I’m DMing a 5e game and I really don’t like how tacked-on social encounters feel. I could certainly use some homebrew systems, but tracking them is still fairly arbitrary since 5e just doesn’t have good underlying mechanics for them.
I really like the implementation in Modiphius’ Infinity 2d20 system, where you have separate “wound” trackers for combat, social encounters, and hacking. Combat of all 3 types works basically the same too; there’s no need to learn wildly different rules. I played the Song of Ice & Fire RPG a while ago and remember liking its implementation too, though I don’t remember the rules.
What are some other systems that treat social encounters with the same importance as combat?
Fate uses the same rules for social conflict as physical conflict. You (probably) use different skills and stunts, and (probably) target a different resource, but the surrounding rules are the same.
If you want to stab someone to kill them dead, you’d roll something like Swordfighting vs Athletics. If you roll better, you inflict Physical Stress on them. If they don’t have room to hold the stress, they can convert some of it to a Consequence instead. That might be something like “broken arm”, “ringing ears”, “bleeding a lot oh god”, or what have you. If there’s still stress left over, they’re taken out of the scene. Maybe you run them through. Maybe they get taken prisoner. It’s up to you. You won the conflict.
If you want to insult someone to make them cry, you’d roll something like Provoke vs Will. If you roll better, you inflict Mental stress on them. If they don’t have room to hold the stress, they can convert some of it to a Consequence instead. That might be something like “Humiliated”, “Obsessively thinking of what I should have said instead”, “Crippling Self Doubt”, or what have you. If there’s still stress left over, they’re taken out of the scene. Maybe they leave the room sobbing. Maybe they just give up. It’s up to you. You won the conflict.
It’s a good system, but I have found it requires players to be a little more engaged than “i hit him with my sword” or “can i roll insight?” like you sometimes get with D&D. I like that aspects (like the consequences I gave as examples) are made up on the spot. So long as the table agrees it fits, you just jot it down and move on. You don’t have to deal with a long list of pre-written things. That is probably a factor in why it’s harder to phone in like D&D.