D&D General Player Knowledge Thought Experiment

[Umbran]

Are you ok with that?

Yep. It has happened, and it hasn't been a problem.

 

[Oofta]

A lot of knowledge is common, including trolls and fire. On the other hand my preference is that they ask if there's a question.

For me it's about the PC interacting with the world, not the player. That goes for more than just meta game knowledge. Skills and the tradeoffs people made when building their PC should matter.

But I don't force the issue often, but there are times when I'll remind them their PC doesn't know that. It doesn't come up often because we discuss this during our session 0.

 

[Mort]

But I don't force the issue often, but there are times when I'll remind them their PC doesn't know that. It doesn't come up often because we discuss this during our session 0.

But would you pause and question the fact that the player just said their PC doesn't know something? A voluntary character knowledge gap by the player.

 

[Lanefan]

There have been a couple of threads recently (and probably many more?) discussing player knowledge vs. character knowledge, and many of them revolve around under what circumstances it's ok to use player knowledge. I.e., trolls and fire. There seems to be one contingent that feels it's totally up to the player, and another contingent that feels that before that knowledge may be used it first must be determined whether or not the character has the same knowledge, e.g. by asking the DM, who may ask for a skill check.

For those of you in that latter group, how would you rule if the situation were reversed? That is, the DM has told the player that their character "would know" about the information in question, or perhaps has asked for a roll or even that a successful roll has already been made, or even has just given information that the player didn't previously have, and the player responds, "No thanks; I'd rather play this that my character doesn't know."

Are you ok with that?

I'm OK with that all day long*. I've seen it done, on rare occasions.

That said, if I had no prior idea this was coming I'd be quietly curious as to what the player had in mind. Sometimes the player has something gonzo or highly sub-optimal in mind for an action, perhaps in hopes of providing entertainment, which would make sense without the knowledge but wouldn't work with it. Other times it could be that the player is trying to, with a new character, establish a pattern of forgetfulness and-or roleplay a flaw.

* - my only exception would be if I-as-DM knew the knowledge had come from the run of play (e.g. it was something the character or party had learned during prior RP-ed adventuring and would have no good reason to forget) and the PC didn't previously have either a history or flaw of forgetfulness; in which case I'd probably enforce that the information was in fact known to the PC.

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

[...] and the player responds, "No thanks; I'd rather play this that my character doesn't know."

No problem! You can always play dumber than necessary. Likewise, I don't mind if you give away all your cash or magic items. And you can also save the dragon and kill the princess.

The players never need to follow my plot-hooks. They are free to develop their own plot hooks and follow those. The only time I will get upset as the DM is if they ignore my plot-hooks, and then just sit around and do nothing at all. Then I will address the players out-of-character and ask them what they're doing.