Persuade + Earth Approach
You attempt to foster or quell an idea, emotion, or desire in a person. As a Scheme action, you make a Social skill check targeting one or more characters who can hear you. The TN of the check is equal to the highest vigilance among your targets. Earth is used to Reason with your targets.
Details
As a Scheme action, you make a Social skill check targeting one or more characters who can hear you. The TN of the check is equal to the highest vigilance among your targets. Additionally, if applicable, apply one of the following modifications to the TN based on the skill you use on the check:
  • Command: You present a plan with authority, sweeping your targets along with all the confidence a lord should have among their vassals. If each target’s status rank is lower than yours, decrease the TN of this check by 1.
  • Courtesy: You present a proposal backed by honeyed words and clever implications—perfect for dealing with one’s superiors, but perhaps overly deferential when addressing equals or subordinates. If each target’s status rank is higher than yours, decrease the TN of this check by 1.
  • Games/Performance/Other Skills: You offer a diversion from the affairs at hand, turning the conversation to a less pressing topic. If each target’s status rank is equal to yours, decrease the TN of this check by 1. Effects: If you succeed, you add one momentum point toward an appropriate social objective, plus one additional momentum point for every two bonus successes. Further, any narrative ramifications of your check resolve.

Potential Objectives Using Persuade
  • Appealing  to a Person or a Group
    A target is persuaded by accumulating momentum points equal to or greater than the Focus attribute of the target, modified by the GM for stubbornness and innate resistance.  For each successful Social Skill Check, the character gets one Momentum Point. At the GM’s discretion, bonus successes might translate into additional momentum points. If another character has accumulated greater momentum points at that time, the target is persuaded to that character's point of view instead.  In the case of a tie, the character with the highest status wins.  If the target retires before the objective is completed, this objective cannot be completed.
  • Discrediting Someone
    The character attempts to inflict strife upon a target in the scene by using * or specific techniques on them related to social skills.  The character is  successful if the target becomes compromised and unmasks (forfeiting glory equal to their glory rank) or retires from the intrigue.  If the target retires due to other reasons before the objective is completed, this objective cannot be completed.
  • Spreading a Rumor
    A rumor is spread by accumulating momentum points equal to or greater than the Vigilance attribute of the character in the scene with the highest status, modified by the GM for their disposition toward the rumor in question. No two of those Social Skill checks can target the same character. If the character fails at two consecutive checks to spread the rumor, it fails to take root and the objective cannot be completed.
 
Opportunity Uses
*
Increase the TN of the next Social check another character makes before the end of the scene by 1.
 
Opportunity Uses
*
 If you failed, determine the easiest way to accomplish the task you were attempting (skill and approach).
*+
Remove 1 strife you gained from this check per * spent this way.
**
Provide assistance to the next character to attempt a check to accomplish something similar
*
If you failed, provide assistance to the next character trying to accomplish the same action (p. 298 CRB)
*
Reassure another character in the scene with your presence, allowing them to remove 2 strife.
*+
Act carefully to minimize consequences of failure or other dangers that could arise from the task. Extra * makes the attempt even safer.
**
Suddenly recall an important piece of information not directly related to the task. At the GM’s discretion, you may establish a small preparatory action you took earlier, such as bringing along a common useful item.
Social + Earth Shuji Opportunities
Ancestry Unearthed (1)
Activation: When you make a Scholar skill (Earth) or Social skill (Earth) check targeting a character:
*   You know one sworn oath the character’s family took in the past, and whether or not they have broken or bent it
* *  You know one secret of the character’s family that they would prefer be forgotten, and have perhaps even worked to bury.
* * *  You know something the character does not even known about their own ancestry.
Stonewall Tactics (1)
Activation: When making a Social skill (Earth) or Martial skill (Earth) check targeting a character:
*+ Increase the TN of any check the target makes that does not target you by 1 per * spent this way. This effect persists until the beginning of your next turn.
Weight of Duty (1)
Activation: When making a Social skill (Earth)  check targeting a character:
* Learn one way the target fears failing as a samurai
* * Learn the target’s giri
Special Circumstance Opportunities
In Shadowlands
** Your resolute nature steels you against the unstable environment of the Shadowlands. You count your vigilance as 1 higher the next time you seek to notice or avoid a hazardous situation or creature.
Against Tainted Threats
** You are able to weather such terrible things as the revelation of a secret mahō-tsukai or the summoning of an oni. The next time you suffer strife this scene, you suffer 2 fewer strife, to a minimum of 0.
While Tainted
** No mortal concern can slow you, as you already endure worse than most can even imagine. For the rest of the scene, whenever you suffer fatigue reduce the value suffered by 2, to a minimum of 0.
In Negotiations
*** Your uncompromising dedication to your bottom line stalls the conversation. Choose a character in the scene: that character cannot gain momentum points toward any social objective until the end of your next turn.
In Romance
** An offhand comment reveals that you and your intended share some common ground: an odd hobby, a favorite actor, or a core belief. Make three suggestions to your intended’s player; they must tell you which one it is. You and your intended may each remove 2 strife.
In Espionage
*+ You locate an excellent hiding place, either a place where no one questions your cover identity or a concealed location no one checks. While hiding in this location, you reduce the TN of your checks to avoid notice by * spent this way