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Kelly Pedersen · 01-10-2018, 09:07 AM

I think a coup is really much too complex an operation for a single skill to be plausible, either for or against it. Here's the skills I'd suggest are relevant:

Strategy. This is the planning skill for the coup, determining which forces you'll need, where, in order to gain control. Personally, I feel there should be an "Operational" speciality for Strategy that covers this sort of high-level planning, but if you're sticking to the RAW, use the speciality that covers the majority of the troops you're employing (probably Land).
Psychology or Leadership. These skills cover evaluating who you can invite into the coup, and what level of responsibility and power to give them, to ensure they stay loyal to you and don't blab. Leadership is also the skill of motivating your co-conspirators and bucking up their morale.
Current Events. You've got to be able to understand what's going on in your country to have an effective coup. Also, this will tell you if any rumors about your plans have leaked out, and, if so, how much stock people put in them.
Intelligence Analysis. You're going to be getting a lot of information from a lot of sources. This will give you some hope of sorting it all out and filtering out the misinformation from the good stuff.
Politics. This covers determining which existing political figures you'll have to neutralize or subvert, and which political institutions in particular you'll need to control.
Propaganda. This is the skill of selling your coup, once it achieves its initial aim, to the other power centers in the country and the populace at large. How successful you are at this determines how large an insurgency you have to cope with.

Those are the skills I'd consider absolutely essential for a coup, and that I'd probably call for independent rolls against in the course of it. Many other skills could be complementary, of course, and the skills above can potentially complement each other too.

Opposing the coup can draw on an even wider range of skills, depending on the approach used. In the case you described, where the players apparently knew about the coup and wanted to take out a significant chunk of the conspirators, I probably would have called for a Leadership or Psychology roll, to determine exactly how critical to the coup the conspirators actually were, and then Influence skills like Intimidation to actually convince them to come quietly.

01-10-2018, 09:07 AM	#3
Kelly Pedersen Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada	Re: Skill to Plan and Execute a Coup I think a coup is really much too complex an operation for a single skill to be plausible, either for or against it. Here's the skills I'd suggest are relevant: Strategy. This is the planning skill for the coup, determining which forces you'll need, where, in order to gain control. Personally, I feel there should be an "Operational" speciality for Strategy that covers this sort of high-level planning, but if you're sticking to the RAW, use the speciality that covers the majority of the troops you're employing (probably Land). Psychology or Leadership. These skills cover evaluating who you can invite into the coup, and what level of responsibility and power to give them, to ensure they stay loyal to you and don't blab. Leadership is also the skill of motivating your co-conspirators and bucking up their morale. Current Events. You've got to be able to understand what's going on in your country to have an effective coup. Also, this will tell you if any rumors about your plans have leaked out, and, if so, how much stock people put in them. Intelligence Analysis. You're going to be getting a lot of information from a lot of sources. This will give you some hope of sorting it all out and filtering out the misinformation from the good stuff. Politics. This covers determining which existing political figures you'll have to neutralize or subvert, and which political institutions in particular you'll need to control. Propaganda. This is the skill of selling your coup, once it achieves its initial aim, to the other power centers in the country and the populace at large. How successful you are at this determines how large an insurgency you have to cope with. Those are the skills I'd consider absolutely essential for a coup, and that I'd probably call for independent rolls against in the course of it. Many other skills could be complementary, of course, and the skills above can potentially complement each other too. Opposing the coup can draw on an even wider range of skills, depending on the approach used. In the case you described, where the players apparently knew about the coup and wanted to take out a significant chunk of the conspirators, I probably would have called for a Leadership or Psychology roll, to determine exactly how critical to the coup the conspirators actually were, and then Influence skills like Intimidation to actually convince them to come quietly.