Knowledge
Our characters know their world better than our players. We make this assumption because they live there, they grew up there, and their experience should not be ignored. This does not necessarily mean they know everything about the world they live in, as there are always new bits of information to discover. Common knowledge isn’t always the same thing as common sense. An obscure piece of information may be found with the right process for learning.
Information, Identification, Research, and Investigation
The IIRI System covers everything from general knowledge and research to niche lore.
Information
General Knowledge
Surface level details about factions, nearby nations, the current state of the world, and information surrounding areas the Character has spent more than a year in are considered General Knowledge and wouldn’t need any kind of check to recall if relevant to the current situation. This would also include any and all basic life skills relative to how one might have to live.
For anything the Character might know which isn’t General Knowledge, they must pass an Info Check.
Info Check: (v:20)
Info Checks are made against a gradient with a pass fail threshold decided by the Story Guide. If a Character doesn’t know, they know they don’t know. The higher above the threshold they get, they have increasingly detailed and accurate information.
Niche Knowledge
This Information category includes things which might be known pending a Info Check. A Character may gain additional bonuses to this check if they have a prior interest in the topic. Determining these interests may be difficult, but every Character can claim one of the Topic’s provided here. Certain Effect Trees unlock additional Niche Knowledge categories for a Character and may even provide higher bonuses.
Politics • History • Religion • Engineering • Mysticism • Culture • Technology • Nature
Niche Info Check Topic Bonus: +5
Identify
Knowledge • Itemization
Through interest and attention you’ve come to be able to identify elements within a specific category mastery by the collective of your senses. Identifying qualities generally takes one hour of careful experimentation. With the proper equipment, this time is reduced to ten minutes. Some elements have exceptions, such as cursed or enchanted items, and may require special tools or senses to properly Identify.
Educated Guess
A Character with the appropriate Niche Knowledge may attempt an Educated Guess. An Educated Guess will result in either Success where they for certain know the target’s properties, or Failure where they know for certain they don’t know the properties.
Educated Guess: Attempt to Identify Target’s Properties (v20 + Niche Bonus).
Failing an Educated Guess will require the Character to go through the normal process for Identify to determine properties.
Once this process is complete with a specific target, the knowledge is permanent.
If 10% of a Character’s Awareness Score + any bonuses exceeds the variable challenge, they simply know the information.
Identify Masteries
Identify Masteries are granted by certain Effect Trees. With Identify Mastery you gain a +10 bonus to Educated Guesses when it comes to information surrounding your mastery.
Identify Mastery: Alchemy
Identify targets with the Alchemical tag; elixirs, potions, concoctions, drugs, medicines and more to reveal their effects.
Identify Mastery: Conditions
Identify target’s Condition to reveal their effects and possible treatments.
Identify Mastery: Curses
Identify a curse or curses afflicting a target and how to break or dispel the affliction.
Identify Mastery: Enchantments
Identify enchantments on items and equipment and also learn the enchantment for later application including their prerequisites and limits.
Identify Mastery: Fauna
Identify all information surrounding a target creature.
Identify Mastery: Flora
Identify targets including Seed, Plant, and Fungus tags to reveal their properties and uses.
Identify Mastery: Materials
Materials include raw elements, compounds, and processed flora and fauna commonly used as crafting materials.
Research
Finding Out
Routine Study: 15 Minutes per +1
The Study Action is simple. When you fail your Info Check or Educated Guess, the difference between what you had to roll to succeed and your actual check. For example, if you rolled a 13, and the challenge with 16, you would have to study for 45 Minutes to get your bonus high enough to beat the challenge.
The Story Guide’s Notes
Your Story Guide will decide before you commit to the Study Action whether or not you can find the information at all, if meeting the challenge is enough to provide you with a clue. It is not a requirement the Story Guide reveal the difference, and may choose to reveal the information at any point during the Study Routine. Daily Research as part of the Routine may be diversified to all the topics a Character is researching. Stumbling upon information relative to an old question might be an unexpected surprise!
Investigation
Clues!
Investigate: 10 Minutes (v:20)
Thorough: +1 bonus per 1 additional minute up to 5 Minutes for a +5. Once all 6 checks have been made, the Character is no longer able to do additional Investigation to the area for 10 Hours.
Investigation is a targeted search for information within a scene, working with a complex item to figure out how it works, or looking for things out of the ordinary. The higher an Investigate Check, the more information a Character may find or come to understand. Regardless of the results of the variable, the character feels they have sufficiently searched after Five Minutes, or at the very least, have chosen to give up and try again later.
The Story Guide’s Notes
If we allow a Character to investigate, or pass time in general, it is good practice to at least offer the rest of the table a chance to perform some other pursuit. If multiple Characters are investigating, they each get their own Investigate Check.
