I'm not a huge fan of RPG Design discourse. I know what I enjoy in tabletop games and my openness to embracing new ideas extends to adventures and rulesets rather than abstracted diatribes and forge-era "theory". I love hearing about the obscure media and radical thought that inspires the brilliant worlds practitioners of this weird hobby continue to create, but for the life of me I can't recall an occasion where anyone's Appendix N included a patronising twitter thread.
So let's keep this brief.
False rumours can be bad. Exhibit A:
The Bewilderbeast can only be harmed by ROOT VEGETABLES
CONSEQUENCE:
Player 1: My fighter attacks the Bewilderbeast with a carrot.
GM: Roll to hit.
Player 1: 15... hits AC3! Am I good?
GM (makes performatively furtive eye movements, giggles etc.) uhhh... yeah. I mean.. you HIT the beast... with a CARROT! The Bewilderbeast remains unharmed!
TPK ensues. Sad!
But they can also be FUN (if not GOOD):
RUMOUR:
The colonialists plundered the Old Kingdom's mines, loaded their wagons and headed to the hills. They were set upon by Winged Terrors near CREEPERS CREEK and the wagons of gold were never recovered.
CONSEQUENCE
The party head to Creeper's Creek to recover the lost gold... but the legend is false, the gold was recovered long ago. Nonetheless there's a weird druid guy, a cool place to build a fort and a cave network that they can go and check out now that they're here.
Why not just post a rumour that Creeper's Creek has a cool place to build a fort and a cave and a druid?
Because uniformed idiots are part of what makes a world seem real, and the promise of gold that isn't there will compel them to continue to explore in a way that vague notions about a weird druid will not.
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