D&D General Harshest House Rule (in use)?

[TwoSix]

I can't imagine running a game where the aforementioned PC went to talk to the town blacksmith or miller and when the player asked me "Ok, what's his name and what do I know about him?" replying "You know nothing. Yes, I understand you've lived in the same village of 100 people with him since you were born. You're a clueless berk."

For me it has nothing to do with rolling a History check, and much more to do with the concept that obviously virtually any PC in that situation would already know who the blacksmith or miller was, their name and some basic biographical data, at least.

As for "provide materials for you to learn about their game", they explicitly said they'd give you a paragraph of basically useless general data. "And sure, "some basic info" will be in the player handout. But, it's about useless. Even just a small town, the players won't get more then a paragraph of things. And a single paragraph won't tell you much about a town at all. "

I, too, would usually give a short paragraph of data about the starting village, but primarily in the interests of speed and not making the players do a bunch of homework. If they ask me the name of the village healer or headman of the village they grew up in, I just TELL them.

I have to assume that all PCs enter the campaign very far from their hometown.

I would say this seems like a strong contender for "harshest house rule". History, Religion, Arcana, etc., are all useless skills.

 

[ezo]

I can't imagine running a game where the aforementioned PC went to talk to the town blacksmith or miller and when the player asked me "Ok, what's his name and what do I know about him?" replying "You know nothing. Yes, I understand you've lived in the same village of 100 people with him since you were born. You're a clueless berk."

For me it has nothing to do with rolling a History check, and much more to do with the concept that obviously virtually any PC in that situation would already know who the blacksmith or miller was, their name and some basic biographical data, at least.

As for "provide materials for you to learn about their game", they explicitly said they'd give you a paragraph of basically useless general data. "And sure, "some basic info" will be in the player handout. But, it's about useless. Even just a small town, the players won't get more then a paragraph of things. And a single paragraph won't tell you much about a town at all. "

I, too, would usually give a short paragraph of data about the starting village, but primarily in the interests of speed and not making the players do a bunch of homework. If they ask me the name of the village healer or headman of the village they grew up in, I just TELL them.

I don't know, you'd have to ask @bloodtide how it works.

 

[Mannahnin]

I don't know, you'd have to ask @bloodtide how it works.

I've found it more rewarding to (occasionally) observe other people tackling that challenge.

They have given some interesting data.

 

[bloodtide]

Oh, @ezo ...

This is a pretty extraordinary stance. The idea that in bloodtide's game you can make a character who's grown up in a village, is twenty years old, but by default the character still doesn't know the other villagers.

It is not like this is amazing or anything.

For me it has nothing to do with rolling a History check, and much more to do with the concept that obviously virtually any PC in that situation would already know who the blacksmith or miller was, their name and some basic biographical data, at least.

.

I come at it from the view that there is no way to have a player know even a tiny bit of what the character should know. And I'm not a fan of the "yuck yuck yuck handwave" sort of thing where the player just says vague stuff and it's ignored. So the other way is knowing nothing.

 

[Mannahnin]

It is not like this is amazing or anything.

No, it's definitely amazing. Outside of being some sort of freak shut-in, this is not a circumstance that really happens.

I come at it from the view that there is no way to have a player know even a tiny bit of what the character should know. And I'm not a fan of the "yuck yuck yuck handwave" sort of thing where the player just says vague stuff and it's ignored. So the other way is knowing nothing.

No, the other way is just to give the player basic info their character would logically already know, when they ask. Thus enabling their engagement with the world and providing them data with which to make interesting decisions.

 

[bloodtide]

No, it's definitely amazing. Outside of being some sort of freak shut-in, this is not a circumstance that really happens.

It does. Even more so in Times Long Ago.....

No, the other way is just to give the player basic info their character would logically already know, when they ask. Thus enabling their engagement with the world and providing them data with which to make interesting decisions.

But there is the flaw: I'm not willing to stop the game every couple of minutes to tell four or more players "what their character knows". I want to play a game, not just tell players things.

 

[TwoSix]

But there is the flaw: I'm not willing to stop the game every couple of minutes to tell four or more players "what their character knows". I want to play a game, not just tell players things.

"Does my character have a birthday?"
"Do we celebrate birthdays in this world?"
"Does it have days, weeks, months, years?"
"Does my character have a mom? What's her name? How about a dad?"
"Does my character have siblings? Do they have names?"

These all seem like basic things my character would know at the start of session 1, but I am not allowed to ask about as a player or assert as a player.

 

[SteveC]

But there is the flaw: I'm not willing to stop the game every couple of minutes to tell four or more players "what their character knows". I want to play a game, not just tell players things.

I just have to ask: what does "playing a game" mean? To me, asking and answering questions is the core game loop for most of a session. So what does playing the game look like to you?

 

[bloodtide]

"Does my character have a birthday?"
"Do we celebrate birthdays in this world?"
"Does it have days, weeks, months, years?"
"Does my character have a mom? What's her name? How about a dad?"
"Does my character have siblings? Do they have names?"

These all seem like basic things my character would know at the start of session 1, but I am not allowed to ask about as a player or assert as a player.

Well, in my game all the above is 'Background' and is something that the player would create and write up before the game.

 

[Seramus]

I'd say my game is unique and not some "word" everyone says it is.

I would use the words "Isekai-adjacent" or "Avatar game." As in, you're playing yourself and what you personally know, just transported into a fantasy world. Even if the characters are not actually from our world magically appearing in your world, the play experience seems similar.