Lore

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Typically used with: Insight.

In short: know the answer. Knowledge is power to those who know. Those with ranks in Lore are learned scholars, unquestionable fountainheads of knowledge, and the people you always want on your team for trivia night. Lore is used any time a character wants knowledge on a subject. Often heard around the game table is "do I know about that?"

Attaining ranks in this skill could mean your character has learned memory improvement and concentration techniques, or maybe they had an all-night cram session with intravenous caffeine and piles of books. You can most certainly add any Occupation ranks to Lore checks when the knowledge is related to your profession.

Lore checks take no time at all; your character either instantaneously knows about a topic or not. You can't retry failed Lore checks, nor can you Take the Best on Lore checks.

Recalling Facts

You can make a Lore check to recall historical facts, scientific properties, and theoretical analysis of a person, place, or thing. The higher the DL, the more obscure or ancient the information is.

Example DL
Something trite (fish don't have hair; deserts are dry) 5
Normal information (a king's length of reign; the stories of a common place of mystery) 10
Somewhat uncommon information (vampires cannot see their reflections; the traditions on a major holiday in a distant country) 15
Fairly uncommon or professional information (the family tree of a noble; the cure for a rare disease; the vulnerabilities of a giant slime; the names of all blood vessels in a reptile) 20
Extremely specific or forgotten information (the secret password to open a long abandoned fortress; an ancient queen's tea preferences; what you had for breakfast on a specific date twenty years ago) 30
"How do you know that?" (the names of all past owners of a particular non-magical walking stick; the exact distance from a planet to the star it orbits at any given moment; the birth date of every person you've ever met) 40

Making Conjectures

You can roll a Lore check to make an educated guess about something by putting the pieces together. This includes estimating the time until sunrise or sunset, calculating the odds, forecasting the weather, formulating hypotheses, drawing conclusions, predicting the cycle of celestial events, anticipating the tide schedule, or solving mysteries. It's the ability to analyze clues from your surroundings and to draw upon your collected knowledge about a topic to solve a puzzle. The higher the result of your Lore check, the more accurate your speculation. A roll of 5 means you're not close at all, a roll of 15 means you're pretty close, a roll of 30 means you've got it exactly down to the last detail.

Primarily, this usage of Lore is for answering questions. Who had the most reason to assassinate the duke? When is low tide? Is it going to storm tomorrow?

Remembering Events

A Lore check can also be used to remember details about past events you experienced. The DL for a Lore check to recall past events depends on the length of time since the event and how noticeable the detail you wish to recall was. At the GM's discretion, your character may remember something important without a check.

Example DL
Recalling the name of the tavern where you ate three days ago 0
Recalling what you had for dinner 5
Recalling the name of the waitress 10
Recalling a verse from a song the minstrel in the corner was singing 20
Recalling what your friends ordered, how long before it was out, and the total on the check 30

If your character didn't perceive the event when it occurred, she won't have a memory of it. For instance, if everyone in your party succeeded on a Perception check to notice the mayor had red eyes, but you failed the check and nobody told you, you wouldn't know about it in the first place.