Reading the Room: Integration and Diplomacy

In which Dyo answers the question of why RISE has Integration and Diplomacy acumen, and how they differ.

Sometimes I am minding my business, happily being a boss of Diplomacy and Integration simultaneously, when someone asks why I would invest points so redundantly, since Diplomacy and Integration are pretty much the same thing: knowing what to say when, and what to do when. Ah, my friend, you're stumbling into the world of Etiquette, which is a Competency made of the marriage of the two acumen under discussion, but that's a story for another day. In RISE, we value expansive imagination but also specificity of conception, which is why we have Diplomacy, Etiquette, Integration, and even Politics (another Competency), all of which are related.

But to the question at hand: let us gaze with eagerness on the official definitions of Diplomacy and Integration according to the RISE rulebook:

Diplomacy represents your character's ease at understanding, influencing, or appreciating social interaction. Using Diplomacy is usually a free action, as it may be used any time your character speaks. In general, Diplomacy is not a substitute for participating in role-playing dialogue. Even if a poor roll is made, Diplomacy can only benefit what your character says; conversely, an extremely high roll does not force another into obeying your character. Diplomacy is modified by your character's Presence.

Integrate represents your character's ability to be accepted by various cultures, communities, or particular groups, such as through clothing, dialect, or behavior. Integrate is rarely a specific behavior, but rather represents an understanding of where to go and who to see for a particular task. Integrate is often a prolonged action, with a series of individual interactions designed to establish information that only those "in the know" would possess. Integrate is modified by your character's Presence.

We see that both acumen are Presence-based, which makes sense, and probably accounts for the superficial potential for confusion between the two of them--but beyond the fact that these acumen come more easily to charismatic characters, we see key differences. Let me tell you a story:

It's midnight in Tarrytown and you're an exhausted traveler. You roll an Integrate check to get a good sense of where you might get safe lodging. After all, you're not going to find the missing princess of Relancia without a reasonable night's rest! But you also want somewhere popular, somewhere that people might sit if they're going to, say, reveal secrets after imbibing a bit too much. Relying on Integrate, you are able to select an appropriate inn and avoid making a big entrance as you walk through the surprisingly crowded common room. Now it's time to speak to the proprietress, and you decide to ask her if she's heard about the Princess's disappearance. Like lightning, your hopelessly meta-gaming buddy helpfully elbows you-- "Roll a Diplomacy check!" He's right. You furtively glance at your GM, who graciously allows the interference to pass unnoticed. You announce that you're going to use Diplomacy, and, per the rules, you formulate what you're going to say, take a deep breath (not in the rules, but can't hurt), and begin your inquiry. Almost immediately, an unsavory chap sends you an ale with his compliments, interrupting your pressing conversation. You might use Integrate to figure out whether you actually can reject the ale without causing too much offense, and Diplomacy for what you will say if he forces a verbal encounter.*

If my story didn't help (which would be crushing to hear), we can again consult the rules to make sense of things. Acumen Expertise, which are specific benefits that encourage point investment and also help delineate paths within particular acumen, can also help clarify the differences between two related acumen. But first, a quick reminder (or introduction) to Acumen Expertise: Once you have invested five points in a given Acumen, you may select an Acumen Expertise (for free--you do not need to invest an additional point to claim the benefits of the expertise). Each Acumen has five Acumen Expertise choices, and each Acumen Expertise has four tiers, which are climbed with every additional 5 points invested into the specific acumen, so a fourth-tier Acumen Expertise in Integrate would require that a player have invested 20 bonus points into Integrate.**

So, let's look at Diplomacy's five acumen expertise: Argue, Placate, Poise, Support, and Taunt. For Integrate, we offer: Assimilate, Boss, Famous, Gumption, and Savvy. I would argue that, even without reading the descriptions, you can see a clear difference in the implied character of each acumen. Diplomacy is about specific action, often speech-centered, and Integrate more about a state of being or quality of character. To put it roughly, Diplomacy is the arena of a lawyer or a politician or (duh) an ambassador, and Integrate is a social-media influencer who doesn't push the boundaries of what's cool, the new kid on the block, or an undercover cop. "But Dyo," you say, unfurling a scroll upon which you write all of your objections to overly simplistic comparisons, "diplomats have to integrate, and people who integrate are diplomatic." To which I say, sometimes. Diplomats, by necessity, represent their own interests, often in contrast to the prevailing culture, while ideally being polite; integration absorbs the prevailing culture without necessarily making known its own interests just yet.

So, there's the difference. But before you go away, satisfied that you are now an expert on these important issues, allow me to indicate another reason why you should be doubly certain of the distinctions between your acumen and invest your points accordingly. The first tier of the Diplomacy Acumen Expertise has "Placate," for example, which gives you a +1 bonus to all regular-type Damage Reduction; "Taunt" gives an attacking character a -2 penalty to Hit damage when marked by you but attacking someone else. So these Expertise translate knowledge-based skills that you use in non-combat encounters into relevant components of your character's combat-encounter arsenal. If you pursued Integrate as an Acumen, and you chose the Acumen Expertise "Famous," your first-tier benefit entitles you to +2 bonus temporary hit points for every ally you have within two squares at the start of an encounter. Similarly, "Boss" allows you to gain a +1 bonus to saving throws when you have an associate within two squares of you. Already, you see that an Integration-prizing character would position himself close to other characters physically on the battlefield (making allies of other player-characters and acquiring associates of his own); conversely a Diplomacy-interested character would not need to be situated in the middle of a scrum to benefit from the associated Acumen Expertise in a battle.

All of this is to say that with each point you invest, every level, there are consequences, namely in who your character can become: what kind of role she has in dialogue, what objects or hobbies she seeks out, which types of persons might prize her as an ally or declare her as a worthy enemy, even how she engages in physical battle. As you design your character, take a long-range view: what kinds of avenues are open to me if I choose Diplomacy over Integrate? if I choose both? When I choose Diplomacy, should I pursue an Acumen Expertise, and if so, which one(s)? You see that even as I tell you that your choices narrow when you choose specific Acumen, when you choose Acumen Expertise these choices also expand (remember, there are five options per Acumen), or at least acquire more opportunities to differentiate yourself as a unique hero.

Would you like to tell me (diplomatically or otherwise) that I'm wrong about the distinction between these two acumen? No need to roll an Integrate check to see if I'll be receptive to the challenge-- just send me a note below. But be forewarned that I've been part of Mock Trial and Model UN, and I'm a bard in-game, so you know what you're getting into in advance!

Integration and Diplomacy are the keys to making a sell. Henryk Siemiradzki, Begging castaway 1878

*To know how to reject the ale appropriately in Tarrytown, you would do even better with an Etiquette check, as the competency Etiquette is an advanced or specialized form of the more general acumen of Diplomacy and Integrate! But before you ask me why you would ever invest in Diplomacy (or Integrate) if Etiquette is more powerful, you should know that you must invest in Diplomacy or Integrate first in order to work your way up to Etiquette, which is a lot like how real life works and thus why it's "baked in the cake" of RISE, a game preoccupied with a character's (and player's) choices having in-game consequences.

**Note that your Integrate check-- the main number associated with your character's overall ability to Integrate-- may be higher than a 20, but the checks factor in your attribute score bonuses, which are not bonus points and thus don't count toward acumen expertise. Be certain that you are looking at the "Bonus points" box on your character sheet to determine whether you can claim an Acumen Expertise for a given Acumen.