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Who said I was in Rome? @mamba made the claim I can’t possibly know anyone in Barovia because it’s a place I’ve never been. That claim is proven false by the fact Barcelona, Spain is a place I’ve never been, and I know someone there and consequently know of several other people I could seek out...

You're saying it's nonsensical to know the messengers in the places where you have them send messages for you? If no one knows any messengers, how does anyone send messages? Of course there is. Those are two entirely different fictions! I thought we agreed, for the latter to be "true" (i.e...

No, that's not how the feature works. It doesn't say it creates anything like the fiction you're describing.

You're shifting the goal posts. You said it's impossible to know someone in a place to which you've never been. Now you're putting me in a random town. Who said I was in a random town?

Securing passage on a vessel for you and your party is not anything different from interacting with the world.

I don't know what you mean by "player question". This exchange between you and I started because of an example I gave of a player using the feature, meaning the player is suggesting they already "know the port" in whatever way that's meaningful for use of the feature. If the DM had told the...

"Gorshk! A talkin' sword!" Bible exclaims under her breath as she stretches out her arms to accept the weapon with both hands. ::'Tis an honor, my lord,:: she says, bending a knee before the giant, ::to accepk your grashkous offer. We'll report back to you. Honesk, we will.::

Okay, I see your point. I was more taking "at the table" to mean, well, at the table, i.e. during a session of gameplay, and that the establishment of fiction at the table is part of gameplay, so that when, in your example, the fiction that was made up at the pub is brought to the table and...

The way you paraphrased what I described the table agreeing on in my post as "there is no problem" leaves it unclear whether you're actually agreeing with (or understanding) what I said. Specifically, that they agree "the means stated by the player of the criminal PC to get messages to and from...

The rules are part of the social contract but not the whole thing. For example, the rules of D&D say if you have an ignited torch in your hand and there's a troll within range, then you can throw the torch at the troll, but the social contract of some groups might include a prohibition on...

Here's a post I made last year in response to this thread which had a similar premise:

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This post doesn't address my post you quoted about conflict between prepped setting details and background features. The DM in this example is extrapolating an outcome from the (we assume) established fiction and then railroading the player into it.

Uh, no. And then the player says, "Stop playing my character for me." Everyone has to agree for it to be "true". "The DM says so" is one way for the table to agree, but it's not the only way. No, we didn't. We agreed something is not true as a result of the character thinking it is true. My...

H. Bruce Franklin, cultural historian and author, has died at the age of 90.

I'm not sure what you mean by "always work" or what in my posts inspired this question. That's kind of my point. If there are "blank spaces" that haven't been filled with enumerated details, what's wrong with letting the player add something? Avoiding the whole "know someone" part of your...

Well, yeah, of course I will continue to do so, and it's one of the reasons I gave for my choice to not use the new books, which started the whole discussion of background features. For some reason, saying I like them and would have liked to see them developed further in the new books caused a...

If it's a forgone conclusion it doesn't work, then why the questions about whether the Vistani can deliver messages for you? No, but the DM making that determination based on secret backstory only they possess is an effective tool for running one.

I don’t know what the highly improbable happening constantly to the same five people looks like to you. Maybe you could elaborate on that and how it interferes with the setting. If you don't understand my comments, I have no idea why you feel the need to respond to them as if you do.

Larry Bensky, award-winning reporter and veteran KPFA radio broadcaster, died Sunday at the age of 87.