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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Yaarel" data-source="post: 7165641" data-attributes="member: 58172">So, combat encounter is reasonably well defined in D&D.Social encounter is slowly coming into shape as a mechanical aspect of the game. To be fair, it is difficult to quantify human social interactions. Cortex Prime does some interesting things, giving stats for relationships (≈ Bond with a person) and personal goals (≈ Ideal to strive for, but more like an ambition). The defined relationship Bond and Ideal are sorta like skills that increase in bonuses while leveling. Thus they exert more success when trying to influence other characters. Failing at a social contest means you give in and do the goal that your friend wants you to do, but that conflict with your goal. During the contest to see who ‘wins’, the feeling of increasing levels of stress and tension is sorta like taking hit points in social damage.Along similar lines D&D 5e uses Background to establish social stats. Personality Traits (what I would rather call Quirks), Ideals (values, concepts that the character believes in), Bonds (persons, places, or even objects that the character cares deeply about and that define the character), and Flaws (darkside, less flattering aspects of the ‘other side of the coin’).D&D doesnt really quantify these Background descriptions into numeric bonuses that are added to a dice roll. But maybe you can, such as granting advantage to skill checks that relate to upholding a Value or defending someone that the character Bonds with.Even more interestingly, a player might intentionally choose to take a disadvantage on a skill check (or even a combat attack) that pertains to the characters Flaw. Why would a player intentionally take a hit? Because of Inspiration Points.Inspiration Points are like a separate Experience Points track that only applies to social roleplaying. When a player conscientiously dramatizes the personality considerations of their character, the DM awards them with Inspiration Points. Currently, Inspiration Points can be spent to modify important dice rolls in the future, at a time of the players choosing.But I would like to use Inspiration Points as the only way to ‘purchase’ magic items. I dislike the idea of buying magic items with gold, because to me it makes them feel like mundane nonmagical technology. But bonding, namely attuning, with a magic item does feel magical; and it feels social to me. Like the magic item attunes because in some way the character is a person who merits the magic. A magic item might even mysteriously ‘find its way’ to the character, in a cosmic karma kind of sense.So, if the player roleplays a skill check or an attack roll, where a relevant Flaw becomes interferesome, and that dice roll *fails*, then the player gains Inspiration Points (somewhat automatically, mechanically on the failure of the dice roll − the DM can monitor against any abuse). In this way, a player will intentionally want to get disadvantage in the name of roleplaying the Flaw, for the purpose of acquiring a desirable magic item or to modify a future roll that is important for ones Value or Bond.Inspiration Points are a potential tool to incentivize and to some degree quantify social encounters.</blockquote>

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