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Old 09-15-2017, 09:44 PM   #1
kirbwarrior
 
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Default Intimidation, both individual and group

*SPOILERS*

I decided to watch the first episode of Puss in Boots (better than I expected). Near the end, there is a large group of thieves, about a dozen.

Thief: "There's only one of you! You can't take us all on!"
Puss: "It's true. But I can take one of you on. One of you will die by my hand if you fight me."

None of them want to die, so they all end of fleeing in terror.

This sounds like Intimidation. He's suitably cowed them with the (legitimate) idea that he can best any one of them, without even showing that they will lose if they try. I'm certain this is an application of Intimidation, but it doesn't seem like Specious (intimidating the group as one) or Cutting*. If this was gurps, what did Puss do?

*I think it's Cutting. There's a technique in Social Engineering that lets you point out a specific person in a crowd when using an Influence skill. I don't have my books on me to check.
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Old 09-16-2017, 05:13 AM   #2
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Default Re: Intimidation, both individual and group

Based on Characters only, I'd say it's a straightforward use of Group Intimidation -- just clever enough not to be Specious, so it doesn't require a Fast-Talk roll. He could take one out, so no Fast-Talk to convince is needed, but they still might feel safer thanks to numbers ("it won't be me" or "we'll help each other"), so the penalty for intimidating a group of people applies.
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Old 09-16-2017, 05:13 PM   #3
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Default Re: Intimidation, both individual and group

Adding to the answer already given...

That comes under group intimidation. It wasn't specious because he's saying the first one who comes within reach, he will kill. He didn't say that they'd all die, just the first one (so to speak). Chances are good he has a reputation to start off with - otherwise, they probably wouldn't have believed him to be capable of his threat. If there were 12 or so, then the intimidation skill roll would have been penalized by a -3. If he had a +2 reputation as a very skill swordsman, then he would have been rolling at Intimidation-1. Looking at the rules for "influence", it states that a successful intimidation roll is treated as a Good Reaction. The results for a Good reaction state:

"In a potential combat situation, the NPCs find the PCs likeable, or else too formidable to attack. The PCs may request aid or information; roll again at +1. (If a fight is in progress, the NPCs flee.)"

Note too - page 561, bottom left paragraph discusses when one should be using reaction rolls. In general, if the GM already knows how the NPC is going to react ahead of time, then all the reaction roll attempts in the universe won't change what is about to happen. The reaction roll is largely for the faceless masses etc. The mooks - not the Named Henchmen.

Just a thought. ;)
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Old 09-16-2017, 06:27 PM   #4
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Default Re: Intimidation, both individual and group

I think this situation is almost cliche with guns.
The X+Y number bad guys know you only have X number bullets left. So the hero simply asks them who wants to be the X number that dies.
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Old 09-23-2017, 03:54 PM   #5
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Default Re: Intimidation, both individual and group

Thanks for all the answers, I forgot you could intimidate a group without Fast Talk (I don't know how I forgot this...). The penalty for size makes sense and even the limit of how many you can intimidate at once.

Side note, Intimidation is affected by SM. Are group size limits also affected by it? Can a SM+6 dragon only intimidate 25 people?
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