Hello. GM is going to be starting a game of this and I was thinking of making a taling character and had a few questions.

What equipment is there for a talky character, or does he rely mostly on his voice (the holo things might be useful)

How do you work out threats for tests.

I was reading and it said that threats mean less people are taken in by your charm, or turn those affected negatively against the character...but if you charmed and succeeded shouldn't they be well disposed towards you?

I was thinking that perhaps they go along with you but feel duped afterwards and future attempts have set back dice (though seems a bit powergamey as a politicio can ignore set back dice for charm negotiations deceit and coerce as they are the first things you take to go up the talent tree)

So far my beginning twi'lik has presence 4, will 3, cunning 2 (not much for lieing), agility 3 (as he acts as a planetery chaufeur (may expand him into explorer scout for the short cut talents later)

Has charmx2, negotiationx1, leadership x1, deceit x1, knowledge xenology, coercion 1

And how often do you use set back dice and bonus dice for social encounters, when do you award them and why?

Any communications equipment is useful. Commlinks are a must for just about everyone. Other than that, I don't think there's much a character needs to be a talky type.

Maybe ask your GM for some good grooming stuff. Stuff like fashionable clothes and things like that. Under the right circumstances, looking pretty and smelling nice might add boosts... maybe different outfits for different situations. What works in a Tatooine cantina might not be a good idea in a Coruscant nightclub. I don't know i that sort of thing is actually specifically covered in the rules but it seems logical enough that it's worth asking your GM.

Regarding your beginning character skills and stuff, a lot of people would advise you to spend most of your stating xp on your characteristics since there are very limited ways to raise them later on. I haven't gotten to read the rules myself but it is actually mentioned there that this is a good idea. Not everyone agrees but my GM advised it so I'm sharing.

All my experience has been spent on starting stats.

The skills are just the free skills you get during character creation. 4 from career, 2 from specialization and an extra 1 in charm or deceit for being twi'lek

The bit about dressing appropriately is good, perhaps making knowledge roll to see how different species interact would help me to get those boost dice.

<waves my lekku at you in a secret Twi'lek greeting>

Yeah, I'm not good with the rules so I wasn't sure if you had or hadn't spent your xp that way.

My character is a twi'lek, too. She's a doctor but she has the most charm so she does the most talky stuff in our group. My group calls me "The Face" which I thought was pretty cool but then I found out that most groups refer to their talky character that way.

Since you have an agility of 3, I'd suggest buying a blaster or at least a hold-out blaster for concealable self-defense. It's my personal opinion that most characters in this game aught to be armed, the exceptions being pacifistic characters and some droids. At character creation it's unlikely that anyone in your group is a combat god yet, meaning all players can pull their weight in a fight.

Yeah. I was thinking of having a blaster and something small, just in case I need to shoot something.

*waves lekku back at Haley*

Never played as the party face before, should be fun.

Charm, coercion, deception are all highly useful for the Face.

It is a pity those 3 skills on three different stats!

Willpower, presence and cunning. Then again a lot of people have multi attribute dependancy...except pilots! Their out of combat utility in flying and combat utility...in agility means they can happily just pump that skill up and hope other ***** up their slack in relation to other areas.

Dedicated fighters need agility and a bit of brawn, even if not melee, for the added soak and wound threshold, and willpower can help to help boost their strain threshold which is likely to be low.

Splicers need intellect and agility so they aren't completely useless in a fight and for agility based checks.

Doctors need intellect, not many others that I can think of...aside from agility or brawn to contribute in combat. on a ship they can still contribute by healing inured party members and intellect to do some hodge potch fixing jobs.

I have decided to go for willpower and presence, I see him as being rather unfazeable. If he wants to rely on deception he will jsut have to pump his skill up high enough to compensate for the 2 cunning.

But someone else in the party should have cunning to some degree or another.

Also remember the Knowledge skills.

Depending on the background of your character, as you get more XP you may want to boost your Knowledge skills so that your character can come with the right historical reference at a party, or have the right knowledge on hand to give the edge in a negotiation.

It is a pity those 3 skills on three different stats!

Willpower, presence and cunning. Then again a lot of people have multi attribute dependancy...except pilots! Their out of combat utility in flying and combat utility...in agility means they can happily just pump that skill up and hope other ***** up their slack in relation to other areas.

Dedicated fighters need agility and a bit of brawn, even if not melee, for the added soak and wound threshold, and willpower can help to help boost their strain threshold which is likely to be low.

Splicers need intellect and agility so they aren't completely useless in a fight and for agility based checks.

Doctors need intellect, not many others that I can think of...aside from agility or brawn to contribute in combat. on a ship they can still contribute by healing inured party members and intellect to do some hodge potch fixing jobs.

I have decided to go for willpower and presence, I see him as being rather unfazeable. If he wants to rely on deception he will jsut have to pump his skill up high enough to compensate for the 2 cunning.

But someone else in the party should have cunning to some degree or another.

A doctor or scholar with high presence (say, a Twi'lek) can be good at charm and negotiation. If he has high cunning he can do deception too. Remember, one character doesn't need to have all the "face" skills. The party scoundrel can pick up deception and the party gadgeteer or marauder can probably handle coercion, as is fitting.

Of course we're talking about the Politico here, or at least I've been assuming as much. Politicos handle all the interaction skills and thus suffer badly from multiple attribute dependency, but if you say your character is not much of a liar, you can forget about cunning and leave the lying to someone else. You could make it a character point--he doesn't break his word.

The other thing about politicos is they have several knowledge skills as career skills. Because only a handful of skills are affected by presence, I would consider dropping the 4 presence in favor of a 3 intellect and 10 free xp. Having 3 intellect will automatically make you decent at about a dozen skills before you invest ranks into them. It's your character so if you don't see him has as a know-it-all kind of guy, sure, leave it at two and enjoy your irresistible presence. I just wanted to point out the benefit of higher intellect.

Yeah, you may well have a point.

But I did see him as a charming, and very proper type (like a butler)

So average cunning seems like a fit. And just let others do the lyeing for him if needed.

And similar with average intellect and he can get by with just more education, after all, it doesn't take much experience, you get 15-20 a session so after two sessions he will be able to increase knolwedge skills to rank 3 giving him 2 skill dice and 1 ability dice.

In combat once he gets to the scathing tirade and leadership manouvres he will mostly be buffing and hampering people anyway.

Knowledge skills are going to help a face quite a bit through bonuses gained from knowing something about the people you're talking/negotiating with. They'll also help prevent mishaps for not knowing something important about the people you're talking/negotiation with...

might want to edit your post title and fix the confusing typo. Do you mean TALKING?

I did imagine a good way to get bonus dice would be, (knowledge xenos) "Can I check to see how this species conducts its business?" or (knowledge core worlds) "What is the going rate for a gang of mercenaries here and any recent news to help me deviate from it?"

Still, I can always ask the clever dude before going in, "Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to know how they conduct business would you?"

Yeah, I would have liked to see examples/pricing for "fancier" clothes that might provide Boosts to social rolls, though that may just be better as a narrative thing or rolled into the Disguise Kit. And good point about the Knowledges, those can and should provide Boosts or better with good rolls.

And boosts are needed. Just been trying out these new fangled dice...and tests are hard! Maybe I have just been unlucky with test rolling...or confirmation bias (as I may notice failures more) but I seem to be failing average checks half time time, even with two proficiency dice and 2 ability dice (it may be to do with the fact that you need more successes than failures in order to succeed and ties equal a loss)

It is odd, as ability dice have 5 successes on them, challenge dice have 4, but because you have to get more success than failures...I wonder what the percentages are?

(not that it matter in a narrative based system, and half the time I tend to get more advantages than threats...again though, as you need more advantages than threats...)

Remember, a failure with Advantages can open new opportunities with those Advantages. Success/Failure is a fairly straightforward mechanical mechanic. Advantage/Threat is more open-ended/narrative in scope.

When rolling an equal number of green and purple dice, I believe the most common outcome is success with threat. This is the general trend with the mechanic, as there are more success symbols on the 'good dice' than failure symbols on the 'bad dice' but likewise there are more threat symbols on the bad dice than advantage symbols on the good dice.