Influencing Attitudes

 

Attitude	Means	Possible Actions
Hostile	Will take risks to hurt or avoid you	Attack, interfere, berate, flee
Unfriendly	Wishes you ill	Mislead, gossip, avoid, watch suspiciously, insult
Indifferent	Doesn’t much care	Act as socially expected
Friendly	Wishes you well	Chat, advise, offer limited help, advocate
Helpful	Will take risks to help you	Protect, back up, heal, aid

The Narrator determines the starting attitude of any character that the characters encounter during the game. The characters can then try to influence the character’s attitude using Charisma and various interaction skills, such as Diplomacy and Intimidate. The Influence table shows the effects of character attitudes and the Difficulty of attempting to change someone’s attitude with a check. Note that a particularly bad influence check can actually make a character’s attitude worse. For example, getting less than 5 on a Diplomacy check makes an unfriendly character turn hostile. In general, a character can attempt to influence another character only once in any given scene.

 

Initial Attitude	New Attitude
	Hostile	Unf.	Indif.	Friendly	Helpful
Hostile	19 or less	20	25	35	45
Unfriendly	4 or less	5	15	25	35
Indifferent	-	0 or less	1	15	25
Friendly	-	-	0 or less	1	15

Bribery and Diplomacy:

Offering money or another form of favor can, in the right situation, improve a character’s chances with a Diplomacy skill check. Bribery allows a character to circumvent various official obstacles when a person in a position of trust or authority is willing to accept such an offering.

An illegal act, bribery requires two willing participants—one to offer a bribe and the other to accept it. When a

character requires a bribe to render services, then a character’s Diplomacy check automatically fails if a bribe isn’t attached to it. If a bribe isn’t requires, a character can add a bribe to get a bonus on his or her skill check. This can backfire, as some characters will be insulted by a bribe offer (their attitude changes one step for the worse) and others will report the character to the proper authorities.

Bribe Target	Purchase DC
Bouncer	6
Bureaucrat	10
Informant	7
Police Officer	10

To bribe a character, make a Wealth check. Typical DCs are shown on below, but the GM may modify the DC as he or she sees fit. If the character succeeds in the check, he or she gains a +2 bonus on the Diplomacy check. For every point by which the character beats the DC, increase the bonus by +1 (to a total maximum bonus of +10).

 

 

 

Social Interaction

The various social actions characters may wish to accomplish are governed by interaction skills. Note that these skills are all usable untrained, so anyone can attempt these actions. Naturally charismatic people tend to be good at them, but those with real talent or training (reflected by ranks in the appropriate interaction skills) are the best.

Bluff Bluff is ultimately the skill of getting what you want by misleading, or at least exaggerating. Completely honest social interactions should use another skill (usually Diplomacy). Bluff is opposed by itself or Sense Motive; it’s difficult to trick an expert liar, and some people just have a sense of when someone is trying to pull the wool over their eyes.

Fast-Talk The basic use of Bluff is lying and getting away with it. Make opposed Bluff checks, or Bluff versus Sense Motive, to see if someone gets caught in a lie. If the liar wins, then the story is believable. Heroes or Narrator characters who successfully fast-talk other Narrator characters can convince them to do things based on the success of the Bluff check, and the believability of their story.

Haggling Haggling for a price or a similar deal is likewise an opposed check to see who bluffs best. The seller uses Bluff, while the buyer uses Bluff or Sense Motive, whichever is better. If the seller wins, the sale is made, with a +1 increase in cost per 5 points the check exceeds the opposing result. If the buyer wins, then the price doesn’t go above market value (the price listed in Chapter 5) and is negotiated –1 cost per 5 points the check exceeds the opposing result. However, the buyer still has the option to say no if the final price is too much.

Seduction The subtle dance of seduction involves using Bluff to get someone to do what you want with promises (implied or explicit) of sexual favors. The seducer makes a Bluff check, while the prey makes a Bluff or Sense Motive check, whichever is better. The seducer’s Difficulty increases if his suggestions go against the target’s personality in some way. Use the modifiers in the Bluff skill description in Chapter 2 as a guideline. For example, attempting to seduce someone in a monogamous relationship entails a risk to the target, for a +5 to +10 bonus on the target’s check. Trying to seduce a target with a different sexual orientation gives them a +20 bonus on their Bluff or Sense Motive check.

Diplomacy Diplomacy is the gentle art of persuasion, debate, discussion, and etiquette. It is the premier interaction skill for those interested in dealing with others in social situations.

Negotiation

Negotiating an agreement with another party is a Diplomacy check, with the Difficulty based on the other party’s attitude. The outcome of the negotiation is based on the other party’s final attitude. An indifferent war chief may become a friendly ally, while a potential ally could become unfriendly or even hostile if negotiations don’t go well.

Persuasion

Convincing someone of the rightness of your view is a Diplomacy check. The Narrator evaluates the subject’s attitude toward your viewpoint or the subject at hand (rather than you personally), and your check can improve that attitude.

Making Friends Make Diplomacy checks to favorably dispose someone toward you. A friendly or helpful result means you have a potential new friend, if you choose to maintain the relationship over time.

Foreign Customs When your character is dealing with unusual or foreign customs, the Narrator may ask for a Diplomacy check for you to avoid making any faux pas. The Difficulty is based on how obscure the custom is: Difficulty 10 for slightly obscure customs, Difficulty 15 for moderately obscure ones, and Difficulty 20 to 30 for very obscure ones. A failed check means a potentially embarrassing social blunder, which may worsen the attitude of your hosts, apply a penalty to further interaction checks, or both.

Gather Information Of all the interaction skills, Gather Information deals most with social groups, whether it’s finding things out or spreading rumors through certain social circles.

Assessing Social Situations You can make a Gather Information check to get a feel for any social situation. It’s Difficulty 15 to get a general idea of the mood of a situation, as well as the prevailing attitude (so you have an idea of the Difficulty of using other interaction skills). Picking up on subtle undercurrents may require a higher check result, at the Narrator’s discretion.

Bureaucracy Gather Information can help cut through red tape and navigate through bureaucracies. The Difficulty of the Gather Information check depends on the challenge, from 10, for navigating simple bureaucratic procedures, to 20 or more, for dealing with particularly complex or hidebound bureaucracies.

Spreading Rumors You can also use Gather Information to put information out where others will find or hear of it. The trick is to ensure the rumors are not traced back to you. This is an opposed check of Gather Information. If you win, then you successfully pass on whatever information you want. If you lose, then the other party traces the rumors back to you, and reacts accordingly.

Perform Perform is an interaction skill aimed at an audience rather than an individual, but it can still influence the audience’s attitude overall, so long as the Narrator feels the performance is appropriate and the performer is trying to shift everyone’s attitude in the same way. A character might use Perform specialties, like comedy or stringed instruments, to warm up an audience and improve their attitude before attempting skills like Diplomacy and Gather Information.

Sense Motive Sense Motive is the catchall skill for resisting social interactions. While each interaction skill typically opposes itself (it’s harder to trick someone who’s skilled in Bluff, for example), Sense Motive covers a general social shrewdness and awareness of the ins and outs of interaction. Sense Motive checks are passive, in that they’re only made to resist other interactions. At the Narrator’s discretion, someone who makes a successful Sense Motive check to avoid a particular interaction can make another check with a Difficulty 10 as an aid action. The character must be able to communicate with the subjects and point out the flaws in the interaction to give them the aid bonus to resist it. This can range from an expert debater poking holes in someone’s argument to an impassioned plea to a crowd not to listen to a rabble-rouser. Note that this is only to aid others against particular interaction checks. If the character is also trying to sway them to his point of view, then it’s more likely an opposed interaction check between the two parties.

REPUTATION

Reputation is used to determine whether another character (a GM character) recognizes a character.  Those who recognize the character are more likely to help the character or do what he or she asks, provided the reputation has a positive connotation to the character who recognizes the character. A high Reputation bonus also makes it difficult for the character to mask his or her identity.
Most of the time, a character doesn’t decide to use his or her reputation. The GM decides when a character’s reputation can be relevant to a scene or encounter. At the moment it becomes relevant, the GM makes a Reputation check for a GM character who might be influenced in some fashion due to the character’s fame or notoriety, as detailed below.

A characters reputation bonus can not exceed their character level.

Fame and Infamy

Most characters with a high Reputation bonus (+4 or higher) are considered well known within their profession or social circle. Whether this has a positive or negative connotation depends on the point of view of the person who recognizes the character.
When a character has a positive opinion of a character’s reputation, the character is considered to be famous by that character. Fame, when recognized, provides a bonus to certain Charisma-based skill checks.
When a character has a negative opinion of a character’s reputation, the character is considered to be infamous by that character. Also, at the GM’s option, a character might be considered infamous in certain situations due to events that have transpired in the campaign.
Infamy, when recognized, provides a penalty to certain Charisma-based skill checks.

Using the Reputation Bonus

Situation	Reputation Check Modifier
The character is famous, known far and wide with either a positive or negative connotation	+10
GM character is part of the character’s professional or social circle	+5
The character has some small amount of fame or notoriety	+2

Whenever the GM decides that a character’s reputation can be a factor in an encounter, the GM makes a Reputation check (DC 25) for the GM character involved. A Reputation check is 2d10 + the character’s Reputation bonus + the GM character’s Int modifer. (Some Knowledge skill modifiers might apply instead of the Int modifier, if the character would be well known in the field covered by the Knowledge skill.) Modifiers to the Reputation check depend on the character and the GM character in question, as shown below. Note that if the GM character has no possible way of recognizing a character, then the Reputation check automatically fails.
If the GM character succeeds at the Reputation check, he or she recognizes the character. This provides a +4 bonus or a –4 penalty on checks involving the following skills for the duration of the encounter: Bluff, Diplomacy, Gather Information, Intimidate, and Perform.

The GM must decide that a character’s fame or infamy can come into play in a given situation to make a Reputation check necessary. A character who doesn’t know, or know of, the character can’t be influenced by his or her reputation.

Duel of Wits (all are Ranked Feats)

Duel of Wits are ranked feats that bestow a bonus to a characters skill checks in a social situation. Most operate by give you our opponent a + or - 4 to their next roll in the argument. A Duel of Wits skill is done in conjunction with any regular skill check made in an argument. A Duel of Wits skill may only Defend or Counter what is listed in its description.

Defending Against a Duel of Wits: If you choose to defend against a Duel of Wits you roll 2d10 + (ability score of skill being used with the Duel + appropriate Duel of Wits rank x 4 ), if you win the the defense you have successfully negated the effects of their Duel, and gained the difference as a bonus on your next roll in the argument. If you fail the Defense you suffer the difference of the roll as a penalty to your next roll in the argument.

Countering a Duel of Wits: If you choose to use a Duel of Wits to Counter another, appropriate, Duel of Wits you roll 2d10 + (ability score of skill being used with the Duel + appropriate Duel of Wits rank x 4), this is similar to defending in that you gain the difference as a bonus to your next roll as a bonus on your next roll in the argument, however you still suffer full effects of your opponents Dueling skill. If you fail the Counter you suffer the difference of the roll as a penalty to your next roll in the argument.

Hesitate: You may choose to forgo a round of argument to negate the effects of an opponents dueling skill, but if you do you forgo valueable time, while your opponent may be making ground.

Argument: The skill being rolled along with your dueling skill as part of the same action.