tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8464498527698996815.post2278406821801969274..comments2024-03-03T03:20:20.957-05:00Comments on Ancient Faith in the Far Future: More on Careers - One Rogue Too ManyRobert Weaverhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07917387796213598551noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8464498527698996815.post-7576261141745876892019-03-06T20:33:28.338-05:002019-03-06T20:33:28.338-05:00Very good point about many players not "getti...Very good point about many players not "getting" bribery in a cultural sense. However, if it's just a way of doing business - as it is and has been in many times & places - there's no real need for a special skill. It's something any trader, business, or administrator should already be familiar with. Look at the oft-recycled "Exit Visa" adventure. Bribes there are damn near mandatory. only the type of bribe and amount are in any real question. Crawford's "friction" mechanic in "Suns of Gold", the trade supplement for "Stars Without Number", approaches bribery and it's kissing cousin kickbacks as a common business practice and does a better job because of that, IMHO.<br /><br />For my games, bribery was something "role-d" more often than rolled, if that makes any sense. Bribery or Streetwise helped a player determine whether quiet gifts were needed along with estimating who should get how much. Occasionally I borrowed the twinned "true/false" roll mechanic from MT during bribery attempts involving large sums and/or big favors. The player would roll openly and I'd roll secretly resulting in a T/T, T/F, F/T, or F/F result which kept the players guessing about whether the bribery attempt succeeded or not.<br /><br />Most times however, bribery was just another "fee" I dunned the players with. Just another "cost of doing business" as faoladh neatly puts it.Bill Cameronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02987843264254276569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8464498527698996815.post-78637756697388950002019-03-06T00:41:15.313-05:002019-03-06T00:41:15.313-05:00I suspect that the reason most players don't u...I suspect that the reason most players don't use Bribery is simply because most aren't used to thinking of it as a way of doing business, but instead think of it as a form of corruption first. Perhaps it is, but that isn't the way that everyone in the world thinks of it. Referees, too, have to leave room for bribery to be just part of the cost of doing business instead of setting off alarm bells every time that a player leaves a stack of Cr100 notes in the middle of their passport.faoladhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03691952430041394614noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8464498527698996815.post-72463817325150081722019-03-05T12:05:37.726-05:002019-03-05T12:05:37.726-05:00I long thought that Rogue, like Bureaucrat and Fly...I long thought that Rogue, like Bureaucrat and Flyer, was little more than padding. GDW wanted the number of new careers presented in COTI to amount to a multiple of six - just like LBB:1 - and so added a few very lightweight and barely undifferentiated choices. Barbarian, Belter, Doctor, Noble, Pirate, and Scientist were "No Brainers" as all those careers already had skills, stats, weapons, equipment, and ships mentioned in LBBs 1, 2 & 3. Diplomat (Retief & others), Hunter (Dumerest & co.), and (maybe) Sailor (Grimes, et al) weren't too much of a stretch especially given the game's literary inspirations. Bureaucrat, Flyer, and Rogue were merely padding to bring those 9 careers up to 12, IMHO.<br /><br />Bureaucrat may have been good for NPCs and certain type of Merchant PCs, but who needs to flesh out NPCs to that extent that often and LBB:7 later handled merchants better. Flyers' jobs weren't that different enough from Sailors, although that might the ex-squid in me thinking. I thought they could have been folded together with vehicle cascade choices providing any necessary separation. Besides, we'd have to wait for MT with COACC and the wet navy rules in "Challenge" to have all but the most generic examples of each careers' specialized vehicles.<br /><br />As for Rogue, it does exist on the same "spectrum" as Other and, while the two do "overlap", I have long thought that Rogue skewed more towards the "dark side" of that spectrum. In my hands, Other ran from almost aboveboard through scoundrel to shady without quite reaching the criminal, mobster, slaver, etc. status that Rogue can reach. A fence is an Other, a thief is a Rogue. A bookie is an Other, a leg breaker is a Rogue. A conman is an Other, a mugger is a Rogue.<br /><br />It's a rather lame differentiation, I'll admit, but I always thought the Rogue career was padding. Bill Cameronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02987843264254276569noreply@blogger.com