Technigues for Area Knowledge

[Dencat]

I'm thinking of using Technigues as mechanism for specific Knowledge within Area Knowledge.
For example
You have Area Knowledge(City), giving you general knowledge of various areas and most important landmarks in said City.
Now you also have Technigue Second Hand Bookstores +1
(A relatively narrow field, so I think it would be Medium), where you put that one character point you could not find any use for.

So finding a store would be easier..

Of course this requires lots of case-by-case judgements on just what fits within each Technigue, but If Bookstores is Hard Technigue then Second Hand Bookstores is Medium since there are fewer of them..

Does this make any sense?

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Dencat

I'm thinking of using Technigues as mechanism for specific Knowledge within Area Knowledge.
For example
You have Area Knowledge(City), giving you general knowledge of various areas and most important landmarks in said City.
Now you also have Technigue Second Hand Bookstores +1
(A relatively narrow field, so I think it would be Medium), where you put that one character point you could not find any use for.

So finding a store would be easier..

Of course this requires lots of case-by-case judgements on just what fits within each Technigue, but If Bookstores is Hard Technigue then Second Hand Bookstores is Medium since there are fewer of them..

Does this make any sense?

Knowing where the second hand bookstores are is Area Knowledge. Knowing how to find your way about is Cultural Familiarity.

[JulianLW]

I think this is a cool idea, but I think you may want to focus it on the kinds of stuff PCs will want to use Area Knowledge for, such as "Information (Area Knowledge☨ A)," which could include second-hand bookstores, but also libraries or archives or city hall records offices or whatever. Other specialties could be Weapons, Equipment, Vehicles, Illegal Services, etc....

I can imagine a character with a really detailed knowledge of a city knowing not only where all the bookstores and libraries and record offices are, but also knowing about all the important private collections, too. ("Bob has a huge collection of old detective magazines and newspapers in his basement.... Maybe there's a box from 1983?") On a larger scale, I could imagine a character knowing about, say, all the high-stakes poker games in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi.... These techniques would all be Average, rather than Hard, I suspect, and I think they would all raise the level above default for anything legal and negate penalties for anything illegal....

Definitely a, cool, interesting idea. But also probably below the level of resolution for most games, mostly for character development.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Dencat

Of course this requires lots of case-by-case judgements on just what fits within each Technigue, but If Bookstores is Hard Technigue then Second Hand Bookstores is Medium since there are fewer of them.

I think that part is backward. If there are fewer second hand bookstores than there are of bookstores generally, then your chances of finding a second hand bookstore are worse, which seems to make this harder; that would argue that "bookstores" would be Average but "second hand bookstores" would be Hard.

Though I also note that in general, a technique is Hard if you only get one try, or if failure has negative consequences, and Average otherwise. Hunting for bookstores of any type seems not to meet either criterion.

It seems to me that "searching" is the wrong term to use here. Search rolls are something different not based on Area Knowledge; you can find them in the Campaigns book. What AK will do for you is let you KNOW that Duckburg has a used bookstore, and know where it is. On a failed roll, you can still search for a bookstore in the usual way.

[Dencat]

I see Area Knowledge as a mental map structure with people and bits of local historia and heraldry and whatnots thrown in.
Therefore specific use, like Bespoke Tailors requires smaller, but deeper, Knowledge base than general use, like Any Source for Clothes..

White idea occured to me today when I was driving 50 mile distance between two towns via backroads and realized I'd need to use electronic aids or detour via major highways If I was going back. I only know The route one way..

[Donny Brook]

I'm a big believer in Techniques for all kinds of skills, so I like this idea.

My instinct would be to think that there would be very few instances where a Technique under Area Knowledge would be Hard because there would be few cases where failure would have significant dangerous downsides. Maybe relating to gang territory or which police precincts have significant corruption or regions with toxic discharge, etc.

[dcarson]

I think that Average makes sense for all or almost all. It is also a nice way to add character for a point.

[Not]

Knows Every Bookstore in Town is a perk to me.

[Shuckster]

So for the ceiling on this skill you could base it off the equipment modifier for the best available map, gps, application etc available in the setting.

So say its TL 8, the default of this technique would equal your area knowledge skill but the character could not raise it higher than Area Knowledge +4. If it were TL 4 however the character couldn't go higher than +2.

This seems realistic because the character basically has those locations memorized and could direct anybody to them without needing a map, but couldn't be more accurate than someone who was using the best possible map to give them directions.

That being said you may wanna limit it to just +1 or +2 because this doesn't seem like a hugely useful technique and putting just a point or two in it should be fine

[RedMattis]

Originally Posted by Not

Knows Every Bookstore in Town is a perk to me.

Depends on the size of the city, and whether there are obscure and valuable bookstores. But generally, yeah, that sounds like a perk.

In a situation where you have Cabal-run bookstores or other conspiracies hiding stuff in relative plain-sight it would probably fall under Hidden Lore or something like that though.