[RedRightHand]

So I'm playing a Face/Social Adept with the Concept of "Siver-Tongued-Devil"...an Elf built around Charisma, Commanding Voice, Voice Control, etc. Normally I play a very combat oriented character so this is a bit of a change for me and I'm hoping for some helpful suggestions from the children of the shadows (you guys).

Specifically I looking for some ideas on utilizing commanding voice in and out of combat. I've thought about such actions as "surrender", "flee", etc, but hoping perhaps the forum can offer some ideas. Thank you.

[Longshot23]

"These are not the 'runners you're looking for . . ."

[Beta]

Once you are in combat it is always going to be harder – at least as a GM I’d give big bonuses to resist anything that put someone in danger.  And some of the less logical things will make people recover next turn, so “You don’t need to check our ID” is not apt to make you safe for a whole run.  So I’d think your best uses  would be to avoid combat or to start combat on favorable terms. 

A few thoughts:

-   Take my ID and check it (to get their hands away from their weapons
-   Hands up! (when they haven’t seen you yet, everyone knows the lines from the trids, again gets hands away from weapons
-   Let me see YOUR ID (let’s you get your hands on it, for various nefarious purposes
-   You should take us to your superiors to figure it out (after jamming comms into unusable --- maybe could get an escort in through half the security)
-   Catch! (and toss an alchemical preparation) or Eat this or Drink this and pass them something drugged and quick to consume
-   Give me a hug! (if you have grappling skils, or just shock gloves)

Or in combat, these might work better than some others:
-   Run away!
-   Keep your head down!
-   Shoot the troll! (assuming you have a troll on your team, and he can soak the damage.  Troll may not appreciate this one)

[Sphinx]

Watch Jessica Jones and pay attention to Kilgrave. Commanding Voice isn't nearly that effective, but you'll still pick up some good ideas.

[adzling]

So I play a social adept elven doppleganger with Commanding Voice and I have been working to optimize his commands for a while now.

1). The suggestions above are good ones.

2). Although the rules are not clear we heavily use the social modifiers table which mostly rules out "shoot yourself in the face" type of commands. YMMV.

3). The maximum # of words you can use with Commanding Voice in a combat situation = 5.

4). You cannot use silver tongued devil in combat (but it's worth taking for a Speaker's Way social adept).

5). The person you are commanding must be able to hear you.
Voice Control the adept power (or the cyber equivalent, or both!) are very important for being able to shout above the din of combat or project your voice far enough to be heard with a lot of background noise.

6). The person you are commanding must be able to understand you, keep in mind you can only use as much social skill ranks as you have language ranks
This makes the Linguistics adept power, Mnemonic Enhancers and Linguist quality very important to be able to effectively command anyone without a language barrier.
For example my character has all of the above options and can pick up one rank of language in about 7 hours, add in +2 for mnemonic enhancers 2 and +1 for linguist and he has a rank 4 language for ZERO karma spend allowing him to apply up to 4 ranks of social skills.

7). Auth. Tone the adept power is *very* important.

Ok onto Command phrases that give you the most bang for your buck with minimal verbage:

Disarm yourself and lie down (this should compel them to remove ALL weapons and lie down, hopefully on their belly but they could choose to lie down on their back or side in theory).

Disarm yourself and strip naked (this not only compels them to remove all weapons but gets them to strip naked, which takes time and makes them more vulnerable).

Turn off your cybereyes (blinds them)

Count the <clouds, ceiling tiles, lights etc> above your head (makes them take their eyes off of you for a little while, good for disabling mages)

Take off your shoes (this can be time consuming and distracting)

Stop sustaining all your spells (nice to cripple a combat mage or mystic adept)

hope this helps!

[RedRightHand]

Wow, some very good, creative and interesting advice here. Thank you all very much.

[TerraFirst!]

My table's interpretation of this power is that the command you give can only ever be 5 words, however, in combat you have a free action and out of combat you have a full conversation to put your command in context or to conceal the fact that you're giving a command. e.g.

See that man over there *pointing* shoot him with your taser.

*spills drink on man* Oh, I'm so sorry! I'm such a klutz! Oooh, that looks bad. That's going to stain.. You should probably go clean yourself in the restroom.

We also play that the more net successes you achieve, the less noticeable the effect. A couple nets, the target may stare blankly at you, a few more they may repeat your command and go about it woodenly, a lot more and they'll likely play into a properly contrived social situation so that onlookers and possibly even themselves don't realize that anything unnatural just took place.

[Sphinx]

"Shoot yourself in the head" won't normally work, but "Taser yourself" or "Taser your friends" might.

Everyone has a few secret, suicidal ambitions that are ordinarily thwarted by common sense ...
"Summon a Force 12 Spirit."
"Hack the Zurich-Orbital Bank."
"Attack that police station."
"Climb that building."

Other possibly useful phrases:
"Throw away all your weapons."
"Take off your armor."
"Erase your cyberware operating systems."
"Run across that freeway."
"Swim across the lake."
"Get inside that dumpster."
"Tell me your darkest secret."
"Swallow this minigrenade."

[north]

"Gun!!!!" While pointing at the out of place pizza delivery guy.

[Reaver]

You are going to be most effective before combat starts.
Once combat starts, the speech limitations really put a damper on you.

However before combat, you are super effective especially if you keep yourself and your actions mundane and small.

Consider this:

You are hired to get into a small office building and swipe some files from a computer. You know there are two security guards at the front desk and ten employees in the building. The File is on the bosses' computer.

You and your team walk in the front door, dressed as businessmen, approach the security desk. You use your abilites and etiquette:

■"Hello, we are here for our noon appointment, which you can check and verify AFTER your lunch. But could you please ring us through now so we can wait in the conference room?"

● you have presented yourself (expected), you have pointed out your intent (expected), you have planted a suggestion, AND an action (but both are not unusual to a guard. Lunch breaks DO happen. And he does buzz people through.... however after checking usually).

Something as simple as this gets you past the guards.

■In the office Space proper you see the secretary at her desk that you need to get past in get to the bosses office. So you approach the desk. "Hello, we are Mr. Smith's noon appointment. He mentioned he wanted you to go pick up some Sushi from Mr.RoboSushi on 4th and Edwards. We'll just wait for you and Mr.Smith in the conference room"
● Again, a little expected interaction, followed by a non hostile, and plausible suggestion/command can get you past the secretary without violence. (Never dismiss the secratary, especially if its a Troll!)

■ walking down the hall, you run into a couple of office workers... "Hey guys, you all prepared for that office meeting in 5 minutes? Best get your notes!"
● while not the best, its something on the fly that shouldn't grab too much attention, nor send off too many warning bells.


●●●
And that's just a quick example of what you can do to avoid combat and play to your strengths. Paired with a Break and Entry team, an awakened Smooth Talker can really open doors and prevent fights before they happen by simple social and event engineering.

[Jahrl Mirkson]

"Riverdance!"

[bangbangtequila]

"Teach me how to dougie"

[FancyDerek]

6). The person you are commanding must be able to understand you, keep in mind you can only use as much social skill ranks as you have language ranks
This makes the Linguistics adept power, Mnemonic Enhancers and Linguist quality very important to be able to effectively command anyone without a language barrier.
For example my character has all of the above options and can pick up one rank of language in about 7 hours, add in +2 for mnemonic enhancers 2 and +1 for linguist and he has a rank 4 language for ZERO karma spend allowing him to apply up to 4 ranks of social skills.

If your GM say ok- good for you.

However, mnemonic enhancers don't give "skill ranks'. It's a +1 bonus to the DP/level.
Linguist does not give "skill ranks". It's a +1 bonus to the DP.
The language limiting factor on social skills is based on the skill rank, not the DP.

[Coyote]

Linguist does not give "skill ranks". It's a +1 bonus to the DP.

Street Grimoire, p172 (Linguistics):

To learn a new language, an adept must be exposed to
the new language for (12 – Magic Rating) hours, (minimum
1 hour). The adept then makes a Logic + Intuition
Test using the Linguistics Table. If successful, the adept
gains the language at Rating 1.

[Tym Jalynsfein]

6). The person you are commanding must be able to understand you, keep in mind you can only use as much social skill ranks as you have language ranks
This makes the Linguistics adept power, Mnemonic Enhancers and Linguist quality very important to be able to effectively command anyone without a language barrier.
For example my character has all of the above options and can pick up one rank of language in about 7 hours, add in +2 for mnemonic enhancers 2 and +1 for linguist and he has a rank 4 language for ZERO karma spend allowing him to apply up to 4 ranks of social skills.

If your GM say ok- good for you.

However, mnemonic enhancers don't give "skill ranks'. It's a +1 bonus to the DP/level.
Linguist does not give "skill ranks". It's a +1 bonus to the DP.
The language limiting factor on social skills is based on the skill rank, not the DP.

Whilst you are correct about Mnemonic Enhancers giving only a DP Bonus equal to rating, you are incorrect on the Linguistics Ability, as Coyote has indicated with the Text. above.

However, with Jack of All Trades, you can get those Languages up for a very cheap investment, especially since you get the first level of Language for free with Linguistics. .