AKA Research and Development.
This can be as simple as assigning a difficulty and making a roll.
Identifying the problem and fixing the problem may be separate tasks.
Here are some loose guidelines on Difficulty
- Easy - re-assembling something that has been taken apart. Finding a fact in an appropriate library or database. Solving a known equation. Troubleshooting a familiar system or device. Playtesting.
- Moderate - Determining why the car won’t start. Finding an obscure fact in a library or database. Formulating an equation based upon similar equations. Basic computer programming. Default for laboratory experiments that do not involve high energy or living creatures. Diagnosing external injuries.
- Hard - Troubleshooting complex systems. Diagnosing normal illness or internal injuries. Complex computer programming. Specialized library or database research. Default for statistical analysis. Default for forensics. Default for Chemical analysis or alchemy.
- Very Hard - Anything that requires actual calculus. Diagnosing rare illness. Default for developing medical treatments and/or "finding a cure". Troubleshooting complex, unknown systems. Software system engineering.
- Extremely hard - Default for lab work involving living subjects. Default for AI programming. Diagnosing exotic diseases. Default for robotics.
- Brutal -High energy anything. Default for anything with a budget that must be approved by a body politic. Lowest possible difficulty for new scientific discoveries.
- Unbelievable - Alien or magical anything. Default for anything involving super-powers.
- Impossible - Anything involving the very fabric of time and/or space. Anything involving gravity control.
There are a few factors to consider:
- Facilities - difficulty assumes adequate facilities (tools, instruments, research material, a clean,well-lit space, etc.). Superior facilities can subtract up to 3 DD. Poor facilites add up to 3DD. No facilities adds 4 DD.
- Field research - field research adds 1 - 3 DD depending on the hostility of the environment. Most environments only add 1DD. Jungles and deserts add 2DD. Arctic, undersea or outer space add 3DD.
- Helpers - qualified helpers subtract 1DD for up to 4DD. Well-meaning but unqualified helpers can only subtract 1DD regardless of their numbers or efforts.
- Technology level - if the end goal is beyond the researcher’s tech level of origin, add 1DD per tech level cumulatively. So 2 levels beyond would be +3DD, and 3 levels beyond would be +6DD. Conversely, if the tech in question is below the researchers level or origin, subtract 1DD per level - though this is not cumulative.