Pathfinder 1E What check to roll to recall something seen briefly?

[koesherbacon]

What skill or ability check would the following situation require:

PCs are going through town and notice many different "Missing Person" fliers. Some might take the time to inspect them, others just glance at them as their walking. Later, the PCs are in the town guardhouse and jail. Inside the jail is one or more of missing people, who look slightly differently because they've been held captive by corrupt guards. In general, however, these individuals can be recognized for who they are.

Which skill or ability should be rolled in order to realize they've discovered the whereabouts of some of the missing people?

I was thinking just an Intelligence or Wisdom check, but maybe you can help me figure this out.

Thanks a lot!

 

[gamerprinter]

Sounds like a Wisdom check to me.

 

[N'raac]

I hate to give it more value than it already has, but it seems like Perception would be appropriate - how much of those wanted posters in the background did the character unconsciously take in and to what extent do they see the resemblance both sound like Perception. This is also consistent with WIS.

 

[koesherbacon]

Thanks a lot for the replies

 

[The Crimson Binome]

If they've definitely, definitely seen the posters, then pure memory is an Intelligence check. If there's a question as to whether they noticed the poster in the first place, then that's a Wisdom/Perception check.

If it's a little bit of both, then you can either call for both checks against fairly easy DCs, or call for whichever check would be harder and increase the DC by a few points.

 

[steenan]

Is it really necessary to make any roll for it?

Unless there's something interesting that will happen when players fail this roll, the roll is not necessary. And in this case it looks like the interesting things will be triggered by PCs realizing that who they see are the people from the posters.

 

[delericho]

It's Int/Knowledge for memory, or Wis/Perception for perception (obviously!).

In the case described by the OP, I would allow those PCs who carefully look through the posters an Int/Knowledge (local) check to identify the bounties, because they took the time to study the posters and commit them to memory. I would not allow the other PCs any roll to identify them, because they didn't take that time.

Note: it would be different if one of the bounties had a partly-concealed distinguishing mark, such as a tattoo or birthmark. In that case, I would allow Wis/Perception to apply - to notice it on the flick-through and again on the line-up. But that would be the exception, not the rule.

 

[N'raac]

INT/Knowledge for Local Knowledge makes sense as well - that's the skill of knowing what's what in this locale.

I don't think the players need to say they carefully study the posters, any more than Local Knowledge requires the player to state he listens carefully to nearby conversations when getting the lay of the land, or the Wizard needs to specify he's studying his spellbook to keep his Spellcraft skill or his tomes of Arcane Knowledge to maintain his KS.

 

[delericho]

I don't think the players need to say they carefully study the posters, any more than...

The OP specified that some PCs might choose to study them carefully, while others merely flicked through them. Hence my making that distinction.

 

[koesherbacon]

Here's what ended up happening. As soon as I mentioned that there were numerous Missing Persons fliers posted around the town, the PCs figured out that it was probably going to be something worth noting as their characters. They're a Good aligned party and decided that since there were more than a few stray posters that as heroes they would probably want to take he time to inspect them. This was especially true for my wife who is playing as an Investigator from Advanced Class Guide.

In the end, I allowed her to spend a use of Inspiration in order to piece together that the prisoners were actually the people who were missing.