Rally (speech)

An effort that can be undertaken by any character who has gained the rapt attention of a crowd in excess of 10 persons. Rapt attention is defined as a pre-established willingness of the crowd to willfully acknowledge the character's desires. Rapt attention may be gained through deed, personal authority over the crowd or an attempt to initiate a grassroots movement.

To rally a crowd is to encourage them to head off towards a given location in order to perform a purpose, most commonly to make a show of force that an authority cannot ignore, but potentially to move to a location for the purpose of being deliberately disobedient to the state. The distance travelled by a march may potentially be no further than across a street, but it may also mean travelling for dozens of days towards a far-off objective. To sustain a longer march, the character must continue to rally the crowd onward.

No success roll is required if the march can be managed in a period of less than one hour. At that point, however, the character must make a wisdom check. If the wisdom check fails, the crowd will quickly diminish to half its size during the second hour. The remainder will stay the course until the first full day has passed, this being 24 hours. If, on the other hand, the wisdom check succeeds, the crowd will swell in size by 10 to 40% throughout the day.

From then on, at the start of each new day, the rallying character must make another wisdom check. So long as the check is successful, the crowd will continue to gain in size by 10-40% each day. However, with each night it will become apparent that many of these people have not brought adequate food or means to manage the journey. Steps must be taken to provide one third of these people with food (2 lbs. each per day) and blankets (one each, plus additional numbers as the crowd continues to swell). If violence or plundering is used visibly to provide these, there is a 10% chance each day per incident of violence that the crowd will explode into a riot, ending the march.

Persons needing blankets or food that do not receive both will melt away after one day, along with companions they have brought with them or met along the way, diminishing the crowd in number by themselves and one other.

There is no appreciable result if the daily wisdom check fails once - this will mean only that the crowd does not gain in size that day. However, if the daily wisdom check fails twice in succession, the crowd will shrink by 10%. If the daily wisdom check fails three times in succession, the consequences will be dire.

Evaluation

Upon having failed three times, the crowd will demand an evaluation of the march itself. Both sides will be heard throughout that day and no progress will be made. The rallying character will be permitted a chance to speak - at this point, the character may choose to rabble-rouse, disperse the crowd or continue to rally.

If the character presses to rally, the character must now make a charisma check - if this is successful, the crowd will diminish by 20% overall but the march will continue (if the next day the crowd grows again, it will indicate that many of these who left returned). The rallying character will be considered to have a clean record and may therefore fail twice again (even right away) without an evaluation.

If, however, the charisma check during the evaluation fails, then the march will largely fail as well. A mere 10% of the crowd's number will remain, while the remaining 90% will depart.

The DM may choose to adjust the character's charisma check if pertinent information can be offered to the crowd that they did not previously possess.

Resolution

If the purpose of the march is to perform an act of disobedience, the rallying character must at the end of the march make a speech addressing this action (see Civil Disobedience).

However, if the crowd has made their way to address an authority, either a public or private individual, their appearance will arouse the individual to address the crowd, either directly or through an intermediary. The crowd and the character are free to make their request. To achieve their goals, the addressed individual must make a morale check to resist the change (see standard morale). A -1 adjustment to the morale check is made for each 100 members in the crowd.

Should the morale check fail, the addressed individual will make a well-meant concession towards the crowd's desires. This concession will likely not be a complete agreement, but should be sufficient to indicate a change in attitude and belief, compelled by the crowd.

If the morale check succeeds, however, the crowd will be forcibly dispersed by whatever means the addressed individual possesses, with the likely arrest of several persons including the rallying character. It may not be possible at this time for the character to speak again with the crowd, either to rabble-rouse, disperse them or cause them to disobey.