I guess I don't understand what you mean by impersonation at least in this context.. I think the disguise stat only comes into play with people that know there person you are impersonating..Say you have the minimal disguise skill and you put on a hat and say you are Mickey Mouse..I can assume you are lying but I can't prove it..There's no mechanic that I know of where I can rip your disguise off.

For example, if you impersonated me and went to another city I never been to your disguise score wouldn't matter. If you went to Fennec academy where people know me it might break assuming there is some time of dice rolling going on in the back ground. Plus VOIP would just mess the whole system up if people are cautious.

Here is something from the Dev journal

"Whenever you, or someone around you, assumes a fake identity there's a chance others will recognize it as a fake. The percentage chance that someone can see through your identity is based on the number of times you've encountered them before. The more times you've encountered someone, the easier it is to recognize the lie. If you're not wearing a disguise, it may only take a couple times interacting with someone before the fake identity is discovered. Putting on a disguise will help with your charade but even still, the more you interact with someone as multiple identities, the easier it will be for them to recognize the identities belong to the same character."

Disguise = physical features, ie hair, eye color, shape of facial features, build, clothing

Impersonation = voice pitch, accent, cadence, inflection, body language, posture, mannerisms

So if you look like Mickey Mouse, but sound like Donald Duck, it's less believable.

I don't think impersonation is a skill check...The disguise should take care of the looks. I'm sure you wouldn't have to make yourself look like the other person.

I should clarify. This isn't a question. I already stated the known in my OP. This is more an idea spawnedfrom what info I've come across.

Caspian specifically stated that staying disguised is more than simply looking like someone.

What I'm saying is that looking like someone and acting like someone are actually two rather distinct skill sets, the former being more based around visual arts, the latter around mimicry of body language and vocal qualities.

To go back to the SS video that inspired this idea, there are actors and there are make up artists. Makeup artists are rarely in front of the camera and actors are rarely in charge of their own make up.

I think having one disguise skill, as currently planned, makes the most sense combining those two attributes.

Currently you start off by just building disguises that hide who you are, as you advance these disguises become more advanced and you learn more about taking on another character, until you are advanced enough to make a disguise based on a model (i.e. aiming to impersonate someone). This progression is described in the Developer Journal on Identity, Disguises, and Reputation. That to me just flows. It is clear how you progress, and there is always a purpose for the skill.

Splitting impersonation out into a separate skill just does not seem to have that flow. What are you doing with the skill? What are you doing to advance it? How is it helpful if you do not also have the disguise? To me it seems far less logical to progress and far less useful as a standalone skill.

So yes, one disguise skill that covers both creating and using disguises feels the most useful.

Some good points I hadn't considered. So, going with not splitting the skill, I'm thinking there's still a place for this.

When making disguise, could there be varying qualities of disguises?

As an example, you're apart of a thieves guild. One of the member's focus is specifically on making disguises, so he makes high quality ones and gives/sells then to the other members. So, even though your disguise skill isn't as high as his, it's easier for you to stay disguises/harder for others to see through than if you made the disguise yourself.

Put another way, it's a combination of the skill off the disguise maker and the disguise wearer. I think a mechanic like this could help encourage people to work together and not always just playing the lone thief.

As always, your thoughts are quite welcome.

From my understanding:

Disguise= not being recognizable as yourself

Impersonation= looking like a specific person

Impersonation would be for far more complicated matters, while a disguise would simply be not looking like you do in that wanted poster over there, rather than stealing someone's identity.

But yeah, I agree that impersonation should have multiple layers to it.

Considering that most major deals will be hammered out via voice commands or external chat, you impersonating me is not going to do much. Hiding your identity is much more important.

I totally agree with the OP. Lets say a disguise is made of someone and it's a kit you put on, as Caspian has said. The disguise was made of the local sheriff and kept in your home for whatever. Pretend someone finds and steals the disguise. As it is a kit, it shouldn't be very hard to figure out how to wear it, but this person who stole it is from a distant duchy and hasn't studied the sheriff to know his behaviors. He walks around town disguised as the sheriff, but doesn't seem like the sheriff. People take notice and he's discovered to be an impostor simply because he lacked the impersonation.

The way I see it, impersonating someone doesn't have to be illegal. You could, out of fun, impersonate someone (in-game but not disguised) to tell a funny story that happened to them. You could impersonate someone you dislike, mocking them. The more you interact with someone or study them, the better your impersonation would be. The more people you impersonate, or the more time you spend impersonating someone with success, would grant experience in the skill making it easier to impersonate new people faster and with more accuracy. You should also be able to get worse at an impersonation as you spend more time away from the individual without practicing the impersonation or with more time spent learning to impersonate others. You could being to exaggerate their mannerisms more than they would and your accent could become less believable as it once was. This would prevent people from being able to impersonate a hundred people perfectly.