Knowledge is everything

[Ian Freeman]

A very rough idea for doing something with sorcerer, looking for criticism.

Okay... demons are demons and what not, but they have one other little ability: they are eternal. How is that impressive? It gets better. They have always existed everywhere and always will. They have perfect memories. They can perceive (from their demon realm, or whatever) everything that happens.

What does this mean. Demons know EVERYTHING. Period. Anything and everything that has ever happened anywhere in the universe is known to at least one demon. They could quite literally give a PC "The nice and accurate unabridged history of the universe" on a pile of DVDs the size of a mountain.

This is the ultimate bargaining chip: we're not just talking some secrets man was not meant to know: we're talking all of them.

Every little detail about God (or not, if ther isn't one), they can provide an answer to any question. For a price. A big one. A really, really big one.

Think about it. How much would a sorcerer give to have access to this kind of knowledge. The answer? anything and everything.

thoughts?

[jburneko]

Interesting concept with one little tiny drawback.  If the demons know EVERYTHING, it means the GM must know EVERYTHING.  Yeah, the GM doesn't REALLY have to know EVERYTHING, just EVERYTHING at is it pertains his version of universe but that's still an awful lot of detail the GM either has to think through or make up on the fly.  And then of course there's all the logical ramifications of that new detail.

I mean with ALL the things that have been debated throughout history how many of them have objective answers the Demon (and by proxy the GM) must either guess at or make up.  And what about things that are subjective?

Just my quick thoughts.

Jesse

[Ian Freeman]

For subjective things, then they get the demons personal outlook on it because this knowledge is being conveyed to them by the demon.

If it is relevant, the GM knows it. If finding out would ruin the story the GM doesn't tell. If it is irrelevant the character probably doesn't want to know because the price is very high (the demon would demand something of the character). Or, if the player is determined to find out and the GM doesn't know they can either make it up or have the demon lie.

demon's love to lie. Especially when they know the Truth

[Ron Edwards]

I suggest that if the demons know everything, it does NOT imply that the GM must therefore know everything.

Think of the "awful secrets" in Lovecraft or any good horror story. Does the author KNOW those things? No need. All he needs to come up with are the OUTCOMES of "knowing things."

I'm too wiped-out to come up with some examples, but I think that Ian's idea is very, very playable.

Best,
Ron