Social Maneuvering

People often won’t do what you want just because you ask them to. You need to persuade them, make your offer or request as enticing as possible. You don’t have to use positive enticements — “Your wife won’t find out about your affair,” is often more effective than “Here’s fifty bucks for your trouble.” You just need to find out what the other person wants.

Under a strict reading of these rules, one character could use Social maneuvering to get another to do whatever she wants. That’s not quite fair, since it’s the persuader’s player making the rolls. His victim doesn’t get any option to say “no.” As such, this system should only be used by player-controlled characters on Storyteller characters. Leave the manipulation of other player’s characters to roleplaying, and let the players determine their characters’ responses.

Goals & Doors

To begin a Social maneuver, you need to declare your character’s intended goal: What you want the victim to do, and how your character is going to make that happen. At this point, you only need to announce the initial stages. The Storyteller will determine if the goal is reasonable — while a vampire could convince a rich victim to hand over a large sum of money, he probably can’t convince her to abandon all her wealth, at least not without supernatural powers.

Each victim has a number of Doors, which reflect her resistance to coercion, her skepticism, and her mistrust of other people. A character has a base number of Doors equal to the lower of her Resolve or Composure. If the announced goal would be a breaking point for the victim, add two Doors. If the goal would prevent the victim from resolving an Aspiration, add a Door. Acting against a victim’s Virtue (or Mask, in the case of Kindred) also adds a Door.

The number of Doors can change as the situation alters. If the goal seems mundane at first but ends up being reprehensible, it will probably increase the number of Doors required. If your character changes his goal, any Doors that he’s opened remain open, but assess Aspirations, Virtues, and breaking points in case of a potential increase.

A character has to open Doors one by one. Every successful roll opens one Door — not one per success. As Doors represent a victim’s unwillingness to do what your character asks, they’re strictly a one-way relationship.

First Impressions

The Storyteller determines the first impression based on past history between the characters, the circumstances when the persuader first asks, the nature of the favor being asked (assuming the persuading character is up front with what he wants) and other relevant factors.

Absent any other factors, two characters start off with average impressions of each other. If the persuading character influences the interaction — wearing appealing clothes, playing appropriate music, or meeting in a pleasant environment — that moves up to a good impression. If they really get off on the wrong foot, they may start with hostile impressions of one another, in which case the persuader must attempt to increase the victim’s impression at another meeting, or force the Doors (see below).

When the characters meet, the persuading character can make an appropriate roll to increase his victim’s impression of him — Wits + Socialize to create the perfect guest list, or Manipulation + Persuasion to get the best table in a restaurant. A successful roll moves the impression one step up the chart.

If your character knows his victim’s Vice or Dirge, he can use that to his advantage. He can make an offer that tempts his victim, enough that agreeing to it would replenish a Willpower point. If the victim accepts, move the impression one step up the chart.

If all else fails, apply leverage in the form of gifts or bribes. Offer something, and if the recipient agrees, move the impression one step up the chart. What you can offer is limited by your Merits; an accepted offer gives the recipient the use of the Merit for a designated amount of time.

Impression/Time Per Roll

• Perfect/1 Turn
• Excellent/1 Hour
• Good/1 Day
• Average/1 Week
• Hostile/Cannot Role

Opening Doors

At each interval, the persuading character meets his victim and moves closer to his goal. He makes a roll based on the situation and how he’s persuading his victim in order to open a Door. This roll need not be Social. Fixing a mark’s car with Intelligence + Crafts could open a Door just as easily as writing her a song or poem with Presence + Expression. The Storyteller should present situations that demonstrate the range of possible options, mixing up the dice pools involved. In some cases, she might make the roll into a contested action — having the victim roll Wits to detect a lie.

A successful roll opens one Door. An exceptional success on this roll opens two Doors. Failure imposes a cumulative –1 on all further rolls with the same victim; the Storyteller can also worsen the impression level by one (if she does the player takes a Beat). If failure lowers the impression level to “hostile,” the persuading character had better find some way to improve his chances.

If your character knows one of his victim’s Aspirations he can use that to his advantage. He has to present a clear path to her Aspiration, and the steps he’ll take to help her achieve it. Doing so opens one Door. If the stated opportunity presents itself and the persuading character doesn’t help, two Doors close.

Failure

Social maneuvering fails when the victim no longer trusts the persuading character. This can happen when the player rolls a dramatic failure on an attempt to open a Door, though the player takes a beat as usual. Otherwise, the victim has to realize that she’s been lied to and manipulated — not just that the persuading character was trying to talk her into something, but that he’s only ever used her for that goal and doesn’t care about anything else. Finally, the attempt fails if the impression level reaches “hostile” and remains there for a week.

Forcing Doors

Sometimes, subtlety just won’t cut it. A character needs something right now, and will do anything to persuade his victim to do what he wants. He can attempt to force his victim’s Doors, but it’s a high-risk method. Forcing Doors is a sure-fire way for a character to burn bridges and leave lies and mistrust in his wake.

To force a victim’s Doors, state your goal and your approach. Make a roll for your approach as you would to open a Door normally, but apply the current number of closed Doors as a penalty to the roll. If you succeed, you open all your victim’s Doors. If you fail, your victim won’t ever trust you again; you can’t use Social maneuvering against her again.

To make things easier for the persuading character, he can apply hard leverage — a catch-all euphemism for threats, intimidation, drugging, blackmail, and other heavy-handed forms of coercion. If the persuader uses a form of hard leverage, it’s a breaking point for him. The Storyteller decides the level of the breaking point. If the difference between that level and the character’s Humanity score is 2 or less, hard leverage removes one Door. If the difference is 3 or more, it removes two Doors. Hard leverage can only be used in conjunction with forcing Doors; remove the Doors before rolling for the character’s approach.

Resolution

Once her final Door is open, the victim has to do something. Storyteller characters abide by the declared goal and do what the persuading character wants.

If a character tries to use Social maneuvering on the same victim again, that affects how many Doors she throws up in his path. If the attempt succeeded by opening Doors, subsequent influence attempts begin with one fewer Door. If the attempt failed, or the persuader used hard leverage, successive influence attempts begin with two more Doors. A victim always starts an influence attempt with at least one Door.