Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7345614" data-attributes="member: 42582">No. I'll sblock the rest of this for length.[sblock]Here is an extract from my post about the first session of the campaign:Since then, some more information has been established - this is from a post about the fourth session of the game:More information has since been established - eg in that fourth session, another patron encounter roll turned up a "diplomat" result, an official of the Imperium who recruited the PCs to travel to Olyx to inspect operations there under the cover of the Planetary Rescue Systems Inspectorate. And in the fifth session, more backstory was established about the nature of life on Enlil, and alien origins of both the Enlilians and their virus.In the fifth session the PCs encountered a patrol cruiser that had jumped from Olyx to Enlil, and I had written up a crew for it which could have generated more backstory about the conspiracy - but in session six (last Sunday) the players decided that they would take advantage of the ship's absence from Olyx to jump there themselves and try and check it out, so those NPC crew membes didn't come into play.[/sblock]So the action declaration here would have to be something like "I search him for the fingers of the victim". (Unless you're using a system which allows flat-out player fiat of key plot elements - I don't play any systems like that.) And I'm not 100% sure what you have in mind by "justifying combat". Are you meaning that the NPC's guilt is clearly established in the eyes of others?In any event, I don't recall any situation exactly like that in my games. In <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?299440-Exploration-scenarios-my-experiment-last-Sunday" target="_blank">this episode</a>, a player made a check to find clues on a bit of paper. And in <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?309950-Actual-play-my-first-quot-social-only-quot-session" target="_blank">this episode</a>, the PCs successfully goaded their nemesis into revealing his villainy in public.It would depend on system and context.In 4e, an absence of footprints could be part of the framing of a situation, eg to indicate that the villain can fly or teleport. That would be an obvious exercise of GM agency. But if the GM hasn't exercised such agency, and the investigation is being resolved by a skill challenge as you suggest, then the discovery of footprints would be an open possibility, sure.In Cortex+ Heroic the GM could establish a scene distinction like No Signs of Passage - but the players could make rolls to eliminate that scene distinction if they wanted, and to establish an asset like Faint Footprints Discovered. Cortex+ Heroic is much closer to Fate than is 4e, in these sorts of respects.</blockquote>

Verification