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sarid
2013-11-30, 10:04 PM
Hey, so in a game that I'm starting soon, one of the pcs is from the area that the other pcs are exploring. Normally I'd prefer to have all pcs start with the same amount of knowledge, but the player came to me and talked out the build he wants, and I agreed because it sounds like a cool,fresh kind of character.
So my question is this- how do you organise one character having more knowledge than e others so it doesn't end up going
PC: do I know what x is?
Gm: yes, it's xyzabc.
PC: I tell everyone else.
Because that can be rather immersion breaking. I was thinking of maybe giving him a sheet with some information, and he can look at it to find out if he knows about whatever it is they've encountered? Suggestions would be mighty helpful though.

ngilop
2013-11-30, 11:00 PM
Ive been in this sitation before

We had a DM who at the very start said " ok do you want be to a native or a shipwreck survivor" myself and another went with native.. everybody else ( the other 5) went with survivor.

Basically we got knowldge : local as a semi free skill and whenever something came up we could use a 'native knowledge/Folk Lore roll' i never knew what the DCs were, but we only added half our levels + Int to the roll and depending on what it was she told us what our characters knew.

I ma not seeing how thats immerion breaking in the least.. you go anywhere and the natives are extremly more knowledgeable than outsiders as to what is going on. even if said locals are not known for their intelligence.

It actually helped the campaing I think. the survivors start out at lvl 4, while us natives were only lvl 2 but knew things like " don't eat that blue.. never mind.. well stay near the hole.. you gonna be there for a day ot 2" Us knowing the basics of our native homeland was a boon and eventually we caught up in levels

I think if i as just myself or my friend who was the sole native it might have been unfun.. but with at least one other we manage to make id way 80-ish% of the rolls and more than once we save the outsiders.. using previously mentioned blue fruit earlier for example.

Chaucer85
2013-12-01, 01:22 AM
The thing I've seen my current DM doing is asking for the roll, then depending on the result will say, "you know that this location was once the vaulted home of a local lord, but has in recent generations been abandoned by the family and occupied by a group of bandits..." etc.

Basically, he takes over the unveiling of info but uses the character's ability to unlock this recitation as a character skill. So there's some immersion there if you're trying to keep plot and mechanics more smoothly integrated, but unless your player might withhold info you reveal to him from the rest of the party, I'm not seeing a reason to do it otherwise. It's much like having a character that can translate for everyone else allow the DM to speak freely to the whole table.

Anxe
2013-12-01, 01:56 AM
One of the things I saw that handled this best was handing that player a note of what they know when they ask. Then they can roleplay telling the party. I've used it in my own campaign since seeing it on these boards. Have fun with it!

JeenLeen
2013-12-02, 09:25 AM
Because that can be rather immersion breaking. I was thinking of maybe giving him a sheet with some information, and he can look at it to find out if he knows about whatever it is they've encountered?

I would find this the best. However, it depends on your group. In my group, if all the players were given such a handout, one player would either not read it or just skim it, one would read it in thorough detail asking many clarifying questions to the DM, and the others would read it.

If you have someone who will just not use the sheet, it's a waste of time and does not reflect the IC knowledge. This is the player's fault, but it also hurts the fun of the game. (I got annoyed at that player in a WoD game where he was our Lore: Fera guy and he hadn't read the part in the handout about the War of Rage and the fact that shifters frenzy, which led to some difficulties when we were working with both wererats and werewolves.)

If you have the second guy (i.e., me), you might get really annoyed and have extra work you don't want to deal with.

So, I recommend the handout if it will work and not be too burdensome for you.

Mastikator
2013-12-02, 09:55 AM
I don't get how it's immersion breaking, just tell the player that if he wants to share knowledge he has to do it in character with the character's words.

Make sure that only the player with the in game knowledge gets the information, either by whispering or sending notes or telling the others to hold over their ears or what have you.

It will make the world more tangible to have a non-gm character that is a part of the campaign. He'll be like a guide, sort of.

I've been in this situation several times before and it always works out excellent, it's usually better for the PCs to have some background connection to the game at hand, it makes it more personal and more real. It gives them a stake in it, they aren't just tourists, it's their fight.

valadil
2013-12-02, 01:20 PM
I'm a big fan of the cheat sheet. Having the player disseminate information makes they feel like they own that information instead of feeling like they're parroting the GM's information.

Keep it to just one page though, or else the players will skim it and miss things. If you have several characters with similar backgrounds, give them different sheets so you can still give the party more than one sheet's worth of info. If you're a jerk, give them cheat sheets with conflicting information.

Slipperychicken
2013-12-02, 06:07 PM
The native should get for free information which is truly widespread and obvious. This should be in as much depth as you gave to the nonnatives about their homelands.

Also, rather than give him a bonus, I would give nonnatives a penalty between -4 and -10 on knowledge checks for things exclusive to the area (as in, there 's no possible way the nonnative could have learned it). If the nonnatives succeed such a knowledge check in spite of the penalty, then that means they successfully guessed it based off their intuition and prior learning.

Brookshw
2013-12-02, 06:12 PM
Try using notes rather than direct conversation at the table at let your player know that while what and how they share is up to them it should be in their own words, not read directly from the note.

Makeitstop
2013-12-02, 08:05 PM
This has been a major aspect of my current campaign. I started with a basic background document covering what any player from a specific area/faction would know. I also let them write themselves into specifics, such as relationships with specific known npcs and the the like, so it helped generate backstory as well.

Once the game was in motion, I mostly treated them as equals when it came to knowledge skills. However for things which would be common knowledge for some I would give them notes without a check, and for things which were absolutely unknowable given a character's background I would simply not allow them to succeed no matter the roll.

Having your own information isn't necessarily a problem. It can be a lot of fun, depending on what's going on.