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<blockquote data-quote="Obreon" data-source="post: 7211012" data-attributes="member: 6815225">Sure, that was my point. If you'd spoon-fed the player the theory in the first place based on a roll, that would have been awkward (to me) - but as you say, the roll is to confirm/verify the theory within the game. I have some quibbles about the terminology of &quot;deduction&quot; and I think that the same skill should probably apply to other sorts of searching, but hey, whatever.At the risk of flogging a dead secret door, however, I'm curious about the situation where the player fails the investigation roll and you say &quot;they don't have enough evidence&quot;. That sounds like a bit of a roadblock - the player has reached a conclusion that is correct, and has declared an action to investigate, but it has failed. I can see this getting into the &quot;everyone else come and roll investigate&quot; situation - which is another reason to be clear about the fictional action involved. If this is a careful physical examination of the area (as opposed to a snap deduction based on the existing clues), then it takes time - and the players just have to decide how much time they're willing to spend - perhaps with some sort of more or less formal &quot;take 20&quot; mechanic to obviate the need for repeated rolling if they're willing to spend as much time as it takes (and face the consequent risks).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Obreon, post: 7211012, member: 6815225"] Sure, that was my point. If you'd spoon-fed the player the theory in the first place based on a roll, that would have been awkward (to me) - but as you say, the roll is to confirm/verify the theory within the game. I have some quibbles about the terminology of "deduction" and I think that the same skill should probably apply to other sorts of searching, but hey, whatever. At the risk of flogging a dead secret door, however, I'm curious about the situation where the player fails the investigation roll and you say "they don't have enough evidence". That sounds like a bit of a roadblock - the player has reached a conclusion that is correct, and has declared an action to investigate, but it has failed. I can see this getting into the "everyone else come and roll investigate" situation - which is another reason to be clear about the fictional action involved. If this is a careful physical examination of the area (as opposed to a snap deduction based on the existing clues), then it takes time - and the players just have to decide how much time they're willing to spend - perhaps with some sort of more or less formal "take 20" mechanic to obviate the need for repeated rolling if they're willing to spend as much time as it takes (and face the consequent risks). [/QUOTE]

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