Hi,

We usually spend most of our sessions in story mode making skill checks. We never run anything else but combat in encounter mode basically because encounter mode tends to slow the pace unnecessarily.

In our last session we had a situation where intimidation of NPCs was run in story mode but when things got a little too hot and weapons were drawn we converted into encounter mode and threw initiatives. Our wardancer woodelf acted first and perfomed a stunt to have her blade on a NPC leaders throat. We interrupted encounter mode and reverted back to story mode in which new intimidation check was done with huge bonuses.

This happens a lot and game mechanics have difficulties to support this. For example, card recharges and power equilibrium are managed very loosely because time dimensions shift a lot. Not a problem as such but some action cards become questionable as they rely on more managed style of gameplay. It is almost obvious the game designers support a certain style of play but it is not said explicitly what.

I hated the adventurers toolkit action cards as they are so tediously complex: have this card recharging while activating that card and so and so. You can see the conflict with our style of gameplay. No one even bothers taking these cards and they comprise of majority in that expansions unfortunately.

What are your experiences, have you found any game mechanics to support your style of gameplay?

stanmons said:

I definitely agree with you that the the game mechanics have difficulties to support social interactions. The combat mechanics work well, but the social encounter mode doesn't. The reason may be that the developers have introduced some 'advanced' social Action Cards, but the 'basic' social Action Cards are missing so most players have to use skill checks instead.

We have introduced a modified version of A Song of Ice and Fire RPG ' social encounter rules (there is a thread on this), which works fine for us because we played that system before.

Hopefully, the GM toolkit or a later supplement will clarify this!!

Really the problem isn't with social encounters, its with our frame of reference. Having a conversation, or an argument is something almost everyone is familiar with, we know how it works. 16th century style combat against mutants, magical beings, and other fantastic creatures using martial weapons and magical might, while invoking the blessings of gods, however, is something we are not over familiar with.

The Combat encounter system makes just a little sense as the social enconter system does, but as gamers, we've adjusted to it because it works. Socializing however, is something that gamers do around their table all the time, even without the game, so when it comes time to have COMBAT we roll initiative and pick actions, track wounds, because thats an efficient manner in which to do. When it comes time to have SOCIAL INTERACTION normally we don't think about rolling initiative, or picking action cards or tracking some kind of progress of those actions, we just start talking, because we do it all time. The designers wrote the rules so that the game runs both combat and social situations under the same rules.

In my game, your intimidation scene, as it suppose tension and difficulty would have been in ENCOUNTER MODE, starting with an Initiative roll under FELLOWSHIP. STORY MODE occurs when there are no major scene or tension, like a travel or a peaceful scene in a tavern, in town, in a shop.

Using a skill is a maneuver. A character may perform 1 maneuver per turn, or more by spending fatigue (physical action) or stress (indeed mental action like your social skills).

If a character has got some special power called "action card", he may use it as in physical combat. If not, that's a GREAT advantage for people who spend advancement in social "powers".

And I love that game because of that too.

I would have left the whole thing in story mode or the whole thing in encounter mode once the blades came out. Drawing your sword and putting it on his throat could have just been just an action in story mode, no fights broke out. Either mode works for what your doing switching between rapidly is the break down and is unnecessary.

willmanx said:

I am, actually a big fan of this too, so many times I've seen players who seem type-cast when it comes to what kind of characters they play, always the beefy meat-shield, or the rogue-ish type, or the "Face" of the party. Some of this is personal preference, but some of it is because some players are just better at being vocal or witty, or know what to say and when, people who don't have these gifts, tend to ignore that part of the game, because when it comes time to try to convince the duke to sponsor your excursion to smite the world ending evil, Jimmy, who is playing the Rieklander Watchman doesn't know what to say, not that the watchman doesn't know, but Jimmy doesn't.

With an encouter style social system built in Jimmy doesn't NEED to know what to say, now he can just pick an appropriate action or skill, and make a roll, as the GM I (or other players) can now fill in the context of the exchange based on the result, and Jimmy doesn't have to feel left out of the social part of the game just because he can't think on his as well as his fellow gamers.

Having Encouter mode for social settings is a great tool, does it need to be used for every situation, no of course not, in fact if no one in your group seems to need/like it, don't use it. But as I mentioned before, encounter mode make just as much sense for social settings as it does for combat, encounter mode is only a tool for allowing the game to function and represent a situation that flows in real time.