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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sunseeker" data-source="post: 7212605">Well...first off, players don't make checks unless called upon to do so, though I suppose they could ask to make a check, but the DM still has to approve it.Second off, just because players have the "History" or "Religion" skill doesn't mean they have knowledge of every religion or every event in history ever.  More than likely they know their religion and their culture's history and perhaps the 2nd-most known religion in the area and the nearby kingdom's history.  Or they are a generalist, knowing a little bit about a lot of religions and histories.Whichever the case is, what both the specialist and the generalist have is knowledge of how religion works and a knowledge of how history tends to work.  If they encounter New Religion, there's a learning curve but they'll catch on fairly quickly if its a highly stratified, highly dogmatic religion or if it's a more open, grass-roots religion.  Any checks they make are going to be more investigative and intuitive.  If they encounter a highly stratified religion, they can make religion bluffs to "talk to a supervisor" essentially.  They'll learn the details of the religion down the road, but they can use their knowledge of how a religion works to put the pieces together.The same is true of history.  If they encounter New Kingdom and there's Another New Kingdom nearby, they can likely intuit from local relations the history of these two kingdoms, are they at war a lot?  Who won the last war?  Did anyone notice New Kingdom is rules by humans and Another New Kingdom is ruled by Elves and it just so happens the New Kingdom's Queen is an elf while it's King is a human? You players may not be able to name-drop right away but if they're knowledgeable in history or religion, they'll catch on to how history has been shaped or religion has been formed fairly quickly.Basically, you, the DM, will have to call for different religion checks.  Instead of testing their skills on specific information, you'll need to test their skills on understanding how something functions.  It's critical thinking vs scripted answers.</blockquote>

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