Player Knowledge and Character Knowledge

Two Kinds of Knowledge

The Shattered Imperium distinguishes between player knowledge and character knowledge.

Player knowledge is anything the person playing the game knows.

Character knowledge is anything their character has learned, witnessed, studied, inferred, or been told within the story.

A player may recognize an enemy from Warhammer 40,000 lore while their character has never encountered that creature. A player may see another character’s race or class on a visible sheet while their character has not yet spoken to them. A player may understand the mechanics of a psychic power without knowing its exact origin.

Players should make decisions based primarily on what their characters reasonably know.

Visible Character Information

Friends & Fables may display a character’s race, class, level, abilities, statistics, equipment, and other mechanical details.

This information should not automatically be treated as secret from the players.

Important campaign twists should not depend entirely on hiding a player character’s visible race, class, or obvious faction identity.

For example, a visible Tzeentch Cultist race entry cannot support a long-term twist in which the other players are expected to believe the character is an ordinary Imperial citizen. A visible Chaos Astartes character should not rely on the group overlooking their nature merely because the story has not formally announced it.

The characters may still lack exact knowledge. They might recognize that someone is heavily mutated without knowing the cause, or identify an armored warrior as Astartes without knowing their Chapter, allegiance, or personal history.

Recognizable Traits

Some features are obvious within the story.

A Kroot’s species, an Ogryn’s size, a Tech-Priest’s augmentations, an Astartes warrior’s physical scale, or an Ork’s appearance usually cannot be hidden during normal interaction.

Other details may require knowledge or investigation.

A common soldier may not recognize the markings of a distant Space Marine Chapter. A civilian may confuse xenos technology with forbidden human machinery. A damaged Necron may be mistaken for an ancient automaton. A concealed mutation may remain unnoticed beneath armor or robes.

Franz should consider visibility, local knowledge, disguises, lighting, distance, and character expertise before deciding what is recognized.

Setting Knowledge

Characters should know information appropriate to their origin and experience.

An Imperial citizen may know that the Emperor protects humanity, mutants are dangerous, psykers are feared, and xenos cannot be trusted. Much of this knowledge may be distorted by propaganda, local superstition, or religious teaching.

A Guardsman may understand military ranks, common weapons, battlefield signals, and basic enemy recognition.

A Tech-Priest may understand machinery, sacred maintenance rites, and Mechanicus doctrine while knowing little about ordinary social customs.

A Kroot may recognize mercenary practices, prey behavior, genetic traits, and xenos trade routes.

An Aeldari may know ancient history or Warp dangers that most humans would consider impossible.

Knowledge should reflect culture and training rather than giving every character the same understanding of the galaxy.

Lore Checks

When a character may know something uncertain, Franz can call for an ability check.

Possible skills include:

• Arcana for psychic phenomena, Warp effects, or supernatural forces

• History for wars, worlds, factions, and major events

• Investigation for evidence, data archives, machinery, and hidden patterns

• Nature for alien wildlife, hostile environments, and biological threats

• Religion for faiths, cults, daemons, saints, and sacred symbols

• Medicine for anatomy, wounds, mutations, and biological modification

• Technology-related proficiencies when granted by class, background, feat, or tool

A failed check does not always mean complete ignorance. Franz may provide partial, outdated, biased, or uncertain information.

Private Motives and Secrets

Characters may possess secrets even when their basic character information is visible.

Appropriate secrets include:

• Hidden orders

• Forbidden contacts

• Unpaid debts

• Secret loyalties

• Past crimes

• Personal goals

• Unknown ancestry

• Concealed mutations

• Unreported psychic symptoms

• Stolen relics

• Prior relationships

• False names

• Knowledge withheld from the party

These secrets should create choices and roleplaying opportunities.

They should not require players to ignore obvious information or make knowingly unreasonable decisions.

A secret is strongest when the visible information is true but incomplete.

Secret Allegiance

A character may secretly serve a faction, but that allegiance must be plausible alongside their visible identity.

An Imperial officer might secretly report to an Inquisitor. A mercenary might be paid by a rival employer. A Tech-Priest might correspond with hereteks. A Kroot hunter might be collecting genetic samples for their kindred. A renegade might still protect an Imperial settlement for personal reasons.

The secret should concern motive, orders, or loyalty rather than contradicting everything visible on the sheet.

Franz should avoid making the campaign depend on permanent deception between players unless everyone has agreed that such play is welcome.

Separate Scenes

Players may sometimes witness scenes their characters do not.

This may occur when the party splits, one character receives a private message, or Franz shows an event happening elsewhere.

Players should not use that information unless their characters later learn it.

However, separate scenes should be used carefully. Important information should eventually have a path back into shared play through testimony, evidence, communication, investigation, or consequences.

No player should be excluded from the campaign’s main story because crucial information remains permanently trapped in private scenes.

Mechanical Knowledge

Players are allowed to understand the game’s rules.

They may know that an enemy is concentrating on an ability, that a condition limits movement, that cover improves defense, or that certain resources recover after a rest.

Using mechanical knowledge is not automatically inappropriate.

Problems arise when a player uses statistics their character could not reasonably know, such as exact hit points, hidden saving-throw bonuses, undiscovered immunities, or the full details of an unidentified relic.

Franz should describe observable effects clearly enough that players can make informed decisions without needing secret statistics.

Learning Through Observation

Characters can learn from what they witness.

A warrior may realize an enemy resists ordinary ammunition after several attacks fail to harm it. A psyker may recognize a familiar Warp pattern. A Tech-Priest may identify a weapon after seeing it discharge. A veteran may estimate an opponent’s strength from their armor and tactics.

Franz should reward attention, research, experimentation, and successful checks.

Knowledge gained during play should remain useful later.

Handling Accidental Knowledge

Players will occasionally act on information their characters should not possess.

Minor mistakes should normally be corrected without punishment.

Franz may ask:

• How would your character know that?

• Would your character recognize this?

• Are you acting on what you saw or what your character learned?

• Would you like to make a check?

If the action still makes sense for another reason, play may continue.

The goal is not to trap players in technical mistakes. The goal is to preserve fair mysteries, believable decisions, and meaningful discovery.

Designing Better Mysteries

Strong mysteries should not rely on hiding basic character labels.

Instead, they should involve:

• Uncertain motives

• Conflicting testimony

• Altered records

• Disguised operations

• Secret objectives

• Competing factions

• False interpretations

• Incomplete evidence

• Manipulated communications

• Double agents

• Relics with misunderstood purposes

• Enemies using others as unwitting tools

Players may know that a character is a psyker without knowing who trained them, what speaks through their dreams, or why an Inquisitor wants them alive.

They may know that a companion belongs to a Chaos-aligned class without knowing whether that character seeks ascension, revenge, redemption, or betrayal.

Visible information establishes the question.

The campaign reveals the answer.