[gurps] Social Skills?

[hal at buffnet.net]

To quote an infamous line from a tv series...

"I like you.  However, I do not like you."

Now if you wanted to be brutal about it, you can always use the "Tainted by
the same paint brush" concept.  It works like this.

GM: "Ok you working together as a group openly?"

Player 1: <smugly> "Yeah, we've got Simpson "glib tongue" doing all the
negotiations, in the mean time, we're all a bunch of misfits, some of us
with odious personal habits, others with negative reputation.  Simpson will
be able to glib tongue our way out of trouble - no problem."

GM: <smiling evilly>  "Ahhh.  I see.  Ok, the person playing Simpson gets
to make a roll versus Diplomacy if he's got it, Savoir-Faire, or IQ-5.  Let
me know how much youu make it by."

Player 2: "I'm playing Simpson.  I don't have Savair-Faire at an awfully
high level, but I have Diplomacy at 13.  I rolled a 9, which means I made
it by 4."

GM: <smiling particularlly evilly> "Ok, you know that if you hang around
those people with a bad rep, you will start to gain an odious personal
habit "Hangs around people with bad reputations".  The worst your Odious
Personal Habit penalty can be is equal to the worst reputation of the
person you hang with, minus 1.  Minimum of -1.  The Odious personal habit
will eventually translate into a bad reputation "Hangs around with ruffians
and criminals".  Depending on how many of those who are in positions of
power see you with those riff-raff, will determine how quickly word gets
around.

Player 1: "HEY!  That's not FAIR!  The glib tongued one paid 20 points for
his advantage, he should get its full worth!"

GM: "Listen, if you take ambidexterous and then cut your right hand off,
you lose the benefit of it no?  Same thing with social advantages.  If you
spend time with the criminal elements or the geeks or the nerds or those
who pick their noses in public, chances are, people will lump you in with
those you hang with.  So, if you want your glib tongued dude to be at his
best, I suggest you not do anything that will negate his advantages."

The thing to keep in mind is that people remember things such that
sometimes you may not remember WHO the person is, but remember who the
person was with.  If you've got players who want to be glib tongued and
social monsters, and the "Team" works on the principle that the one player
will offset all of their disadvantages - remind them gently, or not so
gently, that each player with their player character will contribute to the
whole of the campaign.  One player who has a -4 social modifier will often
be doing things that will make the other one with a +5 reaction modifier
work hard to keep things in balance.  Also?  Remind the players "Why is
your character hanging around the "Jerk"? or "Why are you hanging around
those who are known criminals?  While it may not solve all of your issues,
it may help :)

For what it is worth, a bunch of players watched in open disbelief as one
of the playing group's character assassinated a high ranking religious
official as well as the Brother of an Emperor.  They were told in no
uncertain terms, that the authorities were treating them the same as their
friend, because they were known associates of the assassin.  They did
everything they could to prove they were NOT his friend and turned him into
the authorities the first chance they had.

                                   Hal