So I have a player who has a 3 action rating in tinker, and then a smattering of 1s and 2s. This players flatly refuses to roll anything other than tinker. If all he wanted to do was make gadgets and chemicals that would be fine, but he tries to justify all actions with tinker. I have no problem letting him fight using tinker, I basically think of him as a gadget based wizard and all his tinker attacks are essentially techno spells. But he also wants to use tinker for his social interactions (I impress her with my gadget, I trick him with my gadget), perception (I created special goggles to look for this thing), stealth (I created sound dampeners), you name it. All resistance is done with Insight as well because he usually has some gadget he has created to avoid whatever bad thing. Any of these things in isolation would be fine, I appreciate creativity, but seen as a whole I see a player who just wants to roll 3 dice for every action. Of course I can, and do, say no (sorry, but if you want to lie to him, you’re going to have to roll sway at some point), but that just causes him to abandon the action and try a different tinker related move. Does anyone else see this sort of behavior? What do you guys do? Let it slide? Just say no? Something creative?
Even more fun, his PC got lost in vice and he’s going to make a slide to play for a few sessions. I can’t wait to see his sway fighting and sway climbing a wall.
Position and Effect are your guides here. Think about how likely this plan is to work in “real life” – that is to say, envision it playing out in the fictional environment – and then set the Position and Effect factors accordingly.
“You want to impress this aristocrat with a gadget you made in the workshop above a flophouse? Okay, this is pretty Desperate, and I think Quality and Potency are both low here. Just as a heads-up, you might have better luck with … talking.”
Also two other things to keep in mind.
1. Gear takes slots. Mark it off on your sheet. When you’re out of slots you’re out of gear. If you can’t find a slot for it … How do you have it?
2. Gear takes creation. Oh? You have sound dampeners? From where? Oh you made them for this mission? No prob! Two stress flashback, and a desparate roll to have them ready in time.
When it’s plausible, let it ride. When it’s a stretch, or completely ridiculous, call him on it. If he responds by going another, more plausible route, well, that’s how he wants to play his character.
Forcing him back into the box a little bit may be tricky depending how much you’ve let him get away with already, but the sooner you start, the better.
Plus, some folk just plain hate gadgets and technology. so the roll should have an immediate negative effect.
I’d say if the character wanted to impress with a gadget they could use Tinker to talk like Moss from the IT Crowd. Basically unless the other person is also a Tinkerer then they are more more likely to ramble or even accidentally insult the layperson they are trying to impress (Desperate/low potency). If they wanted to really impress that the gadget was nifty they would need to roll Sway like a real sales person.
Ditto John Perich. As GM, you have plenty of tools to discourage off-brand skill use.
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These are all great suggestions!
Let me add one: it doesn’t sound like your player is coming to the table to play the game in good faith. There seems to be a disconnect between the expectations of everyone at the table. You are better off discussing those issues than trying to manipulate the system to fix a different problem.
Good suggestions, everyone. Choosing position and effect are really good GM tools.
But! Also, tinkering is… tinkering. When you roll tinker, you tinker with something. When you prowl past the guards, you prowl. When you sway someone, you sway them. Showing someone your invention in order to sway them is swaying them.
You can do a setup action with tinker to make a thing that will help you sway someone (increasing your effect or position if the gadget actually matters to them).
But when you go to sway them, you roll your sway dice. That’s why they’re called actions, not skills. They’re about what you’re doing, not what you know.