[Torg] Nippon World Laws

[Kansas Jim]

Steve Crow wrote:

[...]

> And these Laws are interactive. In other words, not only does the NT 
> person do something, but it interacts directly with another person. 
> Sometimes they affect only the person being targeted. Like with 
> Intrigue/Disguise, which affects the success level of the viewer's 
> Perception/Find check, rather than the NT person's disguise roll.

That's not quite the WL being interactive, it's more a case of a WL
imposing bonuses in some situations (telling lies) and penalties in
others (penetrating disguises).

> So, okay, if both parties are "in Nippon" then normally all the Laws 
> apply. But what happens when:

> a) a NT person tries to sneak, or disguise, or lie, or bribe, or claim 
> vengeance, outside of NT when dealing with a non-NT person?

In most cases the NT character gets the bonus but it turns his skill
check into a contradiction. Effects of the WL which penalize attempts
to see through deceptions will not affect non-NT characters because
they are not under the influence of the WL.

To be specific:

LoIntrigue -
+3 to Stealth: yes
+3 DN on Perception checks to detect Stealth-using character: no
+3 Charm/Persuasion when lying: yes
+3 Trick: yes
Lower success level seeing through Disguise: no

The one uncertainty I have is with the +3 bonus on bribery attempts.
That could go either way, either the WL is making the briber more
persuasive individual because money is involved or it's making the
bribee more receptive to being persuaded because money is involved.

Personally I'm not fond of their rule that a bribe involves two
Persuasion checks, I think it's just easier to treat a bribe as a
situational modifier to a single Persuasion check in which case the
WL simply makes it a larger modifier than it would be in other
realities. Going this way I'd say the situational modifier is based
on how the bribee views the amount of money being offered so the
WL effect is on him and not the briber. In which case when outside of
NT there's no bonus when trying to bribe a non-NT character.

LoVengeance - yes (as a contradiction), since the WL only affects the
person who has sworn to claim vengeance.

> b) a NT person tries to sneak, or disguise, or lie, or bribe, or claim 
> vengeance, outside of NT when dealing with another NT person?

In this case everything will be fully in effect, though it will impose
contradiction checks on whichever character is being influenced by the
WL.

> c) a NT person tries to sneak, or disguise, or lie, or claim vengeance, 
> inside of NT when dealing with someone in a non-NT reality bubble?

That would be like (a) minus the contradiction checks.

-- 
Kansas Jim, Torg guru (ksjim (at) sdc (dot) org)
Torg website: http://www.sdc.org/~ksjim/index.html