"Gather Information" rumors

[Zachary W Anderson]

You spend 1d4 hours gathering information, but what do you find out?
I've come up with a rough framework for how the rumor mill works... I'm open to suggestions.

You can improve the diplomacy modifier by +1 per 5 gp spent in favors (drinks, delivering a letter, watching a horse) (adjusted for local economy; costs less for poor areas, and more for rich), to a maximum of +10.
You can also get a +5 bonus if specifically talking to helpful groups or individuals, or +10 for helpful. (Or -5 for unfriendly; hostile is a lost cause, either not talking or even intentionally giving false information, although the party doesn't need to know that...)

Why does the party care? Roll 1d20:
1-7: Directly related to the adventure. (Could be a subsystem for figuring out past/current/foreshadowing?)
8-13: Relates to one of the character's personal stories; I'd suggest a "distributed randomness" for this and give each character close to even spotlight time (although it doesn't have to be exactly even).
14-18: Something in which the characters are interested, even if it doesn't relate to your current plot(s) (although it could be one tomorrow...). Examples include a party friend, that secret society you know they like, a death in a far-off kingdom...
19-20: Something new. Doesn't relate to any of the previous categories, although if they show interest, you could start to weave it in...

What's the topic?
I found the Knowledge skills to be helpful in this regard. Roll 1d10 and consult the following (and reroll if it doesn't fit the "why does the party care" or the people to whom they're talking; I'm guessing the "Planes" might not come up much).:
1: Arcana (ancient mysteries, magic traditions, arcane symbols, constructs, dragons, magical beasts)
2: Architecture (buildings, aqueducts, bridges, fortifications)
3: Dungeoneering (aberrations, caverns, oozes, spelunking)
4: Geography (lands, terrain, climate, people)
5: History (wars, colonies, migrations, founding of cities)
6: Local (legends, personalities, inhabitants, laws, customs, traditions, humanoids)
7: Nature (animals, fey, monstrous humanoids, plants, seasons and cycles, weather, vermin)
8: Nobility (lineages, heraldry, personalities, royalty)
9: Religion (gods and goddesses, mythic history, ecclesiastic tradition, holy symbols, undead)
10: The Planes (the Inner Planes, the Outer Planes, the Astral Plane, the Ethereal Plane, outsiders, planar magic)

How much do they find out?
They get 1 sentence per 5 rolled, with an increasing level of detail, and each sentence has a ¼ chance of being false (possibly 1/8 if talking to a group with excellent research or a history of honesty, or 1/2 if talking to fickle and/or ignorant groups).

Example:
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17
Relevance: 1d20 ⇒ 1
Topic: 1d10 ⇒ 2
Veracity: 1d4 ⇒ 11d4 ⇒ 11d4 ⇒ 21d4 ⇒ 11d4 ⇒ 1(just rolling ahead of time in case I get a 25)

[Zachary W Anderson]

Diplomacy: 17, rounds down to 15, so I get 3 sentences.
Relevance: 1, stick with the current adventure path.
Topic: 2, engineering-related.
Veracity: 1, 1, 2. Problem with depending on dice, you never know what you're going to get. Okay, let's see what I can make with this.

"The pyramids are clearly enormous stone elementals. They were placed there by the gods. The mouth to the black stone pyramid opens only once a year."

[Bwang]

Nice! I went with d100 ages back and foolishly left out relevance, as in everything is relevant! It only turned up a single 'fact', veracity took another roll based, as you have, on who/what/etc the source is and possession of relevant skill. This was made in the early 80s and mercifully lost.

Instead of the d10 for the skill, weight the roll by party level on a d20 with a die for how advanced the rumor is. A '1' being 'unicorns are REAL! and a '20' 'the unicorn is found only if it wants to be'.

I'm grabbing this for a fist full 'o' d20s set of my own (popular with my group), below:

Why should the party care?
Which party member?
What's the topic occurrence?
What's the topic?
How much do they find out?
When will it/did it?
True/False?

Results are: 7, 13, 2, 20, 5, 9, 1.
7-concerns a coming step of current line of story.
13-Two members of common interest, the Arcanist and Fighter.
2-Common knowledge,
20-Nobility and national politics
5-vague
9-recent to soon
1-seriously false!

Having the current group in mind: Someone has started a false rumor that either armor or weapons will be collected and housed by order of the Lord Mayor by King's command. You will only be allowed to check out your armor for defense of the city or when called into the King's service. The confiscation is set for tomorrow, the day before the party leaves for the Haunted Hills. Hmmm, I think I'll add it was started by a rival dungeon hunter whose 'armored people are already at a rendezvous point beyond the city gates.