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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 7868963" data-attributes="member: 97077">I'll pause here first and say that the sentence I bolded is not a given. There is nothing that does or doesn't require a check. Setting aside for a second that it appears you're trying to set up an exploration challenge of some kind here in the example, the DM may establish any of what you said above as lore that is known to the PCs while describing the environment. I just want to see if we agree on that point because I'm not entirely sure. Sometimes it seems like you're saying it's always uncertain what a character knows.So, in my game, Samantha does not ask that question. Instead, she makes a case for how her character may be able to recall the information she seeks and to what end she might want that information. I can then decide whether she succeeds on her attempt to recall lore (or make a deduction), fails, or whether there's an uncertain outcome. If there's an uncertain outcome, I then examine if there's a meaningful consequence for failure. If there is, then I'll call for ability check. If she succeeds, I'll give her the information she seeks. If she fails, I'll give her some information that is interesting, but not what she seeks, and it will be on her to take additional steps to make it useful. Often those steps will require a resource expenditure, frequently time or gold.I'm not sure what you mean by "split brain" here. As for (b) I would say only context will tell and reasonable people can disagree on whether a consequence is "meaningful."</blockquote>

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