The easiest way to think about Personals is that they are just another Task. I'm not sure why they appear on the Skills page along with Intuitions -- which are not skills but more like metagame opportunities. Regardless, that's not your question. The best description of Personals is on p145.
So, the Personals are not skills. They are a type of Task that is resolved using nD < or = a target number. And, as it says on p185, "If the situation is trivial or unremarkable, there is no need to resolve or role-play it."
How do you lie? I think the best way to answer this is with an example.
The Goal:
Adam wants to leave the Starport to meet man about a horse, but offworlders are forbidden to travel beyond the walls. He decides he's going to lie to the guard at the gate to persuade her to let him out.
The Participants
The Actor is Adam. The Target is the guard at the gate.
The Procedure:
Now that we know what Adam wants to do, we need to construct the Personal. On p185, there's a worksheet of sorts. We're going to fill it out from top to bottom.
1.
Select a Purpose. There are only four: Carouse, Query, Persuade and Command. In this case, Adam decides he's going to Persuade as he has no authority to Command the guard. You will roll 3D for the guard and keep the result hidden from Adam's player while he or she constructs the rest of the Personal.
2.
Select a Strategy. There are 8 strategies and they are described on p189. Not all Strategies apply to each Purpose, and we use the table on p188 to help us determine our options. He intends to lie, and he has nothing in common with the guard. So the best Strategy for Persuade at this stage is probably Appeal To. Referring to the table on p188 we see that Persuade -> Appeal To is a 3, so we enter a '3' on the worksheet and this becomes the first part of our target number.
3.
Select a Tactic. Back to the table on p188, we see that there are 9 allowable Tactics for Persuade -> Appeal To (empty boxes on the table indicate that the Tactic is not allowed for a given Purpose -> Strategy). Adam's player opts for Politeness to appeal to the guard. Since we have a Tactic, we now enter x2 on the next line of the worksheet, pushing our target number up to 6 (3 x 2 = 6) so far.
4. Apply the best applicable Law. On p188, you'll see an entry called The Five Laws. Technically, applying a Law is a Mod. In the case of Adam and the guard, this is their first interaction, they are from different cultures and have nothing in-common (that we know of) so there are no applicable laws. In this case, we can leave it blank and the target number remains 6. However, if the player can present facts supporting the application of one of the laws, you should allow it (p186).
5. Determine Mods. You may have up to 2 and in some cases you must use at least one (this applies in subsequent Personals). Mods are described pretty well on p189. In Adam's case, I'd definitely use Bluff since he's lying which demands a Flux roll. I'd also consider Brazen as he's got brass hobnails to Persuade a planetary guard like this. Adam's player rolls Flux (resulting in a -3) and with Brazen (+3) he's got net 0 Mods.
We've now constructed the Personal and it looks like this:
| Persuade | 3D |
| Appeal To | 3 |
| Politeness | x2 |
| N.A. | |
| Bluff | -3 (from Flux) |
| Brazen | 3 |
Giving us a Task Resolution of 3D < or = 6
How do skills come into it? Good question. The Personal chapter makes no mention of skills, and as you can see from the example, skills don't factor into Personals.
I think this may be an oversight. Were I the Referee, I would allow the player to pick a relevant Skill (say Actor, Leader or Liaison) and use that as a Mod to the Target Number. Were I a permissive Referee, I might allow that player to apply more than one.
Personals are supposed to provide a framework for role play so it doesn't descend into a personality contest between the Referee and the Player. You're free to apply them in your game however you see fit. Alternately, you can leave out Personals and use the Task system instead to resolve the interaction.
Given the example above, the Task system resolution would look like this
3D (difficult task) < or = C4 (int=7) + S (Actor-3) + Mod (Liaison-1)
Or
3D < or = 11
I might even throw in a die of uncertainty (p135) since it may not be obvious to the Player if he has succeeded. For example, the guard politely listens to Adam and lets him through the gate whereupon Adam finds himself zip-tied with a black bag over his head and thrust into a holding cell.
I hope this helps.
