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+# Social Encounters
+The core of social encounters is the influence roll. The modifier for an influence roll is always Presence and a relevant skill. An additional bonus or detriment can be received based on the apparel score of the involved characters. These additional modifiers typically range from -3 to +3 and depend on the apparel of the characters and the target. This bonus is determined by the GM. 
+
+Social encounters revolve around intimacies. In terms of gameplay you're either going to be influencing someone's outlook or using intimacies to persuade someone to do what you want. A character's intimacies dictate what they believe and care about. Without exploiting an intimacy persuasion isn't possible. No matter how charismatic you might be, a stranger won't give over their life to your cause just because you say so; there has to be a reason to make them take such a course of action. You need to play on an intimacy to be able to talk people into doing the things you want them to do. The stronger an intimacy is the more you can convince people to do in its name. While PCs can influence NPCs, they may also be on the receiving end of social encounters using the same rules.
+## Order of Actions
+Social actions don't usually have special timing, there are no "Social turns." When a player's character tries to convince someone of something, they'll probably be the only person rolling dice, everything else is roleplay between the characters. When multiple characters attempt social actions in the same encounter, who rolls when can be decided by the natural flow of conversation or by procedure (in a court for example). If two characters are both trying to present different arguments to a single individual, then that individual's player decides who to listen to first. If it's still not clear who acts in which order, then the character with the highest Presence goes first, with the GM breaking any ties.
+
+## Rolling Dice
+When making checks in social encounters there are two typical target values these are the target's passive Resolve (10 + Resolve + Resolve) or their passive Composure (10 + Composure + Composure). Typically resolve is used as the target for instill, inspire, persuade, bargain, and threaten actions and Composure is used as the target for read intentions actions.
+## Intimacies
+Intimacies represent a character's relationships, beliefs, ideals, and goals. A character's intimacies help determine what types of influence will affect them.
+### Intensity
+The strength of an intimacy is defined by its intensity -- Minor, Major, or Defining. When a character is targeted by an influence roll that opposes one ore more of their intimacies, add a bonus to their resolve based on the intensity of the most applicable intimacy. On the other hand, if one or more of a character's intimacies supports an influence roll applied against them, then they suffer a corresponding penalty to Resolve based on the most applicable intimacy. If more than one intimacy supports or opposes a social action, only the most relevant intimacy modifies the target's Resolve.
+
+The effects of the different intensities are listed below.
+- **Minor** intimacies are notable relationships or beliefs that have some influence over a character's actions without being an integral part of who they are. Characters will usually let their minor intimacies dictate their behavior on situations where it is directly relevant, as long as it does not act against a stronger intimacy or their own self-interest.
+- **Major** intimacies are relationships that influence the way characters act in many areas of life. Major intimacies influence the behavior of characters even in situations where they are only tangentially or indirectly relevant, and might lead to a character to act against their own self-interest as long as they do not face severe harm or life-altering inconveniences because of it.
+- **Defining** intimacies represent the most important things in a character's life, the relationships or beliefs that they place above all others and refuse to compromise. Defining intimacies influence the greater part of a character's behavior in all field of life. If there's something for which a character is willing to lay down their life, then it is best represented by this level of intensity.
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+# Social Actions
+The following is a list of social encounter actions, what they can accomplish, and what conditions must be met to retry them after they fail.
+## Instill
+The instill action is used to change the feelings and beliefs of others. When a player takes an instill action, they declare what they want to make the target feel or believe. The GM may apply penalties to the roll if this belief is particularly implausible or hard to accept, up to a maximum penalty of -20 for truly unbelievable claims. On a successful roll, the target forms an intimacy towards that belief.
+
+There are limits to what someone will believe when they already have strong opinions to the contrary. The character may need to lessen the existing intimacies before instilling new ones. While the instill action can always be used to create new minor intimacies, altering existing intimacies is more difficult:
+- Strengthening a minor intimacy or weakening a major intimacy can only be done if the target has a different minor or better intimacy that supports the attempted influence.
+- Raising a major intimacy or weakening a defining intimacy is only possible if the target has a different major or better intimacy that supports the attempted influence.
+- Strengthening an existing intimacy requires that the evidence raised or argument made in favor of the strengthening be more compelling than whatever cause the intimacy to arrive at its current intensity.
+## Persuade
+The persuade action allows you to convince other characters to perform an action or task that you give to them. The extent of the action you can compel with persuade depends on the intimacies of your target.
+
+Without an intimacy to support your influence roll, you can only convince others to take relatively trivial and risk free actions.
+### Inconvenient Tasks
+Characters who have an appropriate minor intimacy can be convinced to perform tasks that pose some mild danger or hinderance to them, as long as it is not severe enough to seriously disrupt their life or livelihood -- the prospect of a severe injury, an angry superior, or heavy financial loss is still more than they will allow. With this level of intimacy, you can persuade people to do things that take longer than an encounter to complete, if the amount of time needed is not so long as to disrupt the target's life.
+### Serious Tasks
+Characters who have an appropriate major intimacy can be convinced to perform even tasks that carry the risk of extreme harm or impediment. At this level, a farmer could be convinced to join your personal militia despite the risk of dying on the battlefield, while an apothecary might provide you with poisons even though he faces imprisonment or corporal punishment for doing so. However, they will still balk if the risk of death or ruin is almost certain. Tasks that take extended amounts of time are possible at this level, even if they require a long term commitment such as joining an organization.
+### Life Changing Tasks
+Characters who have a defining intimacy can be made to do almost anything. At this level, you could convince a devoted follower to hold off an enemy long enough to buy time for your escape, or make a wealthy noble donate the batter portion of their fortune to your personal cult. Only in cases where death or utter ruin are absolutely, unavoidably certain will they balk, and even then the GM might decide they're willing to do it despite all odds.
+## Bargain
+Bargaining is similar to the persuade action, but doesn't depend on your target's intimacies. Instead you must offer a bribe, gift, or favor that the character you're convincing believes is worth the difficulty or the task you're asking them to perform. The GM should take into account the intimacies, wealth, and social status of the target deciding what they will consider sufficient payment.
+## Threaten
+When all else fails, pain an intimidation are brutally effective motivators. Threaten works like a bargain: you can convince people to  do things without having to appeal to their intimacies, only rather than offering something they want you present them with something they don't -- usually the threat of bodily harm, although social blackmail, economic ruin, and general intimidation will also do the job. It can also be used as an instill action which gives the target an intimacy of fear towards you, or intensifies such an intimacy they already have. For a threaten action to be effective, the target must be more afraid of the conseque3ncers of refusing you then they are of whatever you want them to do. If the target has any awe, or fear, based intimacies you're aware of, that's usually a good place to start.
+
+Blackmail and bullying won't make you many friends. Using the threaten action on someone almost always causes them to form an immediate negative intimacy towards you, with a context chosen by the target's player, regardless of whether the attempt succeeds or fails. It can also weaken any existing positive intimacies the target might have.
+## Inspire
+The inspire action is used to incite emotions and strong passions in the hearts of others, usually with the Performance skill, which those others then act on. When a player takes an inspire action, they choose which emotion they are attempting to inspire. On a successful inspire roll, the target is impassioned according to the emotion evoked -- but the target's player chooses what form that passion takes.
+
+An impassioned character might form a new passion, or act upon an existing intimacy that aligns with the emotion evoked. A character doesn't have to drop everything they're doing to act upon an inspire action, but they must be genuinely resolved to action. 
+
+Inspiration doesn't automatically create or strengthen intimacies, but it's often appropriate for it to do so as characters act upon their inflamed passions. An inflamed passion may be treated as a major intimacy for the purposes of modifying passive Resolve and enabling persuade actions, for as long as the character is acting on it.
+
+The inspiring character doesn't automatically know what passions he has inspired in their audience; they must use read intentions to find out. Because a character does not, and cannot, tailor the outcome of an inspire action to a specific target, inspire actions aren't subject to penalty  for group influence.
+## Read Intentions
+The read intentions action allows a character to discern what another character wants to achieve in an encounter or interaction. Reading someone's intentions is not an influence roll, instead it is a Awareness + Insight roll against the target's passive Composure. On a success, the GM should give a brief description of what the character wants out of some interaction.
+
+Alternatively, this action can be used in order to determine what intimacies a character has. Before rolling for the action, the player should generally describe what kind of intimacy they want to discern. On a success, the GM chooses and reveals one of the target's intimacies that fit the criteria. If there is no intimacy that does, the GM should let  the player know this.
+
+The read intentions action is not a form of magic. The character using it is analyzing the target's words and behavior to get a better feel for their motives and intimacies, and the GM should use common sense in deciding how much information can be gleaned from a character's behavior and appearance.
+
+Finally, a character who is unaware they  are being observed suffers a -3 penalty to their passive Composure.
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+# Resisting Influence Rolls
+The base DV for an influence roll is always the passive Resolve of the character targeted by the roll. On a failed roll, the character is unimpressed or unmoved by whatever argument or offer was made. On a successful roll, the target is persuaded or moved by your words.
+## Spending Willpower
+Even if a character's Resolve is overcome, they may still have an opportunity to deny the influence. If the influence is trying to change how they feel, such as by creating, destroying, or changing their intimacies, they may spend a point of willpower to:
+- Stop a new intimacy from being created. Although the character is moved, they just can't afford to invest themselves in a new person or cause.
+- Stop a major or defining intimacy from being weakened. Even though the influence was convincing, the character just has too much invested in the intimacy to give up now, even if they want to.
+- Reject a successful inspire action. The character uses their force of will to deny their swelling passions.
+## Decision Points
+Refusing successful influence to make the character do something is trickier. When a character fails to resist such influence with their Resolve, they enter into a special state called a Decision Point.
+
+In the Decision Point, the player must choose an intimacy and explain how it justifies resisting that specific influence. The intimacy they choose must be of equal or greater intensity than the intimacy which supported the influence roll, and it can't be the one that strengthened their Resolve against the roll in the first place -- the influence already overcame that particular source of reluctance when it beat their Resolve.
+
+If those requirements are met, and if the GM accepts the player's argument for why one of their intimacies would make them reject the influence, then the character may spend one willpower point to resist the influence roll. Otherwise, resistance is impossible.
+## Lengthy Debates
+Sometimes after a character has spent willpower in a decision point in order to reject influence, the initiate will return with a new or stronger argument. When this happens, the initiate is engaging the reset rules for social actions. If the same issue is being argued as a result, the target may not use an intimacy which boosted their resolve against the initial roll. After all, that logic was not enough to stop them from being forced in the decision point in the first place. To boost their resolve against the initiate's second attempt, they must find another intimacy to raise their resolve -- or use the one that allowed them to reject influence in the decision point. Remember that according to the rules of decision points, the intimacy a character uses to raise their resolve cannot be invoked in the decision point. This rule continues to apply throughout the story -- as long as the initiate can find new angles with which to demonstrate the rightness of her persuasion, they can cause their target to use up all of their valid excuses over the course of a story. When a character has no valid intimacies with which to enter a decision point, beating their resolve will finally convince them to agree with the initiate's arguments. 
+## Unacceptable Influence
+There are limits on what can be achieved with social influence. No amount of charisma is sufficient to talk someone into suicide, or convince a die-hard patriot to betray their cause. If a request is so antithetical to the nature and personality of its target that it cannot possible succeed, it is said to be unacceptable influence. A character targeted by unacceptable influence may reject it outright without spending willpower, even if their resolve would not normally be high enough to defend against it. A player can still choose to have their character follow the course of action but forward by unacceptable influence, but only because they think it makes sense -- the character cannot be coerced into doing it.
+
+Unacceptable influence includes:
+- Any instill action to strengthen or weaken an intimacy which doesn't exploit an appropriately strong intimacy to do so.
+- Any persuasion attempt which doesn't exploit an intimacy strong enough to support the proposed task.
+- Any bargain attempt which fails to offer a properly enticing incentive or threaten action which is insufficiently  threatening.
+- Any influence that would cause a character to kill themselves, or to do something that they know would result in their certain death.
+- Any influence that would cause a character to completely abandon or end one of their defining intimacies is unacceptable.
+- Any seduction attempt that violates a character's sexual orientation (as defined by the player, or by the GM in the case of NPCs) is unacceptable.
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+# Social Complications
+A number of considerations may arise when winning friends  and influencing people.
+## One Target vs Multiple Targets
+Much of the time, an influence roll only affects one character. Sometimes, however, a character may wish to make a single influence roll against multiple characters. The can choose to target only a select group, or to apply influence roll against anyone who hears them. However, people find it easier to ignore arguments that are not directly addressed to them. Whenever an influence roll targets more than one character, it suffers a -5 penalty.
+
+Because the different targets of an influence roll can have varying passive Resolve scores, the success or failure of the action is determined separately for each target.
+## Written Social Actions
+The written word can be used to persuade or manipulate others just as easily as speech. Characters who wish to convey influence through a letter, pamphlet, book, or other written work do so as a written social action. The time taken to create a writing missive varies based on the form and length of the work. The GM decides how long it takes, with a minimum time of five minutes in most cases. Likewise, the time needed to read the missive is decided by the GM based on length.
+
+The skill used when rolling for a written social action is always Culture. When a character reads the message, compare the result of the roll to the target's passive Resolve to determine if it succeeds, as with normal influence rolls. Written social actions can be written to apply either against a single intended reader or against anyone who reads them, with the usual effects for targeting multiple characters.
+## Gestures and Body Language
+When a character attempts to communicate through gestures, appearance, and body language alone, the target of such silent influence adds a +2 to their passive Resolve. This is normally only useful for attempts at intimidation or seduction, but players are free to be creative and think up other applications. Many things are impossible to communicate silently. No amount of handwaving or quirked eyebrows can explain the intricacies of court politics.
+## Overturning Influence
+Character's are generally loathe to abandon a course of action once they've set themselves upon it, and so overturning existing social influence with additional social influence is difficult. First, a character who has already been persuaded to do something receives a +5 bonus to their passive Resolve against any influence that would cause them to abandon or disregard that persuasion. This bonus stacks with the intimacy bonus from a relevant intimacy. Second, a petitioner who wishes to overturn existing persuasive influence must spend a point of willpower before making their argument and roll.
+
+If the contradictory persuasion succeeds, the targeted character may use a decision point to resist by citing a conflicting intimacy, without spend a point of willpower to initiate the decision point because it's easier to stand by a hard fought decision than to abandon it and reverse yourself. Conversely, if a character wants to abandon their present course and accept a new influence, the character must spend a point of willpower and cite the intimacy which was used to change their mind.
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+# Retrying Social Actions
+When a character fails a social action they cannot simply repeat their old arguments and expect a different result. Instead, they must change the situation in a way that allows them to try again. Below are retry conditions for each of the social actions. Once this condition has been met, the character may attempt to retry. The GM should use common sense in adjudicating retry conditions.
+## Instill
+If you fail an instill action, you must present your target with substantially greater evidence for whatever you are trying to convince them of before you can retry.
+## Persuade
+There are two ways to retry a failed persuade action. One is by making a different argument, playing on a different intimacy of equal or greater strength than your previous one. The other is to wait until the intimacy that supported your influence roll has been strengthened to a higher level of intensity.
+## Bargain
+You can only retry a failed bargain roll by making a new offering that's substantially greater than your previous one.
+## Threaten
+You can only retry a failed threaten roll if you significantly escalate the threat used to coerce your target.
+## Inspire
+You must wait until an encounter has ended to retry the inspire action.
+## Read Intentions
+Once a read intentions action has failed, it can't be retried on the same target for the rest of the encounter.
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+# Social Actions in Combat
+All of the social actions described previously work normally during combat, within the dictates of common sense. You can certainly shout out an offer to triple a mercenaries pay if they'll switch sides but you likely can't engage in complex contractual negotiations over a single turn.
+
+All social actions have an AP cost of 2 and can only be taken during your initiative turn.
+
+Most social actions are resisted with normal with one special case being a little different. Pleading for mercy can convince enemies to accept your surrender rather than killing you. This might be a persuade action or even a bargain. On a successful roll, you r enemy will allow you to surrender, taking you captive, or letting you retreat rather than killing you. In most cases, this doesn't require an intimacy to exploit, letting a defeated stranger run away is no great hardship. Some cases may require exploiting an intimacy if the target has some reason to want you dead rather than captured or defeated.
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+---
+meta: true
+---
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+---
+meta: true
+---
+
+- [ ] Social System
+	- [ ] Reputation
+	- [ ] Contacts