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View Full Version : What are the best systems that focus on social interaction?



MammonAzrael
2020-08-10, 12:58 PM
I am looking for game systems recommendations that focus primarily on social interaction. Supporting combat or magic as well is fine, but I'm interested in systems that want to tell a story like a Jane Austin novel, or The West Wing, or To Kill a Mockingbird.

Long Live the Queen (https://store.steampowered.com/app/251990/Long_Live_The_Queen/) is an excellent example of the level of mechanical focus on social abilities vs martial abilities I'm interested in, with bonus points if it's even more heavily weighted towards social!

If nothing else, I'd love to hear about specific mechanics from games that you found useful, nuanced, or well developed for social interaction.

Thank you for all your suggestions!

GentlemanVoodoo
2020-08-12, 01:15 AM
Hmm...one of the more interesting mechanics for social interactions I like was in Legend of the 5 Rings 5th Edition. The different rings along with the Shuji abilities made conversations an interesting and deadly affair. Not familiar with prior editions but I assume this is them as well. Though I didn't care for Vampire the Masqurade 5th edition, I did like the idea of social interactions wreching carnage to one's Willpower which for this game has been a very crucial stat for characters.

Anything else tends to fall to the rules light games like Fate where social interaction is more pronounced than the nitty gritty of mechanics.

Martin Greywolf
2020-08-12, 05:12 AM
FATE Core has a unified resolution mechanics where you can use same system of turns, attacks and defenses for conversation, or any conflict really, as you do for combat. Tried it a few times myself, and it works pretty well if you have a final confrontation with the bad guys that is about politicking or proving something.

Because of the unified resolution system, you can also reduce combat to a few skill checks, the way we do it with social skills usually, and you can make Stunts (essentially perks) that affect social stuff in interesting ways.


Anything else tends to fall to the rules light games like Fate where social interaction is more pronounced than the nitty gritty of mechanics.

FATE Core has 300-page rulebook, it's not exactly rules-light. Some other FATE versions can be (Accelerated, for one), but Core isn't, especially once you start to add in optional rules for magic.

Hytheter
2020-08-12, 06:44 AM
FATE Core has 300-page rulebook, it's not exactly rules-light. Some other FATE versions can be (Accelerated, for one), but Core isn't, especially once you start to add in optional rules for magic.

Page count isn't everything. Those 300 pages include both the player and GM rules, including hefty examples of play, and all of it is in a huge font size. It's not the lightest game out there but I'd definitely say it's towards that end of the spectrum.