Sardonic Manipulation
New Duck Skill – Sardonic Manipulation (INT + CHA)[edit]
Every duck learns from their families that their life is going to be a hard one. They develop their dark sense of humour early on, often forcing themselves to laugh at their lot in life in order to stave off true depressions. They know that the rest of the world would rather ignore them as soon as waste the time to see them destroyed and it helps them know their place in the greater scheme of things.
The sooner they come to that realisation however, the sooner they will begin to learn how to use such preconceived ideas against the Big People. If a duck knows that no one will agree to what he has to say, he can then use that knowledge to manipulate their reactions.
Through a liberal use of profanity, bad jokes and disgruntled statements any duck could knowingly influence others by cornering their potential responses. No one wants to agree with a duck, so if the duck wants something done he should vehemently speak against it. If he thinks a price is too high, he should fumble for his purse to buy it so an ally will be given a much better price. By attracting the right kind of attention to their antics, a duck can manipulate nearly any non-duck.
All duck characters receive Sardonic Manipulation as a Basic Skill during character generation. Keets do not receive this skill (they are too self-righteous to learn it at a young age) but could learn it as an Advanced Skill later in life as they experience what the world thinkof Durulz.
For a duck to use this skill, another character should be getting ready to use any of the following skills for their own purposes: Evaluate, Influence, Persistence, Resilience, Sleight, Stealth or Streetwise. Before the other character rolls against his skill, the duck may do something appropriate to the situation in order to aid the other character and roll against his Sardonic Manipulation skill. If successful, the other character may choose to use the duck player’s skill roll as his own in the upcoming skill test. This gives some characters a chance to know exactly if they will succeed or fail in
the roll before actually rolling any dice!
For example, Quackxon Wildwood is watching his travelling companion slamming drinks in a guzzling contest at a local pub. When his companion begins to sway at the table, perhaps costing them all a great deal of money, Quackxon grabs a half-full glass and begins to gulp it down loudly, profanely complaining to his comrade about how weak the stuff is. He rolls is Sardonic Manipulation and scores a fantastic ‘14’ – a success. His drinking friend, who was just called upon to roll against his Resilience to try and out drink his opponent, is steeled by the fact that a duck was going to beat him and automatically passes his Resilience test of ‘35’ without even touching a die.
