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Mordoth
So, I've never played a face, and have never been clear about the primary role of a face.

Most of the games I've played, the Face seems to be the guy who talks to the Johnson or the Fixer, does the negotiations and gets the runners paid. But after that point, they seem to be more of a liability during the actual run, i.e. they don't fight well, they go down when they get hit, etc.

So why have a character that is dedicated to being a face when it seems like anyone with a high CHA attribute and a couple of skills can do the job?
Nath
I think you're hitting two different problems at once with you question: what is the purpose of a face, and what are the requirements to be a face?

The primary role of a face, or any other characters for that matter, is to use its unique abilities. So to say that any character with the attribute and the same skills that faces have can do a face job is not a bug, it's an integral part of the definition. That's exactly how it's supposed to work on a mechanical level. The rest, ray-bans and suit, is flavor, just like mohawk haircut, bushido quotes or feathers and ancestors calls can be to street samurais and shamans.

The thing is, face abilities come cheap when compared to other roles or archetypes (Magic attribute and spells, initiative enhancements, cyberdecks in non-4th editions...). It can take a while before a character can take on the street samurai or hacker role, while it can be pretty fast, or even done at chargen, to widely encroach onto face territory. And so are face "unique abilities" not so unique.

Additionnally, face job is mostly not done during combat. So other archetypes can do the face job, and still do their thing during combats, while face get nothing to do during combat (depending on the gamemaster, hackers and technomancers can get a similar treatment).

Faces should be the ones that acquire equipment, information, plans and access codes along with the hacker, outside help or at least non-interference from gangs, cops and corporations, and avoid some combats through intimidation or lies. But all of that ought to take place before combat. And there's a whole different debate here, not about role, but about the on-air time spend each role gets.
Glyph
Social skills are like combat - you can have a specialist focused mainly on that one niche, or you can have someone decent at that area even if it isn't their main specialty. So there's nothing wrong with having someone who can negotiate or shoot depending on what the situation calls for. Just like combat, someone who concentrates on face abilities will outshine someone who dabbles.

A face who does go all in should have plenty to do, though. It's not just that one negotiation roll against the Johnson. The face should have a Rolodex of contacts that can provide information and services, and be able to acquire gear that the other runners need. Shadowrunners depend on a network of other people who provide things like weapons, safe houses, and fake IDs for their very existence; they also frequently deal with other dangerous people where the threat of sudden violence looms. The face helps them through this dangerous terraign, cutting deals and soothing ruffled egos.

The run itself can also be a place for the face to shine. Just sneaking past that guard tower, or kicking the door down? The face isn't that important. But a run can potentially involve a lot of social engineering. You may need to bluff your way past a guard, or lure a mark from a nightclub to a hotel room, or be impersonating a janitorial crew.

Social skills can vary in usefulness depending on the campaign, though. A lot of Shadowrun's resolution systems can get glossed over by impatient GMs, and some areas of the game become more important because they are focused on more. If every run turns into a shoot-em-up, or the group prefers to play out social encounters without rolling the dice, then a dedicated face may not be the best thing to play.
KarmaInferno
If all you're doing is combat, combat, combat, then no, a face isn't going to be that useful after the initial job negotiations.

That said, it's doing the game and setting a grave disservice to play it like a typical murderhobo rpg.

Open combat is usually the LAST thing most runner teams want during a job. Most plans revolve around accomplishing a goal with the minimum trouble. Being able to talk your way past obstacles is often part of that, and where the face shines. To be really effective, a face needs multiple social skills at high levels, which is more of an investment than many characters can afford if that's not their main job. (Inversely, though, faces need to be at least okay at other roles as well)

Playing a face in the past, I for example have: 1) gotten critical information out of a celebrity target by posing as a holovid reporter at a high society function. 2) after quietly kidnapping a local politician, posed as him at several public locations engaging in activities highly damaging to his election campaign, like joining a Humanis rally and announcing several anti-metahuman law proposals. 3) convincing a corporate facility that my team was a film crew on site to record a company fluff piece on the excellent work the facility was doing, thus giving us access to restricted areas. And even 4) just keeping a bar full of patrons distracted while the team did something in the back.

In all cases, it wasn't JUST my face doing all the work, the rest of the team all had their roles to make the overall con game work. The TV show Leverage (who have writers that are Shadowrun fans) sums it up nicely: Hitter, Hacker, Grifter, Mastermind. They all have to work in concert to make the job a success.


-k
Blade
Any role in Shadowrun (at least in SR4, looks like it's harder for some roles in SR5) can be filled with just a few BP/karma. It won't be as efficient as a character who focuses only on this role, but it will do the job most of the time.
Some roles are easier to "multiclass" than others, and Face is one of them. However it's still possible to have a character who focuses only on the facing. For example you can invest in ware/powers/spells and knowledge skill (or knowsofts) to be able to alter your appearance, look like anyone else and even act the part, or you can invest in hacking abilities in order to be able to dig up the dirt or supplement your social engineering.

But to me, playing a Face is more about the approach than about the stats. Many runs can be solved by having the Face get other people to do the job for the team (without paying them, or not as much as the team is payed), and many situations can be solved using social skills (and sometimes a few extra tricks like illusions or drones with loudspeakers and/or holographic projectors). In "Style Over Substance" (link in signature), I've written some stuff to give inspiration for this kind of mindset.

EDIT: The part I had in mind (Shadowtalks are mostly unattributed)

QUOTE
Master of Puppets

I don't like using guns, or any kind of violence. It's highly dangerous, uncertain and
worst of all, tiring. There's always the stealthy way to do things, but that's even more
tiring, having to evade all these surveillance systems and patrols... I prefer to do
things like riggers do: sending someone else to do the job. But since I relate better to
people than to machines, I send (meta)humans rather than drones. I don't hack their
brains, or cast spell at them. I just know how to ask them to do it. And that's what
I'm going to explain to you here. It's not so complicated. All you need to do is think
like a face, prepare like a face, and act like a face.

Thinking like a face: When Mr. Johnson gives you the mission, many people ask
about the physical, matricial and magical security. Then they try to find how to do it.
They ask about physical, matrix and magical security and try to find ways around it.
You shouldn't. What you should ask yourself is “who could do it?”, because you know
who walks around the physical, matrix and magical securities all day long? The people
doing business there.

Let's take a few examples: the classic “steal the prototype” run. Can't you just get
someone who works at the place where it is to send it to another place for one reason
or another? The “investigate this” can sometimes be delegated to the local police or
other people who'd have an interest in knowing the truth (as long as there's no
damage done to the client). Hell, I even did a wetjob by convincing the target to do
something that led to his accidental death.

And that's not just for the mission itself, but for many smaller aspects too. For
example let's say that confrontation with a group is inevitable. Rather than going in
guns blazing, you can send people there (for example cops for a mafia operation or a
rival gang for a gang) or you can find ways to win the fight without fighting it. You can
do this by pretending you've got a huge advantage (illusions can be useful for this) or
if the enemy group is too eager for combat, by making them fight amongst
themselves.

So in all situations ask yourself: “who can I get to do what I need?” and “what would
get him/her to do it?” and finally “how can I do that?”

Prepare like a face

As we've seen, you have to focus on the people. And just like the hacker will probe
the nodes he might have to hack and the mage will make an astral recon on thee
target, you'll have to do some background checks. And just like the hacker or the
mage, sometimes you'll have the time, and sometimes you won't.

If you've got time, try to get the profile of the people you might meet. Two important
things to know are their psychological and social profile. The first is about their
personality: are they introverts or outgoing, are they dominant or submissive, are
they pragmatists or idealists and so on. The second is about the groups they belong to
and how they rate themselves inside that group, what they think of other groups,
which groups they want to be part of and so on. With both, you should have at least
an idea on what's the best approach to adopt. Knowing their story is always a plus:
not only can it help you establish these two profiles, but it can also give you elements
to use to approach them. Look for things they're not proud of. You can use these
either to make him do something as an atonement for it, or to blackmail him.
There are many different ways to get data one someone, but searching the Matrix is
still – in most cases - the fastest and easiest. Some people share a lot about their
private lives on the Matrix, making them easy targets, but that's not the case
everywhere. If they don't but have a SIN, they leave a digital trace nearly everywhere
they go, and parts of these traces are very easy to access with little to no hacking
expertise. Purchases data are both easy to get (shops need to be able to access them
to offer specific advertising) and very useful. With some knowledge (and a good
analysis software) you can easily get someone's psychological and social profile with
just these. If they don't have SIN, things get trickier, and you sometimes won't find
anything at all on the Matrix. In that case, just do it the old-fashioned way by nosing
around his neighborhood or tailing him.

If you don't have time, that's another story. They say not to judge a book by its cover
but that's exactly the best thing to do in a pinch. Seriously, most people don't try to
deceive you with their appearance. Quite the opposite, actually. They'll often try to
affirm their identity as much as possible in their style, from the way they dress to the
way they talk or even walk. Even if they're in a constrained environment (a place with
a dress-code and or where social interaction are following a protocol), they'll try to
express their individuality with some trinket or another. Of if they don't, then it shows
something about them as well. I can't teach you how to gather all the necessary
information just by looking at someone, that's something you need to train. But once
you know how, you can get a pretty good idea of someone's social groups just by
looking at him for a few minutes.

This is less true in the Shadows, and in some higher society circles, where
many people adopt deceiving looks to get an advantage over people who
think they know them.
>>

Act like a face

Now that you know who your target is, it won't be hard to find how to best
approach him. Now it's a matter of using the tools you have at hand. You'd want to
give yourself the appearance that will fit the best. That's when spells, powers,
implants or disguise kits and adaptative clothes come in handy. And then... you're on
your own. There are some many ways to persuade someone, and each case is
different, so I wouldn't be able to give you a complete list on how to speak to
someone.
Unless the person has been warned recently, is paranoid, is expecting trouble,
is used to people like you or is actively looking for cons, he will take him some time to
realize that you're trying to fool him. You can raise your chances by giving him the
impression that whatever you want is in his best interest. So even if you make some
mistakes, don't follow exactly the protocol and so on, the person will think you're tired
or just incompetent before thinking you could be trying to deceive him.

It's a bit like people will check your fake SIN a second time when the first
check has raised an error rather than consider it's a fake. That's because
most of the time, they've got legimitate customers using real SINs, so when
they've got a problem, chances are it's a false alarm rather than a real one.
>>
Unless you're ork.
>>


So keep your calm and don't pull a gun as soon as something wrong happens.
If the shit does hit the fan and the person starts threatening to call security, either
remain calm all along - if you've got a way to explain yourself with security -, or just
leave quietly. Most people don't want the hassle of calling cops/security, if they can
get you to leave, they'll be happy enough. And that's when you can't save the
situation. So keep your calm.

Adepts powers, spells, ware or drugs can help for this, but if you want to go
all the way, you can use a personafix. You'll be completely convinced that
you're who you're supposed to be. The problem is that you can start acting
in the interests of your personafix rather than your own.
>>
Yeah, right... do the job chipped, what could possibly go wrong?
>>


I guess this covers the basics. Once you've mastered this, you can start trying
it with chain reactions: pushing someone in one direction so that he pushes someone
else in another direction and so on, until everything fall into place and you smile in
your chair saying “everything is going according to the plan” (or laugh diabolically if
you're so inclined).

You forgot something crucial in the “act like a face” section!
>>
What?
>>
Take credit for everything that goes in your way even when you're not
responsible for it.
>>
Beta
A bunch of excellent answers, so I'll just toss in a couple of other quick thoughts:

The thing about some other character with a decent charisma throwing a few skill points into social skills is that, like with combat, most of your rolls will be opposed, and if you follow the book many of them will also be at a mechanical (ie rules) disadvantage: the other side is suspicious, you are ‘only dealing with grunts’ who don’t have amazing stats or skills – but they add their professional rating to their social contests, etc. Not to say that it is impossible (especially for shamans when they can get away with boosting their charisma), but as with a face in combat others who try to step in for a face have a harder time influencing the conflict in your favour, and are more apt to ‘go down’ (which often is very bad for the entire group).

That said, it all depends a lot on your group. If the GM and/or players have little patience for running cons, if the GM isn’t interested in NPCs taking bribes to not do their job, if you don’t normally play security hassling the runners away from the run site, etc. – then a face isn’t as key to the whole thing. I’m running a one player game with the one player being a generalist shaman, so we keep the social contests out of the high risk zone generally, and yah he has enough social skills, charisma, and edge to generally handle negotiations and ‘hanging around bars to get information’ type situations.

As for a Face once combat has broken out, their build should take that into account. It may not be something they can afford at creation, but they should be investing in their own protection – your fancy armored clothes are not the right outfit for going into a Zero Zone, you want heavy armor for that sort of thing. A little bit of carefully chosen and high grade ‘ware can add some more soak dice. And their role should not be so much trying to drop opponents, but to support your heavy hitters. Suppressive fire from good cover, shooting at someone to lower their dodge pool, tossing smoke grenades, just using Leadership to buff the team, etc.
Wounded Ronin
QUOTE (Nath @ Oct 7 2016, 04:09 PM) *
I think you're hitting two different problems at once with you question: what is the purpose of a face, and what are the requirements to be a face?

The primary role of a face, or any other characters for that matter, is to use its unique abilities. So to say that any character with the attribute and the same skills that faces have can do a face job is not a bug, it's an integral part of the definition. That's exactly how it's supposed to work on a mechanical level. The rest, ray-bans and suit, is flavor, just like mohawk haircut, bushido quotes or feathers and ancestors calls can be to street samurais and shamans.

The thing is, face abilities come cheap when compared to other roles or archetypes (Magic attribute and spells, initiative enhancements, cyberdecks in non-4th editions...). It can take a while before a character can take on the street samurai or hacker role, while it can be pretty fast, or even done at chargen, to widely encroach onto face territory. And so are face "unique abilities" not so unique.

Additionnally, face job is mostly not done during combat. So other archetypes can do the face job, and still do their thing during combats, while face get nothing to do during combat (depending on the gamemaster, hackers and technomancers can get a similar treatment).

Faces should be the ones that acquire equipment, information, plans and access codes along with the hacker, outside help or at least non-interference from gangs, cops and corporations, and avoid some combats through intimidation or lies. But all of that ought to take place before combat. And there's a whole different debate here, not about role, but about the on-air time spend each role gets.



In popular movies and shows, the concept of a "face" works because most of the other characters are so outlandish they wouldn't actually be able to get anything done socially or with employers if they were working on their own. So the original pop culture idea of the "face" is someone who can appear credible and exhibit basic professionalism so that the group of misfits can interact productively with society and get the story moving from point A to point B.

Therefore, in Shadowrun, the "face" is the guy with the charisma and ettiquette skills in the event that the rest of the party is looney tunes, or so badass and aggressive that they've gone full circle into socially retarded. That's all it is, because as others have pointed out there isn't a huge amount of points or resources you can spend on "face" stuff.

So, someone could be both a "face" and another role, or arguably the "face" is not needed if the rest of the party has basic ability to interact with employers, etc. However most of the time SR characters seem to be over the top cartoon characters so there's a lot to be said for someone who can talk nicely with people who want some assurance that their tasks will get done.
Sinboy666
I just got done playing a face. It was a mystic adept that used her magic to augment her social skills. I based the character loosely off Jodi Foster in 'Inside Man'. She was a shrew negotiator who always seemd to have a little something to use on the party.
Some of my favorites:

1) Convinced the Gangers it would be more prudent to NOT try and mess with the heavy cybered trolls (Twin Brothers)

2) Convinced a guard to let us go because I knew his dirty little secret.

3) After a hit squad from Corp A killed my hook up from the night thinking she was me, I called her daddy who ws an ewec at Corp B, who not only gave us back up, but later owed me a big favor.

Also remember, a face doesn't have to me a player's primary roll. Ive played plenty of charasmatic Street Sammies and Merc before.
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