Influence Skills and Interrogation

Sdrolion · 01-21-2010, 07:41 AM

Wonder if someone can help me out with this...

I'm relatively new to using actual systems for roleplay (my friends and I did more of a MUX-style "consent" system for years, though the GM had ultimate control, but we wanted to try something with an actual system). I get all the stuff in combat and such, and really most of the rest of the skill rolls, but I'm having a lot of trouble understanding reaction rolls, influence skills, and interrogation.

Here's my main questions:

1. How do you actually use them? I get that you roll a reaction roll to see how an NPC you haven't "preset" reacts to PCs, and that you can use an influence skill to replace that (using a quick contest and getting a "Good" or "Bad" reaction depending on results). But...do I roll for every question, request, transaction, etc, a PC does? Or do I just roll at the start of the conversation and use that result for all the various categories?

2. Are there any things that influence skills should be allowed to do that reaction rolls are not allowed to do? Or are influence skills just "trained" ways of doing reaction rolls (which can, therefore, be made more reliable easier since they can be trained up and reaction rolls can't)? If you have an NPC using "preset" reactions, should you allow influence skills (after all, you're disallowing a reaction roll).

3. I'm not clear at all on how interrogation works, and how it relates to the influence skills and reaction rolls. I get that you roll for each question and that it takes 5 minutes (presumably summarized) per question, but I can't figure out why I'd want to use Interrogation instead of Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Fast Talk. If you can use Diplomacy/Intimidation/Fast Talk for a reaction roll, and a reaction roll can give you a good result on "Requests for Information," what's the difference between that and Interrogation? And do reaction roll modifiers apply to interrogation, or does it assume the guy doesn't like you to begin with, so those don't matter?

Thanks very much if you can help clear this up for me.

01-21-2010, 07:41 AM	#1
Sdrolion Join Date: Jan 2009	Influence Skills and Interrogation Wonder if someone can help me out with this... I'm relatively new to using actual systems for roleplay (my friends and I did more of a MUX-style "consent" system for years, though the GM had ultimate control, but we wanted to try something with an actual system). I get all the stuff in combat and such, and really most of the rest of the skill rolls, but I'm having a lot of trouble understanding reaction rolls, influence skills, and interrogation. Here's my main questions: 1. How do you actually use them? I get that you roll a reaction roll to see how an NPC you haven't "preset" reacts to PCs, and that you can use an influence skill to replace that (using a quick contest and getting a "Good" or "Bad" reaction depending on results). But...do I roll for every question, request, transaction, etc, a PC does? Or do I just roll at the start of the conversation and use that result for all the various categories? 2. Are there any things that influence skills should be allowed to do that reaction rolls are not allowed to do? Or are influence skills just "trained" ways of doing reaction rolls (which can, therefore, be made more reliable easier since they can be trained up and reaction rolls can't)? If you have an NPC using "preset" reactions, should you allow influence skills (after all, you're disallowing a reaction roll). 3. I'm not clear at all on how interrogation works, and how it relates to the influence skills and reaction rolls. I get that you roll for each question and that it takes 5 minutes (presumably summarized) per question, but I can't figure out why I'd want to use Interrogation instead of Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Fast Talk. If you can use Diplomacy/Intimidation/Fast Talk for a reaction roll, and a reaction roll can give you a good result on "Requests for Information," what's the difference between that and Interrogation? And do reaction roll modifiers apply to interrogation, or does it assume the guy doesn't like you to begin with, so those don't matter? Thanks very much if you can help clear this up for me.