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shootingwomprats
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Sep 2013
Posts: 2766
Location: Online
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 Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2025 7:43 pm Post subject: Political Skills |
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Currently working on creating d6 material from the novel, Bloodlines which has a lot of political stuff in it. So I have created two new skills. Please comment and give suggestions. Additional skill suggestions also welcome.
| Quote: | Legislative Process/Strategy
Time Taken: From immediate rule question (minutes) to full bill shepherding (weeks–months)
Specializations: -
This skill blends mastery of Senate rules with the art of political maneuvering. With it, you can:
-- Bill Drafting & Formatting: Crafting clear, compliant legislative text
-- Committee Navigation: Steering proposals through the correct sub-bodies
-- Amendment Management: Negotiating, filing and integrating changes
-- Coalition Building: Crafting alliances to secure majority support
-- Procedural Maneuvering: Exploiting Senate rules and precedents
-- Amendment Strategy: Inserting or blocking changes in committee |
| Quote: | Political Science
Time Taken: Ongoing application; major analyses or white papers typically take 1–2 weeks
Specializations:
-- Constitutional Law: Interpreting Senate rules and Charter clauses
-- Comparative Governance: Evaluating planetary government models
-- Electoral Systems: Designing voting procedures and campaign regulations
-- Policy Analysis: Assessing social, economic, and security proposals
-- Faction Dynamics: Monitoring and responding to shifting alliances and public sentiment
Political Science enables a senator to translate theory into effective governance. In practice, it allows you to:
-- Rapidly interpret and apply Galactic Constitution provisions to new legislative proposals.
-- Compare and contrast governmental systems to inform interplanetary cooperation.
-- Draft or evaluate election rules and oversight within days.
-- Conduct targeted policy reviews—gathering data, consulting experts, and delivering recommendations within a fortnight.
-- Anticipate and navigate factional shifts, calibrating speeches and amendments to maintain coalition support. |
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Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
http://d6holocron.com/shootingwomprats
@swd6podcast, Twitter |
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Forceally
Commodore
Joined: 20 Feb 2007
Posts: 1083
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| Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2025 8:18 pm Post subject: |
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I've always had a little trouble with a skill associated with politicians. I never had a problem with these:
Law enforcement
Scholar: politics
Bargain
Command
Persuasion
Persuasion: debate
Persuasion: negotiation
Persuasion: oration
The one I had trouble seeing/understanding was bureaucracy. I always figured that it covered dealing with the usual politics, red tape, filibuster, basically all the nonsense that plagues every political arena in the world today. Maybe if someone were to give a clear defined example of bureaucracy, that example might help make things clearer for me to see in the novels, shows, and books.
The skills you listed - are they Knowledge or Perception? I think they're Knowledge skills.
And why would you want to add more skills to the politicians. Politics is a big enough mess as it is! |
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shootingwomprats
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Sep 2013
Posts: 2766
Location: Online
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| Posted: Mon Jul 14, 2025 9:36 pm Post subject: |
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| Forceally wrote: | I've always had a little trouble with a skill associated with politicians. I never had a problem with these:
Law enforcement
Scholar: politics
Bargain
Command
Persuasion
Persuasion: debate
Persuasion: negotiation
Persuasion: oration
The one I had trouble seeing/understanding was bureaucracy. I always figured that it covered dealing with the usual politics, red tape, filibuster, basically all the nonsense that plagues every political arena in the world today. Maybe if someone were to give a clear defined example of bureaucracy, that example might help make things clearer for me to see in the novels, shows, and books.
The skills you listed - are they Knowledge or Perception? I think they're Knowledge skills.
And why would you want to add more skills to the politicians. Politics is a big enough mess as it is! |
I think I prefer what you are suggesting. I already think there are too many skills in the game. Perhaps just one: politics, which encompasses all those skills but specifically for politics and legislation. I kinda like that idea.
| Quote: | Politics
Time Taken: Varies by task (10 minutes for a basic vote count; 1–2 hours to draft or lobby for legislation; days or weeks for full-scale coalition-building or campaign strategy)
Specializations: Coalition Building, Legislative Drafting, Parliamentary Debate, Lobbying & Influence, Campaign Strategy, Inter-Faction Negotiation.
Description: The Politics skill represents your character’s mastery of governing institutions, power dynamics, and the art of persuasion within legislative bodies. It governs everything from analyzing voting blocs and drafting bills, to negotiating alliances and steering debates. A successful Politics check can:
-- Secure the necessary votes to pass or block legislation.
-- Craft amendments that reshape a bill’s impact.
-- Read the mood of a chamber and time speeches for maximum effect.
-- Forge or fracture coalitions by appealing to shared interests.
-- Influence key stakeholders—factions, interest groups, or other senators—to back your agenda.
Navigate procedural hurdles and challenge or sustain motions.
Use it whenever you’re engaging in formal or informal maneuvering within a senate, council, or comparable political body—whether you’re corralling support for a security appropriation, undermining an opponent’s credibility, or brokering a last-minute deal to avert a stalemate.
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Don Diestler
Host, Shooting Womp Rats
The D6 Podcast
http://d6holocron.com/shootingwomprats
@swd6podcast, Twitter |
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garhkal
Sovereign Protector
Joined: 17 Jul 2005
Posts: 14351
Location: Reynoldsburg, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2025 12:20 am Post subject: |
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| Forceally wrote: | I've always had a little trouble with a skill associated with politicians. I never had a problem with these:
Law enforcement
Scholar: politics
Bargain
Command
Persuasion
Persuasion: debate
Persuasion: negotiation
Persuasion: oration
The one I had trouble seeing/understanding was bureaucracy. I always figured that it covered dealing with the usual politics, red tape, filibuster, basically all the nonsense that plagues every political arena in the world today. Maybe if someone were to give a clear defined example of bureaucracy, that example might help make things clearer for me to see in the novels, shows, and books.
The skills you listed - are they Knowledge or Perception? I think they're Knowledge skills.
And why would you want to add more skills to the politicians. Politics is a big enough mess as it is! |
To me, both of these skills get covered by persuasion as you said, investigation (seeing who's weak on a bill/why), bureaucracy, and maybe scholar...
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Forceally
Commodore
Joined: 20 Feb 2007
Posts: 1083
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| Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2025 11:50 am Post subject: |
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| garhkal wrote: | | Forceally wrote: | I've always had a little trouble with a skill associated with politicians. I never had a problem with these:
Law enforcement
Scholar: politics
Bargain
Command
Persuasion
Persuasion: debate
Persuasion: negotiation
Persuasion: oration
The one I had trouble seeing/understanding was bureaucracy. I always figured that it covered dealing with the usual politics, red tape, filibuster, basically all the nonsense that plagues every political arena in the world today. Maybe if someone were to give a clear defined example of bureaucracy, that example might help make things clearer for me to see in the novels, shows, and books.
The skills you listed - are they Knowledge or Perception? I think they're Knowledge skills.
And why would you want to add more skills to the politicians. Politics is a big enough mess as it is! |
To me, both of these skills get covered by persuasion as you said, investigation (seeing who's weak on a bill/why), bureaucracy, and maybe scholar... |
I've always associated investigation with the police and detectives. Not politicians.
And unfortunately, bargain, persuasion, and its subsets are essential skills for any businessman, diplomat, and politician. So I don't see how they can be consolidated since the subsets have specific examples.
One of the main things I have about bureaucracy and the other skills is that they got consolidated into the d20 skill diplomacy. You take a character who was presented in one of the WotC books. A character who made their debut in the Prequels. They have the diplomacy skill. How do you convert that? How do you split up the dice in that skill? You get what I'm saying. There may be too many skills, but consolidating them may not be good idea. |
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Phalanks Balas
Lieutenant Commander
Joined: 05 Jul 2005
Posts: 177
Location: Paris - France
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| Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 4:20 am Post subject: |
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I also think there are enough skills in this game and this is not the purpose of this game to be very précise but cinematic.
We already have politic caractères described in thé game as Princess Leia.
In m'y opinion, main skills for politician are :
Bureaucracy
Persuasion
Bargain
Con
Secondary skills could be :
Intimidation (especialy imperial supporter)
1 or more scholar skills (political oriented specialist)
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Phalanks
A day you will be facing the guns of the Black Pearl. You will know what means damned pirates ! |
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pakman
Commander
Joined: 20 Jul 2021
Posts: 492
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| Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2025 12:05 pm Post subject: |
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As others said, we already have a LOT of skills in the game;
however- adding more specializations or defining more knowledge (or scholar) skills may not be a bad idea.
I do like the concept of more political type skills - or rather I would call it - existing skills in a more formal setting. Your examples "coalition building" that feels more like a roleplaying series of events - rather than a skill itself (one could say several skills come into play).
If you were playing in a political based game - which was more Bureaucracy than blasters I could see using those skills.
As part of a house rules overhaul, I condensed from about 100 skills, to about 48.
Bargain - Specialization: Contracts, Fees & Fines, Trade Goods, Illegal
Goods, Negotiations, Property, Vehicles
Bureaucracy - Specialization: Conglomerates, Economic Unions, Law
Enforcement, Military Protocol, Professional Guilds
Persuasion - Specialization: Charm, Diplomacy, Interrogation, Oration,
Taunt
I also added Politics as a specialization of scholar.
I do think what you have is interesting - but again - feels more like roleplaying (or adventure story) options than actual skills - with the caveat of perhaps in a politics focused game.
It reminds me of games where they try to build out Technical advanced skills - like coming up with stuff for engineers and doctors - I mean - are the players adventuring heroes - or are they sitting behind a desk drafting legislation or making blue prints.
If you want as such to be a NPC background - or even a PC background - just put it in their narrative background.
But like I said - if it works for the players in your game - awesome!
everyone has their own galaxy, far far away....
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SW Fan, Gamer, Comic, Corporate nerd.
Working on massive House Rules document - pretty much a new book. Will post soon.... |
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