Social Interaction
Contents
Damage Targets
The only Damage Target available in social interaction is the opponent's Stress.
Attacking
A combatant's Intelligence is keyed to their Success, and so replaces Dexterity when a combatant makes their Success Check to "hit".
Defending
Mental Resistance is used to avoid the negative effects of Social Interaction. If the target's Mental Resistance check is higher than the power of the social check, all effects are avoided.
Damage
Personality is the key Ability for determining the stress damage dealt by a combatant's words and also for setting the target number on mental resistance checks. The combatant is able to decide whether this damage affects the target positively or negatively (i.e. a pep talk or tongue lashing respectively).
Consequences of Taking Damage
The Stress Damage Target behaves a little differently from physical Damage Targets, like an arm or a leg, in that a target's Stress uses their Personality score as the threshold and the Stress Damage target can never be destroyed like a limb would.
Recovering from Stress Damage
On their turn, a player can spend an action to reduce their Spirit by 1 and heal 10 points of stress damage.
Advanced Social Interaction
Combatants are able to do more than just hurt or bolster a target's stress, special Situational Modifiers allow them to deliver their words with more impact and verbal Techniques allow them to deceive, barter, and more.
Situational Modifiers
Certain conditions during Social Conflict will affect the power of a combatant's words. These Situational Modifiers can be found in the table below and are applied with stacking results for each relevant modifier.
| Situation | Bonus |
|---|---|
| Target is in love with the attacker | +30 Power |
| Target trusts the attacker | +10 Power |
| Attacker has secret information about the target | +20 Power |
| Target is with one or more allies | -10 Power |
| Target is inebriated | +10 Power |
| Target's ally has been killed | +20 Power |
| Target's ally has been disabled | +10 Power |
| Target's ally has been wounded | +10 Power |
| Target is not a native speaker of the language | -20 Power |
Skills
The following social skills allow combatants to create Narrative Effects in Social Interaction, or gain advantages over their opponents. Any combatant can attempt to use these skills even if they are untrained.
Barter
The Barter technique allows a character to either increase or decrease the agreed upon Value Level of an item that is being purchased or sold. Should the character succeed she must then make a Power Check opposed by her opponent's Mental Resistance check. If her Power is greater than her opponent's Mental Resistance, then the agreed Value Level is successfully reduced or increased by one at the discretion of the initiating character.
Storyteller's Note: Most merchants are attempting to make a profit and will not be willing to purchase an item for more than half of its actual Value Level and, likewise, will not sell an item for less than half its true Value Level. In situations where players successfully Barter the Value Level beyond these thresholds you may simply have merchants declare that they have reached the best price they can give and will not go any lower or higher.
Provoke
The Provoke technique allows a character to draw the aggression of an adversary to herself. This technique is useful in situations where a more vulnerable ally is being accosted and the character wishes to draw their attacker away. To use this technique the character must succeed in an Intelligence based Success check, adding any specializations for Social Interaction. Should the character succeed she must then make a Power Check opposed by her opponent's Mental Resistance check. If her Power is greater than her opponent's Mental Resistance, then they are successfully provoked and will direct their attacks in the direction of the provoking character for at least one round.
Intimidate
The Intimidate technique allows a character to force a target into taking a single action through the use of fear. This technique is particularly useful in situations where the character wishes to chase an adversary away rather than physically fight them. To use this technique the character must succeed in an Intelligence based Success check, adding any specializations for Social Interaction. Should the character succeed he must then make a Power Check opposed by his opponent's Mental Resistance check. If his Power is greater than his opponent's Mental Resistance, then they are successfully intimidated and will take a single action at the command of the intimidating character.
Storyteller's Note: Targets of intimidation are unlikely to perform certain actions regardless of any intimidation, such as physically harming themselves or an ally, and in those situations it is recommended that you apply an appropriately high bonus to the target's Mental Resistance score (e.g. a +40 or +50 if the target is instructed to physically harm himself).
Deceive
The Deceive technique allows a character to trick a target into believing something that is untrue. It can also be used to distract an enemy in battle and thus open an opportunity for an ally to use the Sneak technique. To use this technique the character must succeed in an Intelligence based Success check, adding any specializations for Social Interaction. Should the character succeed he must then make a Power Check opposed by his opponent's Mental Resistance check. If his Power is greater than his opponent's Mental Resistance, then they are successfully Deceived and will believe a single piece of false information related by the deceiver.
Storyteller's Note: Some deception is just too outlandish to believe and, in situations like these, it is recommended that an appropriate bonus be applied to the target's Mental Resistance (e.g. a +50 bonus for a piece of information that the target knows empirically to be false).
Calm
The Calm technique allows a character to remove the hostile intentions of a target. This technique is particularly useful in situations where the character wishes to avoid a physical confrontation. To use this technique the character must succeed in an Intelligence based Success check, adding any specializations for Social Interaction. Should the character succeed she must then make a Power Check opposed by her opponent's Mental Resistance check. If her Power is greater than her opponent's Mental Resistance, then they are successfully Calmed and will refrain from physically attacking the character until given a new justification to do so.
Storyteller's Note: Some offenses are so egregious that a target is unlikely to be calmed and in situations like these it is recommended that an appropriate bonus be applied to the target's Mental Resistance (e.g. a +50 bonus if the target is already in combat with the characters).
