Common Knowledge

[EO]

I definitely think it would depend on where one is from. A peasant from the Village of Barovia probably doesn't know or care about anything but the things going on in the Village. Darkonians, I think, are said not to care much about other realms and to be more centered on their land. I could see inhabitants from the western domains such as Mordent, Dementlieu and Lamordia as snubbing the Southeastern core and thinking of it as nothing but ignorant backwater peasants, so not terribly interested in learning much.

Obviously an illiterate peasant tending his farm, raised in a village and having never left it, will not know much of the neighboring domains. Even in today's society, that's still the case and we have a lot more means of communication than they would have in Ravenloft.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

My suggestion is to make it in levels of success, like a Knowledge (local) check. We can suggest DC's for the check to know, and individual DM's can add circumstance penalties or bonuses as they wish. If I want an integrated, cosmopolitan Core, I can add +10 across the board. If I want the merchant PC to have lots of good info, I can give him +5 to all such checks..

Very nice ideas here, DS. Seems like that gives the best of both worlds...

This could definitely go in the wiki, if people want it there, though maybe we need some designation for stuff like this. It's not exactly "canon", though the info contained in it may be. But it's not exactly "non-canon" either. (or any of the other Levels of Canon I defined). It's not strictly info, it's more of a game aid or opinion piece. As such, maybe it belongs in a netbook instead? or maybe we can have a designation in the wiki, like "musings"?

[Rotipher of the FoS]

How about call such things "DM Tips", like the sidebars in the netbook? Or "Play Tips", if they're not gamemaster-specific.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

As far as levels of canonicity, it sounds like "questionable canon" to me. It 's derived from canon, but the derivation (i.e. how much would they know?) is open to question.

[The Giamarga]

My suggestion is to make it in levels of success, like a Knowledge (local) check. We can suggest DC's for the check to know, and individual DM's can add circumstance penalties or bonuses as they wish. If I want an integrated, cosmopolitan Core, I can add +10 across the board. If I want the merchant PC to have lots of good info, I can give him +5 to all such checks..

Very nice ideas here, DS. Seems like that gives the best of both worlds...

There's a precedent format for this in 3E products such as the Complete xxx books, the races books and/or the monster books. See here for an example: Know your enemy (part 1)
Know your enemy (part 2)

[DocBeard]

Yeah; for 4E, it seems pretty clear that you make a nature, arcane, or religion roll to determine if you know something or not, unless the information is plot-related.

Personally I figure that Joe and Jane Peasant are probably going to know how to get through the day in one piece. If something's enough of a threat that you have to work around it every day, people'll do that.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

There's a precedent format for this in 3E products such as the Complete xxx books, the races books and/or the monster books.

Yup, I love that kind of graduated success by DC chart for knowledge checks, but never considered using a modifier like that across the board to allow DM's to fine-tune their PC's ignorance level.

Here's the chart I came up with for Nidala, with the help of the folks in this thread

Knowledge (Geo) 25 on Nidala:

DC15: Nidala is the only inhabited region in a land called collectively The
Shadowlands, somewhere deep within the Mists. The Shadowlands also includes
the abandoned ruins of the land of Avonleigh, and the untamed wilderness of
the Phantasmal Forest. The settled lands lay to the east of the Theospine
mountains, which bisects Nidala from north to south. The climate is
temperate and contains mostly mountains, forests, hills, and plains. Several
rivers and streams flow down from the mountains, and pool in one freshwater
lake, Lake Amenta.

DC20: The Kingdom of Nidala is kept safe by the Knight-Protector, a holy
warrior who rules from the capital city of Touraine, the largest settlement
in the land. Dozens of smaller settlements dot the lands east of the
mountains, where the folk live off of bountiful fish, shellfish, game,
assorted grains, hogs, cattle, and sheep. The Nidalans also harvest timber
and mine mineral deposits, and live in relative peace, as the
Knight-Protector's warriors and clerics have all but eliminated dangerous
creatures from eastern Nidala.

DC25: The largest of the outlying settlements are Iasgair (a fishing
village), Caorann (primarily a lumberjack community), and Srath (built
around a limestone quarry.) Legends tell of a "Mistway" of moderate
reliability connecting Nidala to Northern Darkon, though many others have
reached Nidala by boat, from either Sea, arriving in one of the rivers, or
even in Lake Amenta. Rumors abound of bandits and monsters lurking in the
uncivilized West, outside the reach of Nidala's knights. The crystal clear
waters of Lake Amenta are said to conceal a gateway to a mystical kingdom.