Long Beats - The Problem with Protracted Politicking

[ZetaStriker]

Okay, so I'm hitting a stumbling block. I love the idea of long Social conflicts, with beats in weeks, months or years, that frame the minute-to-minute story going on. There's just one problem, and that's the Resilience recovery mechanic. With characters getting back 1 Reputation per day, I don't see how a long Social Conflict can ever resolve without one side getting and releasing a large number of Secrets all at once. Is this the intention, or might I be missing something important? Any suggestions?

[Aminar]

I see your point.  I was going to say mortal burdens, but that isn't the right answer.  The correct answer is that I can't imagine a campaign working like that. 


But the system needs a way to cripple resources, and influence.  And I do think burdens should become a negative on unopposed rolls.  If I break my leg I'm not lifting that pot.  If I just got robbed I'm not getting a loan, etc.

[Skywalker]

Long term effects are measured by Burdens not Resilience loss, which are just numerical. Sure this makes doing big hits more important but it does model longer term conflicts. Plus you can have periods of bursts of smaller beats amongst the longer ones, depending on narration.

[hidajiremi]

I would just rule that you can't recover resilience during an active conflict, since you're not getting a chance to "rest."

[Skywalker]

Actually that's pretty good. For conflicts over a day, relying on short and long breathers for recovery only works just fine. I get the feeling that the 1 per day was meant to be a token gesture for vermisimiltude in any case, and Breathers are a better way to handle recovery overall.

[ReaderAt2046]

I have a similar problem. In my campaign, the heroes are trying to undermine a merchant by stealing his goods. That would seem to come under Harassment in the Mental Conflicts section. My problem is that I've already RP'd the heroes stealing the goods, so how do I decide what impact that has?

[Skywalker]

I have a similar problem. In my campaign, the heroes are trying to undermine a merchant by stealing his goods. That would seem to come under Harassment in the Mental Conflicts section. My problem is that I've already RP'd the heroes stealing the goods, so how do I decide what impact that has?

A lot depends on the set up, especially for mental conflict. Care to elaborate?

[ReaderAt2046]

My crew are in the employ of House Tersius, which is competing with House Cett for some luthadel imports. At the beginning of the campaign, they stole a load of goods that was supposed to go to House Hasting. Then I had to decide how to roll damage for that.

[Skywalker]

My crew are in the employ of House Tersius, which is competing with House Cett for some luthadel imports. At the beginning of the campaign, they stole a load of goods that was supposed to go to House Hasting. Then I had to decide how to roll damage for that.

To be honest that doesn't sound like a mental conflict to me. It just sound like a cool scene.

It might be a social conflict if there was an attempt to make House Cett look bad but even then if you are playing the scenes out in full, rather than more globally, I would tend not to make it one of those either. The natural results of the scene would be better than trying to reduce it down to a loss fo Reputation or Willpower.

[ReaderAt2046]

My current solution is this: During prolonged Social conflicts, you neither recover spent Influence and Resources, nor regenerate Reputation and Willpower damage, by any ordinary means (natural healing, Breathers, etc.) The only exception is if the Narrator chooses to grant you recovery. (At one point in my game, winning a Charm contest against your enemy to net an important contract restored a point of Resources.)