Much is said in the core book (and on these forums) about the usefulness of knowing the oft-forgotten knowledge/craft/performance/etc. skills in Shard. I appreciate this ideal, and have tried to encourage it in past games and other systems myself, but so far I've had little luck compelling my players to bother spending points on Artistry when they could instead gain an extra rank in Melee Combat. I'm seeing the PCs for my campaign take shape, and while a few have some token Background abilities, some have almost none at all, and most are restricted to whatever Profession the player took.
Aside from the obvious, overt hooks ("Your aryah wants you to make him the most magnificent vase in all of Tishinia! GO!") and the promise of extra XP or money (which I've tried with only partial success), what kinds of techniques have you found successful in bringing these kind of skills into the game in a way that encourages players to bother? How do you get players interested in having these skills when they think that the right combination of brute force and occasional sleight of hand or bluffing can solve any problem? (Indeed, that last is the hard part - I can think of plenty of ways to employ Dancing in an otherwise standard RPG situation.)
Aside from the obvious, overt hooks ("Your aryah wants you to make him the most magnificent vase in all of Tishinia! GO!") and the promise of extra XP or money (which I've tried with only partial success), what kinds of techniques have you found successful in bringing these kind of skills into the game in a way that encourages players to bother? How do you get players interested in having these skills when they think that the right combination of brute force and occasional sleight of hand or bluffing can solve any problem? (Indeed, that last is the hard part - I can think of plenty of ways to employ Dancing in an otherwise standard RPG situation.)