d20 4e White Elephant Publishing War of Words.pdf

War of Words

War of Words

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Nick Miller and Darrel Miller

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Document, available at www.wizards.com/d20.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 4th Edition PLAYER’S HANDBOOK, written by Rob Heinsoo,

Andy Collins, and James Wyatt; DUNGEON MASTER’S GUIDE, written by James Wyatt;

and MONSTER MANUAL, written by Mike Mearls, Stephen Schubert and James Wyatt;

PLAYER’S HANDBOOK 2, written by Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, and James Wyatt;

MONSTER MANUAL 2, written by Rob Heinsoo, and Chris Sims; Adventurer’s Vault,

War of Words

War of Words is for those folks who want rules for

social interactions for the Fourth Edition of

Dungeons and Dragons that are different from

what Skill Challenges offer.

This sounds simple, but it is hard to put

into practice. Have the players tell you what they

want to do and how they plan to do it (which skill

they are using). If that sounds good to you as GM,

then tell them what will happen if they fail the roll

(maybe let them know the DC), and if everyone

agrees, roll the dice, interpret the roll. Bingo!

These rules take the same basic mechanics

used to adjudicate physical combat, and apply

them to social interactions with only a few twists.

For example, your player Darla, is playing

Weelsa a thief. Darla wants to sneak into the keep

and murder the Count. You would then want to ask

her how she intends to do that. Darla tells you that

she is going to use her Stealth skill to slip in

unnoticed and murder the

Count. As the GM you decide

what is going to happen if she

fails her roll. Here are some

possibilities: 1 ) Weesla kills

the Count but is caught on the

way out; 2) Weesla never gets

near the Count (cue a combat

or chase scene). Once your

player agrees to the conditions

of failure, she rolls her dice and

lives with the results. And the

move on to the rest of the story.

Don't hang around the Castle, the

Count is dead, cue more story.

Normally the above may take

up the entire session, and if that

is what your group decides

would be fun, then do it.

However, I think Dungeons and Dragons suffers

from what I call Story Stalling.

A word of note: Just like combat after

combat after combat after combat can be

BORING, so to is a War of Words after a War of

Words after a War of Words. Do not do that to

your players, or yourself. This is about

fun, its about some drama, its about

action. So, just like with combat, use

a War of Words when it would be

cool to play out the social

interaction, otherwise just make a

roll once or two and move on.

And that applies to

more than just a War of

Words , it also applies to

combat. How many combats

have you had, just because it

was combat? That does not

sound like fun to me, and if

it does not to you either,

here is a suggestion to get

back to the excitement a

conflict of any kind should

generate in your players:

Run traditional combats like a skill roll.

Thats right, I said it. Just do it. Sure you

will speed through the “game”, but when you hit

those points where a “real” conflict (social or

physical) happens, they will be awesome. Then

using either the combat rules, or War of Words ,

you can stretch out those awesome moments and

suck out all the marrow you can. Then you will

have some truly great things to sit around the table

and reminisce about.

Story Stalling occurs when we try to turn

every moment of the game into a Dramatic Cliff

Hanger Awesome Moment Forever to Live in

Gamer Memory TM .

The truth is most of what happens in the

game, like in life, is just not that cool. But

eventually some event, some character, something

is going to grab your players attention. Right then

and there you can unfold the combat rules or War

War of Words

of Words rules and spend some time exploring that

interesting person, place or thing. These detailed

rules allow you to take your time and build some

great memories.

Just like combat, initiative is rolled on the

first round of debating. Most debate powers take a

standard action that provokes opportunity attacks.

The careful planning and deliverance of a thought

takes too much time and concentration to allow for

any sort of dedicated or vigorous physical

movement.

Think of Action Movies. They are full of

action, fill your next RPG session with action. Not

by having tons of EXCITING things occur, but by

move along at a nice pace, just like explained

above: Make Killing the Count one die roll, make

most of the session One Roll Wonders, and I can

almost guarantee that when a combat (physical or

mental) shows up it will be awesome . And you

will see it coming, and it will BEG to be played

out, then some real fun will happen.

Debate powers are marked with the

‘Debate’ keyword.

Most debate powers will use a skill as a

bonus instead of an attribute. This bonus is added

to the result of a d20 roll, just like an attack.

Most debate powers will also have a skill

as a target instead of a defense. The target number

to hit with the debate power will be 10 + the

target’s total value for that skill.

Say Yes, or Roll the dice once.

Now to the meat of this article: the rules

for War of Words . Enjoy.

A debate power that has an attack of

Diplomacy vs. Insight would require a character to

roll a d20 + their Diplomacy and score a total

greater than or equal to the target’s Insight + 10 to

“hit” with the power.

The first step is to determine, as explained

above, what each group of debaters want to do (i.e.

convince the Merchant to part with that very nice

garment cheaply, join our party, run away, and

what happens if they fail.)

When choosing the target of a debate

power, the attacker may target any character

involved in the debate (even those that are not

principle debaters.)

Next determine principle debaters. There

should be a single character per side in the debate.

More than one character can be involved in a

debate per side, but each side needs a champion to

be the main actor and defender.

If the power hits, any status affects are applied to

the target character, but any derision points come

from the argument pool that was established by the

principle debater.

Each of these principle debaters will

provide an argument pool. The argument pool is

analogous to hit points, and when the pool is

depleted the debater has been defeated.

In this way all characters that rally behind a

cause risk defeat, and their defenses are only as

strong as their weakest link. (It is best for people

not so skilled at oration to shut their mouth and not

get involved.)

This pool is calculated by taking the

character’s charisma and adding to it the highest of

the character’s intelligence or wisdom. In this

sense, a character might be very wise and practical

or very crafty and intelligent, but ultimately their

presentation and charisma also provide firmament

to their platform.

Instead of damage, many debate actions

cause a number of points of derision.

War of Words

Derision is subtracted from the target’s

argument pool, much like damage is subtracted

from a target’s hit points. When an opponent is

reduced to zero or less argument points, they have

been bested with no chance of rebuttal. In most

cases, this means that the opponent is forced to

temporarily concede, or that the audience favors

one debater’s argument over others.

are a little anti-4ed-ism: not everyone can

contribute to the conflict.

There are three ways to approach this: The

first way is to keep the debate short. (This can

allow characters that have trained the appropriate

skills to shine for a few moments.) The second

way is to rule that the target number of a debate

attack is not from the target’s skills, but instead

from the highest skill total in the party. A third

way is to make sure that the opposition has a few

unskilled characters as well.

The system requires some new status

effects to be defined. These are essentially the

debate equivalent of some of the combat status

effects. Similar to combat status effects, these

debate status effects either end with a save, or

expire at the end of the attacker’s next turn.

A War of Words is not mind control. If you

debate and are victorious, it does not necessarily

mean your opponents suddenly agree or share your

beliefs. Winning means you have convinced the

audience to see things your way and that you have

forced your opponent to concede. This doesn’t

mean that the merchant you just haggled with will

want to do business with you in the future, or that

the vizier of the king you just bested won’t try to

poison you the next time your back is turned. It

just means they give into your immediate

demands.

Social Interaction Statuses

Stymied – The target cannot make debate actions

during its turn. (Similar to Stunned.)

Provoked – If the target makes a debate action

that targets someone other than the provoking

character, that debate action suffers a -2 to its

attack roll. (Similar to Marking.)

Sputtering – Reduce the derision of the target’s

debate powers by half. (Similar to Weakened.)

Debate Powers

What follows are the standard debate

powers open to virtually anyone who engages in a

Debate Encounter.

War of Words Outline

1. Determine Goal

2. Choose Principal Debaters

3. Figure Argument Pool; Cha + Int/Wis

4. Roll Initiative

5. Attack/Defend using Debate Powers

6. Repeat step 5 until Argument Pool is 0

Some of the powers are Feat Powers, and

thus require the acquirement of the feat in question

to use.

The powers are listed as having a level, but

this system does not take into account levels in

either argument pool determination nor in

acquiring new debate powers.

Running Debates

Debates are very similar to combat in

execution. Use them when you hit a point in your

story that just cries out for more than a One Roll

Wonder, watch for them, their howls will be

unmistakable. Perhaps you may think these rules

In many cases, a debate power will have an

enhanced or additional effect if the character using

the power is trained in a specific skill.

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