I am a GM running 3rd edition for a few months now and I am still not sure how to do social encounters. When I run a combat the action cards and mechanics work very well. When a social encounter occurs it makes the game stilted. The rules state the iniative is determined using fellowship and each player has an action the same as combat. But social encounters is where the roleplaying is done. When an NPC says something in narrative, do the players have to wait their turn to get their say and play a card to influnece that NPC?

Example - Playing A Day Late a Schilling Short, negoitiating with the noble in the carriage. All rolled for initiative. Players go first. High Elf plays an action card makes roll is successful. There is dialog from the High Elf that needs to be responded to by the Noble but its not his action yet. The Rogue goes next again with some dialog is succesful with the action. But the high elf wants to add something to the conversation but its not their action. Now its the Nobles turn, plays his action with some dialog rolls and is succesful too. In the meantime High Elf wants to talk again but still has to wait.

This is difficult to explain. I am used to just having my Npcs talking to players in character then rolling the dice dependant on the way they roleplayed the situation. With this the roleplaying just seems to have gone. I know it will help those players that do not like to "get into character".

How do others do it or have I got it wrong completely?

i do not use social encounters like that at all. i prabably do it wrong but i have a normal converstion as it would be in real life but in character.

and if a player wants to use an action card i just let them use it and it will help influance the npc as nesassary. just dont let them go over bord with the action cards use good jugement

When it comes to negotiation, I ask of the party (of the PCs present in the negotation): who is the leader. That PC will make all of the core influence roles, the other PCs will roll to modify the leaders roll through support. Also, in circumstances where it is multiple PCs vs a single NPC, there are quite a few misfortune applied as the NPC will be on the defensive seeing that he's ganged up on.

Another good thread on this: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_foros_discusion.asp?efid=166&efcid=3&efidt=475942

Progress tracker on what it takes to convince someone to do something:

The Guard: Willpower 3 = 3 rounds of successes needed before 3 failures.

I keep it nice and simple.

jh

Would love to hear if anyone did/made a social encounter for the dinner in Eye for and Eye.

I usually run it just like a normal conversation, but just have the dice determine the outcomes. Sometimes you might have to come up with something extremely clever to fit the situation, and you always want to stick with the direction of the plot. But actually utilizing social rules will demonstrate to the party how important the diplomatic and social skills are. But no, I wouldn't make people wait their turn to talk - unless it makes sense to do it that way. I can picture people jumping in, and I recall many conversations I've had in real life where I never got to say what I wanted, or get my point across. Furthermore, there have been many times I recall where the one in a conversation doing most of the talking was actually the one with the least relevant information to present to the discussion, or did so in a way that was obnoxious and relatively un-charismatic. So it might depend upon your own interpretation as well. But, no, if something doesn' t feel right after you've given it a genuine try more than once or twice, then yes it's part of your job to tailor it to suit your own (and your players' own) interpretations of what would be more realistic or fun or at least less nonsensical. I hope this helps.

Social encounters (as other encounters) can be played out in Story mode or Encounter mode.

I usually use Story mode for most social encounters - where timing of events isn't that important. In this way, I just use die rolls to handle any uncertainty. PCs and NPCs can certainly have back and forth conversations without die rolls, but a die roll should be called for if:

• the NPC is going to make a decision based on influence from the PCs
• the PC are going to be influenced (stress/fatigue/condition/etc.) by the NPCs
• NPCs are influencing other NPCs

...however...

I'll switch over to Encounter mode if

• two or more PCs are trying to do something at the same time
• an NPC is intending to act (and the order in which everyone goes impacts the outcome)
• timed events (or triggered events) might occur

In the case of Eye for an Eye - if one PC is making the case for the PCs and the burgher will make a single decision on whether or not to help (i.e. with one die roll) - then encounter mode isn't really necessary - it can be done in Story mode.

However - if you expect the beastmen to return in a few rounds - I would keep things in encounter mode and let the social interaction play out there.

The tendency as out table when I know the Players want something out of the conversation is to set up a balanced tracker:

<<o>>

If the PCs are well-dressed, bathed, present themselves well and/or have career keywords relevant to the NPC, I start them in the green. If the inverse of these factors is the case, I start them in the red. Otherwise, balanced.

I then conduct a natural conversation with the player(s). When a player makes a good point (or a natural break in the conversation), I have them make a Charm/Guile/relevant roll*. An effect that influences, will also move the tracker. If the player says something that will infuriate/aggravate/etc. the NPC, the tracker will move back (whether it's because they called him a ninny or accidentally insulted his favorite colour).

If the PCs want information, each rightward movement is good for a tidbit of relevant information. If it's to win the NPC to their way of thinking, they need to get to the end of the track. Really, it's case by case what the depth into Green/Red amounts to, but a full Green will generally be the PCs getting their way and a full Red will receive a dismissal forcing the PCs to look elsewhere for information. (My players, a bunch of serial killers, will usually rack up a kill when they're dismissed

All of this is done in story mode... unless some outside influence makes time an issue (i.e. chatting in combat, chatting while other players are in combat elsewhere, a massive vortex is about to create a rift into the realm of Chaos).

*I try to include non-social skill checks as much as possible to break the monotony and give other players room to participate. For example, an Athletics test when the PC is bragging about how strong he is and that he should be getting more pay; a First Aid check when pleading for help for an injured comrade (his WHAT is bleeding!?); a Skullduggery check when conversing with an NPC with the Rogue keyword (yeah, you know I've got something up my sleeve~).

I run them in story mode, if I have a made a scene in which I wish to partake in such as convincing a bloke to get out of the way. I let them speak and say there bit, then they roll their fellowship vs willpower and if their argument is convincing (or not) I add fortune or misfortune. Sometimes the NPC will require two checks against them (especially if the pc has not made a convincing argument). In regards to social actions and cards, when a PC can word in a card to the social action (by playing it out) they get to max out their available conservative or reckless dice, it's a nice little house rule we made up that encourages clever use of social actions but they have to play that action out first.

If it involves the group, I would make them roll for iniative. However, I'd have a progress tracker close to hand.

Select one guy, who is the speaker. He makes the eventual roll for influencing, asking for stuff, etc.

Everyone else can make rolls to help him out. Based on how they did, the speaker gains bonuses, fortune dice or expertise dice, depnding on how well they scored.

So far I run social encounters like with other rpgs: The players talk and gain boni from the way they talk/ roleplay/ etc.

Action cards are little pushes to get a further bonus for the situation.

So far we did not play out social encounters combat-like. But the ideas in this thread get me excited to try out such a thing in the future.

Thanks for all your ideas. I have been running it lately with just conversation and rolling when required. Using action cards as needed. This means though that the naturally communicative players take over, but at least the quiter ones can join in with action cards etc.

Just thought I'd jump in to say I was only vaguely interesting in this discussion, because the answer seemed obvious to me, but people here have had some very good insight into how to use the mechanics in a social encounter - gives me some new angles to approach things from. (and when you've been GMing as long as I have new ideas are very welcome .... probably also why I like the boxed set WFRP so much - it's different from anything else I've run)