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Old 07-13-2018, 12:04 PM   #3
JLV
 
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Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Arizona
Default Re: Contests to change reaction roll results

Since we aren't entirely sure what the final set of Talents will look like, I'm not sure if the following suggestion has any merit or not:

Assuming that a few new "social interaction" talents are included (persuasion, intimidation, fast talk (con artist?), whatever) the entire series of social interaction rolls could be informed by them.

Putting it another way, if your initial approach to the target NPC fails (bad reaction roll), allow the player to "change his approach" by switching to some other form of interaction; say from persuasion to fast talk, and then roll again -- at a disadvantage since the NPC is already inclined against him. If Fast Talk fails, then perhaps he can switch to Intimidation -- with or without a disadvantage (he's failed twice, but if he's REALLY intimidating, maybe that cancels the first two failures).

Basically, I'm thinking you could only re-roll (under this suggestion) if you can change to a different approach towards the NPC. However, I would also say that these kinds of Talents would be the kind that anyone can attempt, though they would do so by rolling 4/Attribute if they don't actually have the Talent (e.g., 4/ST for Intimidation contest).

I'll offer an example to help illustrate, though again this is based on what can only be defined as a lack of understanding of the available talents or how you're thinking about running contests in the final rules:

Snark the Orc has attempted to make a deal with a local Merchant (Evard). Unfortunately, his initial attempt failed because Evard had a bad reaction roll towards Snark. Snark still wants to get the dagger he came for, so he now decides to try Intimidation. Unfortunately for Snark, he lacks the Intimidation Talent. So, in this contest, he will roll 4/ST to intimidate, and Evard will roll 3/IQ to resist being intimidated.

Snark's ST is 14, but he rolls a 16. Evard's IQ is 11 and he rolls a 12. Both failed their rolls, but Snark failed by two, while Evard only failed by one, so Evard "wins" the contest, and intimidation fails to gain Snark the deal on the dagger. Evard tells Snark to get out of his shop and that if he comes back, Evard will call the watch on him!
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