Research Suggestion

[cole45]

I disagree that the character would not know how long it would take. People with the research skill are not some Jonny-come-along who don't know what they are looking for. They have gained experiance in the research process. This is not to say they know exactly how long it will take, but I think they could give you an estimate. IE: Jane wants to research the demon JayLow. She knows researching demons is hard, so the gms look at the chart and say 2 events. But in fact, Jaylow if a fiesty beast, so it takes 3 games or more. On the other side of the coin, Jane wants to research how to make manacles. It's a fairly basic request, and the GM's tell her one game, or what ever.

If you have a standard, then characters can know about how much time they are going to invest and balance it against the effort's worth. If the GMs tell you it's going to take 8 events, then you know how committed you have to be. It also takes a little guess work out for the player. Right now, people have no idea how long things will take, or even if the GMs are working on it.

[Peace420]

IG you can use common sense. You want to research the political structure of Alleria that's easy, you want to research who the 3rd child of the king was, a little easier, you want to research where the 5th son of some merchant of middling renown in Alleria was buried very hard. And if you are trying to research a few things than it takes even longer. Even if a pt system is done I think it should be behind the scenes like alchemy and arcane and used to make sure that everyones research is standardized and the #'s a GM thing and not for PC's. So it really wouldn't help a PC answer the question "how long will this take" to another PC accurately at all. Alot of times along the way during your research you find small bits out each IBE. If you submit it then it gets looked at and considered so the GM's are working on it even if you don't have any face to face confirmation of it.

[Ian_McAllister]

Actually Erik, I probably worded it incorrectly, but that was more what I was going for.. the system would keep things more behind the scenes and be mainly for the GM's.. but in regards to my comment on letting the players have a better idea of how long a research will take, I am hoping that this system will help the research process on the Gm's side so that they will know about how many points something will be.. they can tell someone how difficult a project will be... since very few people will have the same Research points they couldn't tell someone how long aproject would take anyway.. but the difficulty will tell the player how much time and energy they may want to invest.