This skill represents your knowledge of the "Secret History" of the world, including arcane secrets, parapsychology, occultism, ghost stories, conspiracy theories, fringe science, and psychic lore. This skill functions as Knowledge, but specialized onto the field of she occult.
You can make an Occult Lore check to make predictions about yourself or others. This can take the form horoscopes, numerological analysis, tarot reading, tea leaf reading, I-Ching, or other rituals of your choice. The DC of this check is dependant of the period of time to be predicted--the longer and further away, the more difficult the future is to tell.
Critical Success You receive a prediction that is either accurate or specific (GM's discretion.) Even the best predictions tend to be cryptic and sometimes misleading without the benefit of true magic.Success You receive vague, but generally accurate, information about the target's future.Critical Failure Your prediction is widely inaccurate, and leads you and the target astray.You attempt a skill check to try to remember a bit of knowledge regarding the occult. The GM determines the DCs for such checks.
Critical Success You recall the knowledge accurately and gain additional information or context.Success You recall the knowledge accurately or gain a useful clue about your current situation.Critical Failure You recall incorrect information or gain an erroneous or misleading clue.You can use Research to learn information from books, the Internet, or other standard sources. Research allows you to navigate a library, an office filing system, a newspaper morgue, or the the Internet. It doesn't include talking to people and asking questions; that's handled by Interaction or roleplaying encounters.
Researching a topic takes time, skill, and some luck. The GM determines how obscure a particular topic is (the more obscure, the higher the DC) and what kind of information might be available depending on where you are conducting your research. Different locations will adjust the DCs, and allow you reroll a failed Research check.
Information ranges from general to protected. Given enough time (usually 1 hour) and a successful skill check, you can gain a general idea about a given topic. This assumes that no obvious reasons exist why such information would be unavailable, and that you have a way to acquire restricted or protected information.
Critical Success You find the specific information you were searching for, such as a specific record, map, or article.Success You discover useful and relevant information that advances your research.Failure You fail to make any progress on your research.Critical Failure You are lead wildly off-tangent in your research, and undo 1d4 previous successful research checks related to this topic.You attempt a skill check to piece together disconnected information to reveal the greater truths at work. Once per Chapter, you can make a Occult Lore check to learn a piece of useful (and not particularly apparent) information from the GM.