Page 84 - World of Darkness

Roll Results Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Your character not only fails to Dramatic Failure: Not only does your character fail
make headway against her competitor, she has to make to convince or distract the subject, his clumsy effort turns
some concessions or the talks will break down altogether. her against him or she is alerted to trouble. No successive
Your character loses one success from her accumulated attempts are allowed and the intended target may call se-
total. curity.
Failure: Your character makes no headway against Failure: Your character has no success in getting the
her competitor. Time to try a different tack. subject to listen to him.
Success: Your character stakes out a significant posi- Success: Your character’s blather lulls the target into
tion against the competition that may be difficult to over- a daze of compliance.
come. Exceptional Success: Your character has the subject
Exceptional Success: A bold move on your character’s eating out of his hand. She hangs on every nonsensical
part places her in a highly advantageous position that is word and may be distracted for minutes or could be con-
hard for the opposition to overcome. vinced to leave the room entirely.
Suggested Equipment: Access to legal texts (+1), Suggested Equipment: Convincing clothing (+1),
pertinent background information on the opposing party cash or expensive jewelry (+1), a genuine or fake ID (+2)
(+1), legal credentials (+2), resources to facilitate bribes, Possible Penalties: Inappropriate appearance (-1 to
kickbacks or fund luxury junkets (+3), evidence to black- -3), lack of bribery items (-1), subject hard of hearing (-3)
mail the opposition (+1 to +5)
Possible Penalties: Lack of research (-1), language Oratory
barrier (-2 to -5), lack of negotiating chips (-4)
Dice Pool: Presence + Persuasion + equipment ver-
sus highest Resolve + Composure of audience
Fast-Talk
Action: Contested
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion + equipment Sometimes your character is called on to convince a
(talker) versus Composure + Empathy or Subterfuge (sub- crowd of people to accept his assertions, calling for a rous-
ject) ing, compelling speech. This is a contested action. Roll
Action: Contested Presence + Persuasion + equipment versus the highest
Your character needs to convince another person to Resolve + Composure present in the audience. If the ora-
perform a service, to look the other way or to simply be tor wins, he convinces the crowd. If he fails, one or two
distracted for a few moments’ time. Or maybe he just wants people believe, but the group on the whole is unconvinced.
to convince some thugs to let him go. Rather than cook A tie indicates that the group is willing to listen, but re-
up an elaborate lie or ruse, he hurls explanations, excuses, mains unconvinced. In the case of a failed or tied effort,
pleas and/or trivia at his target in hopes of bewildering your character can make a successive attempt (see p. 132)
her. The intent is to achieve his intended result in the if the Storyteller agrees that the crowd is willing to listen.
confusion. Note that oratory conducted to convince a crowd to
Fast-talk is a contested action. Roll Manipulation + do what your character wants is different from a perfor-
Persuasion + equipment for your character, against the mance. The former is based on Persuasion, because your
target’s Composure + Empathy or Subterfuge. (Empathy character tries to sway listeners, while the latter is based
if your character preys upon the subject’s feelings, Subter- on Expression, because your character simply seeks to en-
fuge if he preys upon her intellect.) If your character wins, tertain or inform an audience.
the subject performs the intended minor chore, or is oth-
erwise tricked into doing what your character wants. If Roll Results
the target wins, she sees through the bluster and refuses to Dramatic Failure: Not only does your character fail
comply or needs further convincing (see “Cutting a Deal,” to persuade the crowd, his clumsy effort turns the mob
above, at this point). If the two tie, the subject is in a against him. No successive attempts are allowed and the
daze, not convinced to do anything yet too confused not crowd could try to physically silence him.
to listen. In the case of a failed or tied effort, your charac- Failure: Your character has no success in getting the
ter can make a successive attempt (see p. 132) if the Sto- crowd to listen to him.
ryteller agrees that the subject can or will still listen. Success: Your character’s speech convinces the crowd
Fast-talk can be used to achieve only harmless favors to accept his assertions.
or results, such as gaining entrance to a club, allowing Exceptional Success: Your character has the crowd
your character to “take a closer look” at the diamonds eating out of his hand. They accept whatever he says.
that should be kept under glass, or distracting a guard while Suggested Equipment: Intimidating uniform or ex-
partners sneak by. It cannot be used to convince subjects pensive suit (+1), megaphone (+1), professional sound
to perform actions that are patently dangerous or harm- and video system (+2), state-of-the-art media suite (+3)
ful. The target still retains her common sense. Possible Penalties: Audience distracted (-1), audi-
ence aggressive (-3), unimpressive or inappropriate ap-
pearance (-1 to -3), laryngitis (-5)

83
SOCIAL SKILLS-PERSUASION