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Message: <blockquote data-quote="loverdrive" data-source="post: 8161262" data-attributes="member: 7027139">I think the main problem with all this discussion is pretty simple: "social combat" is a tool, which should be used when it's necessary. Like, you can attack and deal damage to a wooden door in D&D, but you probably don't need to roll for initiative for it.In Fate (system with the best rules for social/mental conflicts), there are three sub-systems that are more complex than a simple dice roll: Challenges (when characters want to achieve something dynamic and/or complicated), Contests (when two or more characters compete for the same goal) and Conflicts (when two or more characters can and want to directly harm each other).So, let's focus on Conflicts. Just as I said previously, Conflict happens when characters want to hurt each other. So, two bastards swinging barstools and broken bottles at each other are in conflict, but two friends rolling in the snow aren't. Or the climactic match in Rocky 1 isn't a conflict, but match with Drago probably is.The same with social interactions: a married couple disagreeing about a place for summer vacation isn't in Conflict (or, at least, yet), but a married couple in a heated argument that's going to end in a messy divorce, where words like "You're one ugly nasty fat cow just like your whore of a mother and the only reason I've married you was because I knocked you up, and, by the way, I banged your sister at our wedding night" is definitely a Conflict.Using Conflict rules when people don't want to actually hurt each other makes no sense -- there's nothing to "attack" and "defend" against -- and that's exactly the reason why you shouldn't use them for such cases. Just like you shouldn't roll for initiative when the PCs trying to break down a wooden door.</blockquote>

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