how do you know if they know?

[alsih2o]

none of my players has access to bardic knowledge, and noone took Knowledge: history, but i am assuming that some of them would at least know somehting about the hostory of the world, past heroes, odd situations, yada yada.

how do you decide what you players know when they ask "would i know that?" or "does my character know anything about that?"

any helpful hints or cool strategies appreciated

 

[diaglo]

so the question is:

is it common knowledge?

does everyone who didn't take wilderness lore ...i mean survival... know how to start a fire without a match?

use untrained ability checks

 

[Fenes 2]

Case by case, depending on the background of the PC, how and where he or she was schooled, what his or her interests are etc.

And what adds to the adventure.

If in doubt, I roll int checks for the PCs, or let them roll. I assume all know enough to function in normal society though - general laws, courtesy, how to adress lords etc.

 

[Piratecat]

If it's a main plot point that is part of common knowledge, I tell everyone. If it resolves a main plot point, they have to dig out the info. *grin*

Seriously, I like giving bards and sagely PCs a chance to use their skills. I look at a given piece of info and decide how well known it may be. Usually, obscure facts are left to the bards. I do tell other PCs tiny fragments of the info, though. For instance, instead of telling someone that the Battle of Pogrin's Field was held here 212 years ago, I may tell them that this area is supposedly haunted by the ghosts of dead soldiers.

 

[Mallus]

My basic rule of thumb is this: If if helps the story along, at least one PC will have some relevant information.

Now this can really get out of hand, so a wee bit of restraint is neccessary. But if the PC's lack of knowledge is going to cause the adventure to grind to a halt, I fudge.

In fact, I do this pretty often. I want players involved in my setting {sure, a lot of this is vanity, its me saying "look a all the cool and wonderous stuff I made up!}. So sometimes my games can get a little "third person" rather than "first person", when I'm giving the players more exposition about events than they reasonably have access to {I'm also fond of hyper-informed NPC's}.

Sure, it robs the game of some mystery and danger {which I make up for in other ways}, but it also involves my players in the world that more than makes up for it.

 

[alsih2o]

I look at a given piece of info and decide how well known it may be.

i guess this is really what it comes down to problemwise.

if i let the cleric, who is a minor member of the ruling theocracy, know more stuff because she is who she is, am i cheating the druid who has never left the small, tribal village she lived in till 3 weeks ago? or the malnourished thief who was raised in the allaeys of a backwater town?

i want them to have some info on these things as a benefit for the cool backgrounds they have created for their characters, but i do not want other memebers of the party (a very mature group, not whiners) to feel that they are getting left out of certain advantages because they ahve a different flavor of cool for their background.

edit: mallus, so understood! i made this up, find it or i will just die! (again)

 

[Henry]

Any time I have adverse thoughts about what common folk should and should not know, I am instantly reminded of those "man on the street" interviews of men and women who are asked questions ranging from "Who is the current president?" to "Who was Henry VIII?"

Most modern men and women don't know general history, either were never taught it, or they refused to retain the information that was given them. It's not a shame - it happens to all of us, depending on the field in question. Someone could tell me a million times how to change the oil in my car, and I would not be able to tell you until I had internalized it and actually DID it once or twice.

Most is resolved for our group (when in doubt) with a simple intelligence check. It's also why I believe all Knowledge skills should be able to be used untrained, because there is a large capacity to pick up snippets of knowledge, especially from world-specific knowledge.