Re: Legends: how does influencing work?

From: ddo@wsun2.larc.nasa.gov (Dale Ohmann)

Date: Wed, 09 Jun 1993 20:39:15 +0000

David I Resnick (dresnick@athena.mit.edu) wrote:
> Hi,

> I'm about to start trying to influence some guys I've captured and
> want to know if it is worth it to even try.  My head guy has a 7
> influence currently blessed to 10.  The targets are human barbarians
> who I have converted to my religion, and my guy is a human nomad.  How
> do you calculate the odds of success in such a venture?  I gather that
> religion, sex, beauty, influence, prestige, race, and possession of
> common skills are all involved - but how exactly?

> Thanks!

Quick answer (on how to influence, not exact formula):
  Stick to racially compatible characters.  Your example sounds reasonable.
      I'm not sure if you need to free captives before influencing?
  Practice your influence a few more times.  A base value of 10, blessed up
      to 20 makes you a viable influencer.
  Just do it.  Spend one character action to attempt to influence your target.
      This gives you a brief description of the character's skills and a bottom
      line success probability in terms of "good" or "poor", etc.  If the
      target has prestige, the best possible chance is "poor" or 30-35%.
      ("Poor" is good vs. prestigious guys!)
  If the bottom line indicates a decent chance, follow-up on the next
      turn with all character actions spent toward influencing.
      A little trick:  If you succeed before using all your character actions,
      the remaining orders to influence are ignored.  Then you can squeeze in
      a couple extra orders for other actions.  For example, 3 orders
      to influence and you succeed on your first try, you will still have two
      character actions left.  Write a couple extra orders after the initial
      three and there's a good chance they will be executed.
  Target characters with prestige:  If the target's prestige is greater than
      yours, you can just about forget it!  The curve drops off fast.  I've
      heard that for every point difference in prestige you lose 10 points of
      effective influence for that attempt.

Good luck,
Dale

References

Legends: how does influencing work?
dresnick@athena.mit.edu (David I Resnick)
Wed, 09 Jun 1993 20:02:18 +0000