Honeybee: Now, the big giant tablet alone is 23 feet tall. Are you telling me you can't read a 23-foot-tall copper tablet, Mrs. Tuntley?
Tuntley: I don't have it in front of me.
Honeybee: Okay, so you admit that you would need a 23-foot-tall giant tablet to be right in front of you in order to be able to read it?
-- transcript from Season 3, Episode 4 of comedy cartoon The Great North
Fast-Talk (IQ/Average) is the skill of talking others into doing things against their better judgment. Sometimes it may just be what you need to get a stubborn character to do something new, or to help someone get "out of their own head" when they're spiraling (although Psychology may be preferred).
If you have Fast-Talk at 20 or higher, you get +2 to all reaction rolls where you're allowed to talk!
Fast-Talk and Acting[]
"Colonel, I thought you said you'd never drink again..." "Ah, well uh... I found it was good for my heart, in moderation."
Fast-Talk is different than Acting--it's used to get someone to make a snap decision. You could likely use Fast-Talk to cover for yourself when your impersonations fail...
Bluffing Big Time[]
"I'm summoning the spiders. [...] Hundreds of them. Thousands. And all of them at my command." -- Spider-Man, who cannot actually summon spiders
You can use a quick contest of Fast-Talk vs your subject's IQ before an Intimidation attempt. If you win, you're get +3 to your Intimidation. However, if you tie or lose, your Intimidation fails automatically, and you suffer a "Very Bad" reaction instead of just a "Bad" one!
Counters[]
Fast-Talk is often countered by Detect Lies,[1] and by keeping a cool head. Sometimes a fast-talker may keep on talking and it merely becomes a contest of wills to get them to go away...
Things that Help[]
- Voice (of course)
- Having a good starting argument
- Roleplaying shenanigans
Things that Hinder[]
- If you're Easy to Read, it gives opponents a +4 to resist your fast-talking.
- Low Empathy (-1)
- Oblivious (-1)
- Shyness (-1 to -4)
- Stuttering (-2)
- Truthfulness (-5)
References[]
- Basic Set p.195