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<blockquote data-quote="Storm Raven" data-source="post: 4293960" data-attributes="member: 307">Yes, they do sound interesting - but the players will likely never know about a lot of them. &quot;The orcs have recently elected a new chief&quot; sounds cool, but it is usually what I would call false detail, because the characters will never know about it. They are going to track down the orcs and kill them all in a big battle. Orcs they encounter will probably just end up on the end of a sword, and if they capture any, they probably aren't going to ask questions that will lead to them finding out. In the end, they almost certainly aren't going to worry about orcish tribal politics on the way.The problem with a lot of this type of information is that it is either (a) inaccessible to the players as a practical matter, (b) not relevant to the players, or (c) not fleshed out enough to be useful. Some of these types of background details are all three.Unless information is accessible to the players it is always useless to include it. Unless information is relevant to the players, it is usually useless to include it. Unless information is useful to the players, it is often useless to include it. The problem with a lot of these tidbits of information is that they look good on paper when writing up the adventure scenario, but in actual play, they simply aren't useful in any meaningful way.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Storm Raven, post: 4293960, member: 307"] Yes, they do sound interesting - but the players will likely never know about a lot of them. "The orcs have recently elected a new chief" sounds cool, but it is usually what I would call false detail, because the characters will [i]never know about it[/i]. They are going to track down the orcs and kill them all in a big battle. Orcs they encounter will probably just end up on the end of a sword, and if they capture any, they probably aren't going to ask questions that will lead to them finding out. In the end, they almost certainly aren't going to worry about orcish tribal politics on the way. The problem with a lot of this type of information is that it is either (a) inaccessible to the players as a practical matter, (b) not relevant to the players, or (c) not fleshed out enough to be useful. Some of these types of background details are all three. Unless information is accessible to the players it is always useless to include it. Unless information is relevant to the players, it is usually useless to include it. Unless information is useful to the players, it is often useless to include it. The problem with a lot of these tidbits of information is that they look good [i]on paper[/i] when writing up the adventure scenario, but in actual play, they simply aren't useful in any meaningful way. [/QUOTE]

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