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General Tabletop Discussion
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DM question: how much do you incorporate PC backgrounds into the campaign?
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<blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 7944569" data-attributes="member: 29398"><p>Exactly. Player knowledge = character knowledge.</p><p></p><p>These options work for this example, but see below...</p><p></p><p>It's also difficult to pre-establish or foreshadow anything when you're playing in, at the extreme, Schroedinger's Setting. Pros and cons.</p><p></p><p>Yep. Do the scouting by note, or physically separate the players. Happens all the time and is, in most situations, easy to do.</p><p></p><p>The issue is that no matter what the surviving players do with their PCs, there's no way of ever knowing whether they'd have done the same thing absent the knowledge of what happened to their companions; which means the whole process becomes tainted.</p><p></p><p>It has nothing to do with sticking to the fiction. Sure the foes can (and likely will) react in some way, but unless that reaction directly affects the remaining PCs in some way (including what they can observe) it doesn't change anything.</p><p></p><p>Or better yet, I can make sure the knowledge divergence doesn't occur in the first place, by using notes or separating players or whatever other means come to hand.</p><p></p><p>Doesn't solve the troll example above; and here sometimes I will shake it up...in one memorable instance, much to my players' dismay: I used the explosive-gas atmosphere idea with some trolls and despite several hints and clues (to the point where even a couple of the players said in-character we'd better not use fire here) sure enough someone forgot, and cast <em>Flaming Sphere</em> to burn the bodies after the battle was done.</p><p></p><p>Oops.</p><p></p><p>One death and about 150000 g.p. worth of magic items later.......</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lanefan, post: 7944569, member: 29398"] Exactly. Player knowledge = character knowledge. These options work for this example, but see below... It's also difficult to pre-establish or foreshadow anything when you're playing in, at the extreme, Schroedinger's Setting. Pros and cons. Yep. Do the scouting by note, or physically separate the players. Happens all the time and is, in most situations, easy to do. The issue is that no matter what the surviving players do with their PCs, there's no way of ever knowing whether they'd have done the same thing absent the knowledge of what happened to their companions; which means the whole process becomes tainted. It has nothing to do with sticking to the fiction. Sure the foes can (and likely will) react in some way, but unless that reaction directly affects the remaining PCs in some way (including what they can observe) it doesn't change anything. Or better yet, I can make sure the knowledge divergence doesn't occur in the first place, by using notes or separating players or whatever other means come to hand. Doesn't solve the troll example above; and here sometimes I will shake it up...in one memorable instance, much to my players' dismay: I used the explosive-gas atmosphere idea with some trolls and despite several hints and clues (to the point where even a couple of the players said in-character we'd better not use fire here) sure enough someone forgot, and cast [I]Flaming Sphere[/I] to burn the bodies after the battle was done. Oops. One death and about 150000 g.p. worth of magic items later....... [/QUOTE]
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DM question: how much do you incorporate PC backgrounds into the campaign?
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