Social Combat

Jy3's projects Wiki>Tabletop Games>Custom RPG systems>Subsystem Sketches

Goal: To create a social combat system that handles rhetoric with the same accuracy and detail as many RPGs use for combat.

Terms
Belief: As aspect of a character that affects how that character behaves. Beliefs come in two types: Facts (things that the character believes about the world) and Opinions (emotions and attachments that affect how the character acts). Each belief has a strength, which is how important it is to the character. Characters acting against a belief suffer certain penalties, and characters acting in accord with a belief gain certain benefits.

Delusion: A special belief, adopted to avoid accepting an argument.

Link: A connection between two beliefs. Each link has a direction (from supporting to supported belief) and a strength (how well one belief supports another).

Personality: A cluster of beliefs representing the character's instincts and fundamental drives. A belief that is part of a character's personality cannot be removed without brainwashing, and a Need cannot be removed at all without changing the character's fundamental nature.

Will: A metagame resource that characters can use to resist beliefs or gain certain other benefits. Spending a point of Will suspends a belief or increases its benefits for a certain amount of time.

Characters
Each character has the following traits relevant to this system.

Will
A character has a pool of Will points. For starting heroic characters, the maximum Will is 5; more can be bought with experience. Non-heroic characters have a Will of 3, and nameless characters have a Will of 0. A starting character has a full Will pool. Ignore these numbers if the system has its own way to calculate Will.

Beliefs
All characters have the following opinions as part of their personality, plus up to three more that are not Needs. Characters also have up to five other beliefs outside their personality, and up to 20 strength worth of links. Personality traits cannot be linked to one another, and no series of links may form a loop.
 * Need for Life: Hunger, thirst, and wounds. Starts at strength 0. Raises strength every minute without air, every 8 hours without water, every day without food, and every time the character is seriously injured. Lowers when needs are met; resets to zero when character is healed and sated.
 * Need for Rest: Fatigue and exhaustion. Starts at strength 0. Raises strength every 8 hours without sleep, or every 2 hours of heavy labor. Resets to strength 0 when the character is completely rested.
 * Need for Safety: Fear of danger or injury. Strength varies based on situation.
 * Need for Belonging: Isolation and lack of contact. Starts at strength 0. Raises strength when actively shunned or when character is isolated. Lowers strength when the character has friendly contact with other people.
 * Ambition To _______: A driving goal that the character has. Starts at strength 5. Raises strength when the character sacrifices something to achieve the goal. Lowers strength when the character severely neglects the goal in favor of something else. If completed, made impossible, or reduced to 0, the character must choose another ambition.
 * ________ Is A Virtue: A character trait that the character considers a strength. Starts at strength 3. Raises strength when the character acts according to the trait. Lowers strength when the character acts against the trait. If reduced to 0, the character must choose another virtue.

Skills and Defenses
If no analogue to the following skills and defenses exists in your system, add them.

Skills: Credibility, Motivation, Read Expression

Defenses: Certainty, Dispassion, Poker Face

Penalties
A character acting against a belief suffers certain penalties based on the strength of the belief. Should it matter for the system, the effects of beliefs are morale effects. Will costs apply only once per scene per belief, and only the most severe penalty impacting a single action applies.
 * 1) Mild penalty to any actions opposing the belief.
 * 2) Mild penalty to all actions for the rest of the scene.
 * 3) Moderate penalty to actions opposing the belief.
 * 4) Moderate penalty to all actions for the rest of the scene.
 * 5) Major penalty to actions opposing the belief.
 * 6) Major penalty to all actions for the rest of the scene.
 * 7) Automatically gain a strength 1 delusion.
 * 8) Automatically gain a strength 3 delusion.
 * 9) Automatically gain a strength 5 delusion.
 * 10) Actions opposing belief automatically fail.

Benefits
A character acting according to a belief gains benefits based on the strength of the belief: These benefits apply only to the action that qualifies for them.
 * 1) Character can take minor damage to gain a mild bonus to an action.
 * 2) Ignore penalties from strength 1 beliefs.
 * 3) Character can adjust strength of a belief by 1 for the rest of the scene.
 * 4) Ignore penalties from strength 5 or lower beliefs.
 * 5) Character regains a point of Will.
 * 6) Character can take moderate damage to gain a moderate bonus to an action.
 * 7) Ignore penalties from strength 8 or lower beliefs.
 * 8) Character can take severe damage to gain a major bonus to an action.
 * 9) Ignore penalties from all beliefs.
 * 10) Character can become dropped to automatically succeed at an action.

Will
Characters may spend Will to gain any of the following benefits:
 * Ignore penalties from one belief for the scene.
 * Gain a belief's benefits for one action, as long as the character is not acting against it.
 * Any other mental or supernatural benefits that the system grants for Will expenditure.