GURPS Social Academy: Reaction rolls with irresistible PCs.

This post is part of a the GURPS Social Academy in support of my new campaign The Empress of India.

The later posts are the following:

1. The Reaction Roll
2. The Unassisted Influence Check 
3. PCs as targets of Influence Checks
4. A non-fantasy model for religions
5. Mitigating the reaction Roll

This post is the outcome of extensive playing with reaction rolls in a Social-Engineering centered campaign. I discuss here things that came up in play.

It naturally follows that...

...in a campaign based on social interactions that the PC are going to grow very good at manipulating everyone. In a way, this is fine: they spend the points and the natural reward is to be able to pull off crazy stunts. Otherwise, someone else would be the main character to that story. 

There is a situation where I feel less certain that kickass-charming PCs are always awesome. This is the case of the reaction roll, which is a non-skill based, non-opposed 3d6. 

In actual play, you'll get Reiko walking into a room and meet a man. She is pretty, has high birth and some charisma thrown into the mix. All in all, she gets a +6 to reaction. On average, she will get a very good reaction. Is this a problem? 

Everyone giggles every time so, not really at first glance. However, being like by everyone will cramp the GM's style after a while so here I propose a few ways to mitigate that:

1. Make the outcome a mystery -- You tell the PC whether it is positive or not and force them to use their social skills to figure out what is really going on. You'd be surprised how a critical fail lead to funny situations (The hard part is keeping a straight face). Sometimes, awkwardness will affect the reaction as well in the process. Get the PCs to be detailed on how they approach the NPC and select the skill that match the description rather than the best skills to read others. 
2. Immediate reactions are capped --  Anything better than good at first glance makes little sense. If the reaction gets higher to very good or excellent, grant +1 or +2 to the next influence check instead. 
3. Don't be afraid to make it hard on the PCs -- If a NPC has a good reason to be pissed, give a stiff negative penalty and cap the lower bound on reaction levels. For example, Reiko may have +6, but the average Joe in the same situation would be bad (5). This implies a -5 narrative penalty which could be capped at bad because going too low immediately doesn't make sense in this situation. The final reaction roll is modified by +1, which means an expected neutral reaction. A more extreme case: The NPC has a -12 to reaction for a final modifier of -6 but with a minimum cap to poor. This means that only a bit of luck will give something better than poor, but without Reiko's charms and other attributes, it would be nearly impossible to do better than this. The overflow translates into a penalty for a future Influence check as described in point 2. 
4. Olden school GMs would argue against using dice to decide the outcome... where is the sport in that as a GM? It isn't because that I GM that I don't want to play as well. Main event in my campaign have been decided by a die roll, live: I call this fun to deal with.

Conclusions

I think that we should never penalize a PC for being good: this means that the difficulty of a situation shouldn't scale with skills/attributes levels. Great social characters should breeze through simple situations and it is probably better to simply not bother with the dice. Scaling up like it is done in video games, and pretty much disregards character advancement. 

I think that these three strategies will be at the top of my list from now on to make sure that failure a source of fun happens while respecting the PCs' awesomeness. 

K31 - Dear Diary...

This session continues on the dungeon delve involving all PCs deep into the 4th level. They left to find out more about the curse of the Balrog. They found it. The following is the narrative as recounted by the mysterious bride that just got rescued.

K30 - The Love Polygon

The bride of the unborn reincarnation of Durin had to be put away into a hidden chamber of Khazad-dum until the day of her wedding would come. The viceroy saw her in a dream, and so the Royal party left the Tomb of Arvin in a quest to find that pretty needle in a wraith-infested heystack. What they found was a giant black pudding guarding the sarcophagus of the bride where she lay, at the threshold of bonified death. 

Both Khazek and Thordar saw in her eyes what they interpreted as the promise of true and everlasting love. 

The black pudding is playing with its food

But hey, the job wasn't done. Khazek pulled the bride from the sarcophagus. She was frail, pale and shivering. Her knuckles raw from beating from within the stone receptacle. Khazek pulled her gently and huddled her, careful not to smear her with the acid burning through his heavy chain. He gently kissed her, she was gasping for air. Was this passion? Thordar, boiling with rage lunged forward and punched Khazek in a mad hope to make him drop the bride into his hands. Khazek avoided the blow and misinterpreted it as an overenthusiastic offer to help carrying her to safety.

Lathmelen stumbled while jumping over the pudding, she fell feet first into the caustic mud. Her boots were now smouldering with a brown smoke, but her adarcer shin protector remained unaffected. A foot slipped out, but the second foot stayed stuck. The wraith that was wrestling her for the sword wandered off as she became invisible to it once that she let the sword go. A second attempt to free herself sent her face first to the ground with one foot still mired into the muck. The black pudding rolled over her body and began burning at her clothes and hair.

GURPS Social Academy: A non-fantasy model for religions

This post is the fourth in the series GURPS Social Academy exploring the use in practice of ideas from GURPS Social Engineering (with some personal twists). These articles relate to my new campaign The Empress of India. This article is not expanding on ideas from Social Engineering but instead contains an original way to represent religions in a way that is realistic and respectful to theists, atheists and agnostic players (I hope).

The later posts are the following:

1. The Reaction Roll
2. The Unassisted Influence Check 
3. PCs as targets of Influence Checks
4. A non-fantasy model for religions
5. Mitigating the reaction Roll
6. Reward structure in social-oriented campaigns.

Principle

Religions are defining factors for theists, yet they are a matter of personal experience. In other words, a two friends of different religions can can find solace and resolve while being equally sincere in their Faith. The experience is real and tangible at the personal level. Faith provides strength of the mind when the worshipper believes to be in grace, and a weakness of mind when it believes to be impure or a sinner.

Theism and Atheism

Theism [5] is an advantage whereby the Will of a character is increased by 1 when the character believes to be pure or in good grace. The counter to this perk is that the belief of being impure or with unforgiven sins incurs a penalty of -1 on Will. 

Theists must either select the religious [-5] or devout [-10] code of conduct that defines the rites and behaviours prescribed in order to be pure/in good grace.  Devouts must abide by a much more severe code of conduct, but in return are subject to a +2 or -2 modifier on their Will.

Atheism [5] is an advantage that is not bound to any code of conduct. Because atheists have an equal conviction that there are no supernatural interventions over the world, their presence undermines and disturbs the conviction of theists. This abnegating effect takes place only if the atheist is known to be this way: there is no magic or invisible aura around an atheist. As a result, they benefit of a bonus of +1 on Will-based check to resist influence checks made by theists. Additionally, the presence of atheists incurs a -1 penalty to prayers if they are involved in anyway in the request for divine intervention. However, known atheists suffer -1 reaction penalty with theists. 

Agnostic characters are neither theist nor atheist. They may believe in something, it just doesn't have an in-game effect. 

GURPS Social Academy: PCs as targets of Influence Checks

This post is the third in the series GURPS Social Academy exploring the use in practice of ideas from GURPS Social Engineering (with some personal twists). These articles relate to my new campaign The Empress of India. 

The later posts are the following:

1. The Reaction Roll
2. The Unassisted Influence Check 
3. PCs as targets of Influence Checks
4. A non-fantasy model for religions
5. Mitigating the reaction Roll
6. Reward structure in social-oriented campaigns.

Principle: You are not your character

It is important to keep in mind that player skills and knowledge are distinct from these of the characters. GURPS players already know that since a curious character will sometime have to do the wrong thing if he/she fails to resist vs Will. In the Palantir Commission campaign, the characters never found out that the squire could cast spells and simply assumed that the Valars were on their side. The players, however, had great fun with this plot twist. 

This article is about PCs being the target of Influence Checks. You got to be OK with the separation of player/character knowledge for it to work, but it is fun to play out. 

GURPS Social Academy: The unassisted influence check

This post is part of a the GURPS Social Academy in support of my new campaign The Empress of India. This article follows from the last article on Reaction rolls.

I use liberally the concept of aspect that I have taken from FATE. There is a lot of RPG wisdom in FATE, but the resolution philosophy of GURPS wins the cake for me.

The later posts are the following:

1. The Reaction Roll
2. The Unassisted Influence Check 
3. PCs as targets of Influence Checks
4. A non-fantasy model for religions
5. Mitigating the reaction Roll
6. Reward structure in social-oriented campaigns.

GMing with Influence Checks

The influence check is about using a skill or an attribute to influence the narrative by manipulating others. An influence check is unique: its outcome shall be final for the duration of a scene.

It is important to let a failed roll determine the outcome as negative. Re-rolling, in a sense, is taking away the rewards to building a character to be good at something.

Influence checks should be made when both success and failure makes for an interesting story. If this isn't the case, then there is no need to roll: just say so.

GURPS Social Academy: The Reaction roll

This post is part of a the GURPS Social Academy in support of my new campaign The Empress of India.

The later posts are the following:

1. The Reaction Roll
2. The Unassisted Influence Check 
3. PCs as targets of Influence Checks
4. A non-fantasy model for religions
5. Mitigating the reaction Roll
6. Reward structure in social-oriented campaigns.

I consider the reaction roll as a way to turn GMing into playing: you got to be prepared for sharp turns and true tests of robustness of the storyline.

GMing with reaction rolls

The reaction roll determines the attitude of a NPC or a group of NPC towards one or more PCs. It is automatic, done in secret by the GM if the reaction is not already scripted by the narrative. Many of the social modifiers apply to this check. Disadvantages may also be relevant and resisted. The timing of a reaction roll depend on how much time is needed to determine an attitude.

Altering reaction levels

The narrative may alter the reaction level. A player may deliberately alter reaction by performing influence checks. A success should improve the level by 1 category, even of the MoS if the contest isn’t sufficient to do so.

Effect of positive reaction levels

Some levels act as automatic influence checks. Favours scan be granted within specified limits for good and better reactions. NPC with good and better reactions can be purchased as contact, allies and patrons. Neutral NPCs can be purchased with the “minimal intervention” modifier.

Effect of negative reaction levels

These NPCs act as enemies. The commitment of a NPC to the downfall of a PC depends on the story and the level. The GM may allow to purchase an enemy if the NPC may have a lasting effect on the campaign.

Why using reactions

Reaction rolls add a lot of unpredictability for the GM as it may send a story in a wide range of direction. Sometimes, this may be a bad idea, sometime it is just a fun way to play with fire. Most importantly, reaction rolls allow PCs to influence a story by using good role play and their hard-earned social traits. If they spend points for it… They should be able to have fun with them.

Playing with Reaction rolls (examples)

Nathan walks into a bar

Nathan, a military man, walks into a bar which main clientele are Mughal Army officers. Since his Savoir-Faire(military) is 12 or more, he gets + 1 other officers. He doesn’t really outrank anyone (Lt vs Lt on average), but his lord status (3) is one higher than the average (+ 1). However, both English and Mughals are chauvinistic. Nathan fails to resist his (rolls 16) while the clientele does (rolls 5). Chauvinism causes -1 overall because Nathan can’t quite hide his contempt (dirty glass, improper behaviours, etc.). Nathan also has an irritating catch-phrase “Oh, I remember Peshawar…”, he pass his Will check and avoid factoring in this annoying quirk. Finally, one can argue that since Nathan is fat and unfit, he comes across as a poor image of an army man (-1).

The reaction roll is 11 + 0 = 11. The clientele is neutral to Nathan. Good thing that he has a military background or else he would have had a poor reaction (9).

Special case where Nathan has Savoir-Faire(military)-10

Let’s assume a case similar to the example above, but where Nathan doesn’t have 12 in his Savoir-Faire. In this case, Nathan should check against Savoir-Faire(military) in order to make the bonus apply. For flavour, it is possible that a penalty be imposed on the skill if the GM rules that the decorum in the Mughal army is different enough than in the English army. Say, Savoire-Faire(military)-10.

Gene confronts protestors

Gene decides to meet with the protestors outside the embassy. The protestors are chanting against the presence of English on Delhi, and specifically against her presence. The GM sets the reaction to very poor. They want her out, but are not fired up to the point that they would commit reckless acts such as commit crimes just because they don’t like her.

After the session, and because Gene hasn’t appeased them, the GM “awards” the protestors as an enemy group (base: – 10, frequency: 9 or less, watchers) [-2cp]. These may just come back to be annoying later on.

In this case, a reaction roll is likely to throw the story off if the protestors turns out to be friendly. It makes more sense to set a reaction and let Gene performs an Influence check to tune the reaction.

051 - The Numarii King

This session began where the last one ended, in the middle of an interrogation of an orc sergeant that had been put to sleep by Kasper's elf twig hoodoo voodoo. 

Thannolf bent down to the orc's face and repeated his question. The orcs smiled but didn't answer. The northerling lost patience and locked his elbow at a very awkward angle. The orc tapped out from pain and told the company that the dwarves should still be loyal to Farathu. Halin kicked him as they decided to let him go. The only way out was back to his bethren (and into certain death).

K18 - Cold rain over Mirkwood

This session introduced our new PCs and se the stage for the next chapter of the campaign. 

The dust is settling over Browek Bridge

At the end of the last session, the Mirkwood elves had learned from the dwarves that there was an orc nest with live elven sacrifice deep underground. Gormiel, the leader of the elves, managed to secure one of the key from Khazek. Four of them entered Sarn Goriwig, four accompanied the dwarves back to Browek Bridge while two other remained at large. After a few hours of grueling hiking, the orb was safe within the dwarf fort. 

On the following day, Drolf appropriated the second key of Sarn Goriwig and handed it to Gror. Drolf announced that the Ardacer was to leave to open the road while Gror would stay behind to hold the bridge. Gror, worried about giant spiders and orcs, ordered the Ledge-Lot to close the perimeter and the rangers to take stock of the surroundings. Gror's hold on the troop was very good (MoS 3), and his defensive plan excellent (MoS 3). The combination of patrols by the rangers and his own axmen allowed him to build a precise mental map of the surroundings (Intelligence Analysis, critical success).  The bulk of the orcs had melted away soon after their expedition within the tower. The reasons of this scattering was unknown, but probably related to the death of the wizard. 

Khazek, now solely at the head of 21 rangers, launched into increasingly far reaching patrols. His command of the troop was adequate (MoS 0), his tracking effort highly effective (MoS 7), which was instrumental in providing Gror with a clear situational awareness. About a few days later, Gormiel linked with the ranger. The tower was sealed, and elven wraiths were haunting it for now. Khazek realized that Gormiel was uncomfortable with the situation. Gormiel told Khazek that Prince Imeptanen was on his way to Browek Bridge to resolve the dispute over the ownership of the orb and the tower.   

046 - The legend of Sir Galdor

This post refers to play that occurred in a more abstract way in between Chapter 2 and 3. Some was played by post, some was done at the table. Some really neat gameplay took place in this session: I skimped on the technical details but the Social Engineering book saw a lot of page flicking. 

Session 18

• Part I - The Legend of Sir Galdor
• Part II - A journey up the Lhûn valley

Arnadil wrote a masterpiece

With his hip badly mangled, Arnadil had to find a way to kill time while sitting down. Arnadil began gathering notes about the commission's journey. He really got into it an began writing prose from his notes almost right away. His keen intellect allowed him to learn fast, and by the time that the Raven had touched the docks in Osgiliath, Arnadil had a manuscript that read like a professional piece from a chronicler. Little did he knew at this point that his manuscript would play a key role in thwarting Sir Galdor's takeover bid on the commission!

Meanwhile, and after his hip got better, Arnadil also spent a good amount of time teaching swordplay to the hobbits. He learned a lot about teaching while his companion got to refine their rough skills a little bit. 

Thannolf the sailor man (toot! toot!)

On the way back from Forochel, Thannolf busied himself to become the first mate of the Raven. He wanted to get the pay boost, and definitely had some time to burn off in between drinking binges. He applied himself to the craft of seafaring. Using his empathy, and a good dose of acting at the right moment, he won the respect of the crew and the affection of Vacros, the captain of the Raven. This got him to the position of second mate with a small pay increase. An unintended secondary effect of this effort was that it became clear to him that the Palantir commission had been deceived by the crew all along: The Raven was indeed on lease from Dol-Amroth, but Vacros had assembled the crew specifically to take the commission to Forochel in hope to sail away with the Palantirs and fence them to a mysterious high bidder. With the Winter Drake involved, Vacros cut his loss and dropped the plan.

Vacros, knowing Thannolf all too well at that time, bribed the northmen into keeping this secret for long enough to avoid trouble with the other commission members. Thannolf added his celebins to his (ethically muddled) stash and decided to take the secret to his grave. 

Finbert's lost treasure is really lost 

Finbert was very sore that his purse had disappeared at the Imenstone, unlike all other commission members. He suspected Thannolf, whom he distrusted because of his insatiable greed and criminal past. Over the length of the trip, he tried to take advantage of Thannolf's compulsive carousing to interrogate him while he was drunk. However, Finbert got more often than not drunk happy faster than the young northmen [Carousing contest won by Thannolf.] Furthermore, Thannolf's empathy allowed him to get cued that the hobbit was on his tail and caused him to remain guarded. Overall, Finbert's attempt to pull information from Thannolf was unsuccessful [resolved as an influence check as the gameplay was abstracted]. To make things worst, Thannolf's Fortune telling allowed him to read through Finbert very well. The northmen took advantage of this. He ended up having a little fun at the expense of the hobbit. Finbert stopped drinking, which was hard for him as he is fond of food and drink. But Thannolf was already cued and kept his guard up. 

When Finbert arrived in Minas Tirith, he sought employment Public Houses. Surprisingly, what got him the job came from an unexpected place: Finbert was the companion of the now famous Sir Galdor of Dol-Amroth, champion in the North.

The Legend of Sir Galdor, Hero in the North

A buzz came upon Mina's Tirith in the early days of July. A minstrel name Petron proposed a new epic saga put to music which told the story of Sir Galdor, knight of Dol-Amroth. According to the epic song, Sir Galdor met with Linluile, patron said of Annuminas, struck down a demon in the north and confronted a winter drake. He was accompanied by valiant hobbits, a legendary dwarf warrior and a rabble of other who played no large parts in the tale (other than giving up too fast when facing the drake). This tale spread like wildfire through the city, and rubbed the party members as both offensive and inaccurate. 

Arnadil invited the nobility and the gentry to a ball in his Mina's Tirith home. Petron may have wrapped his fingers around the crowds in public houses, but Arnadil intended to make truth prevail for the upper crust of Gondor. Arnadil's invitation made the rounds in the City Watch mess halls, and throughout the King's court [Propaganda check success]. Arnadil passed his manuscript to Irina who started to put keys parts to songs [Signing check success with MoS 3]. The evening was well attended, except for the notable absence of Sir Galdor himself. Irina's music moved the crowds and a few good laugh were shared on Petron's version of the company's adventures. Although at a great expense, Arnadil's ball had the effect of setting the records straight at least on the 7th level of the city. Irina couldn't outperform Petron on the public house circuit, but the ball had a deep impact on how the coming week developed.

The news that Prince Imrahil of Dol-Amroth had pledged a navy ship and a small force of horsemen and pikemen shook the company at first. The word on the street was that Sir Galdor was to lead the new expedition. The company learned from Kasper (still Sir Galdor's squire), that Mildred Imrahil, the grand-son of the prince, had joined Galdor as a page. Some company members expressed the concerns that the legend of Sir Galdor was drifting from a bad joke into a potential disaster. However, the Lord Chancellor made clear to Arnadil that King Elessar had never specified who should lead the company, nor that anyone could impose a leader no matter how generous the pledge may be. It was thus decided that Sir Galdor and his new pet would be given the command of the slow soldiers while the rest of the company would rush ahead and hopefully solve the problem before the circus hit the town.

Another point of note is that Sir Galdor wasn't capable of coming up with all this on his own: a force was seeking fracture lines within the company for its own purpose.

038 - A diplomatic surgical strike in Mulkan

This session reports on the Palantir's commission first contact with the tribe in possession of two Palantirs. They know that they are personae ungrattae in terra incognita. A number of demons are lurking around, and the locals to be swayed are xenophobic yocals that eat angels for breakfast. The ice is thin under their feet, literally and figuratively.

Act 38, Scene 1 - The Raven gets skittish

During the night of the 26th, a sailor panicked and climbed the Raven's rigging. In the midst of the raves and pleas for help, he appeared to be fending off an invisible foe. The last that was seen of Paulof was when he got plucked from the ladder and dragged to the black waters below. Then there was silence.

The Captain of the Raven reported the story to the Palantir commission members on the following morning. He made clear that the crew and himself weren't paid enough for this kind of travelling. He bemoaned the lack of commercial opportunities and threatened to cut short the expedition. Halin let out a grunt and a stare good enough to cow a troll [ Intimidation check won by +5] [+]. Arnadil explained to Vacros (the captain) that the commission wasn't going anywhere and that no payment would ever be made without their safe return. Vacros backed down [ Intimidation vs. Will, supported by Halin. Success.] [+], but maintained that his crew was getting restless. It was settled that double pay delivered up-front should be good enough to keep the sailors content for about another week of lingering [ Merchant quick contest, won by Arnadil with MoS +2] [+].   

Informal game theory and GURPS Social engagements

This post looks at tactics for social engagements using the second draft of the rules.  People playing in an engagement won't go to this length to understand their options: they should focus on having fun. However,  a little head-scratching is in order before the next playtest.

Test Case 1 : Minimal example

In this minimalistic example, two characters are seeking consensus on a policy issue. PC has the initiative.

K02 - The council of April 4th FA 15

This is the play report of the campaign's sendoff and first social combat playtest. The issues are stake were previously described, and the outcome essentially decides what kind of campaign will be run: from dungeon crawl all the way to Dwarf fortress GURPS sandbox. My note taking was really bad, and it was my first G+/Roll20 game as a GM. Another post of the social combat mechanics will follow.

It was as fine day of spring in Erebor. The King had convened this council many months ago. It exceptionally included new faces from Aglarond and from Iron Hills. In pure dwarven tradition, the pre-council feast had seen plenty of food and ale flow over and under the large stone table. All players checked for inebriation: the King himself was tipsy as well as Khazek. Even Farin, a compulsive carouser, managed to succeed both of his check and let the good times rolls without embarrassing himself [tipsy folks get -1 IQ, which is a big deal in social combat].

Issues at stake for the Royal Council of April 4

Here is the draft tactical map for the council of April 4th. The outcome of this council will determine the flavor of the campaign. The issues are tricky, this post aims to explain its implications.

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.