Any good Man-Wise stories?

[peteradkison]

I GM'ing a dwarf PC with Man-Wise. I think he got it from the Hawker lifepath.

Any day now he's going to ask me what it's used for. Anyone have any clever input?

I have two thoughts: One, as a hawker, he's learned how to observe human behaviors. Sorta like a pop psychologist. Which might be an interesting trait, but for a -Wise not sure how that could be interesting. Another thought is that he knows who's-who amongst the humans of the city. It's sorta like the stuff you learn being the tailor of the shoe-shine guy from all the tidbits of gossip.

Anyway, curious how y'all have played this.

Peter

[Verrain]

The thing we always focused on is that Man-Wise is a very general skill. "You know, among humans only the men have beards." Once you start getting into specifics of a town then really it is Specific Town wise you should be testing and substituting Man-Wise makes the test a higher ob. Mostly we used it as a Fork for the various Social skills. "Let me talk to them. I've seen their kind before."

[Kublai]

Men will always take the easy way out/choice.

Men prefer gold over silver, wine over ale.

Man first appeared in the Valley of Eva in the year 120.

Man is [insert name of a god]'s favored creature.

[Black Spike]

As the others have said, plus the pop-psychology.
To make it seem right, have the skill point out how Humans are diffrent from Dwarves, give everything from a dwarven perspective.
e.g. their lack of Greed (and many 'proverbs' based on that), thier disloyalty to Kin, Lack of Stubbornness, claustrophobia (Dwarves are happier than Men underground), etc

[peteradkison]

Okay guys, I get what you're saying. But it doesn't seem very grabby. I get that it could be a useful skill if the players were all dwarves so that humans were more of a mystery and if the players and GM spend some mindshare trying to be amusing about misperceptions dwarves would have about humans and how that could lead to complications. Great, and my hats off to those who go down that path. But I'm running a mixed race game and we'd be congratulating ourselves if we figured out a way to use this skill interestingly more than once in a campaign.

I'm going to let the Dwarven PC change the skill from Man-Wise to Kansk-Wise (the name of the city he's based in and was a Hawker in). I think the notion of a Hawker really knowing the city well is more interesting for the style of campaign we have.

Peter

[Paul B]

It might just be that you/we are too close to the subject matter.

How would you go about using Orc-wise? What if you were that open about possible Man-wise assertions?

[gooderguy]

i think paul's advice is good. come at it from a different perspective. for instance, i have a troll in a mixed race game. his best skill is dwarf-wise. started as a B2 and is already a B4 after only 4 sessions. i use it to establish tons of stuff about the dwarves i come across.

'dwarves are rich and always have cash-on hand'
'dwarves keep their riches in locked rooms but don't use guards because they don't want the guards to know where the locked rooms are'
'dwarves like to drink, so they'll abandon their post for a chance at some tasty nog'

take those and spin them for humans to establish facts about men.
'a man can't outdrink a dwarf' - if you're trying to get one drunk
'men are superstitious and afraid of magic' - if you're trying to intimidate or scare some men
'men spend their money unwisely' - if you're trying to haggle
'men who are sexually devious hang out in bath-houses' - if you're trying to set someone up in a scandal
'men often stumble home alone' - if you're trying to jump some man

i advise against drifting the game and allowing the player to switch his man-wise. if he doesn't want it, he doesn't have to buy it, but imagine how powerful it could be as a fork. any time the dwarf deals with a human, he can fork man-wise. wises are subtle, but powerfully advantageous when used properly.

[Kublai]

I've used Orc-wise to establish which clan an orc belongs to. I imagine you can use it the same way for Men, establishing nationality et al.

[Rafe]

And for establishing psychology and general behaviour: "Only one Man would come down this tunnel. Men think it makes them brave to dare the unknown alone." Stuff like that can be used to set up an ambush, etc.

[luke]

I will grant that Man-wise isn't the best wise. It's a little broad for my tastes, but as noted in this thread, it does have its uses especially for a creative player.

[Judd]

You could ForK it in to your weapon skill when you are killing men or your DoW skill when you are arguing with or about men.