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<blockquote data-quote="Dausuul" data-source="post: 8133032" data-attributes="member: 58197">Allowing Insight to positively determine that someone is telling the truth a) does not make sense when you think about it and b) cripples Deception.a) What is your Insight actually detecting? When somebody is lying, a successful Insight roll picks up tells: A brief hesitation, a tic of the eyelid, a strange tone of voice. If they're telling the truth, however, what signs prove their truthfulness? The absence of tells? The conviction in their voice? How can you be certain there wasn't a tell that you failed to spot*? How do you know the conviction isn't being skillfully faked?b) If it is possible to absolutely ascertain that someone is telling the truth, then it is impossible to ever fully sell a lie. An Insight check against a liar can yield &quot;unknown&quot; or &quot;lying,&quot; but never &quot;truthful.&quot; So if you roll high on your Insight check and get &quot;unknown,&quot; that is a strong indicator that you are dealing with a skilled liar.I think Insight should work the same way as Perception: It can determine that a hidden thing is there, but it can never prove beyond all doubt that a hidden thing is not there.*It would be interesting to have a system where a bad Insight check on a truth-teller might yield a false tell, making you think they are lying when they're not. But that's a whole different kettle of fish.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Dausuul, post: 8133032, member: 58197"] Allowing Insight to positively determine that someone is telling the truth a) does not make sense when you think about it and b) cripples Deception. a) What is your Insight actually detecting? When somebody is lying, a successful Insight roll picks up tells: A brief hesitation, a tic of the eyelid, a strange tone of voice. If they're telling the truth, however, what signs prove their truthfulness? The absence of tells? The conviction in their voice? How can you be certain there wasn't a tell that you failed to spot*? How do you know the conviction isn't being skillfully faked? b) If it is possible to absolutely ascertain that someone is telling the truth, then it is impossible to ever fully sell a lie. An Insight check against a liar can yield "unknown" or "lying," but never "truthful." So if you roll high on your Insight check and get "unknown," that is a strong indicator that you are dealing with a skilled liar. I think Insight should work the same way as Perception: It can determine that a hidden thing is there, but it can never prove beyond all doubt that a hidden thing is [I]not[/I] there. [SIZE=3]*It would be interesting to have a system where a bad Insight check on a truth-teller might yield a [I]false [/I]tell[I],[/I] making you think they are lying when they're not. But that's a whole different kettle of fish.[/SIZE] [/QUOTE]

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