Deception

This broad skill represents a character’’s proficiency at deceiving

others through conversation and face-to-face interaction. Whether a

character tries to bluff his way out of trouble, bribe a suspicious

official, fast-talk dim-witted thugs into confusion, or gamble his way

into a small fortune, this broad skill covers all verbal tricks and

subterfuges.

Although the use of Deception or any of its specialty skills can

affect the attitude of someone who is victimized by the skill, this

shift in attitude is not necessarily long-lasting. Sometimes even the

slightest change in a situation will spoil a character’’s ruse, or

perhaps require another skill check to see if he succeeds in

perpetuating his trickery.

A character’’s Deception situation die is modified by his target’’s

Intelligence resistance modifier. In addition, the Gamemaster may

award bonuses or penalties depending on past dealings or other details

that may come into play. The greater the level of success the

character achieves, the more convincing his deception appears to be.

Bluff

This specialty skill represents a talent for misleading or

deceiving through false bravado or outright lies, or deterring a

character by displaying extreme (and probably unwarranted)

confidence.

Bluff is used to determine the result of a character’’s trick, con,

or bold-faced lie. No matter what other props a character may use

in a bluff attempt, the most important component is the

character’’s attitude and verbal interaction. This is the ability

to make another character believe something that isn’’t true.

On a Critical Failure, the bluff is seen for what it is, and

the target becomes Hostile or Combative. On a Failure, instead

of having a positive effect, the character’’s patter is considered

to be annoying and condescending. On an Ordinary success, the

bluff works for the immediate scene, although no change in

attitude occurs in the affected character(s). On a Good

result, the target’’s attitude toward the bluffer improves by one

grade (Neutral to Friendly, Friendly to Charmed, etc.) for d8+1

time units before he figures out that he was tricked. On an

Amazing success, the target’’s attitude improves by two grades

for d12+2 time units before he figures out that he was tricked.

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Bribe

Whenever a character wants to offer another character money,

goods, information, or services to get that character to do what

the character wants, a bribe check is called for.

On a Critical Failure, not only is the bribe refused, but the

target becomes Hostile or even Combative. In all cases, there’’s no

way he’’s going to accept the bribe.

A Failure result means that the bribe is refused, and if the

character wants to try again he must raise the value of the bribe

being offered. Each subsequent Failure result adds to the size of

the bribe until the character either rolls a Critical Failure

(with effects as described above) or achieves some degree of

success.

An Ordinary success indicates that the bribe is accepted, but

the attitude of the target is unchanged—a Hostile guard will

accept your money and let you pass, but if he sees you again he’’ll

still be Hostile.

On a Good success, the bribe is accepted, and the target’’s

attitude improves by one grade for 2d6 hours or until the

character does something to change the relationship. (Bought

friendships only last until the money runs out and usually require

a steady flow of cash or favors.)

On an Amazing result, the bribe is accepted, and the target’’s

attitude improves by two grades for 4d6 hours or until the

character does something to change the relationship.

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Gamble

This specialty skill represents a character’’s proficiency at

various games of chance. With each purchase of the specialty

skill, the player selects a different game (subject to the

approval of the Gamemaster) for his character to be skilled in.

With a successful gamble check, a character can estimate the odds,

determine if a particular game has been rigged, count cards, spot

a cheater or another skilled gambler, and increase his own odds of

winning.

A gambler can improve his odds of winning either by playing

skillfully and honestly—or by cheating. If a character plays

honestly, the winner in a gambling contest is the one who achieves

the highest success level, with each tie representing an increase

in the stakes. A gambler’’s skill check is made with a -2 bonus

if he is playing against an untrained opponent (someone who

does not have the Deception broad skill), with no modifier if

playing against a trained opponent (someone who has Deception

and perhaps also gamble, but at the same or a lower rank), or with

a +2 penalty if playing against a **trained opponent of a

higher skill rank**.

If a character decides to cheat, different modifiers apply: a **-3

bonus** if playing against an untrained opponent, a **+1

penalty** if playing against a trained opponent, and a **+3

penalty** if playing against a **trained opponent of a higher

skill rank**. Payoffs are better, however, depending on the check

result that ends the contest:

On any Critical Failure, the character is caught cheating. On

a Marginal success, he wins the pot; on an Ordinary

success, he wins the pot plus a side bet equal to half of the pot;

On a Good, he wins the pot plus a side bet of an equal amount;

Amazing, he wins the pot plus a side bet of twice that amount.

As an option, you may use the “Character vs. Character” rules on

page 63 to determine the outcome when characters gamble against

one another. In this case, however, the size of the pot is agreed

upon before any dice are rolled.

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