Building Investigations

The investigation is the system's primary play space. Build scenarios around information, not around a sequence of required rolls.

Clues and redundancy

Separate what is true from how the investigators learn it. A critical clue should have at least three routes of discovery: a document, an interview, an observation, or a deduction. A failed check may delay, distort, or complicate access to a clue, but should rarely make the entire scenario impossible.

Classify clues by function:

• Direct: states the relevant fact.
• Indirect: points toward a person, place, or pattern.
• Cryptic: requires several clues or a specialist.
• Misleading: appears useful but supports a false interpretation.

Use Library Use for archives and cross-references, but let Occult, History, Science, Law, Psychology, Anthropology, and other fitting skills open different routes to the same truth. Skill synergy can grant a modest +10% when the secondary skill genuinely changes the approach.

Time and pressure

Track the smallest useful unit: rounds for immediate danger, minutes for searches and conversations, hours for research and travel, and days or weeks for recovery and training. A deadline gives information weight. The ritual completes, the witness leaves, the tide rises, the police arrive, or the last train departs.

Pressure should be legible. Tell players what is at risk, what evidence suggests the clock is moving, and what preparation can buy them. Do not hide every consequence behind an unannounced check.

Social scenes

A social check should establish what each side wants and what it can offer or threaten. Charm is warmth, Persuade is reason, Fast Talk is speed and deception, and Intimidate is coercion. Make the approach matter. A successful Intimidate check can obtain information while creating a future enemy; a failed interview can still reveal what the witness refuses to discuss.

Horror pacing

Alternate discovery, breathing room, and escalation. Sanity loss is strongest when it follows understanding: the photograph is not merely strange; it shows a place that should not exist. Give players time to react, make plans, and decide whether knowledge is worth its price.

The best horror does not remove agency. It makes every available choice costly.