Social Tank

[Tbora]

I am trying to build a social monster how would I go about this?

The character concept is that of a Fortune 500 Company CEO turned US Senator.

How would I go about building this?

[luminos]

It's fairly straightforward.  Just give him high social skills (Rapport should definitely be one of them), high resources and contacts, and a bunch of stunts.

[Tbora]

What kind of stunts?

And how would you arrange his skill pyramid?

[fabulator]

It kinda depends on what you want him to be; a smooth-talking politician that makes a bunch of promises and never keeps them would have Deceit at the top, whereas a charismatic, honest, trustworthy guy would probably have Rapport. Presence, Intimidate, and probably Discipline will be the next tier; Scholarship, Contacts, Conviction, those will probably be your next tier. Again, it all depends on what you want this guy to focus on.

[Belial666]

First of all, pure mortal or are powers allowed?  If powers are allowed, then I got a build if you're interested.


Secondly, in almost every social situation it is better to know what other people want in it - information is power. Hence, empathy should be a high skill. The other high skill depends on how you want to deal in social situations. There's Intimidate if you want to be scary, Presence if you want to be commanding and direct, Rapport if you want to be understanding and friendly - or seductive and Deceit if you want to be manipulative.

Stick with one or two ways to deal socially and then take stunts to improve them - spreading out your refresh and skills in multiple situations will usually make you less effective. After all, in the end it won't matter how you got what you wanted in any social situation; only that you did.

[Tbora]

I want him to be a smooth talking politian that is somewhat crooked but generally keeps his word and tries to do whats right.I want him a natural leader and a very dominant personality.In addition he is good at manipulating and reading people.

He is ridiculously wealthy and has people pretty much everywhere.

And I would prefer pure mortal but show me what else you got too.

[luminos]

Just use your description of him to tell you what you want.  Social characters are way easier to stat than other characters, because its so easy to go straight from the idea to the stats.  You want him to be able to read people?  That is specifically what empathy does.  You want a natural leader?  Thats right in the description for presence.  Manipulater, but tries to be honest?  Thats rapport.  I shouldn't even have to tell you what wealth and knowing people is. 

As for the shape of the pyramid, do whatever is necessary to fit all his skills in.  If he's not going to have any abilities outside of the social stuff,  do narrow columns.  Otherwise, use broad columns or a pyramid.

[Drashna]

Honestly, given what you've listed, I'd say use Marcone (OW187-189) as a template and adjust from there.  Given the personality  that you're looking for, it's a close fit that would just need some tweaking (change a few of the stunts, and change the aspects). Other than that, it will probably work just fine.

(but then again, I'm a fan of tweaking what's already there, over creating from scratch)

[Tbora]

I need some good stunts for Contacts, Resources, Rapport, and Deceit.

I have the ones in the books already but there are not really a lot of them.

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Arcteryx]

Don't know them in detail but check out Spirit of the Century or an SRD of it online and see if they have anything that translates. I've run into some of their gun & athletic stunts that are portable and translate well. Just bear in mind its a pulp game and the flavour might not align.

[Tbora]

Don't own Spirit of the Century so that does me know good.

Any applicable stunts you might have for me (especially in Contacts) is much appreciated.

[luminos]

I'm going to let you in on a bit of a secret.  Don't use stunts.  No, seriously, don't

If you must, pick somewhere between 1-3 stunts that you absolutely know without a doubt will get used every session, and you know they'll have a good chance of being useful several times a session as well.

Reason:  Stunts are a permanent Fate point expenditure, that give the same benefits that spending a Fate point would when they are used.  If your ration of stunt use is lower than once per session, you've spent permanent Fate for something that isn't as helpful as an aspect invocation.  If your ratio is just at once per session, you've spent permanent Fate for something that will be as potent as an invocation, but does not have the variability that you'd get from the ability to choose a bonus from among 7 different aspects.  If the ratio is higher than once per session, then maybe, just maybe, the math comes out in favor of the stunt.

Stunts that give +1 bonuses instead of +2 are even worse, and need an even higher ration to be worthwhile. 

The key to picking good stunts is to choose those that are absolutely core to what the character does, so that you have a really good chance of maintaining that ratio of stunt use per session.

[Tbora]

I like stunts they are a great way to make your character unique.

I say again you might have for me is appreciated.

[Falar]

In general, I agree with what Luminos said, but I have to make the case for trapping switching stunts.

If you can justify switching a trapping from a skill you don't have to one of your apex skills and it's one of the only reasons you would have gotten that skill in the first place, the stunt is totally worth it. In that case, you're more or less getting a situational +4 or +5, which is pretty worth it.

[Tbora]

Could someone hook me up with a stunt that moves the dodging trapping to presence?