What should go in a "common knowledge" section of a setting guide?

[PhoenixPhyre]

I'm looking to more formally write up parts of my setting. Mostly for me (so I can systematically know what the characters would automatically know just from having grown up there), but also for the players should they choose. This isn't my session 0 material, so it can be much more in-depth.

At this point I'm looking at regions and want to include a section about things an adventurer from that region would just plain know. What would you want to see in a player's guide to a setting? Are there setting books (preferably low-cost/free) that do a good job with this that I can steal ideas from? Things that are necessary? Things that are superfluous?

The setting is a non-standard-cosmology D&D setting. Most of the standard elements are there, but not in the same "medieval stasis" pattern. It's more "post-apocalyptic expansion into the shattered frontier" (set 200 years after a cataclysm that killed ~70-80% of everybody, turned off organized mortal-accessible magic for 50 years, and reshaped the ground itself. Even the gods are new since then.

[Karl Aegis]

Where you at
Where you want to be
Who in charge

[JoeJ]

Recent history; things that the PCs parents and grandparents would have lived through.

[No brains]

Information on common creatures under challenge 5. It's likely that merchant caravans or other large roving groups of people probably encountered these creatures and can pass on knowledge of how to survive them if not kill them. If you're making a setting where trolls do not have regeneration stopped by fire, people would probably be able to observe that.

Above challenge 5, it's possible a creature could wipe out a large swath of normal people, so surprises are to be expected. If a dragon breathes out an entire bandit patrol in one action, nobody will have any clue it could also cast spells.

[Pelle]

So if it for the players, I would say as little as possible, but everything that is different from your normal expected stereotypical setting of that genre is useful to mentionif it is common knowledge. If dwarves are the standard dwarves, you don't have to describe them. It would be nice with a list of short stories/fun facts (which might or might not be true) for each region, covering encounters with monsters and historical events that inform the geography, population etc. A list of deities is probably good if players can play clerics, but otherwise not

If it is for the DM, then it is good to know how well known every monster is to who lives in each region. There's usually no correlation with CR.

[Cespenar]

If there's a big city that the group will spend a lot of time in, a nice section in the Murder in Baldur's Gate setting book had "A Day in the City" part, where it just explained how the day starts, what kind of people in which districts do what kind of stuff during the day, and stuff like that.

[Darth Ultron]

Rumors are the first thing I put in a guide. Like a third false, third true and a third a bit in the middle. They give a nice ''character'' view of the world that is not so gamey.

I like things written by characters for the same reason. I always include those too. And like rumors the writings might not be 100% true.

I like to include one for each ''type'' of person in the area. It is also a great way to add words and speech and slang. Like the nobles of Zarlin call orcs ''tuskers'' or folk in the underworld call mercenaries ''bloodcoins".

[Florian]

@PP:

I think the way L5R handles it is pretty good.

1) "Life in the Empire". Rough and on the point facts what the general culture is all about, like the caste system, believing in the Mandate of Heaven, all that.
2) "The Clans". Short overview how each clan sees and understands itself, short sentence on how they see the others.
3) "Rokugan". Simple and rough explanation on what you actually see on the map, with a paragraph or two giving the barest necessary hints.

That gives a good mix of facts, fiction and prejudice.

[Pleh]

Recent history; things that the PCs parents and grandparents would have lived through.

Corollary: if you have elves, they can easily live 200 years (so many of the world's elves alive today might have seen the world before the cataclysm).

By 3.5's standards, a 200 year old elf is middle aged, so any adult elves at the time of cataclysm (~100 years old) that survive to present day will be old even by elvish standards.

It would likely be common knowledge that most elves you meet are the direct descendants of cataclysm survivors and speaking to one might be the most accessible way to hear stories about how the landscape has changed.

There could be some dwarven cataclysm survivors still around, but they'll likely be even more rare, being naturally near the end of their life expectancy without also surviving the apocolypse.

If there's a big city that the group will spend a lot of time in, a nice section in the Murder in Baldur's Gate setting book had "A Day in the City" part, where it just explained how the day starts, what kind of people in which districts do what kind of stuff during the day, and stuff like that.

Yeah, generally I'd suggest putting down the common day to day concerns, like how does eating work, where do we sleep, what are the major settlements (if any; though this seems strange that none would form at all in 200 years) and common travel info (I've never been to NYC, but I would know to be careful on the streets as an outsider), what are the essential commodities (do they use currency or just a barter system), how accessible are necessary commodities (will survival checks to find food and water be commonly required), etc.

All this because stages of post apocolypse can vary. It's good to let the players know where the reforming civilization stands by putting them in the context of day to day life.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Corollary: if you have elves, they can easily live 200 years (so many of the world's elves alive today might have seen the world before the cataclysm).

By 3.5's standards, a 200 year old elf is middle aged, so any adult elves at the time of cataclysm (~100 years old) that survive to present day will be old even by elvish standards.

It would likely be common knowledge that most elves you meet are the direct descendants of cataclysm survivors and speaking to one might be the most accessible way to hear stories about how the landscape has changed.

There could be some dwarven cataclysm survivors still around, but they'll likely be even more rare, being naturally near the end of their life expectancy without also surviving the apocolypse.

One (significantly changed) issue--the elves and dwarves don't live as long as "stock" D&D elves & dwarves do.

High elves were nearly ageless (~1k years) before the cataclysm, now are ~180 years. They hate this change.

Wood elves are ~120 years. Note I've separated (in-universe) these two races. WHile they can interbreed, they don't. THey have different languages and different cultures, and have centuries of bad blood.

Dwarves are ~150 years, and always have been. The local dwarves have the best records though--they consider writing to be sacred and tradition to be a major part of their lives.

And yes, I set these ages and the timeline so that none of the pre-cataclysm people are still around, except through flukes (weird time behavior is rare but not unheard of).

Yeah, generally I'd suggest putting down the common day to day concerns, like how does eating work, where do we sleep, what are the major settlements (if any; though this seems strange that none would form at all in 200 years) and common travel info (I've never been to NYC, but I would know to be careful on the streets as an outsider), what are the essential commodities (do they use currency or just a barter system), how accessible are necessary commodities (will survival checks to find food and water be commonly required), etc.

All this because stages of post apocolypse can vary. It's good to let the players know where the reforming civilization stands by putting them in the context of day to day life.

The bounce-back was pretty fast (once the magic came back online, about 150 years ago). Each of the 4 major nations (plus one oddball civilization) has developed reasonably well (so no gritty survival issues), but they're only just recently coming in contact with each other. Most thought they were alone. Lots of unclaimed/wild land between and among the developed settlements.

Basically, I have the following regions. They each have better names, but :shrug:.

* Council Lands (biggest nation, each region is relatively distinct in culture)
** North
** Center/South
** East
** West (only a small bit to write here, mostly similar to the center)
* Stone Throne (small variations between the northern/central/southern regions)
* Remnant Dynasty
** North
** Center/mountains
** South
* Byss (no significant regional differences, this one's small)
* Goblin collective

[Pelle]

Yeah, generally I'd suggest putting down the common day to day concerns, like how does eating work, where do we sleep, what are the major settlements (if any; though this seems strange that none would form at all in 200 years) and common travel info (I've never been to NYC, but I would know to be careful on the streets as an outsider), what are the essential commodities (do they use currency or just a barter system), how accessible are necessary commodities (will survival checks to find food and water be commonly required), etc.

And what should you give a tip for, and how much should you tip? (Going to the US is confusing...)

[Pleh]

One (significantly changed) issue--the elves and dwarves don't live as long as "stock" D&D elves & dwarves do.

High elves were nearly ageless (~1k years) before the cataclysm, now are ~180 years. They hate this change.

Wood elves are ~120 years. Note I've separated (in-universe) these two races. WHile they can interbreed, they don't. THey have different languages and different cultures, and have centuries of bad blood.

Dwarves are ~150 years, and always have been. The local dwarves have the best records though--they consider writing to be sacred and tradition to be a major part of their lives.

And yes, I set these ages and the timeline so that none of the pre-cataclysm people are still around, except through flukes (weird time behavior is rare but not unheard of).

Well, that still leaves most elves and dwarves having been raised on the knees of the direct survivors, compared to humans today who have to look back several generations to find relatives who were adults in the year 1818. We're probably talking about grandparents of grandparents at that level. We have to put pieces of stuff together from several indirect sources, while the elves and dwarves that are adults today are likely the children or grandchildren of the cataclysm survivors.

I don't know about you, but my knowledge of my ancestors doesn't reach very far past my grandparents. I have a few stories of what life was like for my grandparents as children, but very little context for what their relatives were like past what you can read in history books.

Basically, the cultures of most races was probably just about eradicated, but elves and dwarves probably have the most consistent culture, because their grandparents or their parents probably told them stories about the world that was before in their days as a elvish/dwarvish child.

The bounce-back was pretty fast (once the magic came back online, about 150 years ago). Each of the 4 major nations (plus one oddball civilization) has developed reasonably well (so no gritty survival issues), but they're only just recently coming in contact with each other. Most thought they were alone. Lots of unclaimed/wild land between and among the developed settlements.

Basically, I have the following regions. They each have better names, but :shrug:.

* Council Lands (biggest nation, each region is relatively distinct in culture)
** North
** Center/South
** East
** West (only a small bit to write here, mostly similar to the center)
* Stone Throne (small variations between the northern/central/southern regions)
* Remnant Dynasty
** North
** Center/mountains
** South
* Byss (no significant regional differences, this one's small)
* Goblin collective

Next thing is how much is generally known about these places from outside? The Goblin Collective sounds like a rough place, but is it a "rough neighborhood" or a "third world country" or "don't go there if you like keeping your entrails from becoming extrails"? Or does it defy expectation and turn out to be unexpectedly nice? Has anyone in "human space" actually tried to go there and come back?

As DU noted, there's no need for "common knowledge" to be 100% accurate or reliable either.

[Keltest]

Local politics. Who rules what land, how strong a ruler is he considered, and is he more likely to give you a medal or arrest you if you clear a group of bandits out of one of his keeps?

Guilds and their influence. Is there an adventurer's guild that requires registration? Is the local Blacksmith's guild going to come after you if you sell looted swords without a license? Does the Innkeeper's guild have a standing "no adventurers" policy? Are there other mercenary groups to join/compete with?

Regional hazards. Is the forest full of inexplicable quicksand? Are there giant trapdoor spiders? Do orcs and other random encounters occupy every fortress outside of the city walls?

Racial tensions. Who hates who, and how strongly? You say wood elves and high elves have bad blood. Do they live together in this human city? Do they fight often? Are the dwarves and humans equally sick of it and try and trample on both groups? Is there anyone who doesn't hate the gnomes?

[Max_Killjoy]

Generally, tell me what it's like to live in each place.

What is the landscape like?

Climate. What is the weather like? The seasons?

What do people do "for a living"?

What do people eat, and when? Where does it come from? How much of their effort or income goes into getting it?

What sort of housing do they use? What are the buildings like?

Big cities, little towns, tiny villages?

How do they get around?

What are families like? How do people meet and connect and have kids and raise kids and so on?

What's the education like?

How concentrated or distributed is wealth? How socially mobile are they? How hierarchical are they? Are there castes?

How common are weapons? How common is fighting skill? What laws are there on weapons and armor?

What's the power structure? What's the goverment like? Who makes decisions, and how are they enforced? Money, loyalty, duty, force, terror... what keeps people from just doing whatever they want?

What's it like to travel there? What's it like to be a visitor or foreigner there?

[Florian]

@PhoenixPhyre:

Let´s play little game, shall we? Look at the city and state you life in and describe to me, as an outsider, both in three paragraphs in a way that, to you, captures the essential stuff. Then grab some two randoms guys and gals off the street and do the same with them.

[Faily]

@PP:

I think the way L5R handles it is pretty good.

1) "Life in the Empire". Rough and on the point facts what the general culture is all about, like the caste system, believing in the Mandate of Heaven, all that.
2) "The Clans". Short overview how each clan sees and understands itself, short sentence on how they see the others.
3) "Rokugan". Simple and rough explanation on what you actually see on the map, with a paragraph or two giving the barest necessary hints.

That gives a good mix of facts, fiction and prejudice.

Seconding this. L5R did a great job with the setting-info in their books over the editions.

[Max_Killjoy]

@PP:

I think the way L5R handles it is pretty good.

1) "Life in the Empire". Rough and on the point facts what the general culture is all about, like the caste system, believing in the Mandate of Heaven, all that.
2) "The Clans". Short overview how each clan sees and understands itself, short sentence on how they see the others.
3) "Rokugan". Simple and rough explanation on what you actually see on the map, with a paragraph or two giving the barest necessary hints.

That gives a good mix of facts, fiction and prejudice.

My problem with L5R, at least 4th edition, is that the setting is all flesh and no bones, all feel and no fact -- and the numbers don't add up. Armies so large that there's no way the population or land area can support them, or so small that there's no way for them to hold the territory listed, populations that won't fit into the land areas implied, etc.

(See also, Battletech, with its combination of "there are industrial planets with billions of people, where starvation will set in after a week if they don't get food imported from other planets" and "space travel involves rare and special ships, and a lot of lag time for in and out of system travel, and has a lot of dangers..." Really? So which is it? Stop trying to tell me things that are mutually exclusive.)

[PhoenixPhyre]

My problem with L5R, at least 4th edition, is that the setting is all flesh and no bones, all feel and no fact -- and the numbers don't add up. Armies so large that there's no way the population or land area can support them, or so small that there's no way for them to hold the territory listed, populations that won't fit into the land areas implied, etc.

(See also, Battletech, with its combination of "there are industrial planets with billions of people, where starvation will set in after a week if they don't get food imported from other planets" and "space travel involves rare and special ships, and a lot of lag time for in and out of system travel, and has a lot of dangers..." Really? So which is it? Stop trying to tell me things that are mutually exclusive.)

This I agree with and am trying to avoid. Magic blurs some lines, but not all/most of them.

1) Well, that still leaves most elves and dwarves having been raised on the knees of the direct survivors, compared to humans today who have to look back several generations to find relatives who were adults in the year 1818. We're probably talking about grandparents of grandparents at that level. We have to put pieces of stuff together from several indirect sources, while the elves and dwarves that are adults today are likely the children or grandchildren of the cataclysm survivors.

2) I don't know about you, but my knowledge of my ancestors doesn't reach very far past my grandparents. I have a few stories of what life was like for my grandparents as children, but very little context for what their relatives were like past what you can read in history books.

3) Basically, the cultures of most races was probably just about eradicated, but elves and dwarves probably have the most consistent culture, because their grandparents or their parents probably told them stories about the world that was before in their days as a elvish/dwarvish child.

4) Next thing is how much is generally known about these places from outside? The Goblin Collective sounds like a rough place, but is it a "rough neighborhood" or a "third world country" or "don't go there if you like keeping your entrails from becoming extrails"? Or does it defy expectation and turn out to be unexpectedly nice? Has anyone in "human space" actually tried to go there and come back?

As DU noted, there's no need for "common knowledge" to be 100% accurate or reliable either.

1) Right. The elves (high elves mostly, the wood elves never really kept more than oral histories and those were more (intentionally) metaphorical) kept a lot of knowledge. They were mostly survivors from a wide area (gathered before the cataclysm), so they've had to nail down some status things. But theirs is pretty similar to what came before. The dwarves have very accurate records for what survived, but lots didn't. And the things they wrote down weren't always cultural--basically they only wrote down facts. So they have lots of facts with less in the way of context. But their culture stayed pretty constant.

2) This is especially true for the humans and halflings of one nation--they're an amalgam of a bunch of other nations before the cataclysm. Two nations (Byssia and the Stone Throne) have good records, but the Stone Throne's records are lies mixed with distorted facts. They're having issues right now. Byssia has a mix of two cultures, really, but with decent oral history.

3) True enough. That's why I'm mostly starting the non-elves/dwarves as fresh societies. What came before is for scholars; most people don't really care. The harsh years forged a new society whose traditions are considered absolute (more so in some places than in others). But now that prosperity is here and the threats are receding, that's changing.

4) Oddly enough, the goblin collective is probably the one most studied by outsiders. They're the hosts of the only international organization so far (the Adventurer's Guild, which was founded by a bunch of adventurers about 5 years ago who used serious arm-twisting to bring the nations to a common table). This guild has lots of people from all over, so PCs might be coming from any of the 4 nations. A PC from the Council would know only rumors about Byssia, a little more about the Dynasty (that's where all the Council's dragonborn went 5 years ago to rejoin the rest of their race), and a bit more about the Throne (they're the closest). Similar patterns for other national origins.

Edit: I seem to have fallen down a rabbit-hole...currently working on clothing styles. That part's less player-directed, more so I can describe things better.

[Jay R]

It needs to include what they know from personal experience, what they believe from stories they've heard (some of which should be legends), what the limits of their knowledge are, and why those limits exist.

Here's mine, but the game background (isolated village deep in a haunted forest) was specifically chosen to cut them off from knowledge of much of the world, so they would be exploring the unknown as soon as they left the village.

Spoiler: Introduction to D&D campaign

Show

I am planning to run a D&D campaign fairly soon.

The current plan is to use the 2E rules, but I could be talked out of that. I originally wrote some of it with a Fantasy Hero rules in mind. I’m prepared to switch to original D&D, AD&D 1E, AD&D 2E, or Fantasy Hero if that’s what the players want. (I don’t know any later version well enough to run a game.)

Note: I have a basic idea for PCs, but I urge people to ask for exceptions. Some exceptions I won’t grant because they don’t fit the world, others because they would make a character too powerful. But I am quite comfortable with the idea that every character is an exception to the basic idea.

You will begin as first level characters with very little knowledge of the outside world. Your character is just barely adult – 14 years old. You all know each other well, having grown up in the same tiny village. Everyone in this village grows their own food, and it’s rare to see anybody from outside the village, or anything not made in the village. There is a smith, a village priest, but very few other specialists.

You are friends, even if you choose to have very different outlooks, because almost everybody else in the village, and absolutely everyone else anywhere near your age, are dull villagers, with little imagination.

By contrast, you and your friends sometimes stare down the road, or into the forest, wondering what the world is like.

The world is basically early medieval. You all speak a single language for which you (reasonably) have no name. If you learn another language, you’ll know more about what that means.

It’s a really small village. There are fewer than 100 people living there, which is smaller than it used to be. There are chickens, goats, sheep, a couple of oxen, but no horses or cows.

The village has a single road going out of town to the north and south, and you’ve never been on it. The only travel on it occurs when a few wagons go off to take food to market – and even that hasn’t happened in the last few seasons. Very rarely, a traveler may come through, and spend the night with the priest. You have all greedily listened to any stories these travelers tell. Your parents say this isn’t good for you – what’s here in the village is good enough for you, and all travelers are always liars, anyway.

A stream runs through the village. (This is primarily so you can learn fishing if you desire.) There are also a few wells.

The village is surrounded by a haunted forest nearby. You have occasionally gone a few hundred feet into it on a dare, but no further, and never at night. I will modify this (slightly) for any character who wishes to start as a Druid or Ranger. Nobody gets to know the modification unless they choose one of those classes.

Three times in your lifetime the village has been raided at night from the forest. You were children, and were kept safe in a cellar. Some villagers have died, but by the time you were let out, whatever the attackers were had fled or been buried.

There is very little overlap between the D&D adventurer class “Cleric” and the average priest. Most priests will have about as much magical ability as seen in medieval stories, i.e. no more than anyone else. (If you want to play a cleric, let me know. There’s a way we will handle it, but no player except one with a cleric PC will know about it.)

Similarly, not all thieves are in the Thief class, not all bards are in the Bard class, etc. Most fighters are “0th level”. There might be a fair number of 1st level Fighters; anybody else with levels will be uncommon. If you meet a bard on your travels, he will probably be a singer/harpist with no adventurer skills or class.

There is an old witch at the edge of the village. Your parents disapprove of her, call her a fraud, and are afraid of her. Everybody knows that the crop blight three years ago was because she was mad at the village.

The old folks in the village sometimes talk about how much better it was long ago. There was real travel, and real trade. Nobody knows what happened since.

You have heard many mutually conflicting tales of all kinds of marvelous heroes. You may assume that you have heard of any story of any hero you like – Gilgamesh, Odysseus, Sigurd, Taliesin, Charlemagne, Lancelot, Robin Hood, Aragorn, Prester John, Baba Yaga, Prince Ōkuninushi, Br’er Rabbit, anyone. The old stories seem to imply that occasionally there have been several Ages of Heroes. Your parents don’t think these tales are good for you. Takes your mind off farming.

DO NOT assume that you know anything about any fantasy creatures. I will re-write many monsters and races, introduce some not in D&D, and eliminate some. The purpose is to make the world strange and mysterious. It will allow (require) PCs to learn, by trial and error, what works. Most of these changes I will not tell you in advance. Here are a couple, just to give you some idea what I mean.
1. Dragons are not color-coded for the benefits of the PCs.
2. Of elves, dwarves, gnomes, halflings, kobolds, goblins, and orcs, at least one does not exist, at least one is slightly different from the books, and at least one is wildly different.
3. Several monsters have different alignments from the books.
4. The name of an Undead will not tell you what will or won’t hurt it.
5. The first time you see a member of a humanoid race, I will describe it as a “vaguely man-shaped creature.” This could be a kobold, an elf, or an Umber Hulk until you learn what they are.

I will answer any reasonable questions about the village and its denizens. You do not know anything that cannot be learned in a backward, isolated village. (And yes, that’s why you’ve grown up semi-isolated.)

You will create your characters by allocating 80 points, with the following conditions.
1. Each stat must be between 3 and 18.
2. Any points over 16 will cost double. (So a 17 costs 18 points, and an 18 costs 20 points.)
3. You may only have one 18, and only two 17+.
4. I strongly urge you not to have a “dump stat”. An extremely low stat will affect what you can do.

I do not object to henchmen. Since they must be a lower level than the characters, it won’t come up immediately, but if the party eventually has henchmen, there will be reasonable opportunities for them to help. Finding a henchman who isn’t a bland fighter will be pretty rare. Finding a spellcaster will be extremely unlikely.

Your character is way behind the average starting D&D character in knowledge of the world. I am making up for that by giving each PC one 3E Feat (see below), and one unusual starting item you would normally not have at the start of a game. This item must be justified by the character, and must be acceptable to me. For instance, a Wizard could start the game with a familiar. A Bard could have a well-made harp. Somebody with Animal Training could have a trained dog already (but not a horse or bird of prey.) A fighter might have a boomerang as one weapon. Come up with something fun, useful, and unusual, but not outrageous. It won’t be a magic item, but it could be something rare. [It is not armor. Your village can produce leather, studded leather, brigandine, or scale armor, but not chain or plate.]

It is perfectly reasonable that they have information that they believe, but that is not so. I told the cleric character that Detect Evil can detect evil in objects, but not people. The truth was that there were no Evil people in that tiny village. As soon as she casts it with an Evil person around, she will learn tmore about the spell.

[Cluedrew]

(See also, Battletech, with its combination of "there are industrial planets with billions of people, where starvation will set in after a week if they don't get food imported from other planets" and "space travel involves rare and special ships, and a lot of lag time for in and out of system travel, and has a lot of dangers..." Really? So which is it? Stop trying to tell me things that are mutually exclusive.)

I don't think those are actually mutually exclusive. It does create a rather... unpleasant situation were an entire planet is depending on pre-planned shipments of food from a small group of ships that may disappear due to the dangers of space travel. Which fits a lot of futuristic fallen empire stories actually.

Including a book I read that I think was Battletech. I say think because I recall it was based off a game system and is pretty close except that space travel wasn't dangerous (at least not more than the realistic problems of space flight) and the ships were not rare. They were special though, they lost the technology to make new ones, but there were a number left over.

On Common Knowledge: You should have enough information to describe a half dozen different types of normal people's daily life*, what sorts of stories people tell their grand kids, one realistic thing people worry about... I had a whole list but I have forgotten some of them. I think one "boogey-man" or irrational thing people worry about. Where does food come from... That's all I got for now.

* Say a farmer, a carpenter, a soldier, a merchant and, if you are in a "pre-woman's rights" setting**, their wives.
** If you are not just as well.

[Nifft]

IMHO any intro common knowledge document should answer some player meta-questions, to avoid miscommunication.

- Is combat more like total war, or more like sport? Are some enemies treated as "honorable opponents" and allowed to surrender? How are captured opponents treated by various factions?

- What races exist? Are there any designated-evil races? What's the deal with designated-evil babies?

- Is there a justice system in the region where we start play? What kinds of things are investigated, and how rigorously and/or vigorously? Is "justice" more about rehabilitation, or more about punishment, or more about entertainment? --- or if the setting is horrific, more about obtaining labor?

- What sorts of behavior and/or visible attribute might get you kicked out of town? What are the local taboos? How does magic fit into this?

Stuff like that.

[Selene Sparks]

One very important thing I've never actually seen done is how much things cost. The second people try to do anything above small-unit kick in the door type play, it is vital to know the value of food or other necessities in different locations, and beyond that, people who budget have to know how much they can spend.

This also benefits a solid number of things outside establishing common knowledge as well, but that's a different topic.

[Jama7301]

Maybe a small primer on popular religions in the area? Something that if someone spent some time in a few villages, they could start to point out basic iconography and core tenants of a religion that they picked up through conversation and spectating.

[Max_Killjoy]

I don't think those are actually mutually exclusive. It does create a rather... unpleasant situation were an entire planet is depending on pre-planned shipments of food from a small group of ships that may disappear due to the dangers of space travel. Which fits a lot of futuristic fallen empire stories actually.

Including a book I read that I think was Battletech. I say think because I recall it was based off a game system and is pretty close except that space travel wasn't dangerous (at least not more than the realistic problems of space flight) and the ships were not rare. They were special though, they lost the technology to make new ones, but there were a number left over.

At the gap in scale I've seen, it doesn't work -- the implied amount of interstellar shipping vs the actual demands of the worlds in question simply doesn't align, and people start starving.

But, try another one -- the size of military units vs the amount of territory they're holding or fighting over. "This battle between two opposing Mech companies is for the entire planet." What?

[Max_Killjoy]

One very important thing I've never actually seen done is how much things cost. The second people try to do anything above small-unit kick in the door type play, it is vital to know the value of food or other necessities in different locations, and beyond that, people who budget have to know how much they can spend.

This also benefits a solid number of things outside establishing common knowledge as well, but that's a different topic.

VERY good point.

Add in common incomes / wages.

And how much business is conducted in coin vs barter vs credit and such.

[Cluedrew]

To Max_Killjoy: OK. I mean in principle you could have an rather precarious supply chain in that situation - and probably get a cool story out of it - but I don't know the numbers.

[The Glyphstone]

At the gap in scale I've seen, it doesn't work -- the implied amount of interstellar shipping vs the actual demands of the worlds in question simply doesn't align, and people start starving.

But, try another one -- the size of military units vs the amount of territory they're holding or fighting over. "This battle between two opposing Mech companies is for the entire planet." What?

Isnt that literally how the clans do things? To them, all war is a sport, run by rigid rules of 'fairness' for clearly defined stakes.

[FreddyNoNose]

Rumors are the first thing I put in a guide. Like a third false, third true and a third a bit in the middle. They give a nice ''character'' view of the world that is not so gamey.

I like things written by characters for the same reason. I always include those too. And like rumors the writings might not be 100% true.

I like to include one for each ''type'' of person in the area. It is also a great way to add words and speech and slang. Like the nobles of Zarlin call orcs ''tuskers'' or folk in the underworld call mercenaries ''bloodcoins".

False and conflicting information for certain.

The big deal, is not so much information that is takes away from the players learning about the world.

[Max_Killjoy]

Isnt that literally how the clans do things? To them, all war is a sport, run by rigid rules of 'fairness' for clearly defined stakes.

Sometimes.

But my comment was about the total lack of scale so often displayed regarding the IS military forces, in terms of size vs mission.

[PhoenixPhyre]

False and conflicting information for certain.

I'm on the fence about this.

The in-universe justification for this document is that the characters all go through Adventuring School (a short course designed to familiarize them with the areas and with adventuring). This document is a "of course you know your own region, but here are the other regions you might find yourself in. Learn this stuff so you don't make a hash of things unintentionally."

The teachers wouldn't put in knowingly false information. They'd put in unverified information if they didn't have anything better, but it would be flagged as such. But that only applies to things they know about. I don't have a problem with including rumors or legends or some scholar's theory about what happened then. Conflicting information would be flagged as "some people say that X, while others believe Y."

Does that make sense?