[COMMAND] Lie

[Rhangalas]

Sorry about the recent bout of suggestions. I brainstorm a lot when Rhan is studying his grimoir. Anyway, I was thinking there could be a different speech option:

Syntax: Lie, Lieto

It would function off of sense motive and maybe charisma. It would allow PCs that are lying to offer their victims a chance to see through the lie.

If the victim(s) pass the skillcheck/roll they would see something like:

Rhangalas lies to you, "I am Batman."

--EDIT--

The opposite could also be applicable. Say you were trying to convince someone of something that is true, you would just use say/sayto, and if a PC passes the check, it would echo accordingly.

Also, telling the truth would possibly have a lower skill check than lying.

If added, the skill could be supplemented with lie-detecting spells, which would, in a nutshell, boost the skill that allows the PC to separate lies from the truth, or, for a higher level spell, make the PC unable to use the lie command.

Different skill check passes could have different echoes:

If the person barely passes, it might echo: You sense X is not being entirely honest with you.

If the person passes with flying colors, it might echo: You definitely know X is lying to you.

The different echoes would indicate to the player how well their PC has read the other PC, and they could then RP it out with a better understanding.

[Beskytter]

I like that idea, granted I cannot find the teacher for sense motive so I know all of my characters would fail that check currently.
It would be great for those people who's RP it is to lie about their name. If one character can determine that person is lying, then they could call them on it. Makes those RPs more risky, but also more fun.

[Nylo]

Currently the only sense motive trainer I know of is very limited as to who can access it. While we could add more, the question is, what's the incentive for players to use it? Those interested in rping it can use smotes and such to provide indicators(which they do well, in my experiences), while the rest will just use say/sayto. Is it worth implementing a new command for this? What about those players who like to use smote exclusively?

Edit: To reply to Beskytter's post - as most of them are using pseudonyms, not lying about their name, personally I've seen very few situations it would apply.

[Rhangalas]

If one character can determine that person is lying, then they could call them on it. Makes those RPs more risky, but also more fun.

Exactly. The players could choose to call them on it, or keep the information secret and allow the liar to think they succeeded in their deception.

Currently the only sense motive trainer I know of is very limited as to who can access it. While we could add more, the question is, what's the incentive for players to use it? Those interested in rping it can use smotes and such to provide indicators(which they do well, in my experiences), while the rest will just use say/sayto. Is it worth implementing a new command for this? What about those players who like to use smote exclusively?

I see it as a way to add a little more diplomacy to the game. As far as the sense motive skill goes, all PCs should receive it at creation, the skill level would depend on the race/stats you choose in character creation. if you put high scores towards the stats that govern sense motive or choose a race that is reknowned for being astute, then your sense motive would be higher from the start. With all PCs getting it as a starting skill, the best thing to do would be to make it untrainable by NPCs. The incentive to use it, is it would be fun and add more substance to RP.

Sure, you could add indicators in your emotes/smotes, but all the PCs in the room see them. Even the most oblivious PC gets information that your PC is possibly lying. While you could leave it up to the players to act accordingly, some code to help them act accordingly couldn't hurt.

As for smote and emote, they are forms of speech commands as well. If it was implemented, I'm sure it could be coded to work with those commands.

[Tamryn]

The problem I see with this is that all kinds of things can affect the difficulty of lying about something, from the character's talent for it (would we have a new skill?), the thing being lied about, the person being lied to (regardless of sense motive, some people might find it more difficult to lie to certain people) or their state of mind, etc. Is there any way a single command can encapsulate all that better than free-form RP?

[Vibius]

While I like the idea, I think that a proper use of the command would be very hard to enforce.

If a complaint was raised because someone didn't used the command lie properly over a very important/sensitive matter that a PC knows, imms would have a hard time (or would be really time consuming) figuring if it was really a lie or not for not obvious matters that perhaps only the cheating liar might know.

[Rhangalas]

...would we have a new skill?...

Most likely. For it to work, you would need one skill that governs how convincing you are, be it a lie or the truth (Diplomacy) and sense motive would be the skill that governs how well you can discern lies from truth. Charisma would play it's part on the diplomacy side of the equation, by adding your charisma modifier to the diplomacy roll.

No amount of code can ever simulate reality to perfection, expecting it for any aspect of a game is asking to be disappointed. To not add something beneficial and fun, because it cannot be perfect, is to never add anything at all.

If there was a character present that the PC would ICly have difficulty lying to for whatever reason, they simply would not tell lies around them.

If the lie was something that would be extremely hard to lie about, like trying to convince someone the Time of Troubles never happened, then the PC would most likely not bother lying about it.