So, I've been reading through some old modules and posts from the old LA_talk site, trying to learn more about the campaign world and what people might know. The question that came to my mind, now that I've started to know stuff from the last campaign, is, "what would/could my character know?" Its clear from some posting that by the end many characters were reporting what they experianced to their faction (rebel/loyalists), secret societies, and often anyone else who would listen in an attempt to prepare people for what was coming; so its not like most of this stuff was a closely held secret. On the flip side, it was something like 40 years ago. For the Elorii that's nothing, but for the humans that makes a bit of a difference, though I suspect a number of the old human adventuring codgers are still around to talk to too.

This thinking was sparked by an old thread post asking what knowledge to use for knowing about the Voiceless Ones - the answer being nothing was really known to know. But throughout the last campaign some people did encounter them, dissect them, etc, so one could at least learn what (incomplete) information these people knew. And there are many other cool things to know from old adventures as well (how to eat Elorii power comes to mind!). How would one know these things?

I was thinking of having my character take knowledge specialization "age of legends" (adventurers) to reflect the time he spends questioning old codger heroes and going through old society files.

Would that be legal? Make Sense? Be accepted? What are your thoughts? I hate to think that its impossible for our characters to learn (any way but the hard way) what has come before.

Answer: no, you cannot. There was a joke in the last campaign's Core Book iirc about Knowledge: Metagame which is basically what you are describing (along with a Ranger Favoured Enemy as Metagamers).

Sure, you have met some adventurers, but remember a few things: 1) this is a pre digital, barely pre printing press world where your ability to find this info beyond myth is basically nil. 2) your ability to track down heroes is basically the same, as unless you can afford Ansharan Gates you are limited to travelling no more than 10 miles a day (rough range of a horse). 3) the actual 'canon' existence of any individual Hero from the last campaign is suspect except for those specifically honoured by PCI (like Ven val'Sosi), so you really can't say (from a Metagame perspective) that your Grandpa told you all this stufheroeseven if they did, anything they would have told you would have been brushed awayas myth by most in the same way you would today if you said you were a Vampire Hunter for reals. 5) there have been Heroes for ever so Age of Heroes is tantamount to Knowledge everything.

If you are a Kick starter backer the new Blessed Lands book is including sections which tell characters what they can know based on race and knowledge ranks (eg: unless a normal Human has 12 ranks in Knowledge History they have no idea what the ilHuan war was.

I agree with some of that, but disagree with some as well. Of course it would have to be limited to what players really learned - not backstories from published material. So, pc's encountered il'huan like three times in the last campaign, right? The gm would have set the challenge level of knowing about them. But the difficulty of knowing that a huge wave of them attacked epynym (sp?) would be very low. That they are psionic hive mind living in the azure way should still be pretty easy, since that was made pretty obvious to those who fought them. Ancient history about war against ssethregore would be virtually impossible, since how would one learn that when fighting them?

But it's just flat silly to think that if someone study's the last war, they wouldn't know anything abot il'huan

They would know that at the Battle of Enpebyn a bunch of bug monsters swarmed up from the ground. Without a narrator giving the population box text, all your average person would know is "ahhhhhhh! Bug monsters!"

The most learned humans and dwarfs would have heard of these beasts in the same way that your more learned person would know who Wu Chang'en is: I have heard of him but unless I have committed to study ancient Chinese literature all you might know is that he wrote Journey to the West. The same is true for il'Huan: you may have heard the name and that they fought the lizard folk, but you know nothing else about them.

The only reason the Heroes from 3.5 know anything about them us because the one they met in the sewers of Savona gave an info dump to them (and them alone). Even the Elorii who were there didn't have much more info (as the number of them who would have seen one before is probably less than 1% of their population).

Right, but that info dump would have been rapidly shared after the battle, if not before. I think, by at least after the battle, most if not all adventurers knew what an il'huan was and it's strengths. The idea that today, the only way to know what an il'huan is, is to have 12 ranks in knowledge history is a bit ludicrous. I'd think that organizations like the emerald society would, at the very least, have documents, notes on dissections, and possibly preserved corpses around that their members studied after the battle (after all, there were plenty of bodies!) lying around in multiple locations. Heck, as a known hazard, I would think they very well might educate members on what is known about them. After all, look at what one erudite altheran scholar is capable of sharing with his fellow adventurers! You think there are no other sources out there for those willing to invest in researching it?

I'm talking about what happened, what was faced, and broad scope what was learned. Not detailed scholarship on ancient history. But if a character happens to find an eight sided or spider motif script, it doesn't seem hard to associate that with the isori, since just about the only thing we do know about them is that they were spider like. Now, that assumption could be wrong, but at least he would be in character to make it.

Hello,

I have to agree with Cody, for the most part.

While the average person growing up (i.e. most of the current adventurers) would know the basics,but the special knowledge gained on top of that by the players (such as like what the true fate of the a certain general in Abessios) would not be widely known.

As an example, think of it this way: The average person knows about what occurred during WWII, but without specialized knowledge/study would they know about what operatives of the OSI and MI6 discovered? I don't believe so.

A few things: 1) if the Heroes spread their info after the battle, what would they know beyond "ahhhh! Bugs!"? Even if 100 people have a good idea as to what is going on, how are they going to relate this to 10,000 legionnaires without it becoming one huge game of telephone? By the time the info has disseminated they will probably ve saying they were sent by the Elorii to punish mankind for ancient wrongs? Without things like the internet to fact check, what you'll end up with is information chaos.

2) it is almost certain the governments and societies will have this info, but why would they share it? Information is power, so spreading this info is bad for them. Even members of the ES wouldn't know about this unless they were high up on the ladder in the same way all the CIA's secrets aren't known to the random file clerk on the 2nd floor of the US embassy in London, even though that person is a government employee

2

Sure, but MI6 and OSI didn't file reports to three (or more) different organizations and then talk about when they did in bars either, and I (who have done almost no research on the subject) still know about the enigma cipher, gold smuggling, and some of the heavy water operations done in Scandanavia.

And I'm not arguing for Joe farmer to know this stuff, but for people who volunteer to go down into the hole in the ground and deal with what's down there, and who have thought to do some research on what might be down there, to have a clue. What I'm saying is, if you took a knowledge skill that covered recent adventuring, or the heroes of the light, or "the age of heroes" or something of that ilk, doesn't it make sense that you could learn about these things?

It seems that if someone did, thinks like, "my god, what is that thing! (Il'huan, psionic, armored bug, don't let it plant an egg in you!)" would be a low difficulty check, while the ancient history of them would be a very high difficulty check (needing many ranks - like the 12 ranks of history for knowing about their defeat by the Ssethregorans). While what happened to the Cadican legion would fall somewhere in between.

Hello (i'd address you by name, but you don't sign your posts),

So what exactly are you looking for here? Not being snarky, but I'm honestly not sure what you're looking for? Whether something is common knowledge or not is a GM's prerogative unless specifically stated n the adventure.

If you're arguing against the knowledge skill levels needed as written in the History section of the Blessed Lands sourcebook, which section is the one you're having issues with?

1.What I'm saying is that those heroes who had information about them (from year 1) probably stood up and disseminated their knowledge after the incident at Epynym quite loudly and widely,and I suspect people believed them. They obviously disseminated the information widely enough for the emperor to believe them before had as well - and there is no reason to believe that other organizations didn't have the information as well. In fact, I thought the information about the emperor using the Cadician legion as hosts for them was quite widely spread by the rebels as propaganda, and that the Cadicians and Val'Borda took it quite seriously. No reason to believe there was serious misunderstanding there, and lots of reason to believe that could be found now.

2. Why would governments and organizations share it? Yes, knowledge is power, but as we've discussed, this really isn't that rare of information. IT was shared with most governments/organizations. Don't share it with your members, and they stand to be the only ones in a race for xyz that doesn't have the information they need. Generally, what I'm talking about isn't unique information that can be held for a lot of gain. Additionally, while these hoarding of some information sometimes makes sense, so does dissemination. Why would anyone join a organization that tells its members nothing? (governments are a slightly different situation) Like I said, it makes perfect sense for followers of the Azure Way or Emerald society to be briefed on possible dangers in the dark, or get a 15 minute primer on what the last 6 dominant species or civilizations on Onara were. Half of what they learn might be wrong, but they shouldn't be going, "Issori? Never heard of it, is that a Hinterland drink?" That one of the 12 keys may have been recovered would be ultra-top secret what-ever, but that Issori have eight legs?