sure...?". So I do it like that. The moment they missed out on something and can't undo it, I usually tell them what they had missed. This makes them notice what they need to be more wary of the next time, so they are continuously improving.
Handling it ingame is also a much better solution than just telling them "Hey did you forget about that statue from session 3?". There are tons of ways to handle it ingame. Doesn't even have to be too direct. Could just be a random NPC telling them about the statue without even asking them to unpetrify it. You know, like "When I was a child I always played at xyz and there was a statue of a man." (kind of depends where the statue is really, a child wouldn't play in the middle of a dangerous area... probably).
Of course any player also has the chance to say "I want to recall if there was anything this potion could be used for". In that case I might let them do an intelligence check and let them recall information based on the result. Bad result doesn't have to mean no information at all, it could go from 1 "You have the feeling you've seen something or someone this potion could be used on, but can't recall what it was." to 20 "When looking at the potion, you remember a man turned to stone which you encountered at place xyz".
It always depends on what the character knows. If it's 100% sure the character would remember it, there is no roll needed or it will even be told if the result is a 1. Like if the group encounters an emblem which is actually the emblem of the hometown of one of the characters, he would totally know that right away. A man turned to stone which wasn't really a critical point of the story... not 100% sure to remember it even after 3 weeks, unless maybe the character was particularly interested in the statue.
As a player, I take notes.
As a DM, I do recaps. "Last time on Dragon Ball Z...."
I always send a written re-cap of each adventure out. Plus, if we’re in the middle of an adventure that spans sessions and someone shows up that wasn’t there prior, I make one of the players catch them up on what’s going on.
All that being said, I wouldn’t remind them about the petrified guy, but I might make it suddenly important by having events in the game be triggered by the person’s absence.
I have a wiki for the campaign which includes recaps of each session. I begin each session with a "Previously..."
I try to start each session (as a player or as a DM) by verbally walking through what happened last time, and what the next short term goal for the group was.
As a DM I'd always remind the players of something their PCs should remember.
I don't do recaps. More than once I've accidently let something slip that wasn't actually discovered. Better to let one of the players do the recap. 
At the beginning of every game, one of the players gives a recap of the previous session and I fill in the blanks as needed. This responsibility is assumed by a different player each week, and I hope it leads to them becoming more invested in the goings-on. This is the same reason I have one of the players apply condition markers (we use minis) and another keep track of initiative, again on a rotating basis. It's meant to keep them from zoning out until their turn comes up again and they ask "What's going on?" because they haven't been paying attention. My games are intended for role-players, not for those who simply want to throw dice.
I am not there to serve as the characters' memories, and unless the issue is so important as to cripple the campaign, I won't say a word. Since I run a sandbox-type game, this is rarely the case. They could miss something, and while it might cause confusion, it won't have much impact on the bigger picture, and if it does, so be it. More often than not, it sends them rummaging through their notes for that valuable little nugget. And I strongly encourage note-taking, making sure at the time that someone is jotting down any important info. I, too, have a life outside of the game, and feel that if I can crank out the adventure, the players should be able to keep track of it. DMs aren't exempt from the "work, school, and family" demands that have been put forth as the player defense.
Years ago, I found and downloaded an NPC/contact sheet which the players can use to record all of an NPCs pertinents, and I hand these out liberally. Each page has blocks for about 20 NPCs and makes things much easier for the players, while at the same time providing no excuse for forgetting. "What? You can't remember the name of your guild contact or even the name of the tavern where she's to be found? It occurs to you that perhaps you should seek assistance at one of the major temples to determine if some small parasite is burrowing through your brain, eating your memories. You may want to take one of those sheets I've handed out to record the name of the cleric with whom you spoke. When you get to the temple, the cleric invokes the power of his deity and calls upon divine magic, speaking a holy intonation filled with grace,. 'Oh god, tell me why I can find five hours a week to work on this campaign, while this clown can't even pick up a pencil and spend fifteen seconds writing down a name.'"
Tell them to take notes and help them out if you feel it's absolutely necessary, but this in no way falls in your lap. As a DM, the adventure is your baby, but what happens on that adventure should largely be up to the characters and the players who run them.
I had to in Lost Mine of Phandelver. The players forgot about going to the goblin cave to rescue Sildar and Gundren. :-(
Greenstone.Walker wrote: