Begging (sage ability)

Begging is an amateur-status sage ability in the study of Guile, granting an unusual skill in encouraging others to give money of their own free will. As a learned skill in persuasion and manipulation, the ability invokes sympathy or obligation. Elements like choosing the right targets, performing pitiable acts or weaving convincing stories are also part of the craft. At this level, only basic competence is provided, so that effectiveness can be inconsistent.

Begging is a blend of persuasion, social navigation and street-level politics, where a character must understand the dynamics of local beggars, thieves, and hidden power structures before attempting to operate. Larger settlements, towns and cities, with more than 1,000 residents, always have existent organised begging guilds; characters with this skill would know in these places that they should first contact such criminal entities and pay an upfront fee (and afterward, monthly) that would permit them to operate, within assigned perameters that would never be the best corners in the district. In a village, on the other hand, a character might act freely, relying on charisma and pity, though there would be a greater likelihood of the beggar being seen as an outsider and thus run out of town. Beggars that are not part of guilds would be forever on the move.