Greetings, gamers from all systems, places and timelines!
One of the biggest selling points of D&D is that it provides an excuse to get together with your friends and do something interactive. However, sooner or later, one of the players will want to do something without the knowledge or approval of the entire group.
This can take many forms — it can add mystery to a character, allow them to quietly build alliances or even just prepare a surprise for later. But when a plot reveal takes place and not all the characters are there for it, but their players are, things can quickly become a bag of mixed emotions. Would it be better to handle that outside of the game in a side conversation or email? That has its pros and cons as well.
This is why we have prepared a list of points both for and against keeping all events in front of a live audience to help determine what’s best for your game and group.
Reason to Keep It All In-Game: The Important Moments Should Be Handled Live
There is a big difference between a character handling something like a conversation or shopping trip between games and completing an important quest. The key parts of the game should happen during an actual session so everyone can soak it in. Otherwise, when the other players find out after the fact, their reaction to you claiming an artifact of legend will be a sarcastic “Good job.” Or, even worse, several games later when you use it and someone says, “Oh, I didn’t realize you even had that?”
Against: Not Everyone Can Resist the Lure of Metagaming
Not too long ago, I saw a post about how, during a Ravenloft Campaign, the Warlock betrayed their party to Strahd. Now, my question is, how many groups would have honestly walked into a life-threatening trap if that Warlock’s conversation took place in front of everyone? At the very least, some of the players will just decide that they “don’t trust that character because of a gut feeling.” Other less subtle PCs will want to put that character under 24/7 surveillance, even if they have absolutely no in-game evidence that they are a traitor.
Reason to Keep It All In-Game: Too Much Gameplay Off-Screen Can Lead to Power Imbalances
If you allow things to take place outside of the game, don’t be surprised if a player or two takes it and runs. And while allowing some players a little more time to develop their character seems harmless enough, this can change quickly. The players who don’t engage with the game in this way may end up getting left behind, which ultimately is a problem because playing the game outside of the game shouldn’t be a requirement to have a successful character inside of it.
Against: Not Everyone Likes Spoilers
A lone character may discover something important and choose not to share it with their party. The problem there is, at least to some extent, the cat is out of the bag. For example, if one player discovers that another of the characters is actually the long-lost daughter of the king but has reasons to keep that secret. Even if the players can keep from metagaming, when the actual reveal comes, instead of it being a dramatic moment it will be more like, “It’s about damn time we can start exploring this plotline!”
Reason to Keep It All In-Game: Because the Game Could Go on For Hours Outside of the Actual Game
Some players really don’t like the spotlight, so they prefer to operate under the radar. However, this could turn into one player wanting to play their character for literally hours outside of the actual game. Even if you are in for this, be warned that it can quickly turn into a headache. It’s already a challenge to keep everyone current with what happened last session when everyone was there, so just think about the ensuing confusion when you also explain what took place when they weren’t.
Against: Some Events Shouldn’t Eat Up Game Time
What can I say, watching other people shop for mundane things in a fantasy game world is not my idea of a good time. We are in a world filled with elves, spells and dragons, so why am I watching you haggle over the price of a lantern. Unless the shopping trip is meant to be meaningful for some reason, it’s a great example of something that can be handled in texts or an email.
Reason to Keep It All In-Game: When Characters Are Successful Off Screen, It Can Come Off as DM Favoritism
Some players can be pretty laid back and go with the flow. But others don’t miss a thing, and if one player is getting a leg up on the others, especially outside the main game, it can lead to problems. This can be especially the case if that player has opportunities to do things that are not available in the game normally. While a bit of friendly competition can be a good thing, no one likes playing second fiddle.
Against: It Can Be Hard To Be Invested in a Scene That You Aren’t Supposed to Know Even Happened
If an important reveal moment takes place during a game that not all the characters are there for, everyone tends to handle it differently. Some might be really into it, but others may actually try not to listen because they aren’t supposed to know. Later, you will have players making commentary outside the scene based on things they didn’t see, which will be directed towards a character that can’t actually hear any of it.
Final Thoughts
A mixture of both in-game and out-of-game roleplaying is a fairly widely accepted view, but choosing which scenes to do in-game and out is where the real trick comes in. Allowing some things to occur out of game to add more depth to the characters can be a good thing. This can especially be the case if game time is limited and it’s difficult to fit in everything all of the players want to accomplish.
Finally, if you are playing in and outside of the main game, you are still using live rounds. Case in point: One of my characters was absolutely trashed when an ordinary discussion with an NPC went sideways. Because you never know when that charming person you’re about to have a private conversation with is actually the BBEG. So, choose your scenes carefully, especially if you’re alone with no backup coming until next weekend.
Back when I was playing 1st Edition (The White Box!) I was in a game club where we had multiple DMs and a lot of players and people could freely move their characters from one campaign to another. So there was a LOT of stuff going on that not everyone knew about. Not just communication, but gaining levels and magic items. So some guy who was the same level as you a month ago suddenly is four levels higher and dripping with cool magic items. It got a little weird, especially when a DM has to deal with high-power magic items being imported from another campaign. After a while a number of DMs (me included) started running campaigns that were not ‘open’. But even then, secret stuff was going on. One big example was that experience points were awarded privately and the DM could award bonus points for exceptional actions. So some characters were higher levels than others even though they’d all been playing approximately the same length of time. That never caused a problem, but it is different than the sort of campaigns I see being played today.
We did more of it when we were n high school and college than now. There’s just more time and access to do it then. Now we’re playing and working a lot so more of the game (but not all) has to happen during game time.
I’m also finding that older players who can separate metagaming from their characters actions enjoy seeing those off-screen moments with another character. It’s like a cutscene in a TV show. It’s just more fun for everyone when its all happening at the table and not behind the scenes where other players can feel left out.