How often do you call for Judge Intent or Composure tests?

Are these too often ignored?

When you call for these tests, what are some of the situations?

Thanks.

Thee tests do get ignored, along with many others. Despite a good base rules mechanic, SR4/SR4A suffer from a glut of little rules stuck together. Some - like Composure and Judge Intent - don't break a scene if they are handled badly. Others - like the unholy abomination of vehicle combat rules (chase and tactical) can really ruin a session. Keep in mind your GM should know when to fudge and when to just throw out crappy rules altogether - RAW will get you(r fun) killed.

As often as I need to make the game fun.

We use both fairly often...

If the characters are really into roleplaying and playing off their own attributes/skills, then there is almost not a need for these rolls. Our GM hates rolling too much on social scenes, as his NPCs are usually well-acted out. Some of our players haven't realized yet though that if you aren't looking at the GM while he portrays an NPC, you've missed out on something critical. It's not just the words, but the facial expressions and body language that is critical.

Also, it tends to break a scene down just rolling "I want to see if this jackhole is lying" with every single sentence the NPC speaks.

My take on those "stat only" tests is that they apply whever you OR the GM think it's apropriate. You're chatting with Johnson about the mission, and you (if you're smart and have done this before) want to know if you think Johnson's playing straight (not if each word is true or bulldrek). I aske for a Judge Intentions, please, GM! Of course, you're schlepping around casing a joint, and the donut-eater on the opposite corner notices you, he gets the same test.

Composure: EVERYBODY is cool as a cucumber in a deep freezer when dealing with Johnson, or the Star, or any of a thousand and one little "stressful" situations. If the GM thinks you're being too cool for the circumstances to warrant, it's absolutely time for a composure test. It's courage, nerve, and chutzpa.

Memory: Your characters have an advantage you don't; They saw, heard, smelled, touched or tasted what actually happened. That gives them a serious leg up on "remembering" things. You can call for a test whenever you need a little help from the GM with something the PLAYER (Swiss Cheese brains are such a hindrance at times) can't remember but the CHARACTER should know. Or, if the GM thinks you're metagaming a little, or you're trying to pull up details of a fleeting glance, that's a really good time for a Memory test.

Judge intent always seemed weird to me. Con is an opposed test, why is there a judge intent rule on top of that.

Composure, its a tough one to rule on when to use. How much shit has your players characters seen, what is there background? Its a very variable situation on when it should be used. I also find it odd since as will+chr the people built for killing and fighting will fold like a wuss when the scary shooting starts faster than the face who avoids violence like the plague. Sure in your background you can say you are a hardened merc but its up to the GM to take that into consideration and not have you make the test often. But whenever he does you will fold, even though you probably have more practice at overcoming your fear so you can act than the face does.

Con is for speciffic things you're tring to lie about. Judge Intentions IMHO is much more general. hink about what Police and Security personnel are taught - to make an intuitive read of body language. It only gives general information, though. That might clue you into a need to pay closer attention, like that maybe Johnson is a little too uncomfortable about SOMETHING. Is it that she's new, or here to screw us? Normal social modifiers would apply.


You don't give your fighters good WIL? Geez, it was one of the most important "Stats" of the classical medieval Samurai. Just because they've seen it doesn't mean they are stoic about it. Remember, part of CHA is sense of self (read: personal confidence). You can FAKE confidence, but that's the real thing. And WIL factors into resistance tests and Stun Track, the gun bunny's weakness.

That still seems to fall under con or one of the other opposed social tests to me. Like perception+charisma for an etiquette test. I'm sure you can come up with something I can see it working for, but it seems to mostly just duplicate existing rules.



I give them a decent Will, but rarely a good charisma. Since its stat+stat one weak stat makes it a fairly small pool. I just think its weird that due to what attributes certain character types need for there roles they are better at composure tests than the fighters. A high will and charisma might round out a sam, but with a 200 BP limit its hard to do that. Lets face it straight average stats use up 160 of those 200 points and a Sam can't slouch on Agility, reaction and body all of those are probably 5's which means you got to come up with 20 points somewhere. A sam probably also wants a 4ish intuition since speed and perception are so important to them, hey another 10 points you have to cut. I guess you could cut strength but a 1 strength fighter seems off to me, which leaves 3 attribute points to shave off of charisma, logic, and willpower. Now I can come up with builds that have a good charisma and will on a Sam but there 3 prime requisites are Agility, Reaction, and Body. So after you meet your minimum requisites to qualify for the fighter class you don't have much left over for charisma and willpower.

Now make a face there job is charisma based so a high charisma, a couple social skills are resisted with willpower so a decent willpower is needed. End result faces are better at dealing with death and violence than the fighter. Now a mage needs a good willpower and if they are a shaman type a good charisma. If you don't bind spirits and are hermetic you can let charisma slide, but look at all those bad assed composed under any circumstances Shaman. It is not game breaking or anything but it seems odd.