Diplomacy

You can use this skill to persuade others to agree with your arguments, to resolve differences, and to gather valuable information or rumors from people. This skill is also used to negotiate conflicts by using the proper etiquette and manners suitable to the problem.

**Common Uses**

**Gather Information**

You can 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 bars, markets, and gathering places. The DC of this check depends on the obscurity of the information sought, but for most commonly known facts or rumors 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.

**Retry?** Yes. You can retry Diplomacy checks made to gather information.

**Influence Attitude**

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.

*Succeed*– 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.

*Fail*– 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).

**Retry?** 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.

 Unfriendly
 Indifferent
 Friendly
 Helpful

**Make Request**

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.

 Give detailed advice
 Give simple aid
 Reveal an unimportant secret
 Give lengthy or complicated aid
 Give dangerous aid
 Reveal secret knowledge
 Give aid that could result in punishment
 Additional requests

**Suggest Course of Action**

You can use Bluff and Diplomacy together to make a request of a person, without it even realizing you have made the request.

**Check**: You can gradually coax a target into thinking a suggestion is entirely its own idea, making the creature more likely to act on the idea than if you had suggested it outright. You discuss topics subtly relevant to the request, asking leading questions and narrowing the scope of the conversation so that the target eventually decides to take a specific action you have led it to.

You first attempt a Bluff check to convince the target that your request was actually its idea. This is always treated as far-fetched circumstances, resulting in a –10 penalty on the check. If successful, you then attempt a Diplomacy check to make the request of the creature, treating its attitude toward you as indifferent for this single request (regardless of its actual attitude).

**Action**: Planting a notion and then coaxing a target into suggesting the notion himself each require at least 1 minute of continuous interaction. This can be difficult to arrange with a hostile or unfriendly creature.

**Action Summary**

* **Gather Information**: Using Diplomacy to gather information takes **1d4 hours** of work, searching for rumors and informants.
* **Influence Attitude**: Using Diplomacy to influence a creature’s attitude takes **1 minute** of continuous interaction.
* **Make Request**: Making a request of a creature takes **1 or more rounds** of interaction, depending upon the complexity of the request.
* **Suggest Course of Action**: at least 1 minute of continuous interaction.

**Diplomacy Unchained**

Characters with the signature skill feat unlock additional abilities when they attain 5, 10, 15, and 20 ranks in a skill.

With sufficient ranks in Diplomacy, you earn the following.

**5 Ranks**: The time required to influence a creature’s attitude or gather information is halved.

**10 Ranks**: You can attempt to adjust a creature’s attitude in 1 round by taking a –10 penalty. If you take 1 minute to adjust a creature’s attitude, add your Charisma bonus to the number of hours that attitude change persists.

**15 Ranks**: You can attempt to adjust a creature’s attitude in 1 round with no penalty. If you take 1 minute to adjust a creature’s attitude, the duration of the resulting change is measured in days, not hours. You can gather information in 10 minutes by taking a –5 penalty.

**20 Ranks**: You can attempt to adjust a creature’s attitude in 1 round with no penalty. If you take 1 minute to adjust a creature’s attitude, the duration of the resulting change is measured in weeks, not hours. You can gather information in 1d4 minutes with no penalty.

## **Bargaining**

An item is worth only what someone will pay for it. To an art collector, a canvas covered in daubs of random paint may be a masterpiece; a historian might believe a weathered jawbone is a holy relic of a saint. The rules presented here offer you a way of playing through the process of selling off goods brought up from a crypt, liberated from a millionaire’s penthouse, or plundered from a mafioso’s vault. They also enable players to establish contacts with local fences, launderers, antiquarians, and obsessive collectors.

### **Valuation**

The Appraise skill allows a character to accurately value an object. However, the fine arts of the jeweler, antiquarian, and bibliophile are complex. Valuable paintings may be concealed by grime, and books of incredible rarity may be bound in tattered leather covers. Because failure means an inaccurate estimate, the GM should attempt this skill check in secret.

In general, a character can sell an item and gain a +1 bonus to their wealth checks so long as the item’s purchase DC was higher than their current wealth bonus. This keeps players from getting bogged down in bargaining with NPCs over small bonus to their wealth check over an unimportant item, and maintains game balance by not allowing players to use bargaining to go overboard with their wealth bonus by buying low and selling high.

For rare or unique items, or in certain cases, the GM might allow or encourage bargaining. Keep in mind that bargaining usually involves one PC talking with an NPC while the other players wait, and watching someone else bargain is rarely interesting. Bargaining should be infrequent, and should happen only when it’s important to the story.

If bargaining goes properly, the GM can reduce the base purchase DC by up to -5 if buying something from them, or if things go poorly, raise the DC by up to +4.

 25
 30
 35
 40
 Roll of 15 or less

### **Collector NPCs**

The GM can define a few NPCs as collectors, traders, or antiquarians interested in unusual items PCs collect after their adventures. If the PCs establish an amiable relationship with these collectors over time, They can gain an additional +1 to their wealth checks after making a sale to them. This can be increased by as much as +2, and this stacks with the bonus usually gained from the selling rules.

### **Flooding The Market**

When PCs attempt to sell multiples of a durable good, the GM may not allow them to gain the +1 bonus to wealth checks to reflect market saturation in that location. For example, a border town patrolled by guards with AK-47 can always use more ammunition, but has limited use for a truckload of photography cameras, so selling the items to those particular sellers may not be worth doing.

### **Trade Goods**

Trade goods are exempt from bargaining, even in extraordinary circumstances.