All kinds of things go into social conflict with any kinds of stakes at all (which is the only thing where you would need any rules for...you aren't pulling conflict resolution mechanics out for pleasantries without the prospect of consequentially changing situation, characters, or setting). Things like the nature the social hierarchy between interlocutors, their shared history, how their individual dramatic needs intersect with what is at stake (the nature of those things and the potency of those things), how their day has been, whether they are ill or well, who is beholding the interaction (therefore the social capital they stand to lose or stand to gain), who or what will back their play/bulwark their standing here and now (someone with a holstered weapon is better positioned than someone who isn't packing and that same person is worse positioned when they're downrange of the business end of a drawn shotgun).
So how can you model all of this stuff in a way that is exciting and well-tracks the volatile nature of people and intense social exchange with a lot on the line.
Well, one way to do that is with robust social conflict mechanics like Dogs in the Vineyard which is effectively a sort of poker game where people are anteing up, seeing, raising, and folding or escalating.
Below is an excerpt (as best I can recall) from an old Dogs in the Vineyard game I ran:
Mr Emil Oliver is a laborer. He makes rope, he chews tabaco, he's ill-tempered, and he badly breaks horses. He was entrusted to break the horse of a humble farmer. He shot it dead when it tried his patience one too many times. He's refused to compensate the farmer.
That is where you come in. As one of God's Watchdogs, you uphold the faith, keep the peace, and mete out justice.
You visit this Town (a small outlying community called Zachariah's Landing with ample juniper trees, farmlands, and a healthy creek and pond) and confront Mr Emil Oliver; try to talk some sense into him. You catch Mr Emil Oliver in a copse of Juniper trees, breaking one down to make some cordage.
"Just Talking" (social conflict) means you roll Acuity + Heart. You can bring in Relationships, Traits, and Belongings when you need to See or you want to Raise, but you only get those dice once (so if things escalate to fighting or, worse, guns...you can't pull out those Traits or Relationships then...so its a gamble when to bring them in).
You tell him who you are, you tell him your purpose; Mr Emil Oliver is going to make amends (this is what is at stake).
Mr Emil Oliver doesn't look up at first. He spits his tobacco and continues harvesting. (This game is "say yes...or roll the dice"...clearly Emil isn't having it, so I'm not "saying yes.")
Now we roll our dice.
Dog: 8d6 (you're pretty good at talking people down) - 6, 5, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1
MEO: 7d6 (he's not so good at talking, but he's tough and he'll fight if need be) - 6, 6, 4, 4, 3, 1, 1
You're initiating the conflict, so you go first (making the first Raise - putting forward 2 dice that have to be equal or exceeded). Your Raise is both what your character does and the dice you’re using to back it up.
Dog: 5, 4 - "Let's make this easy. You could work off the debt in a single growing season."
MEO has to put forward as many dice as it takes to See this Raise (equal or better). 2 Dice = a Block/Dodge. 3 Dice = Taking the Blow so there will be Fallout (long term or short term impact to your character) that scales with the nature of the conflict. MEO has a Relationship (d8) with the Sheriff, so he decides now is a good time to pull this out. You get a 6 and put forward that dice along with another. So now its 6, 6, 6, 4, 4, 3, 1, 1
MEO: 6, 3 - "Sheriff Beck is the law around here. He said it the damn horse's fault."
Now it's MEO's turn to Raise.
MEO: 6, 6 - "He's the law around here. <Sneering and spitting> Not you."
Well, that isn't good. You can't match that with 2 Dice so you may have to Take the Blow. So here is a big decision. Now seems like a good time to bring in your 2d10 "I am the Wolf" Relationship with the King of Life that you've bought up during Reflection between Towns - 4, 8. So now you have the following left 8, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 1
Dog: 8, 4 - "Sheriff Beck is in fact the law around...for worldly matters. But <as you ease off of your horse and pull up your poncho revealing your wolf-like birthmark>, Brother Oliver...I am the Wolf who claims the lambs when they stray from the shepherd's care. Their poor example weakens the integrity of the flock.
Now for the Raise.
Dog: 6, 5 - "I act directly on behalf of the Lord of Life. Pride and Injustice are wounds. I will take the arm to save the body (he knows you've got a big Colt and a knife, but you haven't flaunted either of them yet)."
So this forces MEO's hand with the 6, 6 or to Take the Blow by putting forward 3 dice or bringing out some other Traits or Relationships (which he then couldn't use later if either he or the Dog escalates).
This goes back and forth with both Mr Emil Oliver taking some Fallout because they have to Take the Blow by putting forward 3 dice to See a Raise. They both have a knife (EMO has a big ass one he is using to harvest the cordage). But the Dog has that very scary Colt revolver. MEO might be able to kill him, but at what cost? Should MEO escalate to fighting/knives or fold and pay down his Pride and Injustice by working off his debt at the farm.
Things are going south for the Dog as well. MEO is absolutely dangerous in a knife-fight. He'll likely win and that Colt will have to come out (escalate to guns)...but at what cost? He'll have a ton of fallout (social credibility costs, wounds from the fight) and the farmer won't be any better off. But Sin is Sin. It has to be cut out.
Mechanically, he can either risk bringing in a Trait to resolve the social conflict ("just talking") that he could instead keep available for a coming gun fight if it comes to that. Or he can escalate straight to guns and see if he can get MEO to fold before he kills him (or the Dog gets horribly wounded). The conversation has been creeping toward escalation and the Dog knows MEO has a history of problems with the law (and a Trait to go with it because he used it in the social conflict). He eventually pulls out his sacred earth to perform a sanctifying ritual on MEO, rebuke any demons that forced his hand in this (there was some evidence of Sorcery), and offer to help pay down his debt with a mule they confiscated from a cowboy in the last Town (d6 Belonging now gone). But MEO still has to work the growing season for the farmers, but he can keep half of what he works.
Mechanically, MEO can't answer the final Raise by the Dog (ran out of dice to equal or exceed the Raise put forth). So its either escalate to fighting/knives or fold/agree.
MEO agrees to the Dogs terms. Social Conlict is won by the Dog. Each of the Dog and MEO take some d4 fallout due to the social conflict. Justice served. Pride turned to humility. Injustice resolved. No one ends up a corpse. Between Towns, during Reflection, the Dog takes a new d6 Trait "Am I Shepherd in Wolf's Clothing?" and assigns two of his unassigned Relationship dice to Brother (no longer Mr) Emil Oliver.
Social Conflict Resolution and roleplaying don't have to be discrete things. They can be entangled and synergistic. They can amplify mental and emotional states, define play trajectory, powerfully challenge PC conception, and create brutal decision-points which coalesce into downstream character-altering events...for good or for ill (for the PCs...its always good for the players).
Because play and the players gets caught in the orbit of all of this stuff, you are yielding some of your sense of (PC) self to the course of the volatile events before you (preeeeeeeeeeeeetty much just like happens in real life). You're finding out who these people are. It is the antithesis of cosplaying power fantasy with nothing having a say on your internal ticker/self-conception but the untouchable, unperturbable course you've charted.
D&D can absolutely handle the absorption of this type of systemization of play. I know because other D&D loveletter RPGs do this (and I've hacked Dogs for Star Wars play that could easily have been fantasy Paladins rather than Jedi). Its not for everyone, but it ain't heresy either.
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