Seeking Cinematic Social abilities *short of* mind control / reading / supernatural

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Well, the only idea I have, relevant there, then, are Always-On switches

These exist as Quirks, and are generally disadvantages due to risking a failure and/or inappropriateness.

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

In the vein of Cosmic, negating any penalties to a type of social roll coming from the target's personality, beliefs, oaths, situation, and so on. This works best for seduction or bribing, but selling fridges to eskimos (the mythical version, of course - eskimos have fridges like everybody) seems like the typical example.

Penalty-negators are generally boring, but I guess some sufficiently outrageous ones can be interesting.

Originally Posted by ArchonShiva

Your actions of a certain type do not trigger demands of exclusivity from partners. The obvious example is sexual, but this is a pretty cool thing for politicians, mercenaries, journalists, information brokers, spies, or weapons manufacturers that sells to all sides.

Hmm, now that is an interesting idea![/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

One of mine, that might be relevant to Vicky's project:

Manipulating the mental disads of other characters so that they are made less likely or more likely to trigger. One use is generally friendly, the other hostile - I tend to see it as two different abilities, although some character concepts will want to have both.

Social Engineering provides a related but not identical mechanic, where Psychology allows one to leverage someone's disad into a bonus to convince someone to behave in some way (usually either in accordance with, or indirectly triggered by the disad). It's risky like all forms of manipulation if you get caught.

[L.J.Steele]

Kicking this back up and trying to understand Enthrallment, B 191-92.

First, am I correct that the 1st printing (and maybe others) have an error in listing Enthrallment itself as a W/H skill, when it is a category with 4 subskills -- captivate, persuade, suggest, and sway emotion?

If so, there doesn't seem to be a skill for holding the target's attention while (for example), your team sneaks past the guard. Fast-Talk is about getting people to do things. Public Speaking is a bit ill-defined in how it influences people, but also doesn't seem designed for 1:1 patter/blather where you're not trying to make someone do something other than pay attention to you.

Have I missed something?

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by L.J.Steele

If so, there doesn't seem to be a skill for holding the target's attention while (for example), your team sneaks past the guard. Fast-Talk is about getting people to do things. Public Speaking is a bit ill-defined in how it influences people, but also doesn't seem designed for 1:1 patter/blather where you're not trying to make someone do something other than pay attention to you.

Have I missed something?

Sex Appeal and Captivate are both tailor-made for this, depending on whether we're going mundane or magical.

I'd certainly also allow Fast-Talk to work and depending on circumstances, might also allow: Acting (to present a distracting occurance, possibly with other accomplices); Dancing, Musical Instrument, Performance, Public Speaking, Singing and/or Sleight of Hand (to put on a show to distract); Administration, Leadership, Savoir-Faire (High Society, Military or Police) or Religious Ritual (to present the guards with an Important Person in some way that they need to focus on dealing with reasonably politely) and a wide range of others. Basically, anything that either requires a lot of attention from the guard or tempts him into focusing on something other than duty might be applicable.