Foreshadowing TOO Subtle?

[Story_Marc]

I thought this would be a fun thing to tackle since it's an angle many wouldn't think about.

 

[Rhaps]

What do you think about not subtle at all foreshadowing? Like giving very obvious hints and clues about some upcoming plot.

 

[JayMark80]

I like to fill my writing with red herrings and then shoot them with Chekov's gun.

 

[Nolff]

I like to fill my writing with red herrings and then shoot them with Chekov's gun.

Literally or metaphysically?

 

[SailusGebel]

Thank you!

 

[SightlierGravy]

 

[Astrolust]

What do you think about not subtle at all foreshadowing? Like giving very obvious hints and clues about some upcoming plot.

I Feel like judging by my own comment section, people are insane. Some see it coming and yet some still get completely blindsided.

 

[JayMark80]

Literally or metaphysically?

Why not both?

 

[Rhaps]

I Feel like judging by my own comment section, people are insane. Some see it coming and yet some still get completely blindsided.

Sometimes I feel like I have to lower my intelligence, which is something I do often as a DM, people can take ages to solve A FUCKING ELEMENTARY QUESTION

 

[Astrolust]

Sometimes I feel like I have to lower my intelligence, which is something I do often as a DM, people can take ages to solve A FUCKING ELEMENTARY QUESTION

Yes I relate 100% but then out of nowhere the players luck there way into figuring out something that was genuinely difficult.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

I Feel like judging by my own comment section, people are insane. Some see it coming and yet some still get completely blindsided.

Oh yeah, I've enjoyed seeing some of the guesses more than I did writing out the story in a few cases. And they're usually half right and half WAY off...

Sometimes I feel like I have to lower my intelligence, which is something I do often as a DM, people can take ages to solve A FUCKING ELEMENTARY QUESTION

Heh - I've had adventures where I looked at the puzzle and said: "No way anyone would get that" - and the players figure it out in 3-5 minutes. And other times where I go "This is so silly simple, why even put it there ..." and have the game come to a screeching halt.

Probably favorite example - the characters are tasked with stopping a robber who is likely to hit one of three locations. In the text, it explicitly says "If the party splits up, the robber goes to the location with the fewest PCs, or randomly to one of the locations if they send an equal number. If they do not split up, it hits the farthest site from the one they're guarding. The robber strikes every other night." My table got it in half an hour (after imagining a pattern that did not exist, trying to pick a spot at random two nights later, and then using divination magic to get a hint). One DM went into headquarters for the event and ask the people in charge if he could give them a hint with half an hour of the four hour slot left. This was the first encounter....

 

[Story_Marc]

What do you think about not subtle at all foreshadowing? Like giving very obvious hints and clues about some upcoming plot.

What I think about is what I said in the video at the very beginning (the first 30 seconds) and repeated at the end.