ICRPG Tools for Social Rooms

halp
#1

Hi everyone.

I’ll start with: I know I shouldn’t be trying to steer my players towards one form of conflict resolution. I have been VERY bad at this in the past. But sometimes, you just don’t want a bloodbath.

I have a Room in my upcoming session that I want to be more of a social encounter because so far the group has found only hostility in the setting. The “other side” would be somewhat savage and crass, so there would be plenty of tension. But I want to indicate that this is not supposed to be a battle. I’d like some advice for this, if you would be so kind.

Moreover, I’d like to see how you utilize the tools in ICRPG for rooms like these, or moments like these. Any help would be appreciated. I really would like to learn from you all.

#2

I would think Social rooms / conflict would just another form of Effort.

Is the party trying to get info from someone in the room? Cool roll me Charisma against the room target, with a success do basic effort damage against the 1 Heart Effort of the room.

Wanting to sneak through the room in disguise while picking up gossip? Sounds like a Dexterity and Wisdom to me.

Oh did I mention in d4 rounds/minutes the room will be flooded with guards looking for you? Better act quick!

#3

I get that part, but where is the tension? How do I use timers to pressure the characters into action?

#4

That to me is what the timer is for. I added a thought to it in my previous posting

Tension comes from the PCs having a goal with conflict between them and it - Got to keep LOG in mind.

The question is what’s the obstacle in the social room? Is it information? Is it trying to get safe passage?

#5

This I think would benefit from an idea that was admitidly a joke post, but I think it could have merit.

Lets say your PCs know they need to get information from these guys, but they’re like I’m gonna slash him up until he tells me. Instead of having them roll STR for the sword, have them roll CHA for intimidation.Talk up the PCs awesome sword play and how it encourages the NPCs to talk.

Lets say another PC wants to shoot an arrow, instead of DEX make them roll INT and say its them finding the best target to incentivse the NPCs to talk fast.

Magic? WIS save instead to think of the most aptly use of the spell, should I fireball ath there face, behind them, above them maybe?

I think one or two of these will reienforce the idea of talking, and maybe give them some ideas for how they can talk in the future. This definetly relys on your skills as a DM though, you have to talk fast, light herated and still let the players do cool stuff in the realm of what they originally said.

Also as a PC myself I would recomend using it sparingly, but its a nice trigger/neon sign saying “Hey lets talk to these NPcs”.

My two cents on the matter. Good luck!

(Oh one more thing, be sure to always give something for the effort rolled, only got 1 effort on the convo, still hint/tease what other info the NPCs have to offer. This will help with the morale in Social rooms a lot)

#6

There was a good breakdown on the Runehammer channel about social encounters that might be useful. In your example, I would:

Come up with a favorable, neutral and unfavorable result. Set the timer. When the timer hits 0, either shift down toward neutral and start a new timer or go immediately to unfavorable. The NPCs are Savage and crass. They may not have time for these talky bits. Get to the point.

Or, as suggested above, make it CHA Attempts vs. X number of hearts of social hit points. The timer counts down. If social HP is greater than zero, it’s an unfavorable response. Maybe give leeway for being low on social HP for a neutral response.

#7

I might be misunderstanding what you mean by tension, but I think the basic formula is

  1. Set a goal that cannot be won through violence (info, aid, trade, safe passage).
  2. Break it down in several, meaningful, pieces.
  3. Decide what the NPCs want, like, and dislike
  4. Set a tolerance level, which is the number of misses the party can roll before the NPCs turn sour and mussel up.

In play, one successful roll = one piece of Intel/partial aid/negotiation/etc OR tolerance goes up by one, one failed roll = tolerance goes down by one.

When tolerance hits zero the encounter is over. What the PCs have gained they gained, the rest is lost. Doing things the NPCs like is EASY, dislike is HARD, want is automatic. Place some clues and secondary NPCs in the room, so the PCs can learn what is what.