Social Campaigns

[SilentNight]

Howdy all, I'm wondering if there are any of you out there who have either run or taken part in a predominantly social campaign and could share what made it good or bad?

I'm kicking around the idea of a fractured island with the PC's working against an invisible villain working to drive the island into civil war, while they have to rely on non-combat intrigue to keep the peace.

Any and all stories welcome!

[Grod_The_Giant]

I've been in campaigns that had heavy social elements, but I...don't imagine you'd want to do much of that in a conventional d20 system-- D&D is almost painfully lacking in social rules compared to something like Fate or Exalted.

[Gildedragon]

If you're resolved to using D&D
You gotta do something about Diplomacy (and Perform) and Bluff rules.
Something I'd look into are the skills that give alternate uses of these skills (off the top of my head the (Un)seelie kelir feats) and just make them base uses...

Alternatively use HP and combat mechanics with Ranks in Diplomacy or Bluff being like BAB

[Venger]

Howdy all, I'm wondering if there are any of you out there who have either run or taken part in a predominantly social campaign and could share what made it good or bad?

I'm kicking around the idea of a fractured island with the PC's working against an invisible villain working to drive the island into civil war, while they have to rely on non-combat intrigue to keep the peace.

Any and all stories welcome!

I have, and generally had a good time.

Decide early on (and most importantly, tell your players) whether during rp, you will mostly be doing freeform, or whether you will be using mechanical social skills, in what situations, and exactly how often. No one wants to sink a bunch of points into diplomacy and then find out you pretty much never need to actually roll it.

For example, when a player will, in the course of one speech to an npc, tell many small lies in order to accomplish a single goal as part of a big lie, I'll say that's just one bluff check in order to expedite play and avoid penalizing pcs for existing.

decide when and exactly how bluff, diplo, and sense motive work with regard to rp and how often your party's gonna be using them mechanically, and tell them before chargen whether you plan to use gather info, whose primary purpose is to fast forward through rp so they can avoid spending points in it.


I've been in campaigns that had heavy social elements, but I...don't imagine you'd want to do much of that in a conventional d20 system-- D&D is almost painfully lacking in social rules compared to something like Fate or Exalted.

more or less. it is, before all else, a combat sim. not to say you can't have an rp heavy D&D game, just that it's not rp heavy by virtue of the system.

[LoyalPaladin]

I have, and the biggest buzzkill for me was having players split off from the main group. Otherwise, it's mostly dependent on your players and the content you give them to work with. If you're not going to have many mechanical moments, you might take a look at FATE.

[RoboEmperor]

It was either do opposed rolls to win and get XP, or do 0 rolls and 100% RP while using spells and skills for espionage and sabotage.

[Boozy]

There's a couple of ways to approach this, but again, the cardinal rule of DMing applies: Know your players. Some are absolutely down for intensive RP sessions, and others....well, they basically want to play WM without painting and buying a bunch of models. Know why they're at the table.

For more specific advice, the first thing you can do to set yourself up for success is to prepare. A social campaign that isn't centered on slaying stuff means that problems need to be resolved through discernment and persuasion. To this end, know the motivations of all the principals involved. Know exactly what they are doing, and where they are at any given time. Additionally, create challenges which cannot simply be beat down to 0hp. You'll still need to keep all your players engaged, so write copious notes and create challenges that allow all the players to feel crucial. Clues that require pure brawn to access. Conversations where divination magic can reveal critical omissions, and so on. Players not feeling important quickly stop coming.

Finally, a little personal experience in getting my players out of the box. On game night, I created a scenario using the template of an Escape Room, with my players in character. With some minor additions of game mechanics, the players in character were challenged to resolve puzzle using their personal resources. It was an amazing success for them (me as well, but I must admit it's extremely labor intensive to prepare for).

If you've never read Planescape material or WoD, do so. They both have great elements and examples of how to build a more social orientated RPG campaign, and can help any Storyteller.

[SilentNight]

Thanks to all for your contributions! It would actually be the first act of a more traditional campaign, but I'm so scared of losing the group on that period I may have to go back and revisit things.

[Schattenbach]

One reasonable approach while still using D20 mechanics would be to use heavy circumstances modifers (that are cumulative) for each roll based on what the PCs and NPCs say (like things that irritate or flatter the NPCs, if that works on them, etc. ... I remember that being an actual thing in modules too, one example I remember this being described somewhat more in detail might be Expedition to Castle Ravenloft?) and to maybe to use Complex Skill checks (the variant rule from the SRD), too, to not resolve things with a single lucky roll. If the PCs have high ranks in specific skills, you could attempt to assist the players to portray that (one of the easier approaches might be to simply portray it as strong personality/"charisma" instead of being highly experienced at twisting words and such ... because after some point, that's usually beyond the capabilities of most players) better in one way or another, too.