Practical Application for Disturbances in the Force

[garhkal]

[Bren]

[ZzaphodD]

I usually allow PCs to add their number of DSP:s to their Intimidation roll..
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[Esoomian]

[Random Numbers]

[Bren]

[Esoomian]

I think there are already situational bonuses for intimidation and the like. I believe you get a +5 bonus to your intimidation bonus when you're holding a weapon.

At least that is what our GM always used. He gave the same +5 bonus to someone with an intimidating physique as well. This meant if you were playing an Esoomian, towering over the crowd you had a decent shot at intimidating people. However he also rulled that if you rolled too high on your intimidation roll someone would generally allert the authorities.

That aside what I'm trying to avoid is getting additional bonuses for having a high dicepool. Having a high dicepool should be it's own reward. you shouldn't have characters maxing out their intimidation so that they can ignore groups of four or less stormtroopers by just pulling a gun and looking badass.

We seem to have deviated from the topic some time ago. Perhaps someone should start a new thread.
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[ZzaphodD]

[CRMcNeill]

[Whill]

I never roll Intimidation for Gamemaster Characters. So Vader, being an GC, would never have Intimidation rolled for him. The same can be said for Command and Persuasion too.

PCs can't be game mechanically commanded, intimidated or persuaded at all. It is up to the players of the PCs to roleplay reactions they feel are appropriate. If someone (CG or another PC) tells a PC to do something, it is up to the player if his PC follows that order or not. I don't make players roll Willpower to see if they persevere over the fear caused by CG Intimidation. A player decides if his PC is intimidated or not and how he reacts. Likewise, a player decides if his PC is persuaded or not.

I also think it is pointless to roll for GCs to interact with other CGs. I, the GM, am the roleplayer of all the GCs, so I just decide who intimidates who and who persuades who and who follows whose orders. So, in the example I keep reading about, Vader could walk into a room and intimidate however many CGs I say he does, and the GC group reacts how I say they do, with little regard to anyone's skill dice. Now I might still give an Intimidation skill die value to a CG, but that would really be not much more than a reminder for myself how intimidating I want to roleplay and describe the CG.

In my interpretation of the game, those interactions skills are actually only for PCs to use on GCs. PCs can't use them on each other because they roleplay them out, and I just roleplay all CG-to-CG interaction. You don't want to let game mechanics become a substitution for roleplaying.

As far as the other interactions skills, I just apply a similar logic to how they are handled in each situation.

I would still roll Bargain for a CG as an opposed action to a player rolling Bargain for his PC when they are haggling over a price, but I would not roll Bargain for two GCs against each other. I just decide on the outcome of the haggling. And the rolls determine the final price, but a player still has free will to decide if his PC completes the transaction or not, and I roleplay the GCs' decisions to accept the final haggled price or not.

I do roll for multiple GCs at a gambling table if there is even one PC, because this an a group opposed roll situation. But a table of only GCs gambling against each other with a PC just observing the game, I'm not going to bother to roll anyone's Gambling skill. The story (GM) just decides who wins.

Sometimes if a CG tells a PC something and the player of the PC is skeptical of what is being said, I may then allow the player to roll his PC's Perception or Con to attempt to sense the motive of the CG to see if they see any tells or have any intuitions that the CG may be lying to his PC or not. In that case I may make a Con roll for the GC if he is lying (and just roll dice behind my screen for effect anyway if he is not), but if the PC gets no impression he is being mislead, the player still has the freedom to roleplay his PC to not believe what he was told.

I use to have a sign hanging on the front of my GM screen that was intended to just be a simple reminder for the players, "Role, not roll."
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[garhkal]

Yes.. lets take this to a new thread.
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[Bren]

New thread on Intimidation created in the Gamemaster thread. I respond to Whill's post there.

[vanir]

When I want to use "a Disturbance in the Force" with players I simply tell one secretly that Palpatine saw his little firefight at the Corellia starport on the HoloNet and used Life Sense to identify and locate his current location in real time, which he has the Force skills to do.
I relate to him nightmares he's having of Palpatine intruding to his mind as he sleeps. Things like that.
When he tries to tell other players none of them nor any npc's believe him.

Eventually he starts using terminology like, "I sense a disturbance in the Force" instead of "I think the Emperor is in my dreams" which kind of sounds a bit delusional to take very seriously.

Once the rest of the Party starts translating "disturbance" as "star destroyer on the way" we'll all get the idea eventually

[garhkal]

Lol.. Make dem scared!
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[vanir]

Hellya, I figure sensing through the Force is about what the trouble is rather than the Force itself. Rather than potentially anthropomorphise the Force I use it as an alarm bell or just a different way of looking at things.
That way it is always about why the Force is reverberating, moreso than the fact it is reverberating.

Pretty soon all the characters in the party begin to get accustomed to idea of the Force as a living energy field, but an energy field nonetheless. It is not really meant to be too much like a D&D magic system so I try to play down the Force rather than play it up in gaming.
Most of the time it's like, "Oh yeah, here goes that wacko Sabre Rake again, Force this Force that."

Not because they don't believe in the Force, they just think he's got it all wrong and it's much simpler than all that introversion over ordinary things. That's about when you introduce them to their first Force-using Darksider.