Hurried Checks

takyris · Apr 28, 2004

This isn't, as I see it, a House Rule as much as an interpretation. In the "Options, not restrictions" vein, I've run into an issue with players saying, "Okay, it's 4:00, and I have to get to the warehouse by 6:00, so I can only research stuff at the library. What can I find out in an hour?"

Going by the existing rules, there's nothing listed. If you want to disable a device, research something, or gather information, it takes as long as it takes. However, there's a decent engine in the movement rules. Normal Hiding Speed is one-half normal. To move up to your normal speed gives you a -5 penalty, and to charge or run gives you a -20.

So, what do folks think of "Halve the time it takes" for a -5 penalty, or "Decrease the time it takes by 75%" for a -20 penalty. Honestly, I'd been thinking of -5/-10 for Half/Quarter, but -20 appears to be by the book. This would let a pretty good researcher (+15 to check) take 10 and get DC 5, meaning that he can pretty much discover common-knowledge information about something in a little under an hour. Too harsh? What do you guys think? What would be closest to by the book, what would be fair?

HeapThaumaturgist · Apr 28, 2004

That sounds good to me, really. It may end up coming up in my games, so I'll keep this one filed to see how it works out in my own games.

With me, it's more a matter of figuring out how much they find in an hour or in a half hour or whatever. My game group has varied abilities and specialites, so every game session ends up becoming me running 4-5 totally separate things ... one person is researching at the library, another is examining the body, somebody else is mailing a package and talking to the clerks. "What do I find?" "Well, that'll take a while, I have to resolve this first." "I cast Magic Missile at the darkness!" etc.

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--fje

JimAde · Apr 28, 2004

I think it's excellent. I'll have to point Tokiwong at this thread, since I'm in his Kingdom Lost and my character is a researchy-dude.

Thanks.

Tokiwong · Apr 29, 2004

I like this rules adaption, JimAde consider it golden

thanks for posting it

Pielorinho · Apr 29, 2004

I like the basic mechanic, but I'd go for a bit more flexibility, and/or consider the -20 job to be done extremely quickly. If you're repairing a computer superquickly, fast enough to take a -20 on it, I woudln't want that to represent 15 minutes of work--that'd represent popping the case off, yanking out a cable, splicing in some other wire, jamming the cable back in, and popping the case back on. Five rounds max.

Researching at a -20 penalty? You're googling, baby! Give the person whatever results they're able to come up with after sixty seconds in front of a computer equipped with broadband. For a great researcher, that might be enough. (Consider how quickly, for example, you could find out the last name of the ruler of Mozambique using Google. Took me about twenty seconds, and I'm no great researcher, and this is surely harder than DC5).

When you move silently at -20 penalty, it's not just that you're moving at four times your normal move speed: you're moving as fast as you possibly can. That doesn't translate exactly to research, repair, etc.: what does it mean to research as fast as you possibly can?

I'd say it means to do the job in a matter of rounds.

Still, very cool idea!
Daniel

takyris · Apr 29, 2004

Thanks for the feedback, Pie! I'm sort of moving toward that, while trying to not go overboard with letting people do this all the time. I want people to still default to the normal time listed, but I'm actually thinking "-5/-10/-15/-20", and each iteration either divides the time required by two or cuts it by a factor (hours to tens of minutes, tens of minutes to minutes, minutes to rounds, and yeah, the -20 could be for a one-round search).

JimAde · Apr 29, 2004

That last variation sounds a lot like the champions time chart. If your power had a duration or casting time, for example, you could move it up and down the chart for points. It ran something like:

1 Phase
1 Turn (12 seconds)
1 Minute
5 Minutes
1 hour
etc.

Pielorinho · Apr 29, 2004

Taky, that sounds pretty right, with the obvious caveat that some tasks take a certain minimal amount of time to complete. There's simply no way you can forge a sword in five minutes: steel doesn't heat up fast enough to do that. But like I said, these limits will usually be pretty obvious.

Daniel

Asmor · May 1, 2004

This would have come in handy last night... One of my players wanted to try and find a file in a computer system in a room that was filling with an unknown gas, evem though I told him it would take 10 minutes. He ended up collapsing and being dragged out without even a chance to roll. :/

ledded · May 3, 2004

This is very similar to how we handle it in our games.

It often comes up that someone has to investigate, search, research, etc something under a strict time limit.

The GM sort of follows this line of thinking, with the DC's being influenced by how specific the player is in his description of the hurried activity.

For instance, most of the time a hurried research check will yield little, but if a player manages to put a few key elements together and says I'm doing research based off of <x>, <y>, and <z> and those happen to be relative points that apply to the story that the player was clever enough to pick up on, the GM normally allows them a little leeway (reduced "hurried" DC, etc).

I have had a situation where my character was trying to do an investigate/search for clues before he was caught doing so, and just happened to describe my search patterning and/or technique in such a way that made it more likely to be fruitful. Other times I've rushed the same checks and been so off base that it actually hurt me in trying to find the information

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