[Social Engineering] Why can't Observation be used to covertly judge approachability?

[Langy]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

And the answer given is because Observation doesn't tell you how to be convert just how to do it without blowing how you being Covert.

Walking in the bank and pretending to be a customer, and gathering intel so that the Jackson 11 can go back to their hotel to plan the heist.

Has two rolls, one Observation this covers if you get the intel you need. And an Acting Roll. the Acting roll covers both knowing how a customer will behave AND the covering of observation because it how to look like your a customer despite that you are casing the joint.

You don't need an Acting roll to behave like a customer. Behaving like a customer is something everyone knows how to do. In particular, the guy could actually go in as a customer and scope out the joint; there'd be no acting involved, because he's actually a customer. Observation would simply allow him to do that stuff without being noticed.

Now, if the man wasn't actually a customer and came in in order to rob the place or whatever, then I might require an Acting roll. There's a bit of a difference.

For another example, a man might be sitting at a cafe and want to observe the crowd (possibly a particularly attractive waitress). He doesn't need to roll Acting, he needs to roll Observation, to watch without being noticed. That's how the skill reads in the Basic Set; Kromm and others seem to be trying to retcon one of the primary attributes of the skill out of it, even though it takes pride of place and is the first, most important part of the skill description.