This Party is So Dead

Question: If you have Death Senses active, are you able to use social knacks against ghosts since you’re now able to interact with them socially? Or is it only possible to use Death boons on them, such as Corpse Oracle?

Ooh, a tricky question. Most of the time, interaction with the dead needs to be handled by the Death purview; that's what it's all about, after all. But at the same time, those with Death Senses can talk to and interact with ghosts just as if they were living people, and it doesn't make too much sense to claim that you can't be charming or manipulative when talking to a ghost just because she's dead. After all, she can still listen to your persuasive patter, right?

In most cases, we'd say that yes, you can use your social knacks on ghosts. They're beings you can interact with socially, so there's little reason you shouldn't be able to try to Charmer them into giving you your way. But it's important to distinguish between the powers you can achieve with social knacks and the ones possible with the Death purview; Death should never come up short when compared to normal social stats. Boons like Corpse Oracle and Ghost Control should be more powerful than knacks like Blurt It Out or Overt Order; they have to do with your ironclad control over the spirits of the departed as a god of death, so make sure their effects are distinct. A Scion with Blurt It Out might be able to get a ghost to spit out a single answer, but he can't question it thoroughly, without resistance and in a way that makes it think answering is its own idea the way a Scion with Corpse Oracle can. A Scion with Overt Order can give a ghost a single command, but a Scion with Ghost Control can literally puppetmaster the spirit effortlessly and as often as she wishes. A Scion with Come Hither can try to call a ghost to come see him, but he can't instantly force it to come in spite of being trapped in an Underworld the way a Scion with Summon Ghost can. The powers of death-aligned gods and Scions over the bodies and spirits of the departed are near-absolute; the social powers of any Scion can still have an effect, but it will never match up to what a true god of death can do.

At Storyteller discretion, we'd suggest also sometimes altering the roll for social knacks when using them on ghosts. We often substitute Occult for Presence, Empathy or Command in those rolls to illustrate that the Scion is working with magical, otherworldly forces instead of just using his silver tongue as normal. And, of course, some knacks should probably be considered not to work much on ghosts; Seductive Mien probably just isn't as useful when used on something that doesn't have a body and can only physically manifest for brief moments now and then.