Looking for a way to adjudicate a Disguise attempt by a few Players of mine.

Would you

#1 Base it off Deception or a Knowledge skill

#2 have a Requirement of some kind of disguise kit

#3 increase the difficult based on the Variance between races

#4 What if the Player were a droid

Anything else useful?

Deception, certainly. It's not knowing, it's doing. Depends on circumstances. Hard to say, use what works. Synthflesh.

Can you buy synthflesh?

Yes.

Under medical gear.

Looking for a way to adjudicate a Disguise attempt by a few Players of mine.

Would you

#1 Base it off Deception or a Knowledge skill

The main disguise attempt itself would be based on Deception, but I could see some optional Knowledge skill rolls that could potentially provide boost dice, if they are successful.

#2 have a Requirement of some kind of disguise kit

Boost dice.

#3 increase the difficult based on the Variance between races

The more difference between the race of the character and the race they are attempting to portray, the higher I would set the difficulty.

#4 What if the Player were a droid

Unless the droid was specifically programmed to do this sort of thing, then I would think that would lead to a lot of setback dice.

But if they had holographic emitters that are designed to do this sort of thing, and they have special programming to do this sort of thing, then they would get appropriate lower difficulty and/or boost dice.

Anything else useful?

Be a holodroid like Proxy?

Thanks for the Feedback Bradknowles

Unless the droid was specifically programmed to do this sort of thing, then I would think that would lead to a lot of setback dice.

But if they had holographic emitters that are designed to do this sort of thing, and they have special programming to do this sort of thing, then they would get appropriate lower difficulty and/or boost dice.

Would you be willing to elaborate on why you feel a Droid would get set back dice to do it.

My own thoughts were that most droids vocals are rather synthetic sounding... need a Voice modulator possibly?

\You also suggest Holoemitters? is such a thing already available in the Gear in some book?

As for special Programming? Why this? If a Droid has developed a personality? Why would using such equipment to accomplish this require special programming over an organic doing the same thing?

A droid has such a different physiology, even the closest replicas the 3PO has a mechanical feel to its walk. but then a Trandoshian disguised as an Jawa is just about as convincing as an R2 trying to be a Twi'lek. Funnily enough humans can pretend to be just about be anything

"Everybody knows" that droids don't have personality, thus they should fail what on Earth is called a 'Turing Test' (can't convince a judge they are human).

But of course, if a droid has gained sentience, then you can ignore that issue. Leaving any handicaps for funny eyes or voice boxes and so on that may apply.

My group uses a two-tier approach, utilizing Skulduggery to apply the disguise and Deception to seal the deal.

Skulduggery encompasses a broad range of skills... this includes... disguise, setting traps, and other mischievous actions.

The way my group incorporates this is for players to roll a "choose your own difficulty" Skulduggery check while using a disguise kit. The difficulty they choose is the difficulty for the Perception check used to see through the disguise. This is purely physical and if an NPC doesn't really have a reason to suspect anything (maybe they see the PCs at a distance or they're only vaguely familiar with the people the PCs are disguised as). However, if there's a lot of interaction and the PCs fail some Deception checks, then the NPCs definitely start taking closer looks.

If the party has access to an Outlaw Tech Flesh Camouflage Set, then we skip the Skulduggery check, as it already has a set Formidable difficulty to see through the disguise.

We haven't had any droids try to impersonate organics yet. However, disguising one droid for another I'd switch out the Skulduggery step for Mechanics to represent actual modifications to the droid's chassis.

Thank you VerdanSF.

That is very helpful.. your right, Skuldugery would be used for the Initial disguise..

Though the tech Flesh camou would negate that (though to mimic a specific persons appearance I would require a DNA sample be obtained or I would still require the check and it wouldn't fool a DNA scan)

Deception would be used for the Presentation when interacting with others.

The The tech flesh wouldn't account for voice though. So a difference in Voice structure would also fall into a variable difficulty deception check without a Voice modulator of some kind to mimic the voice for you.

After reading the Flesh camouflage description, I am seeing this as what was used on Obiwan Kenobi in a episode of the Clone wars. It actually Altered the DNA/Flesh of the user, very painful, temporarily to that of the other being. So I am not sure that this would work.

I could also see such use being dangerous to the user dependent on how different the user was from the species he is changing to. Changing within the same species or a similar species would be mostly safe, But a Human changing to appear to be a Gand might be a risk to ones life. Like perhaps a resilience check based on the the difference in change. (especially considering a MASS change like a Human changing to a Hutt or a Jawa. )

Would you be willing to elaborate on why you feel a Droid would get set back dice to do it.

My own thoughts were that most droids vocals are rather synthetic sounding... need a Voice modulator possibly?

The voice is part of it. The other part is mannerisms. Droids are mechanical, not organic. So, unless they’re specifically programmed to behave like an organic, or they have developed specific skills in that area, then I think they’d be due to have a higher difficulty or more setback dice, depending on the specifics of the situation.

You also suggest Holoemitters? is such a thing already available in the Gear in some book?

Not in any book I know of, but there was once a droid known as “ Proxy ” who was pretty good at pretending to be other people.

Once you know it can be done, it’s not necessarily very hard to replicate the idea. That would be between you and your GM, however.

As for special Programming? Why this? If a Droid has developed a personality? Why would using such equipment to accomplish this require special programming over an organic doing the same thing?

Pretending to be an organic is not something that is a normal part of droid programming. Therefore, I would assume that it is harder for a droid to pretend to be an organic than for it to pretend to be another droid or other non-organic entity/object/thing.

But it all depends on you and your GM.

The The tech flesh wouldn't account for voice though. So a difference in Voice structure would also fall into a variable difficulty deception check without a Voice modulator of some kind to mimic the voice for you.

Yup, exactly! It's a perfect opportunity to use Threats and Despairs during a conversation, and not necessarily even with Deception. Let's say your intrepid PC is in disguise and has already fooled an NPC with Deception. However, during a Negotiation check, the PC rolls three Threats. Maybe something was said that the person being impersonated would never say. Time for a check to see if the NPC realizes the PC is in disguise!

Yeah, I could see a combination of Skulduggery and Deception being employed for a disguise, for much the reasons that verdantsf laid out. Heck, I could see the Deception check possibly getting boost or setback dice depending on how good of a job you did on that Skulduggery check to create the disguise in the first place.

There's a sequence in the first of the Guy Ritchie Sherlock Holmes movies where we see Downey's Holmes surreptitiously pick up various items as he trails Miss Adler (Skulduggery in action) before putting them together into an impromptu hobo look (again Skulduggery) and then acting the part so well that Irene and her employer don't think of the person as anything other than a random hobo (Deception).

Are your players trying to look like specific others, or just not look like themselves?

Looking for a way to adjudicate a Disguise attempt by a few Players of mine.

Would you

#1 Base it off Deception or a Knowledge skill

#2 have a Requirement of some kind of disguise kit

#3 increase the difficult based on the Variance between races

#4 What if the Player were a droid

Anything else useful?

#1 You can use several Skills to enhance a disguise. You can roll a Knowledge check (I'd start with an Average difficulty) to see if you can generate any Boosts that would later affect an attempt to see through that Disguise. Other Skills may be appropriate such as Mechanics if you are attempting to pass as an Engineer etc. It's a risk though because you could generate Setbacks and you'll have to live with the result, best only bother if your Skill is high.

#2 Right Tools for the Job rule (EotE pg171), if you have a Disguise Kit you get a Boost. I sometimes have PCs add a Setback if they do not have the right Kit for some things.

#3 You could but I believe that would be situational, NPCs from a world with homogeneous populations maybe but worlds with diverse population probably not, it's up to the GM. This would be a good time for a Knowledge or Xenology roll that could enhance.

#4 More difficult or less depending on the type of Droid. Droids in SW tend to be pretty distinct in their mechanical movements and although they can mimic voice and language well, moving like an organic being will be difficult if not impossible. These two factor probably cancel each other out so I'd not add any Boosts or Setbacks unless the specific situation called for it.

Edit: checked on a a rule.

I give my players great leeway in choosing skills for a task. K: Underworld, Deception, Streetwise... all good. Also, this could be done with one or more checks, depending on situation.

Disguise kit get them Boost (as always with gear), lack of will give more difficulty or some Setback (depends on PC talents).

Average difficulty for your own race, up to Daunting for racial differences (near-human would be Average or Hard, else Daunting), including being a droid. I would not approve the check if its very unlikely, like small to big creatures, or lack of basic knowledge about the target disguise.

We had an HRD (Human Replica Droid) in our last campaign. He was also a master of deception. I granted him coercion bonuses when he ripped off his face in front of people for intimidation factor (he did it a couple of times). RAN-T13 aka Ran Tie was an interesting character. Especially because he installed a hidden weapon compartment in him and carried a disrupt or pistol... He could sneak that into any situation. Typically he could lie his way out of anything, though.