[Basic] Skill of the week: Intelligence Analysis

[johndallman]

Intelligence Analysis is an IQ/H TL skill that's about putting information together. The defaults are IQ-6 or Strategy (any)-6. Specifically, it is about analysing and interpreting intelligence information, to deduce enemy plans and capabilities, judge the quality of information and/or its sources, and so on. You can't use it to gather information, but it can plausibly suggest where to look for more.

The GM rolls this skill, and provides insight on a success. If you have some information that is deliberately deceptive, the GM rolls a Quick Contest between Intelligence Analysis and the skill used for deception, and tells you about it if you win. Modifiers include -1 to -5 for incomplete information, and -3 for complex or technical subjects, unless you have an appropriate skill for understanding them.

The Illuminated advantage and Expert Skill (Conspiracy Theory) provide partial alternatives to this skill. It can be very useful in conjunction with Observation, and Strategy has a default from it. Optional specialisations often make sense for Intelligence Analysis. and Basic provides the example of (Traffic Analysis), the extraction of information from radio call signs and the traffic between them. Intelligence Analysis appeared at 3e, but there weren't any rules for using it; those appeared in Compendium I for 3e.

Basic reckons that in most settings, only the military, intelligence and security services teach this skill. That seems to includes police, who are suggested as often providing Intelligence Analysis as Contacts, on B45; the Investigator template on B245 also features the skill. I think I'd be willing to let anyone with a lot of skills on a particular topic take specialised Intelligence Analysis for it. However, there's a potential overlap with Current Affairs: knowing a lot about what's happening in a field often suggests things that might be going to happen.

Intelligence Analysis is a fairly common template skill for investigators, military officers, spies and counterspies. Action also gives it to cinematic hackers, conspiracy nuts and journalists, uses it as an investigative skill similar to Criminology, and makes it an important skill in understanding a situation well enough to make a plan for action. Fantasy gives assassin's guilds Intelligence Analysis and shows how PCs can affect battles from behinds the front line with this, and other, skills. High-Tech clarifies that analysis of aerial or satellite photographs is done with this skill. Horror shows how useful the skill is for investigations. Madness Dossier's weird insights into human minds can grant Talents that include this skill. Infinite Worlds points out that Intelligence Analysis can take cross-world familiarity penalties. Mass Combat has a lot of uses for this skill, as does Monster Hunters. Mysteries uses it for detecting falsehoods in written communication. As usual, PU3 and PU7 have applicable Talents and Wildcard skills. Powers uses it for Oracle (Digital). Social Engineering can use it for identifying relationships, improving presentations, finding secretive government departments, finding out things that help with negotiations, discovering secrets, discovering what impression the media are making on a population, suppressing the population of a totalitarian state, and making diplomatic agreements. Spaceships has rules for operations centres that can help with this skill, among others and Supers can use it for finding hidden bases.

In play, this skill is one of the ones that provide answers, of the kind that some GMs feel players should be working out for themselves, especially since that looks more possible with Intelligence Analysis than, say, Forensics. However, that makes it hard to play a character with very different capabilities from the player. I compromise on this issue. I'm happy to let players try to solve the problem themselves (and give them hints if their characters have good analysis or deduction skills), because being inspired by a character and a game to go beyond one's usual mental limitations is such a wonderful experience when it happens. But if they're stuck, I'll let them fall back on skill rolls.

Historical examples of deception, such as Operation Fortitude suggest (a) that intelligence analysts should always be suspicious about information that fits a known story very well and (b) that applying large amounts of resources can create a deception that's very hard to penetrate.

I've used this skill quite a bit in games, but always for its intended purpose and in its usual context. Have you done anything strange with it?