So I've just started running a Desolation campaign, and some rules questions are popping up. Here's the first one.

Setting the scene, let's assume there is a gathering of survivors at a make-shift camp. Many of the survivors have just met, and one of them (Claudia) wants to use her high Charisma to subtley gather information about her new acquaintances.

Question: Could Claudia roll Charisma + Diplomancy to find out details from the survivors? I could see this falling into Con, instead of Diplomacy .. but either way, if the answer is Yes, that you could use the appropriate skill this way .. would this be a Standard Action or an Extended Action or a Resisted roll?

I can certainly see situations where it could be all thre ...

Standard Action - for a quick roll versus NPC's

Extended Action - for larger groups, or over a longer amount of time

Resisted roll - for major NPC's trying to resist someone's 'charms'

Anyone have a particular guideline?

For me, it depends on the circumstances of the NPCs. If the group is amiable to the players or no big secrets to hide the roll is a standard action. This would essentially give major points without much explanation.

If the players are working them up to get them to spill all of what they know, extended for me. This would give major points and smaller details (you could always do this in multiple standard actions...).

If the NPCs have some secrets to hide you can resist the players.

Keep in mind that the players are also penalized by their relationship to the players (look under the Charisma attribute description in the core book). This acts as a method of limiting information as well.