Investigation
Trait Description: Possessed by both scholars and magistrates, this Ability is required to uncover hidden or obscure information. Investigation can be used to swiftly find information in a library or archive, to reconstruct a crime from the clues present in the room where it occurred, to interview suspects or to search a room for anything hidden within it.
Specialties: Library Research, Conducting Interviews, Finding Concealed Objects, Reconstructing Events
Trait Effects: Someone with Investigation 1 can locate a well-known book in a modest library or a large dagger hidden under a loose floorboard. Someone with Investigation 3 can reconstruct the details of a crime from small fragments of evidence or locate an obscure passage in a large ill-organized library. Someone with Investigation 5 can accurately describe a criminal based upon seeing only a footprint in the mud and a fragment of clothing caught on a branch. He could also rapidly locate an ancient passage in the unorganized stacks in the back of the vast Imperial Library.
Dramatic Rules for Investigation
Examine Scene/Conceal Evidence (Investigation)
Whereas the Awareness Ability focuses on observing sensory details at the immediate level, Investigation operates on a dramatic time scale to actively hunt for clues and draw conclusions over the course of a scene. Characters must spend at least 15 minutes actively searching a location as a dramatic action in order for their players to make a single roll of (Perception + Investigation). The difficulty of the roll depends on whether anyone has attempted to deliberately tamper with or conceal evidence. If not, the difficulty is 1-5 as assigned by the Storyteller based on the subtlety of the crime scene and the scarcity of clues. For every success, the character uncovers one detail that is most plausibly relevant to the subject of his search (or one that is most unusual, if he's searching without a particular purpose in mind). These clues could be red herrings, though the Storyteller should make at least half the uncovered clues legitimate. If the character is reconstructing the events of a crime, rather than looking for contraband or incriminating possessions in someone's house, the Storyteller should also provide the most plausible explanation based on the evidence available. The player may also designate that an investigator is considering outlandish theories, in which case the Storyteller should suggest several to spark creativity, none of which need have the slightest bearing on the truth.
By default, these rules assume that a character is ransacking a scene, pulling out drawers, overturning mattresses, moving bodies and generally making a mess. If a character wishes to be subtle, she suffers an internal penalty of -4, but the players of characters who enter the scene later must make successful (Perception + Awareness) rolls against a difficulty of the searcher's Wits to notice anything amiss.
Concealing or tampering with evidence requires a (Wits + Investigation) roll at standard difficulty and takes as long to perform as a search. The successes on this roll replace the difficulty to search the scene if they are better. Each subsequent tampering beyond the first is at a cumulative +1 difficulty. Apply the highest number of successes or the natural difficulty of the scene as the difficulty, whatever is highest.
Reading Motivation (Investigation)
After several minutes of interaction or observation, a character can try to glean the truth of a subject's mood or personality with a successful (Perception + [Investigation or Socialize]) roll made by the player, using whichever Ability has a higher rating. The difficulty is equal to half the target's (Manipulation + Socialize), rounded up. If successful, the observer knows the other character's most dominant emotion and can place that emotion in the context of the current scene, if applicable. With twice the required number of successes, the observer can learn one current Intimacy that the other character has demonstrated in the scene or establish whether any Intimacy to another selected character in the scene exists. If a relationship exists, the observer also gleans whether the relationship is positive or rooted in animosity.
Characters can also evaluate motivation with (Perception + Investigation) at the listed difficulty as a standard dice action when they suspect another character in the scene has just lied. Success discovers whether the statement was a lie or significantly deceptive omission, though the character does not discern the truth.
Example: Anoria is at a party talking to a local politician and his wife. After her player rolls twice the difficulty in successes, the Exalt discerns that the politician is bored and feels no particular loyalty to his wife. He'll probably excuse himself with the first girl to proposition him. She files this information away for later use.