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(S)word Schools; Words Hurt
Topic Started: Nov 25 2015, 03:24 PM (458 Views)
Divergent Reality
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Quality Not Guaranteed!
I have been batting around a concept for (S)word School tracks for characters that focus on social combat. Some basic archetypes like a professor, lawyer, high class social butterfly, etc. My questions before I start dedicating more brain to this endeavour are:

Is this necessary?
Is it wanted?

To do:
Expand on stunting in social combat. WIP

Classes on types of social attacks paired with favored action. Working on one example

Reworking of eroding resolve, changing attitudes, forcing opinions and breaking alignment. WIP

Intelligence and lore to refute - raises make no difference in social combat, the 'free raise' is useless.

Incorporate Faith WIP

Compelling Large Crowds Not Started

How will it change Exalts that use Resolve as a resource stat?

Soft Resolve - The stuff spent and restored on a daily basis.
Hard Resolve (needs new name) - Represents the max limit of Soft Resolve, must be eroded to make someone go against friends, beliefs, faith and alignment. Takes longer to restore. Normal person one year per point, mortal hero one month per point, Exalt hero one week per point.

Hard Resolve = Willpower + Composure

Regain Resolve Alternate: 1/2 (Willpower + Composure) rounded down after eight hours rest.

Extended Mental Effort


Social Combat


Will Breaking


Stunting
Edited by Divergent Reality, Dec 10 2015, 04:24 PM.
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weredrago2
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He Who Posts Too Much
Actually, I was thinking of something like that as well. A School for every Social Combat action. Necessary? Probably not. Wanted? Hell yeah.

Meanwhile, I've wanted to make Schools for other Vehicle Actions (Evasive Maneuvers and Chase, specifically). I'd love to pitch in on ideas for Word Schools.
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Is this necessary?
>in this game, in this SETTING is anything?
Is it wanted?
>might be cool
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Methodia
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Mediocre Overlord
I endorse this idea. (Even if the social combat system has some problems.)
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weredrago2
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He Who Posts Too Much
I've never deeply analyzed the Social Combat system. What's wrong with it?
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Methodia
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Mediocre Overlord
Doc and I basically had a mini argument about this one day that brought things to light. I'll ask him to explain more but I'll do my best.


One of the biggest problems of how the social combat works is in the resolution, and spending (and recovering) resolve. The book itself makes it clear that after losing two resolve you can't lose any more normally, but not as clear that you can stunt a social attack to approach someone again and make them lose more resolve. But losing resolve is part of the bigger problem. Imagine someone spends social combat lowering all your resolve to make your character do something like buy a timeshare. Finally you run out of resolve, and you give in. And then they turn around and ask you to do something like plant a virus in a computer mainframe. Despite it having nothing to do with what lowered your resolve, you are out of resolve and must accept. Basically the main issue is that resolve is a global pool, and even with other topics you are forced to change your mind.

Edit: Recovering resolve is abysmally slow, once per day IF you make a roll.
Edited by Methodia, Nov 25 2015, 06:22 PM.
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Doc
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Jon Chung put it much more eloquently than I. His points are, admittedly, about Exalted 2nd Edition, but DtD basically copied its social mechanics wholesale, so I feel they're basically accurate here.

That said, I'll ramble for a moment.


  • At zero resolve, convincing somebody to take an action - an act I'd assume the convincing party is good at, since they reduced the convinced party to zero resolve - suddenly becomes a lesser type of mind control. Without a certain feat (the name of which escapes me Armor of Contempt), you can tell that person to do basically anything, such as murder their family. Even with Armor of Contempt - which prevents them from betraying their Alignment at zero resolve - the list of things you can force them to do against their will is... staggering.

  • Outside of being a Duelist, Social Combat and Normal Combat operate on two different timescales. Most of the time, this isn't necessarily a problem. The problem arises that most people would rather avoid the whole mind control thing, so they'd rather not engage in conversations that seek to erode their resolve or what have you - this is particularly notable for Perpetual, since it uses its Resolve as its Resource Stat. Now, one of the easiest ways to avoid Social Combat is to just Declare Normal Combat and walk the fuck away - you shift to Normal Combat Time, and get something like ten rounds compared to the Social Combat's ONE round. And while that's certainly what I would actually do if I was being forced to talk about something I'd rather not, I'm pretty sure it's a bad thing that most of any XP spent on social stuff is trivialized by somebody declaring their intent to stab you and/or run off.

    Again, unless you're a Duelist. In which case you're engaging in Insult Sword Fighting, which is sure to be fun for all.


With that aside, a Social Sword School might be neat.
Edited by Doc, Nov 25 2015, 07:01 PM.
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Eisenritter
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Old Iron Knight
Count me in as someone who has considered it in the past and deemed it unnecessary. Problem with "schools of negotiation" is that you can count the number of possible approaches on one hand... passive, aggressive, neutral, ingratiating, apathy. That's it. At which point, you may as well leave it to the character(s) to determine how the approach is going to go down. :(
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Methodia
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Mediocre Overlord
Divergent Reality, I like this idea enough to have started making a rough draft of a (s)word/debater school already, but I'm curious to see what you have, especially as a base system with the universal advantages/disadvantages. You should post what you have after finishing it up. Someone will find a use for it. I've been wanting to make more social classes, this will inspire me to do so probably.
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Divergent Reality
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I am currently limited to my mobile which, thankfully, has my notes on it. As soon as I have some time to myself (with an infant and family around lol) I will post what I have.

I have started on universal advantages and disadvantages plus a professorial type of (S)word School.

As doc noted, the zero resolve thing needs some work. Maybe treat it as temporary morale and permanent damage, where that permanent damage takes weeks to erode and years to regain, but the temporary may be lost in an afternoon, but is regained in a couple days.

I will think about these things while socializing with family.
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