STAGE · Your first town
Talking to people
Draft — Draft: checked against the game source, not yet read through end to endAvailable from the startAsk about places, people and news with a tone suited to the person, and use the town's reputation to understand their response.
This page is further along your path. Read ahead if you’re curious; you can return when you reach this stage.
Choose what to ask
Start a conversation with a towns-person, then choose Tell me about or Where is. The first offers general topics and named organizations (the NPC guilds). The second sorts questions into Location, People, Things and Work. Ask about a service when you need directions; the map reveal, when it happens, marks the building so you can find it after the conversation.
People do not share one universal opinion. Townsfolk stand with their region's People faction, and the greeting reflects that faction's reputation toward you together with your biography and standing with their social group. If someone refuses to speak, another person may react differently.
Tone and skill
The three tones are Polite, Normal and Blunt. Polite uses Etiquette; Blunt uses Streetwise (the skills). Each question rolls an answer tier using your Personality, the question type, your tone and the relevant skill. Polite and Blunt can suit different social groups, so there is no single tone that improves every exchange.
Questions are not guaranteed to produce a useful answer. The person may not know the place, and a low answer tier can give only a brush-off. When you are looking for a building, ask several people or use the town map.
Common mistakes
Using Blunt on a polite crowd. Blunt rolls Streetwise and Polite rolls Etiquette, and the wrong tone for the social group lowers the answer tier; a brush-off leaves you without directions. Cost: a wasted search.
Giving up after one refusal. Townsfolk answer from their own faction's view of you, so another person may help where the first would not; ask several or use the town map. Cost: a building you never find.
Expecting every answer to be true or useful. A low answer tier can return only a brush-off, and not every person knows every place; a wrong direction can send you across town. Cost: travel time.
Next
Sources & checked facts
src/systems/talk/talk.js:getReactionToPlayer,directionHintStringsrc/systems/talk/talkSession.js:greetingTextId,REFUSE_TALK_REACTIONsrc/systems/talk/talkTopics.js:TOPIC_CATEGORIES,reactionTier012,buildingHintsrc/ui/enhanced/enhancedTalk.js:CATEGORY_BUTTONS,TONE_LABELSResearch:
handbook/research/T1.md(talk and topics; reputation with the People)