Talk:Aberrant 2.0 Social Systems

Potholing Bridges

If an argument ends on a sour note, with use of abilities like Intimidation rather than Etiquette, or a character having an Objection overridden, they may be less amenable to like you in future. The Storyteller may add +1 or +2 difficulty to further attempts to socialise with the character at his discretion. These penalties will fade at a rate of 1 per week if the characters share any Intimate sway, but will otherwise persist until bought off with [willpower] sway per point.

Maneuvers

Pester: Hammering constantly on one point and ignoring all counterarguments can be effective but doesn't make you look good. A pester does +2 damage, but does not recover Dominance.

Play To Crowd: Support from bystanders is a major aid to morale. If you don't have the support of the crowd, or have only lukewarm support, you can attempt to increase it with an appropriate attribute + ability combination. Success against +X difficulty moves the crowd one level towards you.

Weapons and Armor

Bystanders: Support from the crowd is important. If there is a crowd that favours one side, the Storyteller should assign them a Support value from 1 (murmured assent from pub regulars) to 5 (loud cheers and abuse from a a stadium of spectators).

Accuracy +Support, Damage +Support/2 (round up), Soak +Support

Objection: Ideological and other personal objections can halt arguments in their tracks. It's harder for a boy to persuade a disinterested girl to go out with him if she's a lesbian, personally dislikes him, or believes she should only date people chosen by her parents. Something that is distasteful to a person's views (asking an honourable police officer to overlook a minor offence) gives them a +2 soak bonus. Something repellent (asking an honourable police officer to overlook a murder) gives a soak bonus equal to their Willpower.

Accuracy +0, Damage +0, Soak +2 or +willpower

Pre-Existing Relationship: While familiarity does breed contempt, it's generally easier to segue a friendship into a romantic relationship than it is to romance a wholly hostile person. Attempting to change the nature of a relationship is difficult and applies minor penalties, but the overall power of the seduction (or rejection) is more powerful on the whole. In general, the nature of the existing relationship and the new intended direction will determine the difficulty of the attempt, but the result is always more significant than a baseless one

Accuracy -2, Damage +2, Soak +0

Quantum Powers in Social Combat

Enhancements

Generally, an enhancement that adds bonus dice to Sway or resistance to Sway adds bonus dice to social attacks and defences in similar situations.
The Voice only lasts for an instant and so cannot win social combat by itself unless the goal of social combat can be completed in that instant. Like Dominate, it is only directly useful for intimidation.

Powers

Dominate

Dominate is not a social attack, it is direct mind control and uses its own system. The threat of Dominate may be used as a social attack, but an attempt to use the power itself (successful or not) will quite likely burn bridges with the target and certainly damage your relationship with them.

Hypnosis

hmmm

Telepathy

Telepathy is a potent tool in social combat, beyond the obvious utility of searching your opponent's mind for buttons to push and blackmail material. If a telepath is reading her opponent's mind, she always declares last and gains [Telepathy] automatic successes against social attacks based on deception. However, unless the telepath has appropriate extras, she will need to concentrate to use Telepathy and so will suffer multiple action penalties for the round. Furthermore, most people resent the idea that their minds are not private. If the target believes or suspect the nova to be using telepathy, it will increase the difficulty of attacks against them by anything from 1-5 points.

Biomanipulation

Much like how Molecular Manipulation can be used to brute force hack hardened computer systems by physically rewiring them, Biomanipulation can do as well using the Body Manipulation sub-power to induce the mental parameters that make the desired outcome possible. Psions and powerful Novas should be able to resist this to some degree, although weaker Novas and baselines in general won't be able to notice until it's too late (at which point they probably won't care anymore). On the other hand, should the attempt fail, the effect is the same as trying to use Dominate on a character, and there are extensive risks to the mental health of the target, not to mention philosophical and moral rammifications.

Empathic Manipulation

Empathic Manipulation allows a character to elicit strong emotional reactions that might be useful in scenarios where reason would be less effective. Like Telapathy, using Empathic Manipulation grants [Empathic Manipulation] successes against deception, with the added benefit of gaining additional successes from the usage of the power when trying to use an emotional appeal understandable by the target. A Brazillian rent-a-cop with siblings or a family might buy the 'But I'm a father!' excuse more readily than a Coalition Spinal. As with Telepathy, using EM is a risky venture should the character suspect them using such powers, imposing a penalty between 1 to 5 points. People don't like knowing or even considering that their emotions aren't necessarily their own.