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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Guest 7037866" data-source="post: 9487116">You aren't stopping the game though anymore then the player would be stopping the game to tell you that they know this information.It is though. Do you know every rule in the game by heart? Do you never have to pause the game to look up something like a monster stat block or obsure rule? Frankly, I highly doubt it you never do it.On the surface, I agree, I don't want a player who doesn't know the rules (for the most part), but I am not going to hold it against them if they look up something from time to time.Anyway, expecting a player to "know" everything their PC is likely to know is unreasonable IMO. We spend lifetimes just getting to know what we know in our own lives, let alone what some fantasy person in another world knows. It is actually impossible, really.You are basically asking them to do a "mental workout" but you don't insist on a physical one? Don't you see the inconsistancy in that?Why not? Again, you can't expect players to be as strong as their PCs, so why do you insist they be as smart?Having a published book (like in 2E) that a player can read if they want to know more about the fantasy lore for their race in the general game framework is fine. Insisting they read it, follow it, etc. is not IMO. Does it mean that player is "lazy" or bad if they don't? No. It just means that aspect of the game isn't as important to them as it is to you.Sure, and that is perfectly reasonable. I often encourage players to intereact with NPCs and we often make-up "lore" on the spot.For example, I have a player with a half-elf (drow) PC. His backstory had him in the Underdark, raised in drow society, and proficient in poisoner's kit. He makes his own "drow sleeping poison" for his hand crossbow. Given the cost in the DMG to craft it, I told him that it is very hard on the surface because he needs special mushrooms from the Underdark. Every once in a while, he finds some with a local herbalist or trader, but they don't last long above ground.In leiu of a magical item, he recently acquired an ebony box made of darkwood (from the Underdark) and it contains soil from there as well. If he keeps the mushrooms (when he rarely finds them!) in the box, it allows them to last for years instead of just a month, so when he has more downtime to craft his poison he can.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f923.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":ROFLMAO:" title="ROFL    :ROFLMAO:"  data-smilie="18"data-shortname=":ROFLMAO:" />Well, it works for you so I guess have at it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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