Common Knowledge

[DeepShadow of FoS]

How much would a starting PC know about surrounding lands? I'd like to assemble handouts for my players that cover all the basics for easy reference. Any suggestions?

[Guzrath]

I guess it would depend on which Domain they are from and how well educated.

Lower educated might have mostly rumors as "knowledge", from a simple thing that in "X" country, they all have a thieving streak, or , they all walk barefooted when corssing graveyards. Simple superstitious stuff (of which some might be true) and information about 1 person has spread to the whole community or domain.
I remember reading somewhere that most people know who rules a neighboring domain and have of course heard some "tales" about the ruler as well.

More educated and informed players know who's the ruler in the domain and, depending on how much they are interested in the country, might know a lot of names in the aristocracy and who to talk to and who to avoid.
Maybe even know a secret which they use as leverage.

Funny details for knowledge, I always use, is famous import/export products. From art to simple wool, like the woodcarvings for Barovia and the grain from Falkovnia.
General knowledge (maybe false knowledge) about how people will react to them (their class) most importantly magic and religion.

Make a slightly different handout for each player with knowledge based on skills they have or, for the fun of it, contradicting rumors or old (not up to date) knowledge.

I wouldn't go as far as to name Constables or even mayors, unless they really prepare themselves or have been there before.

[cure]

Sort of on topic: http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... ive+things

[The Giamarga]

Indeed: http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... php?t=3904
and http://www.fraternityofshadows.com/foru ... php?t=2532

Also the general descriptions of the lands from the Core set would be known to an extent. Flora, Fauna, People etc.

Too bad Dion's Player's Guide to Ravenloft isn't released yet.

[Rotipher of the FoS]

The Gazetteers have a section telling what the residents of each domain think of their immediate neighbors, and occasionally of other regions relevant to their own realm's history. Going by that example, it would seem that most natives of the Core, at least, know enough about nearby domains to form their own (biased) opinions.

[Joël of the FoS]

When I started, I gave my player photocopies of the domain where they all came from (Barovia), minus the dread possibilities and other DM-only info of course.

That's all they knew. And I won't change a thing if I was to redo it: a large part of the fun of the atmosphere in a game is learning what is going on in the other domains they visit - how things works, who is who, etc.

Joël

[alhoon]

Not bad, but not very realistic IMO. though more realistic that fireballs...

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Not bad, but not very realistic IMO. though more realistic that fireballs...

Huh? To what are you referring? Whose post?

Please elaborate.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

I'm resurrecting this thread because I believe there's merit in it with the Mistipedia. I'd like to see a player-friendly section for each domain that DM's can use when talking to players. Any chance of getting such a thing added to the domain template?

[cure]

I'm resurrecting this thread because I believe there's merit in it with the Mistipedia. I'd like to see a player-friendly section for each domain that DM's can use when talking to players. Any chance of getting such a thing added to the domain template?

Pull up Barovia, or better Nova Vaasa, to see the 'template' that I have arrived at through my efforts. What I am unhappy with speaks to what you suggest. The first entry, "1. Things, Creatures & Personnages of Legend", are supposed to be things that are more or less widely known in the domain and probably beyond. So perhaps this entry could be reworked along the lines that you suggest.

[Nevermorrow]

Well, obviously, traders and merchants would be the most knowledgeable, but even what they know would likely be a confused tangle of actual facts, mispronunciations, misunderstandings and outright lies. Imagine a merchant trying to sell someone an exotic rug from some domain they can't even pronounce and relating stories about this foreign land that are garbled versions of stories about more than one domain, let alone him making something up in order to par his customer from their coin. Imagine if someone was trying to research exotic domains taking all that in. This is pretty much what happened in the past here on Earth, back when Europeans believed there were bird-people in Africa. It may seem strange but most scholars were naive enough to accept the tales of sailors and travelers at face value; this is part of where our modern skepticism came from.

Now obviously, the closer the domain the better-known it is. How important it is would be a factor too; Falkovnia and Darkon would be pretty well-known throughout the Core, though how well-known (i.e., actual facts) would become thinner the farther from them you get. Barovia would be well-known simply because everyone knows it was first, but once again, only the folk in neighboring lands would know that much about Barovia.

I guess someone needs to draw up a table for a knowledge skill check. The DM would be encouraged to be creative here when the player gets a bad roll. Is the answer "you don't know" or some made-up tale? Part of the problem I forsee here is that the player is likely to know too much about RL. But if you're customizing the domains to your taste this wouldn't be such a problem, of course. Anyway, my d20 know-how is a bit rusty, so I'm afraid I'm really not up to writing up a knowledge (Ravenloft) skill. Sorry.

[High Priest Mikhal]

The Gazeteers' entries on what each domain thinks of its neighbors and other relevant domains form a biased base opinion for PCs native to that domain. But those with ranks in Knowledge skills could have better ideas of the realities. Say for every two points they begin knowing one truth about their neighbors' history or local customs and culture, religion, attitudes towards magic, unique geographical features, pretty much anything covered by Knowledge skills.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

This came up last time we updated the FAQ, when I first joined up with the Frat. Even among just Jester, Rotipher and I, we were unable to reach a consensus of just how much the natives know and don't know. After a breif discussion, we mainly left the FAQ entry as it was.

Some people like the isolated patchwork world, some like the integrated cosmopolitan version. It's hard to make everyone happy. That said, the stuff in the Gaz's about the native's view of their neighbors is canon, so it's hard to argue with it.

Of course, the great thing about Mistipedia (or any wiki) is that if you want such a section, you can make one. Then you can see what other people think of it when they change it all. I do think it's a good idea, by the way, but I'm not sure whether it should be on each main domain page, or some subpage like: "Barovia (Player Lore)", which is linked from the main Barovia page.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

My suggestion is to make it in levels of success, like a Knowledge (local) check. We can suggest DC's for the check to know, and individual DM's can add circumstance penalties or bonuses as they wish. If I want an integrated, cosmopolitan Core, I can add +10 across the board. If I want the merchant PC to have lots of good info, I can give him +5 to all such checks. If I want to compile a list of what my PC's know at the start of the game, I cut & paste as I see fit based on the PC's background. If I want some of it to be misinformation, I reedit the cut and paste with appropriate changes.

Sure, that's work, but a LOT less work than compiling all of this from scratch.

[cure]

I like knowledge checks and have been tempted to add DC's for certain things up this point in the Mistipedia. For example, the mistway in the southern border of Hazlan seems to be quite well known in this magical awakened land, but the Black Spire far less so. Whereas the mistway beneath Arbora in Nova Vaasa is probably rather unknown as such in that magical unawakened land. It might be common knowledge that people disappear and perhaps even appear, but that it is a means of travel through the mists would not be so obvious.