Challenging Social Encounters

[KainG]

Hi all,

I'm looking for some ideas and advice on building challenging social encounters for my players. My group is close to finishing their first adventure, which had a fair amount of combat, so I'd like to shift things for the more social-oriented PCs.

The next adventure I have planned is set in a large metropolis, with a wide range of races, and history that over a thousand years. There's a large number of noble families, both established and up-and-coming newbies, that each have a finger in the politics of the city. There's a thriving adventuring community, with a nearby underground ruined city. The city is very much an expy of Waterdeep for reference.

The adventure will involved an outlaw evil church that is hidden in the sewers of the metropolis. The PCs foiled their plans in the previous adventure, so the church is itching to pay them back as well as salvage their plans. Some members of the nobility are secretly worshipers of that evil church. There is also some involvement with an obscure ancient tome of knowledge hidden somewhere in the city relevant to the church's plans. The PCs are largely unaware of the plot, but I have hooks for them to get involved.

Some ideas I had include some sort of party/ball where the PCs rub elbows with some important people, investigation and interrogation to sniff out the hidden church, possibly dealing with the local law if they run afoul of them (they're adventurers, so that's pretty likely, heh).

What I'd like is to present a series of social encounters beyond simply rolling Diplomacy checks (although including skill checks is fine). I want some challenges where they have to think and make judgment calls. Doesn't have to be relevant to the main plot either. Side missions like helping two families avoid a vendetta, or negotiate an important business deal to curry favor.

I foresee these encounter to yield less XP than the combat ones, but to occur more frequently, and perhaps yield a large story XP reward. The PCs have an average level of 5 closing on 6. We're using Pathfinder, but I don't think the system matters much. What I'd like to get are ideas and advice on how to build them.

Thanks!

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Since social encounters really work best with good roleplaying, it is hard to predict where they might go, making them difficult to "build."

The way I've done it is to figure out the initial setup, determine the NPCs and their individual motivations, then work out a few reactions to situations you might expect from interaction with the PCs. If they side with person A, person B reacts this way. If they try to mediate between them, person A does this, person B does that. Once you have some ideas, figure that once the PCs actually get involved, it will probably go a direction you never saw coming and be prepared to wing it based upon the motivations you came up with for the NPCs.

Don't have time right now for specific ideas. I'll see if I can get some together later.

 

[ExploderWizard]

The problem with social encounters being "built" is that it becomes hard to run them without the encounters feeling forced.

You have a good start with some objectives that the party can reach through less violent means. Find a way to make the players aware of these objectives. A secret communication from an unknown ally might arrive alerting the party to the presence of noble/ upper class supporters of the evil church.

After that, just detail all the important people,decide who can provide what in the form of clues and leads, and set up opportunities for interaction. Roll skill checks as needed but let the players make thier plans and execute them.

When the players come up with a workable plan and it succeeds, be sure the reward is blatant and substantial. If the rewards for non-violent interaction pale in comparison to those from combat it will be harder to run these types of encounters.

 

[steenan]

One thing that makes situations challenging and interesting is tactics. That is why "just rolling diplomacy" is unsatisfying, even if accompanied by roleplaying.

Of course, "tactics" in social challenge is much different than in a combat one. And D&D does not, by itself, have any tools for implementing it. Fortunately, they may be easily added by a GM.

My suggestion is:
- Give each important NPC a list of goals, motivations, values (peoples, places, ideas etc. they think are important) and taboos (things they fear, perceive as morally abhorrent or stupid - things they won't do/interact with). 2-3 of each should be enough.
- Keep a list of similar traits to randomly select for NPCs that you didn't see as important, but players chose to speak with.
- Make these traits matter in social interactions. Have NPCs actively pursue their goals, seek support, while avoiding painful or dangerous topics. Don't hide their traits; let at least some of them be strongly visible in how the NPCs act, and let appropriate tests discover the rest.
- Give big bonuses to rolls for making use of interlocutor's traits and big penalties for going against them. Make learning them and using them the heart of the conflict. Getting some help in a risky business from a noble with a motivation of "keep my own ass safe" won't be easy - unless you play on his "become the king's advisor" and "take revenge on my rival" goals.
- You may play the whole thing without rolls at all. Keep the DCs and player skills in your notes, assume everybody takes 10 and use the modifiers described above based on how they roleplay. This will keep it fair to players who invested in social skills, without breaking the flow of conversation.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Every significant encounter needs conflict. Something to overcome. Something to beat. Something that might beat you.

So what might the PC's need to beat, here? What threatens them? What consequences do they face for not rising to the challenge that is presented here?

Maybe they can find out one of the nobles linked to the cult if they succeed in this encounter.

Maybe if they fail, the cultist learns about a way to ambush them later...

Minor things like spats and currying favor are nice, but if you want it to have the impact of a combat encounter, you need to put something as big as "your lives" at stake. Perhaps some of the more social PC's have goals they hope to accomplish that you can challenge them to accomplish here?

 

[KainG]

Thanks everyone for the tips and advice!

The way I've done it is to figure out the initial setup, determine the NPCs and their individual motivations, then work out a few reactions to situations you might expect from interaction with the PCs. If they side with person A, person B reacts this way. If they try to mediate between them, person A does this, person B does that. Once you have some ideas, figure that once the PCs actually get involved, it will probably go a direction you never saw coming and be prepared to wing it based upon the motivations you came up with for the NPCs.

Heh, yeah, the players never cease to surprise me with their decisions. Having the goals and motivations of the NPCs planned out should provide enough ideas on the fly on how to run them.

When the players come up with a workable plan and it succeeds, be sure the reward is blatant and substantial. If the rewards for non-violent interaction pale in comparison to those from combat it will be harder to run these types of encounters.

That's a good point. I definitely don't want the players to feel like their wasting their time with social encounters if combat is more rewarding. I'm thinking in addition to XP and physical treasure, rewards can come in the form of favours, some form of other aid, information. Need to be up front about them, and make sure the players are aware of them, too, so that they feel like they *were* rewarded.

- Give each important NPC a list of goals, motivations, values (peoples, places, ideas etc. they think are important) and taboos (things they fear, perceive as morally abhorrent or stupid - things they won't do/interact with). 2-3 of each should be enough.
- Keep a list of similar traits to randomly select for NPCs that you didn't see as important, but players chose to speak with.
- Make these traits matter in social interactions. Have NPCs actively pursue their goals, seek support, while avoiding painful or dangerous topics. Don't hide their traits; let at least some of them be strongly visible in how the NPCs act, and let appropriate tests discover the rest.
- Give big bonuses to rolls for making use of interlocutor's traits and big penalties for going against them. Make learning them and using them the heart of the conflict. Getting some help in a risky business from a noble with a motivation of "keep my own ass safe" won't be easy - unless you play on his "become the king's advisor" and "take revenge on my rival" goals.
- You may play the whole thing without rolls at all. Keep the DCs and player skills in your notes, assume everybody takes 10 and use the modifiers described above based on how they roleplay. This will keep it fair to players who invested in social skills, without breaking the flow of conversation.

It seems like the overall tip is to prep the NPCs with a solid amount of background and personality. It's a bit more work, but I know from past experiences, that these types of NPCs did feel more alive when I ran them. I hadn't thought of NPC taboos before. That's a good idea that I'm gonna try to implement. Having social pitfalls would make things more challenging for the PCs.

I've now a good idea what I need to prepare for the next adventure. Thanks for the advice everyone! If anyone else has any ideas, please feel free to add them!