Editing Unwritten: System Reference Document/Discovery and Investigation (section)

==More on the Discover Action==

===Choosing a Skill===

Almost all skills can be used in some way in discover actions. However, some naturally fit for particular situations.

===Experiment vs. Notice vs. Research===

The obvious trifecta of skills to use on a discover action is Experiment, Notice, and Research. Each of these skills fills a different role in discovery; understanding those roles will prevent a lot of confusion. 

Experiment is the skill used for experimentation. It is an active skill that takes some time to utilize. Use Experiment when you are actively testing, checking, and re-checking. An easy trap to fall into is to use Experiment for any process of mental evaluation, but Experiment is not suitable for situations that require quick decisions, or that rely on significant amounts of digging through information.

Notice is your skill for things that happen quickly: perception that happens on the fly while other things are happening. What you notice is colored by your aspects and stunts, of course; someone with the aspect Trained Paleontologist will notice things that a Former Beat Cop would not, and vice versa.

Research revolves around hitting the books. In general, Research is a procedure that takes a long time. You will be digging through archives, comparing texts, asking experts, etc. You will use it in interlude scenes more than anywhere else. However, a gamemaster may allow you to use Research to represent the knowledge that you have already accumulated. Once again, your aspects and stunts will affect this and reflect the sort of knowledge you are assumed to have.

====Other Skills====

The three above are the foundation of discovery. However, other skills can be used and will have more specific areas of application. Craft and Engineering will be used for discovery on crafted items or machines, Surveying is used on the lay of the land, Survival on the elements of an environment, Medicine on medical subjects, etc. Each of these skills can be used in place of Experiment, Notice, or Research as appropriate.

===Asking Questions===

As part of the Discover action, you will be asking the GM questions to tease out information. You want to make your questions count, so keep the following principles in mind.

Your question should be rooted in what your character is capable of doing. If your character is an engineering expert, asking a question that involves mechanical details of a machine makes sense. It will not make sense if their expertise is in linguistics and not in any way mechanical.

Refer to the skill you used, as well as relevant aspects or stunts, when you ask your question in order to frame the context of the question and tune the information you will get.

Explain your intent with the question. Don’t assume that the GM is following your specific train of thought. You are more likely to get a useful answer if the GM knows what you are aiming for.

Don’t ask questions for which there is an obvious answer. You want questions to reveal new information whenever possible.

====What if I don’t know what to ask?====

Even the cleverest people draw a blank sometimes. So when you don’t know what questions to ask, try one of the following strategies.

* Open it up to the others at the table for suggestions.
* Ask for more information on an aspect or existing detail.
* Pick a question from the suggestions under each skill description.
* Force a hint.

====Forcing a Hint====

Excelling on a discover action allows you to request the GM reveal an important bit of information, so if you are ever stuck, this is your out. You just have to engineer a situation where you excel. The easiest way to do this is to use Advantage actions to create situation aspects and build free invokes up until you can ensure that you excel at the action. The teamwork rules may help as well.

====Uncovering Aspects====

Generally speaking, we assume that most of the aspects in play are public knowledge for the players. The PCs’ character sheets are sitting on the table, and probably the main and supporting NPCs are as well. That doesn’t always mean the characters know about those aspects, but that’s one of the reasons why the create an advantage action exists—to help you justify how a character learns about other characters.

However, GMs, we know that sometimes you’re going to want to keep an NPC’s aspects secret, or not reveal certain situation aspects right away, because you’re trying to build tension in the story. Questions can reveal aspects as answers reveal information. 

Known aspects can change as a result of the questions you ask as well. If there is an aspect on the scene of Signs of Forced Entry, for example, and questions reveal that the doors bear the marks of D’ni stone sculpting devices, change the aspect to Telltale Marks of D’ni Sculpting Devices or something similar.

You should never have to use a question to ask “Is this an aspect?”; the GM should just tell you.