Diplomacy (Cha)

You influence others through negotiation and flattery, or find out information through friendly chats.

Diplomacy Untrained Actions

Gather Information

You canvass local markets, taverns, and gathering places in an attempt to learn about a specific individual or topic. The GM determines the DC of the check and the amount of time it takes (typically 2 hours, but sometimes more), along with any benefit you might be able to gain by spending credits on bribes, drinks, or gifts.

SuccessYou collect information about the individual or topic. The GM determines the specifics.

Critical FailureYou collect incorrect information about the individual or topic.

Sample Gather Information Tasks

Untrained talk of the town

Trained common rumor

Expert obscure rumor, poorly guarded secret

Master well-guarded or esoteric information

Legendary information known only to an incredibly select few, or only to extraordinary beings

Make an Impression

Source Player Core pg. 199

With at least 1 minute of conversation, during which you engage in charismatic overtures, flattery, and other acts of goodwill, you seek to make a good impression on someone to make them temporarily agreeable. At the end of the conversation, attempt a Diplomacy check against the Will DC of one target. You can instead choose up to five targets if you take a –2 penalty. The GM might add other bonuses or penalties based on the situation. Any impression you make lasts for only the current social interaction unless the GM decides otherwise. See the Changing Attitudes sidebar for a summary of the attitude conditions.

Critical SuccessThe target's attitude toward you improves by two steps.

SuccessThe target's attitude toward you improves by one step.

Critical FailureThe target's attitude toward you decreases by one step.

Changing Attitudes

Your influence on NPCs is measured with a set of attitudes that reflect how they view your character. These are only a brief summary of a creature's disposition. The GM will supply additional nuance based on the history and beliefs of the characters you're interacting with, and their attitudes can change in accordance with the story. The attitudes are detailed in the Conditions Appendix and are summarized here.

Helpful: Willing to help you and responds favorably to your requests.
Friendly: Has a good attitude toward you, but won't necessarily stick their neck out to help you.
Indifferent: Doesn't care about you either way. (Most NPCs start out indifferent.)
Unfriendly: Dislikes you and doesn't want to help you.
Hostile: Actively works against you—and might attack you just because of their dislike.

No one can ever change the attitude of a player character with these skills. You can roleplay interactions with player characters, and even use Diplomacy results if the player wants a mechanical sense of how convincing or charming a character is, but players make the ultimate decisions about how their characters respond.

Infosphere Reputation

Your influence on an infosphere is measured using the same attitudes as NPCs your character knows offline (GM Core). However, your character's activities and other people's attitudes toward your character on a public infosphere are easier to find and can result in characters having a different initial attitude based on your online activities.
Using an alias can fool those who lack the skill or interest in figuring out your identity, often requiring a character to Hack or Gather Information against your Computers DC to figure out your identity and find your content. This can also result in people harboring different attitudes toward your character and their online persona. If someone discovers you are responsible for creating unpleasant content or using a repugnant persona online, their attitude toward you might worsen even if you were previously friendly with them.

Request [one-action]

Source Player Core pg. 199

You can make a request of a creature that's friendly or helpful to you. You must couch the request in terms that the target would accept given their current attitude toward you. The GM sets the DC based on the difficulty of the request. Some requests are unsavory or impossible, and even a helpful NPC would never agree to them.

Critical SuccessThe target agrees to your request without qualifications.

SuccessThe target agrees to your request, but they might demand added provisions or alterations to the request.

FailureThe target refuses the request, though they might propose an alternative that is less extreme.

Critical FailureNot only does the target refuse the request, but their attitude toward you decreases by one step due to the temerity of the request.

Infosphere Anonymity

Checks using Diplomacy are more difficult when posting anonymously on an infosphere. In most cases, treat all checks made using these skills on an infosphere as one degree of success worse, depending on the circumstances of the check and the likelihood of someone taking your messages seriously. This is especially true on attempts to Make an Impression. Treat success normally if you have real or falsified credentials, such as posting from an official account or presenting evidence of your claims.