Hello,

I have gone back and skimmed the designer's diaries and still could not find the answer to my question, so I am going to post it here.

Before I buy the 3rd Edition, I need to know how Social conflict is handled. Is it like the last edition (and most other mainstream games) were one roll takes care of the mechanics or is it a back and forth thing like combat?

That was one of the things that really bothered me about WFRP 2nd Ed (and currently Dark Heresy) is that you have detail back and fourth with combat (somewhat), but for everything else, there is one roll. Take for example if you have to get information out of a hostage or if you are trying to convince towns folk to rally against the upcoming goblin hoard that is about to attack the village. Those things seem like they can be a scene into itself and deserve more than a "roll the dice and if you succeed they are convinced," you know?

That was one of the things that let me give D&D 4th Ed a chance, was the skill challenges.

I know combat is important in Warhammer, but so is intrigue and social combat (unless I have been reading the wrong novels).

So, before spend almost $100 on this game, I would like to know more about that part of the game (or be directed to whatever I missed on the designer's diary that answers that).

Thanks!

The 3rd Ed rules encourage the use of progress trackers to pace social challanges and investigations, with a little creativity from the GM you can stage encounters that rely entirely on good roleplay and ingenuity. IMHO the designers balanced the social and combat elements of the game very well.

WFRP gives equal, if not greater, spotlight to social and non-combat interactions compared to combat-oriented ones.

Though most social interactions could be handled through regular roleplaying, When you get to something that's a conflict, especially challenging, or time-restricted, the game is built to move into encounter mode, which has mechanical parity with combat. You roll initiative (based on wits and charm) and the characters and NPCs proceed to perform actions to successfully convince, indimidate, charm, or anything they can dream up.

The status tracker takes the place of wounds or damage, so can be a mechanically-tracked race or tug-of-war depending on what fits for the scenario.

This edition of WFRP probably has the single most robust non-combat challenge system I've seen in an RPG. For all but the most serious thespian-minded groups, it's really fun.

I asked the same question in another thread, and got a great response from a few folks who ran the store promos. www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp

Scroll down about halfway.

OHHHH! Thanks for pointing out that link, Hedgewizard! That does give me more detail and does at least give me comfort that this will have rpg tools that I like to play with.

morskittar, having read these small press games (like Burning Wheel, Spirit of the Century and Dogs in the Vineyard), it makes me happy that these main stream games are finally applying a lot of the roleplaying rules (or ideas into their own rules). The ability to roleplay a character is an uneven way to gauge how a die roll or reward system should be because of player's real like social skills vary from one to the other. To have a system that judges you off the choices that the "Character" makes is a better way to do that.

This progress tracker sounds similar to the Skill Challanges of D&D, espeically were you can script a whole encounter or scene around it. D&D's skill challanges is not my first choice in this, but I really like how that rule can be easily transefered to other games..... like Dark Heresy

Thanks for the info you guys!

Would it be possible to further extend the similarity between combat and social situations to a public slanging match where 'wounds taken' is actually damage to ones reputation and a critical wound is something particularly nasty coming out about the character/npc?

Would this be possible or would it require too much rule alteration and home brew workings to really have any effect?

Thanks

Explorer said:

When you set up a tracker to manage the social interaction, you're effectively awarding temporary social hit points.

It wouldn't take much to suppose that a defeat or boon/banes impose ongoing social penalties. Just as a crit result might be 1M whenever you try to manoeuvre, then a social penalty of 1M whenever you try to interact with the gold tier, or whenever you trade on your family's name, etc, would be simple.

But, if you're talking about setting up social interaction to mirror combat where characters get a defense (appearance, reputation), and a soak, (family, upbringing, etc) and specific social tactics get damage ratings and crit ratings, that might take a bit more effort.

monkeylite said:

Yeah, I think it was one of those 'sounded like a good idea at the time' ideas. But as much fun as actual social combat could be it would certainy require an extensive amount of work just to make it remotely playable let alone work in the system.