Forgery (Int)
Check: Forgery requires materials appropriate to the document being forged, and some time. To forge a document the character needs to have seen a similar document before. The complexity of the document, the character’s degree of familiarity with it, and whether the character needs to reproduce the signature or handwriting of a specific individual, provide modifiers to the Forgery check, as shown below.
| Document Type | ||
|---|---|---|
| Factor | Check Modifier | Time |
| Simple (typed letter, business card) | +0 | 10 min. |
| Moderate (letterhead, business form) | –2 | 20 min. |
| Complex (stock certificate, driver’s license) | –4 | 1 hr. |
| Difficult (passport) | –8 | 4 hr. |
| Extreme (military/law enforcement ID) | –16 | 24 hr. |
| Familiarity | |
|---|---|
| Factor | Check Modifier |
| Unfamiliar (seen once for less than a minute) | –4 |
| Fairly familiar (seen for several minutes) | +0 |
| Quite familiar (on hand, or studied at leisure) | +4 |
| Forger has produced other documents of same type | +4 |
| Document includes specific signature | –4 |
Some documents require security or authorization codes, whether authentic ones or additional forgeries. The GM makes the character’s check secretly so the character is not sure how good his or her forgery is.
The Forgery skill is also used to detect someone else’s forgery. The result of the original Forgery check that created the document is opposed by a Forgery check by the person who examines the document to check its authenticity. If the examiner’s check result is equal to or higher than the original Forgery check, the document is determined to be fraudulent. The examiner gains bonuses or penalties on his or her check as given in the table below.
| Condition | Examiner’s Check Modifier |
|---|---|
| Type of document unknown to examiner | –4 |
| Type of document somewhat known to examiner | –2 |
| Type of document well known to examiner | +0 |
| Document is put through additional tests1 | +4 |
| Examiner only casually reviews the document1 | –2 |
| 1Cumulative with any of the first three conditions on the table. Apply this modifier along with one of the other three whenever appropriate. | |
A document that contradicts procedure, orders, or previous knowledge, or one that requires the examiner to relinquish a possession or a piece of information, can increase the examiner’s suspicion (and thus create favorable circumstances for the examiner’s opposed Forgery check).
Try Again?: No, since the forger isn’t sure of the quality of the original forgery.
Special: To forge documents and detect forgeries, one must be able to read and write the language in question. (The skill is language-dependent.)
A character can take 10 when making a Forgery check, but can’t take 20.
A character with the Meticulous feat gets a +2 bonus on all Forgery checks.
A character without a forgery kit takes a –4 penalty on Forgery checks.
Time: Forging a short, simple document takes about 1 minute. Longer or more complex documents take 1d4 minutes per page or longer.