Features » Dragons Faction

Research Requests

The Lorien Trust doesn’t run a downtime system, however, between events players can have their characters undertake research to, for example, investigate pieces of background or the campaign world, or develop a better knowledge of a certain issue/area.

These research requests take place between the main events and usually result in a written narrative and/or series of IC documents revealing the information that the character has uncovered.

To have your character undertake such research requires you to submit a research request form. These forms can be collected from and submitted to the Bards Guild or Games Control at a main line event (no research requests can be submitted at a Sanctioned event).

Currently, you can only submit one research request a year which will receive an answer the following year.

If you have one of the research related occupational skills (Scholar <X>, Sage <X>, Improved Research Ability), you can submit a further research request related to the area of expertise of the skill at (currently) the Spring Moot or GEF. Such requests will receive a response (currently) at the Gathering of the same year you submitted it.

You can also pay IC at the Bard’s Guild to have your research request expedited.

As well as some basic details, such as character name, OOC name, etc, you’ll be asked to provide details on:

What you are trying to research.
What you already know about the subject/issue.
Where/who you will attempt to find out the information from.
How you will go about finding out the information from these sources, including details on anyone who is helping you (you don’t have to do research by yourself – you can involve other characters with useful skills).

Some tips on submitting a research request:

Try to ask specific questions (what you are trying to research) and make them open questions.
Give some thought about how you would logically be able to get hold of the information you are after – research isn’t limited to going to libraries.
Similarly, give some thought about what skills and people would aid you in uncovering the information – there’s no point trying to make a map of an area if you don’t access to the Cartography skill.
There are some limitations to research – don’t think that you can just have your character walk up to Balor and question him on his weaknesses, it is likely to result in a failed research request; similarly attempting to enter war zones or enemy territory is likely to result in a failed research request.
Research requests aren’t just limited to straightforward research, it can be useful experimenting with approaches and what you want to achieve to see what can work.
Although you should always get some form of response to your research request, the quality and quantity of the response will ultimately be dependent on where you look and what skills/people/resources you use. And remember, sometimes the information just isn’t there to be found.