Investigation

The Investigation skill is a Core skill every character receives in their starting package. A character’s Investigation skill represents their general ability to spot details and find things of interest whether through overt or covert means. Characters with high Investigation skill are naturally perceptive and have a knack for finding items of interest.

Investigation covers numerous activities such as: searching for items, information gathering, and spotting obscure details. Investigation does not include spotting beings using the Espionage skill as that would fall under the Intuition skill. 

Skill Levels

Apprentice 1-25

People with the Investigation skill at the beginning levels mostly take things at face value. When questioning others their questions would be very direct and usually require only simple responses, like yes and no. When needing to require information on something their first thought and action would be to go to the source, or as near the source as they can get. Most obscure details evade their attention as they focus more on what is easily seen. For example, if asked to describe someone they saw they would only identify their race, sex, height range, weight range, and the color of their outfit. 

Journeyman 26-50

Investigators begin to pay closer attention to the details. Questions they ask can begin to seem a little less obvious and may require a little more explanation than a single-word response. Investigators ask a mixture of more complicated questions and straightforward one when gaining information from someone. When needing to gain information they will give more consideration to finding it from something adjacent to the source (i.e. asking a rival business/gang/individual about the business/gang/individual that a character is trying to gain information on) before heading directly to the source. Their situational awareness increases enough to be able to remember superficial details about a subject later. Continuing the earlier example, an investigator could detail some of the quality and designs of a subject’s clothes, or be able to describe visible scars and tattoos from a short distance. If available, they could describe eye color, facial structure, and visible equipment from memory.

Expert 51-75

At this stage, an Investigator is able to notice subtle things about a stranger they’re interacting with that normally only the stranger’s friends and family would notice. They’ll be able to notice subtle limps, microexpressions of pain, the dilation of their pupils, or the underlying signs of an old accent most people don’t realize is in their speech pattern. Nearly every question that they ask a subject of interest avoids simple yes or no answers. They instead ask questions or bring up subjects that require lengthy explanations from the subject. When gathering information, an Investigator will expand to obscure references that may have a vague or no direct correlation to the source (i.e. customers of a business, bystanders, or relatives of people who are close friends of the person an Investigator is gathering information on). 

Master 76-100

Master Investigators can appear to use chaotic or mystical methods to gain information and spot details when really it’s just their experience at work. Questions they ask can appear to not relate to the topic they’re investigating, but can still give the Investigator an insightful answer to piece together the bigger picture. Investigators gather information by asking people they know that know a lot about the source subject or are able to ask around and find out who is the correct person they need to talk to for the answers they need. An Investigator can seem telepathic, just by noticing the smallest of details of a person and determining the meaning of that detail. An example being, they see the dirt under a person’s fingernails, on their boots, and the knees of their pants. Knowing that they tend a garden, they could conclude that the person was planting new vegetation.