Skills: Charisma

1. Skills: Charisma

   #1

   Note that most of these skills must be roleplayed out: it's no use just saying "I charm the barmaid" or "I convince the lawyer".
   
   Charm
   
   This skill lets you sweet-talk susceptible individuals for whatever reasons you might want...
   
   DMs can apply modifiers: e.g. a religious zealot may be more difficult to bribe than a sexually-frustrated city guard or naive barmaid.
   
   Charm can also be used socially, just to make people think how wonderful and nice you are.
   
   Lying
   
   This skill lets you lie well. Very contrived lies can have modifiers at DM's discretion. A success means you have convinced the lie-ee that you're telling the truth.
   
   Argument
   
   This skill lets you argue convincingly. Opponents must also test against their Argument skill, and whoever loses first becomes overwhelmed and realises they cannot win. See also Haggling.
   
   Musical ability
   
   The ability to play one instrument. As with languages, more than one instrument requires more than one instance of the skill.
   
   Story-telling
   
   Hold audiences enraptured with your stories with this skill. It can be used to convey messages or just to entertain.
   
   Haggling
   
   Like the Argument skill this is used in competition with an opponent. Whoever loses first is persuaded to buy/sell whatever it is you are haggling about. If one of the parties does not have this skill, the Argument skill may be used with a -10% modifier.

2. Skills: Charisma

   #2

   Interrogation
   
   This skill allows you to use the force of your personality to cow others into giving in to what you want. While it works best if you have some form of visible threat, particularly skilled individuals can make people beak out of sheer force of personality.
   
   The DM may adjust results based on the victim's personality - a grizzled barbaian will be harder to intimidate than a young barmaid...

3. Skills: Charisma

   #3

   I guess I am a minimalist when it comes to online roleplaying and prefer the freeform way of things, but I can also understand the need for skills.
   
   My thoughts are, if you have to roleplay a skill, then it is not a measureable or rollable skill. It should be demonstrated, not rolled for at all.
   
   Charm, lying, argument, story-telling, haggling, and interrogation are all skills that can and need to be roleplayed during the game, so what is the use of rolling for them? The skill should be inherent in the person playing the character and it should be shown in the posts.
   
   So you say you want to play a dude that is awesome at haggling and can interrogate anybody and get any information. As a DM, if you don't have any real life skill, or at least a good way to demonstrate the ability, I would say try again. Play something you can "play." For the most part, if somebody wants their character to have a behavior, they usually know how to at least fake it, it may not be the most perfect way to go about it, but if they put on a good enough show, I let it go. I don't need a roll to tell me how they do, I want the character interaction tell me how they do.
   
   Music is another story, you cannot show that online so a roll should be performed for it, but the others...I think they should speak for themselves. If somebody wants to haggle, then let them try and haggle in character without the benefit of the dice. After all, if you are going to require them to haggle in the posts as you mentioned, and they are horrible...are you going to let them roll a good dice roll and 'pretend' they did a good job even though in their post they couldn't have successfully haggled with a three year old ?
   
   I think skills should be limited to physical actions for the most part. Things that take skill but cannot be demonstrated in typing. Your looks can give you bonuses of course, but the outcome should be in the skill of the player shown in the character. I disagree with skipping or ignoring the true results roleplaying will give if a dice roll is good enough. Might as well cut it down to a dice roll and skip the roleplaying part if that is how it happens. IMHO
   
   I would limit skills in this catagory to a generic bonus for these actions vs an actual skill to improve.
   
   Music, writing poetry, reciting can be skills, but anything that needs to be acted out should just get a bonus to the attempt.

4. Skills: Charisma

   #4

   I fully agree (in the most part), hence my comment about requiring such scenes to be played out. However, the DM needs to know how the NPCs will react to the player, and instead of making reaction rolls (as is customary in AD&D anyway) this would provide a viable alternative. Obviously the conversations, the haggling, the arguments should be acted out, but in order to decide what the outcome is, die rolls are always a possibility.
   
   However, I do agree that the whole concept of charisma needs reworking. Maybe if we included Appearance as another skill (agility or brawn) then we could dedicate this whole section to another standard attribute (e.g. wisdom).

5. Skills: Charisma

   #5

   My feelings continue, the DM needs to know how the NPCs will react, not by the die roll, but by how it is played out. I don't know how it will turn out till the interaction takes place and I will make the decision based on that interactions.
   
   The only time we ever rolled die, for the most part, was battles and physical trials, hence my post. All NPC/PC interaction was just that, interaction. So I am probably biased from the beginning by my roleplaying experiences and not counting on the dice to solve problems, we usually bowed to simple common sense and natural reactions (in character) that led to most interaction type results.

6. Skills: Charisma

   #6

   Personally, I'd say the die roll could detrmine the NPC's attitude prior to the attempt, if a DM didn't have a preset attitude.

7. Skills: Charisma

   #7

   Now that makes more sense. We could go back to the random chart thread started by manfred for business'.

8. Skills: Charisma

   #8

   In that case should we discard the charisma skills and revert to a wisdom category instead? I know what you're saying, Strolen, and I must say I've played games without any dice before. It's only because systems sometimes have reaction rolls that I suggested it at all.

9. Skills: Charisma

   #9

   I'd say to keep it as it is, but to use the rolls to determine the reactions of the NPCs before they get RP'd with. This can be helpful if they're trying to do something you didn't expect with an NPC - like trying to capture and talk to a brigand.

10. Skills: Charisma

    #10

    Yep. Keep skills, roll before the talking, to see how is the mood today in this regard, perhaps to see the first approach. Then let him talk. In case of ambiguity, a roll may still help to decide.
    
    You have Etiquette at 10 points, yet roll 99. The lady you try to speak seems indifferent. You wave your beatiful hat low, and manage to stuck its feather into mud. The lady laughes mildly at your incompetence... maybe it is not lost yet. What do you say now?

11. Skills: Charisma

    #11

    'A feather? How did that get there? ~Remove the feather and drop it on the ground."
    
    Anywhere, in most all freeform roleplaying games I've played I could be one of the most charismatic peope. Yet, it's not charisma, it's intelligence, and a more correct word would be wisdom. Lying, arguing, musical ability, haggling...This is all part charisma and part either intelligence, wisdom, or a mixture of all three. Charisma is basically based on two factors, "Appearace" and "Wisdom." So...Hm...
    
    Also: Maybe a woman is attracted to dark and mysterious men, or maybe she's attracted to galant and stout knights, or maybe wise and cunning magi? The type of person, and the type of NPC, should be factored into it.

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