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Old 10-22-2020, 10:34 PM   #26
Plane
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default Re: Passive intimidation?

One thing I just came across that I'd never noticed before is B86's "Social Regard" variant on B87 "feared"

Good reaction roll gives "Others will react to you much as if you had successfully used Intimidation skill"

That seems to be in the sense of one-sided reaction rolls substituting for Quick Contests though. I'm sometimes confused how to mesh RRs+QCs

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
A person can make others fearful by doing nothing but walking down the road, but that doesn't mean the fearful will do what that person wants.
I'm not sure how instructive Intimidation allows one to be.

In "Feared" above for example:
"Those who like you stand aside, while those who dislike you flee"
"met with silent deference"

B95's Unfazeable pairs "Fright Check" immunity with "Intimidation", and Fearlessness similarly (kind of like Magic Resistance) simultaneously boosts resistance AND penalizes intimidation attempts against you (just as Fearfulness is like Magic Susceptibility and flips that)

B147 having a hook is +1 to Intimidation when waived at foes but I'm going to assume that falls under the 1-4 "show of force" thing like "I have a weapon" because I don't think a hook is necessarily scarier than a gun or a sword...

B155 Social Stigma: Monster gives an amazing +3 bonus to Bears/Vampires (yet again one of those advantages hidden in a disavantage metatrait)

Threats/Torture somehow work better when you're Callous (I guess your genuine feelings come across?)

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
You can point a gun at someone and yell at them to do something and they likely will do it, but Intimidation will make them too scared to think logically about it.
B202's essence statement is convince the subject that you "are ableand willing .. to do something awful to him" so I'm actually thinking it's the first step: to get people to comply with immediate demands because you've convinced them you're actually willing to shoot the gun.

The "too scared to think logically" situation sounds more like failing a Fright Check which is triggered by the result of an Intimidation roll which critically succeeds or if the will roll critically fails (which is kinda weird since usually there isn't Crits on resistance rolls in QCs...)

One example of successful intimidation is "might react well without being frightened" so fear is certainly not a requirement.

I got thinking: what if someone IS able and willing to do a threat? If that is the case then isn't a successful roll actually just communicating the truth?

If that's the case then Fearlessness/Unfazeable would actually prevent you from accepting that truth?

In this case there are at least other alternatives (try to communicate the truth via another social skill, like Fast-Talk) but how do you even communicate the truth (convince) someone with Indomitable?

How via dice do you make your argument more appealing than another's? Appear to be genuine?

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
Gangs use Intimidation not to merely scare neighborhoods (they're already scared) but to scare people into not calling the cops the next day.
I'd actually wonder if we could model this somehow using the Mind Control advantage or those Bard skills, because long-term results actually seem like reprogramming someone with disadvantages to make them obedient to you.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
Same thing for other influence skills; You can be Very Beautiful or say a few simple lies or be agreeable but it takes skill to actually use them to make sure someone does what you want them to do.
You can outdo high skill with enough beauty/charisma/voice as far as I know.

It might be other non-social skills based on IQ like strategy or savoir-faire (WHAT are you getting them to do, WHEN and WHY) that determine

Quote:
Originally Posted by kirbwarrior View Post
I definitely see HT making as much sense as Sex Appeal.
HT seems more like on that primal "I smell their good health so I want to mate" type of logic.

Like for example Xing La (HT13 on B323) despite her bad posture (-1 Sex Appeal) would actually have more sex appeal than Sora (HT11, B319) so long as Xing kept her goggles on and mouth shut. This despite both having identical "average"attractiveness, Xing has more animal magnetism purely by being "healthy" even though Sora is stronger and more agile (ST/DX 12/16 v 10/12)

It's actually this weird sort of "HT is visible" even though you would think Appearance would actually just be "looks healthy". Isn't that what beauty is meant to be, symmetry, looks healthy even if they aren't? Ugliness OTOH could be "looks unhealthy even if they're healthy".
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