Stalkers RPG Questions & Answers

[Suicune's Fire]

Help! I'm unsure how diplomacy actually works!
Can I elect to use it every turn?
Does it give the same outcome as "very positive" or does it cancel out all positives and negatives, and end up neutral?
I guess i'm trying to find out if theres a reason NOT to use it, game play wise. Most other skills like medicine and tech, people would use at every opportunity- is diplomacy like that?

Sorry about that, Lychee! Yes, perks work like any action. Dilpomacy is the only perk that can be used on the civilians by picking one from the list and going, "I wanna use it here!"

Just like any other action, yes, you can use it any time. Use Perk/Item is listed in the Rules and Gameplay thread as a default action, which means you can use it when you like (limited by the number of actions you have to spend). Generally Diplomacy is used on difficult people who refuse to pass over information or items, but if you have Diplomacy, you can by-all-means use it on every interview you do. :) It can work as an interview override in that sense. Most of the time you won't need Diplomacy, but there's no harm in using it. Normally items that NPCs refuse to hand over are free, but Frinottie's was a special case where she owns a shop that sells that item. I actually had no plans for Frinottie to lower the price of that item, but I figured since you used initiative with Diplomacy, I thought it'd be a good touch. :) Also, the lowered price was offered exclusively to you.

So yes, you're welcome to use it every time! Unlike most of the other perks, you can use it on NPCs anytime, rather than having to wait for a <Diplomacy> prompt to show up. However, if someone else interviews a pokemon and they're being difficult, a prompt may appear under the pokemon's name in the suspect list. As it says in the Rules and Gameplay thread under Diplomacy, the NPC you choose to use it on will always have a positive rapport with you, and nothing below neutral with anyone else. If others have a positive rapport with the pokemon, it will be above neutral. It's really just so nobody can get a bad score. If you have a very positive score with the NPC even without Diplomacy, that will be used instead of positive.

Hope that answers your questions!