Complementary skills and Reactions

[FeiLin]

I'm a bit confused regarding Reactions – specifically regarding complementary skills.

B495 states:
"Skills. A successful roll against a skill appropriate to the situation can give +2 to reactions. Examples include Administration when dealing with bureaucrats, Carousing when partying, and Politics when interacting with politicians. In a few cases, skill 20+ gives an automatic +2 to reactions. Diplomacy and Fast-Talk work this way if you are allowed to talk – as does Merchant skill, during commercial transactions. The GM may give similar bonuses for other skills."

It first, I thought that the 20+ Diplomacy bonus was a perk of that skill (similar to how it interacts with Influence rolls), but the above passage doesn't support that. Also, I recall simply possessing the skill at higher than default gave +1 (can't recall if it was Diplomacy or Merchant, and if it was a particular situation), but I can't seem to find it.

1. Why doesn't Merchant require a roll "when dealing with [merchants]" or "when [trading]", as Administration and Carousing do, respectively?
2. What skills (and circumstances) might I give a +2 for skill 20+ without a roll?

In general, I've seen some variations of this "roll for bonus" complementary. In this case I assume it's ±0 for a failure and crit in either direction doesn't change anything, but sometimes it's +1 for success and -1 for failure while critical doubles it, sometimes it's twice those figures, and sometimes I've seen a success give +3 while failure doesn't give anything (I think I've seen that, at least). So, apart from that there was no standardisation of this rule in 2004 and the obvious fact that it is more beneficial to gain +2 for a roll that doesn't entail any risk so it encourages players to use it, is there a reason why it should be micromanaged instead of being errata'd to be just one of these options?

If this is detrimental for some reason, is there an easy way to distinguish which situations should be +2/±0, which should be ±1, etc?

[AlexanderHowl]

When it comes to using non-social skills to modify social skills, I prefer to have a successful skill roll give a bonus equal to half the margin of success (rounded down) or a failed skill roll give a penalty equal to half the margin of failure (rounded up) (rather than a flat bonus/penalty). For example, a person could use Cooking to complement Sex Appeal by making dinner for their prospective sexual partner. If they succeeded by 4, they would receive a +2 bonus to their Sex Appeal. If they failed by 4, they would receive a -2 to their Sex Appeal.

[whswhs]

Nothing you use to enhance reactions is a complementary skill. A complementary skill is a skill you roll against to gain a bonus to another skill (or a penalty, if you fail the roll).

However, what you're talking about does exist; it's just not called that.

There are two cases here. One is where you roll vs. the skill, and if you succeed, you get +2 to reactions. The other is where, if you have a really high skill, you get the +2 without rolling. I don't really have a good explanation for why each case is one or the other. The second case doesn't come up much in my campaigns; I don't know if I've ever seen a PC with 20 in a social skill.

However, with both of them, there are conditions for applying the bonus: can you communicate in the first place? are you interacting with the right sort of people? is this the right sort of transaction?

[FeiLin]

I tend to lean towards ±1 for simple success/failure, double on a crit. My goal is to provide an option for enhanced storytelling when stakes are high. I fear players will feel drawn too much to using them ("So, we get 50 $ for the loot, eh?? What say we use a couple of complementaries to boost that a bit..." - at least I have players that would). Of course, it's possible to limit to one margin complementary and the rest differently, but I'd prefer universal treatment (also for keeping PCs from hogging the spotlight).

I also noticed it's usually social skills that have the +2 for 20+ or roll for +2/±0 secondary skill bonus, or am I wrong? Perhaps more adventuring skills dont interact the same way?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by FeiLin

I also noticed it's usually social skills that have the +2 for 20+ or roll for +2/±0 secondary skill bonus, or am I wrong? Perhaps more adventuring skills dont interact the same way?

I only know of that for skills or skill rolls that give bonuses to reaction rolls, which naturally is mainly for social/influence skills. Skills that affect other skill rolls (often complementary skills) are a different thing.