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Old 08-10-2017, 09:21 AM   #1
Apollonian
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
Default Investigative Maneuvers

I'm trying to put together a cheat sheet for my players in the Cabal game we're running. The goal is to have a one-page document with around a dozen maneuvers - actions a PC can take - to Find Things Out. It's supposed to provide some guidance for players who are accustomed to the more hack and slash/reactive game play of dungeon crawling... as well as to a GM who's in much the same boat. I'm trying to avoid the usual floundering we've been having, where I present a situation ("The butler's dead - his throat's been torn out!") and the players immediately resort to threatening the nearest witness because, well, that's what you do with orcs. Or they come up with a reasonable course of action, but they don't have the skills to back it up, and just get frustrated.

So right now I have a note about complementary skills and then the following manuevers:
  • Searching the scene (Search skill. Scrounging?)
  • Look for witnesses (search rolls from Social Engineering)
  • Call Contacts, Allies, and Patrons
  • Interview witnesses - hostile interrogations and friendly interviews (Interrogation, Detect Lies, Psychology)
  • Stake out or shadow a suspect (Observation, Shadowing, Camouflage)
  • Conduct an autopsy (Diagnosis, Physician)
  • Hit the Books/Files (Research, Administration)
  • Analyze Evidence (Forensics)
  • Put The Pieces Together (Intelligence Analysis, deduction roll from Monster Hunters 2)

Sources I'm looking at referring to are Mysteries, Action 2, Monster Hunters 2, and Social Engineering.

Right now I'm floundering a little myself. Any suggestions on maneuvers I should include, or skill applications I've overlooked (or ones I've included that aren't so good)?
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Old 08-10-2017, 09:50 AM   #2
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
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Default Re: Investigative Maneuvers

I did sort of a checklist of that in one chapter of Transhuman Space: Transhuman Mysteries. It had a list of things investigators might want to find out, and skills they might roll against for each of them.
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Old 08-10-2017, 10:31 AM   #3
dcarson
 
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Default Re: Investigative Maneuvers

Follow the money, Economics, Accounting.
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Old 08-10-2017, 11:33 AM   #4
whswhs
 
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Default Re: Investigative Maneuvers

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Originally Posted by dcarson View Post
Follow the money, Economics, Accounting.
Really Accounting. Economics doesn't provide suitable tools for that sort of investigation.
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Old 08-10-2017, 01:05 PM   #5
Donny Brook
 
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Default Re: Investigative Maneuvers

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
Really Accounting. Economics doesn't provide suitable tools for that sort of investigation.
Economics, particularly micro-economics, is the social science of incentive, motivation, information and opportunity. In investigations it would generate the hypotheses for Accounting to follow up.
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Old 08-10-2017, 02:40 PM   #6
Kelly Pedersen
 
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Default Re: Investigative Maneuvers

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Originally Posted by Donny Brook View Post
Economics, particularly micro-economics, is the social science of incentive, motivation, information and opportunity.
That's not how the Economics skill is defined in GURPS 4e, however. It's specifically "the study of the theory of money, markets, and financial systems." It's basically macro-economics, I think. Micro- would be covered by things like Finance, Accounting, and Psychology.
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Old 08-10-2017, 02:43 PM   #7
whswhs
 
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Default Re: Investigative Maneuvers

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Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen View Post
That's not how the Economics skill is defined in GURPS 4e, however. It's specifically "the study of the theory of money, markets, and financial systems." It's basically macro-economics, I think. Micro- would be covered by things like Finance, Accounting, and Psychology.
I tend to ignore some of those statements as a layman's attempt to define an academic discipline in terms easily enough understood for gaming use. And in this case "theory of markets" is fairly easy to interpret as "microeconomics" anyway.
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Old 08-11-2017, 11:26 AM   #8
Ulzgoroth
 
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Default Re: Investigative Maneuvers

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
I tend to ignore some of those statements as a layman's attempt to define an academic discipline in terms easily enough understood for gaming use. And in this case "theory of markets" is fairly easy to interpret as "microeconomics" anyway.
Trying to use microeconomics as a substitute for psychology/criminology/sociology is more the sort of thing an arrogant econ undergrad might do than a good idea, though.
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Old 08-11-2017, 12:38 PM   #9
Donny Brook
 
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Originally Posted by Ulzgoroth View Post
Trying to use microeconomics as a substitute for psychology/criminology/sociology is more the sort of thing an arrogant econ undergrad might do than a good idea, though.
Why would they do that?
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Old 08-11-2017, 12:47 PM   #10
Apollonian
 
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Default Re: Investigative Maneuvers

As the OP, I'd use Economics (or Finance or Market Analysis) only for large-scale investigation -e.g., to see if someone is manipulating a market. Accounting, Administration (if the money is moving through an organization), or Merchant will do just fine for getting clues on smaller scales.
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