Recently a PC of my group pointed out the action card "Staring Contest". He claimed it is a very good one. I read the card, and didn't find anything abnormal a part from the fact that it has the advantage that you do not need to be able to understand the target's tongue.

A Discipline vs Discipline check with no additional difficulty. With the simple success line you achieve an influence result to the target, as many other action cards; and with boons and multiple successes you get extra effects. Nothing out of normality in my opinion.

But then I realize that the recharging is 0! It means each round, by getting a simple success line, you can accomplish one influence to the target! Which makes pointless the need of any other action card to achieve influence results (unless the targert is blind I guess ).

Giving the fact the Influence result is the key effect to move a tracking token during a social encounter o inflict shame in a duel of wits, do you know guys if there is an errata of this card? or I am missing something?

Cheers

I do have this card as a player and I decided not to use it every round for role playing reasons and not to annoy everyone else in the party… But I was also surprised when I realized that the card has 0 recharge…

The way I read it I'd probably only allow the player to use it once in a certain social encounter, since it has a line for multiple successes that gives the player a benefit for a number of rounds within the social encounter. They can then use those bonuses on further social skill checks while maintaining the "staring contest".

I'd also let the player use it on different people within the same encounter, but it would probably only work once per person.

As with most social conventions, if you fail at a certain attempt, such as flirting or convincing somebody to do something, I would treat a failure as closing off that avenue of attack, at least until a future encounter if not permanently depending on the NPC.

Do you not allow influence results with straight Charm/Guile checks with no action card? I read it as a card that allows one to use Discipline as a social skill.

Doc, the Weasel said:

Exactly, that was the reason my high WP Zealot (future Witch Hunter) acquired that card.

Doc, the Weasel said:

Doc, the Weasel said:

Yes and no.

I try to rule social encounters following my interpretation of the rules presented in Lure of Power. I allow players the use of the Perform a Stunt action card to try to Influence their targets. The skills involved in the check (leadership, guile, charm, intimidate…) will depend of course on how they act /role play.

Still, the players have to present an "argument" to try to Influence their targets. Following Lure of Power, I use a division between Strong, Weak or Very Weak arguments, which will depend on each individual NPC. My players can obtain information over the NPCs (goals, personality, virtues, flauws…) through appropriate Gossip, Intuition checks or by using action cards such as Scrutinise.

Therefore, my players need two things in social encounters: the Perfomr a Stunt action card and an argument to Influence the target. Typically if they present a strong argument they will achieve an Influence with a simple success, for a Weak argument I will be asking at least three hammers, while for a Very Weak argument, I will be asking some hammers and a comet.

Then you have action cards like Winning Smile, Steely Gaze or Staring Contest that allow you to achieve an Influence result without any effort. Good to me. Nevertheless, Winning Smile (as an example) has a restrection which says it must be the first action you perform upon meeting the NPC or Steely Gaze has a recharge of 3 or 4 depending on the stance. Yet, Staring Contest allows you to achieve an Influence result with a simple success line, with no need to present and argument or even role play, and you can perform the action card each round.

Doc, the Weasel said:

I already try to explain myself. Yet one more point, with Staring Contest, Warriors and Wizards (specially Wizards) become the best characters in social interactions.

See, I would think that the limiting factor is what kind of influence a character can leverage with no dialogue.