Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
A GMing telling the players about the gameworld is not like real life
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7578813" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>First off, it wouldn't get to the point of a player just saying this. If a player wants to delve into their character's family history before puck drop that's fine, but it'd be handled the same way any other PC's family history is handled: you can choose basic stuff that doesn't give any potential advantages (e.g. you come from a long line of farmers or brewers or what-have-you), or you can randomly roll to see if there's anything more significant but you're stuck with whatever you roll even if it's something you could have chosen.</p><p></p><p>If the earlier rolls had come up saying there was another adventurer in the family I'd probably give an overall check to start with to determine just how much info was passed on, i.e. did your uncle tell you tales of adventure every night or did you almost never see him, and base any subsequent checks* on that.</p><p></p><p>* - including monster knowledge; and things like dungeoneering, survival skills, and so forth at low level until the PC would have learned for herself anyway.</p><p></p><p>(side note: the place I always run into player knowledge v character knowledge isn't trolls, it's vampires)</p><p></p><p>Anything like this that could make a material difference in play is ideally sorted out ahead of time...but that's ideally, and doesn't reflect reality where people just want to get char-gen over with and drop the puck.</p><p></p><p>Plan B, and IME the more usual outcome, is to sort it out whenever it first comes up in play. The problem, of course, is that doing so can sometimes put a 15-minute hole in the session while we do it.</p><p></p><p>So do I, and any character always has a reasonably good idea of how badly she's hurt and-or fatigued. Players speak in numbers*, of course, but in the fiction I always translate it to using words to describe their situation. A fighter who just took a hit from 25 h.p. down to 10, for example, might yell in the fiction "Ow, that hit me hard! Not sure I can take another one of those! Medic!!!".</p><p></p><p>* - trying to get players to speak in in-fiction words rather than metagame numbers was once a crusade of mine, but eventually I kinda gave up.</p><p></p><p>Paradoxically enough, we have to pretend one thing (the game play) isn't happening in order to better pretend that something else (the fiction) is.</p><p></p><p>It really is doublethink sometimes. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>While metagamed results can be often justified in the fiction after the fact, this is by no means preferable in the slightest - all you're doing there is damage control. Justifying it ahead of time (or even at the time, which happens occasionally) takes it out of metagame and pre-sets it in the fiction.</p><p></p><p>And a very easy example of unjustifiable metagaming: a PC scout is sent ahead to reconnoiter. The other PCs can't see her, can't hear her, and can't communicate with her. She runs afoul of a sentry and dies. The players at the table know she's dead but their characters don't...and so if they act on that player knowledge to do anything differently than had they known the scout survived the encounter with the sentry, that's metagaming that can't be retro-fitted.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7578813, member: 29398"] First off, it wouldn't get to the point of a player just saying this. If a player wants to delve into their character's family history before puck drop that's fine, but it'd be handled the same way any other PC's family history is handled: you can choose basic stuff that doesn't give any potential advantages (e.g. you come from a long line of farmers or brewers or what-have-you), or you can randomly roll to see if there's anything more significant but you're stuck with whatever you roll even if it's something you could have chosen. If the earlier rolls had come up saying there was another adventurer in the family I'd probably give an overall check to start with to determine just how much info was passed on, i.e. did your uncle tell you tales of adventure every night or did you almost never see him, and base any subsequent checks* on that. * - including monster knowledge; and things like dungeoneering, survival skills, and so forth at low level until the PC would have learned for herself anyway. (side note: the place I always run into player knowledge v character knowledge isn't trolls, it's vampires) Anything like this that could make a material difference in play is ideally sorted out ahead of time...but that's ideally, and doesn't reflect reality where people just want to get char-gen over with and drop the puck. Plan B, and IME the more usual outcome, is to sort it out whenever it first comes up in play. The problem, of course, is that doing so can sometimes put a 15-minute hole in the session while we do it. So do I, and any character always has a reasonably good idea of how badly she's hurt and-or fatigued. Players speak in numbers*, of course, but in the fiction I always translate it to using words to describe their situation. A fighter who just took a hit from 25 h.p. down to 10, for example, might yell in the fiction "Ow, that hit me hard! Not sure I can take another one of those! Medic!!!". * - trying to get players to speak in in-fiction words rather than metagame numbers was once a crusade of mine, but eventually I kinda gave up. Paradoxically enough, we have to pretend one thing (the game play) isn't happening in order to better pretend that something else (the fiction) is. It really is doublethink sometimes. :) While metagamed results can be often justified in the fiction after the fact, this is by no means preferable in the slightest - all you're doing there is damage control. Justifying it ahead of time (or even at the time, which happens occasionally) takes it out of metagame and pre-sets it in the fiction. And a very easy example of unjustifiable metagaming: a PC scout is sent ahead to reconnoiter. The other PCs can't see her, can't hear her, and can't communicate with her. She runs afoul of a sentry and dies. The players at the table know she's dead but their characters don't...and so if they act on that player knowledge to do anything differently than had they known the scout survived the encounter with the sentry, that's metagaming that can't be retro-fitted. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
A GMing telling the players about the gameworld is not like real life
Top