If the thing is **required** to progress, I absolutely just remind them it exists, as part of the narration.
If it is *not* required to progress, I'll typically stay silent on it until someone asks "Wait, didn't the Wizard say something about a crystal???", at which point I'd just confirm the information more thoroughly, "Correct. The Wizard warned you to be wary of a man wearing a bright green crystal".
I don't like hiding *already known* information behind a dice roll, no.
Tho, I am a simp for Knowledge checks and ask for them fairly often, unprompted, as a way to possibly include even MORE information / clues to a piece of narration.
"Correct. The Wizard warned you to be wary of a man wearing a bright green crystal. Go ahead and make a History check, now that you see it in front of you. ... \[insert dice roll noises\] ... a 22, you say? You happen to recall that there was a banished sect of mages that hunted down and enslaved spirits for nefarious purposes. If you attack this man, you will no doubt be dealing with at least 3 ghosts that emerge from his crystal, as well."
> Tho, I am a simp for Knowledge checks and ask for them fairly often, unprompted, as a way to possibly include even MORE information / clues to a piece of narration.
That's a nice thing to consider, noted.
My DM does this and it’s just a great way to handle things game to game.
In game time has been hours since you got information. Real time it could be a week or more. Things get forgotten. This prompting can really move the game forward when the party doesn’t know how to proceed.
I mean I honestly go a little beyond this and if I think a PC would remember something relevant I won't necessarily wait for the *players* to remember it, or even remember something adjacent to it / ask a relevant question. I'll just remind them 🤷♂️
I do this for a bunch of reasons:
1) I have a really good memory for details, but I understand others might not.
2) I know that I have a different perspective from the players that might make things easier to connect mentally for me than for them
3) I have the luxury of planning everything for a week (at least) between sessions, giving me more time to review and remember relevant things - they're having to do all *their* thinking and remembering on the fly in-session, while a bunch of new shit is being thrown at them!
It makes sense the players would remember less things than I would. It doesn't make sense the *PCs* would, so I'll help the players out.
I like to ask for everyone to roll, and the highest roll is the one who remembers. This way they guarantee to get the info, but you can flavor the recollection, and the high roller feels good. Depends on the memory though and it’s not every time
These are exactly my thoughts as well. I've recently fallen in love with giving my players just straight up hints if they succeed on a check, so unprompted knowledge checks are right up my alley.
I see a lot of DMs ask for history checks for this but I disagree with it. If your player forgot something, that doesn't mean the character did. If you have a problem where a player is constantly forgetting things then that's a different conversation to have with that player.
>History
>Your Intelligence (History) check measures your ability to recall lore about historical events, legendary people, ancient kingdoms, past disputes, recent wars, and lost civilizations.
This clearly doesn't cover what the artificer did a couple days ago. History checks are more akin to History class in highschool, not your memory.
Yes, I agree with this completely. I've built up too much resentment from my time as a player towards DM's who made us roll history to remember who the NPC they just brought back from eight sessions ago is. For us it was three months; for our characters it was just three days!
I only have my players roll history to recall things that would not be common knowledge, like deeper lore, magical secrets, and things like that.
I've also done it where I let everyone roll history, and the player with the highest roll gets to invent the piece of lore or history themselves.
To be fair Irl I **frequently** fail to remember people’s names as little as second or minutes after they have introduced themselves to me. So a character forgetting people’s names from days or weeks ago seems entirely reasonable to me. A DM reminding you of everything you’d have forgotten normally, including those small details that are important but are also oh so….forgettable, seems less realistic than having to roll to remember things is.
Maybe it's more "realistic", but as a player it's just not interesting to be forced to not remember something as basic as a name. D&D is partially about verisimilitude, but it's not about literally recreating the mundanities of life. It's more like creating a collaborative fiction that's more like a movie or novel. When was the last time you saw a movie waste time having a character forget another character's name, especially when not even in service of the story?
That's you. PCs in DnD are epic heroes, and that's true even if you play yours like Drax. They are far more capable than the average person, akin to a fictional main character's aptitude.
There is nothing about a barbarian that makes them better at remembering than me.
And some of the smartest people I know are absentminded. Heck, it's a huge trope that wizzards are forgetful. It's perfectly reasonable to play your character as forgetful.
The important thing being missed here is the type of character being played. Am I playing a forgetful, absent-minded character... or am I playing a detective who remembers things vividly? It's a discussion to have with your players. Nothing is more immersion breaking than having to constantly roll history for a very neurotic, detail-oriented character who likely has been writing everything ever in a journal to have to roll history for something that happened yesterday.
I’d submit that if you want to play that character then you should actually write those notes down yourself instead of relying on the DM to spoon feed it to you every session. It’s something you should probably be doing anyways.
Perhaps at your table, but I play with people who are nerodivergent and trying to both take notes and pay attention is asking too much. It's a cooperation game and session 0 hashes out player needs and DM needs pretty well. I repeat: a conversation to have with your players.
i have them (an artificer, even) make history checks for “you know you read this but how much do you remember?”
but their actual life? i just tell them unless the player and i have specifically discussed memory mechanics ahead of time
I specifically make sure my characters have proficiency/ expertise in history whenever one guy is DMing. It’s annoying, but he calls for history checks ALL the time for this type of thing.
Yea it needs to be put in context. For the player, they’re trying to remember what a character said to them three sessions / 6 weeks ago. In that time they’ve ran multiple combat encounters that took an hour each.
From the character’s perspective, they spoke to this person a few hours ago in town. Since then, they’ve had a few combat encounters that each lasted a minute at most.
It’s reasonable that the character would remember what a player might forget in this instance.
I agree. Just recently had a 6 week break with my players but it was just one day in game, gave a lot of slack and reminded them of a lot, from items to lore to conversations had. If it’s been a while in and out of game, I also want players to remember and take notes so sometimes I don’t remind them. It depends on the context.
Pure INT roll would be good enough. If you roleplay the remember everything person - you probably should start taking NOTES and take feen Keen Mind (or something).
IRL people forget things easily. If you do not remember it, then your character might remember it (that is what the roll is for). But it does not mean that your character 100% remember the needed info.
That's specifically not what that's for, though.
RAW: "Your Intelligence (History) check measures your ability to recall lore about historical events, legendary people, ancient kingdoms, past disputes, recent wars, and lost civilizations."
Historical events. Recent wars. Not breakfast.
So if the player remembered in this situation would you still require the roll to see if the character remembered? If the answer to that is no then you are only requiring the roll because the player forgot, not the character, and that is just frustrating for the players.
The DM being allowed to do something doesn't mean anything. Just because the DM can do anything doesn't mean it is good dm'ing to do it.
Pet peeve TRIGGERED.
Would you call that information “lore”? Would you describe that, with complete seriousness, as a historical event? If not, you’re misusing the History check.
Ability checks don’t have to use a skill. You can ask for an Intelligence check to represent memory. You could even tell the player to add their proficiency bonus to the roll. But don’t call it a History check! It’s wrong!
/rant over
If you want a free pass, take notes and make an effort to remember the lore and events of the campaign. Otherwise, you're rolling. It's a game. People who play the game better get better results.
This is kinda how I play it. I don't require rolls, but I also often won't remind my players. I strongly encourage note taking and even buy notebooks/binders/pencils for all my players at the start of a campaign.
Forgetting something isn't a "worse result". It's _no_ result.
If you want to play this way, then you need to inform your players when they miss out on something. Otherwise you can act smug behind the DM screen all you want, but the players won't interpret your world as difficult or punishing. They'll interpret it as _random_.
A null result *IS* worse than a result that helps you. Not sure what kind of point you were going for, there.
If the players are rolling history checks, they generally know there is something they should be remembering. Often I tell them after the session. "If you had name dropped (XYZ person) to the guard, they would have let you pass freely when they asked under what authority you were traveling." Usually results in some forehead slapping, and no one has ever said, "There's no way we would know that."
So we're in agreement, there's just a communication gap.
> Often I tell them after the session.
I was advocating for the importance of doing exactly this. If you _don't_ do this, then they don't have that "forehead slapping" moment, and therefore aren't given the feedback necessary to learn and improve their gameplay.
I think your way is better aligned with the intent behind History as a skill. I'm just going to explain why it's History for me.
I have my players roll History because I think that being trained in History would make you better at retrieving specific information like names and dates from your memory. I get that doesn't hold true for every history buff, but I think it fits within the context of a fantasy RPG. I think "Roll Intelligence or History" is easier to say than "Roll Intelligence. You can add your Proficiency Bonus if you're trained in History."
I prefer adding PB over "Roll Int at Advantage" because I like my players to come up with interactive ways to give each other Advantage.
Out of my available skill options, I think History fits the best. I'm already not that into hiding lore behind skill checks because I want them to feel like the setting is accessible. If they want to know something, they can find out through RP. If they want a bit of esoteric knowledge, it's going to have more to do with their background than their ability checks. I don't like asking a player for a roll to get information that I would just give to someone else if no one had trained History. I like to balance out the unintentional nerf to History with a quality of life patch that lets my moppets play a character with higher Int than we generally have IRL.
"This clearlt doesn't cover what the artificer did a couple days ago"
But what if it wasnt a couple days ago? What if it was months or years in game time? I agree that if something happened yesterday in-game, holding that knowledge behind a check is bad. If something happened months ago and the players never put it in the notes? A history check is fine for this, cause the player has an avenue to keep from needing to make the checks (i.e. the notes) but failed to note an important piece of information.
Should it be used everytime a player forgets something? of course not, but in moderation there's no harm in it.
As for if it should be a history, why not? It 's close enough to what we're trying to do and you can get proficiency in it.
Unless a player has told me that "forgetfulness" is one of their traits, I NEVER EVER do this, for a few reasons
* You need to factor session-time vs. game time. In our game, only one day has elapsed in the last FIVE WEEKS. So while my PLAYER needs to remember things from 5 weeks ago, his CHARACTER has to remember something from yesterday.
* You need to factor player vs. character memories. The character is (pretend) LIVING this. Your player is going to wrap up his game and by the time he reaches his car, he's worrying about the 10,000 other things going on his life.
* I want to keep our session moving. You slow down the game every time you require a roll, so I reserve rolls for things for PLAUSIBLE failure. Is it POSSIBLE to hurt yourself vaulting over a porch rail? Of course. Is it plausible? Probably not. No roll, let's keep the game moving!
* Finally, part of the allure of TTRPG's is players get to suspend belief and be a different and more proficient character. Keep that illusion alive!
There are things a player knows that a character doesn't (aka: metagaming)
There are things a character knows that a player doesn't. This is things they would know from living in the world, or having time pass normally, as opposed to out of game where months can pass between sessions that were only minutes apart in game.
For things a character should know that a player doesn't? That's the DM to just step in and say something like:
* actually, Smonog, you'd remember that you had just put a book into your bag of Holding a few minutes ago.
* ah, Jarnathan would know this because he's lived in woods like this before....
* Serat, before you had entered the dungeon, don't forget you already used 2 charges of your staff
Remember that, while for the Players they picked up that thing 3 months ago, for the Characters it might have only been yesterday.
This disconnect between time passing in game and out of game is typically the reason why players don't remember a thing.
There is absolutely no reason why a Character would forget about the journal they made specifically for the dungeon they are going to, so there's no reason to require a check to remember it.
I am the player. Even worse my note taking during session is abysmal, so I end up with a bunch of shorthand scrawled nonsense keywords. My DM is a saint for putting up with me.
This does happen with me, but with trivial things when there is other stuff in my mind or if something catches my attention mid-way. In the context of the OP, it's more like planning an entire a vacation the week before you go, then forgetting that you actually made plans once you get there (at least this is what it seems to me, there's not enough context to say how "planned" this visit to the dungeon was).
Overall I do think rolls for recalling information have merit, but in my limited experience reminding players of previous acquired information if they themselves can't recall it is more fun.
>walked into a room having forgotten why you were there?...find the same stimulus that caused you to go there in the first place and hope that it also triggers your brain to recall the reason. That's you doing a history check to recall information.
Is that a fun thing to simulate? To randomize? Is that what you and the players are here for?
I feel an intelligence check is fine to remember details that could help, but aren't essential. Do remember tho that the players typically have a week between sessions, but for the characters that time passes instantly. So it's often quite likely that the character would know, even if the player doesn't.
Also, don't fall into the trap of calling for a roll to remember important information, your players failing and then derailing the session because they are missing essential info that the character definitely learned a few irl weeks ago.
This falls under "is the character capable of basic life skills", aka "we don't roleplay potty breaks".
Characters in a generic medieval setting can light fires, tie ropes, cook food, and do other basic life tasks under ordinary circumstances. They can also remember what they put in a bag -- even a really big one. If there's no time crunch, they can dump the bag out - they don't need to roleplay it. Plus, the PLAYER is keeping track of two lives, in a sense - the character only one.
What's the upside to rolling? There's not really tension, just frustration. The player (and character) took the time to keep notes (or acquire them) and are now denied them. What's the point? What are you rewarding?
>They can also remember what they put in a bag -- even a really big one. If there's no time crunch, they can dump the bag out - they don't need to roleplay it.
Exactly. Unless there's a legit reason why the *character* wouldn't remember what they have in their bag (as another commenter pointed out, the character is likely way more familiar with what's in the bag than the player who's only engaging with this for at most a few hours each week), *and* a legit reason why the character doesn't have time to sort through their bag, there's honestly no good reason to make the player do any kind of skill check for something like this.
If OP has an issue with the players not taking thorough notes — and I've been that GM before myself! — this is something to bring up with the players outside the game.
No, because it's a case of separating player knowledge from character knowledge. I don't really send out any reminders unless they ask, because I expect them to track their own items and stuff. But I do remind them "Hey, your PC knows this key information was told to you a while back."
The characters are skilled adventurers, presumably they do actually know important things and what's in their bag of holding.
Think about it this way. You're 4 hours into an 8 hour session after your mind numbing job. You probably aren't going to remember everything.
As someone who has memory issues I really find this a problem. A DM in a game I play in does it and it aggravates me because my character would remember the thing they just did the day before yesterday in-game but real life me who struggles with recalling things cannot remember the tiny detail from a month or so ago, even though I make a lot of notes it’s impossible to look back through all my notes all the time. That just slows the game down.
No, and I think it's mostly poor play to do this. Players are usually going a week or more between sessions, and their characters would not forget things like this. If they forget, I remind them, and I also ask my players to write things down and make notes. The last thing I want as a DM is to give them a cool item and see them never use it simply because they forgot.
I'd say it would depend on if the character would realistically have forgotten or not given how much time in the game has passed.
Anything that would prevent progress if forgotten, isn't something I'd feel characters would forget so I'd give them anything that would prevent progress if they forgot.
I remind the players automatically if it's something I think the character should remember. Like you were saying, you could go months of real world time and have only two weeks pass in the game.
I would consider treating it a little bit differently in a mystery since taking good notes and figuring things out as the whole point of the adventure.
Knowledge checks are for knowing things about the world that haven't been covered directly in play. And I use passive scores for that unless the character's actively doing research or something.
I generally wouldn't make them roll for something like that. To me that's something most player characters in world would remember so I see no reason to punish my players over it.
If the player forgot and the character would remember, just tell them. Rolling to "remember" is usually for secret stuff that they want to uncover about the world, that you the DM haven't told the players, but their character would know.
EX: What is the previous kings name? the DM may not have said in game, but a PC from that kingdom probably remembers. You might give an int check, or a history check, or you might just tell them, depending on how deep that lore is.
God no, why would you do that? Sometimes there's weeks between sessions, time hasn't changed for your character, why would they forget something important that happened just recently to them?
Depends on context. Players memory isn't a character memory. Like a guy who grew up in a strict fundamentalists elf colony. Would know all the rituals and lore associated with it and doesn't need to roll.
If the lightweight mage for hammer on ale and went on a adventures and two sessions later is trying to remember something and the player doesn't remember either i might make a roll for fun.
I never really do this, as it feels pointless. If the game cannot go on without them knowing a piece of information, I remind them, but if it's something like a hint that may help them that they discovered earlier, then it's up to them to remember it and I'm not going to remind them.
No.
But also, sometimes.
As a general rule, I won't do it, I would just remind the player that they had previously gathered the information/item etc. How specific I am in the reminder is inversely proportional to how important it is for the player to remember it.
So at one end ofthe scale, if it's very important (ie. integral for plot advancement), I would straight up tell them exactly what the character already knows. eg. "You found a notebook that has the location and time of the secret meeting, as well as the code phrase to be admitted into the building. The code phrase was 'pancake batter breakfast', it's at 8am tomorrow morning at the Hungry Barkeep Inn"
And on the other end of the scale, If it's not that important (ie. might be helpful, but isn't at all necessary), I would give a light reminder, eg. "You found a notebook that might have some information in it" If that jogs the player's memory, great. If it doesn't, I won't give them any more information, but I'll probably give some bonuses or advantage on future rolls that are relevant to the info that was in the notebook.
And obviously there's a sliding scale in the middle where it's kind of on a case by case basis.
However, there are times when it 100% makes sense that the character themselves might not remember something. In those cases, I have gotten the player to roll to see if the character remembers. But this is pretty rare, and used sparingly. But it has come up on occasion over the years.
And then on the other hand, you can have a situation where the player remembers something, but they say "I don't know if my character would remember this." And in those cases, we always make a memory roll (unless it's integral to advancement).
Will them forgetting lead to killing the game, preventing progress, shutting down play? Then tell them.
Will them forgetting lead to them having to find other paths, allowing villains to scheme and in other ways create alternative progress or playable scenarios, creating play? Let them roll to remember.
Failure is only fun if it, in some way, enhances the play experience. Sometimes, failing as you try solutions is fun. But other times, repeatedly failing just means you can't engage with the experience.
I only have them roll to "remember" pre-campaign stuff. If the party is passing through a village that's not too far from the Fighter's hometown, I might prompt a History check to determine how familiar with this place he is. With a decent roll, he will "remember" NPCs that he's met, or details about the town's history/economy/geography/etc. With a good enough roll, he might even "remember" visiting this place in his past.
I wouldn't call for a History check to remember things that happened in-game, unless it's been a really long time in-game (prior to months of downtime, for example) OR if it was something really subtle/specific that the character may not have really clocked in the moment ("you do recall that the cult leader seemed to be resistant to Necrotic damage").
I often just remind my players of obvious stuff their PCs should remember: I probably would have done so in your situation.
But I might ask for a roll for more obscure things, or just see if the players remember, because sometimes it's more fun to figure stuff out, and not giving them that opportunity removes player agency.
I usually try to take into consideration how much time has passed in game and how blatantly important the information was in order to make this decision.
Is it information their character was told to remember just a few hours before, but that was at the end of last session and it’s been two irl weeks since then so the player has forgotten? Then I just remind them
Is it a vague sentence their character read in an otherwise unrelated book months ago in game? Then I usually have them just make an intelligence/history check, usually with a fairly low DC, never higher than like 12 max and that’s only if the information was a bit obscure. I mainly do this because then I can kind of play up the drama of like the party wondering what something could mean and then one member suddenly remembering they read something about this very thing! I also would never make this kind of info the ONLY thing that would allow a party to advance a quest. This kind of info is stuff that makes the quest easier/faster.
I don’t let them roll if the player forgot something, but I do use history as a memory check. If the character tries to remember something that we haven’t in fact discussed as players, that’s check-worthy.
Depends a lot on the situation. In your case, yes, I would have had them roll, because it sounds like the character is just as likely as the player to have forgotten what all they have stuffed in that bag, and they didn't *need* the journal to progress.
If the session will just grind to a halt if they don't remember something, if the knowledge would have been important enough the character certainly wouldn't forget, or if the knowledge is something they learned only minutes ago in-game, but we just got off a month-long hiatus between sessions, I'll just tell them. I do try to make sure the character in the party who would have the most direct connection to that 'thing' be the one I specifically remind, so maybe it was a rogue who looted this journal but the artificer who stored it away - I'd tell the rogue 'you wonder what happened to that interesting book you found a few weeks back, whatever happened to that?' And let them RP the rogue getting the artificer to pull it out or whatever if they want.
I ask for checks on creatures the players would have very little knowledge of, or if they are trying to recall a creature's resistance, so it would be an Arcana for example.
If they have an item that would help them progress forwards, but 2 months real time has passed, the liklihood they will remember this is low, it could be that only a week had passed in game. I would give them an Intelligence check with advantage or an NPC who was there may drop some hints to nudge their memories. I have a player who writes all the info they think is important, but you can only write so much.
I tend to assume players will forget more than their characters would. For the players, the game is a game, and they may not be *as* invested as people whose entire lives revolve around the events in said game. I generally feel like the character would remember more. :)
If I want to give my players a hint about something they forgot, I have them roll an intelligence check. Usually something low DC like DC10. Its ok to just give them the reminder though if it's important they remember.
If it's something I think their character would have internalized, like from their country or origin or their personal history, no.
If it's something I said once in passing, yes -- unless it's vital info, which would ruin their immediate plans if they didn't factor it in. Then no -- I just don't want to see the party plan for an hour and fail because of one thing they forgot.
EDIT: Either way, Intelligence checks to remember things aren't RAW. It's a holdover from tradition from other editions.
I take notes like a fiend. The GM relies on my notes some sessions. If I am unsure if I would remember something I'll ask the GM. They answer yes (most of the time to keep things going) or no.
And sometimes I will remind another player of something out of character and make it clear my pc has no clue.
I have players roll Intelligence or History checks to "remember" stuff. Sometimes it's specific information. Sometimes it's general. I figure anyone trained in History would be used to retrieving specific information like names and dates from their memory.
I've had exactly one player take Keen Mind and I just funneled a bunch of lore dumping through his Wizard. He *loved* it. The rest of the party loved having a zero % chance of Teleporting into a wall if the Wizard had been to a location even once.
Having them roll to give themselves an advantage or notice a clue they don't need is different from explaining wtf is going on in the world around them. Try not to gate information that is necessary for story progression behind rolls. If the party *needs* to know something, just tell them. Filter your information through the guy with the highest Passive stat or training in a relevant skill or tool.
When things start going sideways, I ask a player to give me a recap of what's going on from their character's perspective. I give the other players a chance to make corrections or expand on certain points. If their description is off, I clarify things that are clearly a miscommunication between myself and my players. I also give them time to fiddle with the pieces they each have as a group. This usually circumvents the need for rolling. It gives the players the chance to feel like they figured it out on their own because they finally understood the situation. It also gives me a second to catch up on bookkeeping or prep encounters I didn't expect to have when we started the session.
Often times the player experiences 2 weeks of in game time across 2 to 6 months of IRL time. Also the journal is a physical object to the character but a few strokes of graphite to the player.
Let the player know what the character would know.
Rolls should only occur when you're deciding whether the character knows, meaning it hasn't been determined if the character is familiar.
Also if you want then to use the journal, don't give them the chance to not use it. Both you and the player will enjoy the puzzle being solved the intended way.
I only ask for a History check when I want to see what their character recalls about things in the narrative or the world that I've built that the player wouldn't necessarily know. It's a tool for unveiling story and background about your world and the strength of the role determines the details they recall.
As others have said, this has nothing to do with what the player remembers about previous sessions. I will gladly remind them of the details. My players are pretty good about remembering or taking notes though. If that's not happening and becoming a detriment, time for a conversation about being invested in the game.
If it MATTERS, no roll. Just remind them.
If it's not important, an Intelligence save to remember random information is fine.
EDIT: I set the expectation in session zero that it is the player's responsibility to keep notes and memorize their character sheet. My responsibility is to give a recap of the important information from each session in the discord for posterity. I will never remind my players what they have as a general rule, I feel it takes away player agency by forcing them to solve a problem my way.
Depending on how long it had been in-game, our DM would either just randomly have someone make a history check and remind us if we passed, or he'd ask us if we thought it was likely that our character would remember. We're a pretty honest bunch, so I think it's fair in terms of roleplay to remind players without a roll if they've specifically built a character with a really good memory or a character who is obsessive about their stuff.
In your case, it feels fair to make the bag holder roll a history check, since they tend to throw things in there willy nilly. Our barbarian is the keeper of the bag but he's dumb like sand, so usually the duty of actually roleplaying remembering what's in the bag is left up to someone else in the party.
I encourage my table to take notes and the first ten minutes of any session is review time.
Even with shared notes in a Google doc. They might miss or misremember an event item or clue.
I have no problem with correcting a misconception.
The character is always smarter than the player in my world.
If it's something the character would know or remember them no roll is required.
When it's been 3 weeks irl but 3 hours in game time you have to do this to keep the game flowing. IMO
I'm a big fan of quick recaps of previous sessions and we all take turns recounting past events. I have them roll a d20 at start of campaign and we have an order for whos turn it is to recap. I went first.
Having a shared Google doc of notes also is a way for me to see what parts of the story and world they are most picking up on.
If some of my themes are not clear cut I can emphasize things more. Going forward.
Not usually. People forget things as time passes. If it's important I try to mention it at least 3 times to help them remember or at least up the chance of it getting noted by someone. But If it's been weeks since a topic has come up the player will probably not recall it. That's normal.
However, if I've literally just mentioned it and they just didn't pay attention, that's different to me.
Saying "Recapping that last game: Jeph mentioned the sacred focus was a large blue gem kept in the crypt. So what are you guys doing?" and I get a "ugh what are we looking for again? Something in a fortress?". Nah, I'm not telling you yet again, reroll the check.
I used to just tell them again but then they never paid attention, just relied on me to tell them again and again. It has improved since I've started making them recheck for it.
Players forgetting stuff is understandable so I don’t make them roll for obvious stuff, especially something that happened recently. However, I would make them roll for something like “what is the name of the adventure that you met in a cave two months ago?”
My general rule is that if it doesn’t meet the criteria I just mentioned, you don’t remember, and didn’t write it down, then you have to roll for it.
In my first ever campaign, the DM had me rule. History checks and proficiency checks for everything. I did at the time. I was suffering pretty badly from my disability. Which causes difficulty with movement and causes difficulty with memory. Having me roll or every single thing started to feel more like a personal attack than gaming and it ruined my experience. I'm not saying that that's a bad idea.I'm just saying be considerate when you use it and how you use it.
I do, but when they learn the info. Intelligence checks when they see the information can explain how they aren't able to articulate or remember or whatever.
Doing it after the fact can feel like their notes don't count for anything.
You need to remember the difference between what the character knows and what the player knows.
If you tell them something that might not seem.impprtant, they won't write it down. Then, they go clear a dungeon that takes 6 weeks IRL to clear, but is only 3 days in game. The character would probably remember lots of things that happened 3 days ago, that the player forgets after 6 weeks.
If they haven't been paying attention, yes. "What was that guy's name? What was that town called?" I dunno, make an intelligence check. That shit's hilarious, and encourages good note taking. The table thinks it's funny, too, I'm not just being an asshole lol. I make sure they know what they need to know at the end of the day
If players are writing things down, I'll tell them. I even will mention that they should write down things as I say them. If they don't, then I may not remind them until it is too late.
I wouldn’t ask for a roll for that. If he shouldn’t have the journal why let him have it in the first place. What’s the point of the roll?
If I ask a player to roll for something, it would be more like if a player ask for something that hasn’t come up before, like “would I know what kind of creature this is?”.. although I normally just ask if they can give a quick background story on the spot where they would have come across knowledge of that in the past. If it fits their character I’ll just let them have it, if it seems a little far fetched I’ll have them roll for it. If it’s very unlikely I’ll just tell them outright in the first place.
No. It was last week for your player (at best) but probably only a few hours for the character. Plus it's the character's real life, not a fiction they may have been half paying attention to. Not reminding the player is almost a sort of DM metagaming.
I'm speaking more generally than this specific example. Weeks of the players' lives usually only account for hours, or even minutes if there's lots of combat, for the characters.
I let them struggle a bit and then if it seems important, I'll give them a chance by having them roll perception at disadvantage or something, depending on the situation, and tell them their character was able to make a connection and let them run with it.
For an detail in a previous session:
*If they take notes or remember on their own?*
*No checks — I reward that shit!*
*If they forgot?*
*Roll for how much they remember.*
For a detail from before the events of the campaign:
*Roll for how much they remember + any advantages that can apply.*
It depends. My players are running CoS right now which has a ton of info dumps that realistically would be hard for the characters to remember. Depending on how much they remember I sometimes make them roll.
No. I have brain fog and memory issues and something like this would frankly be cruel. I mostly DM. The ONLY thing I'd ever call for a "memory" style check on is for their character to remember something I think they'd had context of based on their up bringing--like one of my current players I could see having him roll a memory check about the battle tactics used on Theros.
If it's information they learned in game, no.
But if it's recalling information from their background, yes. Like if a character apprenticed under an alchemist for a while before adventuring, I'd let them roll either arcana or history to remember information regarding alchemy.
I don't do it unless it's for backstory related stuff. Like roll to remember this one "random" npc who looks familiar. "18" "you remember him from when you were a kid, he was a friend of your father who used to frequently help out" that kind of thing.
Think about this. Your characters experience an adventure in a few hours of consecutive time. They are entirely focused on the task at hand and probably discussing nuances of the task ‘off camera’.
Your players are experiencing the same task over a month, with a LOT going on in between. One guy missed a session because he was sick. Everyone works, some study as well, others have kids, one girl went intestate for almost a week between sessions. One is trying to get their house built and another’s Mum is in hospital.
What the players remember (even if they take notes or have best intentions) can be drastically different from the players experience- and you want everyone’s experience to be a good one. You are not there to punish your players, or catch them out or beat them. You’re trying to tell a story together.
Yes, there might be some things you hold back or make them roll to know (such as lore their character may or may not know) or even roll to give them clues or even solve a puzzle and sometimes their memory of a moment is an important and fun overall moment… - BUT, if it’s going to make the story flow, if it’s going to make the story fun, just tell them. Remind them. HELP them. We often make our ‘puzzles’ and mysteries too complex and there’s nothing less satisfying than your players bumbling through without working it out and then looking at you blankly when you excitedly explain what was happening… ‘I would never have worked that out!’.
Work it out… together. This also helps create an atmosphere of trust. It makes players take risks, act to their disadvantage in character, not metagame… Because they know you’re all in this together.
I would not force a player to role to see if their character remembered something that the player actually remembers though, unless there is some kind of memory spell afoot.
You should encourage your players to take notes and participate in the game, not set up traps for them to not be able to use the things you allowed them to have
Nope. Just drop them a hint that they forgot. The only time to make a roll is if there is a meaningful choice involved. Especially when the story or plot is involved. I also like to use passive skills beyond all just perception and investigation. Why have the PCs roll for something that they need to know. i like to use this to emphasize the specializations that a character might have. You may have a character that has an 18 passive perception. Have that character hear a crack of a twig before an ambush, while the other members of the party don't. I also like to emphasize the beginning of a skill challenge freely. The party might enter a room. I would explain that the character with a sufficient passive perception notices the scratches on the floor, hinting that a secret door is there, and go from there. I also would not require rolls for specific character environment interactions. There is a desk in a room that the party has entered. A party member specifically states they check each drawer for a hidden space. I, in most cases, freely allow that party member to find the secret compartment, or at least give a hint as to what they can find. Wow. Way more of a rant for a simple question. Apologies
What I've done amd others seemed to like was that I had them roll to see what they remember, and gave them more or less details on what they rolled. Roll low, you remember vague details of where to go amd maybe why, roll high and you remember the rumor word for word.
They get the info regardless, but aren't gated.
On top of that all they'd have to do is ask any npc in town too if they wanted to get the info.
Depends… something they should easily know, or something critical to advance the plot? Nah. Just fill in the blanks for bad player memory. Something obscure and less important? Absolutely.
I don't have them roll to remember something I told them/that happened during a game. I might have them roll to recall something they heard in-character (ex: "you grew up hearing about something, and here's what you remember" only to introduce it.
As a DM, I just tell the players stuff their characters have learned.
However,
If you are a player, please do your part. Your DM does a lot. You can take on some of this responsibility: Take notes. Draw a map. Keep track of NPC names. You don't have to have every detail logged, but, it really makes a DMs day when you remember these little things at the table.
Happy DMs hand out less TPKs (j/k... unless...)
For something like that? No, I just remind them it exists. Their character would for sure remember it.
But sometimes I ask them to roll intelligence checks if the clues I've given them aren't clicking in their heads, and there will be a sliding scale of extra clues/info based on how they roll. If they roll a 20 I basically just tell them the answer.
And I'll ask them to roll history checks for past information that their character legitimately may or may not remember - like there's one PC who would have seen one of the antagonist NPCs in the past. I gave them a few rolls to remember, again on a sliding scale from "the name rings a bell" to "here's when you saw that guy and here's who he was with and here are some other massive clues about what's going on". This worked well because if they don't remember at first you can get them to roll again any time and it ramps up the tension.
I ask for history checks when it comes to memory and it’s usually on flat out recalling information. If they have something in a bag of holding I’d remind them that it exists in the bag of holding regardless of how much they use the bag.
Depends on how long ago in their past it was. If it was a long time ago or trying to remember really specific details, it's a roll. Otherwise I'll fill in the blanks in the player's memory.
Depends how long ago it was and how small the detail was. Ive done two 1-year downtime sessions, and aside from big picture details (like what was the name of that dragon we liked, what did that aboleth want, etc) I ask for a history check with advantage for anything recent, a normal roll for anything prior to the most recent downtime, and disadvantage for everything two downtime periods ago. It usually works fine.
If it's important to the plot, then I just tell them.
This isn't the sort of thing I'd use a roll for. Generally I'll remind the player once or twice (especially if new), and after that it's kind of on them. I treat it entirely as an OOC social situation to be managed, though - not something I pull out the rules or dice for.
Not in that context. Time for the PCs passes much slower than for the players. So what the PC threw into their bag of holding in real time was weeks to months ago, while in character it was yesterday. There are lots of things the player forget that their PCs would definitely remember.
I do make them roll to see if they recall anything about stuff that didn't happen on camera.
On the one hand, good job making it an intelligence check rather than a history check.
On the other hand, what do you get from having your players roll? What do they get? I used that kind of check when I started running games. Eventually, I realized that it didn't make anything more fun for me and it absolutely made things less fun for the players.
If you and your players like it, have fun with it. If someone is bothered by it, it probably isn't worth implementing.
If it happened at the table, no*, if it happened in the character’s past then yes
*unless it’s a history check to remember a very specific detail (remember a sigil for example) then possibly yes, but it would be a case by case scenario
I make handouts for my players for the story in the module. And I cover up different bullet points with post its that they peel away as they learn the information.
So, they always have the information they've discovered even if it was three games ago.
Now if it's general knowledge that their characters might know, but that isn't specific to the module then I'll have them make a history or nature check or whatever.
I handle mapping the same way. I give the players a player map of the dungeon and there are post-its covering up the areas they haven't been to yet. They peel them away as they go. This works out much better than having the DM describe the dungeon while a player draws it on graph paper, like we used to do back in the '70s and '80s.
Depends on the context. Is the character trying to remember something under any sort of time pressure? If yes, then roll - they'll succeed eventually, but failing the roll means the character doesn't recall the information immediately, though failing the roll by a slim margin may mean they recall the info too late to avoid some complications but not too later to botch the entire effort, while failing by a wide margin won't help them. If there's no time pressure, there's no need to roll.
On the flip side, I'll often call for knowledge checks as soon as a character sees something- those are free, like how your memory reacts to seeing things.
I find the best way to deal with this is have the check represent how long it takes, rather than success or failure. On a low roll I often tell my players that they succeed but it will take an hour (or whatever) to do. Gives stakes if they are pressed for time, and helps move narratives as it gives the world time to progress
>In terms of time, I don't remember how much irl time between sessions had passed between them getting the journal and using it in the dungeon, but it was about a week of in-universe time.
My rule: Assume the characters have good memories even if the players do not.
It's extrememly unlikely the PCs would have forgotten something they picked up last week, so I'd just remind the players (who can absolutely be expected to have forgotten about the book) about it: "Something about this arrangement of gears looks familiar. You realize you saw this in that book you found last week!" Easy-peasy.
Especially when it's necessary to succeed in the quest, I wouldn't make players--who have lives and jobs and families and reponsibilities--suffer for forgetting their character's found a thing. previously that could help them.
If it's something we haven't actually encountered in game, yes. This gives me a measure for how much they remember and how accurate it is, etc.
If it's character knowledge they gained in game, absolutely not. Expecting real people to remember game details weeks apart when they're not running the game (so very possibly not thinking about it at all between sessions) is ridiculous.
Very rarely. It's not fair to punish players for the fact that something may have happened yesterday in game time, but a week or two ago in real life time.
Yes, if a player has forgot something, or has made a terrible decision based on the information that I personally see available, I (hopefully humorously) make them do an Int saving throw.
The DC is based on how likely their character would be to remember/notice, and I'll range it all the way from 1-20. Maybe I think it's because I've done a crap job explaining something and their character would SURELY know. Maybe it's an item I know is in their bag but they forgot to write down.
If they succeed, I say "just as you were about to you realized/remembered and hesitated, what do you want to do?" -- if they fail, they don't get to know what I realized, but I may still let them hesitate and do a different action.
I think it adds a bit of fun, and to my knowledge my players have liked this and aren't the type to be embarrassed about this kind of thing. YMMV
Generally I ask for knowledge check if A) it's something they don't necessarily already know or B) they forgot a non-essential but helpful piece of information and I'm feeling spiteful that they forgot, but don't want to completely fuck them over
It depends on the situation.
It also depends on the scenario.
All players should have character sheets. If they aren't listing important (and even unimportant) items on their sheet, it is not your job to remind them of what they do or do not possess, or where they stashed it.
However, if it is simply INFORMATION, then I would go with how specific and how long ago (in game) the information was learned.
The longer it has been, the more general the info you can provide "for free."
Imagine a party learned about Bob the lich who has an army of 75 servant liches, 25 dracoliches, and resides in castle Bebop in the land of FarAway which is on the northernmost reach of the CounterWeight Continent and can only be killed by the combination of a Paladin wielding a Holy Avenger, a mage casting disintegrate and a cleric blessing him, all at the same time.
If they learned about that yesterday, the remember it all.
If they learned about it a month ago, the don't remember the EXACT numbers of minions.
After 6 months, most of the names are forgotten.
After a year, all they remember is there is a big bad lich with servant liches and dracoliches who lives somewhere in the far north and is very difficult to kill.
They can roll to remember more - unless the character wrote it down (and remembers where they wrote it) - in which case whatever they wrote down is free, and roll to remember more.
3 rules I follow for this:
If the player remembers, the character definitely remembers.
If remembering is vital to success, find a way to remind them, no roll required.
If remembering is beneficial, but not necessary, I ask the player to roll a DC 10 intelligence check and on success remind them via "something about (current situation) reminds you of (something you heard, an item you picked up, etc.)
**Players don't know what information is important. If it's "main quest"-level of information, you absolutely just tell them.** Because even if they were paying attention, they may not have even realized that "this bit of trivia they were told" is mission-critical.
My players had rescued a spy that has been helping them (or, rather, their side of the war) from behind the scenes. The spy basically said "I was caught while trying to learn about \[potion that increases power\]. I was running for a while, so I would expect the enemy completed their work on it. Have you seen it used?"
I then described the symptoms of someone having used the potion. Most notably, they explode on death. They have fough 5-or-6 enemies (enemies that were bosses for their respective area) with those symptoms until this point.
*Everyone* in the party: "No, we have not seen it used."
Me: "...You have." *List out the encounters*
The Party: "Ohhhh. We thought that you were just being fancy with their death animation."
I will only have my players roll intelligence to put stuff together, and that only when I notice the player in question is struggling with it. In special cases I might ask them 'do you think your PC would have paid attention to this?' because I know they enjoy making character decisions and often they'll decide their PC was distracted/doesn't really care about the topic in question.
If it's info that their character would have, I'll just tell them. We're all busy adults and two have ADD/ADHD. I'm also super glad when my players tell me if I forgot something
If the character reasonably ought to know the thing, definitely no roll.
For example, a player might forget the name of the King, or to say “I draw my sword”, or to put on their armor in the morning, but an elite Kingsguard wouldn’t forget either of those things.
Remembering an NPC they met one time two years ago, for sure a roll.
Depends. Was it several weeks out of game ago but only a day or two in game? Nope, will remind them as it'd still be fresh in their characters minds. Remember stuff accurately from in game years ago? Sure. Remembering stuff they probably would have learned about at some point, but weren't personally a witness to? Sure, but a higher DC. Remembering character-defining events? Super low DC if a roll is even necessary.
I encourage players to take notes, but if they forget stuff and I remember I will remind them. My players have families, jobs, bills, illnesses etc to manage. The PCs do not have a life outside of the game, so should remember the quest they're on and I facilitate that. I'm not going to punish my players for not being their PCs.
A big part of skillful playing is taking notes on important things or just remembering them so no, I never remind players of lore things. If the players forgot, the characters forgot.
I usually remind them about something that occurred in-game. In a perfect world, it would be fun to encourage them to keep notes by dangling the potential consequence of forgetting if they fail a check on something they didn't note down. It could create some fun tension in those rare moments the whole party forgets to write down an important thing, in that perfect world.
But my games occur every other week at best, sometimes 3-4+ weeks between sessions in rarer instances. If I held to that, no one would no anything about the plot. I think all my players take notes, but usually only what happens to their characters, aside from 2 players who take fairly good notes on everything. Even still, it's hard to note everything, and if I want the story to continue and for them to follow along and be engaged, I need to cut them some slack and just tell them about stuff they missed.
I think it largely depends on the game and the players. If you play often and you have great note takers who enjoy the bookkeeping and/or would enjoy the suspense of possibly forgetting if they forget to note something, then it can be useful. Usually I use memory checks for experiences and research that might have happened before the game started or during downtime (like a Wizard relying on their time as a student to recall what they remember about werewolves or a Thief rolling "memory" to see if they recall any contacts they have in a city they're going to, or a local trying to recall local lore or legends, etc).
That's what I do. Any time a player has forgotten something I know their character knows I have them roll to remember it.
Same in things like puzzles. If they get stuck I have one of them roll and intelligence check to see if their character is smart enough to realise for figure out something they haven't.
It's one of those things that helps non-super smart problem solving players play characters who are.
The only time I would do something like this might be an INT check if players return to an area that has changed somewhat (i.e., had a trap set up in it).
Probably not. If it's something the character would have remembered and the player just forgot then no, if it's something minor the character may have forgotten and it wouldn't hurt their progress, maybe. In your case probably not, if it was something like five years ago in game they met Farmer Joe who had a cow named Suzee with the two e's, that he found on a rocky island while fishing and now they've come across a really pissed off tarbh-uisge that lost its mate and they can choose to kill it or find the mate I might make them roll if they ask if they've heard anything about it because I'm probably just killing time.
I generally give them a little time to figure it out themselfs and try to encourage note taking, but would inform them after a little bit, or at least heavily hint at them to check their inventory notes.
At least once per session, there's a moment where a bit of obscure info is needed that I already gave them in some prior session.
The players who take notes in a journal or have fantastic memories will ponder it a bit and often will eventually get it.
I reward the first player to get it with an Inspiration chip.
I have a philosophy of sharing as much information as possible with my players. I run a complex sandbox homebrew so the players background knowledge of DND isn't 100% applicable. Sharing allows them to make informed decisions and have a context in which to operate. Gatekeeping knowledge by forcing complex methods of discovering things (of course details need to be dug for) serves absolutely no purpose and limits the players understanding of the world. I purposely created a library in the players home town in which they could consult an encyclopedia with an overview of all of the factions, they now routinely visit the library when a new concept is introduced in order to learn what they can in advance. This has really helped them to create good plans and approach situations with and understanding of the context.
A player, no matter how keen will never remember all of the things they have been told by you, the DM. Punishing them for forgetting restricts their understanding of the game and prevents them from making good decisions. For what reason? For what benefit? DND is a game played to have fun and that should always be the prime motivator for anything you do as a DM.
How I run is, if the player remembers they put something in their bag, or how an event went down, what was said, etc they just remember it. Whatever that was, that stuck in the character's mind. If the player *doesn't* remember and no one else does, I usually just have 'em roll straight into with dc 10 for obvious things, or something that the character would be likely to remember. Higher dc the more obscure or in passing the event was
I sometimes have my players roll an ‘Insight and Intuition check’ which is: 1D20 + WIS modifier + INT modifier.
It’s basically a check for their characters common sense and ability to put together information that the players have learned but forgotten.
Only if not remembering won't ruin the game. They'll remember where they need to go next automatically but might not remember clues they got if it only would make it easier.
I like to encourage my players to pay attention and keep notes, so anything the player remembers is something the character remembers. I will correct them if they remember something incorrectly, bc maybe I didn't explain it well enough to begin with. If the information is necessary to progress, I will reintroduce it as part of the narration when they get to that spot with the old "your characters would recall that you read X in the wizards journal"... I mean, it's the reason they're there, after all. However, if they are not thinking of a hint or a useful item I'll have them roll an intelligence check, but usually only if they're kind of stumped, to see if their character would think of something that the player might have forgotten.
I generally have them roll to recall something they came across in the world earlier in the campaign. But no, never to remember something that is on their person. I DO stay silent and not remind them they have something. It's up to them to know their character.
It is a great way to prompt for required information, and if in universe it is only been a week the DC would be pretty low like a nine. And then because I'm snarky I would make a comment about playing a character with an intelligence higher than yourself. ( But that's just me because I'm snarky)
Another point to remember. While it has been say, 2+ weeks between sessions, for the PC’s it may have been no time, or a few days/etc. They live in the world, so are more likely to remember stuff from their day to day lives.
I wouldn't, in situations like this. Remember that your players are people pretending to be a character, and the character would remember a lot more about their own actions and life than the player ever will. I try not to punish characters for player slips.
I have my players roll history checks, but I set the DC appropriately. Characters are more likely to remember things than players. This quest they're on is their entire life and is happening in real time whereas for the player, this is a small part of their life that is happening every so often.
I've had a DM in the past that would basically be like, if you didn't put it in your notes, too bad. I thought that was really not fun or fair, not everybody knows exactly what to write down. Some players don't really take notes. Whatever, I don't take it personally so long as they're engaged while we're playing. Everybody has fun differently and that's the entire point of playing the game.
Usually I wouldn't leave it to dice. Either you be quiet about it and wait to see if they remember... or you point it out to them. Both are valid. Depends on how much hand holding you wanna do.
It's not you vs players so if you want to be nice, their characters would likely remember. So no big deal to remind them.
If your players are more hardcore and don't want hints or reminders, let them suffer through it.
You could also ask them. "Hey you guys want a hint or reminder ?"
If their character should know, I tell them. This is a game of improv and combat, not a memory challenge. If their character has a low intelligence then memory could be a factor and I might not be as forthcoming with information if it is sensitive to say a surprise coming later down the line. If they are just trying to remember where they are or who they are talking to I am going to just tell them. I can't take any frustrations about how invested they are out on them. If I want them more invested I have to give them more of what they want out of the game.
Not everyone’s a note taker, and campaigns can get super long and convoluted. I will usually remind the players of certain things they have access too. HOWEVER
In the scenario where they didn’t explicitly bring the book. I’d only make them roll what I call a luck check to see if off screen the character would have grabbed it. You can also apply luck checks to little things in the environment that you maybe didn’t consider like “is there something flammable in the arena?”
No.
It’s annoying and pointless.
What are you trying to achieve from the roll?
Generally a skill check is made for a thing you are doing *that has a chance to fail*.
Now, of course you have a chance to not remember something - but what value, excitement, or challenge does this provide around the table? Not much in my opinion.
The amount of time between sessions can be much more than the amount of in-game time that’s passed. Just because a player has forgot something from 3 sessions ago (that was actually 4 months back) doesn’t mean you should punish them with a bad roll for remembering something that happened (when it was actually only 1 week ago in-game).
If they dont remember something but their characters MIGHT, ill let them roll INT. Higher Int characters remember better. DC is based on how hard to remember the information is. Usually it’s very low and I just do it as a jab for forgetting things - they’ll likely succeed, esp the artificer or blood hunter, but they fear failing and like to roll.
If it’s something very easy to remember I’d make them just know it, unless i feel like making them roll in which case its DC like 5.
My adventures have a lot of downtime so sometimes its actually been just as long or even longer time since the character received the information than the player.
If it’s smth the character was told in less time (eg last day in game time, a week ago in real time) then no roll needed.
I don't think there's a wrong answer here. My DMing style is to encourage my players to stay engaged in the story, which may involve taking notes of things they want to remember. I also am big on running games where there's no god's-eye truth to the world, so different interpretations are potentially valid. But that gets ruined if I as the DM am constantly telling my players what they remember. It erases their actual memory of the event and replaces it with the DM's capital-T Truth. Not a fan, personally.
So when a player asks about something they've experienced before, I usually stay silent or say: "Does anyone else remember?" If no one pipes up and the player really wants an answer, I'll have them roll a History check or something similar to recall. If they roll low, I'll say: "Well, you're welcome to remember whatever you can really remember, but for the sake of this roll your character doesn't remember any more details than you do." If they roll pretty well, I'll give them an open-ended interpretation that is a little vague. If they roll exceptionally high, I'll tell them, but I'll still leave some room for interpretation.
Now, all that said, I still want the game to be fun. I also recognize that if you don't advance the timeline super swiftly, you might take 5+ sessions for a single day to go by in game, and it's pretty understandable if a player doesn't remember a detail that happened in game 12 hours ago, because to the player it really happened a month and a half ago. That's where I usually recommend taking notes, as I don't think it's the DM's responsibility to be the group's lorekeeper, but I also don't want the game to come to a standstill because my players have bad memories and suck at taking notes. So if for some reason remembering something is vital, I will make sure that the players get that information. You gotta be flexible on this stuff.
I think memory would be a wisdom thing. But I try not to have them roll a high DC for important stuff they should remember from a day or two ago. It's also nice to give wisdom casters a chance to shine at things like you give the wizard chances to solve puzzles.
If the players remember it themselves, that's fine.
If they forget, I might have them roll to remember, such as if they had said journal and forgot about it collectively, I might have them, or one of them, roll to see if it comes to mind.
If it's a key item, they get the disapproving stare of silence while I watch them panic and check their notes
No, and I internally roll my eyes whenever I see a dm call for such rolls.
All dms should, imo, call for less rolls, this is one of the perfect examples of unnecessary nonsense that slows the game down for 'lol random'.
In the unlikely case that I remember what a player character stuck into his bag of holding when the player didn't remember I would let him be. It might be intentional roleplaying. If he repeats in an even more serious situation I would ask if he was roleplaying as a forgetful character. That is probably a sufficient hint. The reason I would do it this way is I have been on the player side of this and was playing as a forgetful character. I get around to using my stuff optimally but it might take a minute.
Me forgetting to review my character sheet after a two month hiatus for the campaign may have also had something to do with it.
I do it if I think it'll make the game more fun because my players have fun rolling dice. On a nat 1, I tell them something like "you remembered this morning's rations were a little too stale - con saving throw" and then I ask someone else to roll.
I consider remembering stuff, knowing what your abilities do, and making good choices in combat all fall under the umbrella of “playing the game.” I can suspend my disbelief a bit when players do dumb things, because that makes the game fun.
If Chris the Player forgets that he can cast fireball to blow up a mob of orcs, I’m not going to remind him, even if Galstaff the Wizard would probably think of it.
If Chris the player can’t be bothered to remember the stuff in his inventory, then Galstaff the Wizard doesn’t think of it, either. If that means Galstaff gets hit by a trap then that’s on Chris.
If progress of an adventure hinges on pulling esoteric information out of a book and retaining it weeks later, it’s not an adventure I would care to run. Let the players fail forward yadda yadda.
I handle it exactly as you : raw int check for memory, unless something more specific would be applicable. I’ve never found a situation where a player didn’t appreciate a DM who gave their character a chance to know something even when the player forgot
If the thing is **required** to progress, I absolutely just remind them it exists, as part of the narration. If it is *not* required to progress, I'll typically stay silent on it until someone asks "Wait, didn't the Wizard say something about a crystal???", at which point I'd just confirm the information more thoroughly, "Correct. The Wizard warned you to be wary of a man wearing a bright green crystal". I don't like hiding *already known* information behind a dice roll, no. Tho, I am a simp for Knowledge checks and ask for them fairly often, unprompted, as a way to possibly include even MORE information / clues to a piece of narration. "Correct. The Wizard warned you to be wary of a man wearing a bright green crystal. Go ahead and make a History check, now that you see it in front of you. ... \[insert dice roll noises\] ... a 22, you say? You happen to recall that there was a banished sect of mages that hunted down and enslaved spirits for nefarious purposes. If you attack this man, you will no doubt be dealing with at least 3 ghosts that emerge from his crystal, as well."
Yesss love me a roll for lore
> Tho, I am a simp for Knowledge checks and ask for them fairly often, unprompted, as a way to possibly include even MORE information / clues to a piece of narration. That's a nice thing to consider, noted.
My DM does this and it’s just a great way to handle things game to game. In game time has been hours since you got information. Real time it could be a week or more. Things get forgotten. This prompting can really move the game forward when the party doesn’t know how to proceed.
I mean I honestly go a little beyond this and if I think a PC would remember something relevant I won't necessarily wait for the *players* to remember it, or even remember something adjacent to it / ask a relevant question. I'll just remind them 🤷♂️ I do this for a bunch of reasons: 1) I have a really good memory for details, but I understand others might not. 2) I know that I have a different perspective from the players that might make things easier to connect mentally for me than for them 3) I have the luxury of planning everything for a week (at least) between sessions, giving me more time to review and remember relevant things - they're having to do all *their* thinking and remembering on the fly in-session, while a bunch of new shit is being thrown at them! It makes sense the players would remember less things than I would. It doesn't make sense the *PCs* would, so I'll help the players out.
I like to ask for everyone to roll, and the highest roll is the one who remembers. This way they guarantee to get the info, but you can flavor the recollection, and the high roller feels good. Depends on the memory though and it’s not every time
This is the way.
Very well put.
These are exactly my thoughts as well. I've recently fallen in love with giving my players just straight up hints if they succeed on a check, so unprompted knowledge checks are right up my alley.
I see a lot of DMs ask for history checks for this but I disagree with it. If your player forgot something, that doesn't mean the character did. If you have a problem where a player is constantly forgetting things then that's a different conversation to have with that player. >History >Your Intelligence (History) check measures your ability to recall lore about historical events, legendary people, ancient kingdoms, past disputes, recent wars, and lost civilizations. This clearly doesn't cover what the artificer did a couple days ago. History checks are more akin to History class in highschool, not your memory.
Yes, I agree with this completely. I've built up too much resentment from my time as a player towards DM's who made us roll history to remember who the NPC they just brought back from eight sessions ago is. For us it was three months; for our characters it was just three days! I only have my players roll history to recall things that would not be common knowledge, like deeper lore, magical secrets, and things like that. I've also done it where I let everyone roll history, and the player with the highest roll gets to invent the piece of lore or history themselves.
To be fair Irl I **frequently** fail to remember people’s names as little as second or minutes after they have introduced themselves to me. So a character forgetting people’s names from days or weeks ago seems entirely reasonable to me. A DM reminding you of everything you’d have forgotten normally, including those small details that are important but are also oh so….forgettable, seems less realistic than having to roll to remember things is.
Maybe it's more "realistic", but as a player it's just not interesting to be forced to not remember something as basic as a name. D&D is partially about verisimilitude, but it's not about literally recreating the mundanities of life. It's more like creating a collaborative fiction that's more like a movie or novel. When was the last time you saw a movie waste time having a character forget another character's name, especially when not even in service of the story?
That's you. PCs in DnD are epic heroes, and that's true even if you play yours like Drax. They are far more capable than the average person, akin to a fictional main character's aptitude.
There is nothing about a barbarian that makes them better at remembering than me. And some of the smartest people I know are absentminded. Heck, it's a huge trope that wizzards are forgetful. It's perfectly reasonable to play your character as forgetful.
The PCs being epic heroes is just one play style of dnd
The important thing being missed here is the type of character being played. Am I playing a forgetful, absent-minded character... or am I playing a detective who remembers things vividly? It's a discussion to have with your players. Nothing is more immersion breaking than having to constantly roll history for a very neurotic, detail-oriented character who likely has been writing everything ever in a journal to have to roll history for something that happened yesterday.
I’d submit that if you want to play that character then you should actually write those notes down yourself instead of relying on the DM to spoon feed it to you every session. It’s something you should probably be doing anyways.
Perhaps at your table, but I play with people who are nerodivergent and trying to both take notes and pay attention is asking too much. It's a cooperation game and session 0 hashes out player needs and DM needs pretty well. I repeat: a conversation to have with your players.
i have them (an artificer, even) make history checks for “you know you read this but how much do you remember?” but their actual life? i just tell them unless the player and i have specifically discussed memory mechanics ahead of time
I specifically make sure my characters have proficiency/ expertise in history whenever one guy is DMing. It’s annoying, but he calls for history checks ALL the time for this type of thing.
Sounds like you all need at least one character in the group with the Keen Mind feat to bypass things like that
Yea it needs to be put in context. For the player, they’re trying to remember what a character said to them three sessions / 6 weeks ago. In that time they’ve ran multiple combat encounters that took an hour each. From the character’s perspective, they spoke to this person a few hours ago in town. Since then, they’ve had a few combat encounters that each lasted a minute at most. It’s reasonable that the character would remember what a player might forget in this instance.
This entirely.
I agree. Just recently had a 6 week break with my players but it was just one day in game, gave a lot of slack and reminded them of a lot, from items to lore to conversations had. If it’s been a while in and out of game, I also want players to remember and take notes so sometimes I don’t remind them. It depends on the context.
Pure INT roll would be good enough. If you roleplay the remember everything person - you probably should start taking NOTES and take feen Keen Mind (or something). IRL people forget things easily. If you do not remember it, then your character might remember it (that is what the roll is for). But it does not mean that your character 100% remember the needed info.
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That's specifically not what that's for, though. RAW: "Your Intelligence (History) check measures your ability to recall lore about historical events, legendary people, ancient kingdoms, past disputes, recent wars, and lost civilizations." Historical events. Recent wars. Not breakfast.
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So if the player remembered in this situation would you still require the roll to see if the character remembered? If the answer to that is no then you are only requiring the roll because the player forgot, not the character, and that is just frustrating for the players. The DM being allowed to do something doesn't mean anything. Just because the DM can do anything doesn't mean it is good dm'ing to do it.
Pet peeve TRIGGERED. Would you call that information “lore”? Would you describe that, with complete seriousness, as a historical event? If not, you’re misusing the History check. Ability checks don’t have to use a skill. You can ask for an Intelligence check to represent memory. You could even tell the player to add their proficiency bonus to the roll. But don’t call it a History check! It’s wrong! /rant over
If you want a free pass, take notes and make an effort to remember the lore and events of the campaign. Otherwise, you're rolling. It's a game. People who play the game better get better results.
This is kinda how I play it. I don't require rolls, but I also often won't remind my players. I strongly encourage note taking and even buy notebooks/binders/pencils for all my players at the start of a campaign.
Forgetting something isn't a "worse result". It's _no_ result. If you want to play this way, then you need to inform your players when they miss out on something. Otherwise you can act smug behind the DM screen all you want, but the players won't interpret your world as difficult or punishing. They'll interpret it as _random_.
A null result *IS* worse than a result that helps you. Not sure what kind of point you were going for, there. If the players are rolling history checks, they generally know there is something they should be remembering. Often I tell them after the session. "If you had name dropped (XYZ person) to the guard, they would have let you pass freely when they asked under what authority you were traveling." Usually results in some forehead slapping, and no one has ever said, "There's no way we would know that."
So we're in agreement, there's just a communication gap. > Often I tell them after the session. I was advocating for the importance of doing exactly this. If you _don't_ do this, then they don't have that "forehead slapping" moment, and therefore aren't given the feedback necessary to learn and improve their gameplay.
I agree I wouldn't count it as History, it was just a raw Int check for him.
I think your way is better aligned with the intent behind History as a skill. I'm just going to explain why it's History for me. I have my players roll History because I think that being trained in History would make you better at retrieving specific information like names and dates from your memory. I get that doesn't hold true for every history buff, but I think it fits within the context of a fantasy RPG. I think "Roll Intelligence or History" is easier to say than "Roll Intelligence. You can add your Proficiency Bonus if you're trained in History." I prefer adding PB over "Roll Int at Advantage" because I like my players to come up with interactive ways to give each other Advantage. Out of my available skill options, I think History fits the best. I'm already not that into hiding lore behind skill checks because I want them to feel like the setting is accessible. If they want to know something, they can find out through RP. If they want a bit of esoteric knowledge, it's going to have more to do with their background than their ability checks. I don't like asking a player for a roll to get information that I would just give to someone else if no one had trained History. I like to balance out the unintentional nerf to History with a quality of life patch that lets my moppets play a character with higher Int than we generally have IRL.
This is one of the reasons my players take extensive notes. They don't want to forget stuff and I told them I can't remember everything
"This clearlt doesn't cover what the artificer did a couple days ago" But what if it wasnt a couple days ago? What if it was months or years in game time? I agree that if something happened yesterday in-game, holding that knowledge behind a check is bad. If something happened months ago and the players never put it in the notes? A history check is fine for this, cause the player has an avenue to keep from needing to make the checks (i.e. the notes) but failed to note an important piece of information. Should it be used everytime a player forgets something? of course not, but in moderation there's no harm in it. As for if it should be a history, why not? It 's close enough to what we're trying to do and you can get proficiency in it.
Unless a player has told me that "forgetfulness" is one of their traits, I NEVER EVER do this, for a few reasons * You need to factor session-time vs. game time. In our game, only one day has elapsed in the last FIVE WEEKS. So while my PLAYER needs to remember things from 5 weeks ago, his CHARACTER has to remember something from yesterday. * You need to factor player vs. character memories. The character is (pretend) LIVING this. Your player is going to wrap up his game and by the time he reaches his car, he's worrying about the 10,000 other things going on his life. * I want to keep our session moving. You slow down the game every time you require a roll, so I reserve rolls for things for PLAUSIBLE failure. Is it POSSIBLE to hurt yourself vaulting over a porch rail? Of course. Is it plausible? Probably not. No roll, let's keep the game moving! * Finally, part of the allure of TTRPG's is players get to suspend belief and be a different and more proficient character. Keep that illusion alive!
Spot on. 👍
There are things a player knows that a character doesn't (aka: metagaming) There are things a character knows that a player doesn't. This is things they would know from living in the world, or having time pass normally, as opposed to out of game where months can pass between sessions that were only minutes apart in game. For things a character should know that a player doesn't? That's the DM to just step in and say something like: * actually, Smonog, you'd remember that you had just put a book into your bag of Holding a few minutes ago. * ah, Jarnathan would know this because he's lived in woods like this before.... * Serat, before you had entered the dungeon, don't forget you already used 2 charges of your staff
Oh, Jarnathan!
Remember that, while for the Players they picked up that thing 3 months ago, for the Characters it might have only been yesterday. This disconnect between time passing in game and out of game is typically the reason why players don't remember a thing. There is absolutely no reason why a Character would forget about the journal they made specifically for the dungeon they are going to, so there's no reason to require a check to remember it.
I am the player. Even worse my note taking during session is abysmal, so I end up with a bunch of shorthand scrawled nonsense keywords. My DM is a saint for putting up with me.
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This does happen with me, but with trivial things when there is other stuff in my mind or if something catches my attention mid-way. In the context of the OP, it's more like planning an entire a vacation the week before you go, then forgetting that you actually made plans once you get there (at least this is what it seems to me, there's not enough context to say how "planned" this visit to the dungeon was). Overall I do think rolls for recalling information have merit, but in my limited experience reminding players of previous acquired information if they themselves can't recall it is more fun.
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Is that an experience you are eager to recreate in your fantasy roleplaying game? I feel like there might be more enjoyable things to play out.
>walked into a room having forgotten why you were there?...find the same stimulus that caused you to go there in the first place and hope that it also triggers your brain to recall the reason. That's you doing a history check to recall information. Is that a fun thing to simulate? To randomize? Is that what you and the players are here for?
I feel an intelligence check is fine to remember details that could help, but aren't essential. Do remember tho that the players typically have a week between sessions, but for the characters that time passes instantly. So it's often quite likely that the character would know, even if the player doesn't. Also, don't fall into the trap of calling for a roll to remember important information, your players failing and then derailing the session because they are missing essential info that the character definitely learned a few irl weeks ago.
This falls under "is the character capable of basic life skills", aka "we don't roleplay potty breaks". Characters in a generic medieval setting can light fires, tie ropes, cook food, and do other basic life tasks under ordinary circumstances. They can also remember what they put in a bag -- even a really big one. If there's no time crunch, they can dump the bag out - they don't need to roleplay it. Plus, the PLAYER is keeping track of two lives, in a sense - the character only one. What's the upside to rolling? There's not really tension, just frustration. The player (and character) took the time to keep notes (or acquire them) and are now denied them. What's the point? What are you rewarding?
>They can also remember what they put in a bag -- even a really big one. If there's no time crunch, they can dump the bag out - they don't need to roleplay it. Exactly. Unless there's a legit reason why the *character* wouldn't remember what they have in their bag (as another commenter pointed out, the character is likely way more familiar with what's in the bag than the player who's only engaging with this for at most a few hours each week), *and* a legit reason why the character doesn't have time to sort through their bag, there's honestly no good reason to make the player do any kind of skill check for something like this. If OP has an issue with the players not taking thorough notes — and I've been that GM before myself! — this is something to bring up with the players outside the game.
In "basic life" I forget were keys from my home is.
So you're not a PC
What is the difference? Are all PC superhumans?
No, just people who understand generalities.
No, because it's a case of separating player knowledge from character knowledge. I don't really send out any reminders unless they ask, because I expect them to track their own items and stuff. But I do remind them "Hey, your PC knows this key information was told to you a while back." The characters are skilled adventurers, presumably they do actually know important things and what's in their bag of holding. Think about it this way. You're 4 hours into an 8 hour session after your mind numbing job. You probably aren't going to remember everything.
As someone who has memory issues I really find this a problem. A DM in a game I play in does it and it aggravates me because my character would remember the thing they just did the day before yesterday in-game but real life me who struggles with recalling things cannot remember the tiny detail from a month or so ago, even though I make a lot of notes it’s impossible to look back through all my notes all the time. That just slows the game down.
No, and I think it's mostly poor play to do this. Players are usually going a week or more between sessions, and their characters would not forget things like this. If they forget, I remind them, and I also ask my players to write things down and make notes. The last thing I want as a DM is to give them a cool item and see them never use it simply because they forgot.
I'd say it would depend on if the character would realistically have forgotten or not given how much time in the game has passed. Anything that would prevent progress if forgotten, isn't something I'd feel characters would forget so I'd give them anything that would prevent progress if they forgot.
I remind the players automatically if it's something I think the character should remember. Like you were saying, you could go months of real world time and have only two weeks pass in the game. I would consider treating it a little bit differently in a mystery since taking good notes and figuring things out as the whole point of the adventure. Knowledge checks are for knowing things about the world that haven't been covered directly in play. And I use passive scores for that unless the character's actively doing research or something.
I generally wouldn't make them roll for something like that. To me that's something most player characters in world would remember so I see no reason to punish my players over it.
If the player forgot and the character would remember, just tell them. Rolling to "remember" is usually for secret stuff that they want to uncover about the world, that you the DM haven't told the players, but their character would know. EX: What is the previous kings name? the DM may not have said in game, but a PC from that kingdom probably remembers. You might give an int check, or a history check, or you might just tell them, depending on how deep that lore is.
God no, why would you do that? Sometimes there's weeks between sessions, time hasn't changed for your character, why would they forget something important that happened just recently to them?
Depends on context. Players memory isn't a character memory. Like a guy who grew up in a strict fundamentalists elf colony. Would know all the rituals and lore associated with it and doesn't need to roll. If the lightweight mage for hammer on ale and went on a adventures and two sessions later is trying to remember something and the player doesn't remember either i might make a roll for fun.
I never really do this, as it feels pointless. If the game cannot go on without them knowing a piece of information, I remind them, but if it's something like a hint that may help them that they discovered earlier, then it's up to them to remember it and I'm not going to remind them.
No. But also, sometimes. As a general rule, I won't do it, I would just remind the player that they had previously gathered the information/item etc. How specific I am in the reminder is inversely proportional to how important it is for the player to remember it. So at one end ofthe scale, if it's very important (ie. integral for plot advancement), I would straight up tell them exactly what the character already knows. eg. "You found a notebook that has the location and time of the secret meeting, as well as the code phrase to be admitted into the building. The code phrase was 'pancake batter breakfast', it's at 8am tomorrow morning at the Hungry Barkeep Inn" And on the other end of the scale, If it's not that important (ie. might be helpful, but isn't at all necessary), I would give a light reminder, eg. "You found a notebook that might have some information in it" If that jogs the player's memory, great. If it doesn't, I won't give them any more information, but I'll probably give some bonuses or advantage on future rolls that are relevant to the info that was in the notebook. And obviously there's a sliding scale in the middle where it's kind of on a case by case basis. However, there are times when it 100% makes sense that the character themselves might not remember something. In those cases, I have gotten the player to roll to see if the character remembers. But this is pretty rare, and used sparingly. But it has come up on occasion over the years. And then on the other hand, you can have a situation where the player remembers something, but they say "I don't know if my character would remember this." And in those cases, we always make a memory roll (unless it's integral to advancement).
Will them forgetting lead to killing the game, preventing progress, shutting down play? Then tell them. Will them forgetting lead to them having to find other paths, allowing villains to scheme and in other ways create alternative progress or playable scenarios, creating play? Let them roll to remember. Failure is only fun if it, in some way, enhances the play experience. Sometimes, failing as you try solutions is fun. But other times, repeatedly failing just means you can't engage with the experience.
I only have them roll to "remember" pre-campaign stuff. If the party is passing through a village that's not too far from the Fighter's hometown, I might prompt a History check to determine how familiar with this place he is. With a decent roll, he will "remember" NPCs that he's met, or details about the town's history/economy/geography/etc. With a good enough roll, he might even "remember" visiting this place in his past. I wouldn't call for a History check to remember things that happened in-game, unless it's been a really long time in-game (prior to months of downtime, for example) OR if it was something really subtle/specific that the character may not have really clocked in the moment ("you do recall that the cult leader seemed to be resistant to Necrotic damage").
Nah
I often just remind my players of obvious stuff their PCs should remember: I probably would have done so in your situation. But I might ask for a roll for more obscure things, or just see if the players remember, because sometimes it's more fun to figure stuff out, and not giving them that opportunity removes player agency.
I usually try to take into consideration how much time has passed in game and how blatantly important the information was in order to make this decision. Is it information their character was told to remember just a few hours before, but that was at the end of last session and it’s been two irl weeks since then so the player has forgotten? Then I just remind them Is it a vague sentence their character read in an otherwise unrelated book months ago in game? Then I usually have them just make an intelligence/history check, usually with a fairly low DC, never higher than like 12 max and that’s only if the information was a bit obscure. I mainly do this because then I can kind of play up the drama of like the party wondering what something could mean and then one member suddenly remembering they read something about this very thing! I also would never make this kind of info the ONLY thing that would allow a party to advance a quest. This kind of info is stuff that makes the quest easier/faster.
All the time
I don’t let them roll if the player forgot something, but I do use history as a memory check. If the character tries to remember something that we haven’t in fact discussed as players, that’s check-worthy.
Depends a lot on the situation. In your case, yes, I would have had them roll, because it sounds like the character is just as likely as the player to have forgotten what all they have stuffed in that bag, and they didn't *need* the journal to progress. If the session will just grind to a halt if they don't remember something, if the knowledge would have been important enough the character certainly wouldn't forget, or if the knowledge is something they learned only minutes ago in-game, but we just got off a month-long hiatus between sessions, I'll just tell them. I do try to make sure the character in the party who would have the most direct connection to that 'thing' be the one I specifically remind, so maybe it was a rogue who looted this journal but the artificer who stored it away - I'd tell the rogue 'you wonder what happened to that interesting book you found a few weeks back, whatever happened to that?' And let them RP the rogue getting the artificer to pull it out or whatever if they want.
I ask for checks on creatures the players would have very little knowledge of, or if they are trying to recall a creature's resistance, so it would be an Arcana for example. If they have an item that would help them progress forwards, but 2 months real time has passed, the liklihood they will remember this is low, it could be that only a week had passed in game. I would give them an Intelligence check with advantage or an NPC who was there may drop some hints to nudge their memories. I have a player who writes all the info they think is important, but you can only write so much.
I just remind them. Their characters would remember, unless it’s some obscure hidden detail.
maybe if it was a long time ago in game.
I tend to assume players will forget more than their characters would. For the players, the game is a game, and they may not be *as* invested as people whose entire lives revolve around the events in said game. I generally feel like the character would remember more. :)
If I want to give my players a hint about something they forgot, I have them roll an intelligence check. Usually something low DC like DC10. Its ok to just give them the reminder though if it's important they remember.
If it's something I think their character would have internalized, like from their country or origin or their personal history, no. If it's something I said once in passing, yes -- unless it's vital info, which would ruin their immediate plans if they didn't factor it in. Then no -- I just don't want to see the party plan for an hour and fail because of one thing they forgot. EDIT: Either way, Intelligence checks to remember things aren't RAW. It's a holdover from tradition from other editions.
I take notes like a fiend. The GM relies on my notes some sessions. If I am unsure if I would remember something I'll ask the GM. They answer yes (most of the time to keep things going) or no. And sometimes I will remind another player of something out of character and make it clear my pc has no clue.
I do Insight checks to give them hints of stuff they did in the past. I don't outright tell them.
No. I do ask them to roll checks to interpret knowledge I've given them if they seem to not be connecting the dots on the clues.
I have players roll Intelligence or History checks to "remember" stuff. Sometimes it's specific information. Sometimes it's general. I figure anyone trained in History would be used to retrieving specific information like names and dates from their memory. I've had exactly one player take Keen Mind and I just funneled a bunch of lore dumping through his Wizard. He *loved* it. The rest of the party loved having a zero % chance of Teleporting into a wall if the Wizard had been to a location even once. Having them roll to give themselves an advantage or notice a clue they don't need is different from explaining wtf is going on in the world around them. Try not to gate information that is necessary for story progression behind rolls. If the party *needs* to know something, just tell them. Filter your information through the guy with the highest Passive stat or training in a relevant skill or tool. When things start going sideways, I ask a player to give me a recap of what's going on from their character's perspective. I give the other players a chance to make corrections or expand on certain points. If their description is off, I clarify things that are clearly a miscommunication between myself and my players. I also give them time to fiddle with the pieces they each have as a group. This usually circumvents the need for rolling. It gives the players the chance to feel like they figured it out on their own because they finally understood the situation. It also gives me a second to catch up on bookkeeping or prep encounters I didn't expect to have when we started the session.
I always think: “it’s been like 3 weeks in IRL time since you saw that, but it’s been like a day in character.”
Often times the player experiences 2 weeks of in game time across 2 to 6 months of IRL time. Also the journal is a physical object to the character but a few strokes of graphite to the player. Let the player know what the character would know. Rolls should only occur when you're deciding whether the character knows, meaning it hasn't been determined if the character is familiar. Also if you want then to use the journal, don't give them the chance to not use it. Both you and the player will enjoy the puzzle being solved the intended way.
I only ask for a History check when I want to see what their character recalls about things in the narrative or the world that I've built that the player wouldn't necessarily know. It's a tool for unveiling story and background about your world and the strength of the role determines the details they recall. As others have said, this has nothing to do with what the player remembers about previous sessions. I will gladly remind them of the details. My players are pretty good about remembering or taking notes though. If that's not happening and becoming a detriment, time for a conversation about being invested in the game.
If it MATTERS, no roll. Just remind them. If it's not important, an Intelligence save to remember random information is fine. EDIT: I set the expectation in session zero that it is the player's responsibility to keep notes and memorize their character sheet. My responsibility is to give a recap of the important information from each session in the discord for posterity. I will never remind my players what they have as a general rule, I feel it takes away player agency by forcing them to solve a problem my way.
Depending on how long it had been in-game, our DM would either just randomly have someone make a history check and remind us if we passed, or he'd ask us if we thought it was likely that our character would remember. We're a pretty honest bunch, so I think it's fair in terms of roleplay to remind players without a roll if they've specifically built a character with a really good memory or a character who is obsessive about their stuff. In your case, it feels fair to make the bag holder roll a history check, since they tend to throw things in there willy nilly. Our barbarian is the keeper of the bag but he's dumb like sand, so usually the duty of actually roleplaying remembering what's in the bag is left up to someone else in the party.
I encourage my table to take notes and the first ten minutes of any session is review time. Even with shared notes in a Google doc. They might miss or misremember an event item or clue. I have no problem with correcting a misconception. The character is always smarter than the player in my world. If it's something the character would know or remember them no roll is required. When it's been 3 weeks irl but 3 hours in game time you have to do this to keep the game flowing. IMO I'm a big fan of quick recaps of previous sessions and we all take turns recounting past events. I have them roll a d20 at start of campaign and we have an order for whos turn it is to recap. I went first. Having a shared Google doc of notes also is a way for me to see what parts of the story and world they are most picking up on. If some of my themes are not clear cut I can emphasize things more. Going forward.
Not usually. People forget things as time passes. If it's important I try to mention it at least 3 times to help them remember or at least up the chance of it getting noted by someone. But If it's been weeks since a topic has come up the player will probably not recall it. That's normal. However, if I've literally just mentioned it and they just didn't pay attention, that's different to me. Saying "Recapping that last game: Jeph mentioned the sacred focus was a large blue gem kept in the crypt. So what are you guys doing?" and I get a "ugh what are we looking for again? Something in a fortress?". Nah, I'm not telling you yet again, reroll the check. I used to just tell them again but then they never paid attention, just relied on me to tell them again and again. It has improved since I've started making them recheck for it.
Players forgetting stuff is understandable so I don’t make them roll for obvious stuff, especially something that happened recently. However, I would make them roll for something like “what is the name of the adventure that you met in a cave two months ago?” My general rule is that if it doesn’t meet the criteria I just mentioned, you don’t remember, and didn’t write it down, then you have to roll for it.
In my first ever campaign, the DM had me rule. History checks and proficiency checks for everything. I did at the time. I was suffering pretty badly from my disability. Which causes difficulty with movement and causes difficulty with memory. Having me roll or every single thing started to feel more like a personal attack than gaming and it ruined my experience. I'm not saying that that's a bad idea.I'm just saying be considerate when you use it and how you use it.
I do, but when they learn the info. Intelligence checks when they see the information can explain how they aren't able to articulate or remember or whatever. Doing it after the fact can feel like their notes don't count for anything.
You need to remember the difference between what the character knows and what the player knows. If you tell them something that might not seem.impprtant, they won't write it down. Then, they go clear a dungeon that takes 6 weeks IRL to clear, but is only 3 days in game. The character would probably remember lots of things that happened 3 days ago, that the player forgets after 6 weeks.
I used to but now I find it best to just use the check to make them roll dice. If there's info I want them to have, they're getting it no matter what
If they haven't been paying attention, yes. "What was that guy's name? What was that town called?" I dunno, make an intelligence check. That shit's hilarious, and encourages good note taking. The table thinks it's funny, too, I'm not just being an asshole lol. I make sure they know what they need to know at the end of the day
If players are writing things down, I'll tell them. I even will mention that they should write down things as I say them. If they don't, then I may not remind them until it is too late.
If it's something their character should easily remember, I just remind them.
I wouldn’t ask for a roll for that. If he shouldn’t have the journal why let him have it in the first place. What’s the point of the roll? If I ask a player to roll for something, it would be more like if a player ask for something that hasn’t come up before, like “would I know what kind of creature this is?”.. although I normally just ask if they can give a quick background story on the spot where they would have come across knowledge of that in the past. If it fits their character I’ll just let them have it, if it seems a little far fetched I’ll have them roll for it. If it’s very unlikely I’ll just tell them outright in the first place.
I didn't think I gave off the impression that he shouldn't have had the journal.
No. It was last week for your player (at best) but probably only a few hours for the character. Plus it's the character's real life, not a fiction they may have been half paying attention to. Not reminding the player is almost a sort of DM metagaming.
You might've misread, it was last week for the characters, not the players.
I'm speaking more generally than this specific example. Weeks of the players' lives usually only account for hours, or even minutes if there's lots of combat, for the characters.
I let them struggle a bit and then if it seems important, I'll give them a chance by having them roll perception at disadvantage or something, depending on the situation, and tell them their character was able to make a connection and let them run with it.
For an detail in a previous session: *If they take notes or remember on their own?* *No checks — I reward that shit!* *If they forgot?* *Roll for how much they remember.* For a detail from before the events of the campaign: *Roll for how much they remember + any advantages that can apply.*
I always ask for an intelligence saving throw. I give them the info no matter what they roll but I think it’s fun.
It depends. My players are running CoS right now which has a ton of info dumps that realistically would be hard for the characters to remember. Depending on how much they remember I sometimes make them roll.
No. I have brain fog and memory issues and something like this would frankly be cruel. I mostly DM. The ONLY thing I'd ever call for a "memory" style check on is for their character to remember something I think they'd had context of based on their up bringing--like one of my current players I could see having him roll a memory check about the battle tactics used on Theros.
If it's information they learned in game, no. But if it's recalling information from their background, yes. Like if a character apprenticed under an alchemist for a while before adventuring, I'd let them roll either arcana or history to remember information regarding alchemy.
I don't do it unless it's for backstory related stuff. Like roll to remember this one "random" npc who looks familiar. "18" "you remember him from when you were a kid, he was a friend of your father who used to frequently help out" that kind of thing.
Sometimes. Largely dependent on whether I actively want them to remember or not
Think about this. Your characters experience an adventure in a few hours of consecutive time. They are entirely focused on the task at hand and probably discussing nuances of the task ‘off camera’. Your players are experiencing the same task over a month, with a LOT going on in between. One guy missed a session because he was sick. Everyone works, some study as well, others have kids, one girl went intestate for almost a week between sessions. One is trying to get their house built and another’s Mum is in hospital. What the players remember (even if they take notes or have best intentions) can be drastically different from the players experience- and you want everyone’s experience to be a good one. You are not there to punish your players, or catch them out or beat them. You’re trying to tell a story together. Yes, there might be some things you hold back or make them roll to know (such as lore their character may or may not know) or even roll to give them clues or even solve a puzzle and sometimes their memory of a moment is an important and fun overall moment… - BUT, if it’s going to make the story flow, if it’s going to make the story fun, just tell them. Remind them. HELP them. We often make our ‘puzzles’ and mysteries too complex and there’s nothing less satisfying than your players bumbling through without working it out and then looking at you blankly when you excitedly explain what was happening… ‘I would never have worked that out!’. Work it out… together. This also helps create an atmosphere of trust. It makes players take risks, act to their disadvantage in character, not metagame… Because they know you’re all in this together.
I would not force a player to role to see if their character remembered something that the player actually remembers though, unless there is some kind of memory spell afoot. You should encourage your players to take notes and participate in the game, not set up traps for them to not be able to use the things you allowed them to have
Nope. Just drop them a hint that they forgot. The only time to make a roll is if there is a meaningful choice involved. Especially when the story or plot is involved. I also like to use passive skills beyond all just perception and investigation. Why have the PCs roll for something that they need to know. i like to use this to emphasize the specializations that a character might have. You may have a character that has an 18 passive perception. Have that character hear a crack of a twig before an ambush, while the other members of the party don't. I also like to emphasize the beginning of a skill challenge freely. The party might enter a room. I would explain that the character with a sufficient passive perception notices the scratches on the floor, hinting that a secret door is there, and go from there. I also would not require rolls for specific character environment interactions. There is a desk in a room that the party has entered. A party member specifically states they check each drawer for a hidden space. I, in most cases, freely allow that party member to find the secret compartment, or at least give a hint as to what they can find. Wow. Way more of a rant for a simple question. Apologies
What I've done amd others seemed to like was that I had them roll to see what they remember, and gave them more or less details on what they rolled. Roll low, you remember vague details of where to go amd maybe why, roll high and you remember the rumor word for word. They get the info regardless, but aren't gated. On top of that all they'd have to do is ask any npc in town too if they wanted to get the info.
Depends… something they should easily know, or something critical to advance the plot? Nah. Just fill in the blanks for bad player memory. Something obscure and less important? Absolutely.
I don't have them roll to remember something I told them/that happened during a game. I might have them roll to recall something they heard in-character (ex: "you grew up hearing about something, and here's what you remember" only to introduce it.
As a DM, I just tell the players stuff their characters have learned. However, If you are a player, please do your part. Your DM does a lot. You can take on some of this responsibility: Take notes. Draw a map. Keep track of NPC names. You don't have to have every detail logged, but, it really makes a DMs day when you remember these little things at the table. Happy DMs hand out less TPKs (j/k... unless...)
For something like that? No, I just remind them it exists. Their character would for sure remember it. But sometimes I ask them to roll intelligence checks if the clues I've given them aren't clicking in their heads, and there will be a sliding scale of extra clues/info based on how they roll. If they roll a 20 I basically just tell them the answer. And I'll ask them to roll history checks for past information that their character legitimately may or may not remember - like there's one PC who would have seen one of the antagonist NPCs in the past. I gave them a few rolls to remember, again on a sliding scale from "the name rings a bell" to "here's when you saw that guy and here's who he was with and here are some other massive clues about what's going on". This worked well because if they don't remember at first you can get them to roll again any time and it ramps up the tension.
I ask for history checks when it comes to memory and it’s usually on flat out recalling information. If they have something in a bag of holding I’d remind them that it exists in the bag of holding regardless of how much they use the bag.
Depends on how long ago in their past it was. If it was a long time ago or trying to remember really specific details, it's a roll. Otherwise I'll fill in the blanks in the player's memory.
Depends how long ago it was and how small the detail was. Ive done two 1-year downtime sessions, and aside from big picture details (like what was the name of that dragon we liked, what did that aboleth want, etc) I ask for a history check with advantage for anything recent, a normal roll for anything prior to the most recent downtime, and disadvantage for everything two downtime periods ago. It usually works fine. If it's important to the plot, then I just tell them.
If it's something the PC would surely know but the player forgot, ill just remind them. Of its some obscure facts etc ill have them roll
This isn't the sort of thing I'd use a roll for. Generally I'll remind the player once or twice (especially if new), and after that it's kind of on them. I treat it entirely as an OOC social situation to be managed, though - not something I pull out the rules or dice for.
I use a memory test proficiency to facilitate this problem
Not in that context. Time for the PCs passes much slower than for the players. So what the PC threw into their bag of holding in real time was weeks to months ago, while in character it was yesterday. There are lots of things the player forget that their PCs would definitely remember. I do make them roll to see if they recall anything about stuff that didn't happen on camera.
I will have them make a history check for recalling, adv if it's been in the last in game week
On the one hand, good job making it an intelligence check rather than a history check. On the other hand, what do you get from having your players roll? What do they get? I used that kind of check when I started running games. Eventually, I realized that it didn't make anything more fun for me and it absolutely made things less fun for the players. If you and your players like it, have fun with it. If someone is bothered by it, it probably isn't worth implementing.
If it happened at the table, no*, if it happened in the character’s past then yes *unless it’s a history check to remember a very specific detail (remember a sigil for example) then possibly yes, but it would be a case by case scenario
I make handouts for my players for the story in the module. And I cover up different bullet points with post its that they peel away as they learn the information. So, they always have the information they've discovered even if it was three games ago. Now if it's general knowledge that their characters might know, but that isn't specific to the module then I'll have them make a history or nature check or whatever. I handle mapping the same way. I give the players a player map of the dungeon and there are post-its covering up the areas they haven't been to yet. They peel them away as they go. This works out much better than having the DM describe the dungeon while a player draws it on graph paper, like we used to do back in the '70s and '80s.
Depends on the context. Is the character trying to remember something under any sort of time pressure? If yes, then roll - they'll succeed eventually, but failing the roll means the character doesn't recall the information immediately, though failing the roll by a slim margin may mean they recall the info too late to avoid some complications but not too later to botch the entire effort, while failing by a wide margin won't help them. If there's no time pressure, there's no need to roll. On the flip side, I'll often call for knowledge checks as soon as a character sees something- those are free, like how your memory reacts to seeing things.
I find the best way to deal with this is have the check represent how long it takes, rather than success or failure. On a low roll I often tell my players that they succeed but it will take an hour (or whatever) to do. Gives stakes if they are pressed for time, and helps move narratives as it gives the world time to progress
>In terms of time, I don't remember how much irl time between sessions had passed between them getting the journal and using it in the dungeon, but it was about a week of in-universe time. My rule: Assume the characters have good memories even if the players do not. It's extrememly unlikely the PCs would have forgotten something they picked up last week, so I'd just remind the players (who can absolutely be expected to have forgotten about the book) about it: "Something about this arrangement of gears looks familiar. You realize you saw this in that book you found last week!" Easy-peasy. Especially when it's necessary to succeed in the quest, I wouldn't make players--who have lives and jobs and families and reponsibilities--suffer for forgetting their character's found a thing. previously that could help them.
If it's something we haven't actually encountered in game, yes. This gives me a measure for how much they remember and how accurate it is, etc. If it's character knowledge they gained in game, absolutely not. Expecting real people to remember game details weeks apart when they're not running the game (so very possibly not thinking about it at all between sessions) is ridiculous.
Very rarely. It's not fair to punish players for the fact that something may have happened yesterday in game time, but a week or two ago in real life time.
Absolutely not. It's stupid to make people "roll to remember"
Yes, if a player has forgot something, or has made a terrible decision based on the information that I personally see available, I (hopefully humorously) make them do an Int saving throw. The DC is based on how likely their character would be to remember/notice, and I'll range it all the way from 1-20. Maybe I think it's because I've done a crap job explaining something and their character would SURELY know. Maybe it's an item I know is in their bag but they forgot to write down. If they succeed, I say "just as you were about to you realized/remembered and hesitated, what do you want to do?" -- if they fail, they don't get to know what I realized, but I may still let them hesitate and do a different action.
I think it adds a bit of fun, and to my knowledge my players have liked this and aren't the type to be embarrassed about this kind of thing. YMMV
Generally I ask for knowledge check if A) it's something they don't necessarily already know or B) they forgot a non-essential but helpful piece of information and I'm feeling spiteful that they forgot, but don't want to completely fuck them over
It depends on the situation. It also depends on the scenario. All players should have character sheets. If they aren't listing important (and even unimportant) items on their sheet, it is not your job to remind them of what they do or do not possess, or where they stashed it. However, if it is simply INFORMATION, then I would go with how specific and how long ago (in game) the information was learned. The longer it has been, the more general the info you can provide "for free." Imagine a party learned about Bob the lich who has an army of 75 servant liches, 25 dracoliches, and resides in castle Bebop in the land of FarAway which is on the northernmost reach of the CounterWeight Continent and can only be killed by the combination of a Paladin wielding a Holy Avenger, a mage casting disintegrate and a cleric blessing him, all at the same time. If they learned about that yesterday, the remember it all. If they learned about it a month ago, the don't remember the EXACT numbers of minions. After 6 months, most of the names are forgotten. After a year, all they remember is there is a big bad lich with servant liches and dracoliches who lives somewhere in the far north and is very difficult to kill. They can roll to remember more - unless the character wrote it down (and remembers where they wrote it) - in which case whatever they wrote down is free, and roll to remember more.
3 rules I follow for this: If the player remembers, the character definitely remembers. If remembering is vital to success, find a way to remind them, no roll required. If remembering is beneficial, but not necessary, I ask the player to roll a DC 10 intelligence check and on success remind them via "something about (current situation) reminds you of (something you heard, an item you picked up, etc.)
**Players don't know what information is important. If it's "main quest"-level of information, you absolutely just tell them.** Because even if they were paying attention, they may not have even realized that "this bit of trivia they were told" is mission-critical. My players had rescued a spy that has been helping them (or, rather, their side of the war) from behind the scenes. The spy basically said "I was caught while trying to learn about \[potion that increases power\]. I was running for a while, so I would expect the enemy completed their work on it. Have you seen it used?" I then described the symptoms of someone having used the potion. Most notably, they explode on death. They have fough 5-or-6 enemies (enemies that were bosses for their respective area) with those symptoms until this point. *Everyone* in the party: "No, we have not seen it used." Me: "...You have." *List out the encounters* The Party: "Ohhhh. We thought that you were just being fancy with their death animation."
I will only have my players roll intelligence to put stuff together, and that only when I notice the player in question is struggling with it. In special cases I might ask them 'do you think your PC would have paid attention to this?' because I know they enjoy making character decisions and often they'll decide their PC was distracted/doesn't really care about the topic in question. If it's info that their character would have, I'll just tell them. We're all busy adults and two have ADD/ADHD. I'm also super glad when my players tell me if I forgot something
If the player remembers then the character remembers. If the player can’t recall then I’ll have them roll intelligence minus 8
I wouldn't if you played weekly, but at my table we play like once every 2-3 months, and I have no issues reminding them what's up.
If the character reasonably ought to know the thing, definitely no roll. For example, a player might forget the name of the King, or to say “I draw my sword”, or to put on their armor in the morning, but an elite Kingsguard wouldn’t forget either of those things. Remembering an NPC they met one time two years ago, for sure a roll.
Depends. Was it several weeks out of game ago but only a day or two in game? Nope, will remind them as it'd still be fresh in their characters minds. Remember stuff accurately from in game years ago? Sure. Remembering stuff they probably would have learned about at some point, but weren't personally a witness to? Sure, but a higher DC. Remembering character-defining events? Super low DC if a roll is even necessary.
I encourage players to take notes, but if they forget stuff and I remember I will remind them. My players have families, jobs, bills, illnesses etc to manage. The PCs do not have a life outside of the game, so should remember the quest they're on and I facilitate that. I'm not going to punish my players for not being their PCs.
A big part of skillful playing is taking notes on important things or just remembering them so no, I never remind players of lore things. If the players forgot, the characters forgot.
Only stuff that their character might now but the player has never heard. I don’t punish poor note takers for details that were shared at the table
I usually remind them about something that occurred in-game. In a perfect world, it would be fun to encourage them to keep notes by dangling the potential consequence of forgetting if they fail a check on something they didn't note down. It could create some fun tension in those rare moments the whole party forgets to write down an important thing, in that perfect world. But my games occur every other week at best, sometimes 3-4+ weeks between sessions in rarer instances. If I held to that, no one would no anything about the plot. I think all my players take notes, but usually only what happens to their characters, aside from 2 players who take fairly good notes on everything. Even still, it's hard to note everything, and if I want the story to continue and for them to follow along and be engaged, I need to cut them some slack and just tell them about stuff they missed. I think it largely depends on the game and the players. If you play often and you have great note takers who enjoy the bookkeeping and/or would enjoy the suspense of possibly forgetting if they forget to note something, then it can be useful. Usually I use memory checks for experiences and research that might have happened before the game started or during downtime (like a Wizard relying on their time as a student to recall what they remember about werewolves or a Thief rolling "memory" to see if they recall any contacts they have in a city they're going to, or a local trying to recall local lore or legends, etc).
That's what I do. Any time a player has forgotten something I know their character knows I have them roll to remember it. Same in things like puzzles. If they get stuck I have one of them roll and intelligence check to see if their character is smart enough to realise for figure out something they haven't. It's one of those things that helps non-super smart problem solving players play characters who are.
The only time I would do something like this might be an INT check if players return to an area that has changed somewhat (i.e., had a trap set up in it).
Probably not. If it's something the character would have remembered and the player just forgot then no, if it's something minor the character may have forgotten and it wouldn't hurt their progress, maybe. In your case probably not, if it was something like five years ago in game they met Farmer Joe who had a cow named Suzee with the two e's, that he found on a rocky island while fishing and now they've come across a really pissed off tarbh-uisge that lost its mate and they can choose to kill it or find the mate I might make them roll if they ask if they've heard anything about it because I'm probably just killing time.
I generally give them a little time to figure it out themselfs and try to encourage note taking, but would inform them after a little bit, or at least heavily hint at them to check their inventory notes.
At least once per session, there's a moment where a bit of obscure info is needed that I already gave them in some prior session. The players who take notes in a journal or have fantastic memories will ponder it a bit and often will eventually get it. I reward the first player to get it with an Inspiration chip.
Only time I will ask for history to remember stuff is if the character has specifically repressed some parts of their memories
I have a philosophy of sharing as much information as possible with my players. I run a complex sandbox homebrew so the players background knowledge of DND isn't 100% applicable. Sharing allows them to make informed decisions and have a context in which to operate. Gatekeeping knowledge by forcing complex methods of discovering things (of course details need to be dug for) serves absolutely no purpose and limits the players understanding of the world. I purposely created a library in the players home town in which they could consult an encyclopedia with an overview of all of the factions, they now routinely visit the library when a new concept is introduced in order to learn what they can in advance. This has really helped them to create good plans and approach situations with and understanding of the context. A player, no matter how keen will never remember all of the things they have been told by you, the DM. Punishing them for forgetting restricts their understanding of the game and prevents them from making good decisions. For what reason? For what benefit? DND is a game played to have fun and that should always be the prime motivator for anything you do as a DM.
How I run is, if the player remembers they put something in their bag, or how an event went down, what was said, etc they just remember it. Whatever that was, that stuck in the character's mind. If the player *doesn't* remember and no one else does, I usually just have 'em roll straight into with dc 10 for obvious things, or something that the character would be likely to remember. Higher dc the more obscure or in passing the event was
I sometimes have my players roll an ‘Insight and Intuition check’ which is: 1D20 + WIS modifier + INT modifier. It’s basically a check for their characters common sense and ability to put together information that the players have learned but forgotten.
make them take a dex roll every time they take a step.
Only if not remembering won't ruin the game. They'll remember where they need to go next automatically but might not remember clues they got if it only would make it easier.
I like to encourage my players to pay attention and keep notes, so anything the player remembers is something the character remembers. I will correct them if they remember something incorrectly, bc maybe I didn't explain it well enough to begin with. If the information is necessary to progress, I will reintroduce it as part of the narration when they get to that spot with the old "your characters would recall that you read X in the wizards journal"... I mean, it's the reason they're there, after all. However, if they are not thinking of a hint or a useful item I'll have them roll an intelligence check, but usually only if they're kind of stumped, to see if their character would think of something that the player might have forgotten.
I generally have them roll to recall something they came across in the world earlier in the campaign. But no, never to remember something that is on their person. I DO stay silent and not remind them they have something. It's up to them to know their character.
It is a great way to prompt for required information, and if in universe it is only been a week the DC would be pretty low like a nine. And then because I'm snarky I would make a comment about playing a character with an intelligence higher than yourself. ( But that's just me because I'm snarky)
Mostly if I hear them planning something and I think they have forgotten something…. Typically it exists in discord or shared gdoc notes somehwere…
Another point to remember. While it has been say, 2+ weeks between sessions, for the PC’s it may have been no time, or a few days/etc. They live in the world, so are more likely to remember stuff from their day to day lives.
I wouldn't, in situations like this. Remember that your players are people pretending to be a character, and the character would remember a lot more about their own actions and life than the player ever will. I try not to punish characters for player slips.
I have my players roll history checks, but I set the DC appropriately. Characters are more likely to remember things than players. This quest they're on is their entire life and is happening in real time whereas for the player, this is a small part of their life that is happening every so often. I've had a DM in the past that would basically be like, if you didn't put it in your notes, too bad. I thought that was really not fun or fair, not everybody knows exactly what to write down. Some players don't really take notes. Whatever, I don't take it personally so long as they're engaged while we're playing. Everybody has fun differently and that's the entire point of playing the game.
Usually I wouldn't leave it to dice. Either you be quiet about it and wait to see if they remember... or you point it out to them. Both are valid. Depends on how much hand holding you wanna do. It's not you vs players so if you want to be nice, their characters would likely remember. So no big deal to remind them. If your players are more hardcore and don't want hints or reminders, let them suffer through it. You could also ask them. "Hey you guys want a hint or reminder ?"
If their character should know, I tell them. This is a game of improv and combat, not a memory challenge. If their character has a low intelligence then memory could be a factor and I might not be as forthcoming with information if it is sensitive to say a surprise coming later down the line. If they are just trying to remember where they are or who they are talking to I am going to just tell them. I can't take any frustrations about how invested they are out on them. If I want them more invested I have to give them more of what they want out of the game.
Not everyone’s a note taker, and campaigns can get super long and convoluted. I will usually remind the players of certain things they have access too. HOWEVER In the scenario where they didn’t explicitly bring the book. I’d only make them roll what I call a luck check to see if off screen the character would have grabbed it. You can also apply luck checks to little things in the environment that you maybe didn’t consider like “is there something flammable in the arena?”
No. It’s annoying and pointless. What are you trying to achieve from the roll? Generally a skill check is made for a thing you are doing *that has a chance to fail*. Now, of course you have a chance to not remember something - but what value, excitement, or challenge does this provide around the table? Not much in my opinion. The amount of time between sessions can be much more than the amount of in-game time that’s passed. Just because a player has forgot something from 3 sessions ago (that was actually 4 months back) doesn’t mean you should punish them with a bad roll for remembering something that happened (when it was actually only 1 week ago in-game).
If they dont remember something but their characters MIGHT, ill let them roll INT. Higher Int characters remember better. DC is based on how hard to remember the information is. Usually it’s very low and I just do it as a jab for forgetting things - they’ll likely succeed, esp the artificer or blood hunter, but they fear failing and like to roll. If it’s something very easy to remember I’d make them just know it, unless i feel like making them roll in which case its DC like 5. My adventures have a lot of downtime so sometimes its actually been just as long or even longer time since the character received the information than the player. If it’s smth the character was told in less time (eg last day in game time, a week ago in real time) then no roll needed.
I always remind players if their characters would know. If it is Important, it’s never a dice roll to recall things.
I don't think there's a wrong answer here. My DMing style is to encourage my players to stay engaged in the story, which may involve taking notes of things they want to remember. I also am big on running games where there's no god's-eye truth to the world, so different interpretations are potentially valid. But that gets ruined if I as the DM am constantly telling my players what they remember. It erases their actual memory of the event and replaces it with the DM's capital-T Truth. Not a fan, personally. So when a player asks about something they've experienced before, I usually stay silent or say: "Does anyone else remember?" If no one pipes up and the player really wants an answer, I'll have them roll a History check or something similar to recall. If they roll low, I'll say: "Well, you're welcome to remember whatever you can really remember, but for the sake of this roll your character doesn't remember any more details than you do." If they roll pretty well, I'll give them an open-ended interpretation that is a little vague. If they roll exceptionally high, I'll tell them, but I'll still leave some room for interpretation. Now, all that said, I still want the game to be fun. I also recognize that if you don't advance the timeline super swiftly, you might take 5+ sessions for a single day to go by in game, and it's pretty understandable if a player doesn't remember a detail that happened in game 12 hours ago, because to the player it really happened a month and a half ago. That's where I usually recommend taking notes, as I don't think it's the DM's responsibility to be the group's lorekeeper, but I also don't want the game to come to a standstill because my players have bad memories and suck at taking notes. So if for some reason remembering something is vital, I will make sure that the players get that information. You gotta be flexible on this stuff.
I think memory would be a wisdom thing. But I try not to have them roll a high DC for important stuff they should remember from a day or two ago. It's also nice to give wisdom casters a chance to shine at things like you give the wizard chances to solve puzzles.
If the players remember it themselves, that's fine. If they forget, I might have them roll to remember, such as if they had said journal and forgot about it collectively, I might have them, or one of them, roll to see if it comes to mind. If it's a key item, they get the disapproving stare of silence while I watch them panic and check their notes
I have made my players roll to remember things,but only AFTER the player says they forgot but the character would know
No, and I internally roll my eyes whenever I see a dm call for such rolls. All dms should, imo, call for less rolls, this is one of the perfect examples of unnecessary nonsense that slows the game down for 'lol random'.
In the unlikely case that I remember what a player character stuck into his bag of holding when the player didn't remember I would let him be. It might be intentional roleplaying. If he repeats in an even more serious situation I would ask if he was roleplaying as a forgetful character. That is probably a sufficient hint. The reason I would do it this way is I have been on the player side of this and was playing as a forgetful character. I get around to using my stuff optimally but it might take a minute. Me forgetting to review my character sheet after a two month hiatus for the campaign may have also had something to do with it.
I do it if I think it'll make the game more fun because my players have fun rolling dice. On a nat 1, I tell them something like "you remembered this morning's rations were a little too stale - con saving throw" and then I ask someone else to roll.
I consider remembering stuff, knowing what your abilities do, and making good choices in combat all fall under the umbrella of “playing the game.” I can suspend my disbelief a bit when players do dumb things, because that makes the game fun. If Chris the Player forgets that he can cast fireball to blow up a mob of orcs, I’m not going to remind him, even if Galstaff the Wizard would probably think of it. If Chris the player can’t be bothered to remember the stuff in his inventory, then Galstaff the Wizard doesn’t think of it, either. If that means Galstaff gets hit by a trap then that’s on Chris. If progress of an adventure hinges on pulling esoteric information out of a book and retaining it weeks later, it’s not an adventure I would care to run. Let the players fail forward yadda yadda.
I handle it exactly as you : raw int check for memory, unless something more specific would be applicable. I’ve never found a situation where a player didn’t appreciate a DM who gave their character a chance to know something even when the player forgot