Chapter 3.6: Social Conflict

Social Conflict begins when one character asks another for something the other has reason to withhold. The request might seek access, information, cooperation, a concession, surrender, or a change of course. Ordinary conversation needs no mechanic. Use these rules when both the answer and the consequences of pressing for it matter.

Social Conflict cannot take control of a character from the person playing them. It changes the situation around a choice: what is known, what refusal costs, what an offer makes possible, and what relationships survive the exchange.

Make the Request

State the request in terms everyone at the table can judge. "Help us" is too broad. "Open the shelter for these forty evacuees until morning" gives the other side something concrete to grant, refuse, or negotiate.

The receiving character chooses an initial response.

• Yield. They grant a reasonable request within their power. No Task is required. Yielding never commits them beyond the request's stated scope.
• Resist. They refuse or demand a change in terms. The requester may accept the refusal, change the request, use a Social Tool, or attempt Persuasion.

After a request has been resisted, repeating the same words under the same circumstances accomplishes nothing. The requester must change the context with evidence, leverage, an offer, a new fact, or events in the scene.

Persuasion

Persuasion is an Opposed Task. The resisting character rolls first using the Attribute and Specialization that fit how they hold their position. The requester then rolls against the resulting Difficulty. Presence + Diplomacy is common; Insight, Reason, Control, Security, and Infiltration may apply according to the approach.

On a failed Persuasion Task, the request remains refused. Further attempts need a changed context.

On a successful Persuasion Task, the resisting character chooses:

• Accept. Grant the request within the terms established in the scene.
• Hold. Refuse and mark Stress equal to 1 plus the requester's surplus successes, after applying Social Tools. A character without enough Stress capacity cannot Hold and must either Accept, withdraw from the exchange, or change the terms enough to create a new request.

Holding represents the cost of maintaining a position under credible pressure. For a player character, the player describes that cost. A Value or Directive may support a Determination spend or gain under Chapter 3.3.

Minor NPCs normally Accept or withdraw after a successful Persuasion Task. Once per scene, a Minor NPC whose written motive or Trait directly supports refusal may spend Threat equal to the Stress cost to Hold. A Notable NPC may spend Threat equal to that cost to Hold once per scene. A Major NPC may do so whenever sufficient Threat is available. An NPC whose defining Value directly forbids the request may make the request impossible until the crew changes the Value's relevance or the surrounding facts.

Social Tools

A Social Tool changes the context before Persuasion. Most tools create, reveal, or alter a Trait.

Evidence

Evidence is a fact the receiving character accepts as relevant and credible. A record, witness, physical trace, Sensus capture, or demonstrated capability can serve. Each independent piece of Evidence usually lowers the Persuasion Difficulty by 1. Evidence may also make a request possible where unsupported claims could not.

Disputed Evidence calls for a Task to authenticate, interpret, or connect it to the request. A Sensus recording proves what its Originator recorded and consented to store. It does not prove an interpretation the recording cannot carry.

Offer

An Offer creates two Traits: one naming what the other side receives and one naming what the crew must provide. If the Offer matters to the recipient, its benefit lowers Difficulty by 1 or makes the request possible. The cost remains in the fiction until paid.

Changing an Offer creates a new request. Failing to deliver an accepted Offer creates a Complication and may close further negotiation with that party.

Leverage

Leverage is an existing pressure the requester can credibly connect to the decision: a deadline, political exposure, loss of access, or an opponent's need. Relevant Leverage lowers Difficulty by 1. Leverage disappears when its underlying fact changes.

Deception

Deception is an Opposed Task using Infiltration against the target's Insight with a fitting Specialization. Success creates a False Belief Trait. The Trait can make a later request possible or lower its Difficulty by 1.

Each active False Belief widens the deceiver's Complication range by 1 on later Tasks that depend on it. Discovery removes the Trait and creates a relationship Complication. A lie transmitted through the Aelith remains attributable to its sending node; technical attribution and truth are separate questions.

Among bonded characters, deception works through the Sensus layers that remain closed or curated. Shared data can expose a false claim, while private thought and withheld perception leave room for an attributed speaker to lie.

Intimidation

Intimidation uses a credible threat to create a Fear Trait. Resolve it as an Opposed Task. Success creates the Trait at Potency 1, or raises an existing Fear Trait by 1. Fear can make a request possible and adds its Potency to the Stress cost of Holding.

Every successful Intimidation also creates an Antagonized Trait on the relationship. Intimidation cannot compel conduct that the threatened character would find worse than the threat itself. An empty threat uses Deception as well.

Consent and the Aelith

Access to Percepta, Vitalis, Noetic data, Tactile Transfer, or Motor Authority requires the consent defined by the Aelith. Persuasion may ask for that consent. No success supplies it. The Originator and Reader retain their separate boundaries, and either may close the connection.

A character may open a Sensus layer as Evidence or as part of an Offer. The choice states exactly what is opened and for how long. Refusing access is never a Complication by itself.

Long Negotiations

Use an Extended Task when a negotiation has several stages and a real pressure: a cease-fire expiring, a habitat failing, factions preparing to leave, or public confidence collapsing. Progress records agreements secured. A Trouble Track can record anger, delay, or the approach of violence. Each failed request still requires a changed context before another attempt.

Social Conflict remains available during combat. Calling for surrender, offering safe passage, or proving that an objective has already been lost uses a Major Action. A character can always speak briefly on their turn without spending an Action; the Task and its mechanical effect require the Major Action.