JesseLowe/RelationshipRules

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(These rules draw heavily on the Scarlet Manual of Upright Bearing, but try to be a bit simpler...)

Hey, some more rule to consider: SocialResolutionSystem

This is very much a work in progress. Any comments are welcome.

All relationships are measured on a five-point scale, either Enmity or Loyalty.

	Dots	Example
Loyalty	OOOOO	True believer
	OOOO	Fanatic follower
	OOO	Best friend, spouse
	OO	Good friend
	O	Shallow friend
Neutral	-	0
	O	Antagonistic	
	OO	Hostile
	OOO	True enemy
	OOOO	Worst enemy
Enmity	OOOOO	Implacable foe

Relationship ratings are one-way, although people usually have relationships with each other; the relative strengths vary depending on the people involved.

• Loyalty: The difficulty number for others to subvert, and a reduction to the difficulty of requests you make
• Enmity: The difficulty number for any requests you make.

Requests are favors. Each request has a favor rating, which is the basic difficulty number of the request. Add Enmity to the favor rating for the final difficulty.

Attributes

Charisma

Basic likeability. The default trait. Only applies in actual interaction.

Manipulation

Calculated likeability plus an understanding of psychology. Character must choose to use it. Always used for deception; more useful than Charisma for converting someone to a cause (as opposed to making them like you, personally).

Appearance

Good looks, or lack thereof. Basis of the Reaction Roll.

Abilities

Bureaucracy

Dealing with organizations where positions, rules, and forms are more important than people. Also mercantile interaction. (Emphasis seems to be on organization.)

Performance

Performing arts, theatres, large-scale leadership (leading groups where the character can't relate personally to everyone involved). Governing the mob. Gauge the mood of a mob or audience.

Acts as a modifier. A successful Performance roll grants extra dice for the rest of the scene, perhaps longer. A failed one raises the difficulty.

Presence

Leadership and intimidation and persuasion on a personal basis. (Seduction, Persuasion, Intimidation, Leadership)

Socialize

Perceive social modifiers (including relationship rating!), gauging social groups, politics, maneuvering in social situations, rumor-mongering...

Tasks

Converting People

Specifically, converting folks to a particular way of thought, whether that's loyalty to the character, adherence to a religion, or hatred of the character's enemies.

Before making a roll (or a series of rolls) to convert someone, the character needs to make a few decisions:

1. What am I converting them to?
2. Am I going to appeal to these people (this person) en masse<i>, or a few at a time? This determines whether the person will use Performance or Presence, respectively.
3. What's my angle? What actual argument am I using to change their minds? (It can be as weak as "I'm glowy! Worship me!" to as strong and complex as a treatise on the corruption of the Immaculate Order.)
4. How am I going to stunt this? ('Cause you always want the extra dice.)

Meanwhile, the Storyteller needs to work out the following:

1. What's the audience relationship rating to the cause to which the character is converting them? This sets the base difficulty of the roll. (It also assumes that the audience is not already converted.)
2. Is the character's basic argument -- and cause, for that matter -- particularly attractive or repellent to the audience? If so, add or subtract one difficulty. If it's amazingly attractive or repellent (getting a devout Immaculate to worship a Deathlord, for example), add or subtract 2 to the difficulty.

• • This also applies to the type of the argument. Different characters are going to be susceptible to different kinds of argument. The mob, for example, will rarely be swayed by a rational argument, but is vulnerable to an emotional argument. Raise or lower difficulty if the argument is especially appropriate or inappropriate.

1. Does the audience think the character's done something recently that reinforces or weakens his argument? (A Solar who has just destroyed a legion's Dragon-Blooded officers is probably going to have a better chance of swaying the legion to his service if he uses the "Join me and taste victory; refuse me and die!" argument than if he uses the "No, really, I'm a nice guy" argument.) This also applies to a character's reputation. Add / subtract difficulty as appropriate, usually no more than +/- 1 or 2.
2. Tot up the difficulty: If it's less than 1, set it to 1 and grant the character bonus dice on the roll equal to 2x the negative difficulty. <i>(For example, if the character was preaching to a sympathetic audience (-1 difficulty) with a really good argument (-2 difficulty) for total difficulty of -3, he'd get 6 extra dice and make the roll at difficulty 1.)

Having done all this, the player describes the action; the Storyteller gives him the difficulty number (and any extra dice); they determine the length of time per roll; and the player rolls.

{Still need to figure out how results are determined. I know that I want one-on-one actions to be more effective than mass preaching for reliable, long-term conversions. I also need to figure out what, usually, is required to raise or lower Relationship Ratings.)

Start a Rumor

Dice pool depends on method. Generally, for starting a "I heard it from a friend..." rumor in a bar, it's Manipulation + Socialize at difficulty one. Every success means that the person told will spread the rumor for one day. Figure that a person spreads it to about half the people they talk to in a day.

Random Notes

Reaction Roll

When a first meeting occurs, both parties roll Appearance + Social ability (usually Presence). The results indicate their attitudes toward each other:

Botch

Difficulty of all of the botcher's social actions with the other party rises for the rest of the scene.

0 successes

no modifier

1+ successes

Gain +1 die per success as a pool that can be spent throughout the scene (like the Tactical Instincts Merit).

Make a Reaction Roll whenever people meet for the first time, even if it's not really for the first time (one person is in disguise, is a Sidereal under a Resplendent Destiny, etc.)