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<blockquote data-quote="Fenris-77" data-source="post: 8006814" data-attributes="member: 6993955">Well, that's an interesting example, innit? Lets unpack shall we, because I do think it illustrates your point well, but it also (oddly) illustrates something like the opposite. Here's my first point, PCs find coin all the time. Unless you give them a reason to ask, they're never going to ask about the coins. Why would they? OK, so every now and then a PC might ask out of the blue, but mostly they won't, and I don't really think that's a controversial thing to say. If I were that DM, I would telegraph the potential importance of the coins, probably using an adjective or two, perhaps old and interesting, or whatever. Without some telegraphing the players don't know to ask and are then either left asking about bloody everything, just in case, or asking about nothing, which is probably more likely. I do think that the DM will have had to do some of the background work you advocate for in order to use the coins as you describe, but there's two approaches there.My issue is the amount of background you need to be 'generally ready' for that kind of random query. You need a whole lotta history to be able to field random history questions with a prepared answer. Some people love doing that work to, which is awesome. I don't love it. So my approach is that the coinage is only going to be specifically important because that's what makes sense in the fiction. Maybe I prepared a little tidbit before hand as a hook or gentle index, or maybe it's something that emerges out of play, either way, I only need to know that tidbit, not all possible tidbits.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Fenris-77, post: 8006814, member: 6993955"] Well, that's an interesting example, innit? Lets unpack shall we, because I do think it illustrates your point well, but it also (oddly) illustrates something like the opposite. Here's my first point, PCs find coin [B]all the time[/B]. Unless you give them a reason to ask, they're never going to ask about the coins. Why would they? OK, so every now and then a PC might ask out of the blue, but mostly they won't, and I don't really think that's a controversial thing to say. If I were that DM, I would telegraph the potential importance of the coins, probably using an adjective or two, perhaps[I] old[/I] and [I]interesting, [/I]or whatever. Without some telegraphing the players don't know to ask and are then either left asking about bloody everything, just in case, or asking about nothing, which is probably more likely. I do think that the DM will have had to do some of the background work you advocate for in order to use the coins as you describe, but there's two approaches there. My issue is the amount of background you need to be 'generally ready' for that kind of random query. You need a whole lotta history to be able to field random history questions with a prepared answer. Some people love doing that work to, which is awesome. I don't love it. So my approach is that the coinage is only going to be specifically important because that's what makes sense in the fiction. Maybe I prepared a little tidbit before hand as a hook or gentle index, or maybe it's something that emerges out of play, either way, I only need to know [I]that[/I] tidbit, not all possible tidbits. [/QUOTE]

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