Dear god, Bought Info is badassed!

By Desslok, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

For some reason or another, I had looked Entrepreneur's Bought Info talent, but I never actually READ it until last night. Sweet merciful crap!

50 credits times difficulty for an automatic success?

***EDIT*** SNIP! Me am stupid. It's still a pretty badassed talent tho.

And then, lets say that you've got a Sage friend with Valuable Facts that just happens to drop knowledge at just the right time? That's a wicked combo!

Edited by Desslok

It only works with Knowledge skills and buying info in the middle of an encounter seems a little strange to me.

Oh, I guess that INT skills and KNOW skills are different arent they. My pre-coffee brain somehow equated the two in my head. Still, just the knowledge is still pretty badassed.

As for the middle of the encounter - well, when else are you going to need it? You cant exactly pre-purchase an underworld roll before you know how much you're going to have to go up against.

When you're looking for information on a planet you're heading to, or trying to get the floor plans for a building or deck plans for a ship. Or looking for a specific place to offload a bunch of stolen cargo.

The talent specifically states that the GM should disallow purchases in situations where the PC would be unable to buy the info, and gives the example of being marooned on a planet with no access to a holonet. I would think being in the middle of combat with a rancor or something and trying to "buy info" to give your Bounty Hunter a crit on his next attack wouldn't be a situation where your character would be able to buy info either.

Edited by Jiyva

The talent specifically states that the GM should disallow purchases in situations where the PC would be unable to buy the info, and gives the example of being marooned on a planet with no access to a holonet. I would think being in the middle of combat with a rancor or something and trying to "buy info" to give your Bounty Hunter a crit on his next attack wouldn't be a situation where your character would be able to buy info either.

OTOH, if the BH is an IG-88 type model with a built-in long-range communicator to his ship, and a holonet transceiver on the ship, he might be able to explain how he can find a Dangerous Animals specialist who can tell him about a particular achilles heel type of weakness that is a closely held secret about Rancors — for the right price. ;)

Being a narrative game, this ability can potentially be used retroactively. You just happen to have purchased relevant information prior to the time it is required.

Being a narrative game, this ability can potentially be used retroactively. You just happen to have purchased relevant information prior to the time it is required.

This. But I'd probably request the players flip a destiny point to use the ability retroactively.

The thing is - the talent as written doesn't say anything about having to plan ahead. Some instances it could be "I tip the concierge 250 credits. So tell me everything you know about Cena the Hutt. . . " - but it could be easily "Thank goodness I remembered to load the Encyclopedia Galactica on my data pad before we left. That monthly subscription is paying for itself! Now, lets see what it has to say about Tatooine. . . . "

Yes, it's a GM discretion - but so are a great many other talents in this game.

I think Entrepreneur is one of the best careers because of this skill and would defenitely allow its use retroactively. In fact, I would say the talent goes from bloody amazing to pretty useless if you wouldn't....

Entrepreneur is probably one of the most powerful social classes in the game, provided narrative is on your side. My next character (an alt for my main) is going to be a trandosian with ability in the three social skils and brawn. Because with greesed palms I can spend 200 to have 3 yellow dice and two greens. In particilar, both abilties mentions that it doesn't have to be a direct bribe; but that the money spent would reflect research done before hand (e.g. Both players and DM are telling a story, for a streamlined RP it can be counterproductive to enact encounters to just seek out information.) thus they are intentionally retrospected to allow the player to introduce new elements into the game.

Naturally there are a few weaknesses with the ability.

The information brought would have to be avalible commercially. The character would likely have to have access to the correct people. In a city? Chances are you can get hold of most knowledge excluding information belonging to millitry intitution or the unbribeable. In a small town or outpost? Chances are your knowledge is going to be quite local for most part. Brought Information is a talent that relies on having the avalible people to bribe; unlike most talents that are self relent.

The other fairly obvious issue is that you are succeeding with just 1 success: It tells you the bare minmun of what you need to know without any golden nuggets of information. So in retrorespect the talent is a good one to cover things that the character has no ranks in, or absolutely can't fail that knowledge check. Otherwise it's usefulness can be debated.

I have zero problems with it being used retrospectively without Destiny point usage: As long as it is clearly expressed that certain bits of information arn't avalible. Thats largely something we know already though.

Edited by Lordbiscuit

Don't forget you can use the holonet (as mentioned in the talent description) so contacts don't even need to be local!