I’ve spent a bit of time in my lunch break putting together some words for an NPC to drop as lore but it’s not something I do very often. Our D&D sessions can often be very problem-solving orientated, or focused in events rather than purely social encounters. When those do happen I normally wing it and make some discrete notes in my book for the purposes of continuity.
Even when I do write information in advance I don’t tend to write to a particular voice, and then adapt it based on how they access it. It might be in research in a library, or overheard gossip. It could be a letter found on a body, or it could be a headline in a newspaper.
I don’t like to railroad lore drops, but they can sometimes be very effective at giving “aha!” moments that feel earned. We had one late last year when Karkanna was finally tracked down and some real context and history to the events they’d stumbled into was made available. It wasn’t meant as a massive twist in the tale, but it did allow for correcting some of the wilder theories the players had come up with.
So hopefully this weekend there will be chance for the DDC to learn some context to their current problems – the scale of the problem perhaps, or the goals of the people behind it. Something to motivate them beyond a reactive response to a monster of the week.
With motivation, the group can take charge of the story, or at least work out what story is unfolding around them…
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