Social Actions

Exerting social influence relies on the following actions.

Read Intentions

When you use Read Intentions, choose one:

• INTENTION: Figure out what someone wants from the current interaction.
• INTIMACIES: Discover someone’s Intimacies.

Then, roll (Perception + Socialize) against the target’s Guile.

Intention

INTENTION is the little brain way to use Read Intentions.

If you succeed at the roll, you learn your target’s general intent in their conversation – do they want to leave? Who do they really want to talk to? Are they lying to you?

Intimacies

INTIMACIES is the big brain way to use Read Intentions.

Before you roll, name a category or kind of Intimacy you would like to uncover – “is he married”, “who does he work for”, etc.

If you succeed at the roll, you learn their Intimacy if they have one, or you learn conclusively that they do not have such an Intimacy.

Profile Character

Sometimes Profile Character can be useful to take someone’s measure.

Instill

When you Instill an Intimacy, choose one:

• NEW: Instill a new Minor Intimacy.
• STRENGTHEN: Strengthen one of the target’s existing Intimacies.
• WEAKEN: Weaken one of the target’s existing Intimacies.

Then, roll against the target’s Resolve, modified by their Intimacies.

Evidence

All Instill actions require evidence to back up the claims you are making. You will face a penalty based on the perceived outlandishness of your claims. Evidence is any tangible substantiation that will bring people to your side – the testimony of exiled childrren, etc.

New Intimacy

If you have sufficient evidence, you can give the target a new Minor Intimacy.

Strengthen or Weaken an Intimacy

Strengthening or weakening an Intimacy requires using a different Intimacy to support it. Consult the following chart:

Persuade

Use Persuade to convince someone to take action. In order to do so, you need a strong enough Intimacy to convince them:

• An inconvenient task requires at least a Minor Intimacy as leverage. An inconvenient task takes maybe a scene or so to complete, and is not particularly disruptive to the person’s life. They won’t take such an action if they know it will, say, anger their boss or cost them income. An example would be to deliver a package to a nearby neighborhood.
• A serious task requires at least a Major Intimacy as leverage. A serious task is a significant commitment, but doesn’t represent ruin or death. They will take risks for you, but there’s a limit. An example would be to convince a guard to abandon his post, or an apothecary to sell you illegal poisons even though they’re likely to be caught.
• A life-changing task requires a Defining Intimacy. These tasks are the kind of thing that can upend a life and change a person. An example of a life-changing task would be to convince a noble to donate her whole estate and become a monk, or persuade a loyal attaché to stay behind and fight an Anathema while you escort the peasants to safety.

A Persuade action will fail if you do not have sufficient leverage.

Bargain

A bargain action is like a Persuade action, but instead of using an Intimacy as leverage, you use cash or another material bribe.

Threaten

A threaten action is like a Persuade action, but instead of using an Intimacy as leverage, you use violence or threat of violence.

After a threaten action is resolved, the target gets an automatic Tie of fear or loathing toward you, or an existing such Intimacy is automatically made one step stronger.

Inspire

The very last social action is inspire. Use Inspire to kindle emotions in your target.

Before you roll, you must declare what emotion you want to inspire. If you beat the targets’ Resolve, they are moved to feel that emotion.

They will react appropriately to that emotion. Inspire does not compel someone to act in a certain way, just to feel in a certain way.

However, an inspired emotion counts as a Major Intimacy for leverage in other actions.