New Uses for Savoir-Faire

[Pursuivant]

Forgive me if these ideas have been covered by the various Social Engineering supplements:

Bucking Rank: A successful skill roll against Savoir-Faire skill allows you to briefly exceed your level of Rank or Status within an organization without suffering negative consequences for your presumption.

Your margin of success can be temporarily added to your effective Rank or Status for the purposes of determining the resources you can command in a single, brief non-combat situation.

Alternately, your margin of success can be used as a modifier when determining reaction bonuses or penalties due to relative differences in Rank or Status when making a request or suggestion to a superior.

For example, if you are an Ensign (Rank 3), a successful Savoir-Faire (Military) skill roll by 2 allows you to briefly command resources as if you had Rank 5 (Lieutenant Commander or Commander rank) without getting in trouble. For example, you might be able to briefly take command of the bridge or engineering under routine conditions, or you might be able to make a suggestion to the ship's First Officer or Division head without being punished for your presumption.

Going Outside of Chain of Command: A successful roll against Savoir-Faire allows you to ignore “chain of command” to very briefly interact with, or get the attention of, a superior.

A successful roll allows you to exceed your effective level of Rank or Status by an amount equal to your margin of success when determining your access to higher-ranked individuals.

Further interactions with the higher-ranked individual depend on other traits or skills, such as Fast-Talk, Leadership, Politics, Sex-Appeal, or an appropriate skill. Bonuses or penalties might apply if your “elevator speech” is unusually inspired or inept. The usual reaction modifiers for difference in Rank or Status also apply.

For example, if you are a mere Knight (Status 3) a successful Savoir-Faire skill roll which succeeds by 2 allows you to gain brief access to an Earl (Status 5). You might then need to roll against the lower of your Fast-Talk or Strategy skills, possibly at a penalty beyond the normal -2 penalty for difference in Status, to convince him that your idea for an upcoming military campaign is sound. To gain direct access to the King (Status 7) you would need to make your skill roll by 4 or more. Should you succeed you will have a -4 penalty for Status difference!

[phayman53]

I like this idea in general but I think your way of doing it is too powerful. It should at least be a quick contest or somehow limit how many levels you can jump up (maybe +1 and an additional +1 per 5 MoS. An Ensign, realistically, would never be able to get command, even in a non-combat situation, of the resources of Lt. Cmndr or Cmndr. It just would not happen unless all of the other line officers were killed in combat.

[Kelly Pedersen]

For the first effect, I wouldn't give a full boost in Rank level - as phayman53 says, that's pretty significantly powerful. Instead, I'd apply the rules from Social Engineering: Pulling Rank, and allow appropriate Savoir-Faire to apply a complementary bonus to the pulling rank roll.

For the second, I could see a Savoir-Faire roll doing that. I'd apply a penalty equal to the difference in Status or Rank (whichever was higher), though.

I think it would be reasonable to create a technique or two for various Savoir-Faire specialities that boosted the pulling rank roll bonus - I'd suggest something like -5 to your Savoir-Faire roll, but if you succeed, you get +2 to the roll, or +3 on a critical (instead of the usual +1/+2).

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

I think it would be reasonable to create a technique or two for various Savoir-Faire specialities that boosted the pulling rank roll bonus - I'd suggest something like -5 to your Savoir-Faire roll, but if you succeed, you get +2 to the roll, or +3 on a critical (instead of the usual +1/+2).

I like this but would make it per type of Assistance Roll.



Bucking Rank is way too powerful and just not the way things work in the military. I agree with the others here.


Going Outside of Chain of Command: This one could be ok, Ican see some Admins and other types who are good at getting the attention of those they normally wouldn't have easy access too.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I like this but would make it per type of Assistance Roll.

Per assistance roll is a bit too narrow for a technique, I feel. If the only thing that 5 points bought me was an extra +1 if I succeeded on a roll, and only for a specific type of assistance, well, I'd just buy another level of Rank.

Actually, that honestly applies even to my basic suggestion: a -5 penalty is just too high. I think I'd adjust it and make it a perk, where for a specific type of assistance, a successful Savoir-Faire roll doubled the complementary bonus (so, +2 on a success, +4 on a crit). You'd have to specialize by both Savoir-Faire speciality and type of assistance, but I think for only 1 point, it's more reasonable.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

Per assistance roll is a bit too narrow for a technique, I feel. If the only thing that 5 points bought me was an extra +1 if I succeeded on a roll, and only for a specific type of assistance, well, I'd just buy another level of Rank.

Actually, that honestly applies even to my basic suggestion: a -5 penalty is just too high. I think I'd adjust it and make it a perk, where for a specific type of assistance, a successful Savoir-Faire roll doubled the complementary bonus (so, +2 on a success, +4 on a crit). You'd have to specialize by both Savoir-Faire speciality and type of assistance, but I think for only 1 point, it's more reasonable.

Rank is often limited to the PCs so buying high levels is often not an option.
That said, I like your perk idea.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Originally Posted by Refplace

Rank is often limited to the PCs so buying high levels is often not an option.

True, but for points to make sense, I think you still have to compare what they could buy you. And 5 points for a possible +1 to some pulling rank rolls just doesn't compare well to 5 points for a guaranteed +1 (and occasionally more, depending on the Patron value of the organization) to the roll.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by phayman53

I like this idea in general but I think your way of doing it is too powerful. It should at least be a quick contest or somehow limit how many levels you can jump up (maybe +1 and an additional +1 per 5 MoS. An Ensign, realistically, would never be able to get command, even in a non-combat situation, of the resources of Lt. Cmndr or Cmndr. It just would not happen unless all of the other line officers were killed in combat.

Good points.

I didn't clarify the level of control available. Unless you've got a cinematic style of play where the player characters are all junior officers, successful "bucking rank" might allow an ensign to "take control" of the bridge for a minute under routine conditions while the senior officers grab a quick cup of coffee or hit the head. Alternately, it might mean that the ensign gets to stand the occasional port watch in the middle of the night or on weekends.

Going outside of chain of command implies that a character has some sort of potential informal access to a person he wishes to influence. For example, the intern who figures out that the boss aways uses the third elevator from the left at exactly 12:05 PM on his way to lunch, and plots to take advantage of that information.

The effects of successful "influence" are also very much up to the GM. In some cases, all it gets you is potentially favorable notice. "That ensign looks like a potential go-getter, see what his superiors have to say about him. If he's as sharp as he makes himself out to be, he might be a good fit for this assignment."

For a target whose access is guarded or limited, multiple SF rolls might be needed, one or more to get access to the "gatekeeper" and then another to gain access to the person you wish to influence. For example, if Lady Notsomuch (Status 3) hopes to eventually gain access to the King (Status 7), she might need to bribe or otherwise ingratiate herself with the Keeper of the Privy Stool (Status 5). If that works, she might then need to make another SF roll so that she "just happens" to be in the Keeper of the Privy Stool's presence when the King makes an appearance. Then, she will need to make yet more skill rolls to actually get the King to notice her, much less speak to her.

Obviously, I've also left out the consequences of failure, which are heavily campaign dependent, but likely to be severe.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen

For the first effect, I wouldn't give a full boost in Rank level - as phayman53 says, that's pretty significantly powerful. Instead, I'd apply the rules from Social Engineering: Pulling Rank, and allow appropriate Savoir-Faire to apply a complementary bonus to the pulling rank roll.

I don't have Social Engineering, but isn't "pulling rank" is the opposite of "bucking rank?"

The former is maximizing the resources at your command and competing against others of your rank or lower who would also like control of those resources.

Bucking rank is the ability to be presumptuous and not get your ass kicked for your temerity. I'm thinking of situations where a servant or underling asks a high-status employer for a minor favor or speaks out of turn.

For example, Ensign Argus suspects that the ship's First Officer is actually a shapeshifted alien monster and has a test which will prove it, but in order to warn the Captain he must somehow gain the Captain's attention and then make his point in a quick, convincing fashion. Just walking up to the Captain and blurting out his suspicions will get Argus permanently assigned to cleaning the waste recycling units, so finesse is needed.

One SF (Military) skill roll is needed - possibly at a penalty - to gain access, a skill such as Fast-Talk or Expert Skill (Xenology) (or both!) might be needed to gain the Captain's attention, and then another SF roll is needed to get away with the presumptuousness.

Another example, Dirtrag the Jester steals a drumstick from a roast goose intended for the king's table and gets caught doing it. SF (Servant) skill, at a penalty, is needed to avoid a flogging. Assuming that the SF skill roll is successful, a successful Fast Talk or Professional Skill (Jester) skill roll lets Dirtrag get away with his crime by making the king laugh.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Good points.

I didn't clarify the level of control available. Unless you've got a cinematic style of play where the player characters are all junior officers, successful "bucking rank" might allow an ensign to "take control" of the bridge for a minute under routine conditions while the senior officers grab a quick cup of coffee or hit the head. Alternately, it might mean that the ensign gets to stand the occasional port watch in the middle of the night or on weekends.

These thing happen in real life but your examples are more towards the senior officer looking for a favor than the junior one.
An officer or sgt will often delegate a task to a junior for their own convenience, especially if the situation is minor and risks low.
It might violate procedure but usually is within the purview to delegate.
I saw many examples where an officer or sgt was supposed to be present to supervise an operation yet they just allowed the lower ranks to get it done unsupervised.

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

I don't have Social Engineering, but isn't "pulling rank" is the opposite of "bucking rank?"

I was referring to this book.
http://www.sjgames.com/gurps/books/pullingrank/

It provides a system where someone in an organization (Military and civilian) can make something called an Assistance Roll to request aid, resources, information, etc. This roll is based off Rank, relevant skills, and type of assistance requested,