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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 8727278" data-attributes="member: 20323">Where it has helped me as DM to have more social encounter rules/guidelines was almost entirely behind the screen during prolonged and tense negotiations.It wasn't about inventing new "moves" or creating "social hit points" or anything like that. It was firmly grounded in the fiction.My notes (abbreviated, as I'm retyping) looked like:Convincing Lord Polding to let them guide refugees across his landsPolding's 1st question: "..." (requires 1 success to satisfy him)Polding's 2nd question: "..." (requires 2 successes to satisfy him)Polding's 3rd question: "..." (requires 3 successes to satisfy him)Polding's 4th question: "..." (requires 4 successes to satisfy him)The questions provide structure and something for the players to respond to and think about. They help illustrate Polding's character and the overall situation.The idea being that the 1st question is the simplest (e.g. "who are you to come to my court with this riffraf?"), while subsequent questions become more complex / nuanced / challenging, so there's more substance to weave a narrative around.A "success" was whatever made sense given the context of the question – it might be recalling and mentioning something they previously learned, it might be a previous quest that Lord Polding heard about, it might be a Charisma (Intimidation) or (Persuasion) check with a clever verbal argument leveraging a known weakness of Polding, it might be proposing some treasure to "sweeten the pot", it might be a particular spell, etc. A "success" is NOT just rolling dice.Then the total number of successes helps determine Polding's response. 9+ might mean he gives the PCs everything they want with very little asked in return (at least right now). 7-8 successes might be a success but Polding makes a high ask. 5-6 successes might be mixed results with some counterproposal that the players aren't too keen on. 4 or fewer successes might be Polding's treachery revealed as he stalls for time and sells them out to whoever is pursuing the refugees, or maybe he outright denies them and warns they'll face his soldiers if they try to cross his lands illegally.Basically, it's my adaptation of the skill challenge concept for a negotiation scene.</blockquote>

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