AI:L Social Conflict

v.0.40

Ascension Isle: Legacy

(Work in progress - Vibes and Feels in particular need expanding)

Social Conflict

Social Conflict is a combat system for social actions. Whereas in normal combat characters are usually fighting to deal damage to each other, in social conflict characters are struggling to change attitudes and emotions. These are measured by "Vibes" and "Feels."

Vibes are short term effects that when triggered last for no more than a scene - and sometimes just for a single round. A Vibe applies a penalty or a bonus to a narrow set of rolls as determined by the kind of vibe and how powerful it is. Feels are longer term effects and are usually permanent until actively removed.

Vibes and Feels are inflicted by performing special Social Maneuvers. These maneuvers require the expenditure of Advantage, so much of Social Conflict revolves around scoring enough conversational success to build up the necessary Advantage.

Social Conflict usually takes place over "long rounds," which are about a minute long and occur outside of combat. There are two general kinds of Long Round Social Conflict - A Monologue or Speech, where a character is talking largely unnopposed, and a Discussion or Argument, where a character is in engaging in a back and forth series of social rolls with another.

Arguments

At the start of each turn of Social Conflict all involved parties roll for initiative, using Intellect + Intuition. The determines the order that characters will go in. It also determines how good a "sense" the character gets of the motivations and undercurrents of the ongoing argument.

The base difficulty is 10 + the Deception or Graces skill of the target.

The characters can then take conversation actions in turn. Situational modifiers are added or subtracted based on the receptiveness of the audience and the appropriateness of the message. A successful conversation action awards 2 Advantage, with an additional one advantage for every time the threshold is beaten.

Most conversational rolls are made against static difficulties. When a character who is present is directly targeted by a conversational action they can raise the difficulty of that roll as a free reaction. This is common with Intellect + Deception when a character denies the truth of another's claims or accusations, or Physique + Graces where a character uses their sheer presence to deflate the strength of their opponent's argument. In this case a reaction roll is made with a zero threshold of five by default (lower depending on appropriateness), and the result added to the static difficulty.

A successful conversation action can be immediately followed by a roll to inflict a Vibe as a follow through action. The type of vibes available depend on the preceding conversation action. A character can instead attempt to move an NPC on a campaign "theme," either increasing or decreasing the strength of their feeling for it, or driving them to act on it. The difficulty of this depends on whether the characters are in agreement on the theme in question ("positive"), have no opinion ("neutral") or whether they disagree ("negative"). Note that two characters who oppose a theme are still positive, as they are both in agreement on that opposition.

Conversational follow through actions require the expenditure of one Willpower Exploit to activate.

Authority - A long round conversation action to establish a character's authority over another.

Explain - A long round conversation action in which a character describes an action, item or person. If successful it allows the inflicting of the "Competence" vibe.

Empathise - A long roundconversation action in which a character seeks to establish a rapport with their audience. If successful it allows the character to inflict the "Pride" vibe.

Rouse - A long round conversation action in which a character seeks to fire up their audience to undertake a certain action. If successful it allows the character to inflict

Challenge - A long round conversation action in which a character challenges the words or deeds of another. If successful it allows the character to reduce the conversational advantage of their opponent at 4 advantage for success and 2 advantage for every additional threshold of success.

Demand - A long round conversation action in which a character demands an explanation or action from another. If successful it allows the character to inflict the "Shame" and

Denounce - A long round conversation action in which a character declares their strong opposition to someone or something. If successful it allows the character to inflict the "Fear," vibe or move a character on an Opposed Theme.

Heckle - A long round one-liners action used to attack the argument of another character as a reaction. If successful it allows the character to reduce the conversational advantage of their opponent at 1 advantage for success and 1 advantage for every additional threshold of success.

Inflict Vibe - A conversational follow-through action costing one Willpower to activate.

Inflict Feel - A conversational follow-through action costing one Willpower to activate.

Move on Theme - A conversational follow-through action costing one Willpower to activate.

Vibes

Where Vibes and Feels are concerned the targeted character is the character who actually gets the vibe or feel and suffers or benefirs from its penalties or bonusses, and the selected character is the character to whose actions or presence will trigger the vibe or feel - which does not necessarily have to be the character inflicting the vibe or feel.

Competence - The targeted character gains a bonus to the next action they take using the selected Core, Social, World or Technical skill. This bonus is for one roll only, although it can be sustained by one liners.

Fear - The character targeted by this vibe takes a global penalty in the first round of combat against the selected character. This penalty is lost after the first round, although it can be maintained by combat actions (such as killing several opponents) or one liners.

Shame - The character targeted by this vibe takes a penalty to conversation actions if they fail to act according to a set of conditions. This can be used to enforce compliance with established authority or rules.

Pride - The character targeted by this vibe feels a sense of pride in themselves or some related group. This vibe gives them a bonus to conversation actions. A character can inflict this vibe upon themselves, although doing so does open up the danger of being Challenged or Denounced as a narcissist.

Feels

Trust - The targeted character gains a +1 bonus to all social interactions with the selected character. Trust is commonly inflicted upon the speaker themselves, and noted down as who they are trusted by.

Loathing - The targeted character gains a -1 penalty to all social interactions with the selected character.

Conversation Traits

Basic Conversation (0 trait points - basic convo trait)

“Speak Louder”: 1 Advantage to get a +2 edge to a single roll

“Inflict Vibe”: 2 Advantage to inflict a +/-1 Vibe

4 Advantage to inflict a +/-2 Vibe

6 Advantage to inflict a +/-3 Vibe or move a character on a positive theme

8 Advantage to inflict a +/-4 Vibe or move a character on a neutral theme

10 Advantage to inflict a +/-5 Vibe or move a character on a negative theme, or inflict a Feel

Oratory (2 trait points)

Spend one additional Willpower or Adrenaline to inflict a Vibe on all relevant targets in earshot

Historical Anecdote: A long round conversational option where the speaker tells a shared anecdote known to the audience and then relates it to their own argument. Allows the speaker to roll Intellect + Local Knowledge as a supporting roll.

I Have the Floor: A long round conversational initiative option where the character can roll Intellect or Physique + Graces to set up a Speech rather than an Argument. Situational modifiers apply.

Declaim: +5 bonus to resist heckling

Ascension Isle: Legacy