Does the “Prejudiced” negative quality make people I hate able to convince me more easily?

Question

Do I understand the SR5 rules correctly that being prejudiced against real estate agents makes it easier for them to sell me a house for more than it’s worth?

Core rulebook page 82, “Negative Qualities”, “Prejudiced” states that I get a negative dice pool modifier for all social tests against people from the group I'm prejudiced against, and if negotiations are part of the social encounter, they get an additional positive dice pool modifier.

Negotiation (page 139) is used for making deals.

Thus, according to the rules, the more prejudices I have against someone, the easier it is for him to make a deal with me that favours him.

Or am I missing something here?

Answer 1

Mostly, yes.

Let's try to make sense of why, shall we?

The description states that your character is "not merely intolerant — he is outspoken about his beliefs and may actively work against the target of his prejudice" (pg. 82).

In other words, the thing that makes this an out-and-out disadvantage rather than simply a "roleplayed" personality trait is that you don't just have beliefs, you also can't help but act on them – irrationally.

So, why the heck would it affect negotiations that way, mechanically? Well — what happens when you're obviously hostile to someone during a negotiation?

• They think to themselves, "Why are we negotiating at all?" — clearly you really need this thing, if you're being forced to overlook your obvious and palpable distaste for their very existence.

• You make slip-ups against the normative rules of decorum, which can require some costly concessions to patch up: your underworld contact demands all the money up front, the troll clerk smuggling your package through customs demands a second bribe not to "lose" it, &c.

• A lot of people enjoy screwing over people who hate them, even if it might cost them a bit of business or whatever. "Oh, sorry, that service costs double for Humanis members. Special new illiteracy tax. You can read all about it in this elvish newspaper. [wink]"

Partly, I would guess, it's a mechanical tax to encourage you not to negotiate with the target of your prejudice unless you have to — bully, threaten, steal, or kill instead.

If that doesn't sound like what you picture as "Prejudiced," my recommendation is… don't take the mechanical quality. It's clearly not a good fit for the character in question.