Seduce/Manipulate on PCs: too weak?

[Ernesto Pavan]

During our last session (we were playing Monster of the Week, not vanilla AW, but the seduce/manipulate system works pretty much the same), I noticed that seducing or manipulating a PC is basically a useless move unless you have Hot highlited (and even in that case, it's not gonna bring you much besides the xp): when one of the characters manipulate another one with a 7-9, the other character's player ignored the offer to mark experience, since he got a ton of it from his highlited stats previously, was confident to get another ton during the session (he didn't, but that was incidental) and a single point wasn't enough for him to do what the other character wanted. That gave me something to think about. Isn't sedure/manipulate too weak when used on PCs? People using it are basically forced to choose the "act under fire" option, unless the other PC has a high Cool and has it highlighted. Am I missing something?

[Christopher Weeks]

In my experience, the characters, presented with the xp, almost always take it.  But it's all good either way.

[Shreyas]

Well, if the single experience point isn't enough, you have lots of clear fictional routes that can help you put pressure on the situation, right?

I mean, "Hey, give me your bathtub," is not really a very strong bargaining position, but "Hey, I've got your motorcycle, so give me your bathtub or I push it off the side of this parking structure," is a lot more convincing, crunch concerns aside. Seduce/manipulate isn't hamstrung, but it isn't fun or convincing when you don't accompany it with good fictional context.

[Pheylorn]

I am shocked at your play experience. In the four groups I play with, people leap at those xp ticks like you wouldn't believe. I've only seen someone deny the bonus a couple of times.

[Chroma]

I've only seen someone deny the bonus a couple of times.

The most awesome example being Vanguard (Hardholder) refusing Hope's (Battlebabe) seductive advances, not because of mechanics, but because of story driven reasons!

I've seen seduce/manipulate used extremely well in PC on PC interactions in all my games, hasn't seemed weak at all.

[evilseanbot]

I'd really like it if you posted the fictional contest for how it was used, not only because I think it'd be a big help to evaluating your appraisal of the moves, but also because I always like to read about hot PC on PC action.

It seems like we're exclusively talking about the strength of choosing the XP option, because you're writing off the Act Under Fire option.

1xp isn't the world... but its like 20% of the way to getting something really cool like a gang or weird psychic power or a substantial stat increase. I'd go for it, a lot of the time.

[noclue]

Figure out what you think the player would do for an XP and try not to ask for more than that. Finding that line is part of the fun of playing to find out.