How many knowledge skills do you think is the right number in a typical setting? You need enough to differentiate between different aspects of the setting, but not so many that no one invests in them. My experience in SW is that knowledge skills are only taken at character creation, and the high intelligence character does most of the "knowing".

What do you think of a talent like this?

Learned Professional

Tier 1, Ranked

Pick a non-knowledge skill and a related knowledge skill. Ranks in the non-knowledge skill also count as ranks in the related knowledge skill.

I’d keep as few Knowledge skills as possible. The more of them you have, the less useful they become, and they have never been the most important of skills. I would keep it down to three to four if possible.

Just now, Johan Marek Phoenix Knight said:

I’d keep as few Knowledge skills as possible. The more of them you have, the less useful they become, and they have never been the most important of skills. I would keep it down to three to four if possible.

Depends. If you're using the magic system, Knowledge is used to passively increase effects. Splitting Knowledge several ways for different spells balances that out.

1 minute ago, Swordbreaker said:

Depends. If you're using the magic system, Knowledge is used to passively increase effects. Splitting Knowledge several ways for different spells balances that out.

Really? I wasn’t aware of that. I was basing my info off of the Star Wars game, because I don’t have my copy of Genesys yet. The magic system is the thing I am most excited about learning about.

Skill, I’d recommend keeping the number of Knowledge skills low. Five would be my max.

1 hour ago, Swordbreaker said:

Depends. If you're using the magic system, Knowledge is used to passively increase effects. Splitting Knowledge several ways for different spells balances that out.

I think I basically agree with 3-5 knowledge skills, though I can see specific settings needed more

I do think that expertise in skills should help in closely related knowledge checks. A professional driver is likely going to know something about cars, for example. Maybe this is just a case where the GM could/should award boost dice.

1 minute ago, TheSapient said:

I do think that expertise in skills should help in closely related knowledge checks. A professional driver is likely going to know something about cars, for example. Maybe this is just a case where the GM could/should award boost dice.

I’ve seen it done (not often, but I do believe I saw it in one of the adventure modules) in the Star Wars rpg where you can use regular skills as knowledge skills. For example, someone with a high Piloting (Space) skill would logically know a lot about ships, so you would roll a Piloting (Space) check, but using Intellect instead of Agility.

1 minute ago, Johan Marek Phoenix Knight said:

I’ve seen it done (not often, but I do believe I saw it in one of the adventure modules) in the Star Wars rpg where you can use regular skills as knowledge skills. For example, someone with a high Piloting (Space) skill would logically know a lot about ships, so you would roll a Piloting (Space) check, but using Intellect instead of Agility.

Perhaps that as a ranked talent?

Ninja'd!

I was going to post the same thing!

Edit: About using Intellect with other skills.

40 minutes ago, TheSapient said:

Perhaps that as a ranked talent?

I see no reason to have to make a talent. I would just allow it to be used any time it was applicable.

As I said on the Genesys subreddit:

I personally don't like the amount of knowledge skills in star wars, so I could easily see shortening things down to 3 knowledge skills:

The practical, the scholarly and the niche.

practical would be stuff like warfare, astrogation, engineering, dungeoneering, the more hands on types of knowledge skills.

scholarly would be the knowledge of the area, the people, culture, species, customs.

the niche would be stuff like ancient histories, forgotten landmarks, the weird bits of history, myths, legends, etc.

I like about 5-7... but it always results in compromises.

For example, SW has Outer Rim and Xenology both being excessively broad - OR covers Huttspace, the Corp Sector, Hoth, Endor...

and the mid-rim is a fuzzy "Is it Core or OR?"

I like the way the Beginner set do it and just have a single knowledge skill.

Ha, I was going to post a topic very similar to this. I wanted to brainstorm with people for 3-5 knowledge skills applicable to each Setting example in the book. I agree with someone above in the sense that a single "Knowledge" skill is way too generic, especially combined with its use in Magic.

Using Intellect combined with other skills seems like it might work too. So... Charm (Intellect) for information on common customs and such for Nobility, information about the top noble families? Coercion (Intellect) for info on Underworld houses? Or maybe Stealth (Intellect)? Probably Skullduggery (Intellect).

Hmmm... I don't know. I think the game calls for a few specific Knowledge skills. Trying to combine certain skills coupled with Intellect for knowledge checks I think can be a little cumbersome. Piloting (Intellect) works great for info on ships/vehicles/planes etc., but that's an easy example. I think a lot of the other skills don't match up as well.

Anyone have examples for each of the genre settings they listed in the book?

For Fantasy, I think a "Lore" or something similar for supernatural and monster knowledge is good. I for sure would not want to couple Arcana checks with knowledge, as it's exclusively for Magic checks. Perhaps "History" would be good too. And maybe "Nobility", though that could be combined with History. While looking through the Runebound GenCon adventure they shared with us, seems like "Forbidden" is a thing as well as "Geography", although I think Geography should mix well with Survival.

For Modern, I think a generic "Education" would be great to show a general education level for the character, and could be useful for all things from mathematics to science to law knowledge.

Anyone have ideas for each of the Settings they gave us? I'd love to compile a list of useful Knowledge skills on here rather than making a new topic. :-)

For fantasy, I'd just grab from D&D, honestly. Knowledge (History), Knowledge (Religion) and Knowledge (Arcana). Nature is already covered by the Survival skill. Maybe throw in Knowledge (Culture) that is for current events—to contrast Knowledge (History).

Heck, most settings can use a Knowledge (History) and Knowledge (Culture).

I'm currently working with Science, Culture, and Weird .

Names might change. I envision Culture including maps, etc., so that name doesn't work out. Weird for a setting with lots of weird, probably will call it "Xenology".

Mostly to serve three archetypes of "people who know things": the Scientist, the Traveler, and that rando who always seems to know about a really esoteric subject.

12 minutes ago, CitizenKeen said:

Names might change. I envision Culture including maps, etc., so that name doesn't work out.

Perhaps "Society"?

14 minutes ago, CitizenKeen said:

Weird for a setting with lots of weird, probably will call it "Xenology".

That sounds to me like something concerned with the study of extraterrestrials. If you're talking more of a fantasy wainscot setting, maybe "Paranormal" or "Occult," depending on what exactly is causing the weirdness.

19 minutes ago, CitizenKeen said:

I'm currently working with Science, Culture, and Weird .

Names might change. I envision Culture including maps, etc., so that name doesn't work out. Weird for a setting with lots of weird, probably will call it "Xenology".

Mostly to serve three archetypes of "people who know things": the Scientist, the Traveler, and that rando who always seems to know about a really esoteric subject.

I like this because it feels the most "clean", though I might rename Weird to Eldritch because it's a bit more evocative. Weird could probably change based on setting actually, depending on how much Science covers I suppose.

4 minutes ago, Cyvaris said:

I like this because it feels the most "clean", though I might rename Weird to Eldritch because it's a bit more evocative. Weird could probably change based on setting actually, depending on how much Science covers I suppose.

Absolutely. Names come after notions. (My campaign is Space Fantasy)

I envision the character who wants to know how to mix compounds to make the perfect acid to eat away at an approaching enemy's armor-alloy. That's Science (the most easily named).

The Traveller wants to know the layout of cities, mountain ranges, and the ways to make peace with the Lost Tribes of Mukmuk.

And Weird/Eldritch/Occult/whatever is the person who has a weird idea and wants to be a specialist in it. "I'm a hermit with a fourth grade education, but I'm an expert at all things Fey." Congratulations, you've got ranks in Weird.

Perhaps the traveler skill could just be named after the scope of a setting. Galaxy for your average space setting. Middle Earth or whatever your land's name is for grand fantasy. You could boil it down to the name of the country.

Or, another idea is to leave that one as Knowledge, classifying it as modern knowledge for the setting. Modern culture, locations, people of import. Plus anything else that a character could ostensibly know, but doesn't fit in the other categories.

I'm a big fan of splitting "knowledge" between practical and theoretical understanding. The practical skills (Mechanics, Piloting, etc) can be used to gain an understanding of something while Knowledge skills could be things that you are unlikely to ever use in a practical sense eg. History, Culture, etc.

One Knowledge skill that I'm looking to include in my games is Study/Analyse. I haven't seen a skill that covers a situation where a character wants to read through books or scour ancient runes or something like that where they want to discover any relevant information. Perception could be used but I feel that Perception is already pretty useful without using it for any sleuthing.

3 hours ago, Popdart said:

I'm a big fan of splitting "knowledge" between practical and theoretical understanding. The practical skills (Mechanics, Piloting, etc) can be used to gain an understanding of something while Knowledge skills could be things that you are unlikely to ever use in a practical sense eg. History, Culture, etc.

One Knowledge skill that I'm looking to include in my games is Study/Analyse. I haven't seen a skill that covers a situation where a character wants to read through books or scour ancient runes or something like that where they want to discover any relevant information. Perception could be used but I feel that Perception is already pretty useful without using it for any sleuthing.

I'm still waiting on my copy of Genesys , but in Star Wars , basic research is assumed in the default Knowledge skills. If that's the same, you wouldn't need a separate research skill.

On 12/4/2017 at 3:26 PM, CitizenKeen said:

I'm currently working with Science, Culture, and Weird .

Names might change. I envision Culture including maps, etc., so that name doesn't work out. Weird for a setting with lots of weird, probably will call it "Xenology".

Mostly to serve three archetypes of "people who know things": the Scientist, the Traveler, and that rando who always seems to know about a really esoteric subject.

Thanks - I will Use this for mine. Weird is going to be my magic/esoteric catch-all. (Urban Fantasy).

I'm working with a Shadowrun setting, so sort of science/fantasy. I'm trying to leave similar general skills to cover similar knowledges(so no separate street knowledge, and mechanics covers tech knowledges). Currently I have: Knowledge-Corporation(which would be a mix of business, law enforcement and politics in this setting), Knowledge-Lore(Bit stepping on the toes of arcana here, but also covering odd magical species and artifacts, ect), and Knowledge-Academic(Covering the broad strokes of things you would learn in a traditional college).

Language tends to play a nice role in that setting, so I have been debating adding a 'Knowledge-Language' skill that essentially adds additional languages known, though I suspect that might be better served as a ranked talent. Similiarly, the original Shadowrun setting liked to emphasize an 'interests' category of knowledge that I have been going back and forth whether to use as a skill or a talent. Essentially the things that would normally be non-impactful your character is into, but can be used in play(We are meeting the contact at a fancy restaurant? I might impress them with my knowledge of wines. Target is at a Troll Thrash Metal show? I get tickets to all of them.) But now that I am typing that out, that is probably a better use for story points and just playing off the backstory.