The Cozy Dragon's Hoard of Dice

As both a DM and a plot member for two different LARPs, I’ve found that the writing of letters can have a huge impact on making your game feel like a real world for your player characters. This obviously works better in some games than others; if your setting has a literacy rate comparable to the number of real life people who have been on the moon, obviously there isn’t a great number of people sending letters. But if it works for your setting, there are a lot of advantages to having your player characters get the mail.

For starters, props are cool to receive and are often retained by player characters well past the immediate moment of reception. This is very much a ‘your mileage may vary’ moment, because some PC’s will treasure an in-game letter like a cherished keepsake, and some won’t. Part of this is understanding your players and knowing who would appreciate this – but don’t forget to give players who might not be as immediately demonstrative of their appreciation a shot. Nobody likes to be left out.

As props go, letters can be as in-depth or as light as you prefer. Don’t have time to break out a calligraphy kit? You can find fantasy fonts online with a basic google search, and use them to create a prop. Staining the page with a teabag can give the paper an ‘old fashioned’ look, and you can find a variety of sealing waxes available for sale from shops that deliver. It’s never a requirement – but a little bit of extra effort when you have the opportunity can make a game or session really memorable.

Letters from home also make it clear that you’re interested in engaging with a character’s history, in a way that can be less confrontational. I grew up in a generation of roleplayers that were told to keep their family history far away from where the action of the campaign took place, or loved ones would inevitably be mulched for pathos-fodder. In most cases, this advice was probably unnecessary, but in some cases there were definitely storytellers who would do exactly that.

For some people, this more aggressive approach would probably work. For me, it was a case of constant anxiety. Part of a good tabletop session zero is determining what lines and interests your party has, so if someone would like to interact with their backstory in a less “Red Wedding” sort of way, getting a letter from home can be just the job. Sometimes it can be plot relevant, and sometimes it can just be “your favourite cat had kittens” – it’s fantasy escapism, and not to hammer home the point, but it’s allowed to be pleasant.

The place where this can really shine is with the Character Background mechanic in Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition. Even if a PC doesn’t have a hugely fleshed out backstory, they may have selected a background that has strong features, or just one that interests them. An acolyte character receiving a letter from their temple might be interested to learn of new developments from a friend or trusted confidant within the faith community. A folk hero might receive an update from someone that they helped, once upon a time.

My personal favourite approach for this is the “recently passed great-uncle” gambit for a noble character history. Noble families in the campaign setting for which this was concocted, are large and unwieldy, so knowing exactly who is related to who can be difficult. Receiving a letter telling you that an uncle that you didn’t know you had has passed and that you’re required to attend to receive an inheritance is a great low-pressure medium-stakes way to get the PCs to go somewhere in particular in a game, and can either serve as an adventure impetus in itself, or to get the PCs somewhere that the adventure will later be hooked.

I like distributing letters in-game for a variety of reasons, but perhaps chief among equals is my desire to have some fantasy in my fantasy escapism. When I get a letter in the mail that isn’t trying to sell me something or telling me I owe money by the end of the month, I will confess…

It’s definitely fantasy escapism.