Charm (Action)

Heroic Action Role-Play

The skill to be slick and seductive; to lie well with both words and posture and to sense when others are less than honest. A good charmer is also empathic, but there is no guarantee this makes him a nice guy.

Unskilled Use

Charm skill defaults to Mind. You can use your Charm in familiar cultures and situations, but an aborigine celebration or mob funeral is quite likely to spook you in a major way. You can flirt, but there is a good chance you will fall for your own whiles and fall in love yourself. Your attempts at persuasion are always fairly obvious to others. You can perform tricks if you have been instructed or planned them in advance, but are not capable of spur-of-the-moment trickery.

Use in Action

You can play confidence games and give a good impression. You behave like people want and expect you to behave, which makes them likely to bye your story. You are sensitive to moods and adjust well to social situation, while being able to penetrate the social antics of others. This has may uses; you are a perfect host, socialite, gambler, diplomat, negotiator, or lover.

Knowledge

You know languages and customs, fashions and human behavior. You also recognize taboos and can avoid faux-pas. You know a lot about human nature, especially as it relates to matters of the heart and/or mating rituals.. You know many colorful anecdotes of notorious rogues of the past and present.

Contacts

This skill has a very impressive contacts element. Basically, you can know anyone who fits your background. You have a little black book full of past conquests. Some of them still pine for you, and, in spite of their better judgment, would still do almost anything for you. Others have been deliberately putting money in a savings account; they plan to use this money to hire an assassin to kill you as soon as they get a clue as to your whereabouts.

Stunts

Charm stunts cover a wide variety of social situation and action uses of the skill.

Acting & Disguise

You can play out an assumed role with an opposed Charm roll. Against people with only limited knowledge of your assumed role, the difficulty is their Mind instead. Make a roll on the initial encounter and a further roll at important junctures, which generally works out to once per scene. You cannot impersonate a specific person, and need bulky clothes to change your apparent race or gender.

Distract

Basic Action

You can baffle others with tricky words and misleading demeanor. Make an opposed Charm roll; on a success, your target loses 3 shots and you can move past or by them or claim some minor boon from them. Typical uses include distracting a doorman or police officer, conning someone out of some change, or stealing an unsuspecting kiss. It can also be used to get a respite in a fight.

If your Outcome matches the target's Mind, you cause him major consternation; he loses a number of shots equal to your Outcome.

Feint

Basic Action

You gain an advantage by a quick and deceptive actions or words, causing him to stumble or otherwise make a fool of himself. This is a useful set-up both in and outside of combat. The roll will be heavily modified depending on how well you describe your stunt and use available props.

Make an opposed Charm roll against your target. If you succeed, add the Outcome as a modifier to your next skill roll against this target. You can also give away this advantage to someone else, effectively setting the target up for someone else's attack.

It you score an Outcome matching the target's Mind, you also inflict a Setback; the target suffers some direct penalty, as appropriate to the situation and how you described your outmaneuver. He might mistake you for an ally, strike past you at a friendly target, run off after some imaginary danger, or otherwise temporarily make a fool of himself.

Gambling

Basic Action

When gambling against another character, make opposed Charm rolls to see who gains the advantage at each stage. The Outcome is a bonus on your next roll. If you get an Outcome matching your opponent's Mind, you win. As in any fight, various stylish stunts can give you a bonus. Your stake is raised before each roll you make; refusing to raise ad roll means you forfeit the game. Rigged games give the cheater a bonus of +3, or possibly even more for complex cheats.

Good Cop Routine

Trigger Action (Finisher)

Make an opposed Charm roll against your target. If you succeed, you gain their confidence and they see how you are trying to work out the best for them in their current situation; they would not lie to you or play tricks on you, but they still maintain ther old loyalties and might not spill the beans to you either. Combines well with Bad Cop Routine.

Seduction

Limit Break

Charm can be used to get others to help you because of love and desire. Seduction is slow and each roll needs a limit break; this is normally 15 minutes in a calm and romantic setting but true to the action gengre it can be done in a hurry in an action scene.

Seduction requires an opposed Charm roll to work. On an Outcome equal to the target's Mind, the target falls for you. On a lesser success, add the outcome as a bonus to any later seduction roll. A failure means the mood is lost and you can't continue in this scene. The sexual preferences of the target modifies this heavily; it is generally impossible to seduce someone who is not attracted to your apparent species and gender.

Once some has been seduced, they will willingly follow and help you out. They seek to avoid conflict with their old allies, and if push comes to shove you cannot guarantee how they will react; they will try to avoid seeing you harmed, but they might make you a captive to save you later or even to have you at their mercy, or they might decide to throw in their lot with you and abandon their former allies.

Someone who you have seduced expects sexual favors from you; if you refuse them when the occasion present itself your power over them is broken, and they might become vindictive or even downright hostile. The same applies if they learn you have been unfaithful.