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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CarlZog" data-source="post: 1910377" data-attributes="member: 11716">This question is spawned by some thoughts and observations I've had about pirate games, but I suppose it applies to all subjects. I've seen a number of posts from DMs who want to run pirate games, but have trouble coming up with adventure ideas. It occurred to me that perhaps this is because many folks just don't understand the underlying politics and economics of piracy, or how to translate it into interesting game material.  Similarly, I've grown extremely frustrated with the wealth of books providing ridiculously inaccurate descriptions of sailing ships and their characteristics. Both of these happen to be topics I have fairly extensive professional knowledge of, and I thought, "I should set the record straight and write a couple game articles or even a book." But how much does anybody really care about the nitty gritty reality of their role-playing games? For example, I know nothing about horses, and I'm sure an equestrian would scoff at the way horses have been depicted in many of my games. Does it really matter to me that I made up the stuff I didn't know about? Would my game be anymore fulfilling if I learned all about horses and applied realistic rules to them? Likewise, is a guy who's worked in foreign intelligence likely to produce a better espionage game than me? Or is he so constrained by what he knows would and wouldn't be realistic that that he can't suspend disbelief enough to create a fun game? In your games, how much does it matter to you to know how things work in the real world?  How do your personal areas of expertise influence your games? Is there a point where too much knowledge hinders rather than helps the game? Just wondering,Carl</blockquote>

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