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Old 02-27-2018, 12:37 PM   #1
phayman53
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Default Possible house rule for [Social Engineering: Pulling Rank]

I really like the Assistance Roll (AR) mechanic in Social Engineering: Pulling Rank, it give Rank some definition. That said, I have always felt that it does not give positive results enough, especially at low rank. This is even a problem for "Highly Appropriate" requests that get a +5. For instance, for a patrol officer (Rank 0, 4 points/level police rank) a big city police department (15 point patron) will only "Send in the Cavalry" on a 8 or less (25% of the time). This includes a +5 for a "Highly Appropriate Request". Granted, this doesn't include any other modifiers from using associated skills, but that will result in additional +1, or +2 on a critical success.

Now, my proposed fix to this is not to change much at all, but rather make Rank 0 cost points equal to one level of rank. Since AR is a percentage of the value of the patron organization and is an appearance roll based on that value, this would effectively move the AR for each rank up one level. The point of this is not to make Rank more powerful for the points, but make its power more in-line with what the ranks represent in reality. It also represents that there are real perks to go along with the disadvantages of being Rank 0 in an organization. The disadvantages are reflected on the character sheet and give you points, why doesn't the advantages of being Rank 0?

With this tweak, the Rank 0 cop in my example above would get backup on a 10 or less (50% of the time) rather than an 8 or less. That seems more reasonable to me. Same with a Sergeant (Rank 2, 5 points/level) in the military of a large polity (25 point patron organization) with the GM rules it is a "Highly Appropriate Request" for the full +5. A Corporal, however, with Rank 1 would only get it on an 8 and a Private, Rank 0, would get it on a 6 (9% of the time).

Thoughts?
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Old 02-28-2018, 01:37 AM   #2
Icelander
 
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default Re: Possible house rule for [Social Engineering: Pulling Rank]

That's a good point, but I'd only roll for assistance like this when the PC is asking for something beyond what the ordinary law enforcement response would be. So, I would not roll to see if patrol cars and EMTs responded to "Shots fired! Officer down!", because they will, it's simply a feature of a realistic setting that this will cause an all-out response.

I'd treat a 'Highly Appropriate' request to send in the cavalry as a situation where a PC is pretty sure that a given location contains Bad Guys doing Bad Things and can make a fairly convincing arguments to his superior as why he feels that a SWAT raid is justified, but there is no one currently under fire, that he knows about.

I feel it's not unrealistic for the character's seniority and pull in the organisation to matter when the situation is a judgment call and the roll is essentially about the trust his superiors have in the judgment of the character.
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Last edited by Icelander; 02-28-2018 at 01:41 AM.
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