Social Engineering

[Pagan]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

I think the other obvious thing for a GURPS Social Engineering book, if it hasn't been mentioned upthread, is just how to make an adventure centered on social interaction- much as Mysteries does for mystery adventures.

How many NPCs should you have?
How many factions with competing goals?
How many subplots is enough or too many?
How do you include dramatic tension without resorting to the threat of violence?
What dramatic niches should NPCs have, and how much information can each give the party?

Basically stuff you might find in a novel-writing textbook, but focussed on GMing.

This seems less to do with Social Engineering than it does with adventure construction. Your questions don't really have too much to do with how pcs and npcs utilize influence skills/contacts/patrons, etc to gain information or influence people and/or events.