Source: Star Hero 5th ed.
When characters operate on a progressively larger and larger scale, their Area Knowledges become less and less useful at the local level. A character with AK: The Solar System wold know about the planets and their major states, but would know relatevely little about individual cities. Area Knowledge for a sector would mean the character knows about star systems and planets, but would probably have very little knowledge of planetary-scale nations, and might miss a few minor moons or asteroids. Galactive Area Knowledge would allow someone to know the major interstellar states, a few of the most important sectors and star systems, and the most common starfaring species. Most stars and planets would be too trivial for the character to know more about than the name and perhaps one key fact, at most.
The same holds true for other types of KSs. A KS in Galactic History or Galactic Cultures doesn't provide as much precise information about a given historical event or culture as a similar KS focusing on a sector, solar system, or planet.
Knowledge Skill Penalties
As a rough guideline for the effects of "scale" discussed in the text, GMs can use the following ranking of magnitudes of knowledge. Figure out which category the fact he wants to know is most appropriate for. For each step up or down the list, the character suffers a -5 penalty to know the fact. The GM may alter this penalty for facts he feels are particular noteworthy or obscure. Thus, if a character has KS: Galactic History, he suffers a -25 penalty for trying to remember an average fact about an event that took place in some nation.
Intergalactic
Galactic/Interstellar
Star Sector
Solar System
Planet
Continent/Region
Nation
Province/City
Village/Locality
Gamemasters may not want to use this system, or may want to significantly reduce the penalties, in campaigns with a more "cinematic" feel, such as many Space Opera and Retro-SF games.
Source: COTE
In COTE, I will use the following list:
Intergalactic
Galactic
Interstellar Region/Multi-Sector Empire (e.g., Imperium, Zhodani Consulate)
Star Sector (e.g., Spinward Marches)
Subsector (e.g., Jewell, Chronor)
Solar System
Planet
Continent/Region
Nation
Province/City
Village/Locality
When the campaign started, I gave out Area Knowledge skills for free and based it on how much time the character spent in a given area. As of Jan 2005, I will still give out free knowledge skill points that can be used for any "campaign" knowledge skills but will allow the players to manage these points. Campaign knowledge skills are defined as knowledge skills that deal with the campaign world. They are often area knowledge skills but can also be knowledge skills dealing with specific events in the campaign. For example, KS: Zeycude Rebellion would be a campaign knowledge skill while KS: Martial Arts Styles would not be.
Every character has 10 points to spend on campaign knowledge skills. Each player can have one additional point for every 20 experience points earned. Thus, someone who has 0-19 experience points has 10 points to spend on campaign knowledge skills; 20-39 expeience points indicates 11 points to spend on campaign knowledge; 40-59 grants 12 points, and so on.
I will also allow recovery and pooling of points spent on campaign knowledge skills. By this I mean that if you spend, for example, 3 points on AK: Merlika'a (capital city of Zeycude in the Chronor subsector) and then later leave Zeycude, you will eventually be able to recover those points to spend on other knowledge skills. This reflects not only the fact that you will probably forget things about Merlika'a as time passes, but also the fact that the city will change and things that you knew when you were there are no longer valid.
Rather than coming up with a complicated formula for recovery of these points, I will use a simple one. At the beginning of each game year, you can move 2 points out of a knowledge skill that you haven't used for awhile and put them into something more recent (or pool them for later use).
When recording these free points in your character sheet, do not count them as part of your earned EXP. If using Hero Designer, create a List and put all of the free skills in that list, and then add a negative custom skill modifer equal to the total of the free points:
Free Campaign Knowledge (0 points)
-AK: Circle City on 11- (2 points)
-AK: Black Moon Asteroid Belt on 8- (1 point)
-AK: Cape Goliath on 12- (3 points)
-AK: Zeycude on 12- (3 points)
-AK: Merlika'a on 11- (2 points)
-KS: Zeycude Rebellion on 11- (2 points)
Free Campaign Skills (-13 points)
Thus, in HD, the sum of the free knowledge should come out to 0. You can also spend earned EXP on campaign knowledge so if, in the above example, you had 12 points free, and had spent one point on your own, the list would look like this:
Free Campaign Knowledge (1 point)
-AK: Circle City on 11- (2 points)
-AK: Black Moon Asteroid Belt on 8- (1 point)
-AK: Cape Goliath on 12- (3 points)
-AK: Zeycude on 12- (3 points)
-AK: Merlika'a on 11- (2 points)
-KS: Zeycude Rebellion on 11- (2 points)
Free Campaign Skills (-12 points) |