Interaction
Combat and exploration are default modes of play in traditional tabletop roleplay games. In Labyrinths & Liontaurs, equal weight is given to non-combat interactions. This mode of play emphasizes conflict resolution wthout violence — persuasion, bluff, intimidation, divination, trickery, and charm are key here. Rather than scatter interaction rules here and there, the heart of those rules (including some brand-new mechanics) are featured in this section. And because social interactions require a knowledge of societies, so the rules here help game masters create interesting cultures, nations, and settlements. So when you are negotiating with a dragon, hiring barbarian mercenaries, pleading with a demigod, or dictating terms to a defeated general, these rules offer compelling ways outside combat to win challenges and earn experience.
On this page: Interaction Challenges | Culture, Mores, Folkways | Demense, Settlement, Dominion | Reputation | Interaction Magic
Interaction Challenges
Interaction challenges offer a way to resolve conflicts and determine outcomes in non-violent situations. They replace or supplement single skill checks when a meeting among creatures is too complex to be resolved with one roll. These challenges introduce an element of risk with a series of successes and failures for you to navigate. Most importantly, they emphasize your creativity by encouraging the clever use of magic, abilities, and skills.
Designing an Interaction Challenge
When you as a game master create an interaction challenge, make sure that you set it up to resolve a particular situation. Clarity helps defeat confusion, so be clear about what the challenge is about, and what will happen, win or lose.
Set up the challenge as a scenario in which player characters need to leap over a number of hurdles. Track when they notch a win (a success) and when they drop the ball (a failure). For an average difficulty challenge, once the party has achieved a number of sucesses equal the number of player characters in the group, the challenge is won; if the party has that many failures first, the challenge is lost. A party with five players should win five hurdles before they see five failures to win the challenge. For a harder challenge, raise the number of successes needed and lower the number of falures that leads to a loss. For an easier challenge, require fewer successes and allow more failures. There are three kinds of hurdles you can use in your challenge:
- Roleplay hurdle: You can count a hurdle cleared simply by giving credit to good roleplay. A convincing argument delivered in character, a well-turned phrase, a touch of humor or an appeal to emotion ... thse can be powerful ways to notch a success.
- Skill hurdle: You can make a skill check relevant to the challenge. The DC should be around 10-15 plus character level; adjust the DC to make the hurdle harder or easier.
- Magic / ability hurdle: Apply a spell, magic item, feat, class ability, or other power to clear a hurdle — in a way that fits to resolve the challenge. If the application is really spot on, clever, and logical, it can count for two, three, or even four successes (but never more than one failure).
Plan for a mix of challenges and be flexible. Do not dictate HOW a hurdle can be cleared. You should consider possible solutions when creating the challenge, but allow for your players to be more creative and thoughtful than yourself. Allow for unexpected skill uses, smart roleplay, and amazing ablity use. This is where you reward characters for innovation and engagement. Speaking of which, if a player is shy or unengaged, make a hurdle they clear worth two successes without saying that you are rewarding the player for being bold. And be wary of players who dominate or over-contribute to these challenges, perhaps privately encouraging them later to take it down a notch, and to allow others to shine.
Running an Interaction Challenge
Just as it is vital that players know a combat has started, so too they need to know that an interaction has begun. So start by telling players clearly that they are in an interaction challenge, and that they need X successes and not Y failures. Describe the situation, the goal, and the number of successes and falures.
You may want to declare the skill DCs you are looking for, or not — You may have lower DCs for more relevant skills. But in general, do not overemphasize skill use over roleplay and other abilities. Make sure to engage your players with descriptions of the action as they attempt to jump the hurdles you have set, just as a good game master describes combat as more than simply numbers going down. As they chalk up successes and failures, keep the tally of each out in the open.
Sample Interaction Challenges
Fast-Talking the Local Constabulary
- Goal: A fifth-level party with five PCs needs to convince a suspicious local city guard to release a captured NPC rogue to the party's custody.
- Skills Difficulty: Diplomacy DC15, Bluff DC17, Perform DC20, etc.
- Successes: 5
- Failures: 3
- Possible Solutions: A PC successfully bribes or intimidates the guard; or simply gives a passionate speech about doing the right thing; or uses a town guard background to roleplay cameraderie.
Persuading a Magical Door
- Goal: The same party needs to enter a magical library. To do so, they have to convince a talking door to open.
- Skills Difficulty: Diplomacy DC12, Knowledge DC15, etc.
- Successes: 4
- Failures: 4
- Possible Solutions: A PC frightens the door with a break check, or casts a Knock spell, or engages in a discussion of esoteric lore, or simply keeps it company for a while after it turns out to be lonely.
Tips
- Collaboration: Encourage players to help each other.
- Consequences: Make them interesting, not devastating.
- Creativity: Reward clever solutions.
- Less is More: Use interaction challenges sparingly.