Streetwise

Streetwise reflects the experience to make your way through seedy neighborhoods, find the right contacts, and locate a cheap place to sleep for a night. In most cases, this knowledge also applies to cities an adventurer has never visited.

Make a Streetwise check to find a fence who sells or buys stolen or forbidden goods, or ask around to learn how and where to make good contacts among innkeepers, employers, or especially seedy riffraff.

Streetwise helps a character judge a location. Where do the guards patrol at night? In which tavern will I most likely meet a member of an underworld gang? Where can I sleep cheaply? How many silverthalers must I spend to obtain a favor from a beggar I trust? You can also use this skill to shadow someone. This requires a good vantage point, knowing how much distance to keep between you and the target, and also how to be unobtrusive on the streets (Streetwise doesn’t help you to sneak around or hide, however—for that, you need Stealth).

Check: SGC/INT/CHA
Applications: Asking Around, Judging Locations, Shadowing
Encumbrance: no (maybe in some situations, such as if your armor helps you resemble a guard or a nobleman)
Quality: collect more information, or get it faster than expected.
Failed Check: receive no useful information.
Critical Success: find an especially good but inexpensive inn, obtain much more information than expected, or find a contact who offers excellent terms.
Botch: walk into an ambush by a gang of thugs who plan to rob you blind.
Improvement Cost: C

• Find a soup kitchen +5
• Find a cheap place to stay +3
• Overhear rumors +1
• Find the black market +/-0
• Find information about Alrik the Thug -1
• Find a poisoner -3
• Find a fence for a stolen magical artifact -5
• Shadowing Competitive check (Streetwise against Perception)