If the rules of a game support your account, then the established fiction tells me that my character does not know about trolls. Or to put it another way, you're suggesting a game which makes the conditional I stated - the established fiction doesn't tell me whether or not my character knows about trolls - impossible; because you're positing that if the established fiction (including check results) doesn't establish that my PC knows, then my PC doesn't know.If the fiction doesn't inform you if your character knows about trolls, and the mechanics were also negative in this regard (say no, or failure on die roll), then that informs you that that your character does not know about trollspemerton said:If the established fiction doesn't tell me whether or not my character knows about trolls, then actor stance in a troll encounter won't be possible.
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Who declares the knowledge check? If the player, then the knowledge check itself is clearly an instance of author stance - a player priority means that the character tries to recollect everything s/he ever heard about trolls.That's a False Dichotomy. The choices aren't established fiction or no actor stance. The choices also include not knowing if the PC knows about trolls and having to make a roll to see if the PC possesses the knowledge. It's very possible to engage actor stance if there is no knowledge established by the fiction prior to the encounter. A simple knowledge check will suffice, and then the player can proceed to make the decision based on what his character knows about trolls.
If the GM, then the check does not involve any stance on the player's part, as the player hasn't made any decision for the character.
Either way, the check might establish some further fiction (eg that the character knows about trolls) that can then inform a downstream action declaration.
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