Non-Combat Conflict Encounters

One of the things I'm trying to do with Maximum Recursion Depth is design encounters in such a way that physical conflicts and non-physical conflicts can be treated the same way. I decided to go about this in both directions- physical conflicts can be resolved with a Save roll, but the Conflict mechanics can be applied to any kind of conflict, not just physical conflict. I tried to avoid having too many "GM Tip"-style writeups in the book, but I actually do a section of the book to this topic up-front, so I'll hold off on going into too much depth here, but you can get a sense of it from the Ashcan Edition now if you're interested.

This is not to discourage non-mechanical / player-driven problem-solving solutions to conflicts either, it's more about challenging the default assumptions of how to interact with the game when that becomes non-viable, or for that matter, using the default assumptions to even more so blend the player-driven and mechanical approaches.

I had intended for this post to be more of a general discussion, but since I'm framing it in terms of MRD I do have to provide some MRD-specific context, but I hope people find this interesting regardless.

I've still been struggling with the logistics of coordinating a playtest of the Module, but I've tried to apply this general approach to my ongoing MRD campaign and I feel good about the results up to this point. I've had some Kickstarter backers express interest in participating in a playtest as well as some people on the NSR Discord Server (see the MRD channel), but even if you're not a backer, if you're potentially interested, feel free to reach out to me in the comments here, on the server, or DM me on Discord (you can find me on the NSR server ;)).

In short, here are the basics of the MRD Mechanics:

• The three Abilities are Nature (willpower, effort), Wisdom (awareness, ability to learn), Propriety (social skills, adaptability).
  
  
• Saves involve d20 roll-under an Ability Score + d6 roll-under Karma Score.
  
  
• Each Ability is its own HP pool for characters (NPCs generally just have one single pool), and so Damage dice denote which Ability they affect e.g. Nd6, Wd4, Pd8, Xd10 (where X means it contextual / varies).

Below is one example of a non-combat conflict encounter for the Module in the first issue. The assumed setting is MRD and I'll provide MRD statblocks, but I tried to make the abilities translatable to other systems, and hopefully, many of these can be also be dropped into another setting with only a little bit of conceptual tweaking. Keep in mind that MRD is somewhat of a Mark of the Odd game, so while it would require some tweaking, you could potentially translate these to Into the Odd or Electric Bastionland or other similar games.

I generally take a stance of, try to come up with context-specific and interesting ways for players to face an encounter, and encourage them to come up with their own ideas. If a Save or Conflict is suggested in the text, that should be used in lieu of a more dynamic approach.

Bad Breath Troll (15 HP)

An explosive burst, toxic fumes spread throughout the train. The fumes are themselves a Poltergeist. Each turn, each PC rolls a NAT Save. On full success take no Damage, on Partial Success take Nd4 Damage, on Partial Failure take Nd6 Damage, and on Full Failure take Nd8 Damage.

The Poltergeist was an internet troll and will try to argue with the party on various topics. It will go away if thoroughly humiliated, or the train is vented.

Karmic Attachment Opportunity: Don’t feed the troll. No good will come of it. Accept the Damage it inflicts, accept the taunts, the bait, the insults, and carry on. The troll has a 50% chance of following the party to any subsequent encounter, and must be successfully ignored three times in a row in order to Resolve the attachment. If anyone retaliates against the Troll, it may go away temporarily, but then the counter resets.

In this case, the Poltergeist that the players encounter here is basically a gas cloud. Yes, it has HP, but you're not going to be swinging a sword at it. Instead, the HP might reflect social conflict or dispersion of the gas particles.

The NAT Save on each turn is a fairly basic way of creating tension or danger in that it deals Damage, although GMs are encouraged to come up with more creative situations. In this case, I chose the NAT Ability Score because I generally map physical exertion or other physical effects to NATure, although NAT can also include mental exertion.

I provide a brief descriptive text and some suggestions for how to confront it. It can be humiliated or vented. After discussion with some people on the MRD channel of the NSR discord server, I chose not to overly define what that entails. Depending on personal preference of GMing style, this could just be a player creativity / problem-solving situation. 

If all else fails, arguing with or humiliating the Troll could be handled with a PRO Save or PRO Conflict, where PROpriety entails one's social standing and ability to operate within society; somewhat like CHArisma but not entirely the same, but as a frame of reference.

If it's handled as a Save, you'd be treating it more like a single event, or like an environmental hazard. But in this game, you could also treat it like Conflict, where the mechanics of a verbal jab are no different than a physical jab, so if you have PRO Damage dice you could do that (but expect to take PRO Damage in return). You could imagine a similar scenario for venting the Troll from the train, needing to conceive of some means of opening the jammed train doors and hold out while the Troll slowly vents out.

In MRD, the Karmic Attachment Opportunities are meant to be core to the gameplay loop and incentivization structure, somewhat like XP. In this case, the KAO is meant to create a tension where the players are encouraged to ignore this threat, even as puts you in greater peril, and may compound future threats. And if you attempt to do so and reach a point where it is not viable to continue to do so or are baited out of doing so, you must confront the sunken cost of the Damage you took trying to ignore it.

If you are not playing in MRD, rather than a KAO, you could tie experience to the approach. Maybe defeating the Poltergeist provides no XP or some lesser amount of XP, whereas ignoring it provides a greater amount of XP, so the players are incentivized, but not forced, to take this approach. If you're not concerned with the philosophical underpinnings that I'm going for, you can just do what you want with it and ignore this, of course.

If you've made it this far into the post, thank you :), and here's a bonus one:

A live One (15 HP)
One of the eggs becomes a vessel for a Poltergeist accidentally reincarnated into the Court. It grows into an existentially frightening human-sized balut monster.
Each turn, each PC rolls a WIS Save. On full success take no Damage, on Partial Success take Wd4 Damage, on Partial Failure take Wd6 Damage, and on Full Failure take Wd8 Damage.
KAO: Help The Live One to overcome the horror of its own half-born state and metamorphose into something beautiful, or help it to come to terms with itself as a horror. The Live One will follow the Team until the attachment is Resolved, providing some assistance, but also requiring care and attention from the Team, or else it will intermittently cause existential dread and/or WIS Damage.

You can see here that I took the same default approach to tension via the Save, although in this case, it's WISdom, relating more so to one's existential or general philosophical understanding of the universe. There is a reason why we often choose to use different terms for meat for consumption vs. live animals e.g. beef == cow, pork == pig, etc. (although I realize there's also an etymological reason in English for this as well).

The KAO is somewhat similar here as in the last one, only rather than ignoring the creature, they are encouraged to engage with it, except in a non-confrontational manner. The players are encouraged, rather than treating this creature as a threat, to instead try to accept it, but doing so is effortful, and the players will need to engage with it in lieu of potentially doing other things.

However, they could also choose to face it head-on, and this could mean a physical fight, but it could also mean any number of other things. Perhaps they try a WIS Save or even WIS Conflict to simply overcome the existential threat of its existence. Perhaps they try to pawn off the obligation of caring for this thing onto a passerby (roleplay or PRO Save / Conflict).

I hope that my intentions with this creature are clear and that it's not inadvertently offensive towards the Filipino Community. I'm a vegetarian and often use the imagery of meat in my works, but this is not intended as a criticism of Filipino food or culture or meant to mock their customs or anything of the sort. I hope the KAO in particular makes it clear that this is about something else entirely anyway. But just in case, make no mistake, STOP ASIAN HATE!