How long does it take to know What You Know?

[Angela Christine]

http://www.armageddon.org/intro/whatyouknow.html

The What You Know files tell you what you know if you grew up in a location.  No massive secrets, just general information that most residents would know, so that you fit in and don't feel like a newbie in your own home town.

But what if it isn't your home town?  How long would it take to learn this stuff through just living in a place, soaking up the atmosphere, and listening to vNPCs talk about whatever they talk about?  A month?  10 years?  Never?  Obviously if another PC comes right out and tells you you can learn it your first day in town, but how long does it take to find out without that PC-PC interaction?


AC

[Larrath]

I usually go with this:  If my character is going to sit around at taverns and is talkative, he might go to the board and read the one or two most recent rumors.  After one or two RL days, I let him read all the rumors on the board.

About the What You Know, however, it depends.

An Allanaki in Tuluk might take as much as a month until finally asking someone what's up with those messed up tattoos, and probably not be able to 'read' them even after he does find out.

A Tuluki in Allanak will know what the gems mean either immediately or after several IC days, simply because they are things that people tend to refer to.

It all depends on your character and what they know...if they know nothing, I'd give them some very minimal knowledge (this is how you recognize a templar/noble, this is generally how you act, these are the Houses), as well as more common knowledge (Grey Forest has halflings, uhh, the salt flats have salt).  If your character remained in a place for over an IC month or so, it is fair to give them practically all information in the What You Know documents.

I also think Tuluk is generally more complex than Allanak, so I'd have a Northerner adjust much faster than a Southerner.

Whatever happens, I usually only have my foreigners learn the practical things, without the history bit.

[Bestatte]

My opinion on the subject:

My first character's background had her born and raised on an erdlu farm outside Tuluk, but I popped her into the game in Allanak. According to her background she had traveled to Nak a year prior and spent that last year learning the city and its ways. I figured that would be enough time to learn the general idea of "How Things Are In Allanak" but still be new enough to get stuck with the occasional braindead moment, thus justifying my newbie ignorance.

If you're from Tuluk, I think it's reasonable for you to know this about Allanak automatically:

1) It exists and is south of where you are.
2) Evil magickers run free in their cities (insert any random myth about what evil magickers do here - Tulukis would likely believe it - suckers!)
3) There is an enormous statue of a hideous scary ugly nasty lizard-creature outside the gate.
4) It is controlled by their version of the templarate, who are mean nasty ugly horrible people who kill law-abiding citizens on a whim while letting their vile evil nasty horrible magickers run loose.
5) They are surrounded by sand.
6) Tektolnes is their sorcerer-king, and he promotes evil nasty magicks as an acceptable way of life - assuming he is alive, which is questionable at best.

If you're from Allanak, I think it's reasonable for you to know this about Tuluk automatically:
1) It exists and is north of where you are.
2) There are no magickers in Tuluk. This might be because their evil vile nasty sorcerer king has corrupted the minds of his minions and magickally rendered his people utterly useless - assuming he is alive, which is questionable at best.
3) The city is surrounded on all sides by raiders, mostly elves, because they never bothered putting up a statue of their sorcerer king to scare the raiders away.
4) It is controlled by their version of the templarate, who are about as effective at doing this as a round room with a Nenyuk in the middle trying to find a 'sid in the corner.

If you're from outside one of the two cities, you would know very little, and probably only what your clan IMM tells you that you know, or whatever is in your docs about how your clan does business/trade with the particular city.