Social Interaction Like Journeys

[thwright]

I don’t believe I’ve missed anything in Master Edition like this, but has anyone toyed with making social interactions operate like a journey? For instance, certain aspects of the debate have a heart and you use Charisma to “damage” or “heal” the heart while your opponent does the opposite?

[s5photog]

This is what you want Social Encounters: Decoded

[thwright]

Thanks! I was trying to apply the “HEARTS” for everything concept. Helpful.

[The_Merlitron]

I think this idea might be sort of awkward to employ as a method for a negotiation or debate, but I do see potential for this method to work as a reflection of a long term goal of getting into someone’s good graces, or climbing a social hierarchy. Every time the party performs a deed that they think earns them some social capital, they roll an effort die based on the sort of gift they’ve brough, or deed they performed, and that then does the work of getting them closer to their goal. Meanwhile, rumors or reports of misdeeds about them could take away their effort. This could be a fun way of questing for a lord to get her/him to commit to war or give them an airship, and have members of the court working against them.

[orkcol]

I like this. Every quest for the baron gets you an effort roll. Hit the required amount of effort and new stuff/ paths are open to you.

[thwright]

That would put it into a sort of Blades in the Dark or Ironsworn system for tracking progress. That wouldn’t be bad!

[BlazingPolyhedron]

Why not remaster the EXP bowl for this mechanic?

The EXP Bowl for ICRPG

Inspired by this, I will attempt to modify it for ICRPG. I hope you guys will like it! And if you use it, do come tell me how it played at your table! TL;DR: a mechanic that makes players drop dice in a bowl, when they roll the bowl they gain experience in order to level up! The source of experience Hearts. Hearts are the bulwark that often stand in the way of your players’ victory! And with this mechanic, I hope to add a bit more versatility to them! This mechanic starts off simpl…

[thwright]

This could also be the basis for a reputation system.

[Micah369]

I have played with this concept a couple of times and it didn’t go very well. It seemed cool while I was preparing the game, but in play it became a bit of a drag. I saw another thread on here where they were talking about HEARTS and when to employ them. The general wisdom was to use HEARTS when you want to slow the game down.

So there are lizard men behind you, and you’re one move from the door, but the door is locked! It’s 2 HEARTS of EFFORT to open the door, but the lizard men are RIGHT BEHIND YOU!

When I tried to use it in debate or conversation it just bogged the game down in mechanics where it needed to be more freeform and spontaneous. I think it could work, if you have a clear TIMER in play, and there’s some sort of extreme social threat to worry about.

I do think the questions to ask are, “Do I need to slow down the players here?” And, “Is there a meaningful and pressing time constraint that will make the encounter intense?”

If you do try it out I’d love to hear how it goes. I think there’s potential there, I just couldn’t execute it well.

[Micah369]

Your instinct of how it would work for negotiation and debate definitely mirrors my experience. I think your idea for a longer term effort would work out really well though, I’ll probably give that a try!

[Khan]

Take a look at this thread and my reply:

Roleplaying Social Encounters: The Swamp

I watched Hank’s video and I remember nothing from it. Anyway, here’s how I do things: I always do what @Ash is doing. NPCs have their own motivations, be it for or against the players. Usually they go their own way and they have their own goals (unless their goals somewhat align with the villain or are in service of him, either directly or indirectly). I don’t bother with inconsequential things, so haggling with a random merchant doesn’t require any setup before and doesn’t require any…