D&D General Harshest House Rule (in use)?

[TwoSix]

I know what that means, but ... what does that mean for you? I could easily explain how I run a session with an example, but I think you're doing something very different. I suppose I should give up as I think we're playing a very different game, which I hope you have fun with.

To be fair, I'm pretty sure the thread has now been won.

 

[Seramus]

To be fair, I'm pretty sure the thread has now been won.

You know, it's definitely a looong way away from how I run my own games. But assuming the game itself is spectacular, I would probably just make charlatan characters who make up things about the world until I actually learn enough through natural gameplay. Literally faking it until I make it.

 

[grankless]

the most powerful bloodtide post on record.

 

[bloodtide]

No, that's true. You just must have to do a terrifying amount of pre-game prep.

If a DM told me, "Your character only knows things that you, the player know" I would be asking pages and pages of questions about anything my character might have read or encountered in their first X years of life.

Well, this does not work out so well.

I know what that means, but ... what does that mean for you? I could easily explain how I run a session with an example, but I think you're doing something very different. I suppose I should give up as I think we're playing a very different game, which I hope you have fun with.

OK

 

[SteveC]

Well, this does not work out so well.

How so? How is asking questions a problem? This genuinely boggles my mind.

 

[Lanefan]

I'm very much a fan of a starting the party into some in medias res situation where they already know each other.

I'm not, for one very simple reason: having the players roleplay their characters meeting each other allows the characters to introduce themselves, thus letting everyone at the table (including the DM!) learn who is playing which character, what their names are, and so forth.

 

[Lanefan]

I have to assume that all PCs enter the campaign very far from their hometown.

Far more likely, IME, is that while the campaign might start in or near the hometown of at least one PC it very quickly moves away from there and probably (as in close-to-certainly) never returns.

My experience, both as player and DM, is that players will tend to have their PCs gravitate to either a) a shared home base made by one or all of them or b) the nearest big city they can find until they find a bigger one. Rarely a PC will try to go home, slightly more often a PC will bring its family along to the big city once said PC has made neough wealth to support them there.

 

[Lanefan]

"Does my character have a birthday?"
"Do we celebrate birthdays in this world?"
"Does it have days, weeks, months, years?"
"Does my character have a mom? What's her name? How about a dad?"
"Does my character have siblings? Do they have names?"

These all seem like basic things my character would know at the start of session 1, but I am not allowed to ask about as a player or assert as a player.

Other than question 3 which I'd hope and assume would be answered by the game's calendar, those are all questions that would be answered when sorting out the character's back-story, either while rolling it up* or at some later point and in any case done out-of-session with the DM.

* - e.g. for birthday in a setting that uses an Earth-like calendar rolling your character's birthday is as simple as a d12 followed by a d30, even if birthdays turn out to be irrelevant in the culture.

 

[Lanefan]

My game: A player sees 'The Dark Forest' on the map and wants to learn more about it, they have many things they can try. The two most direct are: 1)By Role Playing their character "the acting as if they were the character kind" they could interact with an NPC and ask them questions. 2) Go to the Dark Forest and see what happens.

Interacting with an NPC and asking questions seems like just an in-game means of you-as-DM being able to dispense knowledge. The only difference between that and the player just asking you "What does my character know about this Forest?" is the underlying assumption that the PC always knows nothing about the Forest before talking to an NPC even if the PC grew up within a few miles of said Forest

And the PCs knowing nothing about anything ahead of time is a bit over the top even for me.

 

[Retros_x]

And the PCs knowing nothing about anything ahead of time is a bit over the top even for me.

So your PCs never step into unknown territory? All your campaigns play in their hometurf? I think its completely normal to interact with NPCs and the world to get more information, I thought thats how in general play people DnD, I am surprised that appereantly some expect to just get a mission briefing by the DM and their character always already knows the important information. For me a big fun part of exploration is ... finding out information while playing the game and interacting with the world and not just be "my character knows already what dangers are in this forest".

Sure in the beginning the might know something about the "starter area", but if they try to travel to Mt. Doom and ask "what do I know about mordor" the answer is "well its naughty word dangerous, but for details you need to find out for yourself"