Deception

Every day, people make the outrageous or the untrue seem plausible.

Deception encompasses acting, conning, fast-talking, misdirection, prevarication , and misleading body language. Deception is used to sow temporary confusion, get someone to turn his or her head to look where you point, or simply look innocuous.

A deception chance risks the audience’s judgement chance. Favorable and unfavorable circumstances weigh heavily on the outcome of a deception.

Ethics

Deception may conflict with your ethical principles.

Cleverness: Justifiable Deceptions?

Some say there's no such thing as a white lie but many people feel deception is morally justifiable if it serves a good purpose. Justification of deception is tricky business. There is a litmus test in most peoples' minds: A deception is justified if it prevents more harm than is caused.

For example, some anti-corporate activists wore business suits to get front-row placement at a Steve Forbes For President press conference only to unveil hidden protest signs when the cameras start rolling. Their actions were confrontational but non-violent and they felt justified in making their political statement. Most people would not consider these activists to be dishonest.

Dishonesty: Unjust Deception

Lip Servicing Ideas

Many people pay lip service to ideas they do not really believe in for the sake of misleading and manipulating an audience. To pay lip service, you must use deception to conceal your insincerity behind a mask of belief. In this circumstance, your deception skill substitutes for your belief in the idea. However, not everyone will be fooled. Audience members observing your message have a judgement chance to see through your fake words. They are aided by your reputation if your prior words and actions have associated you with ideas that conflict with what you are saying.

Plausibility Factor

If the deception is hard to believe, the target is unlikely to be persuaded.

Risk Factor

The action that the target is to take goes against the target’s self-interest, nature, personality, orders, etc.

Disbelief or Refusal?

If it’s important, circumstances can distinguish between a bluff that fails because the target doesn’t believe it and one that fails because it just asks too much of the target.

For example, if the target gets a +50% bonus because the bluff demands something risky of the target, and the Sense Motive test succeeds by 49% or less, then the target didn’t so much see through the bluff as prove reluctant to go along with it.

If the target succeeds by 50% or more, he has seen through the bluff (and would have done so even if it had not entailed any demand on him).

Deception Circumstances                              Judgement Factor

The target wants to believe you                    –20%

The deception is a hard to believe or risky     +50%

A successful deception causes the target to react as you intend or believe something you say if only briefly. A deception requires interaction between deceiver and the target. People unaware of you cannot be bluffed. A bluff always takes at least 1 second but can take much longer if you try something elaborate.

Feinting in Combat

You can also use deception to mislead an opponent in combat so that he can’t dodge your attack effectively. Doing so is a half-second action. If your deception succeeds, the next attack you make against the target denies any dexterity bonus to dodging.

Creating a Diversion to Hide

You can use deception to help you hide. A successful deception chance can give you the momentary diversion you need to attempt a hiding chance while people are aware of you.

Retry

Generally, a failed Bluff test makes the target too suspicious for a bluffer to try another one in the same circumstances. For feinting in combat, you may retry freely.

Intimidation Synergy

Having 30% or more deception skill gives you a +10% synergy bonus on Intimidate and Pick Pocket chances and a +10% synergy bonus on an Innuendo test to transmit a message. Also, if you have 30% or more ranks of Deception, you get a +10% synergy bonus on Disguise tests when you know that you’re being observed and you try to act in character.