Knowledge local tweak

[Moggthegob]

It occurs to me that eberron is a big big lace and that knowledge local is the tpe of skill that makes sense to have different regions attached to it.

I propose splitting the skill into different section:
Knowledge local south: Breland, Zilargo, Darguun
Knowledge local West: Shadow Marches, Droaam Eldeen Reaches Aundair
Knowledge local south: Thrane Karrnath thronehold
Knowledge local East: Talenta, Mror Holds, Valenar Lhazaar Principalities
Q'barra and Demon Wastes are too exotic to really be lumped with anyone else I feel and of course

Knowledge local: Sarlona
Knowledge local: Aerenal

I do not know how any of the judges really feel about spreading out this skill but i dont feel as though a universal Knowledge local for the whole world makes any kind of sense

 

[stonegod]

Ugh. NO. Faerun ruined Kn: local by putting it in folks minds that you need a separate skill for each region. Its a general knowledge of places, peoples and things (Kn: local is a bad name for it anyway). By that logic, you should have one skill for each Plane for Kn: Plane and each natural region for Kn: nature, etc. Skill points are scarce enough anyway, and in LEB, pretty much no one would ever take anything other than that which includes Sharn unless for RP reason.

In addition, it confuses Kn: local's ability to identify humanoids (which is the major type of creature archivists cannot manipulate via Dark Knowledge).

Edit: Don't take this the wrong way. I've just had this debate too many times.

 

[Bront]

I agree with stonegod.

NO

GMs are free to adjust the difficulty if they need to on a particular roll if they feel that the subjects actual local knowledge would be an issue.

 

[Wik]

Yeah. Big no on this one. Players who take Local as a skill are already taking a hit, since knowledge skills are seldom used in comparison to, say, Spot. Why hinder them even more, in favour of "realism"?

A variant I've heard of is players choosing an area that they get a "focus" in - so that if they have Knowledge/Local (Sharn), for example, they get a +2 on checks made in Sharn, but suffer no penalty otherwise. People that know cities might know one city fairly well - but can find their way around any city without too much problem.