As you explore the game world, you are going to become involved in conversational interaction with other characters in it. These people are called non-player characters (NPCs). An NPC is a character in the game world who is not a member of the party and thus controlled by another player, but is instead controlled by the GM. NPCs can be influenced by your character’s skills. Using your verbal skills to influence NPCs will probably be a very important part of your game. For example, if you want to get a shopkeeper to lower his price so that you can afford something, you might use the Haggling skill. There will be many times in the game when you want to change the behavior of some NPCs. Influencing them to behave differently is the role of Conversational Actions. Note that most conversations do not require rolls. You do not need to perform conversational actions to ask questions or engage in normal conversation, only when you want to control the outcome in a specific way. When you decide that you want to influence an NPC,
tell the GM the skill that you want to use and which motivation you want to appeal to in the NPC. You need to be able to describe how the motivation is appropriate to the conversation. This is an important choice because if you appeal to a motivation that is strongly pronounced in the NPC, the NPC is much more likely to be influenced. For example, you are trying to convince a greedy noble to provide monetary assistance to the party for purchasing equipment. If you choose to appeal to his Acquisition motivation because you know him to be greedy, you can tell him that you need the equipment to go and retrieve a vast treasure and that, upon your return, you will repay him twice what you borrowed. Since he’s greedy (has a high Acquisition motivation value), he is likely to be convinced by this argument. If you had chosen instead to appeal to his low Nurturance, your chances of convincing him would be slim to none.
Uou don’t get to know the NPCs’ exact motivation values. However, if you engage in conversations with them, you may get some clues. Additionally, the more you interact with people of the same culture, the more likely it is that you will be able to predict which motivations are strong in that cultural group. You are strongly encouraged to engage in conversations not only when absolutely necessary, but also to build rapport with the NPCs in the area and feel out their cultural leanings.
Once you have chosen a skill and a motivation, the GM will check the NPC’s Disposition and the value of the motivation you are appealing. First, to gauge the importance of that motivation to the NPC, the GM will subtract the value of the motivation you’re appealing to from the highest-value motivation the NPC has. Next, the GM will add the NPC’s Disposition value to the total, then place a number of dice on the table equal to that number. These are called Resistance Dice. So, if your GM presents you with five Resistance Dice, you can be fairly certain that either the NPC is hostile to you or you choose a poor motivation. If she instead presented one or two dice for resistance, you would know that you are appealing to a strong motivation or the NPC is a good friend.
Conversation
Step Conversational skill you Tell the GM what want to use
Step motivation you wish to Tell the GM what appeal to
Step The GM will present Resistance Dice Step 4 appeals, go back to Step If you want to change Step 5 Roll your skill dice vs the GM’s resistance dice Step 6 The GM will describe the outcome
The presentation of Resistance Dice represents the first few seconds of conversation. It is a rough estimate of how the NPC is reacting to your attempt. If you wish, you can decide to abandon your attempt at this time and the GM will tell you how the NPC reacts. Depending on what you were attempting, they may or may not shift in disposition. The GM will adjust the disposition in secret, though she might give you a clue of the impact in the form of body language or commentary from the NPC. However, this shift will be much smaller than would result from rolling the dice and failing -- if you start to lie and then change your mind, it might be picked up on by your conversation partner or it might not, but if you lie and the NPC is unconvinced, the damage to the relationship will be severe. Keep that in mind when you are making this decision.
Alternatively, you may choose to appeal to a different motivation. You may decide that you want to try and salvage the attempt somewhat by changing your tune. Choose a different motivation and the GM will present you with a new set of Resistance Dice. However, this time the GM will add to the number of dice to represent the awkwardness of changing your tactics mid-conversation. It is possible that you may end up hurting your cause by doing this, but it is also possible that you may improve your chances of success. The risk is yours to bear. Consider it carefully. If you do change motivations, you are committed both to rolling the dice and to the new motivation, whatever its value might be.
Once you have a final number of resistance dice, you can resolve the action. You roll a number of dice appropriate for your skill level in the skill you are using. Your results are compared to the GM rolling the resistance dice. If you have more successes than the NPC, you succeed at your attempt and the GM describes how the NPC reacts. If you have fewer successes, you fail at your attempt and the GM describes the consequences, and may secretly adjust the NPC’s disposition towards you. Disposition changes may be described by the GM, but they may also not be evident to you. Secret grudges are common and you may not even know someone actually hates you until it is too late.
Disposition:
Every NPC will have a Disposition towards your character. This represents her attitude towards you and it can range from very friendly to very hateful. Disposition will have an enormous impact on your interactions with that NPC and you may find it worth your while to attempt to improve an NPC’s disposition before you attempt influence them to do something on your behalf. The Socialization skill can be used to influence an NPC to be better disposed towards you. A friendly NPC may help you when a hateful one, in the same situation, would leave you to your fate. Even worse, a hateful NPC may actively try to harm you. The GM should never explicitly tell you the Disposition of any
NPC, but she may give you clues in the form of body language descriptions and the use of indicative phrases. For example, if an NPC tells you that she would love to help you because she really respects you for helping her friend, odds are good that she has a good Disposition towards you.
Disposition Friendly - Positive - Indifferent 0 Negative Rivalry Hatred +
Resistance Dice
An NPC rolls a number of resistance dice equal to her maximum motivation value minus the motivation being appealed to, plus a number of dice equal to their disposition.
Example:
The NPC’s highest motivation value is 7. The motivation you chose to appeal to has a value of 4. Her disposition towards you is Friendly (- dice). Resistance Dice = (7-4)- = dice
Note that because the GM is the only one who knows the NPC’s exact motivation and disposition values, she’ll do all this math in secret.
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