Investigation is Key

Aug 02, 2007 08:34

If you've ever played in a mystery, horror, or Call of Cthulhu-style horror-mystery game, you may have encountered out-of-game frustration when something as simple as a single failed die roll has left you without a vital clue needed to keep the story rolling. Either players are forced to fumble around in the dark for ages, or the GM has to risk ( Read more... )

esoterrorists, rpgs, gming, gaming

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You are correct, sir. caramida August 2 2007, 21:57:03 UTC
Your skill rating serves as a pool of competency which you can use to affect character outcomes. This works in two ways, with investigation skills, and with action skills.

A player will create a character with a number of investigation skill points and a number of action skill points to allocate to the skillset appropriate for the character. The trick is that action skills and investigation skills run on two completely different scales and systems.

For action skills (ex recto here, as I don't have the book in front of me), you'll put anywhere from 8-16 points into a skill for solid competency. When you use the skill, you spend points (temporarily removing those points from your available pool), adding a number equal to the points you spent to your die roll. You can opt to spend more points, and increase your chances of success (theoretically to 100% although Robin notes that in a horror game, he never tells players what the target numbers are), at the cost of uses of the skill later.

Investigative skills get you the base benefit the moment you mention that you want to use the skill. This will give you the barest minimum clue to continue on with the adventure. The clue may have additional information available if you choose to spend one, or possibly more, of your skill points. You never have to roll, and your skill levels will be much lower (3-4 points in Evidence Analysis, for example, is pretty damned high).

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Re: You are correct, sir. name_redacted August 3 2007, 16:03:08 UTC
So, is the skill list fixed, or are the skills player-defined?

And, how do points refresh?

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Re: You are correct, sir. caramida August 3 2007, 16:17:26 UTC
The skill list is fixed, as per this pdf character sheet. Skills refresh between investigations, I believe, or perhaps between scenes. I don't recall which exactly.

Your fighting skills do the same, which means you lose the fight when you can no longer expend points to hit or shoot the other guy. One's Health score is the rating that lowers as you take physical damage, and one's Stability score is the rating that goes down as you take mental damage (from seeing unspeakable horror, for example).

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Re: You are correct, sir. name_redacted August 4 2007, 00:48:32 UTC
Are there rules for how to handle extra time spent on research/labwork, or available research/lab materials? For example, it doesn't make much sense for an investigator to get detailed ballistics information without spending time staring into a microscope.

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Re: You are correct, sir. caramida August 4 2007, 01:19:32 UTC
As I recall, they mention the CSI method of the Dramatically Appropriate Timing of lab results. I"m going to have to dig out the book though, to get more specific.

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Re: You are correct, sir. name_redacted August 4 2007, 04:39:54 UTC
That's about what I figured. Maybe I'll just have to break down and buy the thing...

BTW, I ordered a couple of things from Endgame - Green Ronin's "Mythic Vistas" books The Trojan War and Eternal Rome. I don't s'pose I could prevail on you to pick them up for me when they come in?

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Re: You are correct, sir. caramida August 4 2007, 13:03:31 UTC
No problem.

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Re: You are correct, sir. name_redacted August 6 2007, 16:29:22 UTC
Thanks!

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Re: You are correct, sir. name_redacted August 8 2007, 16:50:29 UTC
Endgame let me know y'day that the books are in. Can I prevail upon you to pick them up and bring them Sunday? Let me know what the diff is between the final total and the gift cert and I'll bring you a check.

Also, the cover of the Rome book is tweaked, so they're giving me 20% off (I decided to take the refund rather than have them reorder it).

Thanks again!

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Re: You are correct, sir. caramida August 8 2007, 18:26:24 UTC
I'll see what I can do!

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Re: You are correct, sir. name_redacted August 8 2007, 18:30:32 UTC
Awesome. Don't worry about it if it's too much of a hassle to get it before Sunday, I'll be gone all next week anyway.

Thanks again!

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Re: You are correct, sir. name_redacted August 3 2007, 17:08:44 UTC
I'm pleased that they aren't afraid to use the word "bullshit."

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