04.05 Rd6 Presence Skills

Skills covered: charm, disguise, intimidation, persuasion

Characters use one of several Presence-based skills to influence other people that they meet. The typical difficulty is Moderate, and the roll is modified based on the dispositions of the characters involved, but a GM may base it on a skill roll.  See the Mental Defenses for more information on this.

Die rolls alone should not determine interactions between players’ and GM characters. GM should have their players detail what their characters say and do to before rolling the dice. The better the player acts the role of his character, the greater his chance of success should be, which GM can reflect by allowing up to a +1D modifier to the skill roll.  See also the individual entries in this chapter for charm, con, intimidation, and persuasion.

Persuasion Interaction Modifiers to the roll may include how friendly or unfriendly the target is to the player, the general social position of the target, the ease at which the target would normally do the act in question, etc.

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Animal Handling

This is the skill to controlling or influence animals as well as making them perform tricks and follow commands.  This combined with Riding can be effective skill.

Skill Focuses: Mounts, Wagons/Chariots, Flyer

Skill Use: Riding

This is the skill use of Animal Handling to control and ride domesticated mounts. This also is the skill to accelerate, steer, and decelerating chariots or any kind of cart-and-animal vehicle.

When a character first mounts a ride-able animal, she must make a riding roll against the creature’s mettle roll (the GM generates this). The character’s riding total may be modified by the attitude of the animal toward the character. The character stays in control if she ties or beats the beast’s roll. If she fails, consult the table below for what occurs.

When attempting to get the beast to perform a special maneuver or during events that might frighten it, the character must also roll against the animal’s Charisma or mettle. Examples of special maneuvers include jumping a fence, crossing a raging river, moving faster, or slowing down quickly. (The success of special maneuvers are determined with the animal’s attributes or skills.) A character attacking from the back of a beast takes a multi-action penalty for having to both control the mount and use their weapon.

Conditions that would affect the roll would be the animal’s attitude towards the character.

Mettle < Riding	Result
1-2	Beast stops and refuses to move for 1 round.
3-6	Beast stops and refuses to move for 2 rounds.
7-11	Beast bolts in a random direction for 1D rounds.
12+	Beast bucks rider; rider must make a Moderate riding roll to avoid being thrown off.

Disguise

Skill Bonus: Persuasion (known as Improved Disguise); Arts/Creative – Acting ( known as Acting the Role)

A character’s skill total in creating the disguise serves two related purposes. First, the higher the roll, the less likely an observer will be to question the disguise. Second, the total becomes the difficulty number for Perception or investigation efforts to see through it. If the investigation check is higher than the disguise total, the disguise has been penetrated.

If at any time while the character is disguised she performs an action inconsistent with the disguise, any observer has a chance to see through it. Although one character may use disguise on another character, the disguised character must actively work at keeping up the disguise using her own disguise skill or Presence.  Modifiers to the roll may include differences in gender, race or species, age or build of the target disguise.  Tools and supplies also affect the roll.

Action	Difficulty
Fool others for a short amount of time at a short distance away	Moderate
Disguise his facial features	Difficult
Alter bodily appearance (shorter. taller. slimmer, different species)	Very Difficult

Skill Use: Assume Identity – This skill use allows a character to use Disguise to imitate others by changing his clothes and using crude makeup.

Persuasion

Specializations include Con, Charm, Intimidation, Trick, Taunt, Command, Haggling and Oratory

Characters can use Persuasion to influence other sentient beings or get information out of them through bribery, honest discussion, debate, fast talk, diplomacy, or speeches. Also useful in negotiations, business transactions, and putting on performances (such as singing, acting, or storytelling). Through persuasion, one can cause a person to behave dishonorably, such as through ignoring duty, looking the other way, or divulging secret information. Success depends greatly on the target. A target who is loyal or wealthy or fears being caught is less likely to accept bribes. Use the modifiers suggested under Presence-based Skills and further modified by such factors as the value of the money, goods, or information offered, the extent of favors given and received, and the target’s attitude toward the bribe.

The user’s appearance and demeanor can also affect Charm, Con, or Intimidation attempts. The more threatening the character looks or seems, the less effective charm and con actions are, while intimidation attempts are more effective. The GM can determine Modifiers to the roll  to decide how much the appearance and demeanor affect the target, if a Disadvantage or Special Ability doesn’t already provide one.

Trick, Taunt, and Intimidation can be used in Interaction Attacks. See Interaction.

Skill Use: Con

Bluffing, lying, or deceiving others, as well as verbal evasiveness, misdirection, and blustering. These are usually long term effects and done in roleplay, never in turns.

Skill Use: Charm

Using friendliness, flattery, or seduction to influence someone else. Also useful in business transactions, putting on performances (such as singing, acting, or storytelling), and situations involving etiquette.

Skill Use: Command

Effectively ordering and coordinating others in team situations. The command skill use of Persuasion governs the act of convincing individuals to comply with specific directions, as well as maintaining morale during group undertakings (such as combat or building large pieces of equipment). This skill use is typically used only with the GM characters, though it can be sometimes attempted with the player characters (such situations should be roleplayed first, with a bonus or penalty to the command roll based on how well the group participated in the activity together).

A high Command Test can complement individual participants’ rolls in a group activity, while a low command roll can
impose negative modifiers. It generally requires at least one round of planning to perform effectively.

Characters can use this skill to combine their attacks. One person is designated the leader and makes the Command roll. If successful, everyone goes on the leader’s initiative. Participants make their attacks with appropriate modifiers (Scale, Range, etc). The Target resists the combined total of all damage done it. If the command roll fails, determine initiative and actions individually.

For non-combat challenges, modifiers on the Skill roll include level of willingness each participant may be to do the action, the level of training each has, the cohesion of the group, etc. The should range from -1D to -2D to each Test. A GM may want to impose a Difficulty Modifier based on the complexity of the task as well ranging from +1 (Mildly challenging) to +4 (Very complex and requires care.)

Skill Use: Haggling

Thrifty characters often employ haggling to lower the price of goods they purchase or raise the price of merchandise they wish to sell. The player can reduce the price 10% with each success.

Skill Use: Intimidation

Using physical presence, verbal threats, torture, or fear to influence others or get information out of them. This can be used both in a long term roleplay or in the short term in an Interaction Attack.

Skill Bonus: Fighting (known as Forceful Intimidation).

Skill Use: Trick

This is a skill use of Persuasion that allows a character to unbalance or deceive a target briefly, using misdirection, deception, and outright bluster. A character will usually use a Trick in combat or during an interaction to put an opponent off guard- though it may sometimes be used in a non-round situation as well. It is not a long-lasting process (like con), but will get the immediate job done.

Skill Use: Taunt

This is Persuasion skill use is used to insult, upset and annoy a target so that he will think less clearly and will not be able to react with good judgement. Taunts are usually used in interaction and combat rounds on an opponent, but may be used for other purposes as well.

Skill Use: Oratory

Public speaking represents a character’s skill at oration, his ability to speak in front of large crowds and to convince them of his beliefs.

Action	Difficulty
Speak with little fear and stammering	Easy
Speak confidently and with emotion	Moderate
Convince crowd	Difficult

Increase or decrease this difficulty depending on the demeanor of the crowd as a whole. Friendly accepting crowds will be easier to convince. while hostile crowds will be more difficult to convince.