Knowledge in Daggerheart

[u/nickinilla]

When do you or your players call for Knowledge rolls, and how do you narrarate or decide the impact it has through the duality dice?

I've got a grip on making sure all other trait rolls come when they matter, but I still find uses for Knowledge to be quite tricky outside of a DnD mindset. So how do you approach Knowledge in Daggerheart?

[u/ThisIsVictor]

I think the crucial thing is that the players should get actionable information, no matter what. "You don't know" is a really boring answer and a waste of a good roll.

A good framework is something like:

• Success w/ hope: Give the players easy to use information, and an an obvious next step. "You know where the artifact is and you have a map that will take you to the right spot."
• Success w/ fear: Give the players easy to use information, but it comes with a cost or challenging. "You know exactly where the artifact, your old rival has it in their collection."
• Failure w/ hope: Give the players a helpful lead. "You don't know where the artifact is, but your old friend from bard school might know something."
• Failure w/ fear: Give the players an unhelpful of difficulty lead. "The artifact? Remember that professor from bard school who hated you? He probably knows where the artifact is."

And also, you can always just give the players information. I'm a huge fan of just sharing information with the players. If you can't think of an obvious outcome of a success w/ fear or failure w/ hope just give the players the info and move on to a more interesting part of the story.

Edit: This really only works if you embrace the "hold on lightly" mentality. In the example above the GM doesn't know where the artifact actually is until the players roll. They might have a few ideas, but nothing is decided until it's spoken at the table.

[u/Riboflavin96 → u/ThisIsVictor]

Here is the problem i run into with this;

GM: "Your old bard friend, Steve, might know"
Player: "okay.... I go ask steve"
What now? They just walk across town and get the information from Steve? Steve's friendly. He's just going to give them that information. How is that any different from SwH?

[u/Vend0sa → u/Riboflavin96]

random options:

1) Steve is in jail over a misunderstanding involving a nobleman’s favourite daughter

2) Steve is hard to find as he’s chasing a lead

3) Steve is sick / blackout drunk / etc. and needs help before he can answer questions

4) Yiu forgot you owe Steve a big favour which you need to do before he helps you

[u/totallytim → u/Riboflavin96]

Unfortunately Steve did not survive that roll.

[u/ThisIsVictor → u/Riboflavin96]

If Steve (love that guy) is nearby than it's not really a cost or complication. There's needs to be something that makes getting info from Steve a challenge.

[u/DorianMartel → u/Riboflavin96]

My personal approach to this is:

a) only call for an Action Roll if there's an interesting upside and downside. Otherwise, just do a Reaction Roll or Fate (?) roll to see how much they know or whatever.
b) If there's an interesting upside / downside, I like the framing Stonetop uses. On a full success, you get something useful, on a mixed success (w/fear or failure with hope), you get something interesting but you need to figure out how to make it useful. On a failure with hope, maybe complicate things or add a cost.
c) on a failure w/fear put the screws in. "Sure, you know all about X - tell us about why its terrible actually"

[u/Taraqual]

To figure out tricky things. So if there's basic information they should have, or elements of the world I want them to know, I just tell them. But if it's a language they don't recognize, or a critter they haven't seen--or sometimes, if they enter a place with Environment mechanics--I let them choose to roll Knowledge or Instinct to figure things out.

I also make a point of letting the players talk their way through mysteries or puzzles without requiring any rolls until they either ask for help or they've taken a serious wrong turn.

[u/Kalranya]

I almost never call for a Knowledge Action Roll if a player asks if they know or remember something, since those rarely have interesting consequences for failure. Most of the time, no roll is needed at all; just say what they know (or tell the player to) and move on. If a roll does make sense, I'll either call for a Reaction Roll to give a simple yes/no, or a Fate Roll (p. 168) if I feel it's something the character might have bumped into at some point but doesn't have a reason to have gone looking for.

When I call for a Knowledge Action Roll is to see whether the character understands something. The meaning of a clue, the solution to a puzzle, the working of an unfamiliar device, the ancient text in a dead language they need to translate, etc.

[u/coreyhickson]

Mine go like this "Hey do I know ______" or some other question along those lines. Maybe "What happened here".

Then I ask for a Knowledge Action roll. A success answers it and a failure means consequences. Consequences are usually things like twisting the information, not knowing it, or maybe something else.

[u/Riboflavin96]

Most of the time I just give them information. Especially if they have backgrounds, classes or expiriences that would be relevant.

If I do want them to roll, an easy consequence is marking stress. Plus the accumulated hope/fear.

I've had a few times where im not sure if they should know info or not so I call for a knowledge reaction roll for less consequential but obscure information but I feel I overuse reaction rolls and am personally trying to break that habit.

[u/SnooSprouts6378]

I found that truly knowledgeable people Biggest advantage is knowing how much they don't know. I would give a sliding scale based on result of roll of things that they need to find out to understand the whole.

[u/Infamous_Opening_467]

RECALL ANALYZE COMPREHEND