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Skill Focus: Talking |
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Average Rating:4.3 / 5 |
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This work is incredible. Of all the products out there that try to tackle OGL-compatible rules-rich diplomacy systems, this one is by far the best. It covers everything from convincing someone that a bad idea was theirs (when it wasn't), to forcing someone to listen to you outside of combat, to calling a time-out in the middle of a heated negotiation... in short, it covers pretty much every social maneuver the OGL doesn't, and those it does, SF:T covers better. Awesome.
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Some very nice ideas for social skills.
Likely more useful as a "menu" to choose from and not all will likely be suitable for a given game. As one of my players said, has the possibility of slowing play if over-used, but that said does the nice job of integrating "at table role play" with "social skill ranks mattering".
1 page of cover/contents and 1 page of OGL, 19 of text.<br><br>
<b>LIKED</b>: Wide range of options presented to work with, you could not like some while getting value from others.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Very little<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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Skill Focus: Talking is a 21 page pdf product presenting a new set of rules for handling roleplaying skills and encounters. The content is suitable to any d20 genre, be it fantasy, modern or future roleplaying. The aim of the product is to provide an approach to roleplaying that allows a character's skills to be expanded and integrated more easily into a roleplaying encounter, rather than relying on only a single die roll. In that sense a roleplaying encounter plays out quite similarly to a combat encounter, with multiple rolls affecting the outcome.
The pdf comes as a single, fully-bookmarked pdf file and includes a brief table of contents. The 21 pages are devoid of any art, although there is a minimalistic cover. Writing and editing is generally good, and the pdf makes extensive use of tables and examples to summarize rules or give examples as to their use in play. One thing missing is a general table summarizing all the skills and their DCs - this would've been immensely useful in using the material. Given the lack of art and borders, this should be very easy to print out.
The pdf starts with a brief introduction to the aim and nature of the pdf, before providing a very useful example on how the new talking skills are used. The pdf provides a number of talking skills as part of the main social skills of the d20 game - Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate and Sense Motive. These talking skills can be used during a roleplaying encounter (limited to a number of times per encounter - so called talking fatigue), each allowing a skilled talker to benefit from the use of the skill. Skills can be to, for example, request favors, and detailed rules are provided on how to do it.
Each of the four social d20 skills has its own set of talking skills. Bluff, for example, includes the skill Idea Ventriloquism, which allows a talker to insert a good idea into the opposed talker's mind during the interaction. Sense Motive, on the other hand, can be used to lie smoothly, or to estimate an opponent response to a suggestion that you may have. The ruleset is complete in the sense that the various talking actions cover most of the topics one would imagine using during a conversation. Each talking skill is detailed and contains all the information required to use it. For reference, the pdf also contains all the details on the primary d20 social skills. A total of 31 talking skills are included, allowing for numerous interesting options to use when playing out an encounter.
The pdf concludes by providing some advice for gamemasters on using the interaction skills, particularly related to NPCs. The various talking skills aren't necessarily well suited to using on PCs by NPCs, given the additional knowledge that DM may have and the fact that PCs are, well, run by players. Hence a number of 'cheats' are provided, small sections on advice on how to handle NPCs and the talking skills. This is probably the only negative part of the system, in that it's not universal between PCs and NPCs like all other skills.
Skill Focus: Talking succeeds very well at making a roleplaying encounter or conversation a more dynamic affair, and hence also a more exciting one. The numerous talking skills provided add an element of surprise and mystery to a given encounter, although more for the PCs than the NPCs. The 'cheats' provide an adequate but somewhat unsatisfying way of handling NPC interactions. Overall, though, a very original and novel pdf providing a system that can enhance any game.<br><br>
<b>LIKED</b>: This pdf provides a novel and original system for expanding and handling roleplaying encounters in any d20 genre. By providing numerous talking skills, a roleplaying encounter can be spiced up and made more interesting by pitting a PC's skill against that of an NPC. An extremely useful and interesting system.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The only minor weakness of the material is that it's not equally applicable to NPCs than it is to PCs. While one can understand that it's the nature of the system (and d20 in general), it is in a sense somewhat unsatisfying. Having not actually used this system in play, it's difficult to determine what the best way to use the system is, but I suspect that allowing NPCs the same benefits as PC may actually be a viable solution, despite the pdf's suggestions and cheats. A simple note passed to a player can do wonders for allowing them to roleplay their characters based on how their characters, rather than them as players, perceive how the encounter is going.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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This is the kind of supplement that the OGL was made for! A brilliant collection of new skill checks that strike the perfect balance between roleplaying and die rolling. They will put a lot of kick into social situations without penalizing players who are hesitant (or slow on their feet) when it comes to in-character dialog.<br><br>
<b>LIKED</b>: The authors expounded on existing rules without adding any new mechanics. Plus the can apply equally to both 3.5 and Modern gamesets.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some of the checks can be used by more than one skill (like Spycraft 2.0). I would have prefered each skill getting some advantages.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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When it comes to social interaction between player characters and non-player characters in roleplaying games, there are a few unwritten rules that most successful gamemasters seem to follow. A few silly comments here and there are generally ignored. The GM may try to lead players with statements that give clues toward their character's knowledge about a situation, even if the players themselves seem to be missing the point entirely. The goal is to walk a fine line between allowing the players to immerse themselves in the role of their characters, but still let them act on context clues only their characters can perceive and utilize social skills that they themselves might not possess. After all, even a shy player should have the right to play a brilliant diplomat if he / she wants.
Skill Focus Talking attempts to gather these unwritten rules and codify them, taking some of the arbitrary decisions out of the GM's hands and tying them into the core d20 social skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive. Some of the new rules aren't very far off from the standard uses of the skills. Idea Ventriloquism, for example, allows you to make a Bluff check in order to fool your target into thinking that he came up with an idea that you suggested. A fairly straighforward use of Bluff, but these rules give an additional mechanic bonus for using the skill in this specific way. Another example is the ?Take Back? use of the Diplomacy skill. This is more of a meta-game option that allows you to amend your character's actions after the fact, effectively altering the reality of the game.
The book's format is simple and straightforward. The authors chose to include the full d20 text of each skill, and they use pagebreaks so that each skill can be printed out individually if desired. I appreciate this kind of attention to usability. It does result in a bit of redundant text, though, as some abilities are repeated from skill description to skill description. I understand the need for this, although I question whether or not most groups interested in expanding one skill wouldn't also use the others.
The final section has brief notes on using these skills as a gamemaster. A number of the new skill uses can't be effectively used against PCs. Actually, even the standard rules for social skills rely almost entirely on your players strength of roleplaying to work, and it is difficult to ask a player to behave in an obvious self-destructive manner just because of a few bad dice rolls. The book's solution is for the GM to sort of ?cheat? by overacting in one direction or another until the players naturally assume what their characters would. It might not be the most helpful advice, especially for a novice GM, but the added structure gives the GM at least some idea what to do.<br><br>
<b>LIKED</b>: The idea behind Skill Focus Talking is a good one. Striking a balance between what a character can do and a player's own social skills is an admirable goal, and these rules are a nice way to achieve that end. They work within the current rules structure, and are similar enough that you should be able to insert them without too much added complexity.
I'd also recommend this book to a GM that's merely looking to expand the uses for the various social skills in d20. You should find more than a few things to nab from this PDF.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: My only real problem with this book is its reliance on the vague NPC attitudes system inherint in the core rules. While the authors of this product obviously didn't create that system, by leaning on it they've inherited its flaws.
In a nutshell, the d20 rules allow you to shift an NPC's attitude from, for example, hostile to friendly, but they offer you little to no information as to what that means in game. The rules as written lean heavily on the GM to interpret NPC reactions, which is fine in a game light on roleplaying, but obviously clashes with the more in depth interaction rules presented herein.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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Skill Focus: Talking is a sourcebook with variant rules for several skills, published by Second World Simulations. The zipped file is slightly over 0.5 megabytes, and contains a single PDF file just under 1 meg. The PDF has both bookmarks and a hyperlinked table of contents. The book is twenty-one pages long, with the cover, credits and legal, and table of contents all taking up a single page, and the OGL taking up a second.
The product has no printer-friendly version, but one would be largely superfluous anyway. The product?s only artwork is the half-a-page image on the first page. Beyond that, the book has some small grayscale page borders along a fraction of the side of each page, and some tables and sidebars in grey.
Skill Focus: Talking is a book that tries to bridge the gap between simply rolling dice for social (that is, verbal, instead of combat) encounters, and actually having the players and GM role-play them without using dice at all. It does this by giving new uses, called talking actions, for four skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Sense Motive.
The product introduces this idea with several paragraphs showing how it?d work in actual gameplay. This is followed by a quick chart breaking down the modifiers attached to favors. If you try to convince someone to do you a major favor that could put their freedom or even their life at risk, for example, you?re going to have a much harder time making that skill check.
Following this are the rules for the skills themselves. Each skill has their base description given for ease of reference. After this are the talking actions. Each action is a use of that skill designed to do something specific. For example, you can use your Diplomacy skill to use the Demonize Target talking action. You verbally attack someone?s character, and if you make your check, the people you?re talking to have their attitude towards that person worsen. Each talking action has a static DC to hit, and most also have a modifier used when making an opposed check (the modifier is the opponent?s check result plus that modifier to beat their check).
The product ends by talking about how the GM can use these talking actions also. After all, it doesn?t work quite so well to have the NPC make a high roll and then just tell the PCs that they like this character. The gist of this section is that the GM should secretly make the check, and then verbally describe the encounter according to the results. An example would be if the GM rolled a 20 for an NPC?s Diplomacy check, and then described the NPC in terms that appeal to the players. A short, very generic section on using these skill checks in other RPG?s ends the book.
Altogether, Skill Focus: Talking does a good job of breaking some of the most nebulous skills down into more manageable subsets. By more properly codifying what these skills do, and how they do it, it?s easier (and more fun) to use them in your game. Players and GMs alike will be pleased with the eloquence presented in Skill Focus: Talking.
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<b>LIKED</b>: The new uses for the existing skills help to breakdown the limits of these skills, as well as encourage players to actually speak what their characters say.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: It would have been nice if there had been a table cross-indexing the new talking actions. While the product isn't a huge one, an at-a-glance chart showing what talking actions belonged to what skills, and their DCs/opposed check modifiers would have been superb.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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One of the touchiest subjects to bring up in an RPG chat forum is how much charisma based skills should be effected by role-playing. This discussion often leads to the role vs. roll argument, which usually leads to heated words and lengthy bans. The Role side believes that the dice roll should offer a minor bonus to the roll where as the Roll side believe that the entire dice roll should determine the results. Second World Solutions appears to have a decent compromise between the two sides with Skill Focus Talking.
Second World Simulations delicately balances the role and roll by transforming charisma based dice rolls into ?talking actions?. By allotting each skill an assortment of talking actions, it encourages role-playing without diminishing the dice roll. With an increased emphasis on the role and how it effects the role-playing, interactions between the player and dm appear very dynamic, yet still regulated by probability. This should satisfy the thespian as much as the shy guy. Players are limited to the use of these actions by their charisma scores, insuring that magnetic personalities do not dominate the action no more than the hulking brute, at least not without a penalty to the roll. It should be noted that these actions are in addition to the normal use of the charisma skills and not a replacement.
For the Dungeon Master:
One would have thought that a possible compromise between the role and roll crowds would fill a 500-page tome. Not so. This compact PDF only takes up 21 pages. Though there is no bookmark, its digestible size is easy to navigate.
The talking actions cover a wide variety of PC to NPC interactions. Force Listen will be a popular action for those PCs attempting to thwart a dangerous combat whereas Gain the Edge will be a choice option for players attempting to gain the edge at the beginning of a hardy battle. Every action has a DC that is adjusted by the normal skill modifiers. And favor modifiers. Favor modifiers are a neat little mechanic for exchanging favors between PCs and NPCs. It helps make sense when incredible rolls result in NPCs doing unexplainable actions. Every NPC dialogue encounter may have a ?favor? adjustment to it. This is a bonus to the DC depending on how big the favor is. This is different from the skill DC modifier.
For the Player:
Players will enjoy the added ?talking? options, whether they have high charisma or not. These options are meant for players whom want to add some diversity to their character.
The Iron Word
I admit, I was skeptical when I first started reading this book. I have seen and participated in far too many word battles and it frequently seemed like there was no solution. This PDF will not satisfy those hardily set on either side, but for those straddling on the fence wishing there was a way to adequately blend roll and role, Skill Focus: Talking is a great supplement.
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<b>LIKED</b>: I give this product a perfect score because of the ease of integration and how interesting they make the charisma based (and sense motive) skills. I<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Where's the bookmarking? <br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>
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Creator Reply: |
Thanks much for the kind words and detailed overview.
I did try to include bookmarks -- admittedly, not many, but covering the same as the Table of Contents. They're showing up in my version at home in the menu bar at the left. I'm using Acrobat Reader 7 on a PC, so I'm not sure if that has any impact.
Best regards,
-Steve Peterson |
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