When you’re in a role-playing game, sometimes characters have more knowledge or perception of their whereabouts than the other members of their party. A good way for a dungeon master to give this information to the player is by passing notes.

In Titansgrave, we’ve seen this happen a couple times. Most recently in chapter 5, “Staff of Forlorn Hope,” when Kiliel (played by Alison Haislip) can see more about Mr. Voss than the others can. Her reaction nails why this story-telling tactic is awesome.

It’s exciting because it empowers the player. They get the information and they get to choose what to do with it, instead of being subject to the DM’s narration of events.

For the purposes of Titansgrave, it’s doubly effective because each of the players have secrets they’re hiding from the others. Using note-passing during more common instances like Kiliel’s actually makes it more normal when the note-passing is crucial to those secrets. I really hope a note-pass makes or breaks the climax of one of these adventures, because Wil has used them skillfully.