I have an issue with the Coercion skill.

One of my players is a droid Marauder. He's a seven-foot B2 battle droid who is covered in cortosis-lined powered armored. He has a vibro-sword embedded in each hand and a missile tube mounted on his shoulder. With his modded armor, his Brawn is 7. He is cold, unfeeling, and incredibly terrifying. Whenever he tries to intimidate someone, though, he rolls exactly one yellow die due to his 1 Willpower and 1 rank in Coercion.

Both my player and I agree this is not representative of his character. Sure, he's weak-willed, and if someone were to try and trick him into believing something stupid he'd probably believe it. But this doesn't work when he unsheaths his murderblades and puts them against some organic's fleshy throat to try and bleed information out of them. Even in thise cases, RAW says he uses his Willpower to determine his pool. This doesn't feel right to us.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to manage this? A Boost die seems like too slight of a reward for such an initimidating character.

The difference between an Ability Die and a Proficiency Die isn't that huge (other than the Triumph). If you want to be able to intimidate people better, buy up ranks in the skill.

Just because you're a walking weapons platform doesn't make you inherently "scary." He may have all that "muscle" but he doesn't' know how to use it in such a way that produced the desired response out of those weird and difficult to predict organics.

You say

He is cold, unfeeling, and incredibly terrifying.

I say

So you strapped a blaster to a Rhoomba... One restraining bolt and I can put your Tank in "Park" for good.

"Blah blah or i'll smash you face in" is probably one of the times where you should be rolling brawn instead of willpower.

Should also be noted should only garner immediate co-operation.

If they're intimidating, they should have ranks in Coercion. Otherwise they may be decked out, but they don't know how to properly apply that to the situation. When trying to intimidate they look more foolish in all their madness instead of scary.

High Coercion skill means intimidating.

-EF

Shrugs. Why does he have all those dedication in brawn and a willpower of only 1? Seems designed to be a pushover

As a counter example, in our group, we have a average sized female who can make Imperial starship captains stutter and their first officers spill their guts almost instantly. If you want that kind of character, spend some XP in that direction.

One thing any high willpower character will tell you is there is little enough chance for that characteristic choice to shine - I wouldn't give it's effect away for free to everyone else.

Willpower skills: Coercion, Discipline, Vigilance.

When the big brawny low willpower Wookies and ancient-unfrozen-original-Mandalorians in our group are running around letting their motivations blow them around causing havoc, she's the Disciplined one soldiering on to complete the mission.

"Aw look, the enemy team chose a gurl as champion, and she's crying... we should protect her!" (And forfeit the duel-to-the-death.)

vs

Blam Blam Blam "Fight Over."

(Heh. This really happened)

There's a difference between being imposing and being intimidating. Lenny from 'Of Mice and Men' was imposing. Mr. T was intimidating. Note the subtle but distinct difference.

Just because someone is huge and armed to the teeth, if they're easily distracted (low willpower) their threats carry significantly less of an emotional impact. There's an inherent emotional content and context to a successful coercion threat. Understanding the subject is just as important as presenting a threat.

In the context of SW, a hulking brute of a war droid isn't terribly threatening since most criminals are familiar with how easy they are to control with a restraining bolt or overseer droid. Further, it's rare for a battle droid to have any interrogation programming. If they're angry with you, they'll just kill you -- which is significantly less intimidating than prolonged torture or mind-sifting (such as what Imperial interrogation droids are known for).

Coercion is showmanship it is not being tall with guns . Your player's character is a fire hydrant with weapons, not an actor . If he wanted to be intimidating as well he should have invested points in willpower and coercion instead of just being a soak/gun monster. A main battle tank is big and huge with guns but isn't inherently intimidating . Your players character is essentially the same thing .

This is just a case of wanting to have your cake and eat it too in my opinion . The solution is simple, it's called be patient and build character that can do both instead of trying to have everything all at once .

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to manage this? A Boost die seems like too slight of a reward for such an initimidating character.

Have him buy more ranks in Coercion?

Also, what about other skills that could be used? If he could make a case for Brawl, then use it. Or what about medicine? How did that go from Terminator?

Uncle Bob: I have detailed files on human anatomy.

Sarah: I'll bet. Makes you a more efficient killer, right?

Uncle Bob: Correct.

Don't get trapped into the idea that there's only one skill to tackle a problem.

Tell him to be happy with his Cowardly Lion.

But really, what else would you have Coercion be based on? Brawn? Why should the big burly Brawn character be better at scaring people than the Agility character that's locked an loaded like Rambo?

Here's the Willpower description:

The Willpower characteristic reflects a character's discipline, self-control, mental fortitude, and faith. Characters with a high Willpower can withstand stress and fatigue, remain composed during chaotic situations, and exert influence over the weaker-willed. Willpower is used for a number of skills, such as Coercion and Vigilance. Willpower is also used to determine a character's starting strain threshold.

Now, I'm not saying Willpower is a perfect fit for Coercion, and the description for Willpower is sort of a stretch to get Coercion to work with it, but it does kind of make sense, especially if you consider the other skills tied to it. Vigilance and Discipline are basically the "preparedness when things go down" skill. You've seen and experienced things, possibly horrific things, possibly intense things, that you can now shrug off with ease. Your state of mind allows you to unflinchingly impart these horrors amongst your target and let them know that you intend to fully, completely, go through with your threats. Which is definitely kind of messed up and dark, but so is bullying somebody with threats. So as I see it, it might not be a perfect fit for Willpower, but it's a lot better than other Characteristics.

The Willpower/Coercion connection is down to weather the character has the resolve to follow through with their threats, and backing themselves to get the results if they push just a bit more. Your Players Character is big and burly but not able to keep it together during an interrogation and lets things slip, whether the Player wants his character to or not.

Your player is describing a PC with a big dice pool in coercion, the droid he chose was not built for that (rightly so IMHO) but droids are all about skill training the skills they are not naturally gifted in. I like to think of this like the Droid Brain Quirks that arise from a long time without a memory wipe.

Basically he should invest the next 25xp in 2 more ranks of Coercion to represent his growing ability to make NPC's wet themselves.

Dont give a Player something just because he chose to be a min-max one trick pony.

An example of this in another situation is when low intelligence PC picks up an obvious clue or piece of information, the Player knows what to do with it, but the the Character is to dam dumb to figure it out, so should not be meta-gaming that information until someone with more smarts gets a look at the clue.

Edit; the gear and appearance of the PC should be 1 factor that help you as GM determine the number of Blue/Black the player gets on their Coercion roll. Certain NPC's will see those as threatening and add blue, others will just think the bucket of bolts furniture is trying to over compensate for something, adding black to that roll!

Something else to keep in mind is the opinion of people in Star Wars is shaped by their universe. They haven't watched the Terminator movies or Battlestar Galactica. What they have done, is gone through a galactic war where lots of big huge droids with guns were used and plain old people in the form of clones kicked their asses. There is nothing intimidating inherently about armed droids to the general populace, they're the guys that lost the last big war badly.

I mostly agree with what everyone else is saying, but you can and should at least be throwing in a boost die when the droid has a gun to their face or a knife at their throat. In that case, being properly equipped will mean something.

Coercion is very little how you look and a great deal how you act. I'd say your player needs to buy more ranks in his skill.

However, I agree with adding boost. One of my players is a Droid Heavy, with her backstory being a heavily modified BX commando droid. Whenever she says she's specifically hanging around the group, I always add a boost to Coercion checks and a setback to Charm checks.

Under the Empire's rule, in the wake of the clone wars most combat droids were declared illegal and taken out of circulation. Owning a battle droid is probably a criminal offense. Also, battle droids are known for being quite dumb and easily outmatched. The dude who owns the battle droid would be a lot more scarier then the droid itself.

I would also add that battle droid aren't programmed to understand human behavior and can't easily analyze their reaction to intimidation. Unable to judge the effectiveness of his intimidation attempt, your droid can't push his target to the breaking point. He can't spot that breaking point.

All in all, I wouldn't change Willpower has the base characteristic for Coercion to help your player get his cake and eat it too.

If he wants to intimidate, have him spend XP on raising his Coercion skill and maybe increase willpower with the next Dedication he comes about.

Coercion is very little how you look and a great deal how you act. I'd say your player needs to buy more ranks in his skill.

However, I agree with adding boost. One of my players is a Droid Heavy, with her backstory being a heavily modified BX commando droid. Whenever she says she's specifically hanging around the group, I always add a boost to Coercion checks and a setback to Charm checks.

I like the +boost to Cercion and +setback to Charm checks. It's a nice balance to the bonus you give your player for her fearsome appearance.

You can't give a super bonus because there is already a talent named LOOM from the Enforcer spec for Hired Guns that gives a bonus if he's around for Charm, Deception and Negociation.

I like what you did there CaptainRaspberry.

It was just a little reminder to everyone else to not "house rule" something that renders a talent or skill or characteristic useless.

Flash the murder-blades and shoulder rockets and have the NPC roll a Fear Check...

Coercion isn't just about putting fear into the subject, it's about doing it in a way that get's a desired response out of them. With a poor Coercion dice pool you can certainly scare them, but you're going to have trouble getting them to behave how you like.

With his modded armor, his Brawn is 7. He is cold, unfeeling, and incredibly terrifying.

I'm with everyone else on this one. Just because he's strong, metal, and armed to the teeth does not mean he's necessarily terrifying. If that was the case, then Coercion would be based off of Brawn and not Willpower. It's like trying to convince the GM that you should get special treatment on your Stealth roll because your high Cunning makes you "sneaky", or that your high Agility should make Skulduggery checks easier because your nimble fingers make it easier to pick locks. As a GM, I've had players try to fast-talk me into giving them all sorts of boosts and benefits that they haven't really earned. It rarely, if ever, works.

If your character conception of this droid is that he's supposed to be terrifying and intimidating, as well as strong and deadly, then take away some of that ridiculously high Brawn and put it into his ridiculously low Willpower A Brawn of 4 and a Willpower of 4 seems to be much closer to how you're picturing this guy than how he's currently built.

And as other have said, holding a knife to someone's throat deserves a boost or two to Coercion, no matter who's holding the knife

Coercion isn't just about putting fear into the subject, it's about doing it in a way that get's a desired response out of them. With a poor Coercion dice pool you can certainly scare them, but you're going to have trouble getting them to behave how you like.

I want to particularly second this point. Coercion is usefully scaring people. If you are a big tall warrior loaded with big scary guns and show no interest in not killing someone, that someone will be scared. Scared and useless.

I remember reading in the rulebook that the GM can allow a player to use another characteristic than the default one to do a skill check, depending on how the player describe what he does. So if your GM is ok with that, braw can be use for coercicion.

I remember reading in the rulebook that the GM can allow a player to use another characteristic than the default one to do a skill check, depending on how the player describe what he does. So if your GM is ok with that, braw can be use for coercicion.

I think you and the OP are confusing fear with coercion. You can just make people afraid but that doesn't change their mind about something. Coercion is more about mind games than physical presence and it isn't just about making people afraid, it's about using fear to get someone to do what you want them to, for example coerced confessions etc. It's more involved than just scaring people. I think re-reading the coercion description in the CRB would be helpful.

I remember reading in the rulebook that the GM can allow a player to use another characteristic than the default one to do a skill check, depending on how the player describe what he does. So if your GM is ok with that, braw can be use for coercicion.

I think you and the OP are confusing fear with coercion. You can just make people afraid but that doesn't change their mind about something. Coercion is more about mind games than physical presence and it isn't just about making people afraid, it's about using fear to get someone to do what you want them to, for example coerced confessions etc. It's more involved than just scaring people. I think re-reading the coercion description in the CRB would be helpful.

and here we get to the best explanation: Fear is used during Coercion, but Coercion is not just Fear.

These are all really cogent points! Thanks guys. I will explain this to my player.

It depends exactly what stock the individual is. For me, high brawn but low willpower means one of three things things; either they don't carry an aura to be convincing, or that they honestly believe that the character would probably be a meathead that would slaughter them anyways, thus the information he is holding out on is better kept within then out. "Why should I tell an amiture like you anything? You would probably kill me anyway because that's what your paid to do, so you give me a way out, then I tell you where people would see you if you killed me." or alternatively they might be too terrified and will tell the character anything to distance themselves from the immediate situation, even if he knows full well it may well not be what the character is looking for. "The wearhouse! The Mcguffin is in wearhouse, blah blah dock, please, I have a family" e.c.t

Of course, there are probably select situations where Brawn can be used as part of a check (In a case where your physically making someone do your bidding) or alternatively some situations might not even require a check (if the NPC fears physical violence) Otherwise cohersion is the ability to put on social pressure to make a subject cave, to put their case on heavy and overwhelm that person with sheer presence of argument. If a tooled up merc attempted to do that he might face the entire wraith of a security team rather then get what he needs, while a real intimidating talker doesn't need props or tools; he can shut people down with just a hard gaze and a few hard words and hardline bargaining that would make a heavy handed response look bad on the behalf of the reciever.

If the player wants to be that character that cuts with cold logic, then he needs to make that investment.

A good example of when Brawn absolutely should be used for coercion would be if the brawny character had the target by their throat and was squeezing just hard enough to show the target how easy it would be to finish the job if they don't comply.

On what HappyDaze said about fear vs coercion, he makes a good point. An imposing figure with a low coercion pool should still roll. They're sure to get plenty of threat should they succeed, which can cause the target to resolve themselves to sobbing quietly in the fetal position.