You attempt to learn more information about a person, location, or event within the setting, either by interacting socially with others and observing their reactions , or observing the area and the people around you and comparing it to your studies and experience.
To engage with a target to draw out information, as a scheme action, you make a Social skill check verses that target. The TN of the check is equal to the Target's Vigilance. Void is used to Enlighten you about your Target.
To learn information by studying an area and the people in it, you make a Scholar skill check with a relevant skill. The TN of the check varies but is generally equal to the Target's Vigilance. Void is used to Sense peculiarities within the situation.
To engage with a target to draw out information, as a scheme action, you make a Social skill check verses that target. The TN of the check is equal to the Target's Vigilance. Void is used to Enlighten you about your Target.
To learn information by studying an area and the people in it, you make a Scholar skill check with a relevant skill. The TN of the check varies but is generally equal to the Target's Vigilance. Void is used to Sense peculiarities within the situation.
Details
To Draw Out Information:
To draw out information from a person or group of people, as a Scheme action, you make a Social skill check targeting one or more characters who can hear you. The TN of the check is equal to the highest vigilance among your targets.
To See through Lies:
To lie to someone directly, an opponent needs to make a Social Skill check with a TN of the character's Vigilance. If the opponent succeeds this check, the character cannot tell if they are lying offhand. However, they are not obligated to believe them if they think there is evidence against them. If they still harbor suspicions, they may make a sentiment check to find a crack in the lie. Sentiment (Void) Lets you uncover what someone wants to accomplish with their words. This may help break through a lie, but it is almost always useful as part of the greater game of intrigue.
Potential Objectives Using Observe
To draw out information from a person or group of people, as a Scheme action, you make a Social skill check targeting one or more characters who can hear you. The TN of the check is equal to the highest vigilance among your targets.
To See through Lies:
To lie to someone directly, an opponent needs to make a Social Skill check with a TN of the character's Vigilance. If the opponent succeeds this check, the character cannot tell if they are lying offhand. However, they are not obligated to believe them if they think there is evidence against them. If they still harbor suspicions, they may make a sentiment check to find a crack in the lie. Sentiment (Void) Lets you uncover what someone wants to accomplish with their words. This may help break through a lie, but it is almost always useful as part of the greater game of intrigue.
Potential Objectives Using Observe
- Discern Someone's Qualities
A target's qualities are discerned by accumulating momentum points equal to or greater than the Vigilance attribute of the target, modified by the GM for cleverness and evasiveness. The GM also determines a number of social checks that can be allowed for that person. For each successful Social Skill Check, the character gets one Momentum Point. If the target's maximum number of social checks is reached before the momentum points can be reached, or if the target retires from the scene before completion (after completing their own objective or otherwise), this objective cannot be completed. At the end of any round in which a character accumulates the requisite points, the character learns up to three of the following about their target: social objective, ninjō, giri, composure, endurance, one advantage, one disadvantage.
There are also shuji and opportunities that can reveal qualities and history to the character. - Investigate a Populated Environment
An intrigue may be used to investigate events, locations, or people within a populated environment such as a court room, city street, village, etc. The population present are asked about events that have occurred, the place they live, or the history of a person they know. An environment is investigated in this fashion by accumulating momentum points determined by the GM depending on the hostility of the population and the type of investigation. The GM must also determine a number of turns that the population will allow themselves to be questioned in. In addition, an opponent may work to prevent or cover up the investigation by trying to Influence the population not to speak to the investigators or to provide false information. For each successful Social Skill Check, the character gets one Momentum Point. Momentum points can come from either successful social or Scholar skill checks, but no two checks may target the same person. For each successful Social or Scholar Skill Check, the character gets one Momentum Point. If the crowd stops being willing to be interrogated and/or having their environment being searched, or the opponent has higher momentum points when the characters achieve their target momentum, the investigation has been foiled and this objective cannot be completed. If the characters succeed, the GM reveals the information relevant to their investigation.
Opportunity Uses |
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* |
Social: Discern the objective of another character in the scene. |
* |
Scholar: Intuit whether you can learn anything of value from your current course of inquiry. |
Opportunity Uses |
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* |
If you failed, determine the easiest way to accomplish the task you were attempting (skill and approach). |
*+ |
Remove 1 strife you gained from this check per * spent this way. |
** |
Provide assistance to the next character to attempt a check to accomplish something similar |
* |
If you failed, provide assistance to the next character trying to accomplish the same action (p. 298 CRB) |
* |
Choose a ring other than Void. Reduce the TN of your next check by 1 if it uses that ring. |
*+ |
Feel a chill down your spine, notice a sudden silence, or detect another sign of the supernatural if there is a spiritual disturbance in the scene. Extra * gives an increasingly precise location for the supernatural occurrence. |
** |
Gain spiritual insight into the nature of the universe or your own heart. At the GM’s discretion, you may establish a fact about your character that has not been previously revealed but relates to the situation. |
Social + Void Shuji Opportunities
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None
Special Circumstance Opportunities
In Shadowlands
** Though Jigoku’s power weighs heavily upon them, you are undeterred. By drawing on memories of the un-Tainted lands north of the wall, you can keep yourself focused and ignore all Strife results on your next check.
Against Tainted Threats
** or *** If the character spends**, they discern that the kami have fled, as well as the type of disturbance (mahō, kansen, or similar). If the character spends ***, they can also determine the total combat Military threat rating of all Tainted beings that caused the kami to flee.
In Shadowlands Against Tainted Threats While Tainted
**+ The unnatural insights of the kansen voice themselves wordlessly to you, granting knowledge you could not possibly have known otherwise. You learn something relevant to the current situation, appropriate in scope to the number of * spent. For each * spent in this way, you receive 1 strife due to the unnatural means by which you gained this knowledge.** or *** If the character spends**, they discern that the kami have fled, as well as the type of disturbance (mahō, kansen, or similar). If the character spends ***, they can also determine the total combat Military threat rating of all Tainted beings that caused the kami to flee.
In Negotiations
*** You briefly shake someone’s conviction with a deep insight into their character or circumstances, causing them to speak without certainty. Until the end of your next turn, any momentum points they score are added to your current social objective instead of to their own.
In Romance
*** Due to circumstances beyond your control - a gust of wind or an earth tremor, perhaps -- you and your intended find yourselves unexpectedly aware of one another! Your intended decides what kind of contact it was, from a fateful meeting of the eyes to a brush of your hands against one another as you reach for a dropped scroll. They also decide how they react, although they will not blame you for anything untoward (after all, it wasn't your fault.)
In Espionage
* Your understanding of stealth clues you in on the possibility that you are not the first spy to pass this way. The GM reveals whether another spy has traversed your location and, if so, what trace they unwittingly left behind.