OSINT-6 CHANGELOG 260407
An espionage game spends a great deal of time finding, examining, and interpreting information. Treating all three activities as one broad knowledge skill would make the list shorter, but it would erase useful differences in method, time, equipment, and result.
We separated Analysis, Investigation, and Research. All three default to Intelligence, and they can work on the same problem, but each skill handles a different stage of inquiry.
Research covers systematic collection and evaluation. An agent uses it to locate, compare, verify, and retrieve information from records, archives, publications, databases, or knowledgeable sources. The result is access to relevant material and an assessment of what that material can support.
Investigation covers deliberate examination. It applies when an agent searches a scene, examines an object or record, reconstructs events, identifies an inconsistency, or determines a useful line of inquiry. The skill works on what is present and asks what happened, what doesn't fit, and what should be examined next.
Analysis covers interpretation. It organizes information, tests explanations, identifies patterns and gaps, assesses relationships, and compares competing interpretations. Its output can turn several collected facts into a usable assessment without claiming certainty the material can't support.
The boundaries keep one successful roll from performing an entire intelligence cycle. Research might locate access logs. Investigation might identify alterations or anomalies in those records. Analysis might connect the anomalies to a recurring credential and frame the next information requirement. A later procedure can require different agents, tools, intervals, or consequences at each stage.
We used the same principle elsewhere in the skill list. Security concerns protective measures and the methods used to examine or defeat them. Technology concerns practical use of computers, communications equipment, sensors, electronics, and networks. Qualifications then record training or authorization with particular tools, weapons, vehicles, armor, credentials, or languages that skill proficiency alone can't supply.
The list stays compact, but the distinctions follow what agents actually do with information.