[Basic] Skill of the week: Intimidation

[johndallman]

Intimidation is an Will/A social skill, in its own way. It's hostile persuasion, convincing people to do things rather than suffer consequences. The commonest threat is of personal violence, but a superficially polite form of intimidation is a common tool in international diplomacy. The defaults are Will-5 or Acting-3, and Interrogation is the only skill that defaults to Intimidation. Intimidation seems to have first appeared in a 3e supplement, although I don't know which one. If you want high levels in Intimidation, buying up Will only costs an extra point per level, and has plenty of advantages, if it fits your character concept.

Intimidation is one of the skills that is penalised for lack of Cultural Familiarity. Fearlessness helps you resist this skill, and Unfazable gives immunity. Bloodlust gives +1 to Intimidation, Fearfulness reduces your ability to resist it and Oblivious and Shyness give penalties to use of the skill. Social Regard and Social Stigmata can both boost Intimidation, as can the Kiai skill.

There are lots of other modifiers: up to +4 for displays of power and/or willingness to use force, with an additional +1 to that if you are Callous. +2 to +4 for low Appearance; your SM, relative to the target; your Reputation modifiers (possibly negated, depending on what the Reputation is about); +1 or -1 at the GM's option for good or poor dialogue, and -3 if you're requesting assistance.

Intimidation can be used in place of any reaction roll, although if it works, you may get less enthusiastic cooperation that you would with other skills. Some people might respond well and become loyal; someone who lives by Intimidation might react well even if he resists. A critical success on Intimidation causes a Fright Check, in addition to other effects.

There are a couple of special mechanics in Basic: you can attempt to intimidate up to 25 people at once, at -1 for each five people, and there are rules for groups intimidating groups. If you can win a contest of Fast-Talk with the subject's IQ, you can claim +3 as specious intimidation, with a story that will impress the subject, even if you can't back it up. However, if you tie or lose the Fast-Talk, your Intimidation automatically fails, with a Very Bad reaction.

Intimidation is a very common skill on templates, mentioned in 93 of the 4e PDFs that I have. It's characteristic of criminals, common in any kind of combat background and a secondary skill for face-men. It's also useful for making arrests, and otherwise persuading a target to give up and come quietly; Action covers all these bases, along with using complementary skills, which can be almost anything that can looks like a way to do harm. DF10 explains the vital role of this skill in tavern brawls, and DF14 lets you use it for Psionic Terror. Gun-Fu has lots of tricks for Intimidation via guns and Pulp Guns 2 adds modifiers for grenades and flamethrowers. Loadouts: Low-Tech Armour emphasises the +1 to SM for Intimidation that a good helmet crest can give; Low-Tech qualifies this with a few drawbacks, and gives Intimidation bonuses for blunderbusses and whipping. Martial Arts has moves and weapons that give a free Intimidation attempt, or a bonus. Monster Hunters has streamlined rules for intimidating groups of opponents, or taunting them into attacking. Mysteries covers use of Intimidation on people who won't appear in court, to frighten them into talking. Power-Ups volumes 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 all have examples for Intimidation, of which the Fearsome Stare perk, which lets you use Intimidation with just a look, is notable. Powers has abilities that boost Intimidation, and lets the skill replace Will when used with the active version of Terror; Enhanced Senses has another ability to add. Psionic Powers has abilities for intimidating fellow-psis.

Social Engineering has a lot for Intimidation. Bonuses for the Impressive variety of Appearance, and for low Appearance, how to use Intimidation, how it differs from Streetwise, using it through voice- or text-only communications, staging distractions, confidence games, unfair business competition, trade unions, gangs and organised forces, such as military units. Trying to intimidate a mob with an organised force is tricky, just as it is in the real world. The Soft-Spoken perk is arguably cinematic, but good if you can get it. Back to School deals with Intimidation in teaching (it isn't very good).

Thaumatology has curses via Intimidation; Chinese Elemental Powers has several abilities that can boost the skill, including earthquakes, and Magical Styles allows this to be generalised to any sufficiently scary spell. Transhuman Space: Changing Times can use the skill in deprogramming victims of mimetic attacks, but it's rarely any use on Zombies.

I'm a bit puzzled by GURPS saying -- in several places -- that Intimidation can't be used on subjects with IQ 0-5 unless you have an appropriate form of Empathy. OK, IQ 0 creatures aren't aware enough to be frightened and powerful monsters may well be hard to frighten, but normal IQ 2-3 domesticated animals can be scared off fairly readily and you don't need Animal Empathy to do it.

One use of Intimidation that gets neglected in RPGs in general is its use on the battlefield. A bayonet charge, or any kind of charge into melee is as much about intimidation as about doing direct injury: you hope that the other side will run away, and sometimes it works. RPGs tend to focus more on actual combat, possibly because that's what movies and TV dwell on. Intimidation is also a key skill for realistic criminals: it's easier and safer than actual assault, and doesn't tend to attract as much attention.

I have a character who tries to use Intimidation a lot, because TORG tries to encourage players to use it, and that has carried over into our GURPS TORG campaign. It doesn't often work, because you need large margins of victory to activate the TORG mechanics, but it's great fun when it does, and much quicker than winding a crossbow.

How have you intimidated your problems?

[dripton]

Both fighters in my DF game have low levels of Intimidation. So far they've only used it to try to scare prisoners into talking. Not to any great effect -- the wizard has a high enough Interrogation skill that their idle threats are more likely to hurt than to help.

In 3E, Intimidation defaulted to ST-5. I've considered house-ruling that back in.

[Not]

It's a little weird that this is a skill and not something else. Has anybody ever tried dumping lots of points into it just to screw with the game? Played an intimidating blind, quadriplegic midget?

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I'm a bit puzzled by GURPS saying -- in several places -- that Intimidation can't be used on subjects with IQ 0-5 unless you have an appropriate form of Empathy. OK, IQ 0 creatures aren't aware enough to be frightened and powerful monsters may well be hard to frighten, but normal IQ 2-3 domesticated animals can be scared off fairly readily and you don't need Animal Empathy to do it.

One possible answer to this is that Intimidation isn't just about scaring the target, it's about communicating with them in a scary way that's useful to you. Scaring a non-sentient animal, as you note, is easy to do -- but that's the basic territory of a Reaction Roll. Convincing an animal to "do this or else this will happen to you" is beyond the scope of most realistic scenarios.

[Rocket Man]

Originally Posted by Not

It's a little weird that this is a skill and not something else. Has anybody ever tried dumping lots of points into it just to screw with the game? Played an intimidating blind, quadriplegic midget?

How about an intimidating hunchbacked midget? Shawn Wallace did a decent job with that in The Princess Bride.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Rocket Man

One possible answer to this is that Intimidation isn't just about scaring the target, it's about communicating with them in a scary way that's useful to you. Scaring a non-sentient animal, as you note, is easy to do -- but that's the basic territory of a Reaction Roll. Convincing an animal to "do this or else this will happen to you" is beyond the scope of most realistic scenarios.

Pretty much this. As a former bouncer I can tell you this: it's not what you threaten to do to someone it's how you threaten them.

In my case it's a combination of things: I'm told I have a very "thuggish" face. My "at rest" expression is...well...kind of cruel looking I've been told. But when I'm angry. Really angry I speak very softly and have "thunder eyes" (as my granddaddy would say). I speak in such a way that most people instantly take a step back. If I'm trying to intimidate someone it gets worse. Add in the fact that I know how to turn a phrase and have the capability to categorize, file, and forget someone on sight and it's a potent combination. I have literally convinced someone to divest themselves of a firearm when they had it pointed on me and I was dead to rights. Of course, getting shot in my forearm and essentially ignoring it for nearly ten minutes probably helped.

So yeah, it's all about how you say something vs. what you say. The trick is making your target either a) think you will actually hurt them or b) actually be willing to hurt them. Other attributes help, but that's the key. Most people don't want to get into a fight or altercation of any kind and even when drunk or otherwise intoxicated that instinct kicks in.

[(E)]

I have always wondered how to precisely handle people who are constantly intimidating in GURPS, the ones you feel you have to manage and you seldom say no to directly. The best example I can think of is Don Logan (played by Ben Kingsley) from the movie sexy beast.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by (E)

I have always wondered how to precisely handle people who are constantly intimidating in GURPS, the ones you feel you have to manage and you seldom say no to directly. The best example I can think of is Don Logan (played by Ben Kingsley) from the movie sexy beast.

The Fearsome Stare perk from GURPS Power-Ups 2: Perks would let you do that.

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Pretty much this. As a former bouncer I can tell you this: it's not what you threaten to do to someone it's how you threaten them.

In my case it's a combination of things: I'm told I have a very "thuggish" face. My "at rest" expression is...well...kind of cruel looking I've been told. But when I'm angry. Really angry I speak very softly and have "thunder eyes" (as my granddaddy would say). I speak in such a way that most people instantly take a step back. If I'm trying to intimidate someone it gets worse. Add in the fact that I know how to turn a phrase and have the capability to categorize, file, and forget someone on sight and it's a potent combination. I have literally convinced someone to divest themselves of a firearm when they had it pointed on me and I was dead to rights. Of course, getting shot in my forearm and essentially ignoring it for nearly ten minutes probably helped.

So yeah, it's all about how you say something vs. what you say. The trick is making your target either a) think you will actually hurt them or b) actually be willing to hurt them. Other attributes help, but that's the key. Most people don't want to get into a fight or altercation of any kind and even when drunk or otherwise intoxicated that instinct kicks in.

I think my chest hair jumped out half an inch just reading that.

[johndallman]

And now I realise I missed one significant method for group intimidation: music. Highland bagpipes are especially good for this, and were used in real combat in the twentieth century, although they worked better when ranges were shorter. Fifes and drums work pretty well to express aggression too.