Face characters 
  Overcome obstacles with words  

Let's have a talk about a trope in TTRPG, TV show and movies : The Face character.

"In a team character dynamic, the Face is the one you want doing the talking. They are charming, socially savvy, and otherwise know how to get things done with words. At worst they will be the least dysfunctional team member. While they might be The Leader for this reason, it might also be that they are mistaken for being in charge simply because they are the most vocal. This is the super trope for the characters that could fit in that role."

Source : https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheFace

"The Face: This Role is the Player who deliberately puts themselves out in front of the target of a Job. Sometimes they’re there as a distraction. Sometimes they’re there to pump the opposition for info. Sometimes they’re the one to smooth talk the bad guys into doing something advantageous for the team. Rockers are naturally good at playing the Face role; they can often rely on a guard or secretary to be too starstruck by their arrival to think clearly."

Source : It's always a Caper CRB p.394

Because we're not playing a tactical TTRPG, we're playing Cyberpunk, a TTRPG about Style, Attitude and living on the Edge in order to survive while being true to yourself and your cause. Obstacles are a situation players have to resolve in order to go to the next step. A GM should create obstacles while keeping in mind two main concepts:

• Obstacles should be tailored to the group. During session 0, GM and players should exchange about the style of the campaign. Because a Cyberpunk campaign can be full of combat, or full of investigation or full of social encounters and obviously a mix of everything. That's your call. GM shall not go full combat with a rock band : 2x Rockerboy, Tech, Fixer, Executive and a group of players wishing for a campaign around their band and how they gonna hit high.

• Obstacles should be created in the more neutral way possible. Let me clarify, a combat is NOT an obstacle. The 5 gangers in front of the group who are not willing to let them through their spot are an obstacle. PCs can overcome this obstacle through different course of action : Combat, Facedown, Bribery, Stealth, etc.

A Cyberpunk campaign can be a series of battles interspersed with chit-chat, and that's fine. But it can be so much more if you let your players have fun solving situations without combat. And let's be honest, it's gonna be impossible to solve everything without spilling blood. As a player, I love combat, but I loved it even more when my group manage to limit combat to a small and under control altercation. And sometimes shit hit the fan and you'll be involved in a chaotic battle, that's Cyberpunk life.

Of course, GM will create non neutral obstacles from time to time. You're playing a group with 2 solos (MA & Autofire), a nomad (Heavy weapon), a Tech (Invent / Fabricate / Upgrade in Weapon tech) and a Medtech (MA & Drugs), sooner or later you should meet an obstacle that cannot be beaten to a pulp. Your group have some pretty dangerous weaknesses after all, and that's fair to target them from time to time.

The Face is the one who will handle most of obstacles with a social course of action, he needs tools and Cyberpunk have a lot of them: Many Skills, a few cyberwares, some drugs and some gears.

COOL

Acting

• "Skill of assuming a role, disguising yourself as someone else, whether real or fictitious, and faking emotions and moods."

• You want your lies to sounds credible ? Put some emotions behind it. That's Acting. You want to go undercover in order to get some precious intel ? That's Acting.

Bribery

• "Skill of knowing when to bribe someone, how to approach them, and how much to offer."

• Throwing money at a problem is not always an easy task, you will need WHEN, HOW and HOW much. That's the purpose of Bribery. You can make a check in order to evaluate if someone can be bribed. Don't fail.

Interrogation

• "Skill of forcibly extracting information from people."

• That's a brute force approach and you need some kind of leverage : fear (intimidation, blackmail), authority (NCPD badge, Corpo badge, Netwatch badge). Your target knows you want information and knows which one. That's not a subtle process, but it's effective.

Persuasion

• "Skill of convincing, persuading, or influencing individuals. Also, the ability to talk others into doing what you want. This may be used individually or on large groups."

• That's kinda the go to skill, it's very powerful. GM you really need to check the other social skills before using Persuasion, else your players will invest a lot in Persuasion and will try to explain why it applies every time. Persuasion is fine when any of the other skill works.

• Examples:

  • • no, you don't persuade him to take money in exchange of this information, that's Bribery.

    • no, you don't persuade him to talk by threatening to punch him so hard that no one will recognize him, that's Interrogation.

    • no, you don't persuade him that you are a fellow corporate guard, that's Acting.

    • Maybe your GM will be lenient and allows you to roll, but he should strike you with a much higher DV.

Personal grooming

• "Skill of knowing proper grooming, hair styling, etc., to maximize your physical attractiveness. Use of this Skill allows Characters to increase their chances of successful seduction or persuasion."

• You have a cool avatar for your character, he looks neat, well shaved, nice haircut, etc... did you pay the price for your Style ? That Personal grooming, and that overlooked far too much. GM, don't hesitate to ask for Personal grooming score during social encounters, some NPCs might care about overall attractiveness, when I say some... I think A LOT. Style over Substance.

Streetwise

• "Skill of knowing where to get illegal and contraband things, talking to the criminal element, and avoiding bad situations in bad neighborhoods."

• Very important social skills to interact with the Street. And remember, it's always street level. You know how to behave in the most dangerous parts of the underground. That's kinda important.

Trading

• "Skill of striking a good bargain with a merchant or customer."

• Fixer can add their rank to trading skill, they aren't gonna be easy to outperform if you're not a Fixer yourself. But if you are not dealing with a Fixer. That's a good way to save money.

Wardrobe and style

• "Skill of knowing the right clothes to wear, when to wear them, and how to look cool even in a spacesuit."

• Style over Substance, Personal Grooming and W&S are all about that. They are perfect complementary skills, and it's not so hard to pile up bonuses.

INT

Bureaucracy

• "Skill for dealing with bureaucrats, cutting red tape, knowing who to talk to in a bureaucracy, how to reach them, and how to extract information from bureaucracies."

• This one is more niche, while Persuasion will open a lot of doors for you, Bureaucracy will tell you where the door are and will also open them if you are dealing with bureaucrats. Don't forget every Corpo has an administrative branch, and they are full of bureaucrats, same has NCPD, and of course the Townhall.

Business

• "Skill regarding knowledge of basic business practices, laws of supply and demand, employee management, procurement, sales, and marketing."

• This one is super niche, but if you have employee (like an Executive) this is the skill to manage them. In the skill examples, hiring employee fell under this skill.

Education

• "Skill of general knowledge, equivalent to a basic school education, allowing you to know how to read, write, use basic math, and know enough history to get by."

• Less obvious, but in some circles it will be obvious you are uneducated and that can blow your cover up. If you aren't under cover, prejudice might raise DV you will have to beat for other check like Conversation or Persuasion. After all, your a bum, why would they listen to you.

Language

• If you can't talk with them... you can't do your Face magic.

Cyberware

• Chemskin & Techhair : If you have both, that's +2 Personal Grooming

• Light Tattoo x3 : +2 W&S

• Cyber audio suite + Voice Stress Analyzer : +2 Human perception and +2 Interrogation + Lie detector

• AudioVox : +2 Acting (control over your voice)

• Superchrome® Covering : +2 W&S

• Neural link + Chipware Socket + 

  • • Skill Chip : any social skill you don't have / any language you don't have.

    • PoserChip : "While installed into a Chipware Socket, this grants the user a +4 to Acting Checks to impersonate the persona."

Other gears

• Agent : +2 W&S if you buy clothes from time to time to keep up with the last trend.

• Laser Light Street Jacket : LAJ - Urban flash count as 1 light Tattoo

• Mimic Clothing Kit : Transform a Fashion jacket into a LAJ.

• Executive Armor : LAJ with the appearance of Businesswear Fashion + regenrate SP by itself.

• Corporate Island : LAJ with the appearance of Businesswear Fashion.

• Masetto Holo-Wear : "Masetto Holo-Wear gives the user the appearance of wearing clothing of the type shown by the hologram. With an Action, a user can change between purchased outfits using a paired Agent." No bonus, no armor, but pretty useful to adapt your clothes to the place and people you are meeting.

• SlamDance Tasmanskiy Klô : Battleglove with long claws, +2 to their Interrogation Skill Check.

• Sanroo Hello Cutie Ultra-K8 Assault Pistol : "If the user is wearing at least 3 pieces of Asia Pop Fashion while wearing the weapon openly, it also gives the user a +2 to Wardrobe and Style Checks."

• Superchrome® Glam Rifle & Superchrome® Javelin & Superchrome® Sidearm : "When worn openly, the user gets a +2 to their Wardrobe and Style Skill Checks. This bonus only applies once and won’t combine with other weapons that grant a bonus to Wardrobe and Style."

Rockerboy

Obviously Rockerboy are usually charismatic, at least they have a great abiliy : Charismatic Impact.

"Assuming you aren't in combat, you can make people who aren't currently fans into fans (unless they actively dislike you) by rolling Charismatic Impact + 1d10 vs. a DV8 for a Single Person, DV10 for a Small Group of up to 6, or DV12 for a Huge Group."

Then depending on your rank, you can ask them some favor. That's a pretty powerful tool for a Face. With high COOL you will almost have a course of action when talking with people.

Medtech

As stated in my post about Medtech, they can use drugs more freely than anyone else. Because they have access to Rapidetox. With that in mind, they can have +4 in Persuasion, Acting, that's something. And a +2 in Conversation and Human perception. OK Piranha Smash is pretty easy to resist (DV9), you don't need to be a Medtech.

But I can easly envision a Medtech with high EMP, a character willing to help people around and doing his job with passion, he would have some cyberware like Voice stress analyser, and a chipware socket. If needed he would be able to boost is COOL and Persuasion. Else he would be very effective with Conversation and Human perception.

Netrunner, Nomad

Netrunner and Nomad have low requirement for their Role ability. Interface and Moto are self relient. That mean you can create whatever character you want. You will not have any advantages from your Role, but that's not an issue.

Conclusion

Your Role doesn't matter. Yes, Fixer and Rockerboy have advantages. Yes, Media, Executive and detective Lawman have all the tools as they need them for their daily job. But if you want to a Face, you can be a Face, whatever your role. And if you have multiple character with High COOL, maybe you can switch the Face depending on the audience.

That's the beauty of a skill based system. And the freedom given to us with all the STAT point and Skill point we get at chargen.

Because of the skills, Gears, Drugs and Role, you can create Face characters that are very different. Remenber the main idea, you're a Face and your job is to overcome obstacles without violence using words. You might not be excellent in all the skills at disposal. That's not a problem, choose your fight, choose the angle where you are the stronger.

As I said earlier it will not always be possible. In this case, have a side plan. And if it failed, you can still let the Strong Man do his magic (which requires fist and someone getting KO or flatlined).

The one who empathises

Based on EMP, he will use Conversation and Human perception to get what he needs. He understands people's needs, which enables him to interact with great subtlety. It's not an easy one to RP, but certainly the most powerful one to establish long term relationship with NPCs.

Having a dedicated Face in a group is a fun concept. But, as I'm coming from VtM, I'm used to have multiple character capable to be a Face at my table. At the end of the day, it all depends on the table:

• Some group are all about combat, easy to have one character with some Face skills (like the Solo above)

• Some group are all about RP, more than half of the characters may have skills related to Face characters, and it can be interesting to allocate different skills in order to cover more Social course of action. Not for min-max purpose, but to ensure that everyone will have his moment during each Job.

• Some like to do a bit of everything, combat, investigation and social encounters. Again this is a place where it can be interesting to have a discussion during session 0.

It's not an issue if multiple characters have the same skill. The group will have more choices, as it's not always the highest score that matters. Complementary skills and other factors might be important. The Executive might face prejudice when dealing with gangers, the Fixer might be a better choice here. And sometimes you will separate the PCs for whatever reasons, having a bit of redondance will be beneficial.

You don't need a Face character, it's more about the idea behind : You can overcome obstacles without violence. But you need tools for that. And Cyberpunk offers a great variety of tools. Don't overlook them. You have enough STAT and Skills to be good at multiple things in CPR.