Critical Role, and welcome to my fun little video
series about tips and tricks for game masters and
dungeon masters. Today, we’re talking about social
non-combat encounters.
[trumpet fanfare]
I guess first we’ll start with that. Not all
battles are fought with weapons. I think combat’s
great, it’s a lot of fun, but there’s a lot to be
had in many games about social combat and the
dynamics in how you deal with non-player
characters and either political or intense social settings.
First and foremost, creative ways you can
incorporate these in your game. Social events like
balls, or council meetings, or diplomatic
missions, or consider spy games if you’re playing
a heavy intrigue-type RPG. Interrogations,
investigations; these are all things that are
challenges and encounters in their own right.
There’s just not hit points involved and to-hit modifiers.
One thing you want to consider when you’re
deciding what kind of non-combat social encounter
it is: What is the overall goal of the social
encounter? Be very clear with the players what
they’re supposed to be trying to achieve as part
of this encounter. Otherwise it can tend to
meander a bit and get confusing. So long as there
are NPCs that put them on this mission or the
circumstances that lead them to this encounter is
very clear as to what the goal is? That helps the
players number one: feel more comfortable in the
environment; two: when they converse with
NPCs and try and pry information or discover
secrets, they know what exactly what to look for
and what not to say; and three: it helps your
preparation be a little more direct so you don’t
end up having to be a little too lost amongst 300
non-player characters you weren’t expecting to use.
But on that note too you want definitely want to
make sure that the NPCs are involved in these
encounters are pretty well fleshed out. You
understand them, you know what their goals, their
perspectives, their needs, their fears are and
what they’re looking to get out of this; and what
they don’t want to be found. So definitely flesh
them out to a degree where you feel comfortable
getting into a conversation with the player
characters.
Keep a list of key information that each NPC may
know that pertains to this circumstance. And mark
which NPCs are willing or unwilling to share this
information. Some may want to sell the information
at the right price, some might need… less soft
methods to get it out of them. But definitely keep
note of how important this information is to each NPC
and how willing they are to give it up. Also if
there are different factions involved in this
social encounter, make sure you note which NPCs
are involved with which faction or which guild or
whichever various political circles are involved
in this encounter as well. It could be, especially
if it’s a large gathering of different political
avenues, those always go well. Those don’t get
weird or awkward at all and that will allow you to
draw those lines socially and the players can play
sides if they want to, or play them against each
other. It’s kind of cool. You may even have
players choose a side, or choose multiple sides if
they’re very careful and aren’t discovered as a
double or triple or quadruple agent. That always
ends well, if Hollywood has taught me anything.
Another thing to consider: raising the stakes. If
you’re in a party and you’re just talking, getting
information, and you leave? We got the
information, yay! That’s fine, but that’s kind of
stagnant and stays kind of level. Find moments or
points in the story where you can up the ante and
raise the tension. Things like– imagine an NPC
that you thought was dead suddenly shows up and
you can’t go and attack them immediately because
you’re in the middle of a very very tense social
environment. Or envision how someone who’s at the
party who had the info you’re looking for suddenly
disappears and they’re found dead in one of the
nearby rooms without a murder weapon. And now it
turns into a classic whodunit which is always fun
no matter what genre or time period you’re playing.
Also consider how can these events and outcomes
affect the world at large. These little
conversations may have a very big impact on the
how the story and combat outside and for the rest
of the story may happen and occur. So don’t be
afraid to think of the long-reaching repercussions
of how the players act in this environment. Stolen
objects work well, finding a hidden spy is always
cool, someone who’s using information against the
party that you discover and once again, you have
to find that fine line between sneaking off and
doing dirty dark stuff in a hallway and then have
to act nice, James Bond-style in the middle of the
environment. That’s always a fun dynamic.
Also, there are other things you can incorporate
in this that are non-combat based encounters. Not
just social encounters, but non-combat. Things
like an infiltration, like a theft, trying to
steal something or an important object from a
museum. That in itself may lead to battle and
many of these may still lead to battle, but it doesn’t
have to. That’s a series of skill checks,
challenges, you can put traps and dangers in the
way. It can feel as tense and as cool as battle
without having to actually do battle. Also things
like running a gauntlet or having a contest of
skill that the player has to go ahead and prove
themselves to a certain faction. Those are cool
challenges and encounters that don’t necessarily
involve combat or a mat or miniatures, but you can
still build the same tension and the same stakes
in those as well.
But do keep in mind, and be ready for it, many
social and non-combat encounters can very quickly
become combat encounters, if player actions have
taught me anything in previous games. You should
know what I mean. When you create one of these,
definitely have in your back pocket some idea of
how combat would work if a fight were to break and
who would be involved. Just to be prepared,
because it’s probably going to happen.
Anyway, thank you so much for watching. I hope
this has been somewhat helpful or useful for your
GMing and DMing pleasure. You can check out more
episodes of this on geekandsundry.com. I guess
I’ll see you guys soon one way or the other.