Dex based gather information

[Falcii]

So I'm about to try to DM a campaign for the second time. The first one didn't go so well... But this time I'm taking complete ownership of the system and changing things I don't like. One of these is "knowledge local". For a camp about exploring far off places, it makes no sense for anyone to have. So I want to ty your knowledge local score in each zone (in my case it's an island hopping campaign so each island) being determined by a gather information check. I also think that it'd be cool to key gather information checks off different stats to learn different things, like CHA to get gossip, int for politics, con to go on a jog and learn the lay of the land etc. The only one I'm REALLY struggling with though is Dex. What does one even learn with Dex?? Help would be great.

[Red Fel]

What does one even learn with Dex??

The contents of people's pockets.

The local dance crazes.

How to win at darts.

If you want to make a Dex-based Gather Information check, just use a Dex check as a sort of carousing test - say the PC goes out dancing, or playing bar games, or something - and then based on that check, give him a bonus to the Cha-based check that follows. For example, say the PC decides to go to the bar and play darts with people. Say he succeeds his check by 10. Tell him to make a Cha-based Gather Information check, and give him +2 (+1 for every 5 on his success roll) circumstance bonus for having impressed people with his dart-throwing.

Honestly, Gather Information can simply be Gather Information. You don't need a Dex-based version. Otherwise, you could simply ask the players, "Roll d20 with whatever ability modifier you want, to do whatever you want, as long as you can tell me how." Not every skill needs to have a version for every ability.

[Falcii]

Hmm... Thank you, I'll mull this over. I am kindof doing an aggressive rework of some skill stuff because of the group I play with (they either max one stat to game breaking levels or they ignore them entirely) and I want to encourage more use of skills. Maybe this isn't the way to do it lol.

I always appreciate a visit from the man who made me believe in lawful evil again.

[Geddy2112]

Take a play from Assassins Creed, and with enough agility and parkour checks, you can learn dang near everything about a city.

For knowledge local and new towns, I always figured the check incorporated a character's ability to learn names, places, gossip, whatnot. I just give it the same time frame as standard gather information, but less talking to people and more studying the place.

[rrwoods]

FWIW, Knowledge: local is a terrible name for what the skill does. Knowledge: anthropology is much closer. It's about customs, day-to-day life, etc. Yeah, it's weird that it represents knowledge about those things *everywhere*, but remember that each individual check determines whether you actually know a specific thing, so the abstraction works itself out.

That said, you're not the first to take issue with that abstraction and changing it is totes reasonable.