How to do the talkie-talkie bits in role playing games. Some players really like social interactions. Some players favorite part of the game is social interaction. Some players just want smash. The key to a good social interaction is to identify the interests or needs of the players (flat out asking is OK) and provide an NPC who can provide it or provide the quest that will provide it.
SEQUENCE OF PLAY
Step 1. The DM populates a setting with randomly generated NPCs and/or pre-prepared NPCs.
Step 2. The players state what goal they have for a social interaction
Step 3. The DM determines if one of the NPCs available can fulfill the goal
Step 4. DM introduces the NPC
Step 5. Players engage with the NPC
Step 6. DM determines if Speech rolls are needed and describes the results.
Rewards of Social Interaction: There are numerous rewards for successful social interactions.
-Make contacts or form connections with people who can provide goods or services, provide work, plot hooks, or quests
-Establish patrons, mentors, and other allies
-Join factions
-Learn helpful advice, secrets and rumors, and interesting lore
-Influence people, gain favor, build a reputation, spread a rumor
-Hire hirelings
-Gamble
-Barter for discounts with merchants
Locations: NPCs for social interactions can appear anywhere, but are more likely to appear in urban settings. The best place to meet people is a busy place like a tavern or a market. Some NPCs may only be available in specific locations at specific times. Some NPCs may behave differently at different times and places.
Reputation: NPCs talk about the players when they're not around. If PCs do good, they can build a reputation as being good, helpful, noble, or heroic. If NPCs do bad, they can build a reputation as trouble-makers or a dangerous people. The PCs can have a mixed reputation. The NPCs will associate the PCs as a group so the poor decisions of one PC can affect them all. A very good reputation might get the PCs friends in high places. A very bad reputation might get the PCs outlaws and over zealous guards for friends.
Dispositions: NPCs have a disposition towards a PC or the party that can range from hostile to indifferent to friendly. Individual NPCs' dispositions towards the party can be changed based on their interactions. The general disposition of NPCs in a given location can be changed based on the party's reputation.
Speech Rolls: Speech rolls are made by PCs against NPCs only and include Diplomacy or Persuasion, Bluffing and Deception, or Intimidation and Threats. The DM should not use speech rolls against the players. Players should not use speech rolls against players. The reason for this is because players get to decide how their player reacts to and feels about an interaction. If the DM can genuinely charm, trick, or scare a player, all the better.
Insight: Insight is how the players attempt to protect themselves against deceit and NPCs with ulterior motivations by reading their body language and other subtleties. A player can ask for an insight roll during an interaction with an NPC. Insight is not mind reading. No matter how high a player rolls, insight will not tell them exactly what the NPC is thinking, just whether or not the NPC seems to be hiding something or that the NPC make you feel like you can't trust something they said.
Plot Devices: NPCs are plot devices. A plot device is a means of progressing a story. Players know this and generally don't care about the NPCs, which is OK. That said, well-done NPCs can also be believable, enjoyable, and memorable characters.
Plot Hooks: NPCs are the best way to provide players with plot hooks. A plot hook is a way to get the reader invested in a story. In other words, NPCs give the players an appealing problem or challenge with the promise of a worthwhile reward. Example: "I lost my gold sword in the sewer last year when I went searching for that baby dragon." The DM should provide the players with multiple plot hooks.
HOW TO RUN A (SIMPLE) SOCIAL INTERACTION
-NPCs may approach the players first and initiate conversation, and provide one or more plot hooks.
-Alternatively, the DM can just ask the players what they want to do (either in character as a town guard or bar maid, or out of character) and recommend or provide an NPC for the players to speak with.
-The players find and engage this NPC. The NPC provides a plot hook. Done.
-Some NPCs are just opportunists who want to capitalize on the resourceful adventurers.
Complex Social Interactions: Some social interactions require tact and quid pro quo. PCs have to provide something to the NPC in order for the NPC to provide something to the PCs. These are encounters that require speech rolls, player knowledge of the setting and character, and sometimes a certain reputation.
HOW TO RUN A (COMPLEX) SOCIAL INTERACTION
-PCs need stuff. NPCs have stuff. Stuff is not free.
-PCs must discover which NPCs have the stuff they need. This may require research, investigation, or time spent asking around and gathering information and rumors. The PC states what they do. The DM determines the results.
-PCs have to meet NPCs. Sometimes, there are barriers to entry, like a guard who refuses to let PCs in to see the governor until you've completed some busywork or get someone reputable to vouch for their intentions.
-Some NPCs have objections. Sometimes, they don't reveal their objectives, in which case, the players may need to identify the NPC objections with insight or additional investigation.
-The PCs must be able to satisfy the objections of the NPCs or provide the NPC with some sort of incentive to counter the NPCs objections.
-PCs can make a speech roll (persuasion, deception, intimidation) to make propositions, attempt to satisfy the objections, or offer incentives. If the DM needs the players to succeed, the players may succeed anyway and the roll is only used to determine how well the PCs succeed or whether they fail forward.
-There is also offense. Some NPCs can be offended. The only way to resolve offense may be to apologize. The conversation may end abruptly or violently unless the PC thinks fast and acts smart.
DMs should prepare:
-Lists of names, personalities, occupations, and defining physical features for randomly generating NPCs
-Rumor Tables
-Multiple quests
-Multiple plot hooks for important quest
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