Thread: On being Feared
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Old 09-18-2018, 03:40 PM   #39
whswhs
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Lawrence, KS
Default Re: On being Feared

Quote:
Originally Posted by Icelander View Post
If he hired them and pays them, why would they be?

Social Regard (Feared) costs the same per level as Charisma. Making it different in some ways is fine, but making it overall worse is bad game design.
Did you read my actual analysis? It shows that the employer is hardly ever worse off when you combine the Social Regard bonus and the involuntary employment penalty. Even if you assume just one level of SR, the expected reaction is 11.2 vs. 10.5, which is still a fairly significant gain.

As to why it would have any disadvantageous effects at all, it's specified that people's reaction rolls are based on their being afraid of you, and function as if you had used Intimidation against them. That is, they might be accepting the job and the pay not because they really wanted it, but because they were afraid to say No. Consider, for example, trying to make a Sex Appeal roll against someone who was frightened of you; the fear might interfere with the arousal that you were hoping for. This wouldn't necessarily prevent immediate cooperation, but the long-term effects might be different from what you wanted.

I'm not committed to a specific game mechanic. But it seems to me that if you genuinely got what you wanted, not because the other person wanted to give it to you, but because they were afraid of you (that is, if the +3 made a difference), there ought to be some difference in the ensuing narrative.

This isn't the same as the Inappropriate Manner quirk in Power-Ups 6, but there seems to be some similarity. In effect, you are always using Intimidation, whether it fits the situation or not. And IM gives a penalty to Influence skills of up to -10!
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