Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 12-16-2016, 11:13 AM   #31
PTTG
 
PTTG's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Default Re: [Social Engineering] "I could bring down your Government with six words."

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mailanka View Post
I think this specific example is a use of the History skill by a time traveler.

There are lots of points in history where a small, precise change would seem to make a huge difference. For example, it should be pretty easy to save the Archduke Ferdinand and thus, presumably, stop WW1. And if you've seen multiple possible timelines, then you have a pretty clear view of what could be your root cause of an event. So, he might know what brought down the Harriet Jones government and what didn't, what particularly moment was especially critical, and he could precipitate it at that moment.

In a sense, this is like classic social engineering, in that he's finding the one point in a system where he can break it and applying the exact words necessary to do it, but like real social engineering (the hacking kind) it requires extensive technical knowledge that lies outside of the purview of social skills to turn a seemingly innocuous statement into something powerful.
Call it a fairly easy check of Cliodynamics. Or Moiralogy.
PTTG is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-16-2016, 11:14 AM   #32
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: [Social Engineering] "I could bring down your Government with six words."

It's even easier, although too slow for TV drama, if you can persuade a British style government to do the right kind of stupid thing. Of the seven Prime Ministers since 1978, when I started taking notice of these things, two have brought themselves down through decisions they took freely, but which looked foolish to many at the time, four have contributed significantly to their own downfall, and the seventh is still in office.
johndallman is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-16-2016, 11:28 AM   #33
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: [Social Engineering] "I could bring down your Government with six words."

Honestly, the specific power isn't the ability to speak six words; all he's really doing is triggering a potential that was clearly already present. The power, if one exists, is either to see that the potential exists, or to create the potential.
__________________
My GURPS site and Blog.
Anthony is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 12-16-2016, 12:15 PM   #34
(E)
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
Default Re: [Social Engineering] "I could bring down your Government with six words."

Another quick thought the doctor is very experienced at bringing down governments, it's almost a specialist skill.

From a non social point of view is there a "viewing the strands of time" angle that the doctor could exploit to aid his choice of words.
__________________
Waiting for inspiration to strike......
And spending too much time thinking about farming for RPGs
Contributor to Citadel at Nordvörn
(E) is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-16-2016, 06:46 PM   #35
Prince Charon
 
Prince Charon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Re: [Social Engineering] "I could bring down your Government with six words."

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
That was one of the episodes that stopped me from being a fan of the series. He got angry that one of his pets got uppity trying to defend "his" species for times when he's not there.
It helps that they changed showrunners some time after that. The Doctor is written better in other episodes, but David Tennant's run did not coincide with the best writing, IMHO (he's a good actor, but the Doctor he played was generally not the best Doctor, mostly for script reasons, and that episode is one of them).

It also helps that later episodes proved what a bad idea doing that was, since it lead to the Master becoming PM.
__________________
Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life.

"The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates."
-- Tacitus

Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
Prince Charon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-16-2016, 09:03 PM   #36
Flyndaran
Untagged
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
Default Re: [Social Engineering] "I could bring down your Government with six words."

It was the recent doctor that had the worst written piece of trash episode I've ever seen. The moon one. It was incoherent, against all previous canon and common sense, leading to a giant obnoxious mess that actively angered me. I should watch a good episode if only to avoid having that! being that final image I have of the show I loved literally since I was a toddler.
Sorry, I'm getting crotchety in my "old age".
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check.
Flyndaran is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-16-2016, 09:05 PM   #37
Flyndaran
Untagged
 
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Forest Grove, Beaverton, Oregon
Default Re: [Social Engineering] "I could bring down your Government with six words."

Quote:
Originally Posted by (E) View Post
Another quick thought the doctor is very experienced at bringing down governments, it's almost a specialist skill.

From a non social point of view is there a "viewing the strands of time" angle that the doctor could exploit to aid his choice of words.
He is almost a champion of chaos itself. He is a harbinger of change, usually of the violent sort, and usually of the good kind.
It's almost like it takes extreme effort and care to not break things/people/governments/etc.

I wonder how you'd write up that power.
__________________
Beware, poor communication skills. No offense intended. If offended, it just means that I failed my writing skill check.
Flyndaran is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-17-2016, 02:39 PM   #38
Donny Brook
 
Donny Brook's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: Snoopy's basement
Default Re: [Social Engineering] "I could bring down your Government with six words."

Maybe it's based on Detect. Detect: Socio-political vulnerabilty (Common), with Analyzing.
After that it takes an influence skill to plant the seed.
Donny Brook is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-17-2016, 07:16 PM   #39
Prince Charon
 
Prince Charon's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Re: [Social Engineering] "I could bring down your Government with six words."

Quote:
Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
It was the recent doctor that had the worst written piece of trash episode I've ever seen. The moon one. It was incoherent, against all previous canon and common sense, leading to a giant obnoxious mess that actively angered me. I should watch a good episode if only to avoid having that! being that final image I have of the show I loved literally since I was a toddler.
Sorry, I'm getting crotchety in my "old age".
Um, yeah, that was not a good one (it's been described as 'the most fan-dividing episode of Series 8'). You might want to consider watching 'Heaven Sent' and 'Hell Bent' (the second is an immediate sequel to the first, and Heaven Sent is considered by some to be the best Capaldi episode so far, or one of the best).
__________________
Warning, I have the Distractible and Imaginative quirks in real life.

"The more corrupt a government, the more it legislates."
-- Tacitus

Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
Prince Charon is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 12-18-2016, 03:05 PM   #40
(E)
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: New Zealand.
Default Re: [Social Engineering] "I could bring down your Government with six words."

Doesn't Capaldi pull off regime change in Hell bent with just 4 words?
Fnord
Get. Off. My. Planet.
__________________
Waiting for inspiration to strike......
And spending too much time thinking about farming for RPGs
Contributor to Citadel at Nordvörn

Last edited by (E); 12-18-2016 at 08:33 PM.
(E) is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
doctor who, government, propaganda, rank, six words, social engineering, the doctor

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:04 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.