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In the case of actually finding a cursed ring, I rather like the technique handing out item cards when players get magical/significant loot, that describes the properties of the item (including any curses). On its own, this creates a fun little stack of collected loot for the player, but also allows for the DM to surreptitiously give information to a specific player, so they can roleplay the effects of the curse without "spilling the beans". However, in that case of there being no actual item (the player triggering and failing a save), this can’t be done.


As mentioned, the use of distraction and subterfuge could make handing out informational (and random) notes and some intervals a lot less suspicious- but eventually all players would suss that this is a method of [TOP SECRET] information for at least one other player, creating suspicion whenever they get handed out. Alternatively, if you use a laptop during the session, take quite occasional (and in my case, obsessively comprehensive) notes on your laptop while DM-ing (a practice which I worried about initially, but I found the players often used to roleplay in character and have fun, casual, interstitial interactions). While doing this, you can also message a player any confidential information. This might fall flat if they fail to read your message in time, but this could be remedied by telling everyone to keep an eye on their messages before session.


The exchange of information is certainly one of the difficult choices a DM has to make- what level of information to exchange and allow player to operate on, and then how to implement that exactly, which is why I found this question so interesting.