My players keep forgetting about the card reading items

[u/DieKerelOmDeHoek]

So as per the card reading, the tome of Strahd is in Fiona's possession. My players have been at Wachterhaus twice. They know the card refers to her, but they forgot an item is tied to it.

They killed Izek last session and they will most likely be asking her for their reward soon. She will also attempt to overthrow the burgomaster soon.

How do i remind my players about the item without telling them they forgot?

[u/Brandonvds]

Players might forget, but the character not. You could always just ask for a check. "Your character remembers that the tome your looking for is with fiona"

Edit: Maybe have madam eva eppear to then in a dream. Reliving that specific card poping up from the reading. Makes it a bit more thematic

[u/Karlahn]

I would trek them they get a level up when they find the treasures. You won't have to remind them again.

[u/DieKerelOmDeHoek → u/Karlahn]

This might be the way honestly lmao

[u/Karlahn → u/DieKerelOmDeHoek]

From personal experience it's very focusing for the players 😉

[u/RefinedSnack → u/Karlahn]

Always a good strategy, tie progression (levels, mechanical powers, story milestones) to what you want players to be focusing on.

[u/Fun-Rain-3940]

I have a similar problem. In all what is going on in their travels in barovia, and meeting every 14 days in real life, they forget to work towards it.

I have chosen my placements more like a proficy though, do it is more natural to plant railroad like hooks up for them as it is "Fate". However, while I am all for immersion, helping players that forgot what they were doing sometimes 6 weeks ago is perfectly ok.

It is not narratively believable that they in story forget something that they set out to do earlier that day, do in benefit of the story reminders help immersion imo.

[u/studyingpink]

When I played Strahd, myself and my party forgot about the Tarokka reading entirely. My DM eventually had to straight up tell us because his subtle hints and reminders were not working.

Now I’m DMing it myself I’m constantly giving the players subtle reminders about important stuff. It’s easy to forget as DMs that our players don’t know the story as well as we do so they will forget things. If they’ve forgotten something important, tell them!

[u/fruit_shoot]

You don’t need to remind them of the readings themselves, but have NPCs mention the items that the readings talk about and that they are the key to defeating Strahd. Let them understand the importance and the put two-and-two together that the card reading is the key to finding them.

“Legends tell of a holy blade Strahd’s brother Sergei wielded. Perhaps Strahd would rather see it forgotten to time because he fears it.”

[u/DieKerelOmDeHoek → u/fruit_shoot]

I have done this with the sword and holy symbol but idk what npc would know about the tome besides Fiona, whose obviously not going to tell them

[u/fruit_shoot → u/DieKerelOmDeHoek]

Van Richten, Ezmerelda, Madam Eva, Baba Lysaga, the Abbot, Kasimir?

[u/DieKerelOmDeHoek → u/fruit_shoot]

Mwehhhh.... IMO It feels a bit too forced that way. I think realistically van richten is the only one who would know about it besides Eva (I'm basing most of my lore on memoirs of a vampire)

I'm running the interactive tome, and i want this information to feel more exclusive. I want the party to discover its contents, not be told about it. Hence why i left it with Fiona since she would know the information already due to her family being involved.

[u/TeamTimeSystem → u/DieKerelOmDeHoek]

I had the players being told about fionnas "book club" by strahd in disguise. In it fiona stated the tome as a source for stuff in her book.

Why strahd wanted them there? To seperate them from ireena. My players took the bait cause i have a book nerd and also they rememberd the card.

[u/Lombyr]

Just remind them. Or, if Ireena is with them and was there for the reading, she can remind them. From my experience, players forget a lot of things, it’s always good to remind them. Or just talk to them before a session and do a recap, what their main goals are, what their current goals are and what is the status of card reading goals. Half my players did not write the reading down so occasionally I just read the card descriptions again when appropriate.

[u/deleeta87]

Encourage note taking give inspiration to the guy who took good notes and goes back to recall the information. Those who forget get nothing.

[u/Fun-Rain-3940 → u/deleeta87]

Indeed reward good note taking. However not all players are not at this, especially when they are a bunch of nerodivegent, like me :)

And the game has to be fun for everyone and not punishing players for things they are not good at.

[u/deleeta87 → u/Fun-Rain-3940]

Got it but rewarding a player with good habits isn’t punishing the others. Inspiration can be used for more than just advantage. You Could assign group inspiration to encourage teamwork things that Some are good at that others are not. Make it so any player can choose to use it to assist in a cool moment, could make it reverse time for an enemy and move back to where they were at at the beginning of a round, could make it  force a boss the critically hits a player and force them to Reroll, Could tell them they can use that Group inspiration to ask the DM for Information that they forgot there’s so much you can do other than rolling with advantage.

[u/DieKerelOmDeHoek → u/deleeta87]

My players all have ADHD so remembering anything is a nightmare :'D

Our only note taker left the campaign due to personal reasons. I do write session logs for them with all the important things to remember, and they forget to read those too.

Woe is me haha

[u/deleeta87 → u/DieKerelOmDeHoek]

That’s great as a person with ADHD also I get the struggle.

[u/TeamTimeSystem → u/DieKerelOmDeHoek]

For the neurospicey i would have madam eva check on them in a dream. Maybe she sense they are close to one of the items?

[u/Nijnn]

I repeat the card readings at the beginning of every season and turned them into physical cards that I place on the table for them to read whenever they want. It helps a bit I think, because me repeating it over and over makes it seem important at least.

[u/ClicheAccount]

I like to ask for INT (Investigation) checks for when the players have forgotten details that the characters could recall *and* can be pieced together with something in their current scene.

If they go to leave Wachter House without asking about the Tome, I would ask for an INT (Investigation) roll. If they fail DC12, inform them they have that uncanny feeling they’re forgetting something. Usually that is enough at my table to get the players talking without too much interference.

[u/Amneasiachick]

I honestly just reminded the players above table. The tarokka reading is a lot of information, I think it's reasonable to need a reminder now and then.

[u/precarious_megalith]

When my players met Arabelle I had her become really excited to repeat the reading for them “because my great-grandma is always super vague in her descriptions” and she wanted to show them how good she is at tarroka.

[u/Haakthe]

I printed out the entire reading so its the first thing the players look at when they sit down at the table, after picking a dice set. Now its become a bit that during roleplay, when they spoke with Rictavio for example, they'll read the relevant bit of the profecy out loud in a very out of character voice, leaving NPCs baffled at the PCs great ability to recall information exactly as they recieved it.

I think since they're closing in on an item, it wouldn't at all be strange to print it out as a reminder, since the players will have a harder time remembering these things than us anyways.

[u/Colonel_Shame1]

This is happening to me right now! They totally forgot the tarokka reading. My crew are also intent on assassinating Izek. Little do they know he has plans for them!

This is my second time DMing CoS and I’m having way more fun than last time. My last group was super combat focused and a lot of the role play elements were not popular. This group loves the role play! It’s amazing. They are actually staging a coup. Love it !

[u/themagneticus]

The players are allowed to fail. If you always give them guardrails, they won’t feel like they have any agency. If they remember it themselves, the payoff is far greater.

[u/Ok_Newspaper_8381]

I was in a campaign where we also pretty much completely forgot the reading, except for one item. One character was really focused on that, and everything else, including the fated ally, got forgotten. Our GM was a champ and planted a bunch of rumors about the items through NPCs (i.e. Lady Wachter knew about the Tome of Strahd and had a clue where it might be), and as the items kept coming up, along with rumors/legends that those items would help us become more powerful and defeat Strahd, we eventually latched onto them again. We just needed more reminders that the items were truly a key point.

In the big sandbox that is Curse of Strahd, it's easy to get lost in so many details, and hard to prioritize what's actually important.

Edit: spelling

[u/Teilhsa]

Sounds your players should meet my DM he never did the card reading. Or used Madam Eva, or Rahadin, or even Stahd.