The Stupidity of Social Skills in Combat

I was on Twitter the other day, and someone wrote something akin to "I want a system that lets me use social skills in combat."

Sigh.

This is either a gamer power fantasy of using all your abilities freely, or a terrible delusion of roleplayers about how social skills, especially in combat, work.

Let's delve into this.

Delusion # 1 - Social Skills Are Magical

In reality, social skills do seem like magic. You simply pass wind over your vocal cords and someone does what you want them to do.

MAGIC!

In linguistics, we call this illocutionary force. But illocutionary force has many limits, such as context, relation of speaker and listener, etc. This is how UPenn defines it:

"Illocutionary force is the combination of

• the illocutionary point of an utterance, and

• the particular presuppositions and attitudes that must accompany that point, including the

  • strength of the illocutionary point

  • preparatory conditions

  • propositional content conditions 

  • mode of achievement

  • sincerity conditions, and

  • strength of sincerity conditions."

This means that social skills do not work the same for everyone. A prince might have no trouble bluffing his way past the palace guard, but a beggar would not be listened to, and might get the butt of a pike or even a night in irons for trying to do so. In real life, someone is likely to open a window if you ask them politely and the room is hot, but unlikely to do so if you call them an idiot or it will let in too much cold.

In the short term (i.e. game session), the GM has the right to decide if a PC's abilities are useful or relevant to any situation in which a player might want to use them. In the long term (i.e. over a scenario or campaign), the GM also has to know what social abilities PCs have, and suggest opportunities to use them for advantage. By doing so, he or she teaches players what are acceptable uses of social skills, and encourages them to play into this, to everyone's satisfaction.

Delusion # 2 - Talking In A Fight

I don't think lots of roleplayers have been in actual barfights, because if they had, they would know that fighting is the time to shut up and kill or be killed, not flap your gums. I've been in three, two in Canada, one in Japan. More importantly, I've used my own social skills to avoid fighting at least a half dozen times. I've also seen when social skills backfire and violence breaks out.

There are basically three times for using your social skills - before, during, and after the fight.

Before A Fight

If things are heading towards combat, you should have a chance to use social skills to avoid needless combat. Police and social workers call this de-escalation. Note that if your foes are hellbent on conflict, ie they are under orders, have a valid grievance, or have the advantage of numbers or firepower, then this should either be impossible or improbable (ie skill penalty or limited success, ie they ask you to surrender immediately). Also, people spoiling for a fight are generally already wary of one another, and so should not fall for Cons or Fast Talk (ie heavy penalty or flat out impossible). Instead, using Persuade with some sort of sincere promise or give and take should have a chance of success.

During A Fight

To be honest, once fists are flying, talk is usually out of the question. I got a bloody lip in a 2-on-1 situation in Canada for trying this. About the only option I can see is using a Taunt of some sort to have your opponent drop their guard in favour of a more aggressive attack. This means they will do more damage if they attack, but you get a better chance to hit them as well. Note that using Taunts should also preclude any mercy after the fight, as the opponent is fighting in (to them) righteous anger, and thus are unlikely to stop without some sort of Will roll or intervention of allies.

After A Fight

When the fight is done, there are basically only two situations - you've either won or lost.

If you've won, you can choose your demands, but the degree to which they are met will depend on your social rolls. Talk insincerely or roll poorly and expect revenge at some point; offer the losing side a way out or mutual agreement and roll well and you can expect at least peace, at most a new ally. You shouldn't have to roll for immediate conditions (ie drop your weapons, pick up your wounded and walk away if you want to live), but will need to roll if making longterm or unreasonable demands (ie never come to town again, go back and bring us your leader for arrest).

If you lose, you may ask for mercy or clemency, but again, only if sincere or reasonable. Trying to Con the victor into surrendering should be met with laughter, but asking for a horse to bring the wounded to a hospital or church should have a chance of success, and might not even require a roll.

I've had players complain to me that they 'want to be the hero,' and use their social skills willy nilly to manipulate NPCs. However, even heroes in life and fantasy  have setbacks, defeats, and captures. It is persevering DESPITE these setbacks that makes real heroes, and games I've been in where players' egos are fanned with continued, unopposed heroic successes burn bright for a session or two, but inevitably fizzle out due to a lack of stakes.

Delusion # 3 - Spamming Social Skills

This is not combat specific per se, but I see lots of players trying to spam social skills, in other words to pile on skill rolls. For example, I have seen one PC Persuade a guard to let them into a stronghold, then other players line up to Fast Talk or Con them into getting goodies.

Uh, no.

I advise any GMs to allow ONE social ability rule per interaction, and that the PC with the highest ability should get first crack, as I proposed in a previous post on alternate forms of initiative. In the real world, if you manage to get a discount on a car rental from an agent, but then your friends chime in asking for more perks, the agent is likely to feel used, rescind the offer, and tell you to take your business elsewhere.

Basically, NPCs should not be patsies or social punching bags for loot, but instead living and breathing inhabitants of their world, and only acquiesce to social requests to a certain point.

Genre-Specific Exceptions

Since we are playing games with genre tropes that often circumvent reality, I have to acknowledge that there is some leeway in certain types of games. In Superhero or Swashbuckling games, heroes and villians should be allowed to have dramatic speeches with social effect in certain circumstances.  I'll leave the details to GMs, but there are at least 2 considerations:

1) The social skill use must fit the situation, ie superhuman telling hordes of weak foes to surrender and live, and expecting them to agree.

2) Anyone giving such a speech, be they PC or NPC, must be free of interruption. No one shoots Batman when he is explaining that he is the night, or touches Robin Hood until he is done insulting King John. Genre specific social rules should be tit for tat, and not just an advantage for players at the expense of the villians, who should be actual threats, able to profit from the conventions of their game genre or world. 

Conclusion

Social Skills as I conceive of them can only be used in four contexts:

1 Out Of Combat - To elicit a situation-specific response if proper conditions are met.

2 Before Combat - To de-escalate conflict.

3 During Combat - To taunt your foe into reckless attacks, but with the understanding that they'll come at you harder and without mercy.

4 After Combat - To beg for mercy when you lose, or negotiate long term conditions acceptable to both parties.

Also, stop spamming social skills, as it deflates the tension from dealing with NPCs.

Threat Levels in Horror Gaming pt 2 - advancement

 I realized that in the last post I did not articulate a way to change threat levels. Here are some ideas for progressing from one threat level to the next:

Babes in the Woods

Lose 1/10 Sanity, finish 1 adventure, OR kill one Mythos creature.

Fighting Back

Lose 1/4 Sanity, finish 3 adventures, OR kill three types of Mythos creatures.

Hunted Becomes Hunters

One party member goes insane, the party finishes a major campaign, OR kill one servitor or major Mythos opponent.

Nuclear Option

The only way out is death, insanity, or retirement to NPC ally status.

Threat Levels in Horror Gaming

 Horror gaming in older systems such as Call of Cthulhu often does not work as intended because players don't follow the tenets of the genre. Whereas the first stop on many a PC's journey is the gun shop, arming up is usually a last resort for characters from cosmic horror, and is arguably futile.

In game terms, this mismatch often translates to a jarring gaming experience, such as a cakewalk against supposedly unstoppable odds, or a TPK from misuse of lethal weapons. I have had an entire campaign derailed by an attempt to rob dynamite from a construction site, and a PC commit suicide after being stopped for wielding firearms in broad daylight.

To keep the horror in horror while letting the PCs be heroes, I'll be using the following 4 levels of  threat escalation to determine what resources player characters should have access to.

Note that the key to using threat levels is to communicate them clearly to players and gain their agreement that the current level for individuals or the entire party matches their roleplaying motivation, backstory, or experience.

1 Babes in the Woods

The investigators don't know the horror is real yet, and are unprepared for it.Weapons are limited to improvised or any provided by occupation (ie a Policeman or woman would have a Luck roll to see if they are carrying their service revolver, nothing more). Opponents are usually human or near-human, such as cultists or disguised serpent men. Conversely, downed PCs may be captured or wake in hospital, and should rarely be killed.

2 Fighting Back

The investigators have caught a glimpse of the true nature of the universe, and the horrors within. PCs are limited to any legal armament that they have the time and finances to secure, but still have to conceal or secure these while in public or risk investigation by the authorities. They will still be unarmed in social or official venues. Opponents are bestial or monstrous, such as Byakhee or Mi Go. One PC may be killed, but fleeing should allow others to avoid a TPK.

3 The Hunted Become The Hunters

Investigators are now seasoned and somewhat paranoid, being the object of frequent attack, and never have less than one concealed weapon on them at all times. PCs have gained access to illegal armament, and are often in emergency situations where they can be wielded openly. Opponents can be aliens or servitors of the gods themselves, such as the Wendigo, or Cthuloids. If players aren't cautious, they should be warned that deaths of one or all party members are in the cards.

4 The Nuclear Option

Investigators can have any weapon, and may even call on airstrikes or torpedoes. However, considering that they are up against the Old Ones or Outer Gods themselves, this should be effectively useless, a time-biding measure to stave off armageddon. PCs are putting themselves in mortal peril, and the possibility of deaths or even TPKs should be acknowledged by all at the table.

Note that the Keeper can adjust the level of threat to match the campaign. Call of Cthulhu games typically can start as level 1 Babe In The Woods horror one shots, or else could be level 2 investigators. However, Esoterrorists characters are created with their first supernatural meeting behind them, so usually start out at level 2 or 3.

Thoughts on D&D and WotC-Hasbro

So, as you can tell, I am pretty much over D&D. When I started this blog in 2013, the OSR was well established and had gone from a reaction to the 3E glut and shocking 4E paradigm shift to a creative force in its own right. I was delighted to have access to retroclones like Swords & Wizardry, as well as all the crazy free blog materials and quality indie published materials (ASE, Death Frost Doom, and Barrowmaze come to mind). Bloggers were generally open minded and friendly. Roleplaying seemed to be entering a new golden age.

That said, I quickly moved away from ye olde game, hosted the first non-D&D blog challenge in 2014, and found my interest much higher for BRP / Chaosium games, especially the old Stormbringer game. In the early OSR days, blogs for Traveller, 007, and Villains and Vigilantes among others, were easily found, and just as accepted.

But gradually D&D overtook the blogosphere, and the OSR became a D&D echo chamber. Then WotC hired OSR names to recreate 5E along old D&D lines and co-opt the very movement that had opposed their corporate product development.

Along with this came incidents of sexism and homophobia that tarnished the open nature of the OSR. At the same time, the corporate marketing push to brand D&D as 'The Most Popular Roleplaying Game in the World' became insufferable and inescapable, and I joined a Facebook page called I'm Begging You To Play Another RPG, where I was both able to indulge my anti-corporate gaming snark with likeminded folk, while finding out about killer indie games like Lasers & Feelings, Bluebeard's Wife, and Thirsty Sword Lesbians. Add to that the success of scandinavian-produced games like Mork Borg and Aliens, and it seems like another golden age.

But D&D Inc. seems to be in a dark age. Although I feel no pity for the corporate overlords, I do feel lots for the old gamers who see 'their game' being warped beyond recognition, as well as the new players who have (literally) bought into the newest edition's focus on builds and character concepts linked to race + item + joke or pun, and are being asked to pony up for lower quality materials or a whole new edition. 

This year seems to be a crisis for WotC D&D considering its recent missteps. I have recently become active on Twitter, and based on some interactions I have had there, here are my thoughts on the D&D dark ages and the way ahead.

1. The Failure of Spelljammer

As I tweeted on the failure of 5E Spelljammer and WotC's apology, "How the hell can you fuck up Spelljammer?" Spelljammer and Planescape were the pinnacle of 2E gonzo settings, and both worked well, unlike Maztica or Al-Qadim, which arguably misfired. This is a huge corporate misstep and shows two things:

1) WotC does not understand D&D

2) Hasbro does not care about the legacy of D&D

Once again, these old games are available in PDF form and easily run with a retroclone. Failing to produce a quality product for the current edition is a serious shot to the corporate foot. 

2. The D&D One Announcement

On the heels of the Spelljammer debacle came the announcement of D&D One, a supposed new edition that would be backward compatible with ALL previous editions.

Once again, this is pure corporate horseshit, and people aren't buying it. I tweeted my thoughts on the matter, and got a massive response:

Hasbro needs to realize that their job isn't to develop D&D - they lack the love, the creative freedom, and the incentive to do that. instead, all they have to do is make D&D available in print, POD, or PDF, let 3rd person parties develop materials, and shut up. They do need to implement some form of quality control or repeat the 3E glut's excesses, but otherwise, shut up, steward materials, and let the money roll in.

3. The Race Problem

Now comes the WotC announcement that they won't refer to 'race' anymore, but use 'species' instead, which is stirring up some gamers. This again is corporate strategy - there is no such thing as bad press, as Barnum once said. 

Not using the term race is pure pinkwashing - corporate wokeness for profit. Branding WotC as 'sparkle trolls' misunderstands the corporate scamjob they are trying to foist on gamers - they care as little about this as most OSR gamers. 

However, living in a world as racist as this one (I'm native and now foreigner in Japan, so I know that of which I speak), I don't think saving the word race is a hill worth dying on. As I suggested on Twitter, why not use 'folk' instead? 'Species' is such a modern, scientific word, and totally takes away from the suspension of disbelief needed for fantasy roleplaying.

4. How to save D&D?

So, if you love D&D of whatever edition, you must be asking yourself this question. Here is my suggestion:

D&D is not roleplaying. You like getting a party together and dungeon crawling? There are TONS of other games that give just as good experiences, and are better suited to individual tastes. Google 'alternatives to D&D' and you get 

THIS

AND THIS

AND THIS

(I'd play Dungeon World or Heart / Spire myself. I played a game of Ironsworn a few years back and it literally mopped the floor with most D&D games I had played before).

As for Hasnro-WotC D&D next, I think Feist says it better than I ever could:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F2k1zwDymw

Alternate Types of Initiative for Old School Games

So, initiative.

In the older games, initiative is linked to Dexterity or some cognate. The faster you are, the sooner you react in physical combat. Nobody has any problems with this, and players patiently wait their turn when a fight starts.

But roleplaying is more than just combat. There are bargains to be made, information to be gleaned, drinking contests to be won, puzzles to be solved, and bars to be bent. For these, there exists no system for initiative, and players often pile on or cut in on other player's actions, often to frustrating results. In my experience, this is worse among young or newer players, who all want to be the grandstanding hero, and haven't yet developed the sense of roleplaying as a group activity, where each hero must shine at his own task for the entire party to succeed.

What if we used other attributes for alternate instances of initiative, especially those outside of mortal combat? Then we can delineate rules for the advantage this offers, as well as how to resolve these non-combat interactions in a way that favors party members playing their role.

Let's see where this idea takes us.

CHARISMA

Want to speak first, get a bargain at the shops, or parlay with the Queen? The highest CHA score has first choice to perform social interactions, and cannot be cut off by PCs of lower CHA.

CONSTITUTION

Intend to drink a monster under the table, or else taste poison for the King? The highest CON is first batter up.

STRENGTH

Do some iron bars need bending, or get challenged to arm wrestle some barbarians? The other characters will step back to let the highest STR do their thing.

WISDOM

Care for a game of chess, assemble the clues of a mystery, or choose the best road for the party? The highest WIS is the one all others naturally go to in any of these situations.

INTELLIGENCE

Need to speak with the sages, or else find a dusty tome in an abandoned library? With the highest INT, you are the only one that can be trusted with these tasks.

POWER

Is there some magic around, or some mind bending illusion? Only the highest POW could possibly understand what is going on.

RULES OF ALTERNATE INITIATIVES

1 The PC with the highest attribute can opt to go first, or may let others, but it is their choice alone.

2 Whatever result they get stands, and any other player attempting to overrule their result instead reduces the effectiveness by a level of the GM's deciding.

3 The GM alone decides if players can cooperate if circumstances permit, but not the players, unless their proposal makes excellent sense.

4 Players cannot spam a contest and kept rolling or retrying until they get a favorable result. Contests should thus only be held if there is both risk and reward, with the result resting on one die roll.

5 In the case of tied attributes, the most appropriate character background or interesting contest should be allowed, or else some player contest should decide who goes first if both want to.

ROLLING CONTESTS vs ROLE PLAYING INTERACTIONS

The final piece of the puzzle is how to resolve these situations. Basically, I identify two types of situations:

1 CONTESTS - If there is some risk and reward, then dice should be rolled if the player is willing to go for the glory.

2 INTERACTIONS - If there is no risk, just need to make an NPC connection, then role playing is suggested. If players insist on rolling to get an extra reward or result, warn them that they may also incur a drawback or risk losing their relationship.

Hereafter are sample Contests and Interactions for each attribute in older RPGs.

CHARISMA

Contest - Fasttalk or con the guards, at the risk of a sword to the guts or a night in the hoosegow.

Interaction - Prove to travelers that you mean them no harm, or show that you have the courtly manners required to attend the ball.

CONSTITUTION

Contest - Drinking contests, where failure means a day lost sick to your guts or pressganged onto the sweeps of a navy ship, but success can let you win renown, hear some vital information, or steal that key off their unconscious body.

Interaction - Stay up drinking with your host, or else shrug off the cold or heat to show that you are one of them and not some weak outlander.

STRENGTH

Contest - Bend those bars, or else they are too strong for anything but magic to move.

Interaction - Trying to impress the clan leader with your muscles so you will be chosen for a mission. 

WISDOM

Contest - A game of chess or trapped puzzles, with treasure at the end but death or damage also likely.

Interaction - Impress the druid with your knowledge of forest survival, or the king with your judgment in strategic matters.

INTELLIGENCE

Contest - Rushing to find the correct tome in a huge library, or recite the words of an ancient poem. Failure could mean a setback in the quest, or getting kicked out of the bookshelves.

Interaction - Discourse with the learned as an equal, be they wizard, sage, or noble.

POWER

Contest - Resisting a possessing spirit, or intuiting what kind of magic (demonic, sorcerous, alien, etc) is at play here.

Interaction - Conversing with the spirits or a medium as one who knows secrets and can be trusted.

NB: DEXTERITY can still be used for non-combat Contests (tightrope walking, etc) as well as Interactions (ie dancing well with a partner), the details of which I leave up to the reader.

Blogger Image problem

 Looks like Blogger is having problems processing images.

Specifically, images I have copied and pasted here become stretched out when seen on cellphone.

It has also happened to images uploaded to the platform.

Please tell me if you see anything like this.

I'll report and try to get this fixed, but dunno how much they support the old dog anymore...

Stormbringer Redux # 16 - Why Stormbringer 1E and the Stormbringer Redux Endgame

Hello all,

Looks like I'm 3/4th of the way through the Stormbringer redux project. Time to reflect on what has come before, and what has yet to be done.

(Damn that is a sweet pic...)

Q1: One of my players has asked why I am set on using Stormbringer 1E, why not use a newer edition of the game, or even something like Barbarians of Lemuria?

A: He has a point. I suppose a large part is due to nostalgia, as it was my first RPG purchase, and the first official Moorcock game. However, there are some deeper reasons:

1 Stormbringer 1E does lots of things right, like the attempt to link attributes and skills; the variable armor; elementals & Lords of Higher Worlds. It is a good base to build on.

2 It is rules light, and has a nice blend of mechanics with story effects. Another good thing to try and emulate or expand on.

3 It is atmospheric as heck, both in terms of art and writing.

4 It is manageable, being of a much smaller page count than later games.

5 All the above mean that it is easily hackable

Q2: What is left to be done?

A: I want to redo the Encumbrance and Wealth + Social Class rules from a clunky mechanistic system I previously proposed to ones that lean into the story effects. Maybe find a way to reduce stat blocks for monsters to help GMs GM faster and more efficiently. Also possibly roll up and post PCs and demons to test my rules when I'm bored or exhausted. Post up play reports if I can resuscitate the game in the new year. Offer an alternate system for rolling nationality that is more fun, and finally update my Houserules document with what has been tested and approved.

Q: Anything else?

A: Hawkmoon Redux?!??!?!?!

To put it politely, the old Hawkmoon RPG was underwhelming, especially coming on the heels of Stormbringer. But it made me wonder one thing:

What if there was a system for Moorcockean steampunk pseudoscience to match that of Magic?

What makes ornithropters and flame lances work? Do Granbretan animal armors have special powers? What runs the sky ships of the Vadhagh?

I have the inkling of an idea for an alchemical system using the following elements:

Silver

Gold

Gems

Radiating Material

Maybe throw in the Virtues rules and the need for economic exploitation of the environment. The mind boggles.

Other than that, maybe reread All Flesh Must Be Eaten and review if it really was a good game or not. Then turn to some newer games on my shelves (Swords of the Serpentine) and write a review or materials.