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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 6876416" data-attributes="member: 42582">Well, unlike the soldier I can pull out at any time!But I think some matters have actually become clearer (see below).I agree with this example, and it reminds me of this passage from Luke Crane's Adventure Burner (roughly = GM's guide) for Burning Wheel (pp 248-49):In a recent campaign our characters were crossing a narrow span over a chasm. The GM, Pete, described the bridge in vivid detail. One of the players, Rich, described his character hopping up to the railing and capering along. Should Pete have called for a Speed test for Rich's character to keep his balance? No. Never. Why? Certainly "in real life" there's a chance of falling, but in the story, it didn't matter. Rich was roleplaying. He was embellishing, interacting with Pete's description. Rich made the scene better. . . . If a player . . . describes something simple and cool for his character, don't call for punitive tests.The question of what's cool, or what's embellishment, is - like you say - a social question, not a rules/mechanics question.This is where some things become clearer.The idea of benefit brings with it a counterfactual evaluation: better of than which other alternative?If Eloelle (secretly) know X, and doesn't have to disclose it to some evil cleric, Eloelle is better off than she would have been.But at the table no such possibility was open.Either Eloelle's player narrates Eloelle as thick as two planks, in which case Eloelle knows nothing (or, at least, nothing useful) and so the evil cleric learns nothing useful from her.Or else, Eloelle's player adopts the narration of secret revelations from her patron, and narrates her patron as having protected her from the ZoT, and so the evil cleric learns nothing useful from her.Hence my comment that there is no gameplay benefit, because Eloelle's player is in the same situation either way, and the GM's NPC is in the same situation either way.It's true that Eloelle's player, if the "secrets and patrons" narration is allowed, gets the benefit of having his/her favoured narration. But that's not a problem - that's part of the point of playing a RPG!</blockquote>

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