Where can my PC learn...
 

So I'd like my character to learn a few skills in a first-world contemporary setting, but I'm not sure what opportunities there are for real world study to justify a studied improvement. Any suggestions are welcome.

Skills desired:
Fast-talk Maybe a pick up artist class? Where can the PC learn to manipulate people?

Intimidation: Self-defense classes that focus on assertiveness?

Stealth, Lockpicking, Traps (Alarms): Basically, where can the PC go to learn to break into places?

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

Those as a group sound like either School of Hard Knocks or tradecraft skills. If I were the GM, I'd have your character use Streetwise to secure a criminal (or possibly law enforcement) mentor, or arrange things so that you get a mentor/training from intelligence services types. Alternately, for the last three, you might have your character connect with some Urban Explorer types. (That might also help with Fast Talk.)

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

All of these would be available to spies and some Intelligence Agencies.
Fast Talk might be available through sales people.
Intimidation some specialized psychology classes, criminals and police. I would also let some roleplaying using your default and a decent length of off screen time self train.

The breaking and entering skills, apprenticeship or pay a good criminal specialist, police and some security training. Stealth is the easiest to find a teacher though.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

A lot of people claim to teach methods of persuasion. The problem is that most of them are actually trying to fast-talk money out of your wallet; a secondary problem is that common uses for the fast talk skill are illegal. This is a skill that tends to be learned by observation and practice, rather than taught, though it certainly can be taught if you can find a trustworthy teacher.
Another skill that tends to be self-taught; again, has a problem that getting your way through threats is of dubious legality.
Stealth can be learned from a number of places (for routine legitimate uses, try hunting). The other two are going to be difficult to learn legitimately (locksmiths and security companies certainly teach those skills -- but they make pretty serious efforts to make sure they aren't teaching wannabe criminals).

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

That's a good suggestion. Others might be various seminars on salesmanship. If you could get the author of a self-help book promising riches and success, the teacher of a seminar on making friends and influencing people or someone high up in a pyramid selling scheme to teach you their real job skills, you'd probably learn Fast-Talk.

Intimidation is also a large part of what cops do to take control of a situation and force compliance from suspects on scene. The 'Freeze! Police!' is an Intimidation skill check and advanced courses on arrest techniques are focused just as much on Intimidation and Diplomacy as they are on Judo, Wrestling and Handcuffing.

You can learn Lockpicking along with Professional Skill (Locksmith). You might be able to justify a small amount of Traps skill as well, as well as learn Electronic Operations (Security), by working for a security company.

Otherwise, Traps is generally learned in the military at TL8. It's often taught to special operators, along with Stealth, obviously.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

Many sales seminars, how to flip real estate... all that sort of thing.... but not for what they are supposed to be teaching. Instead watch the “ metagame” and how the presenter fast talks the audience into buying what he’s selling.

Also look for books on the law enforcement skill of “verbal judo”, there are actual classes but you generally have to be in LE, and a book called “ Games Criminals Play” which shows how criminals play the art of persuasion especially while incarcerated.

Mostly thru experience but might gain a point or two just from a good combatives class. Would certainly gain points in Will to resist intimidation.

Locksmithing classes or apprenticeships, employment with a security system installer. Not going to break into Ft Knox with it but give you an idea of most common security systems, thei weaknesses and how to circumvent. Employment with a high end security company would give you insight into larger, more complex systems like Nakatomi Plaza....

ETA: Probably more Electronics Operation/ Repair (Security) but at high TL I think that’s essentially used in place of the Traps skill. For me Traps would be more tripwire attached to a flare or grenade than something you’d see as part of a modern security system.

Bow hunting bear

Another option for some of these would be to attend a police academy. Many states allow “ pay to stay” academies where students pay for the academy themselves in hopes it makes them more attractive to law enforcement agencies, having already graduated and become certified... an expense a potential employer doesn’t have to foot now.

My academy class was mostly made up of self sponsored cadets, and there was a volunteer who helped with scenarios and things who had graduated several classes before with no intention of ever becoming a cop. He just wanted to go to a police academy.

If you’re going to be a good guy subsequent employment as a reserve officer or deputy would allow you to maintain and advance your skills for a fairly minor time commitment. Law, intimidation, diplomacy, fast talk, escape, tactics, brawling, wrestling, stealth, streetwise, driving... all justifiable skills from an academy and subsequent employment.

Another option is reserve or guard military service. A combat engineer who graduated from sapper school ( engineer version of ranger school, sorta) would have fair skill in explosives, traps, eod, stealth, tactics and leadership.... and in game terms a fairly minimal time commitment.

A reserve MP would learn similar skills to a cop but the law would be focused on military regulations and the UCMJ.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

Youtube.

Not even joking, though this is the equivalent of learning via 'book' at self-taught rates. Of course, if you find a youtuber who shows how to do things in your area and can convince them to met and teach you personally...

Alternately get in touch with the Prepper and Self-Reliance/Hunter communities, these are things many of them know.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

Mire likely Fearlessness. Will costs twice as much as Fearlessness and is much broader.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

...but physical competency can increase your self confidence across the board.

I could see it either way.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

The thing is that raising Will will help you resist skills that don't depend so much on self-confidence: Fast-Talk, Diplomacy, Sex Appeal, perhaps some forms of Savoir-Faire. For some of them, being self-confidence might even make you more susceptible. Will isn't just forcefulness; it's also having a clear understanding of your values and goals.

Will is also relevant to skills such as Meditation. I'm not sure that self-confidence based on physical competency helps with meditation.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

RE: Intimidation: Working as unarmed security or a bouncer can do this well. I had a coworker working security in an area where a large part of security was telling the homeless they weren't allowed to sleep there. A homeless man pulled a knife on him. His response: "Put that $*#* away." The homeless man complied, and ran away.

Another method, depending on your GM, would be watching movies or TV with good "tough guy" characters. There's a scene in Justified where the protagonist racks the slide of his handgun, catches the ejected cartridge, drops it on a prone bad-guy he's intent on intimidating and says, "Next one's coming faster."

His explanation when he's later expected to explain why the bad guy has a bullet with his finger prints is that he saw a gangster telling the story on Johnny Carson, and thought it sounded cool.

It's also possible though, for that kind of training to have some conditional penalties for real tough guys, similar to overconfidence: it's likely that the scary guy in the movies will do something stupid that renders him silly to real bad guys.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

That may be why we have specious intimidation.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

If your game takes place in a state where owning lockpicks is legal without a locksmithing license, then there will likely be lockpicking clubs where you can learn the skills and probably also buy picks. The clubs will be frequented by locksmiths, electronic security folk, and occasionally law enforcement.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

Fast-talk I agree with Icelander et al, some sort of salesman training here, possibly advertising (though maybe that's Propaganda?).

Intimidation: Being a bouncer in a club? I imagine quite a few potential fights just don't happen because the bouncer looks intimidating.

Lockpicking This is difficult, here in the U.K. I believe it's illegal to carry lockpicks outside your own home unless your profession requires it. I imagine most First World places are similar.

Traps (Alarms): An installer of electronic alarms probably, knowledge of how to disarm them probably comes alongside knowledge of how to set them up.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

How about prison?
It's frequently a place with a highly Darwinian training environment for Fast Talk and Intimidation and probably a good place to meet people who know other criminal skills.
You might argue that the fact they are in prison implies they can't be that good - but it may not be that skill that failed them. Or even the result of their own mistakes.

Failing that, law enforcement and intelligence have been known to teach all of these skills. As a poster noted already.

As, as another poster has noted, does YouTube (or at least people claim to do so on YouTube - one of my colleagues taught himself to pick locks to at least an entry level standard on dull night shifts by watching YouTube videos).

Also, there used to be a number of small presses out there - mainly in the US due to that First Amendment thing they have over there - that turned out manuals on all sorts of stuff. Not sure how many of them are still going - getting their product over here in the UK these days would probably be more trouble than it is worth.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

It's pretty easy to learn to pick locks at the most basic level. I mean, I'm pretty sure I got all the necessary theory out of a passage in "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman". No doubt youtube videos can do better than that. And it's trivial to practice safely at home once you acquire the tools, since locks are something you can just buy. (The fictional tradition of using a paperclip does work for sufficiently chunky locks, but they don't fit well in most modern keyholes.)

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

All of these skills can be learned by self-teaching, I assumed the question was where you could find a teacher.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

As some above noted, learning Fast Talk or Intimidation by self-teaching could be dangerous.

But on that note, certain college undergraduate communities can and will teach lockpicking. It's probably not practical for a PC to seek those out in order to learn from them, though.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

Self-teaching include observing and emulating other people. Fast-talk is probably a skill that is usually self-taught.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

Okay, but at that point you're talking about self-teaching that still requires finding a teacher. They just don't actually have to be cooperating beyond not stopping you from observing them.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

It's not mechanically treated as learning from a teacher. All self-teaching requires finding a source for the knowledge.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

Yes. Much of it, however, uses (or can use) stable information repositories as sources rather than sporadic (and in this case, potentially furtive) human behaviors.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

Swaths of the U.S. will allow you to own, carry, and use lockpicks without a license (with restrictions like “you can only pick your own locks or loan your picks to a friend to let them pick their own locks”). That said, if you commit a burglary and are carrying picks or pry bars on your person or vehicle you’ll have further charges regarding “thieves’ tools” to face in court (even if you do have a locksmith license). Laws are weird sometimes.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

Yeah, I'm looking for "legal and legitimate" ways to pick up the skills in a structured environment, even if they're technically ancillary to the point of taking the class or seminar or whatever.

Re: Where can my PC learn...
 

Lockpicking, traps(alarms) and fast talk can be taken as courses attached to or in association with computer security conferences and computer hacking training. DefCon will have at least one locking class, one traps(alarms) class and one fast talk class.

SANS offers a physical security course which is basically lockpicking, traps alarms, and fast talk:
https://www.sans.org/course/physical...ensive-edition

Most of those horrific 'pickup artist' classes are ultimately teaching a mixture of fast-talk and intimidation with the end goal of 'convince this person to have sex with me'.

Any formal training in door to door sales or high pressure sales techniques are also a mixture of intimidation and fast-talk.

A close range hunting school (so crossbow hunting, pistol hunting, or spear hunting) would teach stealth as part of what they do. Many private eye training programs would also be teaching stealth (also electronic operation (surveillance), and potentially fast-talk.)