A situation came up in my Orange Nights pbp campaign just recently. The players came to a crossroads in some catacombs with no clear indication of which way was out/safe. Two of them had a similar (rather obvious) intent: see if they can somehow divine a way out. The problem is in the tasks. One player is just looking at the entrances while the other is, quite literally, trying to divine a way out by asking for Guidance.
How to resolve these intents? The players and I discussed several solutions before ultimately settling on one that’s a bit non-canon, so I wanted to post our thought process and resolution here for peeps to comment on.
[ul]
[li] Regular ol’ help: Nope - the Faith rules strongly imply that Faith may only help Faith (pg. 526 BWG)
[/li][li] Linked test: This seemed plausible, but then why would some dude dicking around peering at the entrances of a cave matter to an answering deity? I suppose one could make an argument for overlooking/questioning piety, but it felt weak sauce.
[/li][li] Invalid intent: Could’ve said one of the intents was invalid, but these guys are poised to go at each other’s throats in very entertaining ways, and failure on either part would’ve definitely meant that.
[/li][/ul]
So, what I decided on was that both test and, as indicated above, failure on either part would result in a shouting match that would draw very, very unwanted attention. Roleplaying the tirade/escalating to DoW/Fight optional. what do people think?