Consult the Lore — Advanced Old School Revival

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This action goes in two directions, and you should always remind your players of both: first, there are things PCs know that their players don't; second, there are things players know that their PCs don't. In both cases, you confer the knowledge with a check. Also, keep in mind that this action doesn't have to involve the skill Lore specifically—it's an action a player takes when they want to interrogate the fiction for specific information.

PC Knowledge

In the first case, the PC is fishing for further context about the scene. It's prudent to frame such action as a success check, that way the PC comes away with something for having interrogated the fiction.

Finnean and the Cockatrice

The PC has the Beastmaster kit and comes upon a mythical monster’s lair.

Finnean: Since we know the monster is a cockatrice, what does Finnean know about its lair?

GM: Let’s find out if Finnean read about them. Give me Lore as a success check.

Finnean: That’s a 6! (explodes the die) My Deft is 5, so that’s 11, and +2 from Lore. 18!

GM: Wow, that’s extraordinary success. You know that this creature’s den is likely to be full of venomous but deaf snakes that nurse its eggs. You also get a player advantage. What will it be?

Finnean: (to the GM) I’m going to say as a boy, in the test to become a beastmaster, Finnean had to venture into a cocktatrice nest and encountered one.

GM: Then you would know that the cockatrice is afraid of the sound of roosters.

Finnean: (to the party) Well ya right bastards, I’d say we hustle on into that cave, but we ain’t properly armed. When I was a wee lad, I went face to face with one of these murderous chicken lizards and I was nearly blighted to stone. If we’re angling to kill this thing outright, then we gotta head back to town and find ourselves a cock.

Now, if the roll had yielded success at a cost, the GM could offer to provide knowledge of what might lie inside the lair or knowledge of one of the monster's weaknesses, but not both. Similarly, if the PC rolled a poor result, the GM might only say that while Finnean has no idea what they might find in the creature's lair, he remembered reading something about the cockatrice being afraid of a particular type of bird. The point of a success check when it comes to lore is to ensure the roll doesn't lead to a dead end.

Player Knowledge

Another way to resolve consulting the lore is to hand the player the reins of the fiction. This happens in the above example with the player advantage Finnean earns when he rolls high on his success check, but you can also set the entire roll up this way.

Quacryn and the Incriminating Evidence

The Second Executive Quacryn Nercabora is searching the private terminal of his nemesis, the First Executive, for incriminating evidence against him. Both he and his nemesis are Nim.

GM: So you’ve got access to Siner’s terminal. You don’t know how long you have until its security mechanisms zero in on your location. What do you do?

Quacryn: I’m looking for something so damaging it would make his racist supporters turn against him!

GM: Okay, let’s see how juicy the dirt is. Give me Smart as a success check to see how fast you can glean through the data.

Quacryn: All right, I’m throwing my story tag “Eidetic Memory” on this one—after all, I was bred for spreadsheets. (Quacryn is a Nim, so he rolls with advantage because he’s tinkering with a machine. He rolls a 3 and a 1, adds his 6 Smart, adds +2 from Domain Knowledge (Bureaucracy) because he knows these systems like the back of his hand.) So that’s 13.

GM: Nice, that’s an exceptional result. I’ll give you a GM advantage. What do you find?

Quacryn: (consults with the table for ideas) Well obviously it’s porn. Of the interspecies type. Tarth, Changelings, High People—he’s into all of it. There’s a whole folder of filth on this machine.

GM: Yup, there are lots of naked Tarth in there. But here’s my GM advantage: in a folder labeled “Finance Reports” you find a video. That’s right. You’ve got Siner on tape. And let’s just say his type is not Nim.

In this example, Quacryn has already succeeded at accessing the information he needs, but what exactly that information is and to what degree it impacts the fiction is now what's at stake.

While the player doesn't explicitly declare that he's "consulting the lore," the GM gives the PC the power to narrate by asking "What do you find" once the check is successful. If the player had rolled success at a cost, the GM might give the player a choice between limitations on the usefulness of the evidence (What you find is either circumstantial or corroborating—which do you choose and what is it?), or if it's poor, then the evidence might be easily dismissed by the First Executive's racist cohort: e.g., a former non-Nim aide of his filed sexual harassment charges against him.

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