[Sindri]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

There were a few cases, with a list of but's:

• Answering questions with lies is risky, because that means you're avoiding X trouble now, but are adding X×1½ trouble further down the road.
• Generally, it was optimal to mislead by omission or the like instead of doing outright lies.
• In cases where Caine did lie, usually by omission, it was with the aim of long-term plausibility, and so Acting was the skill of choice, not Fast-Talk.
• The +1 Acting per level of oIQ difference tends to play in favour of cerebral PCs. However, in this campaign, most of the targets seemed to be about as intelligent, so it didn't matter most of the time.

I would not allow use of Acting to pull of an unprepared direct lie. Acting is for maintaining the deception, having it work in the first place is Fast-Talk.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Hmm. Having more than one is generally good. But being a likeable person is generally better than learning all six shortcuts - like all shortcuts, social skills have drawbacks.

That's how I feel with Caine: once I have many points, I'm somewhat regretting that I didn't take Voice and/or more Appearance instead of throwing points at various skills. Though getting Diplomacy 20 for the +2 to all Reaction Rolls is kinda neat, given my current levels (but this is only due to a good mix of OTJ training, Talent, and IQ).
Diplomacy is good for having lots of Elicitation . . . but just doing Requests for Information could've been more flexible.

Hmm. There's some similarity with combat skills:
It's considered wasteful to have 4 Techniques instead of raising Skill for combat skills; a similar wisdom seems to apply to Social Stuff, where it's better to raise Reaction Modifiers than to raise 3-6 Influence Skills.

I'm just presuming that someone who goes hardcore into social stuff picks up the standard set of Reaction Modifiers.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

'What to skip' is definitely a legit characterisation question, as there's no point in taking all six.
As for Techniques - I think usually it's not worth the trouble, as most of them take too small a subset of the skill. Elicitation is kinda cool, but that might be the property of the campaign I'm in.

I think taking all six is entirely defensible. The main reason to skip one is because of character concept.

As for Techniques that's mostly because A tier social Techniques are almost or entirely missing so far. When social Techniques get their Targetted Attack, Combination, or Counterattack things will be different.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I wouldn't equate Influencing someone with mere not screwing up. It's not screwing up and succeeding at the social task at hand.

I wouldn't equate it either. You asked why I thought it was lame and one of the reasons is because I tend to respond to people falling for sex appeal as "what a chump" instead of "what an impressive example of social engineering". I didn't claim it was true so it doesn't make any sense to disagree with me about it.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I totally disagree about Intimidation: "look how I frightened you" is absolutely grounds for re-evaluating the situation; in the worst case scenario, it involves a formerly scared NPC realising that he can just annihilate the PCs in a few seconds, and should've done so some while ago.

Well of course you can screw it up but "you're awfully brave for someone [who can barely stand/has no one behind him/whatever]" is a useful approach.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

I don't get why revelling in Savoir-Faire would necessarily involve humiliating someone.

Because it's either gauche and thus not a successful use of the skill or being used to highlight someone's failed Savoir-Faire.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

As for admitting you manipulated someone with Sex Appeal, yes, it can result in nastiness, but it doesn't have to. Of the recent examples on my mind, Syndey Fox charming a Turkish ambassador enough to get an opportunity to steal back the relic he stole. At the end of the episode, when it becomes clear to him that nothing can be done about it anymore, it is noticeable that he doesn't hold a noticeable grudge, and is actually willing to propose another date. (IIRC a similar case happened with a French rival relic hunter.)

How well you can pull off revealing your manipulations and whether you get to show off during the encounter itself are really completely unrelated things.

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Hmm. Performing better than peers can be chalked up to higher IQ (whether it is actually higher I don't know, but surely some percentage of forumites has it, so it's not an implausible possibility).

Well I'll avoid speculating on my GURPS IQ.