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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Uller" data-source="post: 7462819" data-attributes="member: 413">I completely disagree.  Knowledge checks are a way of separating player knowledge from character knowledge.  I'm an experienced DM.  I'm playing a 2nd level wizard with pirate background in a game with newb players.  In today's game, the DM described monsters that were clearly ghouls.  They didn't notice us so we moved away to plan what to do.  Our warlock player wanted to know if her hex spell would be useful against them or are they immune to necrotic damage.  So the DM called for an arcana check.  She rolled poorly.  So he said she didn't know anything specific about ghouls.  So I made a check and got a 19.  The DM gave me more info on them (which I, as the player, already knew).  So I told her that my master had encountered such creatures in his travels and, like all undead, they are immune to poison but not necrotic magics.  The knowledge check came first....then the backstory of how my PC would know that information.  Asking your players to RP recalling knowledge means that PCs played by players with deep knowledge of the game and a knack for coming up with RP reasons for why they know something have a huge advantage over PCs played by less experienced or creative players.As for the OP's questions...let your players' PCs learn secrets about your world and the current adventure whenever possible.  Don't keep things too close to your vest.  Little bits of information should come out with each encounter.  Holding back too much is the best way to leave your players feel like they don't have any agency.In my current game, the PCs are trying to find a missing scouting party that includes a young family.  They had uncovered info that something is looking to capture human infants (hags...but they don't know that yet).  The scouting party was hunted by orcs, driven to a ruined fortified hilltop and attacked in the night.  3 scouts escaped.  The rest were slaughtered.  The only other survivor was the family's infant girl that was captured and delivered to a hag.The party is now being hunted by the same orcs. I allowed some survival checks for the party to learn this.  They rolled well so they could hear the orcs communicating with each other but staying well out of sight as they shadowed the party.  The party decided to press on and then camp but set up an ambush (anticipating an attack in the night).  To test the party's strength, the orcs lured a pack of goblins and wolves into the party's camp.  The party was able to kill the wolves and most of the goblins.  They used non-lethal damage to bring down one and interrogated him and rolled very well on an intimidation check.  So I had to decide what the goblins know...I decided they know that the scouts were driven to the fortified hill, there was a battle and the humans were defeated but afterwards, they could hear wailing trailing off into the forest and that some humans fled just before the attack and escaped.   The goblin gave up all this information.  This gives the players lots of choices.  Double back on the orcs?  Proceed to where the scouts were attacked?  Try to find the ones that escaped?  What was the wailing going off into the woods?  My players feel like  beating the goblins was more than just another fight.  It advanced and even changed the story.</blockquote>

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