What skill/social systems work?

[Willie the Duck]

The best game systems I have played to handle what your talking about would be either any White Wolf game and Fantasy Flight's take on Legend of the 5 Rings.

Anyway, onto skill systems. I am going to ignore social systems, because a) other people are covering them, and b) they never really work that well. I think the best I've seen is nWoD2e/CofD, where you have to do things to get NPCs to be willing to do something for you, represented by 'doors'.

I last played WoD back in the 90s when it was actually made by White Wolf. Although there were social stats and skills, there wasn't much of an actual rule-structure around using these to determine social outcome. I take it the more recent games have taken the critiques to heart? If so, is there an SRD-equivalent or other legally-free ruleset that includes this?

Hillfolk (Dramasystem) is a simple rpg game designed to focus on the socio-emotional aspects of relationships.

I just got it and it's amazing.

Much like GURPS is really good at 'mapping out people,' Hillfolk/Drama system is really good at 'mapping out relationships.' When the system hits play, though, it can be gamed as easily as some of the other ones mentioned. So again there is a necessary level of trust required.