What bits of gaming lore would you expect everyone to know?

[Eldan]

Oh yeah... googling them, they have pretty pointed faces, so was there some kerfluffle with the old beaky helmets?

[RandomPeasant]

Not for people who don't game. At least around here, dwarves are about knee-high, with long white beards, they turn invisible, live under tree roots and they curse people. They are mostly famous for magic, in fact. And stealing children.

In fairness, that is in D&D. They're just called Gnomes. Which, really, are not nearly as meaningfully distinct from Dwarves as D&D would like you to believe.

[Pauly]

Oh yeah... googling them, they have pretty pointed faces, so was there some kerfluffle with the old beaky helmets?

People started painting Space Marine armies as wombles, and iirc someone did really well in a Grand Tourney but there were no photos of his army in White Dwarf.

GW will go a long way to protect the grim dark future of 40k ethos. Eliminating space dwarves (squats) from their history because they weren’t grimdark. As soon as psycho-womble became a known thing GW redesigned the power army to eliminate the nose.

[Eldan]

In fairness, that is in D&D. They're just called Gnomes. Which, really, are not nearly as meaningfully distinct from Dwarves as D&D would like you to believe.

Sure, but at least half of the people I play with got their start on German or Scandinavian RPGs, not D&D. Now, the Dark Eye mostly follows D&D-ish tropes at least in Broad strokes for the races, but others don't. I'm just saying, I have played with people who have years of RPG experience and might still have entirely different assumptions if they hear some typical Fantasy words.

[Eldan]

People started painting Space Marine armies as wombles, and iirc someone did really well in a Grand Tourney but there were no photos of his army in White Dwarf.

GW will go a long way to protect the grim dark future of 40k ethos. Eliminating space dwarves (squats) from their history because they weren’t grimdark. As soon as psycho-womble became a known thing GW redesigned the power army to eliminate the nose.

Eh, the Setting has been getting increasingly bright and heroic for at least ten years now. Plus, maybe they didn't want to be associated with wombles, but 90s Warhammer also gave us Obiwan Sherlock Clouseau, so I'm not so sure about serious.

[KorvinStarmast]

but 90s Warhammer also gave us Obiwan Sherlock Clouseau, so I'm not so sure about serious.

For that alone it is worth preserving.

[LordCdrMilitant]

Eh, the Setting has been getting increasingly bright and heroic for at least ten years now. Plus, maybe they didn't want to be associated with wombles, but 90s Warhammer also gave us Obiwan Sherlock Clouseau, so I'm not so sure about serious.

Warhammer 40k is a fundamentally parodical and humorous piece [and it still is]. This is something that I expect people who play 40k to be aware of, because it's very important.

The basics of the setting is that's depiction of fascism's/general totalitarianism's failures to a humorously over-the-top extreme. {Scrubbed}
If it ever stops being fundamentally humorous, it just starts being a glorification of fascism.

I have already met people who have missed the fundamental point that life absolutely sucks in the Imperium and it sucks because of the Imperium and have legitimately told me that they they out-of-character agree with the Imperium's dogma and policies towards aliens. This concerns me.

[Max_Killjoy]

Warhammer 40k is a fundamentally parodical and humorous piece [and it still is]. This is something that I expect people who play 40k to be aware of, because it's very important.

The basics of the setting is that's depiction of fascism's/general totalitarianism's failures to a humorously over-the-top extreme. {Scrub the post, scrub the quote}
If it ever stops being fundamentally humorous, it just starts being a glorification of fascism.

I have already met people who have missed the fundamental point that life absolutely sucks in the Imperium and it sucks because of the Imperium and have legitimately told me that they they out-of-character agree with the Imperium's dogma and policies towards aliens. This concerns me.

Yeah, I've met them too.

I've also met the players who know it's a parody, but refuse to discuss it as such and treat it as dead serious in conversations because they think it's funny to wind people up.

[Easy e]

I barely expect them to know what a d12 is.......

[Quertus]

I barely expect them to know what a d12 is.......

Had a player just the other day who wanted to roll a d12 instead of a d20 because the d12 was prettier.

Yeah, I've met them too.

I've also met the players who know it's a parody, but refuse to discuss it as such and treat it as dead serious in conversations because they think it's funny to wind people up.

Can I be / start a third group, that doesn't care if it's a parody, and still demands it be treated as serious, and demands that it stands up to the level of logic of the evil overlord mandated 5-year-old advisor?

[OldTrees1]

Can I be / start a third group, that doesn't care if it's a parody, and still demands it be treated as serious, and demands that it stands up to the level of logic of the evil overlord mandated 5-year-old advisor?

I am not sure. I don't think the Imperium follows the 5-year-old advisor policy.

Of course I know rather little about it. I get my info second hand and I am mostly interested in the fungi that go to Waaagh!

[NorthernPhoenix]

Being much larger and more expansive mediums, i expect "everyone" in TTRPGs to get their pre-TTRPG assumptions from movies, books and video-games of the appropriate genre (in my case, usually fantasy or Sci-fi) that are popular at the time they get into the hobby.

[Duff]

Really depends on the person.
And appologise every time an assumption of knowledge turns out to be wrong

[hifidelity2]

Use fire when attacking trolls.

Use silvered weapons against lycanthropes.

Drow use poison.

Dragons have breath weapons.

When 4 bad guys show up demanding your surrender, you fight. When 40 bad guys show up demanding your surrender, do so. It's only an adventure plot point set up.

Don't touch anyone else's dice to roll without permission. 99% of people will give permission when asked, just ask first.

When playing at a food place buy their food.

..& buying the DM a beer is acceptable bribery

[Witty Username]

I try to explain "Exterminatus" to everyone I meet, that doesn't know it. It should be common knowledge.

For those that don't know, Exterminatus is a Warhammer 40k lore term, both the command to and act of destroying a planet or eradicating all life on a planet in Imperium of Man terminology.
And have a free meme.

[Kvess]

I try to explain "Exterminatus" to everyone I meet, that doesn't know it. It should be common knowledge.[/IMG]

I would have guessed it was a Harry Potter spell.

In my experience, new players will reliably understand the concept of hitpoints. Everything else depends on how TTRPG-adjacent they are. I don't expect new players to know memes spawned on TTRPG forums, Dragon Magazine or Usenet groups, because they're new players.

[Pex]

I would have guessed it was a Harry Potter spell.

In my experience, new players will reliably understand the concept of hitpoints. Everything else depends on how TTRPG-adjacent they are. I don't expect new players to know memes spawned on TTRPG forums, Dragon Magazine or Usenet groups, because they're new players.

Sadly a Monty Python reference or "I attack the Darkness" have so few occurrences or comprehension these days. I still shudder when 5 years ago I played with a DM who literally had no clue who Ricardo Montalban was. I named my character Ricardo just because the mood hit me for the name's sake. He asked for a last name for character background. I joked "Montalban". He didn't even flinch, thus my character's name officially became Ricardo Montalban.

I can understand not knowing about his movie career of the 1950s and 60s. I'm fine with not knowing Mr. Roarke, but know nothing about "KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!"? <throws hands up in despair>

[Jophiel]

thus my character's name officially became Ricardo Montalban.

Tell me his armor was made of rich Corinthian leather.

[Bohandas]

The kind of common knowledge a new player will have about the new game, is the kind of knowledge that is not unique to that game.

Think of Elves. Most people on the planet have heard of "Elves", but how many of them are thinking of the Unseelie / Seelie Fae OR thinking about Santa's Elves rather than that RPG's Elves?

A former neighbor who'd led a sheltered childhood only knew about elves that made cookies.

https://www.handbookofheroes.com/arc...ic/family-tree

[NorthernPhoenix]

Sadly a Monty Python reference or "I attack the Darkness" have so few occurrences or comprehension these days. I still shudder when 5 years ago I played with a DM who literally had no clue who Ricardo Montalban was. I named my character Ricardo just because the mood hit me for the name's sake. He asked for a last name for character background. I joked "Montalban". He didn't even flinch, thus my character's name officially became Ricardo Montalban.

I can understand not knowing about his movie career of the 1950s and 60s. I'm fine with not knowing Mr. Roarke, but know nothing about "KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!"? <throws hands up in despair>

Depending on their level of nerdom, a younger person might recognize that one from Star Trek: Into Darkness(2013)

[Grod_The_Giant]

Depending on their level of nerdom, a younger person might recognize that one from Star Trek: Into Darkness(2013)

Hell, I'm 30 and have deeply immensed in RPG nerd culture for half my life and I didn't register that as an actor's name, even if I do know "Khaaaaan!"

[Bohandas]

Plus, even those who are familiar with him, might be more familiar with him from his supporting role in the Spy Kids movies

[Bohandas]

Warhammer 40k is a fundamentally parodical and humorous piece [and it still is]. This is something that I expect people who play 40k to be aware of, because it's very important.

The basics of the setting is that's depiction of fascism's/general totalitarianism's failures to a humorously over-the-top extreme. {Scrubbed}
If it ever stops being fundamentally humorous, it just starts being a glorification of fascism.

I have already met people who have missed the fundamental point that life absolutely sucks in the Imperium and it sucks because of the Imperium and have legitimately told me that they they out-of-character agree with the Imperium's dogma and policies towards aliens. This concerns me.

Ironically the imperum actually detracts from the setting's overall grimdarkness because it's so evil that it makes the chaos gods, the tyranids, and the necrons look like heroes for opposing it. In the contexy of 40k's setting Khorne and Slaanesh aren't even villains, they are defenders of the galaxy

[Jay R]

As a Boomer, I am always a little off-balance to discover that a player knows Lord of the Rings primarily from the movies.

It's like meeting somebody who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking about the Lone Ranger.

[Tanarii]

I've learn quite a lot of D&D history here: https://www.tribality.com/columns/hi...f-the-classes/
It goes through a lot of classes, and how they evolved from one D&D edition to another, and giving some greater context about those editions and the associated supplements.

Sadly, it's been more than a year since the author stopped writing this column.

I read through the articles, and the author doesn't have a very good grasp of pre-WotC D&D, and it shows. In particular they don't seem to understand that higher levels were vanishingly uncommon. At least in an earned through play fashion.

Something that has escaped many folks over the years of course. Including WotC.

[Cazero]

Warhammer 40k is a fundamentally parodical and humorous piece [and it still is]. This is something that I expect people who play 40k to be aware of, because it's very important.

The basics of the setting is that's depiction of fascism's/general totalitarianism's failures to a humorously over-the-top extreme. {Scrubbed}
If it ever stops being fundamentally humorous, it just starts being a glorification of fascism.

I have already met people who have missed the fundamental point that life absolutely sucks in the Imperium and it sucks because of the Imperium and have legitimately told me that they they out-of-character agree with the Imperium's dogma and policies towards aliens. This concerns me.

Really? I always thought the extreme totalitarianism was just a convenient excuse plot to get anyone warring against anyone in a pinch.
You know, stuff like "The captain heard the word heresy, or at least thinks he did, and now the Blood Angels are killing each others".

[Tanarii]

I can understand not knowing about his movie career of the 1950s and 60s. I'm fine with not knowing Mr. Roarke, but know nothing about "KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!"? <throws hands up in despair>

I grew up in the 80s and I had no idea who you were talking about until you gave the iconic yell.

I wonder what it's like to be famous for a yell, but no one knows your name?

[Max_Killjoy]

I recognize him from his commercial work and Fantasy Island, along with the Star Trek appearances.

[vasilidor]

this depends on how long the person has been playing the thing.
New to the game? nothing.
a year or two?
trolls die by fire in D&D, Dwarves are short.
10 years?
the only reason that Menzoberenzia (or however you spell that) still stands is because Lolth micromanages her pet Drow so that the little murder machines she turned them into do not render it a smoking crater out of paranoia, and that set free of her influence most Drow would eventually settle in at some flavor of neutral after a couple generations.

[Bohandas]

Eh, the Setting has been getting increasingly bright and heroic for at least ten years now.

That's a good point. The Golden Throne's even starting to break down.

Though I suppose it would still be a bit nihilistic to have the big bad of the setting be defeated by his life support machine breaking down rather than because of something heroic.