And wine and food were brought, and Earl Limours
Drank till he jested with all ease, and told
Free tales, and took the word and played upon it,
And made it of two colours; for his talk,
When wine and free companions kindled him,
Was wont to glance and sparkle like a gem
Of fifty facets; thus he moved the Prince
To laughter and his comrades to applause.Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Gareth & Lynette
To be Subtle is to act with guile and artifice. It is to achieve goals that were not obviously your aims, to steer people when they do not know they are being appealed to.
- In thought and word, it is deceit, mimicry and rumor.
- In act and deed, it is being unseen - or being seen but not understood.
- In craft, it is the hiding of secrets in plain sight.
- And in combat, it is rarely honorable.
WIP: what is the distinctive element of this Reputation?
i.e. to avoid it being just a direction of Careful, Cunning and Courtly? And while The Works of Whispers is a skill (so why not act Carefully in the Works of Whispers? or Cunningly?)
It’s most ready to absorb Careful, because I don’t want subtlety being just the sneaky guy stuff (though I do want it to be that), and reabsorbing the concept of crafting with detail in mind, being observant, etc. may help it get enough direction.
The original distinction’s from the very first Approaches I learned about:
- A Careful action is when you pay close attention to detail and take your time to do the job right. Lining up a long-range arrow shot. Attentively standing watch. Disarming a bank’s alarm system.
- A Sneaky action is done with an emphasis on misdirection, stealth, or deceit. Talking your way out of getting arrested. Picking a pocket. Feinting in a sword fight.
but that’s for a generalist game, and this is for a different focus of characters (but still one with treacherous knights, and non-knights who may have to mostly act both carefully and subtly - and potentially explore the difference between the two of them)