OSINT-6 CHANGELOG 251214

Research, surveillance, technical work, and other sustained tasks create a recurring rules problem. One roll can make hours of work feel weightless. A string of identical rolls creates the opposite problem, since the group keeps rolling until enough successes appear or patience runs out.

The development register called for one common engine for extended tasks. We built Extended Procedures around progress, intervals, inputs, consequences, and termination conditions. The same framework can support different kinds of work without making each later subsystem invent its own clock.

Before an Extended Procedure begins, the Game Master defines its objective, required inputs, interval, Difficulty Class, permitted checks, consequence, progress requirement, and conditions that end the work. Short procedures require 2 progress, Standard procedures require 4, and Complex procedures require 6. One lead character rolls during each interval. Meeting the Difficulty Class earns 1 progress, while exceeding it by 5 earns 2. Failure earns none and applies the consequence established for that interval.

The interval matters as much as the roll. Four hours spent analyzing access records can advance an Operational Clock even when the check fails. A surveillance interval might increase the chance of detection. Technical work might consume a limited component. Earlier progress normally remains, so one failure complicates the work without erasing everything already accomplished.

We also required inputs and termination conditions because progress can't float free of circumstances. Losing the records, equipment, access, safe location, or remaining time can stop a procedure. Changed conditions may make the original objective impossible even after useful work has been completed.

The finished rule creates a middle scale between one Ability Check and an entire downtime activity. It measures sustained work without asking the table to simulate every minute. More important, it makes time, resources, and risk part of the procedure instead of leaving them as narration around repeated d20 rolls.