PWYW Statosphere version w fancy formatting: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/433169/ua3-rhetoratism

AKA Blabbermouths, Yaks, Looselips

The miracle of language is not to be understated. We are essentially ambulatory heaps of meat that can, against all odds, convey wonderful and complex ideas to each other by flapping that meat in just the right ways. Without this miracle, civilization would not exist. And yet, how often does it come back to bite us? Sometimes we accidentally say something out loud that we meant to keep in our thoughts. Sometimes, in the heat of an argument, we let loose an insult that we wish we could rescind to our dying day. And sometimes, Jeff just won’t wrap up his quarterly budget report, even after running 20 minutes into lunchtime.
Well, rhetoratists recognize all these nuances, and they choose to be like Jeff. They embrace the power of speech in all its forms; it can be just as useful to bore someone to tears with a droning monologue as it can to scream them into submission. It’s not just about what you say, but how you say it. And more
importantly still, how long you say it for. Speech is a tool of domination, of subdual. It can be used to exert one’s force of personality over those who respect convention and good taste. If you never let someone get a word in edgewise, you have power over them. And if that fails, you can just dance around their argument with a bunch of florid epithets that don’t actually mean anything.
The central paradox of rhetoratism is that we evolved to use speech as a way to communicate nuance and meaning, but it’s just as often used as a blunt instrument whose actual contents are unimportant. For every intricate discussion, there’s a lecture devoid of substance. For every persuasive and heartfelt
argument, a relentless tirade that only ends when the speaker gets what they want. Our words have meaning, but that meaning is often drowned out by the tambor of our voices.

STATS

Generate a Minor Charge: Speak continuously to an audience for half an hour. You can stop to breathe, have a sip of water, or rustle your notecards, but that’s all the stalling you get. Your audience must always contain at least one person who can hear you clearly, though they don’t have to be paying close attention. It needn’t be the same person or people from start to finish, as long as there’s always someone around to hear you. Also, this isn’t a dialogue. If the audience gets more than a short sentence
in edgewise, you need to start over.
The speech can be performed on the go (grab a megaphone and hit the streets!) You can do it remotely (on a video call or livestream, etc.), but it has to be active; no recycling a speech for charges on YouTube. Also, remote speeches have the drawback that you don’t necessarily know if anyone in the chat is actually at their computer to hear you.
Lastly, “speech” is a flexible term. You can sing, recite poetry, or perform any other vocalization that is comprised of words.

Generate a Significant Charge: You have two options for getting your sigs: either speak to an audience of at least 20 people (total, across the whole duration) for at least an hour in one stretch, or speak to an audience of any size for eight hours over the course of a single day (a 24-hour period). Both options must follow the parameters laid out for minor charges.

Generate a Major Charge: Speak to an audience of at least 100 people for a 24-hour stretch. Same rules as above. You get no breaks to go to the bathroom, eat, or think about what you’ll say next. If crusty old Strom Thurmond could do it, so can you.

Taboo: You lose all your charges if you ever finish a conversation, argument, or other verbal interaction without having spoken more than any other individual involved. You also must get the last word in, literally. You may find yourself needing to set aside extra time in your schedule to out-gab neighbors asking how the husband and kids are, or waiters asking if you’re ready to order. Yes, even such minor engagements can cost you all your charges if you’re negligent.
Additionally, if you go 24 hours without talking to someone, you break taboo.

Random Magick Domain: voice and volume, egotism and elitism, wasting time, hogging the spotlight, and passive-aggression.

Ω: -1. The rhetoratism charging method is facilitated by a variety of occupations and activities, but the taboo can be irksome.

RHETORATISIM MINOR FORMULA SPELLS

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE
Cost: 2 minor charges.
Effect: The rhetoratist takes control of a situation by striking a theatrical pose and recounting their inner thoughts on whatever debacle they presently face. So long as they speak their mind truthfully, everyone else present is greatly distracted and feels compelled to stop and listen. They can still continue what they were doing if they make a rank 3 Self check. Otherwise, they stand still, entranced by the rhetoratist’s performance. This can continue for a number of minutes up to the tens place of the casting roll.

DROWN OUT THE SCREAMS
Cost: 1 minor charge.
Effect: When faced with a stress check, the rhetoratist can start loudly chanting or talking to themself as a distraction. They don’t have to make the stress check until they stop, and they can keep it up for a number of minutes equal to the casting roll before it becomes too hard to ignore the horror.

PREACHING TO THE CHOIR
Cost: 1 minor charge.
Effect: The yak starts speaking while addressing an audience of 3-33 people that all have a common bond, such as a shared social group, motivation, or passion. Regardless of what the yak actually says, the members of the group feel understood and respected by the yak. This grants the yak a +20% shift to any Connect rolls they make toward the group or its members immediately after wrapping up this little sermon.

PURPLE PROSE

Cost: 1 minor charge.
Effect: The yak lends credence to an argument they’re making by peppering their speech with lots of five-dollar words, plus a bit of magick. If they make a Status roll or coercion attempt afterwards, they can flip-flop the result.

SAY WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND
Cost: 1 minor charge.
Effect: The rhetoratist magickally loosens the tongue of an interlocutor, causing them to say something they didn’t intend to. Often, this will be an unkind judgment about the rhetoratist, but if they’re lucky, it might instead be secret information or something related to the target’s passions or obsession. The target is immediately aware of what they let slip, but they don’t know it was drawn out by magick.

SPEAK UP
Cost: 1 minor charge.
Effect: The rhetoratist amplifies the volume of either their own voice or that of another target within earshot. Anything the target says becomes extremely loud, carrying clearly between walls and floors and over the distance of a football stadium. This effect lasts until the target asks a question, or for a number of minutes equal to the casting roll, whichever comes first. If you’re in the car with them, ear protection is a good idea.

WORDS CAN HURT ME
Cost: 1 minor charge.
Effect: The rhetoratism minor blast leaves the target’s earsringing and their head throbbing. They take damage equal to thesum of the ones place and tens place of the casting roll, andmust make a rank 5 Violence check.

BALDERDASH!
Cost: 2 significant charges.
Effect: While a target is trying to talk to the looselips, they interject loudly, stunning the target into an aphasic stupor. For a number of hours equal to the tens place of the casting roll, the target can’t understand or formulate spoken language. This is liable to cause a Helplessness (4-5) check.

MOMMY? SORRY. MOMMY?
Cost: 1 significant charge.
Effect: Like “Say What’s On Your Mind”, this spell causes a target to accidentally say more than they meant to while engaged in a conversation with the rhetoratist. The difference here is that they keep doing it. As long as the rhetoratist keeps them talking, they keep subconsciously slipping up, up to a
number of times equal to the ones place of the casting roll. Say what you will about rhetoratists, but they’re efficient interrogators.

SHAHRAZAD STYLE
Cost: 1 significant charge.
Effect: Consider this a souped-up version of “Dramatic Monologue”. It functions the same, but with two differences: first, the Self check’s rank is equal to the ones place of the casting roll. Second, when the spell would end, the blabbermouth can spend a charge to extend its duration by launching into a new, tangentially related monologue. A minor charge gets you another 1d10+5 minutes, and a sig charge gets
you 2d10+10. You can keep feeding this spell charges indefinitely if you want to. If you spent a major charge to perpetuate this spell, it could last for a very, very long time. It might even outlast you.

SHORT STORY LONG
Cost: 1 significant charge.
Effect: The blabbermouth delivers a speech so dull it actually slows time to a crawl. For as long as they speak continuously and uninterrupted (apart from breathing) on a single, extremely boring subject, each minute that passes in their presence is the same as two minutes in the rest of the world.
You can potentially keep this going for quite a while, but the dullness of the magick is so potent, it takes a toll on you, too. Every relative hour (so every two hours of objective time), you must make a Notice roll. If you fail, you start to nod off for long enough to break your train of thought, ending the spell.

TALK THE TALK
Cost: 2 significant charges.
Effect: To cast this spell, the rhetoratist must surround themself with people speaking the lingo associated with a specific group, occupation, or subculture for at least eight hours. This would include slang and niche terminology, but not a foreign language. They must only listen, not speak. This does mean they’ll break taboo, of course. What makes it worthwhile? At the end of the period of study, the adept gains a new identity related to whatever lingo they studied at 10%. If they spent the day in a patrol car, they get the identity Cop at 10%. If they went to a yiff, they’re now a Furry. And so on.
The rhetoratist’s take on this identity relies heavily on the verbiage they were exposed to. They don’t actually know anything meaningful about what it’s like to be a Furry, they just know what to say to fit in with them. If they use the identity, they will eventually figure it out through trial and error, but it might be a little bumpy to start.
TALK YOUR EAR OFF
Cost: 1 significant charge.
Effect: This is the rhetoratism significant blast. It causes a splitting headache, temporary deafness, and bleeding from the ears. This deals damage equal to the casting roll to a single target and provokes a rank 5 Violence check from them.

YOU’LL SEE! YOU’LL ALL SEE!
Cost: 1 significant charge.
Effect: This spell must be cast in response to someone expressing doubt about the looselips’ capacity to achieve their current objective. The doubt must be genuine, not performed in exchange for a visit with Ben Franklin. The spell is evoked when the looselips hysterically exclaims their ability to follow through
for at least one straight minute. Doing this automatically gives them progress on the objective: 2d10+10% for local objectives, or 1d10+5% for weighty ones.

MAJOR CHARGE EFFECTS

Render language meaningless in your presence. Permanently amplify your voice to deafening levels. Force someone to speak their mind nonstop for 24 hours, even if they go to sleep. Utter a sentence in a primordial tongue that provokes a rank 10 Unnatural check in whoever hears it. Become audible to everyone in the world for a handful of minutes.