Building Investigations

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

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

Use Library Use for archives and let Occult, History, Science, Law, Psychology, Anthropology, or another fitting skill open different routes to the same truth. A meaningful secondary skill may grant +10% or improve circumstances by one step; do not stack repeated bonuses.

Track rounds, minutes, hours, days, and weeks according to the task. Make pressure legible: the ritual completes, the witness leaves, the police arrive, or the last train departs. Social checks should establish what each side wants and what it can offer or threaten.

Alternate discovery, breathing room, and escalation. Sanity loss is strongest when it follows understanding. Cosmic horror should preserve agency by making every available choice costly, not by removing every possible choice.