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Machiavelli
post Jul 26 2009, 08:35 AM
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Some will remember my last run where i have put the chars. in an volcanic inferno right in the middle of hells kitchen. Unfortunately neither the chars. nor the players know ANYTHING about volcanos, pyroclastic clouds, calderas or earthquakes etc. So they stumbled in some quite difficult situations. If i assume my own knowledge, the only sources i got informations about this happenings are my college-education and my personal interest in documentations. But my friends are more into soccer and their chars. have no school-education at all. They also lack ANY knowledge skill that is academic or an interest skill that could be defaulted on.

So do you see any chance to prevent such situations for the future? Should i launch a "general education"-knowledge skill that they could refer to? What, besides their knowledge skill, does a char. know about his world? I mean, that is what knowledge skills are for. If you don´t have it, you don´t know anything about it.
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jerusalem7227
post Jul 26 2009, 04:49 PM
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I preface this with: I have no knowledge of you, your game, or your players. There got that out of the way.

That said, this situation sounds pretty lame and like you haven't progressed much from your early days of playing. A GM's goals can be varied, but if you diverge from where the game has been and then throw the characters into a situation that they have no knowledge about....it's merely a deathtrap.
The players only have so much they can do with their characters builds. Unless you give opened-ended amounts of BP for skills, or allow them to build based on backstory rather than BP, it's rude to expect players to use karma or money for such esotaric skills as Volcanic studies, Spelunking, or Geothermal Hydrodynamics. These things, unless hinted at, show up so rarely that it's just silly to waste points on them.

Hopefully, the players had fun and learned a lesson about being prepared, but the GM knows the limitations of the players and has the obligation to try and test them within those limits...or at least give them some way to know about the situation they are in.
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Machiavelli
post Jul 27 2009, 01:45 PM
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QUOTE (jerusalem7227 @ Jul 26 2009, 05:49 PM) *
I preface this with: I have no knowledge of you, your game, or your players. There got that out of the way.

That said, this situation sounds pretty lame and like you haven't progressed much from your early days of playing. A GM's goals can be varied, but if you diverge from where the game has been and then throw the characters into a situation that they have no knowledge about....it's merely a deathtrap.
The players only have so much they can do with their characters builds. Unless you give opened-ended amounts of BP for skills, or allow them to build based on backstory rather than BP, it's rude to expect players to use karma or money for such esotaric skills as Volcanic studies, Spelunking, or Geothermal Hydrodynamics. These things, unless hinted at, show up so rarely that it's just silly to waste points on them.

Hopefully, the players had fun and learned a lesson about being prepared, but the GM knows the limitations of the players and has the obligation to try and test them within those limits...or at least give them some way to know about the situation they are in.
Aha, so you think that situations where you don´t know everything about, that might be risky because you lack knowledge etc, are lame? I thought it would be interesting, and dealing with dangerous situations by getting creative would be fun. But the opinions may differ. I can remember the times, where every player read every book. You hadn´t been able to throw ANYTHING at them, because they were not surprised a bit. THAT was lame.
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Posts in this topic
- Machiavelli   Knowledge   Jul 26 2009, 08:35 AM
- - Mirilion   Remind them between sessions to ask you "does...   Jul 26 2009, 08:48 AM
- - HappyDaze   It's not hard to use the SR equivalent to Goog...   Jul 26 2009, 08:49 AM
|- - Mirilion   QUOTE (HappyDaze @ Jul 26 2009, 09:49 AM)...   Jul 26 2009, 08:56 AM
- - Machiavelli   That is the point. If i would be in such a situati...   Jul 26 2009, 09:02 AM
- - Kliko   Why didn't they slot a knowsoft? Or is that jo...   Jul 26 2009, 09:08 AM
- - Machiavelli   Hmm...because they care more about drinking in bar...   Jul 26 2009, 09:32 AM
- - AngelisStorm   I've never had a character who had knowledge r...   Jul 26 2009, 09:32 AM
- - Machiavelli   Would you think of the mentioned problem being a T...   Jul 26 2009, 09:38 AM
- - AngelisStorm   Woo, brb, going to go double check the situation. ...   Jul 26 2009, 09:40 AM
- - Machiavelli   Now i am curious what will come out.^^   Jul 26 2009, 09:43 AM
- - AngelisStorm   Sorry it wasn't more interesting.   Jul 26 2009, 09:48 AM
- - Machiavelli   Hmmm...   Jul 26 2009, 09:58 AM
- - HappyDaze   QUOTE Next time i will kill them, so that they car...   Jul 26 2009, 10:08 AM
- - Machiavelli   Aeeeehmmm...what exactly do you want to say with t...   Jul 26 2009, 10:29 AM
- - HappyDaze   IME, the playstyle of German gamers and me having ...   Jul 26 2009, 11:00 AM
- - Machiavelli   Yeah, we stick to the rules. And wanna know what i...   Jul 26 2009, 11:24 AM
- - AllTheNothing   QUOTE (Machiavelli @ Jul 26 2009, 10:35 A...   Jul 26 2009, 01:04 PM
- - jerusalem7227   I preface this with: I have no knowledge of you, y...   Jul 26 2009, 04:49 PM
|- - Machiavelli   QUOTE (jerusalem7227 @ Jul 26 2009, 05:49...   Jul 27 2009, 01:45 PM
|- - toturi   QUOTE (Machiavelli @ Jul 27 2009, 09:45 P...   Jul 27 2009, 01:48 PM
- - HappyDaze   QUOTE Yeah, we stick to the rules. The four that I...   Jul 26 2009, 08:22 PM
- - Ravor   Meh, I'm in the "kill them" camp pro...   Jul 26 2009, 08:33 PM
- - Machiavelli   Yeah, but you can´t always build runs around your...   Jul 27 2009, 01:58 PM
- - jerusalem7227   QUOTE (Machiavelli @ Jul 27 2009, 02:58 P...   Jul 27 2009, 09:43 PM
- - siel   QUOTE (Machiavelli @ Jul 27 2009, 08:58 A...   Jul 27 2009, 11:10 PM


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