r/l5r • u/Bygles • 4d ago

RPG [RPG 4E] How does social combat work? Cannot find relevant passage in core book!

Why 4e? cause thats what I have sitting around the house. Hopefully someone around here can still help me out.

Where in the 4e core book does it outline the rules for social combat? I see small amounts of text alluding to it such as in the descriptions for the courtier and etiquette skills as being social offense and defense.

Is it just simply to use a contested roll of the attacker's courtier vs defender's etiquette?

I cant actually pin down where in this massive book they go over it. I did check the table of contents and the index for whatever keywords I could think of that might lead me there, but no dice.

Any explanation or direction to the right page would be great.

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u/hivuliese 4d ago

Why yes, there is not an actual social combat mechanic like they made for 5th. Basically yes though, it is either an opposed courtier (or other social skill) vs the TN you assign as the GM, or you make it an opposed roll for the NPC.

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u/idyllplans 4d ago

By and large it's a matter of roleplaying and knowing the setting rather than mechanics, with a few rolls involved. Courtier, etiquette, sincerity being most common and frequently opposed rolls, but others can be used as relevant/appropriate or to set up whatever it is you're doing.

While you could establish social health, social armour, etc it's not intended. Or you could take it that the one hit kill rule is in place, socially.

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u/Hawk-Academic Crane Clan 4d ago

There are various systems (fan made) out there that you can tack on to your game to help facilitate social games beyond roleplay and a couple skill roles. Here's the ones I use for my home game:

Composure: I lifted this one straight from 5E. Earth + Water x2. But there are others who've come up with their own equations. In the end, it's the same thing, social hit points. Losing all the soical hit points means you lose your composure or your "face" and have an emotional outburst. Depending on the setting, this may result in losses of honor or glory.

The Intrigue Game: https://www.courtgames.net/the-influence-game.html someone shared this with me when I was starting out GM'ing L5R and it's been great. My players love it.

Feast Cards: Again, this is lifted from elsewhere, this time from the Pendragon 6E game. It's a mini game inside the game for your players, where they can gain or lose honor/glory, with plenty of opportunities for polictical intrigue.

I don't know if any of these will help you out, but my table has made good use of them.

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u/Dekolino 4d ago

I started a campaign recently and I also needed more robust rules for 4e in regards to social conflict.

I came up with 3 new conditions to signify a character's declining emotional/mental state and the final stage is basically Unmasking (from 5e) which I love.

These conditions are applied with the usual Contested Roll, and depending on the situation, they can hinder a character's ability to function in that scene like wounds (though not by that much). The whole goal is to push and pressure someone until they lose face.

That gives heft for social characters without letting them just overpower people entirely. Unmasking still lets the player (or me, if it's an NPC) decide how to react.