Here are some ideas about using social checks in games. (spinning this off from the Progessive Coercion thread)

With most checks in this game, you can take two approaches:

High Level

Make one check for the entire interaction. Describe or narrate what happens in a general way, covering hours, days or even longer.

"You spend several days trolling the cantinas of Nar Shadaa looking for information on the Hutt who double-crossed you. Eventually you find a drunken Aqualish who tells you he used to work for the Hutt and can lead you to his hideout in exchange for a few credits."

Downsides: It's less interesting in terms of roleplaying, and could mean less colorful interactions because you don't get as much player interaction specifically.

Upsides: It's quick. One check can determine whether you find the clues you're looking for right away and you can move on with the game if there's a more-important thing you want to spend your session on.

Low Level

Make a check for every interaction the player makes, roleplaying or narrating the results in specific detail. In this case, each check takes a certain amount of time, which is the resource the player's expending in exchange for making multiple checks.

The checks could grow successively more difficult (or with more setbacks added) as more checks are made, or the time spent could be the main factor in why they don't just keep making checks.

"You start in the Rusty Kloohorn cantina. There's a group of Klatooinians celebrating a gambling victory, a sullen Aqualish drinking alone in the corner, and a variety of boisterous nobles slumming it at the bar and laughing about the limitations of the cantina's liquor choices. What would you like to do?"

Then the player(s) could literally talk to each of these groups and make separate social checks for each one. You can roleplay out exactly what they say to the gang of Klatooinians, how they try to make friends with the Aqualish or how they try to impress the group of nobles.

The party could split up and each player could tackle one of those groups or they could move from group to group.

Downsides: Takes time. If the characters don't find what they need soon, this kind of investigation could take up the whole session, with players coming up with lots of ideas for how to talk to people or where to look for their objective. If your players don't relish roleplaying entire conversations, this could be a drag.

Upsides: Lots of fun, colorful interactions with NPCs and the environment, and your players will feel like they've got a lot of input into exactly who their characters talk to and what they say.

Which of these you use, or some combination of the two, is up to you as GM for any given objective, but keep these options in mind!

I keep trying to figure out a good way to bring the FATE social stress system over to this game.

Stain Threshold does seem to apply, but I hesitate to utilize just that when several of the participants likely will not have the talents to inflict social stress. I know they have some really broad ideas in the Colonist guide, but that seems to be more like what you have written than a codified system.

Hmm... maybe if I use the Chase system instead as a basis.

If you're talking about a "Social Combat"-style encounter, the PCs don't need specific talents. You just use their social skill check as an "attack" roll.

You can either keep it really simple and use the number of successes as the damage done, or you can apply a 'base damage' like with a weapon and give them a 'soak' based on their Presence or something. It doesn't have to be super-complicated.

I'm not thinking complicated. In fact, my ideas have been trying to use the existing systems to keep it simple. Doing it in the social combat way would require a bit more complexity than I think would be good for the encounter.

I keep thinking that races and chases would be a more appropriate system. I need my books to look over a few things about races, but ...

...select the two primary people involved, one per side. That person makes the appropriate social rolls each round until a threshold is attained. Treat them like a chase and monitor the "social distance" between the two groups. Characters can do actions that cause strain or other things just like in a chase.

I am afb at the moment and this still needs a lot of skull-sweat to do right.

That sounds like a great idea to me! Very elegant.

That sounds like a great idea to me! Very elegant.

Thank you, I hope it will be. I think I may be on a good track, but there are still bugs to work out.

I like to create sub-systems that mirror pre-existing systems from the creators. It usually helps keep the correct feel for the system. While I love the idea of FATE's social combat, I don't think it would be a good fit for the FFG star wars RPG.

In our case we had one main instance where the PCs fought a big bad who was possessed, and they used Social Combat to apply strain damage to her by making Coercion, Charm, and other social checks. The big bad in turn was attacking them physically, throwing the PCs back with the Force and engaging in conversation with them as well.

When they got her above her strain threshold, this represented her real personality winning out over the possessing spirit and she was freed, the PCs had won.

I wanted to model it somewhat on the battle of wills of Luke vs Vader/Palpatine in ROTJ. It worked out well.

In our case we had one main instance where the PCs fought a big bad who was possessed, and they used Social Combat to apply strain damage to her by making Coercion, Charm, and other social checks. The big bad in turn was attacking them physically, throwing the PCs back with the Force and engaging in conversation with them as well.

When they got her above her strain threshold, this represented her real personality winning out over the possessing spirit and she was freed, the PCs had won.

I wanted to model it somewhat on the battle of wills of Luke vs Vader/Palpatine in ROTJ. It worked out well.

That makes a lot of sense in a mixed fight such as you had. Nice and cinematic.