I’ve got a question about the special move Gather Intel. On a 7-9, the result is:
“your first-choice method comes up dry, you must enlist the aid of another PC or choose a different method.”
My question is what, exactly, do these options mean. Enlist the aid of another PC seems straightforward enough: put an obstacle between the intel gatherer and the answer they want and make that obstacle best suited to another PC — put them in a team-up. Is that right?
The second, though: Choose a different method. Is this something with purely fictional ramifications? OR! Are they expected to roll again for this different method?
I mean lets say they roll +Investigate to examine some explosive debris, get a 7-9, I set them up by revealing a different method would work better. Something like ‘the explosive is totally used up, not even enough of a chemical trace to analyze — but after some clean-up, you see the casing fragment you recovered has a ChemTex model number… you know, that plant used by the Bloody Eye Gang?” I’m trying to set him up by saying he needs to go knock some Bloody Eyes around.
Should we then we just narrate over the action parts in-between (as this is still just Gather Intel) and give them their info? Or should I prompt them to roll again? I would imagine I don’t make them roll again, but I wanted to check.
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Also curious. I ran it with the player not rolling for using a different method.
Yeah, you don’t make them roll again. The Gather Intel move basically only exists so that players can roll something when they’re not sure what to do next and ensures they’ve always got somewhere to go and something to do next.
Whether you want to narrate over the action parts in-between is up to you. If it’s something that’s going on in downtime, and there are no other players in the scene, I usually try to resolve it quickly so other players don’t have to wait around for their turn too long. If they bring in another PC you get the team-up though, so you can spend more time on it as more players are engaged with it.
Basically what I was thinking! Sounds good.