Forum

I am struggling with the find the path skill and more particularly with one of its stunt :
"You find an artifact in the sector, if it’s there to be found. You still might have to struggle to get your hands on it."
And also with the related scavenger talent of the stalker
"You get a +2 modification to Find a Path – with success you find any artifacts that may exist in a sector. To identify threats, you must instead get stunts. You can choose whether or not to use this talent when you enter a new sector."

Let say the pcs enter a new zone sector. The stalker wants to roll his FtP with his scavenger talent and if he gets one stunt he wants to spend it to find an artefact if there is one.
On the gm side, let's say the sector I've planned (either randomly or no) does not contain any artefact.

How do you handle the situation ? And more precisely when do you announce there is no artefact to be found ? before the roll, after the roll but in this case how do you handle the stunts or the use of the scavenger talent ?
Do you tell the stalker before the roll that there is nothing to be found so he can use his stunt for another bonus and choose not to use his scavenger talent ?
Do you tell the stalker right after the roll that there is nothing to be found ? This would imply he used his scavenger for nothing except getting in trouble . In this case, do you authorize the player to choose another stunt ?
Do you play the sector (potential threats etc) and the pc realize when they leave the sector that there was nothing to be found. This would imply they have lost his stunt and used his talent for nothing except for potential additional threat ?

It would be very nice if you could help me on this (an example would be great). Zone exploration seems to be a very fun part of the game but I am really struggling to see how it works in practice.
Many thanks

Normally you as a GM determine what the ruins in the sector looks like and if there is an artefact, where it is. Always good to let have the artefact(s) be somewhere less obvious and so that it at least take a skill check or some clever thinking to get it. If the stalker chooses the stunt that enables him to find an artefact if there is one. Then he get a hint of where an artefact is or he may see it. He might see from a far a dead corpse under a fallen wall, it looks like he is holding a gun, or the stalker see from a distance a shrine that some cultists are worshipping. On that shrine the stalker see an artefact. If there is no artefact, then he has wasted a stunt, but at least he knows now that there is no artefact in this sector.

The talent that changes how Find the Path works by letting the stalker find artefacts firsts and finding threats becomes a stunt (it also gives you +2 to Find the Path) can be a bit of a chance to use (you never have to use a talent, it is optional). If you use it, you get +2 (two more green dice) and that is always good, but the skill will only let you find an artefact (if there is any). You need a stunt to find if there is any threats in the sector. This talent is not particularly good to use when the players go into a sector. It is advisable that the stalker don't use it. He needs to detect threats first. it is good if the stalker decides to "keep looking" since the sector is most likely empty of threats. But of course it is still a waste to use this if there is no artefact in the sector, but the stalker cannot know that.

If there is a threat in a sector and the group either failed Find the Path, or succeeded but used the "find artefact" talent instead so he didn't see any threats, or there is no stalker in the group, the has to explore the sector the old fashion way, by sneaking around.

@Fenhorn: many thanks for your answer