Negotiating, How do you use it? Options

[GrinderTheTroll]

HI all,

Just curious how you all handle it the runners decided to negotiate the price of deal or some goods. I am looking for what other ways you've all come up with do decide if they mark is going to give over his soul as well as the Panther Cannon. :)

[hahnsoo]

Fast Talk is a common application... lie to the security guard just long enough to walk away and get out of LOS. Negotiation is one of the key skills for a Face. Some use it to convince a contact to do a favor for them, as well.

[Streak]

What is a Face? I have seen it referred to in other posts but am personally oblivious as to what a "Face" is ... short of the thing i begrudgingly have to look at in the mirror!

[mfb]

a "face" character is a facilitator, a negotiator, a smooth-talker. their job is to represent your team to the Johnson, to infiltrate by fitting in, to distract the secguard with conversation while the decker hooks into the terminal behind the guard, etcetera.

[GrinderTheTroll]

[hahnsoo]

He's a guy on the A-Team... "In 1972, a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit..." :D

[Shockwave_IIc]

Face= the public "front" that the team puts out, thus the ones that people deal with, generally Face-to-Face

[nezumi]

How do I work negotiation??

Assuming a PC is selling...

The seller makes an offer. I take the price of the object. I multiply it by the street index + .5 (more if it's not the fixer's specialty. Less if it is the seller's specialty.)

The buyer can either accept that price or choose to negotiate. Should he negotiate, he rolls his negotiate skill against the seller's intelligence, and the seller rolls negotiate against the buyer's intelligence. I count the number of net successes. The final price is the base price * street index (possibly plus or minus some, if it's the seller's specialty or not.) + or - 5% for each net success, in the winner's favor.

Should the PC be selling, he sets the 'base price' and then makes up his claimed 'selling price'. The NPC may negotiate if he so chooses, but the rules are the same, except I don't use street index (I assume the PC has already factored that into the base price). The NPC then decides if that price is really worth it. The PC may have to cut the price if the NPC simply won't go for it.

Just like in the rules, except the starting price I add an extra 50% to the original asking price so the PCs aren't negotiated 'up' (it has no effect on the final negotiated price).

[Crimson Jack]

[Charon]

[hahnsoo]

They also tend to have high intelligence, which is the base stat target number for resisting Negotiation tests, and high Willpower, which is the base stat target number for interrogation/intimidation.

[FrostyNSO]

[hahnsoo]

[GrinderTheTroll]

I make opposing parties roll an Open Test (Negotiation), then each side uses Charisma to generate successes. Net successes usually bump up/down the price 5-10%.

Any other dice methods you all use?

[Smed]

I add in a situational modifier to the target number to the side that has the stronger bargaining position. If The runners realize that Mr Johnson will get geeked if he doesn't get the run done quickly, then I give the runners a slight bonus on the test. On the other hand, Mr Johnson knows that the runners really desperately need this job becuase they owe a certain mafia getleman a large sum of money, then the Johnson gets the bonus.

[Mr.Platinum]

I don't use the dice much for rolling the results I prefer to role play it.

[Da9iel]

The only problem with that approach is that it forces lesser intelligenced and decidedly uncharismatic not to mention piss-poor negotiating people (like me) to play worthless characters. I like the dice rolls. We can roleplay the best we know how and let the dice take care of the result.

[Arethusa]

And you can like that all you want, but that mentality is fundamentally incompatible with a roleplaying centric game. I despise using dice for social situations, and in my game, that'd just be too bad for you.

Of course, it goes without saying that in a casual game without any real emphasis on roleplaying (and lots of emphasis on 'game'), dice are very significant.

Neither approach is necessarily problemed (though the latter is of necessity superficial); they're simply two very different styles.

[tisoz]

Yeah, make them walk around the room when they want to use stealth, or take them outside to fire a gun when they decide to use one of those skills, or have them run around around or climb the house when they decide to use athletics. That is all about roleplaying, too. Not roll playing.

Some people actually play roleplaying games to escape the mediocrity of their mundane lives. Good for you that you are so superior that you can just play yourself instead of a fictional character represented by some stats on a sheet of paper and outcomes decided by chance and probabilities.

[Charon]

I reward people who can roleplay convincingly their character with an occasional Karma point.

And I reward those who provide a particularly clever angle for the social interaction with a reduced TN.

But if you, the player, are stumped for a good lie and can't manage to sound convincing in a pinch when confronted by a security guard, you still get to roll your Fast talk of 8 for your faceman. You won't have a karma point or reduced TN, but you probably will succeed anyway. The character is that good.

OTOH, even if you manage to sound perfectly convincing and had a clever lie, you face a high risk of failure if you are playing a PC defaulting to his charisma score of 1. You might get a karma point for entertaining the group if you weren't out of character, though.

But you shouldn't IMO let your roleplay entirely dictate a social interaction outcome unless you have magically and perfectly calibrated your PCs social skill with your own. Or unless the outcome is of no particular significance.

Usually, your PC is much more skilled than you are, but occasionnally he's worse. AFAIC the social stats still mean something no matter how the player compares to the character. Otherwise, you can try playing SR with the amber rules or something like that.

[Kagetenshi]

[Charon]

:rotfl:

To be fair, he specifically stated he despised rolling dice for social situation.

The perverse effect of that would be that no one would invest much in social skill and charisma in his campaign. If you're good, you're good. Otherwise though luck. The end result is probably, ironically, higher combat skill than in the average campaign. ;)

[Eyeless Blond]

[Smed]

[Kagetenshi]