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gather_information_skill

Gather Information (Skill)

GATHER INFORMATION (CHA)

Use this skill to make contacts in an area, find out local gossip, spread rumors, and collect general information.

Check: By succeeding at a skill check (DC 10) and spending 1d4+1 hours passing out money and buying drinks, you can get a feel for the major news items in a neighbor-hood. This result assumes that no obvious reasons exist why information would be with-held (such as if you can't speak the local language). The higher the check result, the better the information.

If the situation doesn't require the expenditure of money, no Wealth check is necessary. Information ranges from general to protected, and the cost and DC increases accordingly for the type of information you seek to gather, as given in the table below.

General information concerns local happenings, rumors, gossip, and the like. Specific in-formation usually relates to a particular question. Restricted information includes facts that aren't generally known and requires that you locate someone who has access to such information. Protected information is even harder to come by and might involve some danger, either for the one asking the questions or the one providing the answer. There's a chance that someone will take note of anyone asking about restricted or protected information.

You can increase the amount of money you use to gather information, gaining a circumstance bonus by effectively offering a bribe (though the process might entail buying more expensive drinks, not necessarily offering a character extra money). Increase the Wealth check DC by 2 for each +1 circumstance bonus you want to add to your skill check. For example, Brandon Cross is looking for restricted information about a military base that does not appear on any public maps. He really wants to get this information, so he increases the Wealth check DC by +2 for every +1 bonus he wants to apply to the check. In this case, he thinks he can succeed on a Wealth check against DC 22, granting him a +2 bonus on the Gather Information check if he makes it.

Chain of Command: You can get a broad overview of the command structure of an organization: who the officers or leaders are; how many layers of command exist between the highest-level officers and the average foot soldier (or entry-level operative); how to identify ranks within the organization; and what kind of authority the various ranks have. Discovering the names of specific members of the organization adds +10 to the DC of the Gather Information check, and acquiring their locations adds another +5.

The more secretive the organization, the more difficult this information is to obtain. Publicly recognized organizations are much easier to learn about than organizations that officially don’t exist at all. You can only obtain this information if someone in the community actually knows it. At the GM’s discretion, the local community may be completely ignorant of an organization operating in their area. (If a pirate crew is using the remote and long-abandoned monastery a thousand kilometers away, and no one outside the organization knows they are there, the average citizen can’t provide any information about their command structure.)

Organization DC Cost Examples Public 10 50 Local government, social club, labor guild Private 15 100 Jedi Order, commerce guild, private club, military Exclusive 20 250 Hutt family, “invitation-only” club, local criminals Secretive 25 500 Rebel Alliance, espionage agency, criminal cartel “Nonexistent” 30 1,000 Black Sun, “shadow” government, secret police

Try Again?: Yes, but it takes 1d4+1 hours for each check, and characters may draw attention to themselves if they repeatedly pursue a certain type of information.

Special: You can take 10 when making a Gather Information check, but you cannot take 20. A character with the Trustworthy feat gets a +2 bonus on all Gather Information checks.

Time: A Gather Information check takes 1d4+1 hours.

Type of InfoDCPurchase DC General 10 5 “Who’s the big cheese in this town?” Specific 15 10 “What can you tell me about that woman who always travels with the ambassador?” Restricted 20 15 “What do they make at that mysterious factory?” Protected 25 20 “When is the next test flight for that secret prototype starfighter?”

gather_information_skill.txt · Last modified: 2021/12/04 00:39 (external edit)