Intimidate (Str) Basic skill. A character’s ability to cow, unnerve,
or bully someone. Also covers the ability to convey a sense of dominance
or superiority over others. Often carries the implied or overt
threat of physical violence. Can escalate a tense situation into hostility,
or possibly cause someone to back down if properly cowed.
Specialisation options: violence, combat, interrogation, politics

Intimidate is opposed by Discipline.

Something has always bothered me about this "skill". It requires strength to bully someone..but really it has nothing to do with strength.

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intimidate -verb
1.to make timid; fill with fear.
2.to overawe or cow, as through the force of personality or by superior display of wealth, talent, etc.
3.to force into or deter from some action by inducing fear: to intimidate a voter into staying away from the polls.

Synonyms
1. frighten, subdue, daunt, terrify. See discourage.

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cow — vb

( tr ) to frighten or overawe, as with threats
[C17: from Old Norse kūga to oppress, related to Norwegian kue, Swedish kuva ]

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unnerve — vb
( tr ) to cause to lose courage, strength, confidence, self-control, etc

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bully -verb

6. to act the bully toward; intimidate; domineer.
verb (used without object), bul·lied, bul·ly·ing.
7. to be loudly arrogant and overbearing.

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In 2e, Intimidate could use Fellowship at the GM's discretion. Strength would be used for scaring people to make them cower or run away, whereas Fellowship would be used for bullying people into doing things.

I see what you mean, but here is my take on why it works:

You CAN intimidate someone through many different means. However, in its most basic form it is simply appearing threatening. Which is what a big person can do without much effort. Other ways of intimidation is something that requires an understanding of using other less-obvious means to achieve the same effect.

These more nuanced versions of intimidation is expressed through the action cards. There are several that use Intimidate coupled with other skills. The card symbolizes your characters awareness that he has another tool for intimidation that works better for him than basic physical intimidation.

I've been thinking about RANGE on this matter. Can you intimidate someone from extreme range?

Should it involve being close/engaged if you're using strength?

Lastly, I know there's the fellowship option, but where does that rule appear?

jh

Intimidation is a very situational thing.

The basic Intimidate is bullying (think back to schoolyard) which is Str-based as it's "I could give you a knuckle sandwich", works best when alone or no allies close by. It is Str-related in that the stronger you are the more the sense that "you could snap me like a twig" - though really that would be Str-opposed not Disc (I would let a PC or NPC choose resisting with either, I'm not intimidated because I'm stronger or because I have enough willpower to not give into fear).

Mechanically in the game, I see this skill as giving a PC who is best with Str and poor with social stats "something to do in non-combat situation", which is important if playing WFRP as a game more about "smacking things" (going back to the original games notes about NPC's being there for more than pointing you at the dungeon entrance). It's a social skill not based on social stat for that reason. The dwarf can just make an Intimidate check to look impressive to give a bonus to another PC talking about how their group is certainly worth hiring to deal with this problem.

Being personable and persuasive (Fellowship) isn't really intimidating until you get social-situation based. The two of us alone, bah doesn't work. In a crowd, at a party, think the high school "cruel girls" stuff, then Fellowship works - like the Shaming mechanic in Lure of Power. Again, only if someone cares about how others think of them etc.

A fancy Intimidate is Intel based (there is a Talent that allows that swap out). Creating a Talent to allow swapping out other stats would be fine, Reputation-based would make sense.

In other situations another skill might actually be better-used. Get a rival spellcaster to shut up about their disputing theory, that might be an Education check (resisted by Education) to make them look like a yokel, or a rival priest that could be Piety etc..

I house-rule that to have the player pick a suiting skill to the situation and what he/ she is trying to do.

That is the nice thing about wfrp3. You can just say "In this situation it makes more sense to use your fellowship to intimidate the target." (I would use that as a guile check) The basic idea is that you physically threaten ppl which is tied to strength. But I would let a wizard threaten someone using his intelligence because he knows how to get into the target's mind.

In wfrp3 you have so much room to just make a ruling on the spot so I don't see much problem with the skills anyways.

I also would agree that strength and fellowship could probably be swapped out to suit the situation. Another point of reference is from EotE... Coercion there is tied to Willpower. That doesn't make the same connection with WFRP necessarily but at least gives you a similar system to compare to.

I've struggled with intimidate being tied to one stat through MANY systems. I just allow a player to pick the way they wish to use intimidate, and apply the appropriate stat. The important part is "does it fit the character"

One thing I'm not entirely sure on is whether people can perform these checks without the card.

Im reletively new to the game, and have little experience with pen and paper games in general. (Only played DnD a handful of times) But so far, I have been letting my party make things like "Bluff" or "intimidate" checks without the cards being present.

Should I be? Or should I say no when they attempt the checks without owning the action card?

Thanks. (Been lurking on these forums a few months now.. I have justnever opted to psot before)

Gerard

All skill checks use the Perform A Stunt action unless they mimic a maneuver.

jh

In our group, Perform A Stunt is only used when someone performs some specific out of the ordinary task (usually during combat). If it is just stuff like "I try to force open the door", "I try to charm the waitress" or "I try to understand the strange schematics"; I just give them the appropriate amount of purple, black and white dice, let them roll and improvise the meaning of the result.

Honestly, Perform A Stunt is so vague that the difference between using it and not using it is almost non-existent unless it is important to differentiate if it is an Action or a Manouvre.

As Jay said, the rules themselves in Players Guide (p66 hardback) do state that most skill uses are giong to be Perform a Stunt and thus also an Action not Manoeuvre and cite Intimidate when saying so.

"Broadly speaking, skill use that manipulates the game world or influences non-player characters are best characterised as actions. This includes most uses of social skills such as Charm and Intimidate, the First Aid skill, and activities such as opening a lock with Skulduggery. Skill uses that affect only the active character, or interact passively with the environment, are best considered anoeuvres." All the examples noted under the “Use a skill” manoeuvre description are examples of this type.

A good rule of thumb is that if the check is an opposed check (such as using Intimidate against a goblin’s Discipline to scare it away), it’s probably a Perform a Stunt action rather than a manoeuvre. If the skill use simply allows you to mimic another maneouvre (such as a Coordination check to move through treacherous terrain), it’s probably a Use a skill manoeuvre. Your GM is the final arbiter."

Perform a stunt is a poorly named card. It should actually say, "Use Skill that is Not Equal to a Maneuver." It is the general skill equivalent to Weapon Skill with Melee Strike.

jh

ARE YOU INTIMIDATED???

In an actiona card based game you need an action card for everything therefore they just threw in a "everything that we didn't think of" card. Same with the cantrip. The card is basicly not needed because you can still assess the outcome of a roll. They included it anyway so the people who want to stick closely to the rules can do so.

regarding range: imo, an intimidate on a range greater than medium range would only work if the NPC/PC has an extinct appearance (armor shape, banner) and is well known in the area for his/her cruelity etc

All skill checks use the Perform A Stunt action unless they mimic a maneuver.

jh

I guess that kinda makes sense.

Although, I find it a little confusing that Perform a Stunt, can double up as other cards, (example: using perform a stunt to charm - when 'winning smile' is essentially the same act), does this not negate most of the social action cards?

Do the specific cards provide more benefits than the perform a stunt? (I don't have access to my game box right now so can't check myself).

Doesnt the Card mention it can not be used to replace an existing action card?

I am sure this came up in a game I was doing, I tried to do a ricochet, then found out I couldnt as there was already a card in game for that action. Which I didnt have.