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SKILLS

Knowledge

(Int; Trained Only; Requires Specialization)

This skill encompasses several specialties, each of them treated as a separate skill. These specialties are defined below.

Check: Make a Knowledge check to see if you know something. The Difficulty for answering a question is 10 for easy questions, 15 for basic questions, and 20 to 30 for difficult questions. The Narrator sets the difficulty for a particular question.

Knowledge specialties, and the topics each one encompasses, are as follows:

• Business: How things get done, how money gets made. You can navigate bureaucracy, and understand what's going on with commerce and financial affairs. Identifying the dockmaster is a Difficulty 15, knowing who the dockmaster reports to is a Difficulty 20, and reviewing the dockmaster's records to find out who he REALLY reports to is a Difficulty 25.
• History: Events, personalities, and cultures of the past. Archaeology and antiquities. Dusty stuff. Identifying an ancient text written in a familiar script is a Difficulty 10, recalling the fate of a vanished culture that left these huge monuments is a Difficulty 15, and remembering the command word that long-dead king used to open his burial vault is a Difficulty 35
• Local: Choose a location that you are familiar with — an island or a town. The more specific the location, the more specific your knowledge. Finding a good hotel is a Difficulty 10, finding an honest merchant is a Difficulty 20, and finding that sewer grate that leads to the underground raptor pits is a Difficulty 30.
• Navigation: How to find your way across the sea (or land), using charts, instruments and landmarks. Familiar terrain (or clear weather) is a Difficulty 10, either unfamiliar terrain or overcast weather is a Difficulty 20, and both unfamiliar terrain and overcast weather is a Difficulty 30.
• Science: All that wild and crazy stuff these wacky "mad scientists" do. Mechanical engineering, applied physics, ballistics, hydrodynamics — it's all "science". Understanding the operation of a cannon is a Difficulty 10, understanding the chemical basis of Imperial rockets is a Difficulty 20, and understanding Doctor Kalchok's raygun is a Difficulty 35.
• Sea Lore: Understanding the weather, tides, creatures and other realities of seafaring life. You can predict the weather (Difficulty 10 for tomorrow, increasing by 5 for each day further into the future), and answer questions like "What's that?"
• Streetwise: Street and urban culture, local underworld personalities and events. Knowing who to graft and who to just shut up and listen to. Knowing who will sell you some black-market gunpowder is a Difficulty 15, knowing who's running the biggest gunpowder smuggling operation in town is a Difficulty 20, and knowing where the lover of the boss of the biggest gunpowder smuggling operation in town likes to hang out and drink too much is a Difficulty 30.
• Supernatural: The supernatural, whatever it may encompass — from strange spirits to undead monsters to whatever it is that Imperial sorcerer is about to do. Recognizing what brand of magic someone is using (Imperial, Heavenly Medicine, etc) is a Difficulty 15, identifying what kind of spirit is hanging around this creepy place is a Difficulty 20, and realising what specific power is being used before it wallops you is a Difficulty 25.

Try Again: Usually no. The check represents what a character knows; thinking about a topic a second time doesn't let you know something you didn't know before. The Narrator may allow another Knowledge check if a character gets access to a better source of information. For example, a hero who doesn't know the answer to a particular question on his own might get another check with access to a library (and could take 20 on that check, depending on the circumstances).

Action: A Knowledge check can be a reaction, but otherwise requires a full-round action. Taking 20 on a Knowledge check requires at least an hour, longer if the Narrator decides the information you're looking for is particularly obscure or otherwise restricted. In any event, taking 20 on a Knowledge check means the attempt will not complete during the current scene.

Special: An untrained Knowledge check is simply an Intelligence check. Without actual training, a character can only answer easy or basic questions about a topic.

You can take 10 when making a Knowledge check. You can take 20 only if you have access to the appropriate research materials (such as a library).