Rumors (Draw Steel)

Skills

Definition

Rumors is the sorting step after the listening: weighing three contradictory accounts of the same night, noticing that a story is too consistent to be organic, recognizing which detail every version keeps. It is an Intuition skill because it is a feel for how talk travels and distorts. It comes up after the party collects local talk, when a patron's briefing does not match the street, and whenever someone is seeding a town with a story on purpose.

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How it works

**Characteristic**: Intuition. **Skill group**: Intuition skills. **Test**: 2d10 + Intuition; 11 or lower is tier 1, 12 to 16 tier 2, 17 or higher tier 3. Training grants a benefit and unlocks attempts untrained heroes cannot make. **How it is used**: Tier 3 sorts truth from noise and identifies who benefits from the false version. Tier 2 flags the doubtful parts. Tier 1 misreads the talk, and the party may chase a planted lead. **Edges and banes**: Multiple independent sources, local familiarity, and time to compare grant an edge (+2). A single source, a town under a faction's control, and a deliberately manufactured story impose a bane (-2).

Tips

**Best for**: Investigative parties, and any campaign where factions manipulate public opinion. **Character concepts**: Criminal career fixer, Entertainer who hears every version of the tale, an urban culture native. **Synergies**: Gather Rumors to collect the talk in the first place, Criminal Underworld for the version told out of sight, Read Person when the source is standing in front of you.

Frequently asked questions

How is Rumors different from Gather Rumors?

Gather Rumors collects what people say and is a Presence test. Rumors evaluates that material and is an Intuition test.

Can Rumors identify who started a story?

A tier 3 result can point to who benefits and often to the origin. Naming the individual usually needs more legwork.

Rumors (Draw Steel)

Definition

How it works

Tips

Frequently asked questions

Further Reading