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Old 09-07-2014, 12:07 PM   #21
vicky_molokh
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Body Language

Quote:
Originally Posted by David Johnston2 View Post
That would be the penalty for only hearing the subject's voice but not seeing them. Neither seeing nor hearing them means at least a double penalty.
Seeing the subject is for Body Language, not Detect Lies.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SE37
Detect Lies can be used with any form of spoken (or signed)
communication; roll at -3 for text. Depending on the type of lie,
it can be resisted as a Quick Contest vs. IQ, Acting, or Fast-Talk.
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Old 09-09-2014, 07:10 AM   #22
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Body Language

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
Because there is simply no fathomable reason to know if I'm lying when I write, "I lost my virginity at age 24 to my second girlfriend."
Without even getting into the fact that if your definition of virginity is different than mine you would come to the wrong conclusions even if you come to the correct conclusion that I'm telling the truth.

If you had scores of my writing about my sexual experiences you could further pin down the most likely veracity of such statements. That's not detect lies as it only involves conflicting information and logical analysis, not hoodoo interpersonal mind reading.
Wait a minute. You're saying that figuring whether your statement is true is not Detect Lies precisely because it is not hoodoo mind reading? I thought just some posts earlier there was an argument whether Detect Lies is a cinematic/supernatural skill.
Body Language is all about using the subject's detectable body state such as posture, facial expression etc. (usually by vision, but there are alternatives such as touch, and probably it's also possible to use mm-wave RADAR, LIDAR, Field Sense and some weirder high-resolution senses).

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I consider empathy as it's written in Gurps to be supernatural, so I don't have a problem with combining it with a more realistic Body Language skill.
After all those years, I figured at least two variants of Empathy that aren't supernatural:
  • It is 0% hypersensory. That is, it can work by any sense (whatever sense is used for communication), or several senses, but you neither benefit from using multiple senses simultaneously, nor is it penalised for having fewer than the maximum number of senses, and it includes a 'technique' for negating sense penalties as long as they're less significant than -10. You can also assume that the inability to work through screens is something of a built-in Delusion.
  • It is a metagame trait, not a supernatural one, representing being lucky with guessing things about people. Highly creepy, and can only be said about a real-world person in hidnsight. But not impossible by the laws of nature. The inability to work through screens is a coincidence.

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Interesting conflicts may arise if your psychic empathy tells you someone is off but Body Language says perfectly normal. That could give you more information than either alone. That combination would pique my interests and inner alarm bells in any supernatural game.
That sort of conflict can easily arise against characters with significant Acting. It can also arise with Discriminatory Sense of Smell with the empathy-like enhancement, since Acting doesn't work against it either.

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
What types of setting creatures can so fully mask their alien nature?
After a long search, I ended up declaring that an Alternative Benefit for the Impersonator Talent can provide a penalty to Empathy rolls and other unresisted rolls to figure out a character's psyche instead of the usual benefit.

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Going the other way, BL says off kilter, but Empathy says nervous but normal which leads to the likelihood of social disabilities.
A well-trained BL user should detect the overall feel of the target, just like Empathy does, and give a hint that the target has some social disability. I think.
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Old 08-04-2018, 09:11 AM   #23
johndallman
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Body Language

It is possible to learn a certain amount about the mood or feelings of a person operating a vehicle by watching the vehicle's behaviour. The easiest thing to learn is "They don't know how to do it," which is usually pretty obvious.

What would you think of a different specialisation of Body Language, (Vehicular), for being good at this?
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Old 08-04-2018, 11:56 AM   #24
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Body Language

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What would you think of a different specialisation of Body Language, (Vehicular), for being good at this?
Hmmm. You might be able to tell the difference between whether someone speeding/driving erratically was angry, upset/harried, or just reckless.


I know I can generally spot the difference between "texting /distracted" while driving and "drunk".
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Old 08-04-2018, 12:41 PM   #25
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Body Language

I probably wouldn't base it on Body Language, unless it's a very generous Technique thereof. Probably Observation or just a Per-based Driving roll. It doesn't cover a very large body of knowledge, and it can only give very simple information... and I suggest it's not a very difficult thing to do in the first place. So call it an Easy Technique, defaults at +2 (say) to Observation or Driving (Per), or Body Language +3.
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Old 08-04-2018, 01:30 PM   #26
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Body Language

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Originally Posted by Daigoro View Post
I probably wouldn't base it on Body Language, unless it's a very generous Technique thereof. Probably Observation or just a Per-based Driving roll. It doesn't cover a very large body of knowledge, and it can only give very simple information... and I suggest it's not a very difficult thing to do in the first place. So call it an Easy Technique, defaults at +2 (say) to Observation or Driving (Per), or Body Language +3.
I don't think it's Driving, because I don't drive, and in fact I could plausibly take Incompetence (Driving), based on my experience with trying to learn. But I can look at a car and judge the driver's intent, say, to stop or not, and whether they're driving irrationally.
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Old 08-04-2018, 07:19 PM   #27
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Body Language

An as yet unmentioned aspect of Body Language is in gambling. It would be the Skill for spotting a "tell".

Detect Lies needs to be a verbal interaction skill IMHO. I think it is sometimes possible to detect intent to decive by choice of words and rhetorical stance. You can find political spin this way and that's almost all made with intent to decieve even if technical or arguable "truth" might remain. I'd be more interested in intent to decieve. That is a little more like "Detect Liar" than Detect Lies though. If the target seemed focussed on the technical truth of some statement it might even be "Detect Lawyer". :)

Body Language would be more likely to detect anxiety than intent. It wouldn't help if a sociopath or similar person who can tell lies without feeling anxiety was the target while Detect Lies still might if the lies were not well chosen.
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Old 08-07-2018, 11:26 AM   #28
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Body Language

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I don't think it's Driving, because I don't drive, and in fact I could plausibly take Incompetence (Driving), based on my experience with trying to learn. But I can look at a car and judge the driver's intent, say, to stop or not, and whether they're driving irrationally.
Likewise for myself. Would that be our Observation defaults kicking in?

The question is, though, if would you expect a trained driver to be better at this than yourself.
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Old 08-07-2018, 02:32 PM   #29
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Default Re: [Basic] Skill of the week: Body Language

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Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
It is possible to learn a certain amount about the mood or feelings of a person operating a vehicle by watching the vehicle's behaviour. The easiest thing to learn is "They don't know how to do it," which is usually pretty obvious.

What would you think of a different specialisation of Body Language, (Vehicular), for being good at this?
"Keep your distance, Chewie... but don't look like you're trying to keep your distance."

"Rahrooargh?!"

"I don't know, fly casual."
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