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Old 06-29-2015, 04:45 PM   #11
robkelk
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Default Re: Seeking Cinematic Social abilities *short of* mind control / reading / supernatur

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Originally Posted by Wavefunction View Post
Or Detect (Lies). Allows you to know pick up on when a lie is uttered, as well as the direction it came from, with Precise, you know the exact location, and with Analysing you know the nature of the lie. Kinda handy since villains are known for twisting the truth.
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Originally Posted by NecessaryWeevil View Post
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. The ability to know (visualize?) the social structure of a social group or in a given gathering: who's friends with, who has the most influence, who hates who, etc.
When did this become the brainstorming thread for GURPS In Nomine 4e? <g>

(For those not in the know, these are the special abilities of the Seraphim and the Mercurians, respectively.)
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Old 06-29-2015, 05:00 PM   #12
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Default Re: Seeking Cinematic Social abilities *short of* mind control / reading / supernatur

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Originally Posted by Ashtagon View Post
An actual ability to detect lies, as opposed to the Detect Lie skill.
...
Eclipse Phase has Kinesics as a skill which I find fascinating. Now, I imagine a real profiler will have a combination of skills that a Criminal Minds, NCIS, etc. hero would have in one Wildcard skill called Kinesics!: Body-Language, Detect Lies, Diplomacy, Fast-Talk, Interrogation, Intimidation, Psychology, Savoir-Faire, and Streetwise (perhaps?).

Toss in Intelligence Analysis, Forensics, Criminology and Sociology for a solid Profiler! skill. :-)

Using Hyper-Competency rules from PU: Wildcard Skills packs a nice cinematic punch. Also, Face-Man!, Spy!, Talker!, Negotiator! to name a few...
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Old 06-29-2015, 06:34 PM   #13
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Default Re: Seeking Cinematic Social abilities *short of* mind control / reading / supernatur

I recently created a character with the intuitive ability to see the connections between people. She could tell whether two people were friends, lovers, or hated each other. And she could also tell when someone had recently had a connection severed by a breakup or death.
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Old 06-29-2015, 11:55 PM   #14
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Default Re: Seeking Cinematic Social abilities *short of* mind control / reading / supernatur

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Originally Posted by Eukie View Post
Musical Influence just gives up to +3 to Reaction rolls. It's probably a supernatural skill, but it could also just be the (cinematic) skill of playing music that makes people more or less suggestible; e.g. calm music to calm people down.
Whoops, mind crossed it with Enthrallment for some reason.
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Old 06-30-2015, 02:22 PM   #15
Peter Knutsen
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Default Re: Seeking Cinematic Social abilities *short of* mind control / reading / supernatur

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Originally Posted by vicky_molokh View Post
Now, there are some things that qualify. Like Rapier Wit. Or there are some cinematic Techniques in Pyramid:SE that are neither pure penalty-negators nor outright mind control/supernaturalia*, and there are the speechless Influence perks. But it feels like there's some amount of empty space in the GURPS framework for more abilities that are social in nature, not outright mind-hacking/supernatural, not boring penalty buy-offs, but still cinematic. I'm looking primarily for things that open new options of some sort.
Are you talking about social traits, or traits that somehow affect social interaction? Or both?
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Old 06-30-2015, 02:27 PM   #16
vicky_molokh
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Default Re: Seeking Cinematic Social abilities *short of* mind control / reading / supernatur

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Are you talking about social traits, or traits that somehow affect social interaction? Or both?
Primarily traits useful in social interactions, or enabling social interactions where in a less cinematic case one would not be applicable (a radical case being Rapier Wit for silly-effective in-combat insults, or Empathy to allow an Influence roll where one normally wouldn't be even allowed to be attempted).
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Old 06-30-2015, 02:54 PM   #17
Peter Knutsen
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Default Re: Seeking Cinematic Social abilities *short of* mind control / reading / supernatur

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Originally Posted by vicky_molokh View Post
Primarily traits useful in social interactions, or enabling social interactions where in a less cinematic case one would not be applicable (a radical case being Rapier Wit for silly-effective in-combat insults, or Empathy to allow an Influence roll where one normally wouldn't be even allowed to be attempted).
Well, the only idea I have, relevant there, then, are Always-On switches for Intimidation and Sex Appeal. Which really aren't all that cinematic at all.

I'm contemplating introducing a concept called Insight, that one character can have into another, usually after much time and effort, but with some abilities (such as the equivalent of GURPS' Empathy) it can be gained immediately. The problem is, I don't yet have a good idea of what Insight should do, nor if it should just be binary Insight vs not Insight, or be more fine-grained with Insight vs Major Insight, or be divided into Minor/Normal/Major.

I think much is gained by drastically reducing certain types of penalties in a falvourful and themed way, in general, but I do admit that it's rather boring. It's usually not, in itself, particularly interesting at all.
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Old 07-01-2015, 06:47 AM   #18
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Default Re: Seeking Cinematic Social abilities *short of* mind control / reading / supernatur

Grasping any conversation where you can see both speakers, or see only one speaker at a penalty. Additional penalty for not hearing them, but Lip Reading compensates. This isn't a language ability, it's more a cinematic use of Body Language. May require an additional skill roll (e.g. Physiology) for really weird species, but it will tell you "The Zgorklyn ordered the human to kill the president tomorrow, but the human insisted on getting drone support, which he got."

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.

Stuff you do gets routinely credited to others, or to random events like the weather or animal attacks. This is really good for thieves, spies and assassins.

Cool stuff others do around you, or even random happenstance, gets routinely credited to you. This is really good for conmen, but also some types of politicians and heroes.

Always pass for the smartest person in the room.

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.

You can look someone in the eye and play out a scene of what you're about to do to them. They then act in the knowledge of how things would end if this happened, but know you didn't actually do anything - useful for interrogation, threats, blackmail, etc.. The film Hero features the martial arts version. Note that the scene itself provides you no information: if you interrogated them, you only heard something like "lie, lie, lie.. truth, TRUUUUTH!" and they'll have to give you the info again.

You can look someone in the eye and play out a scene to gauge how they would react. They are not aware of the events.

A cosmic version of Social Chameleon where you never not fit in a social context, and can improvise your way through any conversation just by picking up on clues from others, and actually seem knowledgeable of the subject.
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Old 07-05-2015, 10:35 PM   #19
Peter Knutsen
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Default Re: Seeking Cinematic Social abilities *short of* mind control / reading / supernatur

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.

In a milder form, it's just extreme skill, whereas more stronger forms can be outright magical. Usage also takes some time, several seconds (in GURPS you might make the Sense-Based Limitation mandatory for non-supernatural versions of the ability) of interacting with the target, but can of course be sped up for supernatural versions (which can also get Limitations such as Touch Only, or Only On Co-Religionists).

Only some of GURPS' mental disads have Self Control Rolls, which is what you'd be manipulating, so the effect might be somewhat strange compared to in a system where "Self Control Rolls" are very widely used on almost all disads of a mental nature.

Also I think the default usage should be that the active user of such an ability should have some idea of what it is he's trying to affect, that is what family of mental disads it is he's exerting influence over to make it more - or less - likely to trigger. Not just "I goad Count Olfert to make all his mental disads, whichever one she has, more volatile" but rather something that's at least directional in nature, defined by a theme. One can then use something like Cosmic to allow for the scattershot "attack", or additional levels of the advantage with a Limitation saying that those levels only work of the mental disad is defined precisely, e.g. the character has to guess correctly that the target has a particular mental disad.

There's no precedent in GURPS for what such an ability should cost, but my thinking is that +/-1 to SC rolls is too trivial an effect to be worth all the search-and-handling, so perhaps something like 5 points/level each for Calm Flaw and Goad Flaw, each level either subtracting or adding 2 points to the SC, with some cap for non-magical use of the ability, a -40% Limitation for "User must specify a particular disad upon use", -20% for Aspected (e.g. "Only Pride/Vanity/Bad Temper and related"), and +100% Cosmic for the "scattershot" version ("I'll Goad his disads. I don't now which ones he has, and I don't care, I'll just Goad him...").

Or perhaps even +/-3 to SC Rolls per level?
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Old 07-05-2015, 11:46 PM   #20
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Default Re: Seeking Cinematic Social abilities *short of* mind control / reading / supernatur

One I've been using is here: http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=114600
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