7
« on: July 20, 2017, 03:09:01 PM »
I put together an encounter type for Diplomacy in 3.5. Hopefully, it addresses some of the silliness present in the core system. I was hoping to get some feedback on how well it works out and how it might be improved. It might be something that can be expanded to include other skills, it might need to be taken back to the drawing board. Overall, I'd like to eliminate Diplomacy checks trivializing encounters single-handed by dint of having a ridiculously modifier or needing such a high modifier to function at all, but without resorting to handwaving, ad hoc numbers or doing "what just feels right."
With this variant, when a Diplomacy check DC gets too high, you get a social encounter instead of a skill check. In this encounter, you get "clout tokens," which are nebulous measurements of your social weight, to spend on various aspects of striking a deal, and to try to "buy" your Diplomacy results.
At its simplest level, you make a request, get some clout tokens, and your opponent sets the price of how much your request is worth to them. Then, the encounter ends, and if you still have enough tokens to buy the result, you get what you want.
It costs tokens to make a request, and to buy a result, so there's a balancing game in there. If you make a request with too few tokens, your opponent might spend their tokens to negate your request. If you make a request with too many tokens, you may not have enough left over to purchase the result.
Here's what I have on it:
Diplomacy+
Diplomacy functions as normal up to DC 19. At DC 20 and above, a character must vie to make a target open to negotiating. If their check succeeds, a social encounter begins. If their check fails, the target is not open to Diplomacy at that time.
A social encounter begins with a negotiator making an opening request. A request is defined as a course of action you will attempt to make an opponent perform. As long as a given request exists, no counteractive requests or requests that affect the same course of action can be made. Each participant in the encounter begins with a number of clout tokens equal to 5 + their Charisma modifier.
When you make an opening request, you bid a number of tokens on it, and the target bids a number of tokens on it. A character can bid up to as many tokens on a request as they have. Your bid is the number of tokens required to negate your request. Your target's bid is the number of tokens required to purchase your request. Then, the encounter commences. Once a social encounter begins, it lasts for a default of 5 rounds. At the end of the encounter, all of the possible results are tallied up, and you spend clout tokens from those you have remaining to purchase your results.
During each round, each participant can take up to 2 actions, which can be any of the following:
• Make a new request
• Set a condition
• Negate a request
• Increase a cost
• Attack someone's clout
• Influence an attitude
• Extend the encounter
• Shorten the encounter
Making a New Request
When you make a new request, you set a new possible result, set a bid for it, and see a bid returned on it. You also make an opposed Diplomacy check. Depending on how well you perform on the check, you can gain or lose up to 2 clout tokens.
Setting a Condition
When you set a condition, you modify an existing request an opponent set, so that it has an additional term attached to it. This also requires an opposed Diplomacy check, which can cause you to gain or lose up to 2 clout tokens.
When making a new request or setting a condition, succeeding on the opposed Diplomacy check by 15 or more causes you to gain 2 clout tokens, succeeding by 5 or more but less than 15 causes you to gain 1 clout token, failing by 5 or more but less than 15 causes you to 1 clout token, and losing by 15 or more causes you to lose 2 clout tokens.
Negating a Request
When you negate a request, you pay a number of clout tokens equal to the result's negation cost to remove it from the possible results of an encounter.
Increasing a Cost
When you increase the cost of a request, its cost to purchase increases by 1 token.
Attacking an Opponent's Clout
When you attack someone's clout, you make an opposed Diplomacy check. Succeeding on the opposed Diplomacy check by 10 or more causes your opponent to lose 2 clout tokens, succeeding by 0 or more but less than 10 causes them to lose 1 clout token. You cannot lose tokens for attacking an opponent's clout.
Influence an Opponent's Attitude
When you attempt to influence someone's attitude, you pay 1 clout token for each time you've attempted to influence their attitude during this encounter, and make an opposed Diplomacy check. If you succeed, their attitude toward you improve by 1 step until the end of the social encounter.
Extending the Encounter
When you extend the encounter, you pay 1 clout token and the encounter lasts for 1 additional round.
Shortening the Encounter
When you shorten the encounter, you pay 1 clout token and the encounter lasts for 1 fewer round. If the encounter is shortened to a number of rounds less than the current round, the encounter ends immediately.
Two additional factors affect the DC of making requests, setting conditions and improving attitudes: the target's Relations, and the Nature of the request.
Hostile relations with the target impose a -15 modifier, unfriendly a -5 modifier, indifferent no modifier, friendly a +5 modifier, and helpful relations a +15 modifier.
A request or condition that clearly favors a target provides a +10 modifier to a check, one that is beneficial to them provides a +5 modifier, one that is neutral to them provides no benefit or penalty, one that is harmful to them imposes a -5 penalty, and a request or condition that is outrageous to them imposes a -10 penalty to a check.
Show Posts
That may change, but I'm not going to count on it. I'll have to retire the game for now, and bring it out of retirement if there's a major change in my day to day.
Just waiting to hear status updates.
