Here we are on Day 4 of the RPGaDAY 2025 Challenge and our topic today is “Message”. I’m going to talk about an old-fashioned analog way to get messages to my players at my table without the rest of the party knowing what the contents of the message is.
A pad of Post-It Notes. No, seriously. These pads are small enough that I can have a stack of them behind my GMs screen. When I need to get a message to a player, I quickly write it down and toss it at them. The pad is stiff enough that they can write their response back and toss it back to me. Sometimes I’ll even just write down “Read this, giggle, and toss it back to me.” I can then remove the top layer and have the pad ready for the next clue/hint/joke/paranoia inducing information. The player themselves can then decide if their character wants to reveal the information they just gained or remembered.
I used this when I was GMing for the 5e group being introduced to OSR gaming (see the photo posted on that article). I’ve used it at a few one-shots that I’ve run at SaltCON as well. It allows me to keep players involved, drop hints (something the player would have known or observed) and just keep things interesting at the table. Simple and effective.
While I’ve been doing some of these articles, I’ve looked back on older RPGaDAY posts and recalled some of the feedback I had previously received. I had posted the comments given to me. I have had a few people tell me that they thought my posts (or twists on the theme) were very intriguing or entertaining. Thank you. Besides practicing how to write gooder, part of the reason I have this blog is to pass on information to other people. I even had someone recently send me an email thanking me for a four-year old article they had just read.
How do you communicate with the players at your table? Have you used messages to move the game along? Tell me about it. This article is open for discussion on the TardisCaptain dot Com Discord server. You can also email me at Carl (at) TardisCaptain.com with any comments.
