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Old 06-29-2014, 02:56 AM   #1
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default [Basic] Skill of the week: Area Knowledge

A skill almost everyone should have for their home locality, and it's present on a large fraction of published character templates. The rules work fine for ordinary geographic areas, but get more interesting for other cases.

For example, Area Knowledge (Internet) is probably a valid specialisation in the contemporary world, but it goes out of date much faster than normal Area Knowledge. We have rules we can use for this: the "Time" section of the "Geographical and Temporal Scope" box on B176 works, if you use time periods shorter than years in place of miles on the Long-Distance Modifiers table. Months might be a bit cruel, though.

For my Infinite Cabal campaign, Area Knowledge (Infinite Worlds) for the universe as a whole uses the scope rules for an interplanetary state. Acquiring this skill is hard work by yourself; the PCs have acquired a gazetteer from Infinity, oddly similar to the world list in Infinite Worlds. This makes life easier for the players, who no longer have to firewall their reading from their characters' knowledge. Infinite Worlds also has rules for applying more normal Area Knowledge across parallels and echoes.

Area Knowledge can be a useful complimentary skill for many History or Expert Skill rolls, and many other "knowledge" skills. It has a more formal counterpart in Geography (Regional), which may tell you why the area has particular traits. In many ways, this is the "Find ways to take advantage of the environment" skill, useful for finding merchant and goods (High-Tech and Mysteries), people (Social Engineering), knowing details of social behaviour (SE again), and searching for targets and travelling quickly (Action 2: Exploits).

Horror points out that Area Knowledge for exotic planes of existence has a default to Occultism; it also looks good for escaping into the sheer complexity of a city - unless your opponent has more Area Knowledge than you; Monster Hunters uses the skill in its chase rules. Low-Tech Companion 3 covers the importance of Area Knowledge for Survival and effective hunter-gathering and low-tech Navigation. Martial Arts makes it a primary skill for spies and crime-fighters, official or otherwise.

The main Dungeon Fantasy templates don't include Area Knowledge: I guess by the time you've learned enough about a dungeon, it's been cleaned out. Mass Combat doesn't mention it either, although it's a classic skill for irregular troops defending their homes.

What have you done with Area Knowledge in a game - or wished you could?
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