Supernatural Senses: BS Detector

[Tedronai]

Knowing the FULL context is one thing, knowing NOTHING about the events taking place is quite another.
At least with the compel, they can refuse or negotiate (and I'd certainly negotiate that if I was the player in question, because that's not enough information for me to make a decision on)

[Mr. Death]

Well, yes, in that case it was, "I'm compelling an aspect you don't know about. If you take the fate point, you're going to be attacked by ghouls." Obviously they're going to get the immediate result of the compel told to them so they can make a decision on whether to take it (though I've got at least one player who pretty much always takes the compel before I even have a chance to tell him what it is). It's just that sometimes telling them the aspect (in this case, the NPC's aspect was along the lines of "THE VILLAIN OF THE WHOLE PLOT") gives too much away too soon.

[Tedronai]

That sounds more-or-less kosher, to me.

I do have a talent for derailing threads, though, don't I?


Back to your regularly scheduled programming:
Haru's suggestion of Armor:2 against Deceit-based attacks is reasonable for games that allow stunts to add 2 to social attacks.
For games that require social stunts to follow the same rules as physical stunts (attack-boosting stunts are limited to +1, and must still have reasonable restrictions on when they can be used), Armor:1 would be more appropriate.

[Sanctaphrax]

I'd suggest writing this supernatural ability up as a stunt or as a group of stunts. It's the most elegant method, and it would work very cleanly.

[Tedronai]

it would work very cleanly.

Unless the desired flavour for the capability includes the concept 'supernatural', in which case, stunts would not work so cleanly to represent it.

[Sanctaphrax]

Sure it would. Mechanically they're stunts, but mechanics aren't real in game. A stunt can totally be fluffed as a power. They even do it in Our World.

[Tedronai]

Inhuman Toughness could have been modeled as a series of stunts, and then simply fluffed as a power where appropriate.  And yet somehow the designers decided to go another route.  Perhaps it's because they also explicitly state that Powers should generally be notably more powerful than otherwise-equivalent stunts as they bar one from the Pure Mortal refresh bonus.

An unusual aptitude for spotting lies could easily be represented with a stunt, if it's significant enough in power and in import to the character to spend refresh on (otherwise, just take an appropriate aspect and invoke on your mandatory defense rolls as you see fit).
A supernatural aptitude for spotting lies substantial enough to spend refresh on should be represented by a Power (otherwise see parenthetical clause above), and that Power should be more potent than a stunt to the same effect.

[Sanctaphrax]

Sorry about the slow reply, I got distracted.

I dislike the idea of high-level social powers because they change the setting significantly. Mortals, in this game, can take on supernaturals socially even if they're outmatched physically. High-level social powers make that not the case.

And low-level social powers are only marginally different from stunts. They're similar enough that making them into stunts is generally an improvement, even if you want to give them a supernatural flavour.

[Tedronai]

The pre-eminent social power, Marked By Power, costed at -1, would cost how much, again, if costed as a stunt?

[Sanctaphrax]

Hard to say. Its benefits are broad, but you can only really use one +1 at a time. And it has a drawback built in.

My experience suggests that a simple +2 Rapport stunt is probably better than Marked By Power, though. This is a big part of the reason that I prefer to apply physical attack stunt restrictions to social attack stunts.