You weren't there. Here's what people are saying.
Session Rumors: Catch Up Absent Players Without Spoilers
When a player misses a D&D session, you have two bad options: hand them the full recap and spoil every reveal, or tell them nothing and let them sit through next week confused. Session Rumors is the third option. Realms of Shod records the session, and anyone who wasn't in it gets a few sentences of in-world hearsay instead of the transcript.
The player comes back knowing something happened, and their character gets to ask about it at the table. You don't write anything. If you're still deciding how to handle the absent character during the session itself, start with our guide to absent players.
One Session, Two Versions
This is a real session from our own Mothership realm: a two-hour investigation on a space station, 23 scenes, two players and a GM. Here is the short summary the players got, next to the rumor a member who missed it would see.
| Who | What they see |
|---|---|
| The two players who were there | At Prospero's Dream, Priya Petrescu and Desmond Okafor investigate a massacre at their station, The Goose, after explosions and a hijacked broadcast spark panic. They find four dead colleagues, discover evidence of tampering with a portable receiver, and trace it to Harley Steele’s apartment and then to the Weeping Dragon. There, they uncover Harley’s connection to the Resistance, the role of Imogene Kane, and the involvement of bounty hunter Vex. After killing Vex, they submit evidence to Angus and receive 250,000 credits, planning to leave station together. |
| Everyone else in the realm | Word is Angus has been in a rare generous mood at the CANNONHEAVY.market, the kind that usually means someone sold him something he couldn't get anywhere else. Some say it was a recording. Others swear it came off the Weeping Dragon, which hasn't left its hangar since, and nobody seems able to say where the woman with the eye patch went. |
The summary tells you who died, who did it, and how much got paid. The rumor tells you that something changed hands and a ship has gone quiet. The player who missed it walks into next session with a question to ask, not an ending already read.
How a Rumor Gets Written
After a recorded session ends, Realms of Shod writes the summary first. The rumor is written from that summary and the compendium entries the session touched, and it lands in the Gamestream as its own card for everyone who wasn't there.
Who Sees What
A realm keeps track of who actually joined each session, so it never has to guess who was absent. The difference between a player and a spectator is whether they were in the room.
| Who | Rumors on (default) | Rumors off |
|---|---|---|
| Joined the session | Transcript, scene recaps, and summary | Transcript, scene recaps, and summary |
| Realm owner and admins | Everything, every session | Everything, every session |
| Members granted that session | Transcript, scene recaps, and summary | Everything, every session |
| Every other member | The rumor | Everything, every session |
| Audience and guests of a public realm | The rumor | Full summaries and transcripts |
| Public preview page | The rumor | The short summary |
Whoever runs the realm never loses the full picture. That matters, because a rumor only works if someone still knows the truth to check it against.
Turning It On, Off, and Open
Spoiler safety is the default, so nobody has to remember to switch it on before a big reveal. Opening things up is always a choice someone makes on purpose.
- Leave it on. Enable Non-Participant Session Rumors is on for every new realm. Record a session and the rumor is written for you.
- Open one session to one person. An admin can open a session’s edit form and pick members under “Choose which members can view this session.” Useful for a player who wants the full story after missing a big night.
- Or turn it off for the realm. In Configure Realm, switch the setting off and every member sees every session in full. Good for actual-play shows and one-shots, where the whole story is the point.
One caution: a rumor is written with the whole session in view, including compendium entries your players haven't uncovered yet. It is designed to stay vague, but if a secret is load-bearing, give the rumor a read before your players do.
The session rumors setting, in the docsWhat It Costs
The rumor itself is one small step at the end of processing a recorded session, billed with the rest of that session. The recording is the real cost: roughly 130 coins per hour of audio. Coins come from whoever in the session holds them, not only the GM, and the free tier starts you with 100.
No recording, no rumor. Sessions you don't record don't get one. See plans and coin packs.
Session Rumors FAQ
How do you catch up a player who missed a D&D session?
Give their character what they could plausibly have heard, not a full recap. In Realms of Shod that happens automatically: members who were not in a recorded session see a short in-world rumor about it instead of the transcript and summary.
What is a session rumor?
Two to four sentences of in-world hearsay about the aftermath of a session. It hints that something happened without confirming who did what, where, or how it ended.
Who writes the rumor?
Realms of Shod writes it from the session summary and the compendium entries the session touched, after the recording is processed. The GM does not have to write anything.
Can the absent player read the full session if they want to?
Yes, if an admin grants it. Any session can be opened to specific members from its edit form, and the realm owner can turn rumors off entirely.
Does the GM still see everything?
The realm owner and admins always see every session in full, as does everyone who joined the session.
Do rumors work for Discord and online games?
Rumors come from recorded sessions, so they work for any game you record: live in the browser, through the Discord bot, or by uploading audio afterward.
Can a rumor spoil something?
It is written to stay vague and never confirm outcomes, but it is written with the whole session in view. If a secret matters, read the rumor before your players do.
Does it cost extra?
The rumor is billed with the rest of the session’s processing. Most of the cost of a session is the recording itself.
Let Them Hear It in Town
Missing a session shouldn't mean missing the story, and it shouldn't mean having it ruined either. A rumor gives the absent player a place to start and gives the table something to talk about in character.
Realms of Shod is free to start. Rumors matter most when more than one group shares a world, which is how West Marches clubs use them.