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

==Investigations==

The questions you ask as a part of a discover action will often be enough to uncover any information you need so you can get to more interesting encounters. But there will be situations where delving into the unknown is what is interesting. Like in the scenes of a police procedural or a Sherlock Holmes investigation, the ‘action’ is all about the inquiry itself. In these situations, how you discover the truth is as important as what you discover.

An investigation is a sequence of actions that focus on the process of discovery. As the investigation progresses, your character will discover clues and ask questions in hopes of finding out more information about the situation in front of them.

Leading to the truth is a set of clues: sign-posts lead to information, and that information leads to the truth. You can think of it like a tree: the root of the tree is the truth, and it splits off into branches that end at leaves. The characters start with the leaves of the mystery. From there they follow the branches back to the source.

===The Process===

An investigation consists of the following steps:
* The first look
* Action rolls
* Asking questions
* Digging deeper

====First Look====

An investigation begins with a first look. We assume that the first question your character will have is “Because of who I am and what I know, what do I notice?” If it makes sense that a clue would be obvious to your character, the GM tells you the clue. That’s it. No rolls involved. You can mention why you think that an aspect, stunt, or high skill is relevant to the investigation, but the GM won’t base the first look entirely on that.

So how do you know if ‘it makes sense’?

* Aspects - If you have an aspect that implies that you would know about the subject or that the clue would be apparent to you, that is justification enough.
* Skills - If you have a high enough appropriate skill, then the GM can decide that it would make sense that you would see the clue.
* Stunts - You may have a stunt that makes certain clues easier to find. Or a stunt that implies knowledge that might justify discovering a clue.

Each involved character gets a first look at the situation.

====Action rolls====

After the first look, all of the characters involved declare what they are going to be doing:

If you are looking for answers, you describe what you are doing and how. Then attempt a discover action.

If you are assisting others, you describe what you are doing toward that end. You can then attempt overcome or advantage actions to reflect that.

The actual order in which these actions are taken is flexible. If you are attempting advantage actions to give other investigators an edge, or overcome actions to remove obstacles, then you will want to do those first so those benefits are available to those performing discover actions.

====Asking Questions====

At the end of the action rolls, your characters will have a set of questions to ask. Each player asks their questions. Keep in mind that the questions you ask must relate to the process that you described when making the action rolls—if you were taking samples for chemical analysis, then you won’t be able to ask questions about the demeanor of the frightened explorers that were found near by.

It’s likely that all of the PCs will be working together on the mystery in front of them. You can as well. Questions can be asked in any order, and you should use the answers to inform what question you or another player asks next. Build off of each other’s work. If anyone has hints available from excelling at a discover action, they can be spent during this time as well.

Questions continue until all the players involved run out of available questions or feel that they have uncovered enough information.

====Digging Deeper====

What happens if you have used up all of your questions, but you still want to know more? You have the option of digging deeper by changing the situation.

You and the other players must do something to change the situation at hand in order to justify another round of questions. Some options are:

* Change things in the scene using an overcome or advantage action, such as setting up specialized equipment, performing extra experiments or tests, or sweet talking someone who doesn’t want to talk any further.
* Take a scene to go perform research or collect relevant information and support.
* Spend a fate point to declare a relevant minor detail based off of one of your aspects.

The GM decides what would be appropriate. It should be something that requires thought, effort, or time (or a combination of the three).

Once the change has been made (and the GM is satisfied), go back to the Action Rolls step and start the process again.

===Avenues of Investigation===

====On-the-scene investigation====

The most obvious example of an investigation is where you arrive on the scene where something has happened and try to divine the details. Skills and aspects that allow on the spot observation will help you find clues on the first look. Clues in this kind of investigation will most likely be the description of details that are significant and out of the ordinary. These will usually presented as the details themselves without much context.

=====Advantages in Investigations=====

You can create advantages by doing preparation work. Setting up additional equipment and doing research ahead of time make an excellent basis for rolls and a way to bring in skills that may not have direct investigative uses into play.

Costs for success can include accidentally destroying evidence, otherwise cutting off access to other clues, or angering others involved in the situation. 

Clues may or may not be aspects, but an advantage action could make one more relevant by making it a situation aspect. Reserve the aspect and it will continue to be useful, maybe in subsequent investigations.

====Questioning====

People may have witnessed important events or may know critical details. Exactly how that plays out depends on the questions that the characters are asking and how they are doing it. If the characters are simply asking the locals general questions, then they can just state that without needing to go into detail. Questions and answers can be done in vague terms. Clues from a first look would reveal details one could discern from the person’s dress or demeanor. 

Additional details will come from the usual process of questions and digging for more information. How they exactly get there will depend on the tack the characters take with the NPC. Clever role-playing should be rewarded with clearer answers and possibly the revelation of extra clues.

The ramifications of the discussion should linger with the characters. Not only are the characters digging for information, they are establishing relationships with others. Notably dramatic and entertaining interactions should lead to the questioned character becoming a returning character. If the PCs are nice to a downtrodden native of an Age, that native may be more likely to help them later on. However, if they subject someone to an intense interrogation, they may have earned an enemy.

This is also an excellent excuse for character development. How the PCs act and react in these discussions will go a long way toward rounding out their characters. These should also be kept in mind during interludes when looking at a character’s aspects. A character’s actions might prompt the player to adjust an aspect to reflect allies or enemies made, for example.

=====Advantages in Questioning=====

The characters involved can use advantage rolls to butter up, outwit, or intimidate others and use invocations to get people to talk. Character aspects on all sides of the interaction are ripe for invocation. Compels are also appropriate, more so in these cases than in other types of investigation.

Previous clues can be used as leverage in trying to get someone to talk. You can use an Advantage action to bring up the clue successfully and use fate points and free invokes to press your advantage. GMs, roll with the invocations and be creative on fumbles and costs. 

=====Contests in Questioning=====

It’s possible that you might end up trying to get information out of an unwilling subject in a more confrontational way. This could be an intense bit of back and forth, or it could be a full on interrogation. One way to model this is through a contest between you and the other person instead of an investigation. Run the questioning as various exchanges based off of social skills. You should be describing what you are doing and including bits of dialog with each exchange.

If you win the contest, then you get the information out of them. You might be able to push the contest a few more rounds in order to get more advantage actions in, if the GM is willing. If you lose the contest, then you aren’t getting any information out of them; they’ve won the battle of wits. Even if the subject is confined and can’t get away, you can’t go back and press the issue. You’ll have to change the situation enough (get a new bit of information, find some different leverage, wait a chunk of time) before you can go back in.

===Research===

In many cases, a character will need to hit the books for answers. Authoritative sources, research materials, and expert commentaries are a wellspring of useful information. This is especially the case when dealing with scientific, anthropological, or archaeological mysteries. Characters with access to appropriate libraries, databases, etc. can ask questions.

Research will rarely happen ‘on-stage’ as it is a slow and often boring process, narratively speaking. Characters who want to do research should do it during interludes or opt out of scenes while other characters do on-stage activities.

====Advantages in Research====

There is not much maneuvering to research so it is not an interactive process. Nor is it one with much drama and of itself. Advantages used in research will most likely reflect helpful situations set up beforehand (consequences or situation aspects reserved in previous scenes) or character aspects and stunts.