"Social Engineering" skill set

[Valiant]

Inspired by High Tech, I have been thinking about a campaign based loosely on the movie Sneakers. As I rewatched the movie though, I realized that, while they did have some pretty cool tech for their time, they mostly made use of human weaknesses. Of course, this is the most common way real world security is breached, from what I understand.
That started me wondering; what skills would be needed/useful in exploiting human nature in this way. Acting and fast-talk are obvious, it seems to me, but what else?

[Kromm]

Off the top of my head:

• Acting to come across as someone other than who you are, and to fake emotions and reactions.
• Body Language to analyze your mark's emotions and reactions, and even to judge his mood from afar.
• Carousing to find important drunk people and/or get them drunk.
• Connoisseur to give a little boost to other feats by impressing the other person (think Bond . . . James Bond).
• Current Affairs to know about a famous victim's publicized successes and failures, so you can better manipulate him.
• Detect Lies to know when your mark is hiding something or passing disinformation whilst pretending not to know what's going on.
• Diplomacy to recover from gaffes with these other feats.
• Disguise so that you aren't recognized from the last scam.
• Erotic Art to distract your mark especially well . . .
• Fast-Talk to get past low-quality guards, talk your way into a party, and/or convince impulsive marks to give away something useful.
• Gambling to find important people with gambling problems, beat them, and get them in your debt.
• Interrogation to "casually" pump someone for information (this skill doesn't have to involve bright lamps or torture!).
• Intimidation to bluster past timid people.
• Lip Reading to learn what distant targets are discussing so you can later approach them with apparent knowledge.
• Observation to analyze your mark's habits and meetings before you strike.
• Pickpocket to grab cards, keys, etc., off your victim when you get close enough.
• Savoir-Faire to seem to "belong" at the victim's club (or wherever).
• Search to quickly go through jackets, handbags, attaché cases, etc., left at the table while someone goes to the head . . . or left on the bedroom floor, or for that matter, to search the bedroom.
• Sex Appeal for quick, sexy distractions or full-on seductions.
• Shadowing to follow your victim through a crowd until the time is right to interact.
• Streetwise to be able to find things like guns, drugs, etc., to plant on someone you're trying to frame, or to "work" tough guys.

You don't need them all, of course. A Body Language-Lip Reading-Observation-Shadowing guy who learns all about a person's life is useful all on his own; so is that classic, the attractive woman with the Carousing-Erotic Art-Search-Sex Appeal combo who seduces you and then steals your ID while you're asleep in bed. And James Bond types really only need Connoisseur, Fast-Talk, Gambling, Savoir-Faire, and Sex Appeal.

[Maz]

Thats a really cool list, gonna bookmark that one as one of the good post to get back to when I'm having trouble making social characters.

Only one thing though. How about Psychology, it doesn't fit in here maybe? Where does it then fit in?

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Maz

Only one thing though. How about Psychology, it doesn't fit in here maybe? Where does it then fit in?

It probably fits, but Body Language and Detect Lies sort of cover the most useful parts.

[Mark Skarr]

Psychology is good for figuring out which of the three bars your mark is likely to be in.

[Rocket Man]

Impressive. The only one I can think of that got left off is:

Filch to palm useful items off a person's cluttered desk while talking to them -- such as that tiny piece of paper with the password reminder on it.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

Filch to palm useful items off a person's cluttered desk while talking to them -- such as that tiny piece of paper with the password reminder on it.

Filch, or Sleight of Hand, could fit. Pickpocket covers those bases, though.

[ADAXL]

I suggest

• Research: Good to dig up sufficient information to appear knowledgeable on a subject
• Administration: Helps to "work" a big organization. You can get pretty much what you want if you know who does what and where the weak spots are ("Sorry to interrupt, Senorita,, but I am the new aide of General Banana. You should have received my request for privileged system access ... no? Well, it was signed by The Man himself and is rather urgent ... Shall I go in and tell the General when comes back from the mass execution? He might be, er, upset ... oh, thank you, Senorita, I owe you a dinner!")
• Skills related to photography and video. One picture says more than a thousand words.

[robkelk]

And don't forget to take the "Smooth Operator" Talent...

[Phil Masters]

Originally Posted by robkelk

And don't forget to take the "Smooth Operator" Talent...

To be honest, another point of IQ usually works better. Drop a level of Will to make the cost equivalent.

(Yeah, yeah, dropping a level of Will counts against your disadvantages limit. Irrelevant. Any faceman/con artist who is anywhere near any reasonable campaign disadvantage limit won't work right. He'll screw up or get distracted at crucial moments, or be too easily noticed, or just annoy people too much.)