Hi folks,
I need your help here to wrap my head around the idea of the Info- and Psywarsystem. I think I get the theoretical idea of how it works, but the core rulebook lacks examples of how it looks like in praxis.
So, for example, if a hacker tries to breach into a private home computer with a firewall of, for example 8, but only manages to deal 5 damage. What then? It’s not like all systems are able to “fight back”. Does the hacker simply attack again and again until the first breach is reached? I understand that in an action RPG, often time is of the essence, so maybe the next security guard could be walking around the corner if the hacker takes too long, but sometimes the players do have enough time on their hands.
And it gets more complicated with Psywar in my opinion. If you’re in a deadly fight with blades and swords and you realize that your opponents are simply overpowering you, you try tu run or negotiate. But how does it look like in a Psywar scene? Let’s say, for example, my group has captured a smuggler and tries to bring him to tell them where he got certain drugs from. How would a Psywar scene look like in action?
Because in my head it looks like this:
PC: “Tell me, or [insert threat] will happen to you!” PC manages to deal 4 damage, but 3 more is required.
NPC: “No, my supplier will kill my family if I tell you!” NPC manages to deal 3 damage??
PC: “We’ll find your family, too.” PC deals 2 damage.
NPC: "Well, I won’t tell you.* NPC deals 6 damage, lands a metanoia on the PCs.
PC: “Okay, I guess he won’t speak.”
5 is the minimum damage in one attack to cause a Breach effect, so this first attack will give the Hacker the choice of one of the Breach effects.
If one Breach effect is enough - and it usually is - then you can stop right there and access the quantronic network node or let the network execute a command or retrieve data etc.
But you can proceed and cause more damage and possibly more Breach effects.
(Note: the SWORD programs usually only damage the Firewall but cannot cause any Breach effects, while some CLAW programs do not need to cause the full 5 or more damage in one attack to cause a special Breach effect - as described in the program’s description - for one or more Momentum.)
Good luck with negotiating at this time. If you are obviously overpowered, you might survive by surrendering (an option too rarely used by PCs). But time for an actual negotiation is over if the fight is already escalated to “deadly” quality.
During a fight, though, you can use Psywar attacks to intimidate your opponents. The more powerful the weapon you are using for this intimidation, the higher the base damage of this Psywar attack is (use the weapon damage, not the 1+4CD base damage for Psywar attacks in this case).
First, you need to define the Intransigence, that is the number of Metanoia effects this smuggler will need before caving in to the interrogation. Troopers have usually Intransigence 1, Elite have 2, Nemesis NPCs will have 5 just as PCs do. But that depends on the actual topic in question: try to convert a fanatical order sergeant to switch faith: NO WAY. Try to make a weasly snitch to spill the beans, not even Intransigence 1 needed, but a simple successful Psywar attack. It depends on the actual mental, moral, social traits this NPCs has and on what the PCs want.
Not completely, but quite.
First: what is the smuggler NPC’s Resolve?
Your PCs caused 4, then 2, that is a total of 6, which for many NPCs is more than their entire Resolve, so it would cause the Resolve stress track to fall to 0, thus causing a Metanoia effect.
Then you stated: “PC manages to deal 4 damage, but 3 more is required” - For what? Does the NPC only have a Resolve of 7? Or did you imply that there is a Courage Soak of 2 in place, so that only 7 damage minus 2 Soak would have cause the 5 damage for a Metanoia effect?
The NPC seems to attack back, causing Resolve damage to the interrogating PC, it seems.
Consider that every Reaction the NPC or the PC takes to defend themselves agains a Psywar attack will cost (the NPC) or generate (the PC) Heat. Just like it does in physical combat.
Instead of simply attacking back, the NPC could have used his action to strengthen his will, meaning a Recover action to regain the lost Resolve. Possibly simply staying quiet and smiling at the futile attempts of the PCs.
As the NPC managed to deal damage to the interrogating PC, what is the PCs Intrangigence versus this obviously tragic endangerment of innocents?
Apparently very high, as the PC also threatens the family of the PC (a usually even worse tactic, as now it is to be expected that the victim of this threat, the NPC, has no choice to save his family but to LIE to the PCs - they blocked any cooperation by this choice to make things worse, so their own fault, that this interrogation went down the drains).
The NPC cannot simply deal damage to an interrogating NPC by saying “I won’t tell you”. That is not an attack, that is simply a statement that their Intransigence has not been reached.
So what did the NPC actually say to the PC who gets slammed by 6 Resolve damage?
I assume: “Now you are threatening my family, too. That makes you as bad as my bosses, no, even worse. You push me into a corner, where I have to lose my family either way. That makes you utter unfeeling child killers - and you know it!”
That is actually a fitting repartee and the PC in question deserves the 6 Resolve and the Metanoia, which is probably about his emotional state. Maybe he now feels the Guilt. Or the NPC manages to prompt the PC to an action, release him, as the PC recognized how wrong his actions are.
So, yes, the smuggler won’t speak. And it is the PCs fault.
Thanks for your reply, that helps a lot.
Yes, I simplified my example greatly, didn’t count in intransigence and realistic stats and just came up with a poor dialogue example. And your examples make it more tangible for me. One thing I still don’t understand, though: You say, the NPC could have used his action to strengthen his will, to recover Resolve.
Now, let’s say, that’s his general tactic. What’s there to stop the PCs from trying over and over again? Statistically speaking, at some point they would be able to land a Metanoia effect. How do you handle this in your sessions? They have to come up with new arguments/threats/etc or their psywar attempt is an automatic fail? So, for example, if they say: “We’re with O-12, if you’re willing to cooperate, we have the means to protect you and your family!”, do some damage, then he smiles and recovers some, if not all of that damage, they can’t use that same argument again, can they? And if not, what’s hindering them from re-framing or going into details with that same argument (“We could even get you and your family off planet, live a calm life with new identities on Concilium, where nobody would find you!”)? Where do you, as a GM, draw the line, saying: “You repeat your case, but you don’t need to roll, he stays silent”?
This depends on the situation. If the NPC could expect someone to look after him, to interfere, like in a police investigation, where the NPC is waiting for his lawyer to show up to end the interrogation.
They can try, but then the base Difficulty for their Psywar attack goes up by at least +1 Difficulty, maybe even +2 Difficulty. You actually could succeed by repeating the same argument over and over, but it gets harder.
(In reality, advertisements work that way and it is the frequency and intensity they expose their “victims” to the same thing over and over again, that makes the whole manipulation work. - This is in Infinity usually a Lifestyle-based Psywar action which takes a long time, but does rarely have direct defense Reactions of their intended targets.)
A soon as Difficulty would go beyond a D5, which is the maximum, any attempts will automatically fail. - But besides the mechanical part, talking to the players about what they want to achieve and how they reach the limit of plausibility by stubbornly repeating an unsuccessful approach over and over (in which lies actual madness, if they hope for a different result), does help.
We are all creating a plausible enough fiction TOGETHER, so GM and players have to come up with something plausible especially in rather “vague” situations as social conflicts.
And one thing to note: If I have developed the NPC to have certain “triggers”, just mentioning them in the conversation by the PCs might give results like a Metanoia effect, but without any dice rolling required.
If, for example, this smuggler NPC is really motivated by protecting his family from harm by the criminals forcing him to do the smuggling, any offer that looks promising in achieving the protection of his family will bring him to cooperate, even without causing Resolve damage or Metanoia effects. For those “triggers” he effectively has Intransigence of 0, no resistance at all.
But the players have to come up with those triggers - and some smart or at least attentive players usually do. So it does not have to lead to a Psywar “all-out war” scene. It is a roleplaying game after all, not simply rolling down social conflict mechanics.
And then there are NPCs who would never do what the PCs want, no matter how good the PCs might roll, no matter what the players say. Like trying to “convert” a religious zealot to turn the back on his faith and enthusiastically join the opposite. That will not happen.
Psywar is NOT “mind control”. That is the limit. - For anything more some advanced brainwashing tech in a Praxis Black Lab or using a Sepsitor on the victim is required.