Bunnies And Burrows Storytellers

Requirements: Stunt (Storyteller) and Rapport at Average (+1)

Anyone can spin a story, but rabbit storytellers are the stuff of legend. They can captivate an audience, enthralling them and bringing them into the tale, as if the entire crowd were taking part in a shared dream. The effects range from changing their mood to getting them so caught up in the narrative that they start acting out their parts in the story! The Storyteller stunt enhances the Rapport skill so that it can be used with the rules below.

Any attempt at storytelling must begin with (unsurprisingly) a story and an audience. The latter must be willing to at least listen to you, and you must share a language. For friendly rabbits, this is easy, but in other cases you may have to use other skills besides Rapport to convince them to lend their ears (e.g., Empathy to figure out what they would listen to, or Deceive or Provoke to drive home the importance of what you have to say). If you have a present-but-hostile audience (e.g., the cats who have you trapped in a nook, or a kettle that you're blocking exit from), you can attempt a roll, but they resist at +1 to +3, depending on how hostile they are.

Mavericks (rabbits who live apart from a warren) tend to crave stories and interaction. When dealing with one, all storytelling rolls are at +1!

Once they're listening, you must spend about 10-15 minutes telling a story. If you, the player, are able to tell a good story that's appropriate to the reaction you're going for, the GM may give you a free boost! (Your story shouldn't be 10-15 minutes long in real time; just a minute or so is fine.) At the end of this, make a Rapport roll opposed by the audience's average Will; the GM may increase their effective Will if your suggestion directly opposes their natural feelings. Your roll is modified by how fully you're trying to enthrall the audience:

+1: You just want them to react favorably or unfavorably toward a particular person, group, or idea.
No Modifier: You're trying to inspire a more complex emotion (e.g., fear of another warren encroaching).
-1: You're trying to get them to take a safe, easy action (e.g., letting you go).
-2: You're trying to get them to take a slightly risky or detrimental action (e.g., giving you their truffles).
-3: You're trying to get them to take an outright dangerous action (e.g., overthrow the king).
-4: You're trying to get them to take a potentially deadly action (e.g., attack the fox den).

When dealing with four or fewer animals, success enthralls them for at least an hour while success with style lasts at least a day. When dealing with lots, success with 0, 1, or 2 shifts respectively enthralls some, most, or all of them for at least an hour while success with style past that threshold lasts at least a day. Treat this as a created advantage.

In all cases, if the inspired feeling meshed closely with their existing beliefs and/or is producing clearly favorable results, the actual duration may be indefinite. In contrast, if things start to go badly, they can make Will rolls to overcome the advantage and snap out of it; the difficulty is your full Rapport skill (modified as above) if you're there alongside them, continuing to spin your story, or half of your effective Rapport (round down) if not.

Repeated uses of storytelling on the same subjects in a short time period starts to trigger their subconscious defenses: +1 to effective Will for every previous attempt in the past week.

(Note that it is intentional that there is no stunt that gives a bonus to storytelling. Successful enthrallment requires high skill and careful use of boosts and advantages.)

Return to Fate Core Bunnies and Burrows