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Trying to get a consensus for how I should handle Recall Knowledge when the PCs are presented with the poster at the beginning of each Bounty.
I am inclined to allow such a check for an Investigator, because Pursue a Lead specifically mentions "seeing a hasty sketch", but perhaps not otherwise?
In at least one of the Bounties published so far, for example, the thing on the poster isn't an actual creature, but a costume.
How have you been running this?
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I haven't been running bounties, so I'm not familiar with how good (in -terms of in-game representation) the posters/sketches are. But I'd probably allow anyone to roll Recall Knowledge, if they asked.
I might add the hard modifier to the DC if the sketch is really, really rough -- though even a simple sketch can capture key details that can be enough to identify a creature. . . . sometimes even better than an 'artistic' version.
If the sketch is wrong (drawn from intentionally bad information, exaggerated by fear, etc, or the costume? mentioned) a success would only given correct information, but for the wrong thing, etc.
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It’s also worth pointing out that in at least one bounty no one has seen the creature, despite there being a drawing of it on the poster. I think it’s a tricky situation where they want to include art and stick to their format, but the narratives of the bounties don’t always justify there being enough known to make a roll. So it’s just going to be a GM call each time.
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Venture-Captain, Nebraska—Bellevue
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It’s also worth pointing out that in at least one bounty no one has seen the creature, despite there being a drawing of it on the poster. I think it’s a tricky situation where they want to include art and stick to their format, but the narratives of the bounties don’t always justify there being enough known to make a roll. So it’s just going to be a GM call each time.
Had a laugh about this with the PCs in the last bounty I ran. Specifically noone had seen the beast or knew anything about it. Yet the picture on the cover was a very clear spoiler if a player knows their Pathfinder Beastiary.
I gave them the text of the bounty and told them that was what they had to work with. That said, there were plenty of clues (Investigator) or spoor (Ranger/Druid) so that players could potentially try to learn about what they were tracking. I'd base Recall Knowledge on that information instead.
Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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Pursue a Lead is very permissive with how much you need know about the target.
You don't need to know the identity, purpose, or nature of the subject, but you do need to be aware of its existence.
"The critter that bit my poor farm animal" is already good enough without without a sketch. A bitemark is as good as a footprint for establishing that "there exists a critter whodunnit".
For Recall Knowledge I'd say that you need some kind of lead, but again, a bitemark, footprint, witness who saw it from a distance - all could work. If you only have fragmentary traces then I'd raise the DC but it's certainly possible that you can Recall what sort of creature(s) it might have been.
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Venture-Lieutenant, Netherlands—Leiden
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I don't think investigators should be getting any Recall Knowledge checks that others aren't getting. I'd say the threshold for RK is a little bit higher than that for Pursue a Lead, although not very much more.
Basically, for PaL, any lead even if it's really minimal can be enough as long as it leads you to suspect the existence of someone, something or some place. For RK you might need a bit more traces before you can try to make checks to determine who, what or where that is.
But if I was going to allow a RK check to an investigator, I'd also allow it to anyone else. Conversely, if I wanted to preserve the mystery a bit longer, I would allow PaL but not RK yet.
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Pursue a Lead would give an Investigator a bonus on the check whenever there’s enough information to make the check. It doesn’t give them the information necessary for a check to be called for in the first place. The bounty I mentioned specifically has the issue of there not being enough information to make a recall knowledge until you go and investigate the site, but players seeing the drawing and asking if they can make a check to identify the thing in the picture. I just had the person who posted the bounty say that he made up the picture cause he had to put something.
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Pursue a Lead would give an Investigator a bonus on the check whenever there’s enough information to make the check. It doesn’t give them the information necessary for a check to be called for in the first place.
Okay. Maybe I do like this approach the most. Allow an Investigator to Pursue a Lead, but not Recall Knowledge until there is more information. And when there is enough information, allow everyone to Recall Knowledge.
Gives the Investigator PC something to do, but still rewards PCs who might have invested themselves into Recall Knowledge skills.
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I mean, it's just the way that Pursue a Lead works. Pursue a Lead doesn't say that you get to make a Recall Knowledge check when you wouldn't otherwise. You're just designating your lead. In this case whatever is the subject of the bounty. Which is fine in all the Bounties I've played/GMed so far (haven't done 5 yet). There's just no check involved in doing so. Then:
Whenever you attempt a Perception or skill check to investigate a designated subject, you gain a +1 circumstance bonus to the check. The exact checks this applies to depend on the actions you use to investigate and are determined by the GM, but checks to investigate are typically Perception checks or skill checks that use Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.
So you could ask to make a recall knowledge check without any evidence or indication of what the creature is, but the GM is perfectly within their rights to decide you don't have enough information to know anything/the DC is far above what would be possible to achieve, even on a nat-20 bumping the success a level. If it would be impossible to make the check without pursuing a lead, then the +1 isn't going to suddenly make it possible.
There might be some Investigator Feat or something that changes that. I don't think there's one at first level, though, so it's not likely to be relevant in the bounties anytime soon.