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Quality Not Guaranteed!
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- Jul 30, 2013
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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 Extended Mental Effort: A person's mental reserves can only last so long. After spending and regaining Resolve for a continuous number of days equal to a person's Hard Resolve they are mentally fatigued and will be unable to regain their Soft Resolve as quickly. For each day beyond a character will replenish one less Soft Resolve per day until they restore zero Soft Resolve per day. At this point a character needs to rest a number of days equal to double their Hard Resolve minus Composure to regain their mental faculties.
After a week of hard fought court proceedings, Ace was spent. He was bleary eyed and his temper was short. He instructed his secretary to cancel any appointments for the next two weeks.
Tracy's character Ace has a Willpower of three and Composure of two granting him five Soft Resolve. The court battle went on for seven days, two longer than his five Hard Resolve allows him to fully endure. His natural recovery of two Soft Resolve after sufficient rest has been depleted by his extended efforts meaning he no longer restores any Soft Resolve. To restore this he needs to take double his Hard Resolve minus Composure days to recover. 5x2, ten days minus two Composure means he needs eight days to build back his reserves.
Social Combat Social combat, when a target loses two resolve they concede a point or idea to their opponent. At this point the loser would see things from their opponents view, agree to help, donate a few Thrones to their cause, or let them into the back of the club for a quick autograph.
If the opponent has only two Resolve they are generally so low on the totem pole they are only able to do small things. Anyone higher up will have more Resolve.
Loss of more Resolve mechanics and consequences.
Further erosion of Soft Resolve can be used to gain some further assistance or to butter up someone even further. Keep in mind that further buttering up of low level mooks is usually a fruitless endeavour.
Versus Social Combat: Longer debates between mighty mental manipulators take longer and have further consequences. Opponents with more than two Soft Resolve can continue arguing. Extra points of lost Soft Resolve further chip away at a strong willed person’s standpoint/political idea/religious tenants until they have no further options in wordplay (they run out of soft resolve) or they simply concede defeat before that point and move on. Losses of Soft Resolve in this manner do not cause someone to betray their king and country, they allow the winner to persuade more difficult points: The Greater Good is the best way due to..., the tax excesses would best be spent improving city infrastructure and here is why, Vectron is the best of gods HAIL VECTRON!
Will Breaking Will Breaking: It is possible to erode that which makes a person who they are. This can be done to brainwash minions, punish foes or to torture playthings. In order to erode someone's will to this point they must first have gone through long enough of an Extended Mental Effort to reduce their daily Soft Resolve replenishment to zero. From then on it takes a number of days equal to their Hard Resolve times the sum of their Willpower and Composure.
After Ace leaves for his vacation Abobo's goons gets a hold of him, they take the time to break Ace's will to lie about evidence obtained for the trial.
Ace has three Willpower and Two Composure giving him five Hard Resolve times five for the sum of Willpower and Composure. It will take at a minimum 25 days to break Ace's will. For non-heroes this is simply a number of days equal to their Hard Resolve. At the end of each day a character is allowed a Hard will save to avoid losing a point of Hard Resolve. The method used to achieve these ends are up to the GM or players. Be it hypno conditioning, magic, exposure to the unfiltered warp, stranding in the screaming expanses of Pandemonium, or through simple torture.
Add half their Faith, rounded down, as a bonus modifier to the roll?
Losing Hard Resolve is no laughing matter, for every three Hard Resolve lost the character rolls on the Shock Table found in DtD40K7thEd p.270. If the character’s Hard Resolve is reduced to zero they roll on the Derangement Chart DtD40K7thEd p.193.
After a character has had their Hard Resolve reduced to zero their will is broken. At this point they are subservient and able to be easily controlled. At this point a person can be convinced to betray king and country.
Characters can regain their Hard Resolve after escaping or being rescued. This healing takes time. For a non-hero they regain Hard Resolve at a rate of one point per year. Heroes regain Hard Resolve at a rate of one point per month and Exalts recover one per week. Any insanity and corruption earned remains.
Stunting Stunting in DtD social combat is quite different from shooty stabby combat. Stunts represent useful secrets, knowledge, or information on your opponent one can use in the war of words. These could be pict recordings, witnesses, miscellaneous evidence, bound daemons, etc. Keep in mind that the more outrageous the claim, the greater the burden of proof will be. Sometimes secrets are so damning and horrific that retaliation might be the refutation of choice.
One Die: a deep secret, something economically, politically, or socially embarrassing: light drug use, gambling, a mistress, organized crime involvement. Two Die: a deep, dark secret, something economically, politically, or socially damaging: heavy drug trade, secret identities, multi-sphere espionage. Three Die: a deep, dark, heretical secret, something economically, politically, or socially devastating: smuggling Modrons into Spheres, replicant, attempting to overthrow a god, roll for initiative.
Sometimes things go not as planned. The dice gods are against you or your buddy cursed your dice whatever the case you failed your stunt in social combat. For the rest of the scene you suffer a -1K1 penalty to all Social Attacks and Refutations as people no longer believe you because you are full of shit.
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