[Skill] Deception

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[Skill] Deception

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Name: Deception
{{#pagetitle: Deception}}
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Overview

The art and craft of deception is key to many professions, tactics, and social interactions. It is ultimately the ability to sufficiently mislead. The character with Deception could be capable of outright lies without giving their bluffs away, disguising themselves as somebody else, performing parlor tricks of illusion, concealment of a weapon, offering a diplomat a false sense of security, courting a suitor for a political marriage, or blending with an area to spy on someone, and so on.

When it comes to deception, oftentimes the ends justify the means. Whatever lie, whichever behavior, that will accomplish that which the character seeks can be fair game. Honesty falls to the wayside in favor of success. The key for the character is assuring that those who are the target of such measures find plausibility so they believe whatever it is that the deception entails.

Types of deception can include:
  • Sleight of hand
  • Distractions
  • Concealment
  • Misrepresentation
  • Omission
Examples of skills that deception can improve are:
  • acting
  • disguise
  • etiquette
  • forgery
  • gambling
  • negotiation
  • pickpocketing
  • seduction
  • stealth
Depending on the character, the following skills might support their deceptive ways:
  • discipline
  • intimidation
  • investigation
  • politics
  • psychology
  • research
  • tactics


Novice: 0-25

The Novice is more skilled than the average person at the art of deception, but they've only just begun. Their attempts to deceive can be frequent, but the success rate wildly varies with a high likelihood that their target(s) will see through the attempts. Even for those deceptions that succeed, often the target(s) realizes later on (after more thought) that they have been deceived. Low level deceptions are able to usually succeed in the moment, but any long-lasting deception will inevitably fail. The more disciplined or higher detection the target has will also impact the potential for failure.

Competent: 26-75

At competent, the character has figured out how to prolong deceptions to last longer than in the moment. They are able to succeed at low-level or relatively easy deceptions most of the time. For deceptions that involve multiple targets or many different elements at once, they will still struggle to find success. Concealing a small weapon, causing a temporary distraction, pretending to feel an emotion are all examples of what can be considered easy at this level. Hiding larger weapons, influencing others permanently about something, stealing an identity are examples of what will still be difficult and possibly result in failure.

Expert: 76-150

The Expert is a character who finds simple deceptions successful nearly every time. Sleight-of-hand? Not an issue. Concealment of items or weapons? Easy. Disguising yourself? Likely successful. Prolonged deceptions can now be carried out with a high degree of success, able to maintain deception over targets without them ever realizing that they are being deceived. Especially large crowds, such as entire groups, are prone to cause difficulties still unless used with supportive skills like tactics, psychology, and so on. At expert, the character can trick others with a fair degree of ease and not have to worry about people realizing it until they are long gone.

Master: 151-250

Whether innocent in performance of acting or storytelling, or mischievous in sleight-of-hand or stealth, or malicious in misleading or outright lying; the master of deception will likely succeed. Their targets will often never realize that they had been deceived. Even in some cases, targets who are presented with evidence against the master might choose to believe in the deception instead of accept the evidence. When paired with their skills of choice, the master deceiver is a force to be reckoned with... that is, if they allow others to see through their deceptions to realize it.
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Re: [Skill] Deception

I like it for the most part. Except one part:
The master of deception is a character who can fool even Immortals.
This, to me, is capstone territory, perhaps even multiple capstones. Immortals are immensely and incomprehensibly powerful compared to mortals. That one can spend a few seasons lying and practicing their deceptions and then be able to fool a god-like being? Perhaps even the Immortal of Deception or something similar?

I'd just argue that it's capstone territory if anything.

Otherwise, I like the way the tiers are written.
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Llyr Llywelyn
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Re: [Skill] Deception

I agree about the line itself, since that line was more of quick flavor to distinguish master from expert right-off-the-bat, less of a mechanic thing.

As for being only capstone territory as a potential option... A character who has Master Deception and uses that in combination with other high-level skills in clever ways should have the chance to fool even Immortals (such as tactics or discipline). The success potential, though, would likely depend on the Immortal, circumstances, and strategy of the deception. A GM in Deception is going to have a far greater chance of success, especially if using a capstone as part of the strategy, but I think it should still be an option as a possibility at Master.

Audrae would probably be impossible, even with a capstone, since Deception is literally her domain.

Totally open to throw in other lines that sound epic to start the Master tier blurb, but aren't that!
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Re: [Skill] Deception

Okay,

So the last thing I want to do is propose sub-categories of this skill. For instance "Knowledge: Deception (Pick-Pocketing) +2"... ugh, no...

But I think it is worth mentioning that increasing such an "umbrella" skill does not necessarily mean that every single type advances every single time.

I mean, just because a PC discovers a new Disguise technique, it does not mean their Forgery would improve as well.

Perhaps something suggesting that good plot twists and plot hooks can result from the very fact that different aspects of Deception do NOT improve unilaterally; and an admittedly skilled Actor might still place too much trust in a faulty disguise.
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