Would this bother you?

[Rhun]

Definitely not an issue for me. I've done it many times.

 

[Rechan]

2) She's concerned on the DM's behalf. That you will use you knowledge to disrupt the DM and her plots by pointing out how she is running the game is inconsistent with the world.

This would be the only situation that I would have a problem in a game where one person has knowledge of the setting and I don't.

In general, my response to not knowing info about the setting is "Tell me more". A PC who's familiar with the setting is a second source of information, besides the DM.

 

[Elf Witch]

No, it would not be an issue, as the only reason for objection would be due to metagaming concerns, which is a separate topic that should be dealt with as such. In fact, I would be more interested in going over that, as that would really be the problem that the other players may be having. Are they concerned that you will use your superior knowledge of the setting to construct characters who can better navigate the politics, terrain, and personas contained in Kalamar?

I would begin by alleviating any such concerns, if they do exist, and than work on assisting them in learning the setting. Also, personally, I really don't see the problem here, it just strikes me as being far too petty over a problem that, even if it does exist, can easily be circumvented by gaining knowledge of the setting.

I am not sure. I am very confused about all of this. I have asked her to explain what she is worried about.

One thing she is worried about is that the game will revole around me because of my knowledge.

I have tried to explain to her that Kalamar has a static time line that all the changes my previous group made before, all the contacts we made will have nothing to do with this game.I pointed out that where we are starting the game is in a land that I have never played in.

She owns the campaign setting she has the freedom to read up on the world.

We were going to play gestalt characters she was going to play a ninja/rogue my roommate was going to work with her to help her make a backstory of where she came from and what she would know.

The other player was going to play a Shaman/Barb he was going to be the muscle and since we starting in his area he would know more than either of us my roomate was going to work with him on that.

I was playing a sorcerer/basarian dancer. Yes I designed my character to be good at diplomacy and gathering info through charisma. Basarian dancers are welcomed every where. We had decided that my character had studied history and cultures and this is why I would know things like what the money is called in Kalamar that Tokkis and Pekal are at war things from the setting book. I even put ranks into the knowledge skills to make this part of my character background.

I made my character choice after they made there's.

As a player I like the play between characters I love it when they become a team. I have no trouble sharing the spotlight.

I pointed out to her that her character is the lone wolf type she will be getting a lot of solo time because of being the rogue/ninja.

I will admit to be a little hurt over all this. We are friend outside of the game.

I know she was upset that after we had made our choices of what to play my character was finished before theirs but that was because the DM is my roommate we worked on it in the evenings.

She was going to spend an entire Saturday with them working on their characters.

I am mystified about this and have no idea where it is coming from.

 

[Voadam]

My question is would it be an issue for you to play in a setting where one player knew the setting and the others did not?

I've done it multiple times. I'm currently playing in an Eberron game for the first time. I don't own any of the books and rely upon the wiki entry and asking the DM questions. (I do own a few dragons with preview articles though). I used to play in a World of Warcraft RPG game even though I only played the first computer game once and only own the Manual of Monsters book.

I like exploring new campaign settings. If it is an established one I let the DM know I am not familiar with them and if the DM is fine with that then I run with it, usually playing characters who would be ignorant of a lot (a troll barbarian is not expected to know much about Kalamdor or whatever the world is called and my current dimension hopping character entered into Eberron at the beginning of the game) and can explore the world with a fresh set of eyes that match mine.

In many cases others knew the setting much more intimately than I did and it was not a problem for me.

 

[Elf Witch]

Honestly it would depend on how good of a roleplayer the knowledgeable one was.

One of my serious pet peeves (which usually came out in FR games, but could be others) is people who take no knowledge skills at all, AT ALL, and then know everything about the most obscure monster, cult, or village the whole world over. Yes, I know that player loves the realms,and has read everything, but your character has an Int of 10 and not a knowledge skills to his name.

That would be the only thing that would botehr me.

Since that is me I will say this I try very hard to leave player knowledge out of the game. I have been playing for a long time and I know most monsters but when my character does not know them and would have no knowledge of them I try not to let my player's knowlege influence what my character does.

I am not perfect no one is but I do try.

And I agree about making sure that the character int and skills support the knowledge.

 

[GeorgeFields]

I'm not sure why one player having more knowledge about a setting would bother anyone. The same could be applied to a rule system.

Instead of complaining, I'd think they'd rather learn more about it through game play or reading material for themselves, especially a setting as good as Kalamar.

 

[Rykion]

2) She's concerned on the DM's behalf. That you will use you knowledge to disrupt the DM and her plots by pointing out how she is running the game is inconsistent with the world.

This is the reason I thought of too. It still doesn't make a lot of sense for a player to be the one objecting though, and the DM knows how well Elf Witch knows the setting.

In the past, I've had trouble as a DM in dealing with players that read all the game setting's novels, and couldn't accept that my version of the world wasn't exactly like those novels.

 

[roguerouge]

As a compromise, you could have the DM run an adventure path, like Rise of the Rune Lords. The DM has to learn the setting, but doesn't have to design the adventures, which may help.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

This sounds like a healthy dose of the Insecurity Flu mixed with Jealousy. There's something else going on here that's deeper than an RPG or a specific setting....

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I've been on all 3 sides of this triangle- the DM, the Insider, and the Outsider.

Never once did it affect my enjoyment of the game. AFAIK, it didn't affect anyone else's either.

Heck, sometimes knowing the ins & outs of a campaign setting can be a hinderance- you're less likely to "think outside the box" when you're trying to fit into one. I've even been asked/forced to play a particular pregen or PC from the setting, like when I played Morley Dotes from Glen Cook's "Garrett Files" books when asked to by the GM. That way, I was able to feed info to the other players in a meaningful way.