Knowledge[Local] : How Local?

[Angel Tarragon]

I always just took it as Knowledge (local) and assumed it was knowing the odds and ends of various cultures and areas, kind of like having a farmer's almanac in your head.

Yes, just like knowledge: history is not history of one place- local knowledge is like history, but current- or you could say what happened 2 minutes ago is history and make a history check...

However, what is the true difference between local knowledge of an area and the history of an area? Basically I have folded the two skills for my homebrew into a skill called [Local] Lore. So if a character has skills in Dragonspire Mountains Lore, the she can make a check to know the customs of both of the differing customs of two Orc tribes, their histories and important Orcs of the past and present.

 

[Thanee]

I always wonder why Knowledge (local) is good for knowing stuff about humanoid creatures...

Bye
Thanee

 

[Tonguez]

I use it as the Knowledge: General Knowledge type thing

eg Bob is from Oz (His Knowledge: Local DC for Oz is 0/5) now over the course of adventure he has ended up in the City of Gotham. Bob is able to recall certain tidbits and rumours he's heard over the years like Gotham is known for its Brockworst (and has an annual Brockworst festival), has a high population of Dwarfs, is governed by Commisioner Gord and is haunted by a Werebat.

 

[Ryltar]

As was already stated by several posters, I also use it in a way that it must be taken separately for each location the character wants to know about, e.g. Knowledge (Sigil), Knowledge (City of Brass) and so on. Everything else would reduce Bardic Knowledge to total uselessness (aside from being not very realistic).

 

[sfedi]

I don't separate the skill in locales.
Although I apply circumstance modifiers that can be reduced by stayin in the area a suitable amount of time (perhaps determined by the resutl of Gather Info checks)
Any other way, would be to give the skill the shaft.
Note that this skill not only applies to local knowledge, but general knowledge such as humanoids (their customs, behaviour, strenghts, weaknesess, abilities, etc.)

 

[drnuncheon]

For a long time my Freeport game was set in Freeport only (crazy, eh?) so I never had to worry about this. When it started to encompass the mainland, I ruled that rather than focing my players to buy ranks in lots of knowledge skills, they could apply their skill to places they had spent a certain amount of time in - the one character's barony, for instance. It seemed to work well.

J

 

[Scion]

It seems to me that, at worst, it should be treated like the language skill. Get your single rank and know all about it. That way someone could have knowledge of many places they have lived for little cost.

Of course, that is well into houserule territory

 

[nobodez]

well...

I am of two minds on this.

First off, I prefer to side with WotC, and make it per region (whatever that is defined as). For example, in the PgtF, you have Local (waterdeep), and Local (the Vast), etc. In LG, you have Local (Nyrond Metaregion) and Local (Core), admittedly slightly larger regions.

Secondly, I play d20M, and I prefer the Current Events knowledge instead of Local. Move Humanoids to nature, and rename Local to Current Events.

 

[aco175]

It seems like it depends on how big your areas are going to be. The balance is between making it useful to the characters for the amount of points they are going to spend. Say you are to have the party spend most of their time on one or two regions, then fine, divide it any wayyou want. It you plan to take the party everywhere in the world and into the planes then you might want to expand the area of how far the check will allow.

I always found that the knowledge skills and several of the other ones come in less handy than others, as a whole. Maybe give the players a break on the number of skills that breakdown into groups and let them spend their points on more valuable skills.

I like the point about -2 for neighboring regions and maybe throw -4 for all others.

 

[Saeviomagy]

As it is in the core rules, it covers EVERYWHERE. You know stuff about wherever you happen to be.

Even as that, it's an uncommon skill for PC's to take, because, frankly, it sucks.

So don't go out of your way to make it suck more. If you're going to break it down into regional skills, then you should seriously beef up the range of things it can tell you about.