Knowledge (local) on Faerun

[Gaiden]

I had an idea for an easy way to get adventures going on Faerun: have a Sage who specializes in local knowledge for every locale on Faerun and publish an "Adventurer's Guide to the Realms". In this publication there would be sections on places hiring for merceneraies, various ruins, treasure hunter spots, bios on famous people in the Realms, etc. However, while going through the FRC book I was wondering how I should divide up the geography to local areas. I would imagine that simply splitting it up by country would be too broad. However, I don't want to have to split it up by every single major location, i.e. Knowledge: local - Waterdeep, Knowledge: local - Menzobarranzon, etc.

What suggestions do any of you have?

 

[Nvvyn]

Sounds fairly interesting. I personally am about to start running a FRC and the only area I currently plan on using is the north. Ranging from icewind dale down to baldurs gate, and water deep to SilveryMoon. So You could do just "The North"
or perhaps "The North" for one, then "The Sword Coast" for antoher, then your on ur own, i'm not familiar with many other places. ohh. "The DaleLands" hehehe.

 

[Gaiden]

Good Suggestions, but I am thinking even those are too broad. Does anyone have a list of locations that they have already made up?

 

[Davelozzi]

Sorry, I don't have a list for you. What I usually do with several of the Knowledge skills (local, geography, history, and nobility & royalty) is let the player choose a category as specific or as broad as he or she desires then just assign DC modifiers to checks as appropriate.

For example, if a character took Knowledge (geography: Silver Marches) I'd assume they know the general locations of all of the major signatories, and have a fairly easy DC to locate some of the smaller towns such as Deadsnows or Newfort.

A character with Knowledge (geography: The North) I'd give a fairly easy DC to locate the cities of the Marches but a reasonably difficult DC to locate the smaller towns and villages.

For a character with Knowledge (geography: Faerun) I'd make the DC average to locate major cities in the marches, difficult for smaller towns, and extremely difficult for the small villages. Of course, they'd have the same odds in the Moonsea where as the player with Knowledge (geography: Silver Marches) would have no chance, or a nearly impossible to beat DC.

 

[Nvvyn]

Ohhh, I really like that idea, however, I believe a character should recieve several free skill points in knowledge of the land, just because they have lived there for 20 years! and for any ancient race such as elves or dwarves, give them a MUCH larger bonus to these skills. Prolly like 12-15 skill for the town they live in, 5-8 for the region they live in, and maybe 1 for fearun in general. (thats for humans)

for ancient races, i'd give like a 4-8 for Fearun, (while living in the world for 200 years, you tend to here many tales about it as well as see many maps of the world and learn general knowledge thorugh schooling i'm sure) and then like 15-18 for their hometown, 10ish for their region, etc...

I certainly don't think they should have to expend skill points for knowledge they pickup naturally throughout their lives. And its most likely something you can't prevent.
To justify this, people don't just learn knowledge: arcana in the first 20 years of thier lives, its something that has to be taught and most likely paid for (hence spending the skill points to learn it) whereas anyone can learn a great deal of knowledge about an area if they are given 20 or 200 years to do so.

then again, i suppose this would be more of a house rule.. hehehe.

 

[Geoff Watson]

I suggest using the 'regions' as per FRCS p28-30 as the local areas. Having too many areas will prevent most characters from learning much about areas, as most characters don't have many skill points.
Give everyone 2 skill points in their local area knowledge skill.

Geoff.

 

[Gaiden]

After reviewing the FRCS a bit further I came across Elminister's stats including his skills which are listed as: ... Knowledge (local) +17, ...

The knowledge is not designated to any specific region. Have I been reading Knowledge (local) incorrectly? - i.e. do you simply take the skill once and it includes all localities?

 

[Anders]

Errata

According to the FRCS errata there is no general Knowledge (local) skill in Faerûn. To use the skill, it must be applied to a region, as in Knowledge ([region] local).

For instance, Knowledge (Amn local) is a separate skill from Knowledge (Tehtyr local).

For underground settings, I use the major settlement as a "region", such as Knowledge (Menzoberranzan local). With such a skill the player (or NPC) can encompass the nearby underground as well (perhaps within a 10 mile radius or more).

Other skills with a focus in a region grants a +2 bonus to the check, such as Knowledge (Silver Marches geography) when used to pertain facts concercing the focused region. It is a no-brainer to get focused skills in Faerûn.