Investigation

Investigation Skills

All Investigation tests require a character to have access to an Investigation skill. The Difficulty of the Test depends on its complexity, which also determines the base time it should take to uncover the information sought. A success on the Test allows you to roll 1d10 and add the appropriate Characteristic Bonus (as determined by the Characteristic used for the Test) and subtract this value in hours from the time it takes to uncover the information sought. A failed Test indicates no progress gained. Failing by three or more degrees indicates a setback, adding 1d10 hours to the total time required by the Test. Failing by five or more degrees means that your investigation comes to a complete halt and that the information’s complexity increases by two steps. Once you reduce the time to 0 or less, you get the available information on the subject you’re investigating.
Investigation should never be used to replace roleplaying or participating in adventures, but rather to augment roleplaying and assist in arriving at the facts of a matter.
The table below has example Difficulties, times and Actions based on secrecy. As with many other Tests, you may benefit from assistance from other Player Characters subject to the same limitations described under Assistance.

Investigation Benchmarks
Complexity	Difficulty	Modifier	Example	Time
Simple	Easy	+30	Discovering marketplace gossip	1 hour
Basic	Routine	+20	Finding a general’s major victories	6 hours
Drudging	Ordinary	+10	Finding a general’s service record	24 hours
Taxing	Challenging	+0	Identifying an obscure poison	72 hours
Arduous	Difficult	–10	Tracing the origin of a machine spirit	14 days
Involved	Hard	–20	Translating an entire book	1 month
Labyrinthine	Very Hard	–30	Cataloguing a datacrypt	1d5 years