Social Encounter Mechanics?

[Rofltrollcopter]

Hello, I am currently dming a campaign where the players are about to enter a high society masquerade as part of the 'Whispers of the Vampire's blade' module. My problem is that I'm having a hard time with coming up with a way to make the social encounter memorable and more entertaining then just 'roll a bunch of diplomacy checks with random npcs'. I'm wondering if there is any sort of homebrew or official rules out there for social encounters? Game mechanics to make it almost a mini game or the like? Thanks

[BWR]

You can check out other games with social combat mechanics and adapt those, like Ars Magica or The Dying Earth.
You can also, much easier , make a skill challenge (http://dungeonsmaster.com/skill-challenges/)out of it. Skill challenges are perhaps the best thing to come out of SWSE/D&D 4e

I had a fairly detailed social combat homebrew system (not terribly original but tailored to 3.5) at some point but then by harddrive died. In short, any social skill could be used in opposition to another roll with various bonuses based on which skill went against which, and you'd need a certain number of successful rolls to achieve your goal.

The most important thing to remember with social combat is that it should be an aid to roleplaying if at all possible, not a replacement. Sometimes players are entirely stuck and need a hand to see if they succeed or not- that's what mechanics are for - but if they can roleplay the situation without resorting to rolls, so much the better.

[Kol Korran]

Me and my group have been doing social encounters for a while. I'm using three inspirations to make these more interesting:
1. The Giant's diplomacy rules: (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=9606632&postcount=2) Really, they make things all the more interesting. The two major changes is that the roll is not to change attitude, but to make deals/ persuade someone. (You change attitudes through roleplay and action, not roles), the second is that the DC is not static, and changes according to level/HD, wisdom, and possibly the relationship you have with whom you're trying to persuade, and the actual deal you're trying to make. Excellent set of rules, but explain it to your players first! Really, give it a read!

2. The FATE core Contest mechanic: The idea is simple, but it packs a punch. You don't automatically win a debate by 1 roll. You need to succeed at 3. But... once you use an argument/ tactic (Be it a certain deal, a certain bluff, or the like), you cannot use it again. This makes for an ongoing debate/ social combat with back and forth "slash and parry". And most of all, it builds tension: 0/0... 1/0... 1/1... 2/1... 3/1- a win! And so on.

3. Also from FATE- using aspects. Each entity in the social game (Be it a single person, a crowd, a small group of people, a nation or so) have 1-3 aspects about them, detailing preferences, attitudes, likes, dislikes, and so on. "Hates country X", "Would love to wed the princess", "Afraid of responsibility", and so on. Some of these may be obvious to see, but for most these are secret, and take getting to know someone, or sneaking up on them, or readingthem up well (You might give hints with Sense motive or such) If a social argument is meant while addressing such an aspect of someone (Whether intentional or by mistake), that may grant a -5-+5 to dealing with this person, or might even shift their attitude (For better or worse). To make things fun, you can have opposing aspects of certain people, so you main gain favor with one, but alienate another. The min thing is that this encourages PCs to make quite a bit of research and conversion with intended entities, try to figure them out. Note that you may assign certain aspects to the PCs as well! (Destroyer of the X, looters of the crown jewels, or so on), either due to their real adventures, or because of lies spread upon them, which others can then use against them.

The idea is that a contest my exist. You may give a few "rounds/ actions" before the contest begin for people to find about aspects or such. Once the contest begin, different PCs may make arguments vs. the main contester, trying to persuade him/ her/ them or some other third party/ies. Other characters my try to supply support (Aid another), or affect relationships, change deals, or tag aspects. It can be a very dynamic thing, and quite full of tension.

Also, Check out FATE core, it has lots of great ideas for running scenes.