Taking 20 Podcast - Ep 110 - The Power of Rumors

Episode Date: January 30, 2022

They say a lie makes it around the world before the truth has time to get its shoes on.  Whether true or false, rumors make your game worlds feel real, lived in, alive. In this episode, we discuss the types of rumors you can include in your Dungeons and Dragons or other RPG game, tips and tricks for their use, and one situation to avoid when giving your PCs rumors. By the way, Lori works in the castle and she told me that the royal family keeps prisoners in their forest lodge and releases them to hunt them for sport.  Sounds like we could save some people and piss off the king at the same time.  You in?

This week on the Taking20 Podcast. Throwing the occasional rumor out there like a carrot that can pull them along leads them to completion of their personal quest. That's a strong barbed hook that can really reel the character into a good side quest, adventure, or a great role-playing encounter. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to episode 110 of the Taking20 podcast. This week, all about the power of rumors. This week's sponsor, laxatives.

Oh, Lord. It's going to be one of those episodes, isn't it? Yes, it is. Try taking a laxative and a sedative at the same time. You'll sleep like a baby, by which I mean your sleep will be very restful, and you'll wake up with an underwear full of shit. I have a weird ask this week. Have any of you participated in a DM for pay game, whether as the dungeon master or as the player who paid? If so, I would love to hear your feedback about how it went, the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm researching this as a future topic, and I'd love to get more information about it.

Please reach out to me at feedback at taking20podcast.com. If you're willing to provide any episode to help me, I would greatly, greatly appreciate it. Thank you so much in advance. This episode is all about rumors and how you can use them in your game. Now, to be absolutely clear, I am not referring to the Fleetwood Mac album released in 1977. But for the record, that may be the most consistently amazing music album of the late 70s. It is chock full of hits. Dreams, Go Your Own Way, The Chain,

and even some lesser known songs are great, like You Make Lovin' Fun, Don't Stop, and Songbird. Fuck, that's a good album. The best way you can use the Rumors album is to listen to it while you're prepping or getting your character ready for a session. This has been the Random Music Thoughts Podcast. My name is Jeremy Shelley. I'm sorry, what? So yeah, this is a music podcast? Right, right. RPG, RPG stuff. Yeah.

So what is a rumor? It's a story, hint, or report of uncertain truth. Rumors can be true, convey good information to the PCs, or they can be false and serve as impediments to the PCs through false information. And why is that important? Because of the fun behind the word uncertain. Rumors can be whatever you want them to be. They are a very powerful tool to have in your GM toolbox. So how can you use them? I'm getting to it. Keep your pants on. God, so impatient. Damn. The primary use for rumors in extended adventures is to provide information about your game. Why? Doesn't making more rumors make more work for you as the DM? Sure. But I've spent more effort adding feats to monsters than it takes to create three or

four rumors to throw in. Plus, it makes your world feel more real. It's an easy way to give NPCs believable reactions. Think about it this way. Suppose one of your neighbors had their child abducted, and instead of the police solving the crime, they hired a group of mercenaries who rescued the child instead. That would be the talk of the neighborhood. Did you hear that Janet hired a group called the Wild Bunch who rescued little Timmy from the kidnappers? Plus, did you see that barbarian? She is making me rage in my pants. Back to rumors, there are different types of rumors you can include in your game. Plot rumors, local rumors, game world rumors, character rumors, and then finally false rumors. But let's start at

the top with plot rumors. These are rumors that are connected to your main adventure. You can use them to warn the PCs of particularly dangerous monsters in the main plot, hint at hidden locations that are critical to the adventure, and so on. Examples would be, most of the guards at Kinsey Tower all take a smoke break right around 10.30pm to catch the opening monologue of Saturday Night Live. The road north to Neverwinter is overwhelmed by the restless undead after dark, so you'll need to find a place to hide before the sun goes down. I heard that the Count DeLorean has some strange out-of-place guests staying at his ancestral

manse. Whatever the rumor is, if it's tied to the plot, as long as it's true, it makes the next big plot development easier for the PCs. Having plots like this in your game rewards the characters who make skillful and diplomatic characters rather than just big brawny burly good at combat type characters. Sure, these characters can't swing a sword, shoot a gun, or use a laser net as well as some of the others, but by finding out this rumor and communicating that to the PCs, they just help to make the path to the next big plot point or next big thing in the campaign a lot easier to get to. The next type of rumor I want to talk about are local rumors.

These are rumors that are connected to the local community where the PCs are, but not necessarily connected to the big overarching adventure. You can use local rumors to drop side quests, force players to interact with NPCs, and interact more with your world. I hear you can buy weapons over at Shank's Armory for 70 cents on the dollar. He has a lot of stolen weapons he's trying to move fast. Or, when the moon is full,

people disappear from the back alleys in the docks district. Best be somewhere safe tomorrow night. The king's butler is slowly going insane because he's haunted every night by the ghost of his dead wife. These are all side missions and additional things to do in an area that make the world feel alive and allows the PCs to possibly get additional experience points. Remember, the PCs in most places they go, they're outsiders. So when they go into a new area, people may actually be more willing to get them to help with problems that they'd be embarrassed to talk about with people that they know.

Don't bypass this category when you're generating some rumors, though. Give the PCs the opportunity to help others or even complete side quests related to their backstories. The third type of rumor I want to talk about are game world rumors. These are rumors related to your game world that aren't necessarily local to where the players are. You can use rumors like this to open up future quest hubs. For example, oh I hear the town of Dreadhall has been besieged by evil werewolves, or the king of Grashel has called for adventurers to slay the purple worm that's

terrorizing his gold mines. Talk is cheap when the story's good. For far-off rumors, though, the scale should probably be bigger. If the rumors about random NPC number three that the party doesn't know, and chances are the NPCs in the local area wouldn't know either, no one's gonna know who that is, and no one's going to give a shit. I mean, the conversation would go, Oh, did you hear what Tika the bartender did? No. And scene. You may think that lower-level PCs may not be able to handle rumors of this scale and scope, but it doesn't have to be a high-CR monster that's part of the rumor.

There could be a kidnapping, trouble with bandits, or the king could be hiring a number of adventurers to solve a problem. Or it could even be as simple as, it fought like a fish, but when I pulled up me net, it was human form for the waist up. This is another type of rumor, by the way, that's great to tie in character backstories. One of the PCs is a nobleman, and they hear a rumor that their noble family was just thrown in the stockade for treason. This can help solve or introduce complications to quests related to

character backstory. Fourth type of rumor I want to talk about are character rumors, and this is one of my favorite uses for rumors. At the very beginning of the campaign, as the players are building their characters, if we're doing heavy roleplay or at least heavier roleplay, I'll ask players to write four rumors about their character and send them to me before session zero. I want them to send me one rumor that's good about their character and it's also true, one rumor that's bad about their character and true, one rumor about their character that is false, and one wildcard rumor that can be true or false and about anything about their character.

Then I randomly select one of the four rumors about each character and send them to the other players. So Andy's character will receive one rumor about Beth's character, Cindy's character, and David's characters, and the same is true for the other three players receiving rumors about the other characters. This really sparks good role play because it can create preconceived notions for every character about every other character, with some of the information being incorrect. They don't know if the rumor that they've heard is true or false. Now, if you're in a campaign without a lot of roleplaying, like my Skull & Shackles campaign I'm running right now, I tend to forego this, because it's a lot of extra work

that the players simply won't use to roleplay that much, or it might be one line and throw away. So in more tactical, battle-map-focused games, where there isn't a lot of speaking in character, you're not going to gain a lot of benefit from using character rumors like this. So there's no point. I'd recommend just skipping it.

But if you do have players who enjoy role playing, give that a shot at the beginning of your next adventure and it can really create some good dramatic tension. Fifth type of rumor are false rumors. Someone knowingly or unknowingly spreading incorrect information. This could lead to a wild goose chase, false character confidence, or even a trap. One thing though, don't overdo false rumors because they can cause frustration for your players. If the players keep hitting dead end after dead end or responding false flag after

false flag or lie after lie. They will start getting the feeling that they're going nowhere in the campaign. So yes, occasionally give them a false rumor, but either give them multiple rumors at the same time with at least one of them being true, or let the false rumors still keep the adventure moving forward somehow. Now this may seem like a duh statement, but here's the key thing about the rumor that you hand the PCs. Whether you give them true information or false information is entirely up to you. Players can make whatever social interaction check they want and succeed with flying colors and still get false information. Joe the mattress salesman doesn't know that the

latest scuttlebutt he's heard is false. Scuttlebutt. Sounds dirty, doesn't it? Did you know the word scuttlebutt actually came from the term for a large container of water on the ship where sailors would gather to drink water and rehydrate? Yep, the word scuttlebutt comes from butt, which doesn't mean what you think it does. It means a container or cask containing the water, in this case, and scuttle, meaning to put a hole in so that you can retrieve the fluid for drinking. The butt, meaning the drinking container, not your rear end. Scuttlebutt. This has been the Strange Words Origin Podcast. My name is... Sorry, what? Well, I've already done this joke this episode?

Oh, fuck it. they're hearing it again. Scuttle my butt if you don't like it. The point is, the NPC can give the PCs a false rumor, but believe it to be absolutely true. That's not cheating, that's life. I heard the only reason Billy passed the third grade was that the teacher was sleeping with Billy's mom. When come to find out, it was really because the teacher was sleeping with Billy's dad and Billy's mom. And while we're at it, rumors could be called other things in your world. Hence, suggestions, gossip, whatever term you want to use. Now, what makes a good rumor? Not all rumors are the same in an RPG

world. Did you hear Tina got knocked up by the stable hand, not her husband? So, who the fuck's Tina? I heard there's a hag in the Mindspin Mountains that'll grant you a wish in exchange for your voice. Now that could make for an interesting adventure source right there. I heard the gladiator Burgess is being paid to lose his next bout. And why should I care? Wait, wait, wait. Is gambling legal here? Can I place a bet with someone for Burgess to lose?

What kind of odds can I get? The hell does plus 450 mean? Old man McClintock saw some strange tracks out by his farm and two of his horses have gone missing. Ooh, monster to kill. Do go on. Good rumors have hooks. A way to think about a hook is why the PC should care.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a plot hook, but it's got something that will get your players' attention. It has the promise of adventure, reward, or both. Remember, it could just be a side quest. Even though you, the GM, are revolving the world around the player characters around your table, the PC should feel like that the world isn't revolving around them. Gives your world verisimilitude and a feeling that not everyone just waiting for the characters to interact with them. That each NPC has their own life and their own agenda. So what can you use as a hook for your players? It depends on what your player characters want.

The vast majority of PCs want to become rich, or collect money to give to their religion or some shit, whatever. Most of them want to make money for some reason. Hoarding, donating, buying the next shiny whatchamacallit that they can use to kill bigger monsters for more money, and so forth. So rumors of an easy or large payday will generally get the player's attention, like a huge treasure hoard that a monster or an aristocrat could be guarding. Some PCs want to become famous, and if so, use that as your hook. There's a famous monster or infamous monster traipsing around the woods that's causing problems for the town, and people would write songs about the Slayer of the Witchmare for

years to come. Another common desire is that the PC needs a certain piece of information. They're looking for the weakness of the dragon turtle Vorvaloth, and they're looking for the only person known to have survived a fight with it. If they're trying to find a particular item, like a cure for a disease, a lost heirloom, the magical blouse of the winter witch, or whatever, then maybe the rumor can get them closer to that object of their desire. I don't have what you seek, but I know who does, and I will tell you for the low, low price of 10 gold. Finally, PC backstory really comes in

handy when it comes to generating rumor hooks, or if not backstory, at least motivations. If you know why the character's an adventurer or what they're trying to accomplish, throwing the occasional rumor out there like a carrot that can pull them along leads them to completion of their personal quest. That's a strong barbed hook that can really reel the character into a good side quest, adventure, or a great role-playing encounter. You have to figure out as a DM what your players want, and then come up with some good rumors that can go a long way towards moving your story forward because it pulls the PCs in that direction. Okay, rumors are great, but where do the PCs get these amazing rumors? You're the DM, anywhere you fucking want them to. Anywhere NPCs

gather are prime locations for rumors. Many of our game systems are loosely based on medieval Europe. Except Europe with more dragons and centaurs and spells than I think we had, but who knows? In medieval towns, rumors and gossip are one of the primary methods of passing on news. For years, there wasn't a printing press, so word of mouth was the fastest way for information to travel. So where would that be in most RPG cities? Let's go with marketplaces. Browsing a seller's goods, you may get their tongue wagging just to provide information just by browsing or buying something.

I almost certainly would. Taverns, inns, other drinking establishments are also a great place to find rumors. It's one of the most surefire ways of loosening tongue to get information is to buy someone a drink. You build a rapport. Hey, this is a nice lady who just bought me a drink. Sure, I'll answer a few questions she might have. Plus, these locations tend to have a lot of travelers, so they would be natural places where rumors can be heard from all over the region. Docks are other places where lots of workers gather, whether that's while they're working or maybe over lunch. City gates. The guards see a lot of things going in and lots of workers gather, whether that's while they're working or maybe over lunch.

City gates. The guards see a lot of things going in and out of the city, so that would be a great place for rumors as well. Temples, especially to gods or goddesses of information, like Livalia and Pathfinder or Agama and the Sword Coast. Who's to say that one or more priests aren't making a little money on the side selling information that the church may have collected? You can always check job boards. They may be a great source for information as well. Are there common meeting places where workers can gather and see what jobs are available today? If so, that would be a natural place to hear rumors because they're going to talk.

Sky's the limit here. Any high traffic area like teleportation portals, livestock auctions, town halls, restaurants, back alleys where the workers take breaks, baggage carousel at the airport, use your imagination where PCs can find these rumors. Most importantly, give your players the freedom to come up with their own ideas where they can hear rumors. If what they suggest is even halfway viable, give it a chance to succeed. Okay, one last suggestion as to where they can hear rumors. Any city, regardless of the size, may have someone who makes it their job to know everything that's going on. An information broker, rumor monger, town busybody, like the shadow broker in Mass Effect is a great example.

If you think the PCs need a particular piece of information, you can always route them towards someone who behaves like this. If the PCs are obviously more wealthy and capable than most people who need information, the broker may charge a little extra or ask the PCs to take care of something for them. If you go with the latter, start thinking about what the broker would need but doesn't want it traced back to them, like acquiring a bit of information on the sly, or taking an important object from someone else, or killing an important rival. Now, the where of rumors is one thing, but how they get the rumors is just as important. They shouldn't be able to just walk into the armory and the blacksmith and yell, I heard Judy the street samurai is looking for a good crew to help her take down some corpos. That's not how it would come up in the real world. Rumors should come up organically in roleplay

heavy games and after players have made diplomacy, gather information streetwise, or whatever similar check exists in your gaming system. This makes the players feel like they've selected the right conversation topics or made the right checks to get good information or rumors, even if it turns out to be false. And even if you'd planned on handing out that information to the PCs anyway. By the way, especially in smaller towns, you know who generates a shit ton of rumors? The PCs. You're Vanette the turnip farmer in the small hamlet of Claude Smash. You've talked to the same eight damn people almost every day of your life. You've heard every story about every scar they have and every semi-interesting thing in all their lives

a dozen times over. But then, wealthy murder hobos show up who slayed the bandit king of killover and throw coin and loot around town, selling expensive shit like rings and gems and crowns and high-quality weapons, death sticks, incense, spices, magic armor, and celebrity-endorsed bejeweled anal beads. They're going to garner some attention. These PCs will quickly become the talk of clod smash. Now you go to a bigger metropolis like Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate or Absalom or Yanderhoff or Arl on Akaton, low-level PCs throwing around a few hundred gold pieces worth of stuff isn't going to blip the radar much outside of the little local area where

they're buying and selling stuff. Maybe the merchants they sell to and have some ne'er-do-wells who happen to be keeping an eye on the area, like small-town thugs who report back to a crime boss. But in smaller towns in your campaign world, a few hundred gold pieces may be a significant percentage of the town's gross domestic product. Business owners will sit up and take notice that you've got these rich adventurers around town. Notice and interest means rumors, even if the rumors are false. Vanette's leaning on her hoe. The garden instrument, not the derogatory term for someone of easy virtue. Let's try that again. Vanette is leaning on her rake. I mean, the handheld device for gathering hay, not a person

who's a womanizer. Vanette is leaning on her watering wand. No, God, that's worse. That sounds way dirtier. Fuck it. Vanette is taking lunch with her co-workers, eating her fresh turnip, and spreads rumors like, they didn't slay the bandit king, one of them is the bandit king. Or, I heard the new people in town sold slaves up the road, and that's where they got all their coin. It's not the bard you should be interested in, love. It's the barbarian.

I heard she's looking for a wife to call her own. The PCs in town have garnered her interest and have become the talk of maybe even the whole Hamlet, really. Talk is cheap when the story is good. One last note about rumors. If the PCs can find out a piece of information, then NPCs may be able to find out that information as well. PCs shouldn't be the only people that NPCs confide in. If the information broker was willing to sell the information to the PCs for 20 silver, maybe she'd sell it to a certain NPC for 15, 20, 25 silver, depending on friendship, reputation, and so forth. So how do I handle rumors in my campaign? Here are a few tips that

I've picked up through the years that hopefully will help you. One, have a table of rumors behind your screen. Some of the rumors are true, some are false, and some will nudge the players along to the next major plot point. The last section, by the way, is what you'll have to update most often. When you start to run low on rumors, replenish your tables. Two, in previous episodes, I've talked about reusing areas and encounters that you prepped but the PCs bypassed for whatever reason. Use some of that bypassed content on side quests for rumors that turn out to be true, and the PCs choose to follow it through to the end.

You'd planned on this map being the Cavern of Wayward Souls, inhabited by the undead, with a chalice of the Jabber Donkey at the end. But now it's a den of displacer beasts, who rumor has it are wreaking havoc with travelers on the nearby East Cobblestone Road. Third tip. Laserbeasts, who rumor has it are wreaking havoc with travelers on the nearby East Cobblestone Road. Third tip. Borrow stories from other media, books, movies, news, the internet, and base rumors on that. Did you hear the villain's lair is an active volcano a few miles from here?

He's trying to release magma to flood the local city. Never mind that you are stealing that rumor straight off of an Austin Powers movie. 4. Limit the number of false rumors you give to the PCs in a row, or if it is a false rumor, have it somehow propel the story forward. Okay, so the cavern didn't have the lost sword of demon backhair, but it did have a dead adventurer with a note from a person one town over that said he was buying rare weapons. Maybe he will know where the sword is. Rumors are powerful tools to keep in your GM arsenal that have a number of positive uses.

They can propel your main plot forward. They can provide quests in the local or regional area for your PCs to gain additional experience points, get closer to that sweet, sweet moment of leveling. They can add depth to your world and make it feel more real. And some can be true and some can be false and some can be dead ends, but people tend to talk when they get together. Let your PCs hear some juicy rumors. Let it give your game some life, and hopefully you and your PCs will have fun doing it.

Please give me a like, subscribe, rating, and feedback wherever you found my podcast. I would greatly appreciate hearing from you. I love all the feedback that I get, suggestions for improvement, and praise. I would love to hear from you either way. Tune in next week when we'll be talking about an interesting topic suggested by listener Brett. Why is evil allowed to persist in your campaign world? Before I go, I want to thank this week's sponsor, Laxatives.

When you buy one at the store, you're really getting a good run for your money. This has been episode 110, all about the power of rumors. My name is Jeremy Shelley, and I hope that your next game is your best game. The Taking20 Podcast is a Publishing Cube Media Production. Copyright 2022. References to game system content are copyrighted by the respective publishers.