{"schemaVersion":1,"record":{"key":"mechanic/detective--family-08","type":"mechanic","id":"detective--family-08","lang":"en","title":"Trust and social access","summary":"Relationships affect a character’s willingness to share information. Confident behavior alone does not prove truthfulness.","updatedAt":"2026-10-22","status":"active","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/knowledge/mechanic/detective--family-08/","jsonUrl":"https://gamemechanics.pro/api/v1/knowledge/en/mechanic/detective--family-08.json","markdownUrl":"https://gamemechanics.pro/content/knowledge/en/mechanic/detective--family-08.md","aliases":[],"tags":["Detective games","Witnesses and information sources"],"sourceIds":["source-478907b8b62d0628"],"sources":[{"id":"source-478907b8b62d0628","title":"Potionomics","url":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/1874490/","verifiedAt":null}],"sections":[{"id":"principle","title":"How it works","body":"Relationships affect a character’s willingness to share information. Confident behavior alone does not prove truthfulness."},{"id":"variants","title":"Variants","body":"### Variants\n\n<a id=\"family-08-branch-1\"></a>\n\n- Building trust: keep a promise or establish authority to open a topic. <a id=\"family-08-variant-1\"></a>\n- Choosing an approach: seek information through empathy, exchanged favors or a formal request. <a id=\"family-08-variant-2\"></a>\n- Cost of pressure: consider whether an aggressive question will close off later access to a witness. <a id=\"family-08-variant-3\"></a>"},{"id":"example","title":"Design example","body":"A witness will identify a visitor if the player first finds a safe way to contact them."},{"id":"context","title":"Context and limits","body":"A working map of detective design: 32 families and 96 variants. The core loop is to find information, form a hypothesis, test it and explain a conclusion. Answer formats, hints and investigation structure are treated separately. Families overlap, design examples are hypothetical, and released-game examples cite primary sources without revealing case solutions."}],"relations":[],"placements":[{"catalogId":"detective","id":"family-08","title":"Detective games","url":"https://gamemechanics.pro/en/mechanics/detective/#family-08","categoryIds":["testimony"]}],"supersededBy":[],"attributes":{"preview":{"updatedAt":"2026-10-22","title":"Trust and social access","description":"Relationships affect a character’s willingness to share information. Confident behavior alone does not prove truthfulness.","image":{"src":"images/mechanics/dialogue-potionomics-05.webp","width":1440,"height":810,"game":"Potionomics","sourceUrl":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/1874490/","originalUrl":"https://shared.akamai.steamstatic.com/store_item_assets/steam/apps/1874490/ss_1a48567b697d25dee05de6d998e8946ec5ff0ca1.1920x1080.jpg?t=1750960791","credit":"Voracious Games / XSEED Games / Marvelous USA, Inc.","rights":"Game imagery © its respective rights holders. Publisher-distributed Steam screenshot; all rights reserved. Excluded from MIT and CC BY 4.0.","caption":"Affinity during a conversation with Saffron","alt":"Affinity during a conversation with Saffron","markers":[{"x":18,"y":63,"label":"A heart marks Saffron’s positive response"}]},"tips":["Distinguish willingness to share information from truthfulness."],"examples":[{"title":"Potionomics","url":"https://store.steampowered.com/app/1874490/"}]}},"endsAt":null,"provenance":"Original editorial taxonomy authored for gamemechanics.pro on 2026-10-19. Primary developer and publisher sources support specific released-game examples, not the whole classification; design examples are hypothetical.","license":"CC-BY-4.0","codeLicense":"MIT","attribution":"gamemechanics.pro contributors","catalogKey":"catalog/detective"}}