Marching From Golarion; Decipher Writing

 Decipher Writing Trained

Concentrate

Exploration

One Action

When you encounter particularly archaic or esoteric texts, the GM might require you to Decipher the Writing before you can understand it. You must be trained in the relevant skill to Decipher Writing. The skills used for Deciphering Writing and the types of texts they usually decipher are: 

Arcana for writing about arcane theory, including arcane spells and rituals 

Computers for programming or other computer languages 

Occultism for eldritch script and occult esoterica 

Religion for scripture, allegories, and proverbs 

Society for coded messages, archaic text, or (in some cases) alien languages 


You attempt to decipher complicated writing or literature on an obscure topic. This usually takes 1 minute per page of text, but might take longer (typically an hour per page for decrypting ciphers or the like). The text must be in a language you can read, though the GM might allow you to attempt to decipher text written in an unfamiliar language using Society instead. The DC is determined by the GM based on the state or complexity of the document. The GM might have you roll one check for a short text or a check for each section of a larger text. 

Critical Success You understand the true meaning of the text. 

Success You understand the true meaning of the text. If it was a coded document, you know the general meaning but might not have a word-for-word translation. 

Failure You can’t understand the text and take a –2 circumstance penalty to further checks to decipher it. 

Critical Failure You believe you understand the text on that page, but you have in fact misconstrued its message

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