Mediator Tradecrafts

Introduction

This is part three in a series of four posts written to expand on the tradecraft information listed in the rulebook. This is intended to be used as a reference rather than read straight through (though you’re certainly welcome to do that as well); it is meant to be a way to access more detailed information on a craft to both support its use and help players decide what tradecrafts to take next.

For general tradecraft rules, see the post on tradecrafts and advice; for other trade groups, see their respective posts.

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General Mediator Craft Information

Mediator crafts are primarily used vs. other people. Your level in the craft is “opposed” by the level of the person you are using the craft on; the higher your craft level is than their character level, the more effective your craft is. The inverse is true as well – the lower your craft level is compared to their character level, the less effective it is. When being used against groups of people, your craft levels are typically divided by the number of people present – so if you are a lvl 10 musician using your craft versus a crowd of ten people, you will typically be affect them at about 1 lvl each.

Scaled craft levels is particularly important for mediator crafts. Scaled means that it is not a hit or miss system; rather than being a flat DC requirement, the difference between your level and your opponent’s level still matters. If your target is lvl 10 and your craft level is 9, you are still going to get a better result than someone whose craft level is 2. The  same is true of successes: if your target is lvl 10, you will still get a better result as someone lvl 25 in your craft than someone lvl 12 in your craft.

Like any craft, mediator crafts can be used in two capacities: field use and research or knowledge use. Field use is the primary use of mediator crafts – these are effects such as intimidating opponents or finding out information and local rumors. Knowledge use simply represents that your character has knowledge about the workings of their craft that you may not. It allows a courtier to ask the GM what custom is in a region or whether a person is likely to respond better to one tactic over the other; or allows a trader to ask about local markets, about the norms around trading certain kinds of goods, about the local currency used in the area, etc. It is assumed your character has general knowledge relevant to the practical skills they’ve learned and can ask questions about that when necessary.

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Individual Tradecrafts

Courtier
Courtier, simply put, makes your character more likable. It does not persuade other directly (that would be rhetoric), nor does it make your character knowledgable about court functions (that would be diplomat); it simply makes you seem more friendly to others. How this is achieved varies from social setting to social setting: a good courtier knows that friendly behavior in noble courts and in a casual neighborhood tavern are very different, and acts according to the situation at hand. Courtier comes along with a great deal of knowledge about etiquette and social norms as they apply to different people and settings, as well as an ability to navigate these various social landscapes.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Type of Person (eg: nobility, elves, farmers); Type of Setting (eg: taverns, markets, on the road); Type of Etiquette (eg: meals, conversation, insults).

Enforcer
Enforcer makes you more intimidating to others. It is meant to make other people think twice before crossing you – or a line you’ve drawn in the metaphorical sand. Like all mediator crafts, this is accomplished in various ways depending on who you are using it against: some people may find shouting and threats intimidating, while for others an iron-calm tone will do the trick. Enforcer can be used to make others follow your commands, to interrogate someone, to discourage someone from starting combat, to chew someone out for a job poorly done, or a myriad of other sundry uses as a situation may require. It also includes knowledge about power signaling,
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Possible Fluencies Include: Type of Person (eg: thieves, soldiers, children); Type of Use (eg: interrogation, law enforcement, making threats); Type of Setting (eg: on the road, in taverns, defending fortifications).

Trader
Unlike most mediator crafts, Trader is rarely used directly in social interactions; more often, it is used in the everyday background of buying and selling goods. Trader allows you to get more favorable prices on sold or bought goods (1% per lvl); it also allows you to stack your trader lvls with the town’s @ (town at the top of the stack) in order to locate goods that are normally unavailable in the area. Trader also comes with an extensive knowledge about how markets work, what kinds of goods are coming and going in particular markets, flow of currency, and the ability to appraise objects of unknown value. When used versus a person in more the style of other mediator crafts, it allows a trader to talk up or talk down the value of an item in order to convince someone to buy, not buy, sell, or not sell something up for sale.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Type of Object (eg: food, armor, jewelry); Type of Exchange (eg: barter, currency, illegal goods); Location (eg: Syenon, taverns, farmer’s markets). 

Innkeeper
Innkeeper allows you to find out rumors and information. This spans a wide spread of possibilities; it can include anything from the town’s news from the day, to details about specific people, to finding directions to a location, to making a general read on the town that you are in, etc. Three general rules of thumb are that (1) the more public the information is the easier it is to find, (2) the more local the information is the easier it is to find, and (3) the more recent the information is, the easier it is to find (in all cases, barring situational exceptions). Innkeeper is only current and ongoing information; it does not help you with old information (that would be historian). Innkeeper also allows you to spread rumors; this can be used to actively muddy the waters about a particular person or incident, but it can also be used to “cover up your tracks” much the same way that a tracker might.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Type of Information (eg: news, politics, local drama); Source of Information (eg: taverns, traders, travelers); Use of Information (eg: identifying people, obscuring rumors about yourself, verifying movements).

Gambler
Gambler, like innkeeper, is a mediator craft that is used less often during direct social interactions and more often during background features of the game – in this case, during the bet-making and gambling games that are sometimes played in taverns or at competitions. For every five levels in gambler that you have, you have one “mulligan” during the course of a single game or bet. If you’re playing a game of chance (such as a dice game), this would mean you can use your mulligan to re-roll dice; if you’re playing a predictive/betting game, this would mean that you can use a mulligan to make an additional prediction ahead of time (and if any of your predictions win, you are assumed to have made the correct bet); if you’re playing a strategic game, it would allow you to re-do the last move you made; and so on.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Type of Game (eg: liar’s dice, duel betting, poker); Type of Medium (eg: cards, dice, darts); Type of Opponent (eg: lizardfolk, mercenaries, inebriated).

Performing Arts
Performing arts includes many sub-crafts: musician, actor, jester, dancer, and so on. When putting levels into performing arts, you can choose to put them either into general performing arts or into one of these classes. Regardless of sub-craft, performing arts allows you to draw attention to yourself. This can be employed to create distractions, to impress and awe people in your vicinity, and otherwise to perform for any purpose that comes to mind (say, singing a lullaby to put a large creature to sleep). The knowledge use of performing arts includes topics such as what sorts of performances are local or popular at the moment, regional styles of performance, and some knowledge about other stagecraft such as stage makeup and costuming tricks.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Type of Performance (eg: lullabies, ballroom dance, juggling); Aspect of Performance (eg: voice, improvisation, stage combat); Type of Genera (eg: tragedy, comedy, drama). 

Peacekeeper***
Peacekeeper is used to tell whether someone is lying. If your level in peacekeeper is higher than the character level of your opponent, you can tell whether they are lying. The opponent typically responds with either “yes, I lied about x y z” or “does not read as a lie”. The latter response is also used by opponents who are either higher level than your peacekeeper level or have other methods of concealing their intent.
***This is a note by the GM stating that this tradecraft is likely to change next season, as upon writing this up I have discovered that I don’t like the way peacekeeper works.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Type of Person (eg: children, merchants, bandits); Type of Topic (eg: crime, identity, fishing); Type of Tell (eg: word choice, eye contact, inconsistencies).

Teacher
We do not actually know what teacher does yet since we were unable to get to it during this year’s rules day. At the very least, it allows people to teach one another skills when there is a person with the skill present and the person learning it has an open slot and meets the requirements for it.
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Possible Fluencies Include: TBD

Rhetoric
Rhetoric is used to persuade or convince others of an idea, cause, or argument. It does not automatically make others agree with you: for those people who are on the fence or unsure, it makes them more likely to take your side – and for those who disagree with you, it makes them more likely to listen and hear you out. It can also be used to draw the ear and quiet attention of a loud, disagreeable room; to support statements that you make or help cover for poorly-made ones; and to make something flat and boring seem interesting and colorful. It does not draw attention in an artistic sense (that would be performing arts), nor does it make you any more likable (that would be courtier) – but it does make others more likely to listen to you and helps you communicate more clearly. In a knowledge sense it gives you and understanding of structuring concepts and ideas, use of descriptive language, and communication strategies.
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Possible Fluencies Include: Type of Purpose (eg: motivational, persuasive, ???); Type of Audience (eg: legal courts, freeholders, authority figures); Type of Topic (eg: love, power, tall tales).

Additional Mediator Crafts
These are the nine mediator crafts that we use regularly throughout the game. There are many more not listed here. Some of them, such as Singing, could be considered sub-crafts of listed trades; others, such as Magician, are difficult to obtain and can only be trained when the craft is locally available. The list of other artisan crafts and sub-crafts that come up in the game from time to time includes but is not limited to: Musician, Dancer, Actor (also known as Theater Arts), Jester, Liar, Magician, Orator, and Storyteller.