Social Manipulation

  • Obviously, most social interactions should be roleplayed at the table… but sometimes you may want to accelerate the outcome you want. Why go through the ‘proper’ channels when you can lie or scare your way around it? Making a friend often takes more time and effort than most journeying Trainers can spare. Many characters have ways of skipping these drawn-out social interactions, and as a result, these people tend to have a lot of friends. Or enemies. Either way, people take notice of them.
  • Charming characters are good at making deals and friends in quick order to meet their goals. They can defuse angry brutes trying to intimidate them and even cause groups of creatures to temporarily back off from a fight, potentially turning their moods positive if they have enough time. 
  • Guileful characters get results quickly through lies and deception, but often leave a poor impression on people who learn of their wiles (which is not always everybody). Their wit allows them to mock people being nice to them or their friends, and eventually become unidentifiable to other creatures, leaving people guessing as to their true capabilities. They can also bypass many obstacles by disguising themselves as others, blending into their social surroundings.
  • Intimidating characters force help from people and terrify them at the same time, though this earns them few true friends. They can stare down friendly charlatans speaking to them and eventually give orders to people that they follow for a time. This can get you results even quicker than lying to people, but is poor for long-term relations.
  • Intuitive characters excel at seeing the truth in social situations and gaining insight into various situations, to degrees that are almost improbable. They can eventually coax the truth from unwitting targets and learn things about people that even they don’t know. While they don’t positively or negatively influence others, they still learn useful information about people and groups.
  • Commanding characters are mostly reactive – actively yelling at someone to get what you want falls under Intimidate. However, they can still break others out of mind-altering effects and counteract the social wiles of other people to keep their friends clear-headed.
Example scenario 1: The party stumbles across a random person in the wilderness who is Indifferent towards them, who will be named Rando. They want to ask Rando for directions, but he’s a suspicious dick who doesn’t really trust them. The Party Face begins to Push Agreement on Rando, asking him if he could point them in the right direction. They both agree that it would be a Tolerable Outcome. The Face and Rando begin to discuss what level of Commitment it would take for Rando to give that information. The Face argues that it’s Trivial, because all he has to do is tell them the directions and they can both go on their way, but Rando is an asshole who thinks it’s a Minor request he’d have to draw a map to give them the proper directions. The Party Detective jumps in and uses Discern Deceit to determine if Rando is lying or not, which he secretly is. The Detective must beat a DC of (5 x Tier 1) + (3 x Guile Rank 3) = 14 in order to tell. With 4d6 Intuition, he rolls a 17 and scores a Moderate Success, and then informs Rando that he knows he is, in fact, full of shit, pointing out that they’re on a beaten path in the middle of the woods that only leads one way, and a map would be pointless. With this knowledge, Rando has no defense against the Commitment being Trivial. Because of his Moderate Success, the party will gain a +2 bonus to all further [Social] checks against Rando for the next 30 minutes. The Party Cheerleader wants to help, and decides to Flirt with Rando as an Extended Action (S). The DC is set to be (6 + Level 2 + Indifferent Attitude 0) = 8. The Cheerleader has 4d6 Charm and rolls a 12, scoring a Moderate Success and causing Rando to be Mesmerized towards her for 2 hours. Because of this, the party will gain another +2 bonus to all further [Social] checks against Rando while he has a Crush on her.  Now that the thrust of the conversation is over, all that is left is to see if Rando agrees to the deal or not. The DC for Push Agreement is set to be (Tolerable Outcome 6 + Level 2 + Trivial Commitment 1 + Intelligence 3 + Indifferent Attitude 0) = 12. The Face rolls a 14. However, his +2 from the Detective’s insight and the +2 from Rando being Mesmerized towards the Cheerleader results in a total of 18, scoring a Critical Success. Rando feels a little embarrassed from being caught in his lie, but the Face assures him that it’s not a big deal and there are no hard feelings. Mildly humbled, Rando tells the party where to go and they go their separate ways, and Rando’s Attitude towards the party becomes Comfortable.  Example Scenario 2: The party consists of a bunch of police officers who have 2 suspects to interrogate – a goon and his boss. However, they aren’t very good cops and don’t separate the two before speaking with them. The Boss is Level 6, while his goon is Level 2. Bad Cop immediately opens with Shake Resolve as an Extended Action (S) on the pair. Because he has Break Ranks, he can target both at once by taking a -3 penalty to his check. The DC for this check is (6 + Level 6 + 5 Intimidate) = 17, and Bad Cop has 5d6 Intimidate. The Boss notices this and counters with I Think Not, making a Command Check. He has 5d6 Command and rolls a 13, replacing the Base DC of Shake Resolve with his check, making the DC (13 + Level 6 + 5 Intimidate) = 24. During this time, Detective Cop decides to Assess Situation and get a feel for what’s going on. The DC is (4 + Level 6) = 10, and Detective Cop has 5d6 Intuition. He’s unfamiliar with both men, so he receives a -1 penalty to this check. He rolls a 22, resulting in a total of 21, scoring a Critical Success. The GM informs Detective Cop that the Goon, judging from how he looks at the Boss, is very willing to rat him out but must have family or other circumstances that prevent him from squealing. Bad Cop’s targets are unable to escape him, so he gains a +3 bonus to his Intimidate check, and for good measure he smacks the goon around a bit to get a further +1 bonus. He rolls well and gets a 22, and his bonuses push him up to 26, scoring a Success. The Boss and the Goon become Shaken for 4 hours, giving everyone +1 to [Social] checks against them. After this, Detective Cop informs Bad Cop about what he learned. Bad Cop, hearing this, immediately lies and tells the Goon that if he squeals on the Boss, then he’ll receive a more lenient sentence and protection from the Boss. His DC for Lie Convincingly is (5 x Tier 2) + (3 x Guile 1) = 13. The Goon has 4d6 Intuition and uses Discern Deceit in response to this, rolling an 18 and receiving -2 due to being Shaken, resulting in a 16, scoring a Moderate Success. He informs the Boss that Bad Cop is lying, and now they both get a +2 bonus to further [Social] checks against him and his party. The Boss decides to use his 4d6 Charm to Push Group Agreement on the party, trying to convince them to just give him the keys and leave. They both agree that it would be a Repugnant Outcome. The Party Detective has personal beef with the Boss, as he hurt his brother – and is therefore Hostile towards him. There are few people in the jail besides the party, so they and the GM determine whether the Commitment is Severe or Moderate. Due to the ethical issues of the situation, they agree that the Commitment is Severe. The DC for Push Group Agreement is set to be (Repugnant Outcome 9 + Level 6 + Severe Commitment 6 + Intelligence 3 + Hostile Attitude 2) = 23. He rolls a 12, scoring a Critical Failure and really pissing everyone off, making the entire party Hostile towards him from now on. At this point, the party finally gets the smart idea to separate the criminals. Good Cop goes into the room with the Goon and tries to Push Agreement on him to get him to reveal what he knows. They argue about whether or not the Outcome would be Repugnant or Suicidal, and Good Cop promises to do everything in his power to protect the Goon, and they agree on a Repugnant Outcome. All the Goon has to do is answer a few questions, so the Commitment is Minor. Lastly, the Goon is still Shaken from earlier. The DC to Push Agreement on the Goon is set to be (Repugnant Outcome 9 + Level 2 + Minor Commitment 2 + Intelligence 3 + Suspicious Attitude 1) = 17. Good Cop has 5d6 Charm and rolls a 13, gaining a +1 bonus from the Goon being Shaken, resulting in a 14, scoring a Moderate Failure. Unfortunately, the Goon doesn’t believe him or offer any information, and becomes Hostile towards Good Cop, telling him to fuck off. At this point, the party can try to Push Agreement on him later after altering the terms, try to improve his Attitude, find ways to stack [Social] bonuses and penalties against him, use Coax Information on him, or try… less social methods of information extraction.