Draft rules for Social Combat in GURPS

These rules are in draft stage and posted here for the playtesters. Initial thoughts were posted here.

Social Combat rules

draft 1
Christian Blouin (bongotastic@gmail.com)

Principle

A social combat is a multi-character engagement where NPCs and PCs posture in a conceptual map. When the engagement is over, the NPCs will act according to their location in the tactical map.

Definitions

Let there be a tactical engagement map made of states connected by transitions.
A state is a box representing a course of action. Each character are located in one state, and will be bound to follow the course of action corresponding to the state it occupies at the end of the engagement.
A transition is a weight expressing the distance between two adjacent states.
The distance between two states is the sum of all transition weight of the least expensive path between two states.
When prompted, a character can make a move to alter either the transition weights, the composure of another character, or the position of a character.
The composure of a character is a penalty that applies to all skill resolution of this character for the duration of the social engagement.

Game Flow

The order of play for the character is contextual and determined by the GM. This order may be set and changed to fit the situation. Some moves are opposed and call for a skill contest, some are not opposed and call for a skill check. The GM may adjust any check to reflect how great or tenuous the skill relates to the desired effect.

Possible moves

For this section, let’s assume an active character A and an optional target character T or target state S.

• Move self (skill check):
• How: Invoke a skill, adjust by lost composure penalty, narrate how the skill applies.
• Outcome:
• Success : Cross as many transitions up to the cummulative transition cost that is equal or less to the MoS.
• Failure : People don’t buy your change of position. Character A lose composure according to MoS, up to -2.
• Move Other (skill contest):
• How:
• Character A selects a target Character T
• Computes the distance between the states of both characters.
• A invoke a skill that can be used to move T. Move action of T toward A are done with an effective distance decreased by one. Adjust with lost composure and by distance.
• Character T invoke a skill to resist the attack, narrate. Adjust by lost composure.
• A and T perform a single round of skill contest.
• Outcome :
• Success: Character T will move through transitions, towards A and up to a cost of MoS
• Failure : Character A lose composure according to MoS, up to -2.
• Stigmatize/Compel (Skill check):
• How :
• Character A selects a target state S.
• A invoke a skill to describe how S will either become more or less difficult to transition in or out. Narrate how the skill is used.
• Adjust Skill level by lost composure only.
• Outcome :
• Success : Adjust at most MoS transition weights either up (stigmatize) or down (compel) by 1.
• Failure : Character A lose composure according to MoS, up to -2.
• Composure attack (skill contest):
• How:
• Character A selects a target Character T
• Computes the distance between the states of both characters.
• A invoke a skill that can be used to move T toward A. Adjust with lost composure and by distance.
• Character T invoke a skill to resist the attack, narrate. Adjust by lost composure.
• A and T perform a single round of skill contest.
• Outcome :
• If there is a winner: the loser loses as much composure as the MoS, up to 2.
• If there is no winner: Both A and T lose 1 composure point.
• Pass : Do nothing.
• Wait : Declare to the GM when the character wishes to act next.

Further to lost composure and distance there are other possible modifiers that apply:

• If a character uses the same skill in the same turn, he/she incurs a cumulative -2 penalty on the skill check.
• In all cases, the GM may apply an additional modifier to any skill check based on appropriateness.

End of engagement

An engagement may be of a fixed length. Alternatively, it will terminate if all characters in play take a pass action.

Lasting effect of lost composure

In some settings, losing composure may persist and have lasting effects. This composure penalty would apply only if the character engages the same social circle. A minor loss of composure can lead to a loss of influence by 1, a larger loss of composure leads to a loss of influence by 2. This loss of influence applies to the base composure in the next social combat involving the same group of people.



Other than by actual roleplaying, there is a way to regain influence. The GM may ask a player how his character intends to recover from this face-losing situation. A skill is invoked, adjusted by the lost composure and any other applicable modifiers. If the check is successful, the lost influence is negated.

Experience and social combat

Achievement : If a character has contributed to achieving its goal with at least one dice roll. This is worth one point. Narrating well how the skills are used is also worth an additional point. These points can be used to negate lost influence.