Character Knowledge (Season 6 Spoilers)


Pathfinder Society

Dark Archive

Alright, so in 5-99, one of my party members was lucky enough to land a natural 20 on a knowledge check against the flesh oozes. He picked a helpful information advice, and learned about their growth ability. The character shared the information, meaning my character would know that information. In 6-02, I encountered them again, as the same character. However, the GM would not let me share the information, DESPITE the fact that I have the chronicle sheet 5-99. A fellow player even supported my claim that you fight flesh oozes in that scenario. The GM allowed my character to recall all past events in scenarios EXCEPT that one. Is that allowed?

5/5

There is no real mechanic for a character to bring in game knowledge in most scenarios. In regards to this specific case on creature intelligence being brought forward...there is actually a boon that allows you to bring one bit of information from a set list of creatures.

So, in your case, the GM was well within the rules to deny in character knowledge. It is one of the trade offs for a global campaign. You table GM may have never run or played 5-99, so he would have no idea what was in there. It is hard to tell meta fame knowledge vs. character knowledge in such cases.

Dark Archive

Sniggevert wrote:

There is no real mechanic for a character to bring in game knowledge in most scenarios. In regards to this specific case on creature intelligence being brought forward...there is actually a boon that allows you to bring one bit of information from a set list of creatures.

So, in your case, the GM was well within the rules to deny in character knowledge. It is one of the trade offs for a global campaign. You table GM may have never run or played 5-99, so he would have no idea what was in there. It is hard to tell meta fame knowledge vs. character knowledge in such cases.

But then why would knowledge like whether or not you know what the Blakros museum is be accepted?

Grand Lodge 5/5

The Blackros museum has knowledge check DCs in scenarios, but a lot of them are fairly low. The information gathered about it, also doesn't provide any real advantage like a monster knowledge check does.

Dark Archive 4/5

There is in fact a cert that signifies your accumulated knowledge of monsters out there.

Dark Archive

Sin of Asmodeus wrote:

There is in fact a cert that signifies your accumulated knowledge of monsters out there.

A cert?

Dark Archive 5/5 5/55/5 *

He means a Boon, generally available as a prize at numerous conventions.

3/5

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Yeah, the practice of "resetting" character knowledge from scenario to scenario is just laughably stupid - it's probably one of the main things I'd change about PFS's "GM culture".

It's two cardinal gaming sins rolled into one: it completely destroys immersion, revealing that the character is not, in fact, a character, but is simply a collection of abilities and skills which "reforms" anew from scenario to scenario and-

It completely invalidates player knowledge of the game and player attention TO games. Pathfinder actually *is* a game, and skill in the game and "paying attention" should be rewarded, not discounted.

In short, it makes PFS scenarios instances, not episodes.

Yuck.

(For the record, as a GM I will certainly respect the fact that your character encountered the oozes before, and "allow" them to have the entirely reasonable - since your character is a *character* with memories and experiences - strategic recollections.)

Silver Crusade 5/5 5/5 **

Shasfowd wrote:


But then why would knowledge like whether or not you know what the Blakros museum is be accepted?

This is an area where you just have to expect GM variation. Some GMs allow characters to remember what they've experienced, some don't, some require some sort of roll (int roll, knowledge skill with a bonus, etc). The rules pretty much support all of these approaches and all can be justified both in world and in game.

Knowledges in general are one of the areas with the largest amount of GM variation.

Grand Lodge 4/5

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Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I absolutely allow players to remember creatures they have encountered before. It happened just this afternoon with the same series of scenarios as the OP.

However, I did not confirm any of his memories without a knowledge check. So if he had misremembered them and acted on faulty information, it would have been his own fault.

4/5 *

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
TriOmegaZero wrote:
I absolutely allow players to remember creatures they have encountered before. It happened just this afternoon with the same series of scenarios as the OP.

I do too, but only if I know the creature in question was actually in the scenario the player is referencing, and I always ask to see a chronicle applied to that PC.

So in the case above, if the GM wasn't familiar with 5-99, I can absolutely see not allowing that sort of knowledge.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Since I had run 5-99 for the player in question, that was not a problem.

2/5

I've never really run into a GM that doesn't allow a simple "My character has encountered these before," clarification before recalling/sharing. I certainly allow it when I run, but withholding confirmations for knowledge checks is a good idea.

Then again we seem to be lucky and have a pretty good PFS crowd, overall.

Wayfinders 1/5 5/5 Venture-Captain, California—Los Angeles (West LA)

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As A GM I have ran across this issues many a time, so what I now do is the follow steps;

1. Did any character identify the creature and provide the information to the party?
2. Did the character physically experience the creatures abilities (e.g. dragon's breath weapon, etc.)?

A. If yes to #1 & #2, I make a one-line note on the chronicle sheet with the name of the monster & abilities that were correctly identified and used.
B. If No to #1 however Yes to #2 I make a one-line note of the monster name and a generic description of the ability that was experienced. (e.g. tried to swallow me whole or when creature dies it exploded and I got diseased, etc.).

I find the above notations to the chronicle sheet actually make the chronicles a little bit more valuable, especially the ones without any boons on them.

Dark Archive 2/5

CyTerrin wrote:
...smart stuff...

I will be doing this from now on, as this is a great idea!

Dark Archive 5/5

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I really like CyTerrin's idea, and I'm going to try to implement that myself.

I've never run into a problem like this, but that may also be that I generally play in one location and most of the GMs know me there. I like to think it's because they all hold such high opinions of me that they know I would never taint the game in such a manner, but most likely it's they've either run me through a scenario with the monster or they were at a table with me when we encountered the monster.

3/5

CyTerrin wrote:
stuff

Excellent ideas - it really needs to be player-driven, too.

A great use for any white space on a chronicle.

Scarab Sages

Another route that I've seen before is that a character keeps an active log of everything they experience (TRUE Pathfinder Chronicles style) in a notebook. Make a notation of each scenario you do, major events, and monster info attained. It's a lot of writing, but is an extremely valuable asset. I'd rule that another character can't use a "chronicle" that they didn't write though. So if you do it for multiple characters, keep them separate.

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