A thought about the Sex Appeal skill

[wellspring]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

In comedy and romantic fiction, the traditional result of "appealing person A attempts to get person B interested in less appealing person C" is that B falls for A, and C gets angry with A. That might not happen quite so much in real life, but it's how I'd be sore tempted to play things.

Here are the page references: Action 2: Exploits (page 5, Complementary Skills), Social Engineering (pages 21 and 31).

But in terms of drama and storytelling, I think Phil's got the correct answer.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

In comedy and romantic fiction, the traditional result of "appealing person A attempts to get person B interested in less appealing person C" is that B falls for A, and C gets angry with A. That might not happen quite so much in real life, but it's how I'd be sore tempted to play things.

See for example Longfellow's poem "The Courtship of Miles Standish."

[jason taylor]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

In comedy and romantic fiction, the traditional result of "appealing person A attempts to get person B interested in less appealing person C" is that B falls for A, and C gets angry with A. That might not happen quite so much in real life, but it's how I'd be sore tempted to play things.

It was done successfully in DS9 "Par'mach". Though in that case appealing person D fell for appealing person A thus pairing the spares, while in a subplot appealing persons E and F almost fall for each other but don't want to hurt appealing but naive person G who is married to appealing person E.

[Bicorn]

Originally Posted by whswhs

It seems to me the reaction you're looking to inspire is

"He's really hot; I want to. . . ."

That makes perfect sense for ". . . get close to him." And it can work for ". . . let him into the club without checking his ID." But I'm not sure about for ". . . get close to his less appealing friend he's introducing me to." I think you'd need at least an Excellent reaction for that, not the Very Good that Sex Appeal allows.

Well, not quite. I was thinking of a situation like this:

- the party (in the RPG sense) wants a NPC to come along with them for the adventure.
- one member of the party, not the one with the skill, is an attractive person the skill-user suspects the NPC is interested in.
- the skill-user convinces the NPC that the other party-member is approachable, and the NPC would have a chance with them if they come along.
- the skill use succeeds, and the NPC joins the group.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Bicorn

Well, not quite. I was thinking of a situation like this:

- the party (in the RPG sense) wants a NPC to come along with them for the adventure.
- one member of the party, not the one with the skill, is an attractive person the skill-user suspects the NPC is interested in.
- the skill-user convinces the NPC that the other party-member is approachable, and the NPC would have a chance with them if they come along.
- the skill use succeeds, and the NPC joins the group.

Certainly you can do that. But you wouldn't use Sex Appeal, I think.

Sex Appeal is not the skill of "I use some method to persuade you to be sexually interested in X." It's "I use my sexiness to persuade you to do X." On one hand, X doesn't have to be a sexual thing, not at all. But on the other, if X is a sexual thing, and you're using your own sexiness, it's at least quite difficult to have the other person be sexually interested in a third person who's not you.

What I'd ask for, for that feat, is one of Fast-Talk (to spur them into making the decision in a hurry, particularly if they're going to find out it was a mistake) or Diplomacy (to persuade them that it really is to their advantage, preferably if the third person really is interested). Or maybe Acting, to sell an elaborate lie and keep them believing it over time. If it's true, they resist with Will; if it's not true, they get to Detect Lies.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

RL Example: My Token Lesbian Friend (as she jokingly refers to herself) is the best wing-woman ever. She will eye-F%@# girls across the room while hanging off my arm and looking hot as all get-out, and then suddenly have to go to the bathroom (or start talking to a gay girl, if there are any available) as soon as she's pulled the one I was interested in over.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

RL Example: My Token Lesbian Friend (as she jokingly refers to herself) is the best wing-woman ever. She will eye-F%@# girls across the room while hanging off my arm and looking hot as all get-out, and then suddenly have to go to the bathroom (or start talking to a gay girl, if there are any available) as soon as she's pulled the one I was interested in over.

That seems not so much like a regular complementary skill roll as like a manipulation roll, as discussed in GURPS Social Engineering. But maybe I'm misunderstanding the process.