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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Saeviomagy" data-source="post: 6728013" data-attributes="member: 5890">Personally I find the book descriptions of perception, investigation and knowledge skills to be so overlapping and conflicting with the goal of having players pay attention to the game that I rewrite how they work.Perception is obtaining knowledge of a subject without interacting with it. Listening in on rumors in a tavern, seeing the port that a trap shoots an arrow from, spotting the ancient runes on the archway and seeing through a disguise that is just not right are all perception checks. Perception is less effective at finding things, but doesn't expose you to danger and doesn't destroy the subject.Investigation is obtaining knowledge by interacting with the subject. Poking a 10 foot pole to find a pressure trap, actively questioning tavern goers, scrubbing the dirt off the ancient obscured runes and flicking wine onto someone's face to subtly ruin someone's disguise are all investigation. Investigation typically finds more, but entails more risk - a bad investigate roll might ruin what you are investigating, or put you in the line of fire.I also use the variant that allows for different stats/skill combinations, so if it makes sense to me that a character will be good at a particular investigative approach, they might use a different stat (the most common being charisma/investigate for gathering information).Piecing together clues is an exercise for the collective mind of the players.</blockquote>

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