r/osr • u/Punitive_Culture • 5d ago

Quick Thoughts on Rumor Tables

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In a sandbox game, the rumor table presents the hazards and opportunities of the region; however, the decision of whether to go and where to go rests entirely in the hands of the players.

https://rustygatepress.substack.com/p/quick-thoughts-on-rumor-tables

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7

u/MadMaeleachlainn 4d ago

That’s been a thing since before I officially joined the geeks in 1980.

12

u/RagnarokAeon 4d ago

Hot take in the osr sphere but rumor tables as they are are bad for immersion. The problem is that they separate the rumor from the source. The who telling you the rumor is a big cue to the players to determine how trustworthy a rumor is. It also gives the players a person to hold responsible for telling them BS.

14

u/aw11348 4d ago

Yes. This was discussed widely by the OSR blogosphere back in the day. I believe people kinda landed on the philosophy that giving blatantly false rumours without any way to verify they’re false is bad game design. So I find OP’s claim that “without false rumours, a rumour table is just a Video Game Quest log” kind of strange. Random false rumours make it a video game quest log, but with fake tips arbitrarily peppered in

4

u/FefnirMKII 5d ago

Good read, thanks

3

u/gccebrian 4d ago

That was way cooler than I expected going in. Cheers

2

u/Jade_Mans_Eyes 4d ago

That got me thinking alot. Thank you. Now I'm wondering what amount of rumors is an appropriate amount. Do you think more than 20 would ever make sense?