Common, Recalled, Obscure
I've been reading a post by Random Ape Encounter about knowledge checks. One quote that stuck to me:
Perception is basically a solved issue for me; Landmark, Hidden, Secret covers most cases, and in games that still have a Perception and/or Insight skill, I tend to use it sort of like a Perception Save.
It made me think a heretical thought. What if you use L/H/S for character knowledge as well? I've unconsciously done this already. A classic example is a character with a fitting background so of course they'd know the common tools used for woodworking. If if felt unreasonable, I'd call for for an x-in-6 or similar roll. So it kind of works like L/H/S, but it's missing a taxonomy.
Enter Common, Recalled, Obscure. Use this for lore, memories, and expertise, whenever someone asks "Would a player character know this?"
Common
It's the Landmark information. It's free, requires no roll, and no time.
Common refers to local knowledge that would come up in ordinary conversations. Let's say somehow you decided a player character is from a local town (even though you probably shouldn't). If that's the case, that character would know about the folk tales, who rules this place, what's used as currency, and the obvious threats this town faces.
Another example is background, occupation, or class knowledge. A cleric would know the customs of their god and the people who worship them. If a character background says they were a cobbler, then this character would know a lot about shoes (maybe with strong opinions on wargames as well).
Anything the players have personally seen or learned in play should fall into this category as well, even if they don't remember. There's nothing to be gained by holding that information back.
Same goes for any information they must know for a situation to make sense. You need information to make informed choices after all.
All of this is free information and should be provided and restated whenever someone might have forgotten.
Recalled
This is the Hidden information. It is guaranteed, requires no roll, but comes at a cost.
Recalled information isn't obtained by default, but it's easy enough to retrieve with some fictional cost. If you pay the cost, you get the correct answer.
The most common resource used is time. The character spends a turn thinking, maybe they check their notes, the characters compare stories for clues, or someone consults a book. This can come from memory or looking something up, either way, the point is that it's reliable if you take the time.
Another cost is access. The player character knows where to get the answer, but it's not here. The cost is moving to a different location, consulting a specific person, or using a specific resource like a library. This is often a harsher cost because it naturally also involves time. But again the players know they'll get the answer when they pay the cost.
If time and access don't cut it, the third possible cost is exposure. You can get the information, but you risk the attention or obligation. The patrol takes note, your contact comes through and now you owe a favor, word get's around that you're asking questions.
The difference between Common information and Recalled information is what your character gets for free versus what you only get when you spend some time or resources to retrieve it. Recalled also requires the players to ask for it.
Obscure
This is the Secret information. It comes with a cost and information is uncertain. You need to roll.
Obscure is for when the answer is rare, technical, or contested, or when time pressure or danger prevents you from retrieving it with certainty.
It requires fictional cost and additionally has the chance of failing to obtain the information, so you roll. I'd suggest to make it a x-in-6 roll or whatever your system of choice uses for a luck roll. Using actual skill checks is fine too, just pick what fits the situation. The roll measures whether you connect the right dots under pressure.
The important part is that failure should never result in a roadblock. On a miss, you can give correct but incomplete information (partial truth), give two plausible answers (A and B), give a lead on how to find the actual answer, or give an actionable tell. For example you don't recall anything about this blood-dripping sword stuck in the stone, but it looks ancient and dangerous.
The difference between Recalled information and Obscure information is that Recalled is recoverable with certainty, while Obscure is not recoverable with certainty right now. Time for Recalled is payment. Spend enough of it and you get a correct answer. Time for Obscure is a constraint. You don't have enough time or safety to be methodical, so you roll. Access and exposure get reframed the sam way. For Obscure, access might be necessary just to get an attempt. Exposure buys you a shot, not certainty.
Usage
If a character has no plausible way of knowing something, then they simply don't know it. But make sure crucial information is still available somehow. Either give it for free, provide a reliable way to obtain it, or at least make it clear how it could be learned. Don't hide necessities behind a single failed roll.
Otherwise, it's just going down the list:
- Decide if something is Common for the characters. If it is, tell them without asking.
- If it isn't, decide if it's Recalled. Could they retrieve it with certainty by paying time/access/exposure? If yes, it's Recalled.
- If they can't buy certainty under the current conditions make it Obscure and roll.
Conclusion
While Landmark, Hidden, Secret describes the spatial or observational, Common, Recalled, Obscure describes the cognitive or informational. One is for what you get by looking at the world and interacting, while the other is what you get by asking or consulting memory and references.
Like I said, I'm not sure if this needed an extra taxonomy, but I was inspired. L/H/S is just one of the frameworks that changed my thinking about how I run games, and I can't help trying to use it for everything.