Specific Actions
Source GM Core pg. 53
You as the GM set the DCs for certain checks or determine other parameters. Here are guidelines for the most common tasks. Remember that all of these are guidelines, and you can adjust them as necessary to suit the situation.
Craft
Source GM Core pg. 53
When a character Crafts an item, use the item's level to determine the DC, applying the adjustments for the item's rarity if it's not common. You might also apply the easy DC adjustment for an item the crafter has made before. Repairing an item usually uses the DC of the item's level with no adjustments, though you might adjust the DC to be more difficult for an item of a higher level than the character can Craft.
Earn Income
Source GM Core pg. 53
You set the task level when someone tries to Earn Income. The highest-level task available is usually the same as the level of the settlement where the character is located. If you don't know the settlement's level, it's usually 0–1 for a village or remote colony, 2–4 for a town or starship, or 5–7 for a city or space station. A PC might need to travel to a megacity or capital to find tasks of levels 8-10, and to the largest ports of call in the galaxy or another plane to routinely find tasks beyond that. Some tasks can be done on the infosphere, but characters might not receive the benefits until they return to a port of call. Some locations might have higher-level tasks available based on the nature of the settlement. A major port of call might have higher-level tasks for Piloting, a city with a vibrant arts scene might have higher-level tasks for Performance, and so on. The Earn Income Tasks table includes some ideas for suitable tasks. If someone is trying to use a particularly obscure skill, they might have trouble finding tasks of an ideal level, or any at all—no one in most settlements is clamoring for the expertise of someone with Squox Lore.
Once the PC has decided on a particular level of task from those available, use the DC for that level. You might adjust the DC to be more difficult if there's network maintenance during a job over the infosphere, a rowdy audience for a performance, or the like.
Once the PC has decided on a particular level of task from those available, use the DC for that level. You might adjust the DC to be more difficult if there's network maintenance during a job over the infosphere, a rowdy audience for a performance, or the like.
Gather Information
Source GM Core pg. 54
To set the DC to Gather Information, use a simple DC representing the availability of information about the subject. Adjust the DC upward if the PC Gathering Information seeks in-depth information. For example, if a character wants to Gather Information about a secret laboratory, you might decide that a common person wouldn't know much about it, but any scientist or corporate worker would, so learning basic facts uses the simple DC for trained proficiency. The location of the building is superficial, so discovering it might be DC 15 (the simple trained DC). Learning the identity of the laboratory's owner, however, might be DC 20 if the corporation is more obscure.
Identify Magic or Learn a Spell
Source GM Core pg. 54
The DC to Identify Magic or Learn a Spell is usually the DC listed for the spell's rank or the item's level, adjusted for its rarity. A very strange item or phenomenon usually uses a higher DC adjustment. For a cursed item or certain illusory items, you can use an incredibly hard DC to increase the chance of misidentification. If someone has already identified the spell or item, it's best to either let them automatically identify it or apply an easy or very easy adjustment.
Recall Knowledge
Source GM Core pg. 54
On most topics, you can use simple DCs for checks to Recall Knowledge. For a check about a specific creature, trap, or other subject with a level, use a level-based DC (adjusting for rarity as needed). You might adjust the difficulty down, maybe even drastically, if the subject is especially notorious or famed. Knowing simple tales about an infamous dragon's exploits, for example, might be incredibly easy for the dragon's level, or even just a simple trained DC.
Alternative Skills
Source GM Core pg. 54
As noted in the action's description, a character might attempt to Recall Knowledge using a different skill than the ones listed as the default options. If the skill is highly applicable, like using Medicine to identify a pharmaceutical, you probably don't need to adjust the DC. If its relevance is a stretch, adjust the DC upward as described in Adjusting Difficulty.
Additional Knowledge
Source GM Core pg. 54
Sometimes a character might want to follow up on a check to Recall Knowledge, rolling another check to discover more information. After a success, further uses of Recall Knowledge can yield more information, but you should adjust the difficulty to be higher for each attempt. Once a character has attempted an incredibly hard check or failed a check, further attempts are fruitless—the character has recalled everything they know about the subject.
Creature Identification
Source GM Core pg. 54
A character who successfully identifies a creature learns one of its best-known attributes—such as a ferrofluid ooze's magnetism (and the fact that it can be demagnetized by fire) or an oma's electrical discharge. On a critical success, the character also learns something subtler, like a weakness that's not obvious or the trigger for one of the creature's reactions.
The skill used to identify a creature usually depends on that creature's trait, as shown on the Creature Identification Skills table, but you have leeway on which skills apply. For instance, midwives are aberrations but have a strong connection to divine spells and serve a deity, so you might allow a character to use Religion to identify them without any DC adjustment and make using Occultism harder. Lore skills can also be used to identify a specific creature. Using the applicable Lore usually has an easy or very easy DC (before adjusting for rarity).
The skill used to identify a creature usually depends on that creature's trait, as shown on the Creature Identification Skills table, but you have leeway on which skills apply. For instance, midwives are aberrations but have a strong connection to divine spells and serve a deity, so you might allow a character to use Religion to identify them without any DC adjustment and make using Occultism harder. Lore skills can also be used to identify a specific creature. Using the applicable Lore usually has an easy or very easy DC (before adjusting for rarity).
Creature Identification Skills
Navigate and Sense Direction
Source GM Core pg. 55
Pick the most appropriate simple DC when someone uses Piloting to Navigate or Survival to Sense Direction. This is usually the trained DC in normal wilderness, expert in deep forests or underground, master in featureless or tricky locations, or legendary in weird or surreal environments on other planes.
Social Skills
Source GM Core pg. 55
When a character uses Deception, Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Performance to influence or impress someone whose level or Will DC you don't know, estimate the level of the creature and use that DC. A regular citizen is usually level 0 or 1. Don't worry about being exact. It often makes sense to adjust the DC based on the target's attitude for Deception, Diplomacy, or Performance, making the DC easy for a friendly creature, very easy for a helpful one, hard for an unfriendly one, or very hard for a hostile one. You might adjust the DC further or differently based on the PC's goal; for instance, the DC to Request something an indifferent NPC is fundamentally opposed to might be incredibly hard or impossible, and it might be easy to convince an unfriendly creature to do something it already wants to do.
Subsist
Source GM Core pg. 55
A simple DC is usually sufficient for the Subsist action, with a trained DC for a typical situation. Use the disposition of the environment or settlement as a guide; an environment with scarce resources or a city with little tolerance for transience might require an expert or higher DC.
Track
Source GM Core pg. 55
Often when a PC uses Survival to Track, you can pick a simple DC and adjust it based on the circumstances. For example, an army is usually easy to track, so you could use the untrained DC of 10. If the army drove tanks through mud, you could even adjust this down to DC 5. On the other hand, if the party pursues a cunning spy using Cover Tracks, you might use their Survival DC as the DC to Track. If the character is familiar with the terrain, you might want to apply an easy adjustment.
Train an Animal
Source GM Core pg. 55
Train Animal allows PCs to teach animals tricks. Use the level of the animal as the baseline; you can adjust the DC up if the trick is especially difficult or down if the animal is especially domesticated, like a squox.