Social Actions     Physical combat tends to be the iconic activity of adventuring, and some parties devote themselves to nothing but their skills at violence. A party that never overcomes a menacing beast nor clears a dangerous ruin barely qualifies as an adventuring party. However, not every fight is fought with physical weapons. Though many adventurers care little for the opinions of others, those who become verbally skilled in dealing with society enjoy unique benefits of their own. If your adventuring career earns you "civilized" enemies - enemies that cannot or should not be accosted physically - defending yourself from slander may be as critical to your adventuring goals as defending yourself from a sword.

    Social action rules are heavily impacted by the Study of Appeal, which is in turn affected by the Study of Culture. The rules for Renown & Reputation are also tightly connected to social actions, and those in turn can be affected by any sort of deeds you and your party have accomplished. Just as a single battle can include many different combat actions, social actions occur in loose groupings called social encounters; a single encounter may comprise multiple social actions from many characters, ending only when conversations end or the context notably changes.

    With the exception of persuasion, social actions are not organized into rounds or turns. The term also does not refer to the combat definition of action. Some social actions can be used in combat (usually as a verbal free action), while others must begin out of combat, and are ended or interrupted by violence.

    Obviously, social actions can only be used on characters who can understand you. They have no effect on non-sentients.

Social Action Rules & Roleplaying     As mentioned in Roleplaying, whether you are talking in-character or merely summarizing your words can depend on how "important" the scene is considered to be, and is always at the GM's discretion. Following social action rules with your character's stats and Abilities does not excuse you from talking in-character for an important scene, and social action rules are not intended as a replacement for roleplaying. Of course, it can be difficult to understand how both you the player and your character are contributing to your words. If it helps, remember that what you say is never exactly what your character says, regardless of social action rules or your Appeal tiers; your character isn't even speaking an Earth language!

    It's useful to think of your in-character phrasing as simply the gist of your character's words. You always say what you mean to say, but Appeal Abilities and social action rules may make your phrasing more eloquent, your tone more agreeable, or your insights more accurate. Ordinarily, in a situation where you are speaking in-character, you will go through the social action rules after you are done speaking, so that dice rolls and such do not interrupt you. If your character is making a long speech, the GM may ask you to summarize the intent of the speech, or say an important or closing line.

    For any situation where the above guidelines cannot fully explain a use of the social action rules, consider it in terms of your listeners' reactions. For example, you may encourage a crowd of peasants to trust and assist you "in order to prevent further losses in your village." The rules might not change your words at all. If your attempt was very successful, perhaps your character read recent grief on the faces of the crowd, accurately judged them to be desperate for help, and made the plea accordingly. If your attempt was unsuccessful, perhaps your character misread the crowd's distrust as grief, and they now believe your character's words were a threat!

    Social actions and roleplaying are an appropriate subject of house rules, to ensure your group is having fun. For example, if you or others in your player group don't enjoy speaking in-character that much, the GM may allow more out-of-character summarizing of your words, and more "just roll the dice" moments. Likewise, if your group very much enjoys roleplaying and drama, the GM may require verbatim in-character dialog more often, and ensure that rules and rolls do not interrupt your acting.

Social Pressure & PC Volition    Your character's choices are almost always solely up to you, even if your success is determined by the GM and the rules. The social action rules are designed to preserve that choice; many social actions cannot control characters of adventurer-level Willpower, nor can they control likewise strong-willed NPCs. Most often, social action rules will be used to gain desired results from characters more susceptible to social pressures - for example, comparatively weak-willed crowds of normal commoners, or businesses eager to maintain their market reputation. When someone brings a social action against you, it will most likely be to affect your renown with the masses, cause terror, or cause social injuries. Rest assured that you retain ultimate control over your character's intentions and attempted actions (even though social action rules may strongly incentivize you to take a certain path).

    Social offense and defense rolls may always be rolled on either INT or WILL. You can choose your higher stat, though certain +TNs and reactive +TNs may be restricted to use with INT or WILL. Many Appeal Abilities and Attributes apply +TNs to social offense and defense rolls. Abilities that do not specify a certain type of social action apply to all social actions.

Cultural Literacy     All characters are presumed to function competently in their home culture. You can also assist all party members you are currently accompanying, allowing them to act unobjectionably as well. So long as you and your companions are not intentionally trying to offend others, it is assumed that you act in accordance with local customs, preventing you from arousing suspicion or animosity on those grounds alone. In addition to potentially endangering yourselves (particularly in cultures like Macska or Cevelky), a lack of cultural literacy can prohibit certain social actions, or add Hindrance to their rolls.

    Of course, the Alacris imbued most of Lur-Asko with common cultural elements, and it's also true that every village has its own quirks. But for the purposes of cultural literacy rules, the cultures of Lur-Asko are as follows (with the playable species in parentheses after their default starting culture):

    Note that your character's initial cultural literacy may differ from the norm for their species if they were brought up in a different area. Therbolgites, minotaurs, and revenants have no real norm, and receive one cultural literacy depending on their backstory. Cultural literacy rules may be ignored entirely in highly mixed-culture contexts, such as some faction bases.

    Literacy in additional cultures can be obtained through the Study of Culture (or by simply bringing along diverse party members).

Language     Social actions require that those you are speaking to can understand you. Across most of Lur-Asko, Concordic is a universally-taught second language, trivializing this requirement; however, three realms are major exceptions. In Skreti and Macska, only around 1/4 of the population is fluent in Concordic. It's sufficiently widespread to not hinder you in business there, but social actions performed on crowds must add 3 Hindrance to all social offense rolls if you are not using Skretan or Koh-Trr-Goh respectively. In Cevelky, Concordic is rarely taught to anyone other than the Vampire Lords' diplomats, and knowledge of the Cevelkian language is virtually required to function there.

    In all other realms, knowledge of Concordic is generally sufficient for all social actions, without the need to learn the local language. At the GM's discretion, social offense rolls performed on crowds and directly related to issues of species or patriotism may add 1 or 2 Hindrance if you're not speaking the realm's local language.

Rapport     Rapport is a highly abstract rule system that refers to the closeness of the relationship between two characters. Although the categories of rapport are quite broad, they have effects on social action rules, trauma, and certain Abilities. The GM technically determines the category, though players should weigh in for decisions involving their PC. Rapport is not altered via rules unless specifically indicated; it is derived from roleplaying and/or backstories. Rapport must be the same in both directions of the relationship (e.g. you cannot be Medium with a character who is Low with you); if there is any doubt, the lesser Rapport category is used.

    The rapport categories are:

High Rapport

    The characters are extremely close. These relationships are rare in new adventuring parties, and any given character will have no more than a few people in all Lur-Asko who qualify. Some have none.

Medium Rapport

    By default, this is the relationship between all characters in an adventuring party. It is used for any two characters who are friends and have daily interaction.

Low Rapport

    This is the default relationship between friends who do not talk to each other regularly or meaningfully. It also describes characters of formerly-higher Rapport whose relationship has soured, but must continue to work together.

No Rapport

    This describes strangers, vague acquaintances, enemies, or a previously better relationship that has been severed.

Clearing Confusion

    Normally, "Medium Rapport within the party, Low Rapport with friends outside the party, and No Rapport for everyone else" is a sufficient rule of thumb for a new campaign. As relationships evolve over a long campaign, or if backstory elements are being brought in, the GM can use the following questions to resolve any confusion about two characters' Rapport.

If trying to determine whether Medium or High:

If trying to determine whether Medium or Low:

    If trying to determine whether Low or No:

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