Charisma.
You can use this skill to persuade others to agree with your arguments, to resolve differences, and to gather valuable information or rumours from people. This skill is also used to negotiate conflicts by using the proper etiquette and manners suitable to the problem.
Check: You can change the initial attitudes of nonplayer characters with a successful check. The DC of this check depends on the creature’s starting attitude toward you, adjusted by its Charisma modifier. If you succeed, the character’s attitude toward you is improved by one step. For every 5 by which your check result exceeds the DC, the character’s attitude toward you increases by one additional step. A creature’s attitude cannot be shifted more than two steps up in this way, although the GM can override this rule in some situations. If you fail the check by 4 or less, the character’s attitude toward you is unchanged. If you fail by 5 or more, the character’s attitude toward you is decreased by one step.
You cannot use Diplomacy against a creature that does not understand you or has an Intelligence of 3 or less. Diplomacy is generally ineffective in combat and against creatures that intend to harm you or your allies in the immediate future. Any attitude shift caused through Diplomacy generally lasts for 1d4 hours but can last much longer or shorter depending upon the situation (GM discretion).
If a creature’s attitude toward you is at least indifferent, you can make requests of the creature. This is an additional Diplomacy check, using the creature’s current attitude to determine the base DC, with one of the following modifiers. Once a creature’s attitude has shifted to helpful, the creature gives in to most requests without a check, unless the request is against its nature or puts it in serious peril. Some requests automatically fail if the request goes against the creature’s values or its nature, subject to GM discretion.
Gather Information: You can also use Diplomacy to gather information about a specific topic or individual. To do this, you must spend at least 1d4 hours canvassing people at local taverns, markets, and gathering places. The DC of this check depends on the obscurity of the information sought, but for most commonly known facts or rumours it is 10. For obscure or secret knowledge, the DC might increase to 20 or higher. The GM might rule that some topics are simply unknown to common folk.
Gossipmongering: A Diplomacy check involves spending some time with people, making them feel comfortable so that they spill the beans. A canny character can devote this same attention and casual conversation toward planting information. The character spends the evening (or other social time) interacting with people and makes a Diplomacy check, opposed by the community’s Knowledge (gossip) check, adding its Awareness modifier. If the character is successful, he has just introduced a rumour in the community’s gossip mill, with effects to be determined by the GM.
Appraise Community: A good leader knows the ins and outs of his community. A great leader knows about his neighbours, too. A chieftain can make a “diplomatic” visit to a neighbour, or the leader of a band of explorers can take a look at a town they are visiting. Either can get an idea of what the community has available in terms of resources, products and defences with a quick pass among its inhabitants. A character can make a normal Diplomacy check in a couple of hours, with the normal DCs for general, specific, restricted and protected information and gain knowledge of one of the following items from the community’s statistics per point of Wisdom bonus (minimum of 1): an ability score, a total skill bonus, a feat, the Wealth bonus, the community’s philosophy, the minutiae of its government, one of its factions, or the benefits of allegiance. The character can add the community’s Reputation bonus to his Diplomacy check — after all, if the community is already famous, he already knows which questions to ask.
The character decides what information he wants to dig out, and the GM decides how obscure the information is. For example, a community with the Nanotech Usage feat may be very open about it (a general piece of information), or keep its secrets open only to a privileged few (a restricted or protected information) and claim their nanotech manipulation resources are some sort of magic.
Debate: Most communities in the Gamma Age experience a healthy paranoia when strangers arrive in the town; and since survival is rarely assured for many of the townsfolk, some have an equally healthy suspicion of the own leaders, questioning the leaders’ decisions if they seem unwise. For first contact with another group or for dealing with her own followers, a character can use the fine art of debate, revived by instinct and talent in the Gamma Age to address immediate realities rather than lofty philosophical concepts. Debating by using the Diplomacy skill consists of wearing down an opponent’s resolve by rebuking his arguments one by one. It may not win the victor any friends, but it does give her the right to that title.
Debating is a long and drawn-out process, and it may be trying for the impatient. A debate is a series of opposed Diplomacy checks; each opponent begins with a number of “argument points” equal to her Will save bonus plus her Intelligence modifier. For every 5 points that the result of the winner’s check exceeds the loser’s subtract one argument point from the loser’s pool. If the debate is performed by roleplaying, particularly devastating arguments and evidence can give from a +2 to even a +10 bonus on the Diplomacy check. The first opponent to lose all of her arguments points loses the debate, whether she was actually right or wrong.
Debates are not only formalized discussions between two leaders. These rules can apply to any exchange of words that involves one person swaying the opinion of another through carefully chosen arguments. This includes a doctor arguing the case for nanotech as a cure to a community that sees all Pre-War advanced technology as blasphemy, a sentient animal debating its own intelligence with a confused pure-strain human, and everything in between.
The GM adjudicates the result of the character’s debate win (or loss). Unless some other result particularly suits the occasion, the loser’s attitude towards the winner (as described above) drops by one step, but he cooperates with or acquiesces to the winner. The attitude of any crowd watching the debate improves by one step towards the winner.
Sway Allegiance: There are some allegiances that survive by proselytizing or evangelizing, actively recruiting new members into their ranks. The process of convincing others that one’s philosophical leanings are the right ones is a much more delicate task than simply debating with the intention to win. The proselytizer must convince others that they are wrong, and they must feel good about it. Parleying with someone to sway his allegiance is useful for planting moles in a community or getting help in a hostile community. A character can sway another’s loyalty towards her allegiance, or towards her own person (although this is much more difficult). The character can even sway the listener’s leaning towards a third allegiance, provided she has not revealed that she does not follow it; people have a hard time shifting their beliefs towards something the person talking them over to it does not appear to believe. The DC for this check depends on the attitude the other person has towards the allegiance the character wishes to sway him from.
To sway the allegiance of her target, the character must reduce his original allegiance to hostile either with an outrageously good check or by working him slowly by performing one check per day, although she must state her goal before making the check.
Once the target’s attitude towards his allegiance is hostile, the character can try to convince him to adopt another allegiance, inverting the process using the normal DCs for Diplomacy checks to improve the target’s attitude towards the new allegiance. To consider the proselytizing a success, the target must have a friendly attitude towards the new allegiance.
Action: Using Diplomacy to influence a creature’s attitude takes 1 minute of continuous interaction. Making a request of a creature takes 1 or more rounds of interaction, depending upon the complexity of the request. Using Diplomacy to gather information takes 1d4 hours of work searching for rumours and informants. Other uses of Diplomacy can take varying amounts of time depending on the context; the GM should adjudicate.
Try Again: You cannot use Diplomacy to influence a given creature’s attitude more than once in a 24-hour period. If a request is refused, the result does not change with additional checks, although other requests might be made. You can retry Diplomacy checks made to gather information.
