I always go with “this is what you can figure out/read on the manual/some old guy in a pub said” and stick with that, because it feels weird to me to outright lie to players about a game mechanic.
For everything, whether they have it totally figured out or not. I set this expectation in session 0 though, because otherwise the party will spend 6 hours trying to investigate a normal wooden chest because I said “as far as you can tell it’s a normal chest” and they took that to mean “… But there’s more you CAN’T tell”
Maybe it’s just easier to lie… I should try that more often.
I always go with “this is what you can figure out/read on the manual/some old guy in a pub said” and stick with that, because it feels weird to me to outright lie to players about a game mechanic.
For everything, whether they have it totally figured out or not. I set this expectation in session 0 though, because otherwise the party will spend 6 hours trying to investigate a normal wooden chest because I said “as far as you can tell it’s a normal chest” and they took that to mean “… But there’s more you CAN’T tell”
Maybe it’s just easier to lie… I should try that more often.