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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 3:36 pm 
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How to fight in social combat

The aim is to wear down your opponent's resolve; if you wear it down enough, you can persuade them to accept a deal rather to your advantage. There are many ways to do this; you can charm or argue your point with Rapport, you can browbeat them with Intimidation. If you have another skill, relevant to what you are saying, which is higher than the major skill you are using, you can gain a +1 on your roll; thus, if Arkady (who has +0 Rapport) were to make an argument that depends on Engineering, Empathy, or any other skill he has at +1 or higher levels, will roll as if at a Rapport skill of +1 (as it's clear that he knows what he;s talking about).

Alternatively, if you do not wish to directly attack an opponent's Resolve, you can set up a Manoeuvre. This enables you to put a temporary Aspect on the scene, which you or others can then Compel as you wish. (Since you're taking an action to put the Aspect on the scene, the first tag is free). For example, Nathan might spend a few minutes talking about how great an engineer Felix is, to give Felix a temporary Knowledgeable Engineer aspect, for a once-off free +2 to a roll involving an Engineering-based argument. (Most Manoeuvre aspects are fragile, and last for no more than one tag each - placing one that lasts the entire scene is possible, but harder, and tags after the first still cost a Fate point each). When attempting to place an Aspect with a Manoeuvre, it's quite possible that your opponent will get a defensive roll; in the example above, both the Man in the Expensive Robes and the Man in Black would be able to defend by rolling Resolve. Of course, there are a lot of skills that you could roll to try to place such an Aspect; Academics is always useful for flat-out declaring details, and it's quite possible, for some Aspects, that your opponents won't have the opportunity to defend against the Manoeuvre (generally, this means somehow placing the Aspect on the room rather than a character).

Offering a binding condition early in the negotiation would be a Manoeuvre, not a Concession; you could then tag that condition to improve your negotiating position from that point on.

You can all fight in this battle. It will probably go better for you if you do. Don't worry about interrupting each other.

Consequences

These start to happen as you get more and more worn down. These are not conditions added to the final deal - rather, they are consequences that affect your characters, personally. The first Consequence you get is something that you can recover from given a five-minute break - this might be something like "Rattled" or "Hiccups". You get to choose the Consequence that you take. Note that a Consequence is an Aspect and can be tagged. Both your consequences and your opponent's. When you take a Consequence, you may offer a Concession. This does not refer to a part of the final deal - rather, this is your character bowing out of the combat and thus escaping any further Consequences (aside from the final deal itself). An example of a Concession might be "Guys, I'm getting a bit worked up, I'll just go sit over there and recover while you two finish off the negotiation, okay? Try to get us a good deal..."

You are never required to offer a Concession; you can stay in the fight until the bitter end if you so wish. Your second Consequence will take a night's sleep (or equivalent period of time) to recover from - an example might be "Hoarse". Again, you may bow out and Concede at this point. If you stay on, a third Consequence will be Severe, taking weeks or months to recover from - this might include "Shattered Reputation".

If you take a fourth Consequence... well, there is no fourth Consequence. Instead, you are Taken Out, and your opponents get to decide what exactly that means. (In this case, it means that if you get a deal, it will be massively to your disadvantage).

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 6:10 pm 
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Right. This is not going to go well if we don't act together. Our best bet is to end this fast and hard, with as few blows exchanged as possible. Nate and Arkady don't have any rapport skill, so Weremench and I should use our actions tagging aspects, creating manuvers and generaly spending FATE points like sailors on shore leave, so that Felix can bring the hurt. As such we're going to have to plan our posts tacticaly. If this works as it should, Kajin, you're going to be best served by waiting to post after us so you can take advantage of all the bonuses we've laid out for you.

Lets do this thang.

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 6:32 pm 
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Sounds like a plan. You two try to set the pins up while I knock them down.

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 7:52 pm 
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As Felix is just as good an engineer as Arkady.

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 8:09 pm 
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I've already tagged those, so if you want to tag them for yourself you'll have to spend a fate point. The first tag is free, but every tag after is not. It could be that the woods are Monster Infested and have a related aspect, which you can tag to boost your roll as needed.

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 Post Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 8:42 pm 
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I wasn't out to boost Arkady's roll, I was out to boost Felix's. If that involves spending a fate point, ok, and if it needs to be recast to do that, equally ok. But adding two to Arkady's skill is hardly as useful, all things being considered.

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 Post Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 4:49 pm 
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Are we willing to accept getting a raw deal on a trade agreement if we can manage to get the merchant out of the fight? I like our odds much better if we can 3v1 the Primate with you guys maneuvering to create aspects or support my rolls. I'd be willing to accept survival now for problems later if you guys are.

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 Post Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 8:24 pm 
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Past time to post a guest star story, it seems...

Three years gone by, and Arkady was ready to be a colonist. Most of his training had taken place with his fellow colonists; but not all. He spent a year in Rome studying as well; and was summoned to a meeting in the Vatican to discuss his progress.
The trip across Vatican City was uneventful; it wasn't until he was making his way down one of the working halls of the Vatican itself when cursing in Italian coming from behind a door made him realize something was wrong. As he identified the door as a bathroom, and saw water coming out from underneath, he considered the cursing explained. Sighing, he stepped through to see if he was needed.
Inside he saw a local in the coveralls of a Roman plumbing company, by his age clearly just an apprentice; and an obvious tourist who was in the room when the accident happened now firmly moving said apprentice out of the way of a newly ruptured pipe under a sink. Arkady, who knew where the water shutoff was, quickly stepped in to stop the flood; then pitched in to help the English speaking tourist fend off the obviously overwrought Italian while repairs could be made in spite of him.
Even Arkady was impressed by the speed with which the visitor (American?) fixed the problem; adjusting a new length of pipe and fitting it in place of the old one in very little time indeed. As they then turned to deal with the Italian, they heard the door open and saw several men standing outside...one in a preposterous 16th century guards outfit, two in black, and one of them all in white. They took in the scene, then the man in white shook his head and addressed the two non-Italians.
“Gentlemen, I'm sure the local Plumber's Union will be grateful that you assisted this young man. Now please tell me who you are?” The two men glanced at each other, and the American responded “Felix False. Are you...” Arkady sighed and answered “Father Federenko, your Holiness.”
The Pope smiled slightly at that and said “Father, under the circumstances, our meeting can be delayed for a few minutes. In truth, I would rather become a plumber than a bishop myself; but it's too late for that.” Addressing himself to Felix, he says “Thank you for keeping my office from flooding, Mr False. Please, go with my aide;” he indicates one of the men in black “and we can see about finding you some dry clothes, and perhaps something decent for lunch. And now, if you will excuse me...” With that, and a glance at the local plumber, the Pope strides off to his next task while said apprentice cycles between several unattractive shades of pale.
Felix finds himself dried off, fed a fantastic lunch of Roman specialties, and given a tour of some of the Vatican treasures normally not given to casual tourists before being granted a solitary audience with the Pope. After a brief chat, his Holiness blesses him; which is memorialized in a certificate (presented by the aide) explaining the limits of said blessing. The usual time limits are, for obvious reasons, waived.
Arkady, well, the surprise of the upcoming meeting was already out of the bag; Arkady was to be one of the two Eastern rite Catholic priests elevated to ecclesiastical rank. Or it would have been, if his Holiness hadn't also explained that the soon to be His Grace, the Bishop Federenko, was also going to be given some rather intensive training in exorcism. “Yes, Father, it's normally given to older priests; those more...nearly ready to meet my predecessor. But there will be no elderly priests among the colonists; and even if you are never called on to use this training, you will be able to impart it to your successors. Perhaps (and here he grins slightly) even your descendents.”

Aspects: Defender of the (Eastern rite Catholic) Faith (Bishop), and I'm supposed to cast out Satan? God Help Me!(exorcist)

And in passing, Felix would probably not hesitate to grant the merchant what he's really looking for; exclusive rights to Terran manufactured goods for some set period of time. Foodstuffs and raw materials would not be included (and, so far as he knows, wouldn't be where the big profits are anyway). As for the Terrans, well, if the merchant can't strangle them for the raw materials they really need, he can't screw around too much with the price of the manufactured goods...the colony is supposed to be self sufficient anyway; and no matter what we ask, he can still add a fantastic markup.

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 Post Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 9:37 pm 
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It'd be better to leave the merchant in the game longer so we can keep hammering against him for one more round. Feel free to have a fate point or two on hand to tag aspects and keep Felix from getting hammered too hard himself.

EDIT
Apologies if I'm being presumptuous about these things >.>

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 Post Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2016 10:05 pm 
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Eh, Arkady already knows he's not in the theological drivers seat. He's just hoping the screeners managed to weed out all of the wannabe martyrs from the colonists.

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 Post Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 12:55 am 
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Changed my post a bit so that it hopefully makes more sense. Felix is deferring religious knowledge of the ship to Arkady (though hopefully it'll still be Felix's roll for Rapport). He then goes on to gush about what he's learned so far, since that seems more up his alley.

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 Post Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 9:28 pm 
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Ukrainian Catholicism would not be a great place to look for love of ecumenicism right now, but I suspect it's one of the rules of the ship. So with little great joy in it, Arkady is offering the local the opportunity to proselytize the Terrans.

Not mentioning that they'll be doing it right back, of course.

Though it will probably work better if any of the Terran clergy or scientists get a handle on magic.

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 Post Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2016 9:44 pm 
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I imagine that the Primate wouldn't much care for the idea of ANY of us Terrans learning magic.

That said, Felix will study it at the first opportunity. Even if he doesn't actively try to learn it for himself, he'll still study it so he can try to make sense of the underlying physics and mechanisms that make it function. He also has designs to study the gods a little bit more rigorously, should he come across any and they consent to rigorous medical study.

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 Post Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 2:18 pm 
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The Man in Expensive Robes is, I think, a little out of his weight class here. And not likely to survive this battle for much longer, I think...

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 Post Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2016 2:47 pm 
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I most certainly would not be opposed to Arkady immediately using the Moderate consequence to boost his roll by +2 and a further expenditure of a fate point on Fortune Roulette to give Arkady another +2 for a total of +4 to the roll he just made defending his faith.

If the Primate keeps such feeble company than how can his own faith be all that great?

Weremensh, if you boost your roll in that last exchange using the Consequence I'll spend a fate point to support it so you can deal a Severe Consequence to the man in expensive robes and notch off the third spot in the Primate's stress track. If not I'll tag it in my post for this next exchange to press the attack even harder.

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