Pathfinders often need to find information or ask for favors. You can roleplay these encounters out, or you can allow them to use their skills in a “macro” sense—summing up hours of effort with a single roll.
Persuasion is the nice way of interacting with one’s contacts. The flip side of the coin is Intimidation. Either can get the job done but in slightly different ways, as shown below.
When to Use These Rules: When the player characters want to ask around town for favors or information.
The Basics: Characters use Persuasion or Intimidation to gather favors or information.
Characters use Persuasion to socialize within their various social circles for information or favors. When used in this way, Persuasion isn’t a single exchange but several hours of networking, hobnobbing, carousing, drinks, gifts, bribes, or entertaining. This might represent time roaming a marketplace, a series of meetings with important people, or an evening of food and drink.
Success grants most of what the character wants, though it may take a while, cost some money, or require a favor in return. A raise either gets more of whatever he was looking for, or at a lower cost.
Failure means the hero’s efforts are in vain. A Critical Failure means he’s cut off from that particular group for a while (up to the GM but typically about a week).
Money Talks: You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar, the saying goes. A character with a little lucre to spread around gets a reroll on her networking attempt, spending money on better bribes, gifts, or wining and dining her contacts.
The amount required is up to the GM, the location, and the nature of the contact(s) she interacts with. As a rule of thumb, use the expenses listed under Carousing and modify as appropriate from there.
Intimidation can also be used to gather information, call in favors, or make demands, but it’s a little less savory.
Each attempt to “work the streets” takes several hours of threats and general unpleasantness, rousting the local populace for whatever the hero needs.
Success grants the character most of what she wants, though her victims might decide to get some payback later on. A raise means she gets more info, gets it faster, or her victims are too scared or otherwise preoccupied to plot revenge.
Failure means the bully doesn’t get anything useful. A Critical Failure means she ends the evening with a fat lip, black eye, or broken nose (see Bumps & Bruises). She can work her contacts again the next day, but they’re more likely to be waiting for her this time!
Busting Heads: The bruiser can improve her odds by getting more violent or extreme than usual. This alienates her contacts for a week but grants her a reroll on the Intimidation check.
This raises the stakes as well. A simple failure means the evening ends with Bumps & Bruises. A Critical Failure bears more serious consequences. The GM might break the action down to an actual encounter (which might be an ambush!). The hero might run afoul of the law, come back with two levels of Fatigue from Bumps & Bruises, or her questions might trigger a deadly reaction from a more powerful enemy!