[Gossamer's Scrapbook] The Ethereal Canyon I

by **Gossamer** on October 16th, 2011, 12:54 pm

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Projects Past And Present!
Aka this is all the stuff I'm in charge of or have (or will have) designed.
So this is all the stuff I stake full or partial territoriality on.

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by **Duality** on October 16th, 2011, 4:22 pm

See, this is why you rock, Jen! Look at how long that list is! Here, have a congratulatory cup of coffee/tea.

Feel free to put whatever word you want!

Also organic design is the best design!
-Sharpie

by **Aidara** on October 16th, 2011, 5:14 pm

Jen, I love you.

I'm going to make you a sign.

by **Gossamer** on October 16th, 2011, 5:18 pm

A sign! I love signs! I love making them too. So will you.

by **Aidara** on October 16th, 2011, 8:40 pm

When you will get it shall be a surprise, however. *Studies furiously for her exam*

by **Gossamer** on October 17th, 2011, 4:32 am

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Your PC Can't Read Our Wiki Just Because You Can

Think about it? How many people instantly know about magic? How many people instantly know IC that Akajia's followers can hop about in shadows moving from place to place and even stepping halfway across the world in the blink of an eye? Too many. If you are Drykas, you pretty much automatically know about Webbing. If you are anyone else, I bet you have no clue. Oh? Your PC knows all about all forms of magic? How? How did that happen? Justify it... don't cheeseball it. Ask questions... talk to people that know about things... do study threads... have your footwork all accomplished.

I wish people would think more about how their PC's learn about things in game than they actually do. Oh? A Nysel mark? You can mess with my memories! You are Eyris' follower? Oh touch my great grandmother's scarf and tell me what it speaks to you about! No no no no... you can't know about everything just because there is a big fat wiki page you as a player can read. Your PC has no access to our wiki. Remember that.

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by **Siiri** on October 17th, 2011, 4:36 am

Thank you, Jen.

I felt that the line between OOC knowledge and what PCs know have become blurred of late, especially among the newer players. I wish people realize and thought over this mechanic more often.

by **Cachet** on October 17th, 2011, 11:07 am

I agree with that as well. I find myself having to literally put myself in my characters shoes as I write. This helps me avoid things that otherwise I would do and avoid giving my PC knowledge that I know he doesn't have. I think part of the issue is that players don't immerse themselves in their characters before they really start Role Playing. Or it could be that they have a misconception about how knowledge is spread throughout the realm.

by **Jonathon DuFraine** on October 17th, 2011, 11:52 am

It would be easier on the newbies (and me, s'matter of fact) if it somewhere stated how much, exactly, a character would know. Even a rough ballpark would be leaps and bounds better. As a Syliran hunter, I deduced that I know nothing of magic except that my great-great granduncle got burned to a crisp by a wizard. But plenty of other character give me funny looks when I display my ignorance; I get the feeling that no one is really quite sure how much they should know.

And that's just magic; things like knowledge of other cities, races, and cultures are extremely hard to pin. Just yesterday I was trying to figure out if Jonathon even knows what a Benshiri (or however you spell that) is, or anything about where they came from.

But I digress. My point is, while the less studious new players might not know what they know in any case, even people who trawl the wiki for miniscule bits of information and question ST's still won't be able to tell what they know from what their character knows. Putting yourself in your character's shoes can only go so far.

by **Bolden Denusk** on October 17th, 2011, 5:05 pm

It's called metagaming. I dealt with it on Orb and there's no excuse for it, nor is there anyway to stop it other than to try appealing to the players' conscience. Some players want to power level and have a tanner that knows everything about a god from a place they've never heard of or been near. The problem started out as something trifling but when it got to multiple daily offenses, we actually had to put 'no metagaming' in the rules, with an in depth explanation.

Sometimes there are innocent examples though. I myself, as Taln, metagamed medical knowledge in a thread with Rista and she was nice enough to have me take a 2nd look at my 2 posts and go, 'how could he know that much? he's not a healer!' I was embarrassed, but I rewrote the two posts with the appropriate level of pc knowledge.

Yes, I know it's frustrating. With players who repeatedly metagamed on a subject, I would copy/paste the name on notepad, under the heading of mg's and if they did it a third time, I put them on probation from rping for 2 weeks. I wish I could give you an easy answer on the powergamers who want what we called 'thuper powers' but sadly, the asshats are just out there roaming free. All I can offer is cookies, hugs and a good luck hon!

**sidenote: Jonathon 'just how much' is plain common sense. If it's not in your character's history, and your PC has not rp'd even a single thread about that subject, if the skills aren't (26) competent or above, then it stands to -reason- that your pc knows squat about the subject. It doesn't need an explanation other than good old fashioned reasoning.