Cheatsheet of Common Knowledge?

[happyninja42]

So I'm currently listening to a D&D podcast's first episode, and I'm listening to the DM go on for...a loooong time, setting up the basics of his world for the players. The problem I've noticed is that, due to the speed in which he says all of it, and the casual tone, it's easy to just miss things as he moves on to the next "basic detail" So it made me think about making a literal cheatsheet for "shit you should know just for being a person who has lived their whole lives in this world" and just handing it out to the players, to try and minimize player confusion, and the need for exposition.

I'm reminded of a series of novels in the LitRPG genre, that bring this up a lot. The MC's are transported from our world to this one, and it's PAINFULLY obvious that they don't know the everyday life shit to the people around them. They ask questions and the people say "How could you not know about that?" It's a funny bit of comedy for the novels, but by this point it is a bit tiring, 11 novels in. And it reminded me of a gaming table a lot.

So, have any of you ever adopted this? Just a checklist of details that don't need a Knowledge check, but should be shit your players know, but obviously don't because they don't live in Fantasyville. Shit like "The roads are all magically enhanced by the mage's guild for ease of commerce and travel, but nobody really trusts the mages, so some think the roads are cursed" or "The ruling family of the nation you are in are The Peopletons of Placetown, and they're mostly liked, primarily tolerated. They have been an inoffensive ruling family for several generations, but the current crown prince, is something of a playboy, and asshole about the kingdom." Just so they have something to reference when you do name dropping, to prevent the blank expression as they try and remember who that person was, and in what context.

Any of you done this? How did it go?

 

[Chimpzy]

Kind of. Back when I dm'd, I actually created a wiki for our homebrew setting with all general knowledge a player can know without needing to check, the level of detail depending on how familiar they are with any location or npc. The hometown they operated from and its surrounding area was an open book, every place, local custom and named npc described in detail. If some bit of lore was needed that I hadn't considered yet, I'd make something up and it'd basically require no check, since the assumption was that players knew that. Afterwards, i'd append the relevant page on the wiki

The country that town was in was still very detailed, but a little less, and more obscure stuff started needing a mild check. Then the further from their stomping ground we got, the more general things got. Neighboring countries got more limited to just the cliff notes about notable settlements and people and such. Faraway places would be just a few vague sentences.

I also did this thing where the further away we got, the "general" knowledge I wrote about stuff started including more and more info that was intentionally wrong, to represent how time, distance, prejudices and superstitions warped reality into rumors. Until the party visited those places and saw for themselves what things were actually like.

 

[happyninja42]

Kind of. Back when I dm'd, I actually created a wiki for our homebrew setting with all general knowledge a player can know without needing to check, the level of detail depending on how familiar they are with any location or npc. The hometown they operated from and its surrounding area was an open book, every place, local custom and named npc described in detail. If some bit of lore was needed that I hadn't considered yet, I'd make something up and it'd basically require no check, since the assumption was that players knew that. Afterwards, i'd append the relevant page on the wiki

The country that town was in was still very detailed, but a little less, and more obscure stuff started needing a mild check. Then the further from their stomping ground we got, the more general things got. Neighboring countries got more limited to just the cliff notes about notable settlements and people and such. Faraway places would be just a few vague sentences.

I also did this thing where the further away we got, the "general" knowledge I wrote about stuff started including more and more info that was intentionally wrong, to represent how time, distance, prejudices and superstitions warped reality into rumors. Until the party visited those places and saw for themselves what things were actually like.

How well did that work as a tool? Did the players make good use of it, and feel it was helpful?

 

[Chimpzy]

How well did that work as a tool? Did the players make good use of it, and feel it was helpful?

Results were mixed. Some used it quite a lot, some couldn't be arsed. Fortunately, this generally also fit the characters they played.

 

[SilentPony]

I've never had a DM do this, and frankly I wish more would. My Lancer group has run into a real big problem with us players not knowing a deep part of Lancer lore that are DM thought we all knew and agreed upon. We were a plucky band of Mercs who through a series of unfortunate contracts ended up with a rebel group who goes around freeing AI cores from research facilities and takes part in AI-rights protests and actions. And we all thought "Okay, human/AI rights war against THE MAN. That's sound way fun for a Mech RPG"

Apparently the deep lore part the DM assumed we knew was that all AI are actually shards of a malevolent Lovecraftian Star God who 1000 years ago pulled a Doom on Mars and sent it to Hell and millions died, Doom Slayer was involved, and the God either disappeared or was eventually defeated, and AI are more or less brain scans, copied over and over, of this Star God and may or may not remember being a Star God and may or may not be seeking to rebind themselves into said Lovecraftian horror. And the DM assumed we knew that, assumed we knew the Rebels were actually a Doomsday Cult, assumed we knew THE MAN was keeping AI under lock and key specifically to prevent the Apocalypse and assumed we were actively trying to bring back the Lovecraftian Star God.
And we for like a year thought we were just freedom fighters in space. And just woosh. We're all still floored and not sure what to do.

 

[happyninja42]

I've never had a DM do this, and frankly I wish more would. My Lancer group has run into a real big problem with us players not knowing a deep part of Lancer lore that are DM thought we all knew and agreed upon. We were a plucky band of Mercs who through a series of unfortunate contracts ended up with a rebel group who goes around freeing AI cores from research facilities and takes part in AI-rights protests and actions. And we all thought "Okay, human/AI rights war against THE MAN. That's sound way fun for a Mech RPG"

Apparently the deep lore part the DM assumed we knew was that all AI are actually shards of a malevolent Lovecraftian Star God who 1000 years ago pulled a Doom on Mars and sent it to Hell and millions died, Doom Slayer was involved, and the God either disappeared or was eventually defeated, and AI are more or less brain scans, copied over and over, of this Star God and may or may not remember being a Star God and may or may not be seeking to rebind themselves into said Lovecraftian horror. And the DM assumed we knew that, assumed we knew the Rebels were actually a Doomsday Cult, assumed we knew THE MAN was keeping AI under lock and key specifically to prevent the Apocalypse and assumed we were actively trying to bring back the Lovecraftian Star God.
And we for like a year thought we were just freedom fighters in space. And just woosh. We're all still floored and not sure what to do.

Ouch, yeah that's a big flub on the GM's part, to never actually check if you guys knew that stuff. That's kind of why I was curious. Because I'm bouncing around 2 ideas for a campaign to DM, and I'm trying to establish the stuff they SHOULD know that I can expo-dump to them, and what is stuff that is unknown/hidden, and then also of course, how much is at all relevant to the game.

 

[Eacaraxe]

Realistically, it depends on the setting and framework of the game, and the group at the table; there are no universal rules. The GM's role is to prove necessary information for the players as-needed; the GM may think it's basic knowledge because they're intimately familiar with the material having prepped to run the game, but that doesn't mean it is basic knowledge. Players have lives beyond the table too, the longer a campaign runs the more slips between the cracks, and it's the GM's job to make sure players stay functional within the constraints of the game that's being run.

For my current Transylvania Chronicles (so, Vampire the Dark Ages) chronicle, I keep three Google documents for my players to access as needed. One for house rules and chronicle-specific mechanics; a second for the chronicle's timeline as it develops from the in-character perspective (in other words, it contains incomplete information, misinformation, disinformation, and soon misremembered information); and, a third for key information whether it's common knowledge from the in-character perspective or character-specific knowledge my players may forget.

I keep a fourth for "the truth" that's accessible only to myself, if for no other reason to share it with my players after chronicle's end to show how much they missed, how much I've bullshit and gaslit them, and what was really going on behind the scenes and beyond their characters' perception or capability to know.

 

[SckizoBoy]

My session 0 was a three-hour (-ish) lecture/Q&A of setting lore, but primarily the standout details of important historical events, technology and magic/attitudes towards them. Everything the players do is pretty much in keeping with how they're RP'ing their characters, so anything I missed out is stuff they'd reasonably not know. It's turned out rather conveniently.

As for cheat sheet, from a lore perspective, it's kinda difficult to do for the setting for our campaign since the publishers have moved the timeline along very regularly. And since it's tied to a miniatures wargame, that means big shit happens every few years. Had this been just a year ago, the cheat sheet would be completely different (but still canon).