Alright, I'm rejoining the random and rampant speculation crowd for this blog, with yet another "How They Could Do It" blog, this time concerning a way to tie in character customization on the part of the player with social interaction. This is going to be quite a long and involved blog, and if you can bear with me to the end, I will be happy to go into more detail if all of you seem interested.
The basic premise of all of my ideas for the WODMMORPG is simple: make it as close a translation of the tabletop rules, setting, and atmosphere as possible. In service of this, I would like to propose that characters in the WODMMO get many of the same options as our tabletop characters get; in this case, the power to select and Nature and a Demeanor. I've always found Nature and Demeanor an extremely graceful way of defining your character as a person, and yet at the same time providing a mechanical impact in a game based heavily around politics and interpersonal skills. It is not so heavy-handed as declaring a character's alignment, nor is it so pigeonholed as taking on a virtue and a vice. A character with a "Monster" Nature is not necessarily a stereotypical evil person - even a devout scion of the Church could end up being a Monster if they crusade too long and too hard. (The new head of the Inquisition might qualify as a "Monster" Nature if her moniker - "the Original Iron Maiden" - is anything to go by.) Demeanor keeps up the theme of masks and deceit in the Old World of Darkness, acting as a layer that separates the secret inner character from the rest of the world. It also gives players a handy launching point to jump off of when creating a new character. A more outgoing or personable Demeanor might be inclinded to higher Social Skills, while one that is dedicated to quiet research and scholasticism may take more Mental.
So I asked myself a while ago, "Why not put this into the WODMMO?" It really can't be that hard to do - character customization is a big part of any MMO out there, for in spite of the massive numbers of people who play them, the goal of the game is still to tell the story of our character, their triumphs and failures, and to do it all in our own personal style. I originally proposed this idea up on the Planet-Vampire forums, but I think it bears repeating in a setting as dedicated to roleplaying as this site.
Let us begin at the beginning, then: character creation. When a player creates a new character, and gets their look down just right, spending all their starter dots and freebie experience, they are then taken to a Character Personality and Social page. At least one part of this page is the selection of the character's inner personal Nature and their outward projecting Demeanor. The list of Archetypes throughout the various books is quite a long one, and we may not need to see some of the more esoteric and hard-to-implement ones in the WODMMO, such as Enigma. (See V20 pg. 91 or Guide to the Sabbat pg 87.) We will need a good selection, however, so that not all Brujah end up being Rebel/Fanatics, or all Ventrue Capitalist/Directors. The wonderful part about this propostion is that it gives players the chance to break the mold with their character, as you will see below. Some of the easier Archetypes to implement might be Bravo ("Might makes right", V20 81), Gallant ("You're not the showstopper: you're the show!", V20 81), and Survivor ("Nothing can keep you down", V20 81).
The basic mechanical function f a character's Nature and Demeanor in the WODMMO would be to score points off one another in a social setting. This is nothing we don't see in the real world or in tabletop, only we tend not to put actual numbers on someone's social value. However, having a number system in the WODMMO might be more useful in the long run than it would be a pain in the ass for all those players who don't want their social interaction to be regulated by any system. Remember, players should always have the option of socializing purely through their own methods; manipulating another character in the way I propose would be a conscious, voluntary act on the part of the manipulator. You don't have to use it if you don't want to.
Using Nature and Demeanor in this way requires another set of mechanics that would help to judge and streamline character-on-character social interaction. (Player-on-player social interaction naturally cannot be judged so easily.) Character-on-character interaction is where the mechanical bits come in, and I theorize that they will include such things as designing and implementing player contracts (like we see in EVE Online; fundamentally - and I really love this about the EVE Online system - it lets one player give a quest to another player!), management and trade of Backgrounds, and in this case the chance to manipulate other characters by using their Nature and Demeanor against them. This would be accomplished by opening up a set of social-based commands, much like we saw in games like The Sims, many first-person RPGs, and of course tabletop VTM. These are the social weapons and armor that characters use against one another to bring things about. They include things like Charm, Bribe, Intimidate, Flatter, Carouse, Harass, Convince, Empathize, Command, Flirt/Seduce, Beg, and outright Lie. For lack of a better phrase, I am going to call all of these actions "social attacks". I haven't quite worked out how "social defense" might work, but that depends greatly on whether the developers go for Appearance or Composure as the third Social Attribute.
The more closely aligned a character's Nature and Demeanor are, they will be more easily manipulated by specific influences, but they will be resistant to many more. On the other hand, the further apart Nature and Demeanor are, the less impact any one influence will have on them, but they will be susceptible to a greater number of influences. To return to our example of the Rebel Nature/Bravo Demeanor character, this character would be more susceptible to Flattery ("My, how big and strong you are!"), Humility ("I'm not strong enough to do it; that's why I need your help"), and Carouse ("How do you like your whiskey?").
Now let's put this mishmash of rules and proposals together and see how they might work out in a social setting in the game.
The Scene
Enter your character into an Elysium scene: a high-society bash thrown by an up-and-coming Malkavian who, word has it, is bidding to become Keeper of all future Elysia.
Dramatis personae:
Your character, who we shall say has a Rebel Nature and a Bravo Demeanor. (Maybe they weren't the best person to invite to this soiree, but beggers can't be choosers.)
The Malkavian ancilla, who has a Traditionalist Nature and a Gallant Demeanor.
The aide to the Prince, who is scouting out the Malkavian's potential, and has a Director Nature and a Traditionalist Demeanor.
Archetype Influences (for theoretical purposes only):
Rebel influenced by: Carouse, Empathize, and Lie
Bravo influenced by: Bribe, Flatter, and Flirt
Traditionalist influenced by: Bribe, Harass, and Command
Gallant influenced by: Charm, Carouse, and Flirt
Director influenced by: Bribe, Convince, and Empathize.
So this means that your character, as a Rebel/Bravo, is "vulnerable" to being influenced by characters who wish to Carouse, Empathize, Lie, Bribe, Flatter, or Flirt with them. Any of these approaches are more appealing to your character's personality and social reputation than other approaches. Let's say just for theory's sake that for every successful "social attack" made against a character's Nature, you get +6 influence with that character. For every successful social attack against a character's Demeanor, you get +3. Every other successful social attack only gets you +1 influence. (Sheer face time has some perks.) The Malkavian ancilla is influenced by Bribe, Harass, Command, Charm, Carouse, and Flirt. The aide to the Prince is vulnerable to Convince, Empathize, Harass, Command, and is extremely susceptible to a good Bribe (since it occupies both his Nature and his Demeanor. A successful Bribe would net a manipulating character +9 total influence.)
Your character walks boldly up to the Malkavian to introduce themselves and to meet the host of the party. Now, this Malkavian isn't bad looking, and it would score you some major points with the Malkavian's rival if you could say you slept with the Malkavian at their own party, make them look "easy" in front of everybody. So your character starts off with a "Flirt" social attack, netting you +3 influence from the Malkavian's Demeanor. (In order to be seen as being popular, the Malkavian has to respond to your character's clumsy overtures.) The Malkavian, in turn, compliments your character's physique using Flattery, appealing to your own character's Bravo Demeanor for +3 influence points.
Meanwhile, the aide to the Prince notices how you and the Malkavian are hitting it off - but the Prince wouldn't want this promising new ancilla associating with your kind of people. The aide moseys on over to you and the Malkavian and tries to pry you away from the conversation. You've heard rumors that this aide can be bought pretty easily - they use their position more for the prestige and the wealth than they do for the good of city or Prince. So you allow yourself to be pulled aside so you can offer a secret Bribe to the aide in return for leaving you alone with the Malkavian ancilla. The Bribe works (though the aide thinks its a little on the low side), and not only are you free to put your moves on the Malkavian, you just gained +9 influence with the aide to the Prince! (To put this in fluff terms, you now have a hold over the aide because they accepted your bribe, and now they know you can be a source of further bribes to cushion their own existence. The aide, in return, got quite a bit of money and the ability to tell the Prince, "Well, your Majesty, I tried to stop that nasty Rebel/Bravo, but that Malkavian just wouldn't listen!")
"Success" in a "social attack" could easily be measured no matter how the developers choose to put in conflict resolution mechanics. The simplest and easiest way, to me, would be to simply use the same rules as tabletop - put dots in Attributes and Abilities, then combine them together and roll for the results. Depending on how detailed and complex this game becomes, specialties could be taken that increase the power of certain social attacks, or make your character more resistant to certain attacks. Maybe if your character has a high Intelligence or a high Academics, they could take the "Super-Educated" bonus, which means they are more resistant to Flirt attempts, but more vulnerable to Convince attempts. (As somebody who Convinces them would be using logic, reason, and a good dose of their own Academics.) The permutations of this system are extremely numerous, and this is only one small proposal of how social combat could be managed in the WODMMO. Sooner rather than later, I hope that the developers can give us some sort of official word on the matter.
10 Comments
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0 Merits
296 days ago
And one last note: Nature and Demeanor would have some more functionality than guiding social interaction. As with tabletop, you'd also be able to regain Willpower based on your Nature [and possibly Demeanor] for performing certain actions. Perhaps the "Bravo" Nature would get +2 Willpower for beating people up, while a "Bravo" Demeanor only gets +1 Willpower. (Depending on the scale of the game - maybe we'd have 1-100 Willpower, not just 1-10.) ---- This part depends entirely on how many "other" actions you can take, though. If they don't put in a lot of environmental or NPC content, then some Archetypes are going to be pretty starved of Willpower.
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0 Merits
269 days ago
As one more last note, a player should be able to change their character's Demeanor every now and then, in case they fall in with a new crowd, undergo some sort of intensely personal shift that changes their outlook, or simply because they want to keep things interesting for their rivals. ---- I could see this being done according to some sort of "migratory" system, where you move along a continuum of related Natures and Demeanors, such as: Rebel Bravo Survivor Capitalist Director Traditionalist, etc., instead of jumping directly from Rebel to Director.
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DoPo
269 days ago
I've never understood this. Demeanor is just an one word description of how a character prefers to act. It's not perfect, not all encompassing, and most of all, it can change at a moment's notice: one can switch between a Monster and Traditionalist in order to blend in somewhere - think about a serial killer, for example, while an undercover cop may need to act as a Deviant for his assignment and so on. I don't think Demeanor should be limiting. Besides, how do you regulate that? The Demeanor, if any, would be expressed mostly through the character's speech - how do you make sure somebody is acting like Bravo or Deviant based on that? I understand the need of character consistency but Demeanor has never struck me as a good way to do it. In fact, I've always left it blank on my character sheets, since I'll be roleplaying it anyway.
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0 Merits
The way it would work in practice is the way you describe - Demeanor may be a description, but the way a player actually plays their character would adapt to the situation - going from a Monster to a Traditionalist and back again as necessary. The Demeanor would only be affected by the mechanical social interplay, if you're communicating on a player-to-player level, you can project yourself however you want. ---- If we wanted to make Demeanor deeper and have a bigger presence in social mechanics, we could also put a "penalty" on each Archetype - for example, if you're a Bravo and you choose the "Humble" approach in interacting with another character, you lose social points somehow. This might make more players lean in to the Archetypes they chose, and away from "opposite" Demeanors. ---- Slowing down the speed at which you can change Demeanor is merely to prevent players from abusing the system, if it were to be put in. Otherwise, if you could change it every second, then people would just cycle through them to prevent other people from influencing them. ---- Demeanor is merely the way your character most commonly projects themselves, not how they have to act every second of every day. Everybody has a Demeanor whether they like it or not. There's absolutely nothing stopping characters from acting totally randomly, of course, but in that case you could just as easily say they have an Enigma or Chameleon Demeanor.
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-1 Merits
jlcrowl
305 days ago
I hear you, Rick. Nature and Demeanor offered players a reason to do irrational things, something sorely missing in games like D&D. Still, I kind of preferred the way Virtue & Vice worked out. NWoD's equivalent was universal for all the Genre-books, and remained pretty easy to explain to new players. That's my take at least. Meanwhile: Welcome to the Rampant Speculators' Club!
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0 Merits
304 days ago
Several months ago, Harlequin did briefly put up some leaked game information and character screenshots that he had to subsequently take down (and I never got a look at 'em!), but from what I hear, they included some basic Archetypes for mortal characters. ---- However, also from what I hear, you only got to choose one archtype at that stage in character creation, so it was basicall your character "class" and background. I'd really prefer to see the interplay between two such archetypes in the form of Nature and Demeanor or, if they choose to borrow from Requiem, I'd rather have both Virtue and Vice than a single pre-recorded Archetype.
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5 Merits
jlcrowl
302 days ago
Hey-a, Rick. : ) Yes, the screen shots he described suggested players would start out with a certain "archetype/class," but it wasn't anything like the ones we saw in OWoD. Rather, they were things like "Junkie," "Executive," "Journalist" and other career/lifestyle options. Presumably, they'd give you a starting place for your character from which to build.
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1 Merits
294 days ago
I hope that those Archetypes would act more like "Histories" than Nature or Demeanor. ---- In fact, combining two of my ideas, perhaps those Archetypes could be used like the Histories from modded Bloodlines: they give small starter bonuses based on the personal background of that Archetype. ---- If you chose the "Detective" Archetype, for example, you'd either start off with some gear that a Detective would reasonably have - a Heavy Pistol, Trenchcoat (+1 Bashing and Lethal Armor), and binoculars. Or, if mortal players can set up or join mortal factions like the Police Department, a "Detective" archetype would start off with some free "points" to spend down at the precinct, where they could buy some starter gear from a selection. Things like pistols, bodyarmor, perhaps even a starter police motorcycle. ---- Other Archetypes would have different bonuses - a Venture Capitalist would start off with a bunch more cash (but NOT dots in Resources - they have to invest the cash), a Loner would get at least a temporary resistance to Blood Bonds (effectively subtracting one level, perhaps, to reflect the idea that they do not want or need to be around people). White Wolf can do a lot with Archetypes if they want to.
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0 Merits
DoPo
305 days ago
It would be very interesting if CCP can bring any of this into the game in any form. I would love to be able to set up some motivations for the character. I've always disliked Demeanor, though. It serves no actual purpose in a game. And I don't mean there aren't any mechanics tied to it, it actually serves no real purpose, in my view. It's just a one word description of how a character acts...which is in inaccurate and incomplete. Not to mention that it's really easy to change, further rendering Demeanor unreliable. Hence I find it irrelevant. For my own character(s) I know how they act and I show it through play. If I have NPCs or otherwise just some characters lying around, I find it's better to just jot down a quick few things, if I need reminding.
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1 Merits
305 days ago
As a separate note, if the developers include this kind of set of mechanics to help govern social interaction, then Abilities like Etiquette, Expression, and Performance will become a lot more useful in an action-oriented MMORPG than they might otherwise. Expression would probably give the character more manipulative options to choose from - you can only Flatter someone if you take another dot in Expression, for example - or allow characters to further specialize in certain manipulative techniques, like 10% to all influence gained through Flattery.
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