Anyone know some tips & tricks for playing a Face Houngan (Voodoo tradition) ? I'm making a Gambit-like charming rogue of afro descendant origin and coming from New Orleans.

I custom-made a Mentor Spirit based on the Erzulie Loa, with +2 for Negotiation and Guidance spirits, and the Pacifist drawback. The most obvious trick I see is using Influence to get advantages from social tests. My idea is have the spirit always possessing an object or gris-grid, while on important meetings so it can help me.

Any more ideas ? I'm not looking for super-munchkin combos here, just some cool tricks and possibilities.

Oh, its default SR5 rules by the way.

Convince is a really nice spell too...

Where can I find this "Convince" spell ? Its not on the core SR5 book, is it ?

Did you perhaps mean "Influence", TJ?

Alternately, the "Compulsion" Critter / Infected power can be very powerful in the right situations. I could see a Houngan going the extra distance to earn the favor of some Phantoms or Specters, for example - or possibly having a pet Sand Chameleon or something like that.

~Umi

Not in the Core Book, No... It is in Stolen Souls (Extractor's Toolkit, Spells).

Nope - I meant "Convince" Though Influence is also a great spell...

You want to be careful about having a spirit use its powers on a Johnson - purely detection spells and passive abilities such as authoritative tone or tailored pheromones probably fall into an acceptable grey area, but spirit powers such as Influence are likelier to be seen as the equivalent of mental manipulation spells (a big no-no, treated as a hostile act).

Hmmm, makes sense. It's not good form to deceive your employer.

Whats more useful for a face, Con or Negotiation ?

It seems Negotiation has a more guaranteed usefulness in milking cash from Johnsons through bargaining (btw, whats the rate by the book? My group plays 10% per net hit, up or down, but I aint sure SR5 RAW says this).

While Con seems potentially more powerful during runs, but very very circumstancial.

I think it's more useful to have a high Con skill rating/pool. While Negotiation is useful for the meeting with the Johnson (especially in your group), Con is what you'll be doing on the run itself. More often than not, Faces are thrown into situations with people that don't (and cannot) know them. Said Face will then have to lie. That's Con for you.
Con is also a lot more often used against mistrusting or even hostile targets, so you'll need a bigger dice pool to offset the negative modifiers.

And face ist, lying or bluffing your way out of a tight situation is easier than negotiating it (though i have seen the latter been done exceptionally well)

Also, on the spirits... I always had that idea of a spirit possessing a small snake and then have the mage masquerade it as a fancy piece of jewelry. "Wear it in" on the meeting and fire away with the Compulsion power

"Drek! Incoming!"
*Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!*
"Wait, everyone hold on!"
*Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam!*
"We can work this out! Let's make a deal!"
*Blam! Blam! Blam! "Aiiiieeeeeee!"*
"You let us go, and we'll make it worth your while!"
*Blam! Blam!* "Fritz! Fritz, get up for god's sake! Get up! They've killed Fritz! They've killed Fritz! Those lousy stinking yellow fairies! Those horrible atrocity-filled vermin! Those despicable animal warmongers! They've killed Fritz! Take that!" *Blam! Blam!* "Take this!" *Blam! Blam! Blam!* "Take that, you green slime! You black hearted, short, bow-legged..."
"Something tells me they're gonna play hardball on this deal."

~Umi

Taken from video footage of Runners trying to negotiate their way out of overdue parking tickets?

I've heard the Meter Maids in New York City are nothing to mess with.....

Lol that sounds like something that could work actually. Specially against beat cops or cheap security guards.

"BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
Wait! Lets talk it out!
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
I can give you 1k!
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!
What about 2k!??
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Aiieeeee!
3k!! 3k !!
BLAM!
Fuck, 5k!!!!
YOU SAID 5K ??
Yes! Yes!
OK, RAISE YOUR HANDS AND GET HERE SO WE CAN TALK THIS OUT"

If blam blam blam happens, it's because you failed to use your social skills.
The single best thing you can do for this character is to get the best health sustaining focus you can and keep increase charisma running all the time. Increase Charisma not only adds to all your social skills, it's your drain stat too. And unlike influence or anything else, people can't freak out about you using that spell.
My face has no mind control and sucks in a fight, but it doesn't matter, because with modified charisma of 11 and 7 in con (the goddess rewards her followers), it rarely matters.
Just start talking and waving a cred stick around before anyone else does, take charge of the conversation, and specialize in fast talk and the street sams get irritated because they never get to do anything.

Don't forget if you are cranking up the CHA, especially with the suggested Increase Charisma on sustaining, to maybe think about the Too Pretty to Hit Quality.

Again, ideally it should not get that far if you are good at the smoothtalking, but if things do get hot a winning smile can still be an asset.

Wow, that quality I crazy. Where can I find it ? Don't see it in the core neither on Run Faster.

as listed in the quote description, its on page 127 in Run & Gun.

Oops, my bad. Thanks.

Well, I have only 1 quality slot left so Ill stick to "First Impression", as it gives a nice +2 bonus to all social tests. Add this to another +2 Con from my Mentor Loa (Erzulie the Seductress) and I think its a better synergy for what Im brewing here.

BTW, can specializations start at higher than rank 6 ? I want to start with "Con (Fast Talk): 6 ( 8 )".

The major flaw with "talking your way out of trouble" is the moment you run into a security drone, or security paracritters, or even just someone who speaks a different language, you're suddenly pretty useless.

~Umi

You have to change your tactics if you're going to use social skills. Stealth is for when fast talk and negotiate and hack have failed, and combat is for when stealth has failed.
If you've convinced security that you're supposed to be there, the drones won't bother you.

edit>added the part about hacking.

Ha! Not with my old man Papa Legba around. He can speak any language in existence.

Yeah, as long as your GM handwaves away dice rolls for language comprehension.

Remember, you need 3 or more hits for anything even remotely technical - unless you've got enough dice to buy that, you should still be making rolls that you can and will mess up on when dealing with any non-native language. (Most language skills aren't going to get much above a half dozen dice, especially if you're taking ALL of them.)

"Excuse me, I need to see your (technical term)."
Uhh... I guess he wants my ID?
"What? No, not your ID - your (technical term).
Drek! What the hell does (technical term) mean?"
"HQ, I've got a possible intruder here. One last time, show me your (technical term) or put your hands up! Now!"

There's also the question of accent. If you're an American impersonating an SK lab tech in a research facility in Berlin, a crappy accent is going to give you away immediately. (I'm not even sure if there are rules for handling this sort of thing. Might have to use a Voice Mask? Even if not, probably still a Con roll?)

~Umi

Papa Legba is a tasker spirit, so he can have any language skill as I wish in the time of the summoning. Even a lowly Force 3 spirit could make it out with some Edge to help it, no ?

The problem is the old man is a trickster, so if the GM really wants, he can throw some complication. ("What, your shift ends in 5 minutes ? Why dont we hit the bar! Hey team, go ahead with the maintenance, Im going to the bar with Joe here!").

That actually is a thing now? I'm amazed and a little bit disturbed.

Call in your hacker, have him jumble the secutity interface a bit just so it looks somewhat broken, then call in the facility security staff and file a heavy complaint about a "malfunctioning" drone
Seriously, if the hacker and the face work together, they can synergize like crazy. (I may have watched "Leverage" a little too often )

You're right, though. High Charisma doesn't get you out of everything. If play your cards just right, though, it is definitely not restricted to the negotiation time with the Johnson.

Also, any face should be able to download a linguasoft just that fast in an emergency (rare languages nonwithstanding). Sweet talking bullets, though, people have not managed to do that just yet.

Yeah, it can seem kind of odd, though I suppose there are a number of way it could apply...
http://www.the-whiteboard.com/autowb461.html

Now obviously the examples used are on the same team....

http://www.the-whiteboard.com/autowb462.html

Wonder if this happens around some of the elves occasionally..

http://www.the-whiteboard.com/autowb467.html

which of course leads to...

http://www.the-whiteboard.com/autowb468.html

You just pointed me to a webcomic.
This forum is responsible for me becoming somewhat addicted to three different webcomics, the last of which was Schlock Mercenary. I read the whole thing, it's running on a comic strip per day since 2003.
Now I just clicked around on that site you pointed me to and found a Schlock Mercenary reference. This is getting really hard to not further explore now But: This time I'll save my time.

Anyway, the links you gave were hilarious, thanks.
I also like that "Roger" character, I think.

Whoa! I totally forgot The Whiteboard was a thing! I have to go reread the whole archives now, and catch up from the point where I left off.

...that's going to take forever. You MONSTER!

~Umi

You should read the whole strip, its good campy fun.

'Doc' even made a full size model of Schlock's gun for Mr. Taylor which you can see here: http://www.docsmachine.com/projects/bh209/plasmagallery.html
Power supply not included.
Though I hear Mr. Taylor does a very creepy and ominous hum when showing off with it.

Rumors persist that Schlockverse IA Division Captain Landon is based on the Doc character, but even if not there is always this:
http://www.the-whiteboard.com/autotwb1901.html
And yes, the Koala telling the tale happens to have the initial P.D. as well.


You are just NOW realizing that?

Anyway back on topic...

While you are at it, why not look at Mystic Adept for added fun like Commanding Voice (street grimoire) to tie in with your Leadership skill (you ARE taking Leadership right? )

Well, I ended up opting for a an aspected magician (conjurer) so I had higher priorities left for Atribs and Skills.

But enlighten me on Leadership and this "commanding voice", please ? (it sounds pretty much as like jedi stuff, by the way)

Commanding Voice is so much fun, but you have to save it for the proper moments or risk the annoyance of your GM.

-Info Below Pertains to 4E-

You make a short command (five words or less) with an Opposed Test of Leadership + Charisma vs. Willpower + Leadership. Multiple targets gives +1 die per target beyond the first to the largest dice pool of the group, capping at +5.

If you win the test, they either immediately carry out your command or stand confused (GM Fiat, more net hits should make it likelier they obey). The effect does not last - they perform the task, then go back to normal. Targets have to be able to both hear AND understand commands. Does not work through technological transmission or amplification. Subsequent uses on the same target(s) suffer -2 dice for each use within 24 hours.

Neat trick - pair it with Voice Control for the ability to mimic voices and "throw your voice" up to Magic x 2 meters. Since this form of transmission and amplification is magical, not technological, it works like a charm.

Had a player once use it to impersonate a military squad leader and order his platoon to "Stand down! Let them pass!", and since the Adept succeeded in the Voice Control Con Test, they took it as a real order instead of just an unexplained compulsion and kept their guns lowered. Another time when I was a player rather than a GM, I threw my voice inside of a helicopter gunship cockpit in order to be heard by the pilot and make him crash. Get creative - you can do some very cool and powerful things with it.

~Umi

Leadership is a social skill you can find in Core and pgs 141-142 cover some of it's uses.

Commanding Voice is taking it up a notch with a sprinkling of mojo to enhance your persuasiveness.



So yeah it can be a little Jedi (Jedi-lite?) but properly applied in the right circumstances can be so handy.

Sorry to derail - but was discussing the "Possession Face" with the lovely and we had to make what we'd imagine to be a "Possession face" - as in an actual pysical face.

...We're still giggling at it so far. Even the Pornomancers couldn't make worse:)

-Tir.