11-02-2009, 01:00 PM | #1 |
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Oklahoma City
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[Rules] Influence as Combat
I don't recall where, but I remember hearing a mention of D&D 4e's new take on "influence" mechanics as being more like "combat"—attack, defense, etc. I'm not sure they really achieved this, but it has always intrigued me. Influence, in RPGs, is probably second only to combat in its "importance" to the game, and deserves a little more attention than it typically gets in an RPG (GURPS being no exception here, IMO). I've been mulling over fleshing out the concept, for use with GURPS, and I thought I'd get the Community's opinions:
For these purposes, I will hereafter refer to the character who is attempting to influence the other as the "Attacker," and the one to be influenced as the "Defender."
Thoughts?
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The Art of D. Raymond Lunceford, The Daniverse: Core Group Annex The Daniverse Game Blog Last edited by Gigermann; 11-02-2009 at 01:40 PM. |
11-02-2009, 01:06 PM | #2 |
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Vermont
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Re: [Rules] Influence Duelling
This opens the way for some of the advantages that improve reactions (appearance, charisma, reputation, etc...) can be altered to improve influence "Damage" instead of skill.
As it is, it's pretty easy to pile on appearance, charisma, status, etc... and pile up pretty high social skills. It might be nice to spread the effect a little bit, so that a Smooth Operator may have to convince someone for several rounds, despite their high likelyhood of success, but someone with a high appearance and low skill may fail utterly, or may get the desired result in a round with a mere batted eyelash or some tasteful cleavage.
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11-02-2009, 01:43 PM | #3 | |
Join Date: Jan 2008
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Re: [Rules] Influence Duelling
Quote:
Now, until GURPS Diplomacy, GURPS Social Manipulation, etc, or a relevant Pyramid article comes along (if one was in the second Pyramid incarnation, if anyone knows what week, please say, I can dig through the archives and have a read of it), if I wanted more detail to the reaction/influence system, I'd probably let the initial reaction/influence roll stand as is with the addition of something along the lines that up to once per (time period [maybe with penalty for repeat performances]) a relevant influence skill can be used, success increases where the way the NPC feels about the PC, failure lowers (And possibly do this incrementally, so that it takes multiple successes/failures to change an opinion) I do quite agree with you that social interaction is as (if not more) important than combat [genre depending], I'm just not convinced there's a satisfactory way of doing it in as much detail rules wise, even if the focus of a game is on socialization. And I'm not sure I'd want to use a more detailed system than the sort of thing I've just outlined in most circumstances. Saying that, you could probably adapt the concept of psychic dueling in Supers to socialization dueling; I'd use Will for HP, derive DR from reaction roles (Neutral = 0, negative reaction roles correspond to positive DR in some way, positive reactions correspond to a negative DR [Or DR for the PC if you're reluctant to make the PCs make reaction roles exclusively for an abstract social combat system), interpret the results based on the Will the victor has remaining when the loser is dropped to 0 Will, and base it on the social skills being used. No clue how you'd derive damage roles, though, and the 'combat' results would be hideously open to interpretation (Only a bad thing because we're assigning 'detailed rules' to it, in my opinion), and only works when one side (or both) wants something from the other, rather than general modifying reactions over a long period. |
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11-02-2009, 02:16 PM | #4 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Seeheim-Jugenheim, Germany
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Re: [Rules] Influence Duelling
Good idea, I could use something like this in my games. While some situations are better just roleplayed, I like to base influence on the characters skills and advantages more than on the players skill.
The current rules tent to reduce that to just one quick contest. I like the have something that allows some more options and keeps the suspense a little longer. To avoid this to go on forever if the attacker is not successful, I think there also needs be a lower "Threshold" below no further influence is possible.
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