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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SteveC" data-source="post: 4204596" data-attributes="member: 9053">It may be impossible to intimidate someone into trusting you, but that isn't what this challenge is about: it's about securing the assistance of the noble in question.Consider this:Player: I make a knowledge nobility check (I don't know if this is an actual skill, but substitute the appropriate check if it isn't). I want to know who this lord's liege is, and something that the liege is known to enjoy. Roll. Success.GM: I'm not sure where you're going with this, but his liege is Lord Stanley, who enjoys playing cricket.Player: Okay. This time it's intimidate. Hmmn, you seem reticent to help us out here. That's certainly understandable. I will have to mention that to Lord Stanley when I play cricket with him next month at Goblin Knob. Yes, it seems we are in a sticky wicket, here, isn't it. Look at the context: I know who your boss is, and I'm going to tell him that you haven't been helping us. He won't like that. That's intimidate, and it's used all the time in noble circles. It's a very low level threat, actually.The thing is, intimidate gets used all the time to get things done: NPCs do it to the PCs all the time, so why not turn the tables on them? Low level threats are commonplace in these sorts of negotiations, and they can be used to get you what you want now, but then they may also have long term consequences. You don't exactly create a friend out of it, do you? You can, however, make someone who can be almost as useful, just as Machiavelli said: better to be feared than loved, but never hated.--Steve</blockquote>

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