Hacking the Rules: Monster lore, part 3

Complexity isn’t always great

I’ve always been a fan of complexity.  When I sit down to design a house rule, my brain automatically gets set to the highest difficulty rating that I can comprehend, and I begin my work in that brainspace.  I don’t know why, exactly, but it probably has something to do with deep-seated insecurity and a need to feel superior.  Or to show you how smart I am so you don’t realize how dumb I am.  Whatever, we all have our issues.

For me, complexity is pleasing and enjoyable.  What I recently realized, however, is that complexity in a game system isn’t a good thing necessarily.  Especially when I am pushing that complexity onto the players in my game.  Players have already invested a lot of their time learning the rules of the game as they are published.  Replace those rules with something more complicated, and the best I can hope for is grudging acquiescence.  The worst is open revolt.

As I’m mulling over solutions for the monster lore problem I’ve described in the past two posts, the guiding principle that I have forced into my brain is KISS.  This is something new for me.  My design goal with this new system is to try to keep it as simple as possible; simple for everyone would be ideal, but simple for the players is a minimum requirement.  As a GM, I can handle complexity.  I even prefer it.  Wow, a growth and learning opportunity at age fifty-something.  Who wouldda thunk? 

The good news is that the solution I will outline remains exactly the same for the players:  See a monster, decide what knowledge check you will make, roll a d20 and add your Knowledge bonus.  See?  I can totally do easy.  The bad news (but not so bad for me, since I don’t mind complexity) is that a large amount of work gets placed on the GM.  And that work specifically entails reintroducing the Frequency rating into the corpus of the Pathfinder Bestiaries and figuring out how Frequency affects the target DC for Knowledge checks.  Not a small task.

Fixing Knowledge (Local)

Let’s get this ball rolling by getting Knowledge (local) out of the way.  In my opinion, this is the most egregious of offenders in the monster lore category and can be fixed pretty easily.  Why don’t we try and redefine Knowledge (local) as follows?

Knowledge (Local): Legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, establishments, history.  You must select a particular location (such as a city, a small group of nearby villages, or a small region of wilderness) that your knowledge applies to.  For example, Knowledge (local: Korvosa) would be appropriate, but Knowledge (local: Varisia) would not.

Notice that humanoids have been removed from this definition.  We’ll get back to that in a moment, don’t fret.  With this revised definition, Knowledge (local) now deals only with things that are…local!  With humanoids removed from the definition, Knowledge (local) is no longer used to gain monster lore with Knowledge checks (but see below).  I’ve also added history to the definition.  It makes sense that if you take ranks in Knowledge (local: Korvosa), you would also know something about the city’s history.  You wouldn’t be able to use your local knowledge of Korvosa to make a history check about the Whispering Tyrant, for example, but you could use it to remember who the founder of the Korvosa was or recall certain details about the wars against the Shoanti.

But wait!  There’s more!  It seems logical to me that ranks in Knowledge (local) should also allow a character to identify monsters that are…wait for it…LOCAL.  Let’s say your character is from Korvosa.  You have some ranks in Knowledge (local: Korvosa).  You encounter an imp eating a rat in some back alley.  Now, your character knows that imps are very common in Korvosa, because students at the Acadamae must learn to summon them very early in their education.  These summoned imps are simply released into the city, where they do whatever imps do.  Under the old rules, unless your character had ranks in Knowledge (the Planes), you would have no idea what an imp was, despite having lived in Korvosa your whole life.  Ranks in Knowledge (local: Korvosa) should allow you to easily identify an imp, and probably also know a few things about them as well.

This is where the work begins for the GM.  In order to use Knowledge (local) to learn monster lore, the GM must know what monsters are local to the area in question.  Is there any reference a GM can use to figure this out?  Why yes, there is.  And it’s pretty damn easy.

Random becomes local

I run adventure paths.  I am not creative enough to write my own adventures, nor do I have the time to commit to such an undertaking.  Adventure paths have their own kind of drawbacks, but you can’t beat them for convenience and most of them are written by folks that are far more talented and creative than me.  As a bonus to getting a pre-written adventure, each volume of an adventure path contains a collection of supplemental material called back matter.  And the back matter always has a section called the Bestiary.  Each bestiary begins with random encounter tables that you can use for that particular adventure.  Do you know what else you can use those random encounter tables for?  Figuring out what monsters are local. As I glance over the random encounter tables for Curse of the Crimson Throne, I find a list called Korvosa Street Encounters.  In that list are dream spiders, dire rats, accuser devils, ettercaps, otyughs, imps, and a whole bunch of other critters.  Since they all can possibly be encountered on the streets of Korvosa, they can be considered local.  And, therefore, can be identified with the Knowledge (local) skill.  So now, your character doesn’t need to have ranks in Knowledge (the Planes) to figure out what that creature is that’s flying around your kitchen, trying to eat your cat.  And here’s another thing that should be allowed: Knowledge (local) checks to determine monster lore can be made untrained.  Your character has watched imps and pseudodragons and otyughs their whole life.  They should have a chance to know at least a little about them without having to spend a rank in a Knowledge skill.

Where do we put all these humanoids? 

Let’s circle back to humanoids now.  We’ve removed humanoids from Knowledge (local), so we need to find a way to gain monster lore for humanoids and monstrous humanoids.  But humanoids just don’t fit well into any other Knowledge category.  Which is probably why the designers of the game decided that they had to lump it into the Local category.  ‘Cause, there ain’t no other place to put it.  I see no other way to insert it back into the game than to create a new Knowledge category: Knowledge (humanoids).  Let’s try this out as a preliminary definition:

Knowledge (Humanoids): Society, organization, culture, rivalries, alignment, monster lore. 

Knowledge (humanoids) is general, while Knowledge (local) is specific.  A Knowledge (humanoids) check will inform you about goblins in general, whereas Knowledge (local) would tell you about goblins living in the Tanglewood.  You can also use Knowledge (humanoids) to learn monster lore about humanoid and monstrous humanoid creatures.  So, to learn about Varisian culture and beliefs in general, you use Knowledge (humanoids), but to learn about the Varisians living in Korvosa, you use Knowledge (local).  It makes sense to me; hopefully it does to you too.

Grab your pitchfork

“Nooooooo!!!” I hear you cry out in protest.  “You can’t add another skill to the game!  Now my skill ranks buy less at every level!  You have to increase the number of skill points my character gets to compensate!  Shenanigans!  I declare shenanigans!”  Yes, I hear you.  Your point is valid.  I recognize that.  My two options are to adjust skill points granted per level, or tell you “tough shit, deal with it.”  Truthfully, I don’t know which way I’m leaning, but I promise you that I will thoroughly examine the mechanical impact of adding a skill into the game and provide you with statistical data that backs up my decision.  I promise, I don’t want to hose players.  I want to make the game better, for both you and me.  Have faith.

In my next post, well dive deep into the topic of Frequency, how to introduce it back into the game, and how to mechanically express it in the form of DC’s.