48 lines
6.5 KiB
Markdown
48 lines
6.5 KiB
Markdown
Previous Section: [[03 🔵 Movement]]
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# Interacting with Creatures
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While exploring, characters inevitably meet all manner of people and monsters. Creature is a broad term used to describe every living or sentient being in the game. All social interactions follow the same basic structure and are primarily accomplished through roleplaying. However, attempting to make a creature behave in a certain way usually involves rolling dice. Complex or tense social interactions present themselves as [[02 🔵 Social Encounters|Social Encounters]] and use the rules presented therein. These rules are not a substitute for roleplay but should be used as a crutch for determining the outcomes of complex social interactions.
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## Roleplaying
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Roleplaying is the main way that players interact with the game world -- through their characters. Most players are tasked with roleplaying only their own character, while the GM plays all the other creatures that appear.
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Roleplaying is very similar to a basic form of acting, requiring a player to imagine how their character might think and feel as they experience the sights, sounds, and events described by the GM or other players at the table. Then, the player describes how their character responds or literally speaks the words their character would say in that circumstance.
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Roleplaying a character doesn't mean you can't talk to the other real people at your table as your real self. In fact, "staying in character" the entire game can be harmful to navigating the overarching game experience. The key to great roleplaying is to identify and communicate the moments in the game where speaking or thinking "in character" is the best way to engage with the story.
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> [!NOTE] Player Advice
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> While you roleplay only your character, the GM has many more characters--sometimes several at once. Always remember to be kind to your GM as they bring the world to life.
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> Here are a few concrete wayus to show that kindness:
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> - If you notice a conversation between a PC and NPC isn't going anywhere, the GM has started repeating answers or information, or an interaction has a player (not a character) frustrated consider stepping "out of character" to ask directly if there is anything left to gain through conversation or if a different approach can move the story along.
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> - Meeting new characters has a place in the game, but there are moments where stopping the action to talk to random creatures brings things to a halt. Stay aware of how much time you spend talking to NPCs versus the amount of time other PCs do. Adjust as needed.
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> - No matter how brilliantly you roleplay or how well you roll the dice, some creatuyres won't ever act or respond the way you want them to. If you made a good effort and aren't getting the response you want,. stop trying, let someone else have a turn, and let the game move along.
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## Contacts
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Contacts are a special type of NPC that character's know and who serve as sources of goods, information, and services. They are not omniscient. They have a particular area of specialty, but they can usually reach out to others in their network. Contacts can be acquired during character creation, and they can also be awarded in the course of gameplay if the GM thinks the players have earned it.
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Contacts have a set of regular character stats as well as two special stats: Connection and Loyalty. Both ratings range from 1 to 10
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### Connection
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Connection measures the contact's network and their capabilities of pulling information from the people they know. Someone who is new in town and just getting to know people would have a 1; a popular merchant might have a 4 or so; a mayor or city leader might have a 5 or 6; leaders of small countries would have a 7 or 8; leaders of large nations could have up to a 9 or 10. Contacts use their connection rating to find out how much information they might know about certain subject. The GM rolls a Connection + Connection check and compares the result to the Connection Results table.
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Typically players will not know the exact value of a contact's connection but they may be aware of roughly how connected they are.
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#### Connection Results Table
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| Roll | Result |
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| ---- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| 5 | Basic, broadly available background information |
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| 10 | Information from previous study or loose professional knowledge |
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| 15 | More esoteric knowledge, some whispers of gossip |
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| 20 | Deep academic familiarity, strong professional knowledge, behind-the-scenes familiarity |
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| 25 | High level information, knowledge of secrets and hidden information |
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| 30 | Almost encyclopedic knowledge, including some deep secrets |
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| 35 | Rare knowledge only available to a select few |
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| 40 | Deep secrets others actively try to hide |
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### Loyalty
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Loyalty is used to determine how much the contact is willing to share with the player character. The general loyalty check is Presence + Loyalty. The result is the level of knowledge from the Connection Results table that the contact is willing to share for free. Levels above this can be learned through actions described in the [[02 🔵 Social Encounters|Social Encounters]] section. Contacts can only share what they know--just because the character rolled well on their loyalty check and the contact is willing to share information does not mean they suddenly know something they would not have known before.
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#### Increasing Loyalty
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While players do not typically know the exact value of a contacts loyalty they can increase the contacts loyalty by exploiting intimacies similar to an [[03 🔵 Social Actions#Instill|Instill]] action. The GM determines which level of intimacy is required to be exploited and sets the difficulty of the influence roll. If the player successfully beats the roll they increase the loyalty of the target.
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Loyalty may also be increased during the [[3 🟡 Carousing|Carousing]] downtime activity, through roleplay, or over the course of a game as determined by the GM.
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## Making New Contacts
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New contacts are made during the course of the game through roleplay or the [[3 🟡 Carousing|Carousing]] downtime activity. Unless otherwise stated, when you make a new contact they start with a loyalty of 1.
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# Next Section
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[[05 🟡 Interacting with Items]] |