Speechcraft

Overview

Speechcraft is your ability to convince people with words. You may use it to persuade, command, suggest, make other people give you things, etc. Simply put, it's your ability to influence or control others. Speechcraft is rolled for against Willpower.

Uses

You can use Speechcraft to convince someone to do something, to not do something, to convince them, etc etc. Its uses are really only limited by how persuasive you are and what you're asking the other person to do. Here's where Difficulty Level (DL) factors in.

Everything you attempt to do with Speechcraft has a Difficulty Level. Basically, on a scale of 0-10, it's a measure of how hard it is to convince someone to do something. For every DL on the attempt, you take a -10 penalty to your Speechcraft roll. Each time you attempt Speechcraft on a given person in the same day, they get a +10 bonus to their Willpower roll.

Here's an example of how Difficulty Level might be determined. In the end, it's the decision of the current GM/Ref/Owner. If there's a dispute, the decision is made by the highest ranking person that isn't involved.

0 DL is for minor things, usually persuasion. "Get me a soda", "Shut up", "Go bother someone else."
1-3 DL is for more major things, such as trying to quell a heated fight or to convince someone when there's evidence against you.
Use common sense for 4-5 DL, which would be for asking someone to do something that they strongly disagree with.
Be very careful with using DL 6+. DL 10 is supposed to be virtually impossible. Anything above DL 5 is extreme, as that's at least a -60 penalty on their Speechcraft roll.

Modifiers

There are a number of things that can affect the success rate of Speechcraft rolls. Acting GM/Owner/Ref can choose to add a penalty or bonus depending on circumstances that are left up to their judgment.

• Affection Bonus: Due to being inherently distrustful of you, people with 1* or 2* affection for you get a +10 bonus to their Willpower roll against your Speechcraft.
• Affection Penalty: Due to being inherently trusting of you, people with 6* or 7* affection for you get a -10 penalty to their Willpower roll against your Speechcraft.
• Distress: Characters in a state of panic or distress are more open to suggestions and suffer a -15 penalty to their Willpower roll against your Speechcraft.
• Inebriation: Characters that have their judgment in some way impaired suffer a -25 penalty to their Willpower roll against your Speechcraft.
• Distrust: Characters against which you have failed Speechcraft attempts against get a +20 bonus to their Willpower roll against your Speechcraft for each time you have failed. The number of these bonuses they get decreases each day by 1.

Intimidate

See article: Intimidate

• Intimidate is an ability that can be used with either Speechcraft, Charisma, or Strength. It allows you to startle or panic someone, putting them into a state of Distress and making them more susceptible to Charisma, Speechcraft and Deceit rolls. For more information, see its article.

With MAX Speechcraft

With 100 SPC besides modifiers, you gain the following ability.

Dominator (Ability) :: Once a day, you may demand a task of any NPC of lower level than you and they will perform it without a SPC check. Exceptions to this rule are suicide, and outright murdering friends or family of affection 5 or higher.

The Speechcraft Plus

The + in Speechcraft effectively raises your Speechcraft skill by 25, allowing you an additional +25 in Speechcraft rolls.