Using the Game of Telephone to Obscure RPG Lore

The classic game of telephone (also known as “whispers” in some countries) is simple; a message is transmitted from person to person by whispering. The final message is humorously different from the original. The game scales in difficulty with the number of participants, as the message degrades further as it passes through additional imperfect transmitters. This simple game can also serve as a model for how information decays over time in a TTRPG.

We don’t need a group's help to apply the telephone game logic to an RPG. We can just use a free translation service. Yes, the same “translate language X to Y to Z and then back to X” game that became popular in the internet of the late 2000s can be used as a game design tool.

Consider a simple rubric like this for mysterious ancient lore that PCs might encounter in a fantasy game.

Mostly intact: The information is current, or very well preserved. It may be slightly obscured or jumbled. Maybe someone made a mistake, or wrote it down quickly, but it is still close to the original content. Translate to at least one foreign language, then back to your native language.

Old and misremembered: A strong sense of the information is there, but specific details and pieces have been lost. The gaps probably don’t entirely obscure the core of the message, but the information is decidedly incomplete. Translate through at least two foreign languages, then back to your native language.

Ancient and obscure: Many core concepts are preserved, but some are lost, and even the intact parts have scrambled details, or can no longer be fully understood. Translate through at least three foreign languages, then back to your native language.

Inscrutable nonsense: The information’s fundamental meaning has been almost completely lost. What remains is not much better than nothing at all. Absent great effort, the information is useless gibberish. Translate through at least four foreign languages, then back to your native language.

You may have to experiment with the number of languages required to get a suitably scrambled message, hence the “at least” qualifier above. Some languages produce stronger or weaker distortions. Add more steps until it feels right.

An Example: Ó̵̢̪̤̰̍ͅp̶̡̝̈́͐̊̇͝e̶̢̤̪͚̾͜n̷̪̖̺̼̣͛͝ ̸͈̜͎̞̝̾̿S̴̥̰̤̝͑ë̴̳̲̩̺́̇́̂͑s̴̨̺̥̟̲͂̏̓͠͝a̷̭͉̝̋m̶̭͉̼̥͊́͋e̶͒ͅ 

A magical door within the dungeon only opens when the following words are recited: “wrack and ruin, who gods abhor, lord of strife, open the door.” This information is written down somewhere nearby, or partially known to someone within the dungeon, but the information is degraded. 

Mostly intact (translated from English to Amharic, then back to English): “Destruction and destruction, abomination to the gods, Lord of hatred, open the door.”

You can see that this is almost correct. In this form it might work the majority of the time, or perhaps the door opens, but only after a delay. 

Old and misremembered (translated from English to Russian to Balinese to English): “Destruction and death, hated by the gods, disobedient lords, open the door.”

This message has drifted a bit further from the original meaning. It is now less clear who is being petitioned. Lord has inadvertently been pluralized to lords. This probably won’t work as-is. The door might shudder and shift slightly, but not open until the message is closer to the original instruction.  

Ancient and obscure (translated from English to Ukrainian to Gujarati to Hakha Chin to English): “God-hated destruction and destruction open the door, warlord.”

This message retains some of the original sense; we can tell it is still about opening the door. But beyond that, it is pretty unclear. Is destruction bad or good in this context? Is the “warlord” the petitioner, or the petitionee? There are useful clues, but these words as-is aren’t going to open this magic door. 

Inscrutable nonsense (translated from English to Urdu to French to Galician to Bambara to Albanian to Javanese to English): “Destroy and annihilate, what the Lord hates, O God, reveal.”

It took a few extra translations, but this message is now even more distorted. It doesn’t even mention the door at all. It has only the faintest traces of the source message. 

What Are the PCs Supposed to Do with the DM’s Inscrutable Nonsense 

OK, that was fun. But what are the PCs supposed to do with this?

I would not obfuscate what is going on here. Strongly hint or outright say that the information has been degraded from its original form, and reversing that process will get them what they want; whether that is literal magic words, as in the above example, or something more prosaic, like clear directions to a secret location. 

The most straightforward way to allow PCs to make progress is to simply move them one step down the obfuscation ladder. The PCs could make progress through intrinsic means (e.g., a PC makes a skill roll for a history or lore ability) or through extrinsic methods (e.g., after exploring the dungeon further, they find a better version of the information that is more complete and less degraded).

Regardless, when they make progress, upgrade the message one step, for example, from “inscrutable nonsense” to “ancient and obscure.” Make it clear that the new answer is probably more accurate than the last one, even if that isn’t obvious from the degree of sense inherent in the message. Clever players may be able to cross reference the differences to try to infer the actual meaning. If they get stuck, they can always search for more answers that clarify what they’re looking for, all the way up to moving a “mostly intact” message up to a completely correct one.