Combat+-+Social


 * __Calculating Social Combat Advantages__**

Social combat requires a number of advantages similar to those used for physical combat, such as initiative and defense, they are as follows:

** Dominance **

(Social Initiative modifier) **Presence + Manipulation**

At the start of social combat, all involved characters roll one die and add their dominance modifier to the result. This is their Dominance rating for the scene and functions like Initiative.

** Guile **

(Social Defense) **Wits or Manipulation, whichever is lower**

Guile is subtracted from social attacks against the character similarly to defense. However, in the event of multiple social attacks against her, she does not lose Guile following each attack, but instead loses it at the start of the turn. Guile is decreased by 1 for each social opponent beyond the first.

** Nerve **

(Social Health) **Composure + Highest Social Skill**

Nerve represents a kind of social 'health' in social combat. The balance of power as it were; losing Nerve is the result of say losing an argument or being hit with a particularly scathing insult. Nerve is the character's social *backbone*.

**__Social Combat in action__**

** Stage One: Intent **

The character that initiates social combat requires a certain goal. For simple social banter, no combat is necessary, but sometimes, you may want to convince another character to do something, but perhaps the player isn't too keen on it, or perhaps the character wouldn't just be a pushover in the matter. So before social combat even occurs, the instigator, or attacker, must have a goal in mind, known as the Intent. The Intent can be almost anything, examples include 'I want to seduce her', 'I want to convince him to make a bad investment', or 'I want to make him look bad in front of Elysium'

** Stage Two: Determine Dominance **

Roll a single die for your character and add your Dominance modifier. The character with the highest result will go first.

** Stage Three: Attack **

Social attacks can come in a variety of forms, some might be poetic arguments, others scathing insults, and still others might be nothing more than a well placed menacing stare. Determine the kind of social attack you wish to make, and then assign an appropriate combination of an attribute and skill. The above examples forever might warrant, in order; Manipulation + Expression, Manipulation + Socialize, and Presence + Intimidation. Attacks follow the basic formula of:

**Social Attribute + Social Skill - Guile +/- modifiers**

The defender then counters with a social attack of his own. Perhaps he strikes back with a witty insult of his own, or breaks apart the other's argument.

** Stage Four: Resolution of Turn **

Compare the successes gained by each party in social combat. The character with the highest number of successes during this turn of Social combat has “won” the round. All other participants lose a number of points from their Nerve equal to the successes gained by the winner of the scene. The winner gains that amount to her Nerve if she has room in her pool (her Nerve points may not exceed her maximum Nerve pool). On a tie, the win goes to the character with the highest Dominance Modifier (not the highest Dominance rating for the scene). If that still results in a tie, then nobody is considered to have won the round, and all Nerve points remain the same.

** Stage Five: Resolution of Social Combat scene **

Social combat continues for as long as participants choose to be involved (they can of course choose to stop responding to arguments and insults and walk away, thus ending social combat, though this is not always easy or recommended). The other way for Social combat to end for a participant is to lose all their Nerve. This means succumbing to the attacker's Intent. Succumbing to the intent means that, whatever the attacker was hoping to have happened will happen. This has to be within reason, as determined by the Storyteller. Without the use of supernatural powers, a character cannot be made to:

Physically harm himself Physically harm another Do something entirely counter to his character (“I want him to burn his favorite book”) Do something entirely counter to his well-being (“I want to convince him to go up to the crime lord and thumb him right in the eye”) Perform an impossible action (“I want her to disappear”)

A character CAN choose not to succumb to the intent, but this requires the expenditure of a Willpower point. In addition, the character loses his Guile against all other social attacks that night.

__**Modifiers**__

+1 to +5 Appropriate Social equipment (brandishing a weapon for Intimidation, offering a bribe for Persuasion, giving a gift to seduce, showing fake evidence to confirm a Subterfuge attempt, etc.) +1 Target is family or someone you've known must of your (un)life. +1 If you have higher blood potency. Note that this only applies if neither party has obfuscate 2 active. +1 Character wears convincing clothing (a nice suit for a salesman, a sexy haute couture outfit for a seducer, a rough biker’s outfit for threats of ass-kicking). -1 If the opponent has higher blood potency -1 For every mild derangement possessed by opponent (derangements aren’t helpful to those who possess them, but they can hinder attempts to convince or unnerve such individuals) -1 Character wears inappropriate clothing (golf outfit for threatening, a frumpy frock for seducing) -2 For every severe derangement possessed by opponent -4 Language barrier (character doesn’t speak the same language, must rely on body language)

When a character with derangements attacks another character, she takes a penalty half that imposed on the other character's attacks. That is to say if a character has a severe derangement which results in a -2 to attacks against her, she suffers a -1 herself to attacks.

__**Nerve**__

Any character with a full Nerve pool can benefit from +1 die to any Composure + Resolve rolls, including frenzy rolls or rolls to resist the effects of Derangement.

However, just as with wound penalties, low Nerve incurs penalties. These penalties apply to social rolls only (including those outside of social combat!). If the character only has his 3 last nerve dots left, he incurs a -1 penalty, which increases to -2 if he only has the last 2 dots left, and -3 for if he only has one nerve dot left.

If the character reaches zero nerve, he feels as if he's lost all self-confidence, and incurs a full -5 penalty to all social rolls. A vampire suffers a -3 penalty to all rolls to resist Frenzy, whereas a changeling suffers a -1 penalty to Clarity degeneration rolls. Both suffer -3 to any roll to resist the effect of a Derangement.

1 Nerve dot is regained upon first awakening in a day, just like Willpower; however, if for some reason the character is unable to regain willpower in this way, he is also unable to regain Nerve. The only other way to regain Nerve is by taking it in Social Combat.