At 06:17 PM 12/22/2000, you wrote: >I find that the best way to work out "scrutinize vs his charm" situations is >to let the characters describe what they do, say, think, etc. If they say >something that makes sense, like, "I notice that Bob's been acting funny >when he's around [NPC with supercharm], so I'm going to try to concentrate >on carrots when I talk to him", I'll give them some kind of bonus to their >die roll. > >It works pretty well, and it rewards the PC's who's players are observant. I'm not sure that will work well with my players. It wasn't quite applicable to the situation--although, looking back on it, it could have been if they'd gone about it differently. For those that might care, here's how the situation played itself out in the finale of the Brave New World short campaign: I made them all roll the dice without telling them what it was for, at the very beginning of the session. I then looked at their sheets to figure out the appropriate skill level and dutifully wrote it all down. They went through the massive firefight with the henchmen, and then the bad guy comes out at the end and peacefully surrenders, speaking calmly and sounding reasonable. I tried every non-in-your-face technique I could think of to get across to them that it was a calm and reasonable situation. I described him, the impressions he gave off, the way he was speaking (even attempting to get it across in my own mannerisms, like a good little GM), and what not. They refused to come down off their "Grr, ug, we the PC good guys, you should be afraid of us!" attitude. "Tell us why you are doing this!" (Look menacingly at lethal arrow knocked in bow). He calmly gives his answer, and repeats "Either you must kill me or arrest me. Which is it going to be?" So I started getting a little more insistent. "Look, he seems so darn reasonable. You feel a little silly threatening him." Then they started saying "We knew there was going to be a Charmer! I get a roll!" I smiled and held up my little sheet with numbers on it. "You didn't make it." The one guy who'd rolled phenomenally started to squawk, but I pointed out to him that he'd been wounded pretty good and was currently being bandaged and not truly paying attention. He didn't argue with that. Being shot at close range makes even a PC a little out of it. They turned him over to the authorities. In the end, I'm not sure I'm happy with how it went, even as I'm not sure how I could have done it differently. Making the roll at the beginning was a good idea, and only one of them came (even with bonuses from knowing the possibility might be there) even close to getting what he would have needed -- and he was injured at the time and under medical care. But even still...I guess it was irritating that they didn't take any clues from what I was saying and only when I waved the Rules and the Dice Rolls at them did they fall in line with what I was trying to get across as the PC perception. It was frustrating. Jennifer ---------------------------------------------------------------- GMAST Home Page: http://www.phoenyx.net/gmast/
