Bardic Knowledge

Have you ever met those people that always seem to know a little bit about every subject you ever bring up? They're not necessarily super geniuses about it, but they could hold down a basic conversation on anything from particle physics to wood working to pop music stars. Even the most obscure subjects, like medieval European romance literature, they know one or two famous authors' names. 

This is what we call bardic knowledge, and that is one of my favorite phrases. It comes from the old days, when bards were a thing. They were traveling minstrels, singing songs of great heroes and epic adventures.

As a bard, traveling from town to town, they talked with everybody who would listen. But they also heard what others had to say. Bards were charismatic characters and can coax others to tell much. As a result, they knew who was important in every town. They understood politics on both a large and small scale. The same is true for mercantilism and religion and science and anything else that was worth remembering. 

Bards are explicitly not experts. Except for their skills in talking and singing, they generally have only cursory exposure to things. This bardic knowledge was usually quite enough, though to get out of a sticky situation when one arises (knowing what berries aren't poisonous, which politician's name to drop, which ingredients can be mixed to make a healing salve). 

These people more often are supporting characters; they have something to pull out of their hat to save the day, but they are so aloof that they are going on the adventure for laughs and experiences to sing about. Still, they are fun to have around, and a great way to introduce random knowledge or facts.