“Ok, you went to the town, you talked to bunch of people, spent some money at the local tavern buying rounds for the locals and got some information. It was not much, and you got the feel that people here genuinely don’t know much about this stuff. What you found was this…”

And that would be it. No rolls, no role-playing silly conversations with NPC’s made up on the spot. Here is what you found out and there is probably nothing more anyone here could tell you. Let’s move on.

@ Swordgleam: “The “roll off-screen and cash in later” sounds like a good idea. My one concern is the players going, “Wait, if we’d known there were 35 guards, we would have tried sneaking in at midnight instead of just after sunset. What are we doing here?” In situations where the information could influence advance planning (and what situations aren’t like that?) you could end up with frustrated players who feel like they’re being railroaded or swindled.”

You are absolutely correct that some information would influence a lot of planning options. Usually I try to divvy information up into general info and detailed info. The # of guards would be general, while placement of cameras/traps would be detailed. Players are going to need the general info up front, while the detailed can be cashed in.

Another thing that I, being an improv friendly GM, will do is to modify the session if the players come up with a good plan. If they find some unique and interesting way to get into the building that I had never accounted for I’ll tend to modify my dungeon or plot arc to accommodate their work. I’ll still throw in my own surprises and challenges though.

As a GM, I’ve only had the information gathering problems in modern campaigns. The internet is a great tool, both in real life, and for snoopy PCs.

The “roll off-screen and cash in later” sounds like a good idea. My one concern is the players going, “Wait, if we’d known there were 35 guards, we would have tried sneaking in at midnight instead of just after sunset. What are we doing here?” In situations where the information could influence advance planning (and what situations aren’t like that?) you could end up with frustrated players who feel like they’re being railroaded or swindled.

We’d come on board in disguise, but knew one failure would bring the wrath of the station down on ourselves. So we talked and planned for a couple of hours while a couple of the players drifted off to sleep or veg out. The worst part was that between sessions Kev came up with a cool idea for a new plan– which didn’t tie into any of our previous planning. We finally decided to trust in the dice/GM/improvising– no one wanted to loose a second session to planning.

It worked out and made for a tremendously dramatic and exciting resolution– characters were all over the station bluffing station commanders, bluffing the approaching imperial starship group with captured codes, scrambling into cloud cars for atmospheric duels with TIE fighters, and fighting on the outside of the floating city. It was awesome… but man, we spent too long planning.

If the players have a history of over-doing the gathering information, go ahead and give it to them upfront and stop wasting valueable game time. This may seem contrary to what we do as GMs, but I like to think of it as the “hero factor” — the player’s characters are experts in their skills — let them use it — even automatically. Make notes of what the players have done in the past and let it become the baseline for future adventures (within reason).

The real secret here is to give them enough information they will be satisfied up front and keep them from digging deeper into your more secret items. If they push it further, you now have a stance that you have given them all/most of the information they are going to find. But do let them do some exploratory with their contacts and other ideas that you may not have come up with — you want them to feel prepared and they may just need to settle into the idea.

Here’s another suggestion: Put it on a timeline.

What I usually do with the ‘out of adventure’ items is make sure everyone knows that whatever they do between adventures take time. If they are seeking information, then make that info take game time. The more secretative the information, the longer the time frame. If the quest they are working towards is time limited, this will limit how much information they can actually get.

Next: Information is risk.

If players ask too many questions, it should arouse the suspicions of those being questioned about. This may bring the conflict to where the players are staying and catch them unaware. Or it may be simple enough to just let the players know that they are being studied in return (fear factor). Increased information gathering can be a problem if the players need to secretly enter a facility. And each person they talk to about their goals becomes an added risk/liability.

Finally: Magic items that scry

I’m surprised mentioned the most annoying form of information gathering — scrying. Ironically, I have had only had a couple of parties with such magical items, and for reasons unbeknown to me, they chose not to use them. In any case, you just have to keep in mind that there are counter devices/spells/etc. to these and don’t be afraid to use them to block prying eyes from seeing the wrong locations. If the BGG got screwed over once by scrying, he’s not about to let it happen again — and not the same party.

Another factor is the makeup of the group. If the players have been burned by an Evil GM ™, then they’re probably justified in their paranoia, at least until they get over it. But if they’re just classic overthinking gamers, they may take some weaning… Or even some new blood.

I’ll also let good roleplaying trump dice rolling. So if the ranger is talking to a farmer about where an old tomb may be, if the player of the ranger starts talking about the weather and good growing season, I’ll make the farmer a bit more “open.” In other words, if he rolled a modified 13 but the DC is 15, I’ll let the player build up +1s for roleplaying the info gathering.

If it’s academic, I’ll usually decide on how rare the subject is and roll to see if the place (library, temple, etc.) would have something on that subject. Regardless of whether or not there is anything, I have the players roll against me to see how quickly they find it. The difference in our roles will be multiplied by X minutes or hours. (I don’t tell them if there is any information on the subject, though. Let them find out as they would as players – by looking exhaustively.) I let the players decide when they think they’ve exhausted their chances in a particular place, which they’ll figure out relatively quickly.

It makes info gathering a bit more interesting. Also, when it comes to perception checks, I won’t do them if the DC is less than 15 and those speaking aren’t trying to be clandestine. If it’s through a wall or door, a roll is needed. Just listening in is usually no problem.

The gather info rolls can also be a good way to induce paranoia. It is always scary for the players, when you suddenly ask for a listen check …