Knowledge (local)

[0-hr]

When you take Knowledge (Local) shouldn't you have to specify a location? If so, what is the granularity: city, kingdom, continent? And would you then have to take Knowledge (Local) multiple times in order to be familiar with different area?

 

[dren]

Yes, "local" really should be a specified location.

Depending upon how specific you get; city vs province vs nation vs continent vs planet, will vary the varying degree of information you get, or that's the way I've always DMed. ymmv...

 

[dvvega]

As far as the rules are concered, Knowledge (local) is not clear if it means the local area in which you grew up/trained, or just the local area of where you are at that moment.

In my campaign I allow it to cover any location the players are in as long as it is a civilised place. It represents the rumours and information everyone seems to know about the cities around them.

Take modern society for instance: if you ask people about Sydney Australia they may respond by saying - Olympics 2000, Prime Minister John Howard, Iraq, Baali Bombing. All bits of common knowledge. They won't have to be Sydney-siders to know this, just have Knowledge (local).

Of course I do limit the Knowledge check (read: -ve modifiers) if they're in a country they never heard of, or their culture is so different that local customs and indicators do not match.

 

[Spatula]

Yes, it should. The granularity of the selected area/culture/organization/whatever would affect the DCs: a very "broad" choice will know general information (rulers, power groups, cultural traditions, etc.) about lots of areas, but have very high DCs to recall more obscure information. As the scope narrows, the DCs go down.

For example, someone with Knowledge (local: nation X) is in city Y (that is located in nation X) and wants to know who heads the Thieves Guild there, it might be a DC 20 check. But for someone with Knowledge (local: city Y), it would only be a DC 15 check. And it might be a DC 30 check for someone with Knowledge (local: continent Z).

 

[Steve Jung]

This is the way the Forgotten Realms does it. The scale is fairly large—a country (e.g. Cormyr) or group of city-states (e.g. Silver Marches). Generally, the areas are a few hundred miles across. Each Knowledge (Local—area) must be taken separately.

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

I don't agree. I think that K(local) should not be separated into a bunch of different skills, nor is that implied in the core rules.

My reasons:

a) Characters don't have enough skill points as is to justify 500 different types of K(local).

b) Even maxed out, I don't see K(local) as being all that great in the first place.

c) How is it any different than a character learning about every plane in existence, or every religion, or all nobility on the planet? Or even the entire history of the world? You would have to do the same thing to K(the planes, religion, nobility and royalty, and history).


So sure, if you want to make sure no one ever takes K(local) without being utterly nuts or forced to by the DM, be my guest.

 

[Spatula]

I don't agree. I think that K(local) should not be separated into a bunch of different skills, nor is that implied in the core rules.

A character with at least 5 ranks in Knowledge (geography) or Knowledge (local) pertaining to the area being traveled through gains a +2 bonus on this check.

From the section on getting lost, emphasis mine.

 

[ConcreteBuddha]

From the section on getting lost, emphasis mine.

I don't really care about your emphasis.

Read the Perform skill. Read the Knowledge skill. Read the Craft skill. Read the Profession skill. None of these explicitly state that you must further choose a specialization beyond what is in the ().

I'm glad that you found an obscure reference to support your position. I'm sure your players will thank you.

Forcing a PC to take Knowledge (Local (Spatulaland)) is like forcing a PC to take Perform (Sing (The Spatulasong)) or Craft (Blacksmithing (Horseshoe)). If you want to do that, be my guest. Just don't be surprised when players get annoyed everytime they leave Spatulaland.

 

[dvvega]

Actually if you look at the sentence Spatula reproduced, the punctuation (or lack of) implies Knowledge (geography) would also require further refinement to Knowledge (geography (Spatulaland)) which as Buddha stated is silly. OH and I couldn't help laugh with Spatulaland.

 

[Nifft]

I agree with the need for specific locales for Kn(Local) -- I write it Knowlege (Luxoria), Knowlege (Greyfen), Knowlege (Wasted Lands), etc., and the granularity is about the size of California, Texas or the Caribbean.

-- N