Research "Smarts"

Research

SMARTS

A character skilled in Research knows how to make good use of libraries, newspaper morgues, or other written sources of information. The amount of time this takes is up to the GM and the situation. Finding something a specific passage in a book might be possible in a combat round. Looking through books in a library, or digging up background information on an individual usually takes about an hour.
Success finds basic information and a raise provides more detail. Failure means the researcher doesn’t find what she’s looking for. A Critical Failure might mean the researcher finds plausible but incorrect information, triggers the notice of some opposed entity or faction, reads something “Humanity Was Not Meant to Know” and suffers a mental illness of some sort (a Minor Phobia, Quirk, etc.), or she might even accidentally destroy the source.

Related Skills

If a character has a skill that relates directly to the subject he’s researching, he can use that instead of Research. An explorer with Occult d10 and Research d6, for example, rolls a d10 when investigating vampire lore at a forgotten library. If he later goes to search for the deed to a house where the vampires are rumored to lair, he rolls his normal Research instead.

Note

Research may only provide the clues, especially in a mystery-heavy game. Putting the clues together from the information gathered is up to the players.