[X] My Assistant

[GoldenAri]

[Siege]

[RedmondLarry]

[GoldenAri]

Well, isn't that just crap-tastic. I've always let my players buy them at a one to one thinking that that was how it worked, and they still never do.

[Rev]

[mfb]

just have it refresh at the same rate as kp.

[Talia Invierno]

We've refreshed it using a rough "scene" concept: one full set of transactions with the persons directly involved - which is more or less what Rev already said. (GM's call, obviously, but we've never had issues over different understandings of what constituted a "full transaction".) Module situations make it even more straightforward: social pool would refresh at the end of each module chapter.

Consider, however, what the average CH is selected to be in so very many (not all!) cases: and extrapolate what the social pool would be. I think I'm one of the few who regularly plays PCs who do make it large enough even to consider splitting.

Edit: I've seen quite a few posts on Dumpshock as to how useless this pool is, roughly 3:1 against v. in favour, so that may have shaped part of my perception of the "average".

[Siege]

How often do you throw large amounts of dice in Social interactions?

Negotiations: throw dice versus target's Willpower, the opponent does the same.

Where would the social pool fit in? Add dice to initial skill dice and perhaps save some for Willpower.

I'd like to see something like a Social pool, but so far I can't figure out how to make it fly and be reasonably balanced.

-Siege

[Tiralee]

[Talia Invierno]

Using a Shadowbeat (hostile interview) template allows the target to resist using IN (wits), CH (charm, force of personality), or WL (just sheer stubbornness/obstinancy).

No reason there should only be one way to resist being manipulated!

[spotlite]

A social pool! I wrote some rules for something similar once. The details aren't that important but I was building an 'entertainer' adept, someone with some unique adept powers. There was a sonic damage one which cos about double what killing hands does, for example, and a metamagic technique similar to cleansing but worked on active emotions - it could be used to calm or incite a crowd, or defuse a tense situation with the sound of the adepts voice doing something appropriate like singing or negotiating, and in effect all it did was lower social test target numbers. I wanted to introduce it for my players but never really got around to it, but it introduced a new social pool to make some of the powers work, but I couldn't justify not making it available to normal characters - there are plenty of people who are especially good at the sort of things it applies to who are completely mundane. It was as yours is, 1/2 CHR and INT.

As for how often it refreshed, it refreshed every combat turn. But if you weren't in combat, we have a standing rule generally anyway that 'combat turn' no longer means 3 seconds. If you aren't rolling inititiative, we work out what your average initiative is (using 3 as the average dice roll), and give you that many actions or tests before your pools refresh. So if you are decking, and not rolling initiative, your pool will only refresh every three to five actions - however long those actions take to accomplish, unless you trigger a combat encounter or time becomes a pressing issue and initiative needs to be rolled. The social pool would've worked the same way - if you had 2 actions by the above system, then you could make a Negotiation (bribery) check to get past the guard on the gate, but unless you rolled for initiative between then and needing to fast talk your way past the secretary, to the exec's office, the pool wouldn't have refreshed. Equally if you're just ringing round contacts for information. Your pool will need to be split amongst them.

Its a house rule, and subject to interpretation, but I think it would work (it certainly does for the other, canon dice pools), and I say go for it.

[Bölverk]