"My Character Would Know That"

[Umbran]

Supposed to look?!? Was that even relevant?

Not as far as I was concerned. Especially since the device in question wasn't present, and the player had succeeded on his search check, such that if it had been there, he'd have found it, and I told him as much.

It was kinda weird, honestly.

 

[Umbran]

Where this is going is that the player should never need to backtrack to "my character would know better", because even with the player screwing it up, the DM should never give a chance less than what the character, knowing better, does. To have to backtrack to this is a DM failure.

The problem is that the player can, in their own mind, make an inaccurate call, and then go several steps in their mind without telling the GM. It may then be some time before the GM recognizes the issue, so you have to backtrack.

 

[Zaukrie]

I assume that a PC knows more about the world than the player. They know more about fighting and casting magic. I don't make my players have that knowledge....

 

[Committed Hero]

Not allowing a PC to have unwritten expertise would make it nigh impossible to play a character with high mental ability scores.

 

[p_johnston]

Personally I can find it a hard line to walk sometimes because I don't want to punish players because of a miscommunication/misunderstanding but I also don't want to play their characters for them.

The best solution I've found is if the player is making what I feel is a stupid decision that goes against what the character would know ill just go "as a reminder XXXXX" To ensure that there is no misunderstanding. Sometimes I'll have them make an int check before I remind them to see if the character remembers. If after the reminder they still do something odd/foolish then shrug.

 

[Reynard]

For some reason, and I can't really articulate why, I really don't like the "make an int check to see if you don't screw it up" method.

 

[aco175]

One place where this stuff becomes apparent is when "expert" players and GMs clash. I was an infantryman in the Army many moons ago, for example, so I feel like a know a thing or two about long marches, digging foxholes and camping in fetid swamps (of Georgia). The problem occurs if my "knowledge" (it was a long time ago and my experiences were what they were, not necessarily universal) conflicts with the knowledge, experiences, or assumption of the other party, or the rules of the game.

I seem to recall the universal knowledge of Georgia sucking from Ft Benning on one side to Ft Stewart on the other. Augusta National is excused, of course.

One of the points I wanted to ask is with the new edition of D&D and changes to character knowledge. Before, being a dwarf meant having grown up as a dwarf and having all these dwarf knowledge things you could claim. What kind of metal is that- I'm a dwarf. How old is the fortification- I'm a dwarf. The new edition seems to allow a dwarf to grow up in an elf world to get elf crap instead of dwarf crap. This may change how I/we look as character knowledge. Is it just changing I'm a dwarf with I grew up with elves and that covers everything? Is it all knowledge from growing up or is there something more to being a dwarf or elf?

 

[Theory of Games]

Yeah I think of how many Shadowrunners might have been saved if the GM just gave an honest appraisal of their ingenious plan:

I've done it thinking, "Well. It might work?" But I learned the hard way to just give them whatever info they want + things they didn't think of. Because I've seen players armed with every possible piece of useful information and it's still full-send TPK. Ultimately the dice decide and dice, my friends, are fickle masters.

 

[Reynard]

Yeah I think of how many Shadowrunners might have been saved if the GM just gave an honest appraisal of their ingenious plan:

I've done it thinking, "Well. It might work?" But I learned the hard way to just give them whatever info they want + things they didn't think of. Because I've seen players armed with every possible piece of useful information and it's still full-send TPK. Ultimately the dice decide and dice, my friends, are fickle masters.

It isn't that Shadowrun plans are bad, it is that as soon as they enter Phase 1, the street samurai gets bored and starts shooting.

 

[W'rkncacnter]

The problem is that the player can, in their own mind, make an inaccurate call, and then go several steps in their mind without telling the GM. It may then be some time before the GM recognizes the issue, so you have to backtrack.

can you give an example? im having a hard time visualizing this in my mind.