D&D General Your thoughts on "Social Combat" systems

[Minigiant]

I had a Fluency and Accents rules variant in 4e that saw a decent level of success for the intrigue game we were running.

"I approach the merchant and speak in Native Common with my Orc accent to increase my Intimidation check."
"That's a +4. Are you sprinkling in Orc words?"
"No Dwarven. You said he's a dwarf. Dwarven words since Orcish and Dwarven share scripts."
"That's another +2. Okay."
"Can you guys have a conversation in Working Elvish and slip in History or Culture advice as I intimidate?"
"You think a rich merchant doesn't have at least Professional Elvish?"

 

[EpicureanDM]

Deleted.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I approve of Rich Burlew's system, and I've used it in games. In 4e too. However it's not a full system, just a way of sensibly setting Diplomacy DCs.

The only game I've seen that can "handle" a social system like that is Fate, since you can make it work exactly like combat, and characters without social skills can participate. (You can use your knowledge of computers to attack your opponents with memes, as an example.)

 

[Azuresun]

I wouldn't have been opposed to some of it dealing psychic-type damage to represent chipping away at her resolve in fighting or distracting her to set her up for a killing blow. We already have some spells that "magically" inflict some of these sort of things ranging from Vicious Mockery to Dissonant Whispers - I for one wouldn't mind seeing a way to do something like Persuasion/Intimidate/Deception vs. Passive Insight to deal 1d4+Cha modifier psychic damage to a target (or more with abilities or feats). It would mean moving away from the perception of hit point as "meat" and more toward hit points as resolve/opportunity to overcome a foe/obstacle.

You'd probably need to say it can't reduce someone to zero, though the idea of dissing someone so damn hard that they pass out or just straight-up fall over dead is pretty funny.

 

[NotAYakk]

You'd probably need to say it can't reduce someone to zero, though the idea of dissing someone so damn hard that they pass out or just straight-up fall over dead is pretty funny.

I'd argue that anything that cannot knock someone out/kill them does not do damage.

Bards can do this via mockery.

 

[Dausuul]

If you start developing your social mechanics by framing them as "combat," you've already lost me.

Combat is zero-sum. There is a winner and there is a loser, and for me to win, you have to lose. If you try to stuff all social interaction into that model, you end up focusing exclusively on scenarios where one party is trying to take advantage of another. Any attempt to discover mutual benefit is ignored or taken for granted.

I wouldn't mind some mechanics to better support social roleplaying (as long as they remain "support" rather than "replace"). But combat is the wrong framework.

 

[jgsugden]

The dice determine the outline, you fill in the script with improv. To that end, I like systems that give me the cards to play off of at the game table.

If my PC is in a tense negotiation with a crime lord, and the DM calls on me to make a roll to see if I've influenced that crime lord, I get excited. I do not feel like it is robbing me of my experience.

If I roll an intimidation and get a great result, I play it up and throw out my most menacing line I can muster. Even if I can't pull it off, the PC does, and I get the joy of being the cool guy in the room. If I get a bad roll, I get the role of the failure. I get to either play it up for laughs with a cracked voice, or say a threatening line and watch the DM turn it into a fail because I didn't know something ... it creates opportunities for us to role play the results.

 

[Bohandas]

One that I found worked well was in the CRPG Last Word

The system from Exalted looks good too, but I've never got a chance to play Exalted[/url]

 

[TwoSix]

SOCIAL KOMBAT!
<techno beat intensifies>

 

[aco175]

I saw social combat and this is what I thought.

Otherwise, I have nothing constructive to add.