Basic Details
During conversation, you may use the call “Detect Lie” to identify whether a statement, or part of a statement, was a lie.
Designed for Diplomatic gameplay. This is Specialist Equipment and can only be used by members of the DIPLO Division.
Usage
This upgrade requires 1 Power to use, expended each time you call “Detect Lie”.
Obtaining
This item is available at Character Creation and during the game from the Ardent’s Shop for 20 Credits.
Upgrade
This upgrade is designed for Kinesics Scanners, but can be added to other similar scanning devices in-play.
Description
Detect Lie is a call that can be used at any point during a conversation with a player or crew member. The call “Detect Lie” is best used immediately after a specific statement has been made or information given, and only assesses intent, not the objective fact of a statement. If several facts were presented in quick succession, using this call will identify whether there was a lie within the overall statement, and not tell you exactly what the lie was.
“Detect Lie” is an out-of-character call, and targets should not generally react in-character to its use; their response of “Yes” or “No” is also out-of-character. The target might suspect they are being scrutinised, especially if it is repeatedly used, but they won’t know what information they have revealed as a result of the call. Very rarely, crew characters will explicitly know what is occurring.
How To Use
- Another character makes a statement.
- Immediately call “Detect Lie”, expending 1 Power.
- The target responds “Yes” or “No”, then continues the conversation.
In-Game Use Examples
Finbar Three watches the negotiations between the two parties closely. He’s not leading the conversation, but he is observing, figuring out how to use it to the Ardent’s advantage. He patiently lets the Northern Rol representative finish their opening statement, and then asks, “Detect Lie” to discover whether there is a lie in the statement. The Northerner replies, “No”, and the conversation continues as it was, undisturbed; they appear to be telling the truth. Almost immediately after the Southern Lug delegate begins speaking, Finbar interjects: “Detect Lie”, to see if the Lug delegate is trying to mislead the Rol. The Southerner replies “Yes”, they are indeed! This likewise does not change the conversation. As the conversation begins to flow properly, Flynn gets in two more uses of the Lie Detector in back-to-back; Lug makes a speech about the ship, “Detect Lie” get the answer “Yes”, but there were several points made and Flynn doesn’t know which is the lie. Another short statement is made and Flynn once again asks “Detect Lie”, replied with “No”; that last fact was true this time.
The two representatives now start to get suspicious; as far as they’re concerned, their strange Anthroid mediator from off-world hasn’t said anything, but he keeps using his strange device at vulnerable moments. Finbar catches on to this, and also notices that he only has one Power left on his Lie Detector anyway, so he decides to rely on his training to guess deception himself and save the Detector as a backup, thus allaying suspicion. He has plenty of information to bring back to Diplo.