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Old 09-06-2020, 09:17 PM   #1
JohnPaulB
 
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Join Date: Jan 2018
Location: Portland, Maine
Default Research as an RPG action

Scholar is a Talent, but researching could be an action that any character can try. These are some rules for this. This is a variation of Researching New Spells (ITL Legacy p144) Note: this is book learned research. One can also do in-field investigation or rumor collecting, etc.


Researching Information via books
It is possible for a person to gain temporary knowledge through research. However, this is a difficult and time-consuming task, as most of the obvious knowledge (Talents) are bought at character creation or through experience points and are permanent.

If a player wishes to do Research, he must first work it out with the GM. However, before allowing this research, the GM should make absolutely certain that this knowledge is not so powerful in some way as to unbalance the scenario. Although the player may make suggestions, it is up to the GM to determine what the exact properties of this knowledge will be.

All knowledge gained by research is temporary (lasts in the memory for 1 day or 1 week as appropriate), otherwise you need to learn the Talent and spend Experience Points for permanent knowledge.

To research a given subject, the researcher must:

(a) have literacy and access to material written in that language (though he can have someone translate foreign words);
(b) own books and materials on the subject, or at least have access to them, and
(c) devote 1d6 number of hours of uninterrupted thought and musings and experiment for that research session.



At the end of each research session, the GM rolls for the character’s Research Check – 3d6 on IQ modified by difficulty. Consult the chart below for success.
The GM comes up with the result for that session.

The player now rolls to see how long that Research session went.

After finding out how long the research took, the GM gives the researcher the findings.

The character may attempt another session, with a break for meal or bathroom in between. Each additional research session could add additional knowledge for that subject. He can research up to 12 hours.


IQ ROLL RESULTS
Roll vs IQ on 3d6 (crit values go up as per #d6 rolled)
Roll of 3......... As per Roll of 5, but you have gained insight into that area of knowledge. It will only cost ¼ the amount of EP to gain it as a Talent.
Roll of 4......... You gain twice as much knowledge about something.
Roll of 5......... You gain knowledge about something and that data is true and can be recognized as accurate.
Successful roll. You gain knowledge about something.
Failure........... You fail to gain knowledge about something or it is already common knowledge.
Roll of 16....... You fail to gain knowledge and are upset about the waste of time. No more research for a week.
Roll of 17....... You have gained some factual knowledge and some false knowledge as well. However you don’t know this.
Roll of 18....... You fail to gain knowledge and in fact have gained some false information that you are certain about. You try to force this idea on others for 1d6 weeks.




RESEARCH DIFFICULTIES modifiers Research modifiers per session (accumulated)
General broad data.............................................. .......................................+0 die
General data + some specific details........................................... ..................+1 die
General data + some specific details and one major specific detail....................+2 die
1 book as reference.....(books relevant to the subject)....................................+2 die
3 books as reference....(books relevant to the subject)....................................+1 die
6 books as reference....(books relevant to the subject)....................................+0 die
You know Material is reliable.......................................... ..............................+0 die
You know Material is reliable but too scholarly (you have to parse the data)......+1 die
You know Material to be unreliable (you have to analyze truth from falsehood)..+2 die
Character is a Scholar........................................... .......................................-1 die
Character already has a Talent in this field............................................. .........-1 die
Character already has a Talent in a related field.................................(regular roll, but failed roll can be re-rolled once.)
Character is continuing this research a second or third time...............................-1 die
Character failed previous session .................................................. ................+2 die



Example of a Research Session

The players know that a monster that is tearing up the farmers and gamekeepers in a nearby county. There seems to be huge bite marks on their head and claw marks on their body, which seems to be pushed into the soil.
Before the player’s squad goes into the forest to handle this beast, Joe heads to the library as the others assemble the team and gear.

You tell the GM that Joe (IQ 12) wants to research beasts and asks the duke for permission to use his library. The GM has a lion marauding the forest and will be using TFT stats for this. The GM takes into consideration that the researcher, nor any other characters, has enquired with guards, farmers or victims family on this incident nor about any previous ones that have occurred.

GM decides that in the Duke’s library are 3 books on Animals, 1 book on Big Cats, 1 book on big game hunting, 2 recent reports in the Arnsdale Forest logbook on this incident by the head Gameskeeper.

A servant leads Joe into the library. Joe selects several books (and a few irrelevant ones; only the relevant ones count towards the total) and starts researching.
GM decides the character is looking for broad general data (+ 0 Die) right now using 3 books (+1 Die) that are reliable (+0 Die).

The GM will make a secret roll: Joe IQ12 on 4 die. The roll total is 11, which means Joe succeeded. The GM develops what information he is going to give the researcher.

The GM now has the Player roll 1d6 for number of hours to research this session. It ran two hours.

After finding out how long the research session ran, the researcher gets the following information from the GM:

This beast seems to be a predator with a large mouth and claws, something that has either pushed the victim into the ground then attacked or attacked and fell upon the victim. The GM lists about a dozen animals that could have done this. Most of the animals are part of the areas’ ecology, a few are rarely present here and one or two are mythological.

If that is the end of the research, the player will have this information for 1 week, then it will become fuzzy as he dis-remembers parts of it and forgets.
- - - - - - - - - - -

If he takes a break and comes back to do more research, Joe might ring up the servant and asks about any news on these killings. The servant directs him to the Gameskeepers log. With this and some more shelf-digging, Joe now has 6 more books (1 of them the Big Cats book).

The GM decides that Joe has General data + some specific details and one major specific detail (+2 die) now, using 6 books (+0die) that are reliable (+0 die) and he is continuing the same research (-1die)

The GM will make a secret roll: Joe IQ12 on 4 die. The roll total is 17, which means Joe fails.

Joe’s player now rolls 1d6 to see how long that session went. He gets a 4 for 4 hours.

Once the length of time is established, the researcher gets the following information from the GM.

You are sure you are missing something as you can draw no conclusion.
- - - - - - - - - - -

Joe decides to take one last stab at research (having put in 6 hours so far). Taking the books he already has, he rereads his notes and books, and also obtains an art book showing the human body (section on autopsies and war victims).

The GM decides that Joe has General data + some specific details and one major specific detail (+2 die) now, using 7 books (+0die) that are reliable (+0 die) and he is continuing the same research (-1die)

The GM makes a secret roll: Joe IQ12 on 4 die. The roll total is 12, which means Joe succeeds.


Joe’s player rolls research time and it is 1 hour.

The GM tells Joe that he is starting to see some patterns.

This seems to be a predator with a large mouth and claws, something that has either pushed the victim into the ground then attacked or attacked and fell upon the victim. The GM lists about a dozen animals that could have done this, but after finding some other entries on the GameMaster’s log, he comes to the conclusion that it is a member of the big cat family. One that leaps on the victim, claws him and bites head.
Joe thinks it might be a panther or an imported tiger or lion. If it is a panther, it might be in the trees. He has seen the pictures of the paw prints and has read how to attract these big cats. (if he goes to the location and sees the prints, he might be able to identify the big cat.)



Again, after about a week, his memory will be vague on what he can recall.

- - - - - - - - - - -

If Joe had a 4 (equivalent) Success, he might have zeroed in that it was a lion or tiger and might even know how to kill or capture it.
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Last edited by JohnPaulB; 09-06-2020 at 11:22 PM. Reason: added some additional data and corrected time roll on example
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Old 09-07-2020, 09:30 AM   #2
zot
 
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Default Re: Research as an RPG action

I have a bit of a different take on it that I've posted once or twice here (I updated it in Aug to the final Legacy rules -- I wrote the doc before Legacy was finalized). It works for research, interviewing, interrogation, searching, divination, etc. -- any kind of knowledge gathering.

It's different in that it creates a dialog between the players and the GM and it's very useful for the GM for story building. When the players gain information, they can ask a certain number of clarifying questions (depending on success). This interchange gives the GM clues about what the players are looking for, what their theories are about their situation, etc.

Here's the doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...6Qjpb8PMM/edit
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Old 09-27-2020, 11:55 AM   #3
DrewAstolfi67
 
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Default Re: Research as an RPG action

Quote:
Originally Posted by zot View Post
I have a bit of a different take on it that I've posted once or twice here (I updated it in Aug to the final Legacy rules -- I wrote the doc before Legacy was finalized). It works for research, interviewing, interrogation, searching, divination, etc. -- any kind of knowledge gathering.

It's different in that it creates a dialog between the players and the GM and it's very useful for the GM for story building. When the players gain information, they can ask a certain number of clarifying questions (depending on success). This interchange gives the GM clues about what the players are looking for, what their theories are about their situation, etc.

Here's the doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...6Qjpb8PMM/edit

this is very useful, thanks for sharing it! Research and investigation is an important part of my game, players who charge into places or events without making an effort to understand them don't last long. and there are several over arching mystreies that the PCs get a big kick out of figuring out.
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