Area Knowledge

* You have an IQ default only for Area
Knowledge of a place where you live
or once lived. Geography only gives a
default for Area Knowledge of the spe-
cialty region.
This skill represents familiarity
with the people, places, and politics of
a given region. You usually have Area
Knowledge only for the area you con-
sider your “home base,” whether that’s
a single farm or a solar system. If
information about other areas is avail-
able, the GM may allow you to learn
additional Area Knowledge skills.
The GM should not require Area
Knowledge rolls for ordinary situa-
tions; e.g., to find the blacksmith, tav-
ern, or your own home. But he could
require a roll to locate a smith to shoe
your horse at 3 a.m., or to find the best
ambush spot along a stretch of road.
“Secret” or obscure information might
give a penalty, require a Hidden Lore
skill (p. 199), or simply be unavailable
– GM’s decision. For instance, Area
Knowledge of Washington, D.C. gives
you the location of the Russian
Embassy, but not the KGB’s current
safe house.
The information covered by Area
Knowledge often overlaps such skills
as
Current
Affairs,
Geography,
Naturalist, and Streetwise. The differ-
ence is that Area Knowledge works for
a single area: you know the habits of
this tiger or gang boss, but have no
special insight into tigers or gangs in
general.
You can learn Area Knowledge for
any sort of area. The larger the territo-
ry, the less “personal” and more gener-
al your knowledge becomes. Almost
everyone will have Area Knowledge of
some type. The “canonical” area
classes are:
Neighborhood: For an urban area:
the residents and buildings of a few
city blocks. For a rural area: the inhab-
itants, trails, streams, hiding places,
ambush sites, flora, and fauna of a few
hundred acres.
Village or Town: All important citi-
zens and businesses, and most unim-
portant ones; all public buildings and
most houses.
City: All important businesses,
streets, citizens, leaders, etc.
Barony, County, Duchy, or Small
Nation: General nature of its settle-
ments and towns, political allegiances,
leaders, and most citizens of Status 5+.
Large Nation: Location of its major
cities and important sites; awareness
of its major customs, ethnic groups,
and languages (but not necessarily
expertise); names of folk of Status 6+;
and a general understanding of the
economic and political situation.
Planet: As for a large nation, but
more general; knowledge of people of
Status 7+ only.
Interplanetary State: Location of
major planets; familiarity with all
known races (but not necessarily
expertise); knowledge of people of
Status 7+; general understanding of
the economic and political situation.
Galaxy: Location of the capitals
of interplanetary states and the
homeworlds of major races; general
awareness of all major races; knowl-
edge of individuals of Status 8; gener-
al understanding of relations between
interplanetary states.
Area Knowledge for anything larg-
er than a galaxy would be meaning-
lessly vague.
Your IQ-4 default applies to any of
these classes, as long as you have lived
in the area. Defaults are limited by
“common knowledge” at your tech
level! A TL0 hunter would have a
default for every level up to “Village or
Town,” while a TL8 student would
have defaults up to “Planet” level. You
must live in an interplanetary or inter-
stellar state to have defaults for levels
above “Planet.”
In some game worlds, Area
Knowledge specialties may exist for
parallel realities and other dimensions
– Area Knowledge (Cyberspace), Area
Knowledge (Dream Realms), etc. The
knowledge such skills provide is left to
the GM’s judgment.