In the inventing rules it states that you use Study to invent a new item. I was wondering if it would be possible to do a group invention roll/project where 2 characters would spitball ideas with eachother, filling the clock together, and both knowing the formula upon finishing it. If so, would they roll Study as a group action (symbolising each of them doing their own research) or would you be allowed to roll consort to fill the clock (to symbolise the spitballing of ideas and collaboration of the 2 inventors)?
In the inventing rules it states that you use Study to invent a new item.
In the inventing rules it states that you use Study to invent a new item.
Maybe the “lead inventor” rolls Study, then anyone associated could roll whatever additional skill they could justify, e.g. Study to help with the inventing, Tinker to tweak existing parts, Cohort (as suggested) for spitballing, Wreck to… well I don’t know, but I bet someone will come up for a justification for it.
Wreck could be used to stress test whatever thing is being made, if applicable.
I’d handle it either as giving an assist (spending a stress to give +1d) or doing a setup action to improve the result level.
Ben Liepis I knew someone could find a reason.
Sean Nittner I was thinking a more collaborative inventing where both players help answer the questions and both players gain the end results of the formula rather than only one of them. So they’d be like research partners rather than one doing the research and the other helping out.
Antimatter makes sense. I’ve had cases where the group as a whole were working on a long term project and each of them move the clock forward a bit with their own actions (using different ones). One thing I’d consider is making the clock two ticks longer because once everyone has contributed, there is some work to put all of those contributions together.
I think a group Study action would make sense here.
So one thing that concerns me with the way this question could be understood is that it sounds like the item is being created entirely without the use of Study, or Tinker. I really like the scene you’re describing, Antimatter, with the two inventors bantering and throwing ideas back and forth with one another, and Consort (or, depending on how they’re talking to one another, Sway) sounds right like the best action for this.
What if to allow the group to work together, in concert, creating this, inventing requires at least one roll of Study to start the clock? This can conventionally be considered gathering the necessary depth and breadth of information to start the invention-creation rolling. But the rest of the clock can be filled with whatever combination of actions the two+ inventors deem contextually and thematically necessary.
I actually don’t think Consort would make sense here. You Consort to learn about a person or to learn something they already know – if you’re both inventing something, neither of you knows how to make it. You might be spitballing ideas, but that’s still Studying, not Consorting.
Thomas Berton , great point.
I think an argument can be made that this will end up being a matter of how the members of the team are talking to one another. If they are picking each others brains for information, then Study works well, but there is an overlap between Consort and Study, and if they’re engaging with each other wittily, with an intent perhaps to impress or one up the other, then Consort could work. If each thinks that there is a correct way to go about researching this that the other didn’t see before, then Sway could work.
I think that it sounds cool so there should be a way to do this without drifting the rules too far. I’ve certainly seen situations (both in fiction and real life) where people have come up with increasing interesting ideas by casually talking, or when the scientist is forced to walk through the problem by the layman and discovers the solution through talking it out. The casual talker isn’t trying to work on them, so not studying, but the solution becomes apparent through the conversation. Consort is primarily amicable social interaction; even if the goal for a scoundrel is acquiring good will and information, it makes a lot of sense for those sorts of scenes.
I think Rook’s Gambit would totally fit into this. I also think that this sounds more like assisting than a group action, so I can see being a slightly different way to describe the bonus from help or a friend’s involvement in a downtime action.
Miles Peiser what I’m saying is how does “engaging each other wittily” lead to an invention?
Thomas Berton , I’ve gone for walks with friends and had an idea in my head. While chatting and walking I’ve had those lightbulb moments that inspired more of the same in my friend, then back and forth. Maybe it’s not so much that witty engagement itself is the catalyst, but that it distracts just enough for the brain to have a clear track for its train of thought.
Ben Liepis Oh for sure. And like Sean Nittner said, I think a set-up action makes sense. But doing the whole invention process without Study seems weird to me, in the same way that trying to craft with Skirmish would seem weird.
Thomas Berton I think we’re all in a sort of scale of agreement then, since Miles Peiser’s first point was “What if to allow the group to work together, in concert, creating this, inventing requires at least one roll of Study to start the clock?”
We may disagree on particulars, but this is rules drifting so it’s appropriate that different tables run this differently.
Thomas Berton , I punch the diagram into being!
But seriously, after some thought I think I’d go with a Study roll with an assist or maybe a group action.