Supplement that focuses on the Social aspect of the game?

[Water Bob]

d20 games almost always focus on combat, and why not? Combat is fun!

But, there are ample tools (skills) in the game already that would allow for dicing social activities. I've seen special rules here and there for political debates, with the object of swaying NPC audiences, and I've seen rules for bartering and negotiating.

My question is: Is there a d20 supplement out there that devotes itself to the social aspects of d20 gaming?

If so, I'd sure like to take a look at it.

 

[xigbar]

d20 games almost always focus on combat, and why not? Combat is fun!

But, there are ample tools (skills) in the game already that would allow for dicing social activities. I've seen special rules here and there for political debates, with the object of swaying NPC audiences, and I've seen rules for bartering and negotiating.

My question is: Is there a d20 supplement out there that devotes itself to the social aspects of d20 gaming?

If so, I'd sure like to take a look at it.

Beyond what you've already mentioned, I assume that you're looking for the remaining factor, or specific social interactions based on race/family histories. All of the Races of (so and so) 3.5 books have information on the societies of specific races in the book, as well as how they get along with other races.

 

[Vespucci]

I don't know of the book you seek.

My advice, however, is this: if you have players who really love that stuff, they probably want to be judged on their performance, not on their dice roll. If you have players who don't like that stuff, they probably don't want it to be the focus of the game.

 

[Water Bob]

Beyond what you've already mentioned, I assume that you're looking for the remaining factor, or specific social interactions based on race/family histories. All of the Races of (so and so) 3.5 books have information on the societies of specific races in the book, as well as how they get along with other races.

Interesting. I look into those.

What I'm really looking for is a d20 OGL book that focuses on Crafting, Professions, Social interactions....and foremost, an economic system.

One of the fun parts of Traveller is its economic system. The players, with a ship, can buy goods, sell them on other worlds, do speculative trading, pick up passengers, stuff like that.

I think it would be neat to bring an economic system to d20 games, focusing on such as the lonely hunter to the lowly weaponsmith, the trapper, the tanner, the bowyer, the fletcher, and the furrier, to the trader, then the caravaneer, to the Merchant Princes of the civilized lands.

I think a book focussing on that aspect of play would be neat.

Anybody heard of such a book?

 

[Jimlock]

...this is certainly the aspect of the game i like the most...

...give me some rotten medieval/dark-ages capital, with all it's political intrigues revolving around king's court, church, yeomen and nobles...

...all the guilds, the insane taxes on the peasants, the protection rackets...
...I want all the filth possible in one single package! The MORE the BETTER!


Now, the way I see it, there is no such need for extra rules so as to cope with

all those social interactions. What the skill list provides should be enough.

What is much needed IMHO is thorough knowledge of the political system in your game.

You should know how a Feudalism works (if say... this is your political system), you should know

who is in the possession of the land, who extorts, who bribes, who profits and who dies so that this

system is maintained... How are arcane spellcasters involved in all this?

How common is magic in the world?

How big is the influence of deities?

etc... etc...

As i understand it, your game does not revolve around the complexities of a City... it is more about the clans,

the warlords, the families and their legacy... but even if this system is simpler in comparison to a

City's/City-State's/State's system it has it's own complexities. Which clan helped which clan at a given time...?

What makes a leader maintain leadership, who is magically "tainted"? Who's mother was a prostitute?

Who is a coward? Who isn't really worth his status? Who profits of his family's name to exploit others?

Once all this somewhat crystalized in your game, there is no need of anything else.

You should be able to achieve everything you need by simply using:

Bluff, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Sense Motive. (Ok...and some of the Knowledge skills if need be...)

Even those skill rolls can be left aside so as to make room for some nice RPing opportunities... in many cases...

Sometimes all you need to remember is one's "skill" and then you just play him out. A leader with a bluff of 20...

does not really need to roll every time he lies to his clan.

If its a big lie you should, but in every day life he should be able to convince whomever he chooses in his clan without a real effort...



.......It is highly likely that you've got all the above figured out already in your game and I'm just telling stories here...


But the reason I said all the above, is because in the past i found my self in similar situation, where i though i needed more

"social interaction" rules, but then i realized that what was really missing was a coherent system that

combines and explains all the complexities and NPC motivations in a given pseudo-political system.

The rules I had were more than enough...


So in case you have figured out all the above, and you indeed want to expand your social rules-set because you feel like it...

well then... let's just pretend that I never wrote any of the above...

 

[xigbar]

You know, I've never read the book, but I'd bet the Cityscape book would be worth looking at, because it's all about designing cities, and ought to include some rules for designing social structure. Again, I'm not sure, but it's worth a try. I hope it helps.

 

[Ranes]

As xigbar guessed, Cityscape has a wealth of stuff on cities: political systems and governments, housing, patronage, guilds, organisations, churches encounters, laws, race relations, taxes, jobs, crime, and so on. DMG II is another good source: some guidance on city design (not as much detail as Cityscape), NPC contacts, teamwork benefits, apprenticeships and mentoring, trials and so on. It also has a chapter devoted to one city in detail (Saltmarsh, updated from the 1e module named after it), which can serve as a good template for creating a city of your own.