[The Wyrm Ouroboros]

Hard limits work.  There's a point at which everyone says stop - especially if they're going from 'suspicious and doing this wrong means I get shot' to 'hey, you're definitely my best friend', because there's things that a best friend isn't gonna ask you to do, because it would mean you get shot.  This is where supporting information comes in handy - but it also means that this is where things like the Social Limit just might be kicking the character in the ass, because increasing their dice to 30+ doesn't automatically mean they're getting their limit bumped up as well, and running hard against a limit of 6 or 7.

And always remember - the limit is the limit of your roll, not the limit of the difference between your hits and the other guy.  If you max out your 9, and he gets 4, that's a net of 5 - you don't get to count all 13 of your successes to hit your limit via 13 - 4 = 9.

[ProfGast]

I definitely agree that there are things that can't be done no matter how charismatic or skilled you are.   You may be able to talk people into a lot of things, but there shouldn't be any way without having additional leverage or magical oomph that will allow you to automatically puppet other characters, to say nothing of other PCs.

On the other hand when Magic is involved then bets are off.  And if your mohawk is pink and laced with neon fiber optic lights… well then you can have examples like this:
Which is clearly a high-magic social adept using Enthralling Performance while being empowered by an artifact.

[Aryeonos]

...
- Remember that goons add their professionalism rating to all their defensive social roles....

Rules for that where!? I wanna see this shit.

On the topic though, I had a magical glowing husky player with both glamour, and a bunch of social adept powers stop a shootout once, for like 3 seconds while everyone piled into the semi that they'd crashed through the front of the building with.

My rule of paw was that the social roles should work in situations where it's logically or thematically probable to work. Guards aren't going to drop zero zone protocols for hotties. A corp exec isn't going to spill top secrets to a really persuasive guy at the bar, (Until he's wasted, if the runner is good enough to get him sloppy) and even then, at my personal drunkest I still wouldn't say things I knew to keep inside my head, I was more forward sure, but never give out too much personal information, even after 21-27 shots or so.

Follow your gut, put yourself in the mark's shoes, think like he thinks, it's a role playing game not a roll playing game, you're only dictated by the dice to resolve tests where failure or success is thematically important, and you're free to stack the odds (negative dice pools to your player, positive to your NPC) against the player when it seems logical to do so.

[Kincaid]

Rules for that where!? I wanna see this shit.

Very end of 379.

[farothel]

and even then, at my personal drunkest I still wouldn't say things I knew to keep inside my head, I was more forward sure, but never give out too much personal information, even after 21-27 shots or so.

After that amount of alcohol I wouldn't say much either, because I would be a) in hospital getting my stomach pumped empty or b) dead.

[biotech66]

As someone who's favorite 5e spell is Euphoria, I can see how this can go wrong in a hurry.

My rule for any social test regardless of game where I have a player seduce a character is to roll a d10.  Currently the percentage of homosexuals in a society is about 10%.  It won't matter how many dice you roll with your sexy wood lady if you are quite literally barking up the wrong tree!  Furthermore, no AI or any computer is going to be a target of her wiles.

Furthermore, the more chrome a person has the harder it will be, so if the wood lady tries to sleep her way out of every combat encounter, then the big bad will start to throw more machine than men enemies at the party.

Overall, I'd take this as a time to shine.  The dryad gets to win a few encounters a la Amy from Bender's Game, and I'd make sure that at least of few of the bad guys were equipped to handle her so the rest of the party gets to be awesome.

[Ganggreenkhan]

     I'm just gonna throw my two cents in the ring about sleeping with lesbians. I slept with a declare "lesbian" in highschool. If anyone asks, she's a lesbian. Talk to her right, and she's bi. Then in my early twenties I slept with another so called "lesbian". She totally wasn't interested in a relationship with a guy, and if her friends were around she would ignore me and pretend like she didn't know me...... It didn't hurt I was on the wrestling team and in top young man shape......

     Any way just sayin.

[Aryeonos]

and even then, at my personal drunkest I still wouldn't say things I knew to keep inside my head, I was more forward sure, but never give out too much personal information, even after 21-27 shots or so.

After that amount of alcohol I wouldn't say much either, because I would be a) in hospital getting my stomach pumped empty or b) dead.

7 bars, averaging 3 combined shots of alcy each, over about 3 hours, I think... The only hangover I've ever had, and I was worried I had permanent brain damage the next full day but otherwise fine.

Anyway, the moral is, that you just can't get specific important info out of people under all social situations. It's not always that easy, like in the movies.

     I'm just gonna throw my two cents in the ring about sleeping with lesbians. I slept with a declare "lesbian" in highschool. If anyone asks, she's a lesbian. Talk to her right, and she's bi. Then in my early twenties I slept with another so called "lesbian". She totally wasn't interested in a relationship with a guy, and if her friends were around she would ignore me and pretend like she didn't know me...... It didn't hurt I was on the wrestling team and in top young man shape......

     Any way just sayin.

It's really hard to throw people on the whole sexual spectrum and say, "You stick there and don't go outside your box." the brain is a complex structure full of all kinds of chemical reactions, it's not prone to doing things the exact same way forever, its tastes change over time and gets the hankering for something different from time to time. Other people just want to fit themselves into a box for comfort but aren't solidly within those stereotypical bounds, but feel better if they're perceived that way.

Anyway, if they're "gay" or whatever, roll their edge score against their opponents charisma + willpower. Probably won't succeed, but miracles happen sometimes.

[Ganggreenkhan]

      I like that idea about rolling to set sexual preference. I'd still give it to them with 5+ successes though. Sexuality isn't a cut and dry thing. Luckily my Face is practically a eunick  in real life and specialized in fast talk cause he isn't gonna try to seduce anybody. His words. Nobody else has the charisma to even try it cause I dumped charisma when building the party.
      As far as saying shit when your drunk I've been around long enough to see some people drop some pretty fucked up shit when they are drunk. I'd defiantly make some rolls based on willpower to see how talkative an NPC is.

[Glyph]

Seduction is a specialization of con because it is less about seduction itself, and more about using the lure of seduction to cause a lapse of judgement.  An elven hottie with 8 Charisma probably won't have any problems finding potential paramours.  The challenge (and a dice roll) comes into play when you are trying to get the mark to follow you down a dark alley, or say things he shouldn't about his company's new top-secret project to impress you.

I would allow things like changing someone's sexual preferences or overriding their bigotries for generic NPCs, but not for ones, including PCs, with written backgrounds (unless, of course, that background says the character is bi-curious, or has a thing for ork women despite being a member of Humanis).  Yeah, I know people can be very susceptible to manipulation, but once you say that the face can make the gay troll straight for her, you are back to no reasonable limits and magical mind control.

[Zilfer]

Lol will this character idea ever go out of fashion? Returning 4e player and it makes me smile to see the topic title. xD

[Hobbes]

Seduction is a specialization of con because it is less about seduction itself, and more about using the lure of seduction to cause a lapse of judgement.  An elven hottie with 8 Charisma probably won't have any problems finding potential paramours.  The challenge (and a dice roll) comes into play when you are trying to get the mark to follow you down a dark alley, or say things he shouldn't about his company's new top-secret project to impress you.

I would allow things like changing someone's sexual preferences or overriding their bigotries for generic NPCs, but not for ones, including PCs, with written backgrounds (unless, of course, that background says the character is bi-curious, or has a thing for ork women despite being a member of Humanis).  Yeah, I know people can be very susceptible to manipulation, but once you say that the face can make the gay troll straight for her, you are back to no reasonable limits and magical mind control.

And to add to Kincades earlier point and Glyphs post, seduction doesn't always lead to sex.  Casual flirtation does a lot to put someone at ease, or in a good mood.  You're not going to "turn" someone, but interest is flattering, Metahumans are ego driven, and even if they know it's going nowhere, its still going have a typically positive effect on someones mood. 

[halflingmage]

Its up to common sense and a good GM to keep a lid on social skills.  You don't have to let them roll if something is just impossible.  No amount of fast talking will let you get by a guard in a highly secured vault when you are wearing street clothes and have no id.  Protocol says anyone not in uniform and broadcasting a friendly indicator on the local net is detained immediately and shot if they resist.  Now, some good fake uniforms and a stolen passcode, you might be in business.  Getting all of those crazy social dice pools takes alot of character gen resources, and there is no reason that everything has to be solved with cyberspurs or an Influence spell 

[adzling]

YEah it's way too easy to get a social limit of 12, 13 or higher.

You have to put some common sense limits on what is possible (just like you can't shoot around corners or jump off or 10 story buildings).

[Glyph]

Yeah, an elven adept with charisma: 8, willpower: 5 and essence: 5 (assuming tailored pheromones: 3), and the raven mentor spirit will have a base social limit of 9, raised a point by voice control: 1 and three more points by tailored pheromones: 3, for a social limit of 13.  Yeah, that's a somewhat optimized example, but its the kind of optimization you get by making a few logical choices, with no obscure rules or creative rules interpretations involved.