Influence Skills (Social Combat) Clarifications

By WarrenH, in Star Wars: Edge of the Empire RPG

Hello all, sorry if this has been posted before.

I find the Influence skills to be a little less clear cut than I'd like, specifically Deception. I'll try to be concise:

Charm indicates "Instances in which the desired outcome is directly opposed to the targets interests, an additional difficulty die may be added"

Coercion Indicates "attempting to persuade a character to betray his core beliefs should always add difficulty..."

I don't see similar entries under negotiate or Deception. For my game I have basically read them in. Essentially for deception, if you lie is a whopper it adds a die. Negotiation would be a really terrible deal for the target adds a die.

I've also read the (what I consider) common sense: at some point if what you are asking for, demanding, negotiating, lying about is just too far/big/silly/etc the target just doesn't agree/cave/believe/etc regardless of how good a charmer/liar/negotiator you may be.

So the process for me looks like this:

  • Determine what the "talker" is trying to get from the target and how they are going about it.
    • This determines the opposed skill rolls.
  • Determine if the talker's request is “reasonable” – open to interpretation and discussion by the table.
    • If “reasonable” no additional dice
    • If better than reasonable, reduce the dice pool by one - two
    • If Counter to the targets beliefs/interests increase the dice pool by one – two (with two being reserved for seriously outlandish things).
    • If the target would be a fool not to grant the request, no roll needed.
    • If the target would come to harm, or serious loss (and the target is aware of this) for taking the request and has no reasonable chance of gain automatic failure
  • Modifiers (Setback/Boon) based on a variety of factors other than what is being requested.

Obviously roleplaying trumps all, and you can come up with reasons for almost anything, that either reduce or eliminate the penalty for the influence check

Is this what other people are doing? Do you think the above system is too strict, too relaxed? Any thoughts at all?

I use discipline the most. Nearly every example it gave in the book for the skill relates to using discipline to oppose negotiation, charm, and catch lies.

Or occasionally a cool check.

I'm sure it doesn't help but thats usually what I look at. Plus I like to throw out alot of setback dice. Most of the talkers tend to remove setback dice for talents so I want to make sure they get to use them. They are after all giving up combat talents so its nice to let them shine in their 'territory'

Don't let your PCs bully you into letting them lie to an imperial interrogator or someone that would never give them the chance to lie to them. A high Charm or Deceit doesn't mean you can get out of any situation.

Don't let your PCs bully you into letting them lie to an imperial interrogator or someone that would never give them the chance to lie to them. A high Charm or Deceit doesn't mean you can get out of any situation.

The PCs should have a chance to lie, it should just be incredibly difficult against someone like an interrogator. Even when being interrogated by the interrogation droid on the Death Star, Princess Leia never gives up the location of the Rebel base. If there are drugs involved, a Discipline check would be in order, and if that was passed, they could then make their Deceit attempt (possibly with some bonus for the fact that the interrogator knows they're pumped full of truth drugs).

I would make them roll Resilience to resist Truth Serums, but otherwise I completely agree. But, if they try to convince Darth Vader that they are actually secret Sith operatives sent by the Emperor behind his back, there's a 99% chance that I'm not going to let them make the check at all (unless they do a never tell me the odds Destiny flip... then they can try. Against STUPID odds.)