Tagging to make sure people see this post:
[MENTION=6694788]Bluedevil[/MENTION] [MENTION=54988]Dragonwriter[/MENTION] [MENTION=4936]Shayuri[/MENTION] [MENTION=478]Thanee[/MENTION]
Now would probably be an excellent time to look over the rules for Declarations (page 116 YS). Declarations are all about using your character's skills as a means for the player to add some aspect to a scene that hasn't yet been determined. You can be as creative as you want, but keep in mind two things 1) Whether or not the declaration is possible is the purview of the GM and 2) The difficulty of the roll is determined by the GM.
#1 means "Would this be a boon or detract from the game?" is an important question to ask yourself when making a declaration. As for
#2 , you can bypass the roll by spending an Action Point. That's one reason Action Points so good.
The current situation where Juno and Malcom want to sneak into the house is a perfect opportunity for some simple or creative uses of declarations, especially considering neither of you are very skilled at Burglary, but are good at Investigation.
Declaration rules are fairly different than most other RPG systems' action resolution, and it takes a little effort to wrap your head around using them.
If you would like to try a declaration at any point in the game, you can ask in this thread about it, and I'll get back with you ASAP and tell you whether it is possible and what the target you need to get on your skill roll. Feel free to suggest what skill would be appropriate in your request. Then you can attempt your roll and narrate the outcome in one swoop. If you fail and you really don't like it, before you resolve the result in game you can decide to use an Action Point to bypass the roll and get an automatic success. Action points can always be used retroactively in DFRPG as long as the action hasn't been resolved in game.
If you ask about a declaration and I say it isn't possible, it probably means that there is something that you aren't aware of but that is already in play in the game that would conflict with a successful outcome of your declaration. Or it means that I think the success of the declaration would be bad for the overall play experience. I don't shoot down anything because it would make things easier on you - I have lots of tricks up my sleeve for making things more difficult. Lots. Truly. So many. That's the whole point of the Dresden Files, right?
