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="pemerton" data-source="post: 7580573" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>To me, it seems there are two uncontroversial ways it can become true in the fiction that a PC knows something:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px">* The player has some knowledge and imputes it to the PC;</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px">* The GM informs the player of something that the the PC knows.</p><p></p><p>The extent to which a GM is able to veto/gate the first approach will depend primarily on table conventions. Off the top of my head I can't think of any rulebook that expressly says talks about the GM being able to veto this.</p><p></p><p>A third way is for the player to succeed at some sort of knowledge/Discern Realities/etc check. Whether such a check generates player-authored knowledge (eg Burning Wheel) or GM-authored knowledge (eg 4e D&D, Dungeon World) will depend on the system details as mediated through table conventions.</p><p></p><p>When it comes to drama/freeform/"first person" roleplaying and resolution, these methods are not all created equal. If the player can't declare actions until the GM tells him/her what the PC knows, we're getting close to the GM roleplaying with him-/herself. Likewise if the GM is exercising lots of veto/gating over player-to-PC imputed knowledge. A lot of knowledge checks, especially when it is the GM who provides the answers, can also get in the way.</p><p></p><p>This goes to a variation of player-imputes-knowledge-to-PC, which (at least in my experience), is helpful to first-person roleplaying: the player is entitled to make up setting elements and incorporate them into his/her roleplaying of his/her PC.</p><p></p><p>I have one player in particular who likes to do this - sometimes drawing on his recollections of how a system or a setting works (he's been RPGing for over 30 years and so has a lot of such recollections), and sometimes just projecting his best sense (given past episodes of play plus genre logic) of how things should be in the setting.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7580573, member: 42582"] To me, it seems there are two uncontroversial ways it can become true in the fiction that a PC knows something: [indent]* The player has some knowledge and imputes it to the PC; * The GM informs the player of something that the the PC knows.[/indent] The extent to which a GM is able to veto/gate the first approach will depend primarily on table conventions. Off the top of my head I can't think of any rulebook that expressly says talks about the GM being able to veto this. A third way is for the player to succeed at some sort of knowledge/Discern Realities/etc check. Whether such a check generates player-authored knowledge (eg Burning Wheel) or GM-authored knowledge (eg 4e D&D, Dungeon World) will depend on the system details as mediated through table conventions. When it comes to drama/freeform/"first person" roleplaying and resolution, these methods are not all created equal. If the player can't declare actions until the GM tells him/her what the PC knows, we're getting close to the GM roleplaying with him-/herself. Likewise if the GM is exercising lots of veto/gating over player-to-PC imputed knowledge. A lot of knowledge checks, especially when it is the GM who provides the answers, can also get in the way. This goes to a variation of player-imputes-knowledge-to-PC, which (at least in my experience), is helpful to first-person roleplaying: the player is entitled to make up setting elements and incorporate them into his/her roleplaying of his/her PC. I have one player in particular who likes to do this - sometimes drawing on his recollections of how a system or a setting works (he's been RPGing for over 30 years and so has a lot of such recollections), and sometimes just projecting his best sense (given past episodes of play plus genre logic) of how things should be in the setting. [/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