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Idea for social encounters in RPGs
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<blockquote data-quote="Frostmarrow" data-source="post: 4465824" data-attributes="member: 1122"><p>I have for sometime been thinking of how to make the abilities and advantages of the character benefit the player at the table. I'm not too fond of the old roll die and roleplay according to the result, or even roleplay well to get a bonus to the roll, which seems to be the two systems people use in D&D.</p><p></p><p>There are other ways of course. In Vampire LARP the players can use handsignals to show that they are using a social ability for example. Others just roleplay away and aren't bothered by what the character sheets say.</p><p></p><p>This idea is not tied to any particular game, it's just a concept. Without any further ado, here goes:</p><p></p><p>SOCIAL CARDS</p><p></p><p>The GM keeps a stack of cards and at the beginning of any social encounter the GM draws one card. The card drawn sometimes singles out a character and gives the corresponding player special attention during the encounter. The special attention given is dependent on the abilities of the character. The frequency of special attention is tied to the level of charisma and social skills of the character in question.</p><p></p><p>Each player contributes 10 cards to the GM's deck. An unskilled character contributes 10 cards of the Indifferent variety. A social expert of the highest degree contributes 10 cards with various reasons for special attention.</p><p></p><p>In a five player game the GM should thus have fifty cards, of which most will show <strong>Indifferent</strong>. -Meaning most of the time NPC encountered will behave indifferently toward the party.</p><p></p><p>Now for the fun part. Characters should have qualities based on how social they are. Let's say for arguments sake every character gets one quality for each point of CHA bonus the character has. I.e a charisma 13 dude should have one quality. In this case charisma 13 dude might be a rogue tagged with <strong>Trader</strong>. A card reading <strong>Rogue Trader</strong> is then hidden somewhere in the GM's deck. Once drawn the NPC is urged to somehow try to trade with the rogue character.</p><p></p><p>Examples:</p><p></p><p><strong>Beautiful</strong>: NPC is fascinated by the PC's look.</p><p><strong>Mean Streak</strong>: NPC shows weakness toward PC.</p><p><strong>Trader</strong>: NPC tries to strike a bargain with PC.</p><p><strong>Diplomat</strong>: NPC weighs his words as he addresses the PC first.</p><p><strong>Network</strong>: NPC recognizes the PC from a previous encounter.</p><p><strong>Fame</strong>: NPC has heard of PC in a favorable way.</p><p><strong>Entertainer</strong>: NPC wishes to be entertained.</p><p><strong>Empathy</strong>: The PC picks up on the motives of the NPC.</p><p></p><p>And so on.</p><p></p><p>This means as the character gain more social skills the more often he will be singled out somehow in social encounters and given special attention. It also means a social expert will receive more attention than characters with skills in other areas.</p><p></p><p>What do you think? <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/ponder.png" class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":hmm:" title="Hmmm :hmm:" data-shortname=":hmm:" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Frostmarrow, post: 4465824, member: 1122"] I have for sometime been thinking of how to make the abilities and advantages of the character benefit the player at the table. I'm not too fond of the old roll die and roleplay according to the result, or even roleplay well to get a bonus to the roll, which seems to be the two systems people use in D&D. There are other ways of course. In Vampire LARP the players can use handsignals to show that they are using a social ability for example. Others just roleplay away and aren't bothered by what the character sheets say. This idea is not tied to any particular game, it's just a concept. Without any further ado, here goes: SOCIAL CARDS The GM keeps a stack of cards and at the beginning of any social encounter the GM draws one card. The card drawn sometimes singles out a character and gives the corresponding player special attention during the encounter. The special attention given is dependent on the abilities of the character. The frequency of special attention is tied to the level of charisma and social skills of the character in question. Each player contributes 10 cards to the GM's deck. An unskilled character contributes 10 cards of the Indifferent variety. A social expert of the highest degree contributes 10 cards with various reasons for special attention. In a five player game the GM should thus have fifty cards, of which most will show [B]Indifferent[/B]. -Meaning most of the time NPC encountered will behave indifferently toward the party. Now for the fun part. Characters should have qualities based on how social they are. Let's say for arguments sake every character gets one quality for each point of CHA bonus the character has. I.e a charisma 13 dude should have one quality. In this case charisma 13 dude might be a rogue tagged with [B]Trader[/B]. A card reading [B]Rogue Trader[/B] is then hidden somewhere in the GM's deck. Once drawn the NPC is urged to somehow try to trade with the rogue character. Examples: [B]Beautiful[/B]: NPC is fascinated by the PC's look. [B]Mean Streak[/B]: NPC shows weakness toward PC. [B]Trader[/B]: NPC tries to strike a bargain with PC. [B]Diplomat[/B]: NPC weighs his words as he addresses the PC first. [B]Network[/B]: NPC recognizes the PC from a previous encounter. [B]Fame[/B]: NPC has heard of PC in a favorable way. [B]Entertainer[/B]: NPC wishes to be entertained. [B]Empathy[/B]: The PC picks up on the motives of the NPC. And so on. This means as the character gain more social skills the more often he will be singled out somehow in social encounters and given special attention. It also means a social expert will receive more attention than characters with skills in other areas. What do you think? :hmm: [/QUOTE]
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