Deceit

Deceit is the ability to lie. Be it through word or deed, it’s the ability to convey falsehoods convincingly. Characters with a high Deceit can easily seem much different than they actually are. They are masters of misdirection and they paint a sheen of seeming truth over the darkest lies. High Deceit characters include grifters, spies, and politicians.

### ***Cat and Mouse***

*You can use the Deceit skill for more than just dodging attention—use it to riposte a social query with a web of deception. When someone else initiates a social conflict, you may use your Deceit as a social attack skill, representing particularly convincing lies as consequences on your target. For example, if the **social conflict**  is a tense business negotiation, you might inflict Thinks I Have Honest Intentions as a consequence, potentially allowing you to exert influence over your target in the future.*

*This is a dangerous game. You are opting not to put your False Face Forward (see below), which would keep things on a safer, defensive footing. Instead, you’re going on the attack, making an active, aggressive attempt to turn the tables on your opponent—missteps are quite possible. If your opponent ultimately defeats you in this conflict, the truth will be revealed in some way. However, if you outclass your opponent significantly, this can be a powerful technique.*

### ***Disguise***

*Deceit covers disguises, using your Deceit skill against anyone’s attempts to penetrate your disguise. Such disguises are dependent upon what props are available, and they don’t hold up to intense scrutiny (specifically, an Investigation roll) without the use of stunts (representing your deep expertise at disguise), but they’re fine for casual inspection (i.e., **Alertness** rolls). You may use the **Performance** skill to modify Deceit when attempting to pull off the disguised identity.*

### ***Distraction and Misdirection***

*You may use Deceit to try to hide small objects and activities in plain sight and to oppose any perception check for something that you could try to hide, misplace, or distract attention from. When you use this skill to hide something, your skill roll indicates the difficulty of any Alertness or **Investigation**  rolls to discover it.*

*This trapping is at the core of stunts that extend the Deceit skill to do things like stage magic or pick-pocketing. Without such stunts, you may attempt those sorts of things but only in the simplest fashion possible and against markedly increased difficulties (typically at least two or more steps harder).*

### ***False Face Forward***

*You may opt to use Deceit instead of**Rapport**  to as a defense in social conflicts—such as when defending against someone using Empathy to get a “read” on you, or facing down an insult— to lull an opponent into underestimating you. This defense roll is modified by the Rapport skill.*

*If you lose this defense roll, then your opponent may proceed as usual—in attempting to hide yourself, you have blundered and revealed a truth, shown an unintentional reaction, or something similar.*

*If you win the defense, however, you may make your successful defense look like a failure. When you do this, you can provide false information to the would-be “victor” (such as, “Wow! That insult really struck home!” when it didn’t). In the case of an **Empathy** read attempt, you may provide a false aspect to the reader, sending him off with an utterly fabricated notion of you. When he later tries to take advantage of an aspect that he falsely thinks is there, it can end up being a waste of a fate point or worse!*

### ***Falsehood & Deception***

*For simple deceptions, all that’s necessary is a contest between Deceit and an appropriate skill (usually Empathy, Alertness, or Investigation, depending on the circumstance). For deeper deceptions—like convincing someone of a lie or selling someone the Brooklyn Bridge—a **social conflict** is appropriate, complete with Deceit attacks and dealing social stress. Sometimes, Deceit is the undercurrent rather than the forefront of an action; as such, the skill may modify, restrict, or complement another (usually social) skill’s use.*