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Old 09-12-2014, 02:26 PM   #11
vicky_molokh
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Default Re: [SE] Face characters: buying more Reaction Modifiers vs. more Influence Skill lev

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
It sounds as if you're approaching what might be called the "sweet spot" where buying up Diplomacy skill gets too costly to pursue. As you point out, you can buy +2 to skill for 8 points, or pay 10 points for Voice and get the same +2 and a lot of other bennies, starting with the reaction mod—if the setting is one where Voice can be added after the start of play. There's also the option of buying Smooth Operator or the like, if that can be bought and if you have a wide enough range of skills to make it efficient.
Smooth Operator actually seems like the least optimal choice as far as social skills go - it's inferior to IQ for breadth of skills, and suffers from competition with Reaction Modifiers even more. Also, Empathy Talent 4 (already capped) seems like one of the best choices for a diplomat/bodylinguist sort of character.
The interesting thing about Voice is that it is a physical trait, so, on one hand, it gets left behind when swapping shells/bodies; though I suppose it can be retained in VR/social telepresence by maintaining an avatar that has the same voice.
Overall, after SE clarifications, in some ways Voice is even better than Charisma.
Of the various RMs, Appearance actually seems like one of the worst choices, to the point that under the above circumstances throwing [12] at Diplomacy is competitive with throwing them at Appearance. This is because Appearance has the most built-in drawbacks, and being effectively [4/RM level] does not make it cost-effective.
Reputations at the ×2/3 (round down) breadth (Almost everyone in the game world except one large class, e.g. all non-French, all non-Elves etc.) with all-the-time recognition seem like a quite good deal.

Either way, seems like indeed there is little incentive to raise some Influence skills past the [4] level. In many cases even that. There are, of course, exceptions:
Diplomacy for predicting the flow of negotiations.
Fast-Talk for lying.
Savoir-Faire for impersonation and other situational things.
Streetwise for figuring out assorted shady stuff.
Intimidation seems to be a risky influence skill to use in the first place, and not to have much in the way of non-influence applications.
Sex Appeal, likewise, seems to only ever be worth it as an Influence Skill. Even the occasional roll-to-get-a+2-bonus is weaker than just buying a +2 reaction bonus for everything at [4-5/level].

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Originally Posted by whswhs View Post
The other possible direction is to look at techniques. For Diplomacy, you have Agenda, Elevated Speech, Elicitation, and Hinting—or, in a cinematic campaign, Personal Guarantee or, after you've bought Voice, Beguilement. One or two of those could amp up your character a lot in specific tasks.
Indeed. Elicitation is a dream come true; probably because my character keeps asking for information one way or another in lots and lots of situations. Agenda seems an interesting choice. Frankly I haven't seen much use for Elevated Speech and Hinting. Personal Guarantee seems like something that's better to just 'eat' by a higher Reaction Modifier.
And the big point about those techniques is that they 'stack' with RMs. And you only ever should buy one or at most two, due to the points lost to hardness.

Beguilement seems like a killer app IMHO, end the one non-Influence roll that benefits from improving Influence skills instead of Reaction Modifiers, since it allows extremely easy access to high MoS on all further Influence attempts. Thing is, (a) you have to maximise it and (b) it is cinematic; and finally (c) it works best when expanded influence results are in play.
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Old 09-13-2014, 01:08 AM   #12
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Default Re: [SE] Face characters: buying more Reaction Modifiers vs. more Influence Skill lev

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The other possible direction is to look at techniques. For Diplomacy, you have Agenda, Elevated Speech, Elicitation, and Hinting—or, in a cinematic campaign, Personal Guarantee or, after you've bought Voice, Beguilement.
Where do I find those ?
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Old 09-13-2014, 01:39 AM   #13
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Default Re: [SE] Face characters: buying more Reaction Modifiers vs. more Influence Skill lev

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Where do I find those ?
"The Civil Arts in GURPS", Pyramid #3/54: Social Engineering p.4.
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Old 09-13-2014, 01:45 AM   #14
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Default Re: [SE] Face characters: buying more Reaction Modifiers vs. more Influence Skill lev

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Where do I find those ?
Pyramid 3/54 Social Emgineering The Civil Arts article I think has all the refeenced ones, though some might be in Social Engineering.
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Old 09-13-2014, 06:12 AM   #15
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Default Re: [SE] Face characters: buying more Reaction Modifiers vs. more Influence Skill lev

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Pyramid 3/54 Social Emgineering The Civil Arts article I think has all the refeenced ones, though some might be in Social Engineering.
Hinting is in SE.

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