EDRulebook: 9 Skills

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS

Your character has lived in the world of Earthdawn for his or her entire life, and so he or she will know more about the world of Earthdawn than you possibly can. Knowledge Skills represent that kind of knowledge, and are the skills most often used in the course of a game. In a game session, Knowledge Skills come into play whenever something your character might know would help you make an informed choice about what to do next. Your character may know a tremendous amount about the world of Earthdawn, but you, the player, will only learn that knowledge when the story dictates the need.

Knowledge Skills serve two purposes:

They simulate your character’s knowledge of the world. The gamemaster reveals or adds to this knowledge when it will advance the story.
They give you a chance to further define your character, giving him or her unique quirks and interests.

CHOOSING KNOWLEDGE SKILLS

As noted in Choosing Beginning Skills, above, characters in Earthdawn begin the game with two ranks in Knowledge Skills. You choose what you would like your character to know about the world, and how much you want him or her to know about any given subject. He may have broad knowledge, meaning that your character knows a little bit about a lot of things, or he may have focused knowledge, giving him more detailed knowledge within a smaller area of expertise. You choose the area of expertise you want your character to have; when your character uses the skill, the gamemaster determines how applicable the knowledge is to the question at hand.

Define your character’s Knowledge Skills any way you want. As noted in Choosing Beginning Skills, there is no master list of Knowledge Skills in Earthdawn. The following list represents a sample of the kind of Knowledge Skills that might be appropriate or useful for characters:

Alchemy and Potions
Ancient Weapons
Baking
Barsaive History
Botany
Court Dancing
Creature Lore
Dwarven Military Organization
History of the Scourge
The Horrors
Legends and Heroes
Racial Lore (specific to each race)
Theran History
Theran Politics
Wild Animals

Feel free to make up the precise Knowledge Skill you would like for your character, keeping in mind that all Knowledge Skills are subject to the gamemaster’s approval. Simply decide what sorts of things you want your character to know, then assign ranks in Knowledge Skills to those areas of knowledge.

ADDING RANKS

Knowledge Skill Ranks add steps to the character’s Perception step, on which all Knowledge Skills are based. The two ranks in Knowledge Skills that each player assigns to his character during character creation reflect the assumption that the character studied with a teacher of some sort while growing up. To add Knowledge Ranks later in life, the character must find and learn from a master, a library, or ancient scrolls.

A rank in a Knowledge Skill is roughly equal to the amount of time an average person studying a subject might need to learn that subject. Use the table below as a guideline for how much your character would know about the subject based on the years of study listed. Of course, your character does not have to study this long to gain Knowledge Ranks. Adventurers, after all, are exceptional people with exceptional abilities. If your character has the experience (counted in Legend Points) to gain an additional rank in a Knowledge Skill and access to a teacher or other source of knowledge, he or she can gain 1 or more ranks in that skill. Much like the training time needed to acquire General Skills, your character must study for a number of weeks plus a number of months equal to the desired rank in that Knowledge Skill. If studying with a master, he must also pay that master an average fee in silver pieces of 25 x the desired rank. For more information on increasing skill ranks, see Building Your Legend . Following is a list of the amount of study needed to achieve each rank:

Rank	Years of Study
1	1
2	2
3	3
4	4
5	6
6	8
7	12
8	16
9	20
10	25+

USING KNOWLEDGE SKILLS

Your character uses his Knowledge Skills to learn information that can help determine his next course of action. If your character’s Knowledge Skill does not exactly apply to the subject at hand, the gamemaster decides how the Knowledge Skill relates to the current question or situation. The relationship of a Knowledge Skill to the information needed falls into the following five categories.

Unrelated Knowledge

Unrelated Knowledge cannot be used to find facts. If a player wants to know what special attacks cadaver men can make, his character’s knowledge of Theran cuisine is unrelated and cannot help him. Such a character does not know the required information about cadaver men.

General Knowledge

General Knowledge covers a wide range of information and cannot be easily applied to answer specific questions. A Knowledge Skill is considered general if the same knowledge can provide answers to similar questions about several different topics. For example, a character with a Knowledge Skill in Barsaive History might recall incidents of cadaver man attacks. The character can just as easily recall stories of dwarven bravery during siege, Theran romances among nobility, or the destruction of a kaer by the Horrors. Though a knowledge of Barsaive history might cover specifics such as cadaver men, it covers many other specifics equally well. A character using a General Knowledge Skill to answer a question must get an Extraordinary success to know useful information.

Somewhat Related Knowledge

A character attempting to apply Somewhat Related Knowledge Skills might be able to answer a specific question, but connecting the information the skill provides to the question at hand requires a stretch. For example, a character who possesses a Knowledge Skill in Military Tactics might know stories of cadaver man attacks, even though cadaver men do not function in military units. Because armies employ a wide variety of attack strategies, it is possible (though not likely) that a tactician may have patterned an attack on the furious assaults common to cadaver men. A character using a Somewhat Related Skill must get at least a Good success to know the needed information.

Related Field

Knowledge Skills that fall into the Related Field category cover the pertinent subject matter to the question at hand. For example, a character who studied undead creatures can accurately and comprehensively answer a question about the attacks of cadaver men because the study of the undead includes the study of cadaver men. Because such study covers a wider range of topics than just the attack style of a single undead creature, the character might not be able to immediately think of the specific information he needs.

In another example, a character with Knowledge Skill in horses has studied the appropriate field to answer a question on zebras. The subject matter (horses) is closely related to the subject of zebras, making the knowledge of horses a Related Field.

A character using a Knowledge Skill in the Related Field category requires at least an Average success to know the needed information.

Specific Knowledge

Knowledge considered Specific Knowledge covers the precise subject and question at hand, but only the subject and question at hand. For example, a character who studied monster attack forms would have specific knowledge of cadaver man attacks, but could not use that same Knowledge Skill to describe any weaknesses of cadaver men. A character using Specific Knowledge requires at least an Average success to know the needed information. When using Specific Knowledge, add +3 steps to the character’s Perception step when making the Knowledge Test.

[T'Skrang Botanist]

MAKING KNOWLEDGE TESTS

A Knowledge Test is a Skill Test, using the step number of the Knowledge Skill (Perception step + skill rank) against a Difficulty Number determined by the type of information sought. Why does your character need to make a test to use his Knowledge Skills? He either knows a fact or doesn’t, right? Well, not exactly. A character’s ability to use Knowledge Skills depends not just on how much he knows, but also how he thinks. You make a Knowledge Test to use your character’s Knowledge Skills for the following reasons.

The Knowledge Test reflects how memory works under pressure. If you’ve ever taken an exam and missed a question to which you actually knew the answer, then you understand this point. Just when your character most needs the answer, nervous tension might make it elude him or make him forget the most important part. Your character cannot always drag the answer out of his memory when he needs it.
The Knowledge Test represents analytical thought and deduction as much as regurgitation of facts. Like all sentient beings, your character analyzes and rearranges known or presumed facts to form a new piece of information or conclusion. Under pressure, your character may not be able to make the necessary deductions or put all the pieces together in a logical progression in order to arrive at the information that would answer the question.
The Knowledge Test allows for the Aha! factor, those times when your character does a bit of inspired thinking or looks at a problem in a new way. These sorts of insights rarely occur in a predictable way or on a reliable timetable.

To use a Knowledge Skill, the character makes a Knowledge Test. The following table offers guidelines for assigning Difficulty Numbers to Knowledge Tests.

KNOWLEDGE TEST TABLE

Type of Information	Difficulty Number
General Informationa	5
Detailed Information	7
Intricate Information	9
Obscure Information	11

In most cases, an Average success on a Knowledge Skill Test gets your character the needed information. The success level needed also depends on the relationship of the Knowledge Skill to the information sought. See Using Knowledge Skills, above, for information on determining the usefulness of Knowledge Skills.

Achieving a greater success level than needed to remember information can increase the amount of information your character remembers about a topic. For each success level beyond the one required, your character can receive either more information or insight as to how the information relates to your character’s current situation. How much, if any, additional information your character receives depends on the gamemaster’s discretion.

KNOWLEDGE SKILL LIMITS

Knowledge Skills give your character facts, not abilities. They do not enable your character to perform an action. For example, knowledge of art does not make your character a painter; your character may know everything about every ship ever built and remain unable to sail one out of harbor. Knowledge Skills let you determine what your character might want to do next; they do not necessarily enable your character to put a plan into action.

A character successfully using a Knowledge Skill knows critical information applicable to his current situation. The gamemaster gives the pertinent information to the player, allowing the character to act knowledgeably. If the gamemaster considers the information the character is looking for unimportant to the adventure, using a Knowledge Skill probably yields little information. Quite simply, players cannot expect the gamemaster to know or create and catalogue every possible fact about the world of Earthdawn.

Kricklen the Swordmaster discovers a heretofore unexpected interest in botany, especially flowers. Steve, Kricklen’s player, purchases the Knowledge Skill of Botany (flowers). During the game, the gamemaster describes an open meadow the characters cross on their way to an abandoned castle. Kricklen stops to examine some flowers. Steve asks the gamemaster if Kricklen knows what these flowers are, then makes a Knowledge Test. He gets a Good success. Heidi, the gamemaster, has four options. She quickly judges the situation and chooses what she feels is the best option at the moment.
1. The gamemaster decides the investigation is not important to the story. Heidi says, “Steve, the meadow flowers are not important to the story. Kricklen can look at them, but I have no information to give you.”
2. The gamemaster decides to withhold judgment on the importance of the question until later in the story. Heidi says, “Yes, Kricklen knows what the flowers are. If that fact is important to the story, Kricklen will already have gathered all the information he needs,” and leaves the answer at that. She does not need to offer more specifics at this point.
3. The gamemaster may invite the player to provide details for the campaign world. Heidi says, “Kricklen knows what the flowers are. I haven’t worked up the details, but they could be interesting. Steve, what sort of flowers did Kricklen find?” In this case, the gamemaster is asking the player to create details to flesh out the campaign. If Steve wants to add those details, he should work up descriptions of the meadow flowers for Heidi using words, pictures, or any other media. If Steve decides that these flowers possess special qualities—for example, flowers that enhance Charisma Skills—Heidi may accept, reject, or modify any of the mechanics Steve suggests.
4. If the gamemaster happens to have created details for the situation, she can describe them to the player.
“White and crimson foxglove blossoms dominate the meadow, while gold three-petal angeline and blue and yellow goosewort lie in scattered clumps among the grass.”