You consult libraries, academic records, or esoteric archives to uncover the history, properties, or vulnerabilities of a specific subject, entity, or phenomenon. To take this activity, you must be in a friendly community of at least 5,000 people.
You may declare the number of hours you are spending performing research before rolling. You take a +1 bonus to the roll for each hour past the first, to a maximum of +7 (for eight solid hours of research). Roll+EDU. You gain favour if you have access to a specialized library or if the subject is well-documented. You suffer slight if the subject is intentionally obscured or forgotten.
Complete Success: You find rare and cross-referenced data. You may ask the Director three questions from the list below.
Success: You uncover significant entries. You may ask the Director two questions from the list below.
Partial Success: You find a lead, but the records are incomplete. You may ask the Director one question from the list below.
Failure: The records are silent or the text is indecipherable.
Complete Failure: You follow a flawed academic theory or mistranslated text. You must choose one question from the list below, and the Director will give you a completely false—but plausible—answer. Your character believes that this false answer is true.
Constraint: You cannot Research this specific subject again in this community. A different community may have different resources.
The following list of questions is not exhaustive, but serves as a set of examples. The player may ask any question they like. If the Director determines that a question is irrelevant, unknowable, or not applicable to the subject, the player may ask a different question instead.
What is the greatest known weakness or vulnerability of this subject?
What are the common signs or markers that this subject is present?
What is the origin or creator of this thing?
What is the most significant historical event this subject was involved in?
Who are the known enemies or rivals of this entity/organization?
What is the intended or theoretical use of this object/phenomenon?
Where is the next likely location to find more information or a physical specimen?
Is there a person who knows more about this subject?