Knowledge:Local... What is meant by Local?

[awayfarer]

At the start of my Eberron campaign I gave every PC a point in Knowledge:Local that applies to their town/place of origin. I feel that there aren't any guidelines as to what is meant by the term "local" though. I've been thinking along three lines...

1: Knowledge:Local applies specifically to the town a PC grew up in. I feel like this makes the most sense; after all how much more "local" can you get than that? On the other hand, it creates a problem for PC's who were nomadic and makes the skill fairly useless if a PC hailed from, say, Ratville (Pop 34). It also means that it's a crappy skill if PC's travel alot.

2: Knowledge:Local applies to a region, such as Breland in Eberron or Zathisk in the Scarred Lands. Broadening the skill to an entire region makes it much more useful, and it's not terribly difficult to believe that a PC would learn something about the area/country that they grew up in. I'm leaning towards this.

3: Knowledge:Local is a skill that can be applied anywhere one travels. A point in this skill lets a PC know something about any area they travel in. Seems a bit much and the only (weak) justification for it that I can see is that there is nothing explicitly stating that the skill is limited to an area.

Anyone? How have you used this skill in your games?

 

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I've used for a region, such as Tethyr in the Forgotten Realms. Not sure if this is right though.

Cheers


Richard

 

[Ryltar]

It is (deliberately?) vague, I think. The way I've always handled it is to confine the (local) descriptor to specific places and/ or regions in the campaign world.

For example: as a native to that city, you could gain ranks in Knowledge (local [Baldur's Gate]).

As to the question of which locales would qualify for this skill ... well ... that's a bit of DM's fiat IMO. I used it for every major city, as well as larger, less developed regions. To continue the Forgotten Realms example:

Knowledge (Baldur's Gate)
Knowledge (Amn)
Knowledge (Candlekeep)

would all be valid choices, as well as

Knowledge (Cormanthyr)
Knowledge (The Hordelands) <-- as an example for a region that is less developed/detailed than the rest.

The "downside" of this, if any, is, that PCs that travel far from their home region won't benefit from their skill points. But that's the way I understand the skill. Otherwise, (local) would just be a generic descriptor for "being adept at translating hearsay and asking for directions" ... Something about the same Knowledge (local) skill being used in both Amn and Candlekeep, for example, would rub me the wrong way.

 

[Perun]

At the start of my Eberron campaign I gave every PC a point in Knowledge:Local that applies to their town/place of origin. I feel that there aren't any guidelines as to what is meant by the term "local" though. I've been thinking along three lines...

1: Knowledge:Local applies specifically to the town a PC grew up in. I feel like this makes the most sense; after all how much more "local" can you get than that? On the other hand, it creates a problem for PC's who were nomadic and makes the skill fairly useless if a PC hailed from, say, Ratville (Pop 34). It also means that it's a crappy skill if PC's travel alot.

2: Knowledge:Local applies to a region, such as Breland in Eberron or Zathisk in the Scarred Lands. Broadening the skill to an entire region makes it much more useful, and it's not terribly difficult to believe that a PC would learn something about the area/country that they grew up in. I'm leaning towards this.

3: Knowledge:Local is a skill that can be applied anywhere one travels. A point in this skill lets a PC know something about any area they travel in. Seems a bit much and the only (weak) justification for it that I can see is that there is nothing explicitly stating that the skill is limited to an area.

Anyone? How have you used this skill in your games?

I think option #3 is the way to go in Eberron. If you look at the Player's Guide to Eberron, each entry lists Knowledge (local), without specifying it further.

Option #2 is the official verison used in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. Player's Guide to Faerûn (and the errata file, IIRC) list all available Knowledge (local) categories.

Regards.

 

[Tonguez]

Option 3

Knowledge Local is the the skill of taking in and accumulating various facts, stories, tidbits and 'legends' about 'other places' especially those in which a person travels.

Marco Polo had the skill as should all DnD adventurers

In a place like Eberron with its mass transit system and recent war people do know about other places and may even have meet some people from there.

and if Knowledge Planes lets me know about Every Plane then Knowledge Local should let me know about every Locale

 

[RigaMortus2]

option 3

 

[hong]

Option 3

Knowledge Local is the the skill of taking in and accumulating various facts, stories, tidbits and 'legends' about 'other places' especially those in which a person travels.

Marco Polo had the skill as should all DnD adventurers

In a place like Eberron with its mass transit system and recent war people do know about other places and may even have meet some people from there.

and if Knowledge Planes lets me know about Every Plane then Knowledge Local should let me know about every Locale

Seems more like Gather Information to me.

 

[Klaus]

Option 3.

To me, Knowledge (local) gives you the kind of information you'd find in a travel guide. Not extensive history (that's Knowldge [history]) or accurate landmarks (that's Knowledge [geography]), but lots of minor stuff that are useful to a traveler.

 

[wingsandsword]

Option 2 is the standard in the Forgotten Realms, that essentially every region is a separate knowledge skill.

Option 3 is what is generally presumed for other settings though. I'd say it means a character knows about where they grew up/currently live and "automatically" find out about the local areas they visit or hear about as they travel.

 

[Tonguez]

Seems more like Gather Information to me.

I see Knowledge Local as more passive and less specific in its content and I'll give two examples to illustrate:

Game
Knowledge Local: Lavender Street is the citys Red Ligt District
Gather Info: Madame Collette runs the Red Sun Apartments, a brothel and boarding house where company of many different species can be found.

Real World
Knowledge Local: Gallipoli Peninsula is in Turkey extending into the Dardanelles and here many ANZAC soldiers died
Gather Info: Civilisation ends about 10 miles from Anzac Cove, the road is sealed however.