Saturday, 1 July 2023

Befreinding, with the new Charisma rules

 A new advantage to the Charisma (verbal combat) Rules is befriending animals.

Befriending and Animals

So, We start with the same 'Trust' score between two parties, In this case since an Animal is instinctual you start with distrust (unless the animal is already domesticated) and violent/afraid. (fight or flight response)

The Player performs actions that would appear to be friendly, but since they are different species, would either require animal handling, knowledge of that animal type, and/or knowledge of perfumes & scents of that animal, to provide enough bonuses to have any impact.

The Player performs a Charm vs Distrust roll, (attack vs defence) and the pass by ratio might have a + modifier to the effect roll. (just like STR / DEX or skill rolls can affect the pass by, CHA / WIS / LKS and or skills can affect this roll) to 'build trust' in the animal.

Any fumbles or fails, will result on the creature making that fight/flight roll. If the character defends themself, trust will be often lost as the creatures attack was likely a 'telling off' for the transgression, rather than an actual attack. 

If Trust ever reaches Zero, the creature cannot be befriended for game purposes, Dragging out prolonged trust/distrust scenarios between a player and a creature will likely bog down the game, and the rest of the players will be unhappy to continue.

Standard ways to improve the Charm roll, might be, offer appropriate food, or for semi-intelligent creatures, offer shiny or items with the right kind of smell, such as a leather strap worn by its mother, 

As of now, the levels are:

Enemy->Hated->Disliked->Neutral->liked->Friend->Brother

and

Complete Distrust->Distrust->wary->Neutral->general->trust->absolute trust.

Either side of Neutral (0) are levelled skills in terms of how much 'trust xp' is needed. 

i.e. to get from Neutral to Liked, you need a score CHA (+ LKS bonus) + liked of 24. 

to get from Liked to Friend, you need a lvl 2 liked score of 24. 

Trust starts not at Charisma, but at your own trustworthiness score. If you score at a 7, then you will start trusting others at a 7. 

In the FULL Rules version, Trust and Friendship also have 'high' and 'low' moment variants, So the modifiers will change based on past behaviors, this is more for Solo play rules, but can still be useful for introverted players who wish to play charismatic characters. 

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