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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bill Zebub" data-source="post: 8826445" data-attributes="member: 7031982">That part wasn't meant to be snarky, but to illustrate that knowing the basics about a person doesn't mean you know everything. No, I don't have "proficiency" in survival (I don't hunt, for example), but one day I found tracks in the snow at my house and wondered what kind they are, and ended up learning a little bit about how to differentiate feline tracks from canine tracks.  It's a random bit of knowledge that has nothing to do with anything else about me. And no matter how much I told you about myself (that's already WAY more than I usually reveal on the Internet...) there would still be countless surprises.  So I find that letting players decide what they think their character knows results in a richer, more 3D character than otherwise. Sure, ask a player how their character knows something: not as some kind of test to pass to see if they are allowed to know it (and thus are allowed to take an action) but as an opportunity for adding some depth to their character. If they don't have something colorful to add, and just say, "I don't know," just move on.What I found interesting is that you tried to parse the information I gave you in game terms: class, proficiencies, lineage rather than skin color.  Even though I wasn't giving an in-game example.  Not quite sure of the implications, but I guess I thought you were making some kind of realism argument...that one could know what knowledge somebody else had by knowing their background...and maybe you're instead making some kind of game rule argument? (If so, I think it's different from the kind of arguments [USER=29398]@Lanefan[/USER] makes, albeit with the same conclusion.)Yeah the Star Wars thing was meant to be a little bit snarky, a little bit funny.I think the point [USER=6779196]@Charlaquin[/USER] was making (and I made up-thread) is that just because you can distinguish knowledge you have from knowledge your character has doesn't mean you are able to accurately make a decision for your character as if he/she didn't have that knowledge. The human brain simply can't compartmentalize that way.  The simple example I gave earlier is to imagine that you, the player, know the way to the treasure room.  To avoid metagaming, you make your character go the other way.  But if you didn't have that information, how do you know which way you would have chosen?  You would have based the decision off of something else...a hunch, a clue from the DM, a guess, a habit of always choosing the lefthand passage, etc.  The question, "What would I, the player, choose to do if I didn't know that information" is impossible to answer accurately.Now, maybe that's fine for the anti-metagaming rules you impose on yourself, but don't kid yourself that you are making a decision "as your character".</blockquote>

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