Apr 6 2021

Thoughts On Diplomacy Development in Video Games

In previous posts, I’ve discussed what skills to use to create a diplomacy system in a fantasy RPG, and why. I skipped over an analysis of the basic premise and foundations of using diplomacy. So I want to backtrack and start at the beginning.

I am a weekend warrior making a retro web game with still graphics and basic animations, not a professional. I have a reasonable amount of fiction writing study and experience, however. Unfortunately, scholarly treatments like this one on this subject seem very difficult to find.

I can only do my best to see a vision above abject mediocrity, and maybe edit and add later, to better use this as a reference document.


“The Situation”: Character And Conflict.


It’s the GM’s role to create a story that requires diplomatic solutions. The most basic scenario, the heart of a fantasy tale, is character and conflict.

A player is roleplaying a character (player character (PC), protagonist) in the game, who wants something from another character (non-player character (NPC), the antagonist), and this conflict cannot be resolved by combat. The puzzle is how to win this conflict.

The player’s character in the game has a set of skills to use. Maybe the character is dumb, or attractive, or whatever. This character is like a swiss army knife for the player. The meta-game is for the player to choose how to use that knife to best advantage to beat the puzzle.

So let’s explore different aspects of this basic premise of the puzzle.


How to make diplomacy engaging?


Most players love to murder things. It’s a matter of life and death, so the drama and conflict are high. Most importantly, the stakes are high. The rewards are also usually high compared to diplomacy.

So let’s brainstorm a list of how the GM can make diplomacy compelling, instead of a dull, forgettable hurdle to jump over.

Up the stakes. It’s a matter of life or death.
Up the drama. Enhance the conflict like a soap opera or reality TV show. Manufacture reasons for these characters to be at each others’ throats.
Leverage. It’s possible the player character has leverage over the antagonist.
Agenda. The antagonist should have their own motives and agendas, and should show them.
Secrets. The antagonist may have secrets, which can be used as counter-leverage against the player.
Surprises. Unexpected reactions that throw a monkey wrench in the plans. Example: again and again  the detective or cop is foiled, and the suspect gets away before finally cornered.
Equal rewards to a resolution by combat.
An ideally emotional feeling that you accomplished something.


Leverage: Finding And Exploiting Character Weaknesses


Leverage is way to gain the upper hand in the diplomatic encounter. A good way to write a leverage scenario seems to be to write the NPC with a significant, character-defining weakness. The first half of the puzzle (for the player) is to determine or guess the weakness of the NPC.

I’ve thunk up list of signature weakness(es) of NPCs, then possible method(s) to exploit them, and added ideas for possible consequences of failed diplomacy.

Poverty, Greed. Player character (PC) has an item or money that the NPC desperately needs. Fail: NPC rejects being manipulated, and acts in rage. Or they would rather try to steal the item than give what the PC wants, due to fear of a greater danger from doing so (i.e. betraying the street boss.)

Lust. NPC is a known lush who desires women or men like the player character. Fail: rape, kidnapping, possible catastrophe depending on the NPC.

Avarice, Gluttony, Sloth. The NPC will respond to an offer of something they covet, or something that appeals to their most base natures, such as laziness and excess. This could involve an additional fetch quest.

Stupidity. The NPC has a track record of doing stupid things and making bad decisions. This can be exploited by an unethical PC. Fail: the NPC counter-cons the PC because he is surprisingly more streetwise than the PC, or he gets revenge later.

Naive. The NPC isn’t stupid, but is innocent to the ways of the world. Vulnerable to manipulation romantically or by false promises of money (long con).

Pride. The NPC is known to be arrogant and vain, and is therefore vulnerable to flattery. Fail: NPC sees through the attempt.

Vulnerability to intimidation. The PC has a significant advantage in force in some way, and is willing to threaten to use it. Fail: threat called as a bluff, or threat is rebuffed with a counter-threat.

Submissive. The PC will back down to a dominant personality, without threat of physical force. This could be guessed by the PC as a racial, gender, or sexual trait. Fail: NPC secretly being manipulated and de-escalated, but then acts with passive aggressiveness to subvert the outcome.

Vulnerability to blackmail. PC knows a secret about the NPC that would be significantly compromising if revealed. Fail: counter-threat of violence or damage in kind to PC or loved ones.

Gambler. The NPC is a known gambler, and loves bets and games of chance. The PC can enter a wager, but possibly rig the outcome.

Bigot, Hater. The NPC hates a person or group of people. The NPC can be manipulated by thinking the PC is also a hater, or a sympathizer, and more friendly to the NPC’s faction than in reality, as opposed to the PC actually earning reputation with the faction. Fail: PC is discovered as a fraud, possibly a catastrophic result from the scammed faction.


Diplomatic Rewards: How To Make Diplomacy Fun


Rewards for successful diplomacy seem like the hardest aspect of the diplomacy scenario to write. So let’s try to brainstorm some ways to feel satisfied as a player in a diplomacy scenario in an RPG. First of all, can we tap into proven examples where we’ve seen diplomacy feel rewarding in an RPG?

Roleplaying evil. (Deception, Intimidation) I had a lot of fun roleplaying a Sith in SWTOR. Fun to be evil. Torture, electrocuting people into submission.

Feeling powerful. (Presence, Intimidation) Roleplaying an immortal in Planescape Torment, or a vampire in VtM:Bloodlines. People fear you, or respect you. Your power can be used to do good as well as evil, of course.

Changing people. You can see this in games where you can influence the alignment of your followers, free someone from slavery, or lift someone from poverty. There is a feeling of importance from seeing yourself making an noticeable impact on the emotions and actions of others.

Seduction and Romance. Romancing NPC’s in an RPG can feel like a long diplomatic challenge, with a reward for getting in bed with your object of affection. How can this feel like a rewarding exercise aside from reaching the sex scene though? A conflicted NPC seems effective. You need to persuade them on a deeper level than just convincing them to fuck. An example is Viconia in Baldur’s Gate 2, who had an alignment conflict with you, or Jaheira, who had a current boyfriend. The diplomatic puzzle was also drawn out over time and made difficult using hidden triggers.

Easter Eggs And Hard-To-Unlock Content. Sometimes just unlocking hidden, secret conversations, events, and easter eggs with maxed-out dialog skills can feel rewarding.

What about some examples of diplomacy that just aren’t fun?

Annoying NPC’s. Some antagonists are just annoying in a bad way. There is no fun to be had ever in dealing with them in a diplomatic way.

Dice Roll, Done. You walk up to an NPC, you throw dice for diplomacy, and they surrender. You win. This is where my diplomacy design is failing. There is no puzzle to solve, or choices to make.

No consequences. Suppose you fail the roll. You move on with no consequences. What was the point?

Too many consequences. You are forced to play lots of combats, or a way you don’t want, because you just didn’t put enough points into a specific diplomacy skill. Or your ranger skill. Or you miss out on a critical portion of the game, or lose the game instantly by missing one roll. You basically have to keep reloading and starting over until you make this one roll. This can be annoying, but it depends on context. In some games many near-instant deaths is how the game is designed, and it can be effective.


Conclusion


To sum up some take-aways, we have:

Good fiction is a player character (protagonist) in conflict with another character (antagonist). The basic story is conflict, resolution.
The GM must create antagonist characters that are well-developed and well-written enough to have their own motivations, strengths, and weaknesses.
The diplomacy game is to guess or ferret out the weaknesses, which gives leverage to select the best choice of action. A side quest could be involved to gain leverage.
While the player’s puzzle is to play this detective game, ultimately the dice rolls are based on the stats of the character. That is kind of required by the definition of an RPG. (Maybe the Fighter is better at intimidation than seduction.)
The most rewarding diplomacy gives the player agency, and/or makes you feel powerful, and is multi-stepped. Like a good story, the conflict is drawn out through suspense and events that foil progress again and again, causing the stakes to get higher and higher, until the final scene is reached and resolved.

The player can then feel satisfied by using the clues gained along the way to make the correct choices to solve the conflict diplomatically.

As an older GM, I feel like I’m good at creating characters and conflict, but bad at letting players win and triumph in a satisfying way and frequency over my obstacles. Maybe it’s a good idea pretending I’m a babysitter, and focus on trying to amuse players with short attention spans who want to feel like teenage gods, while laughing at fart jokes, and ease up on just trying to kill them over and over.

As a writer, I can say a spreadsheet or something is a really needed to keep track of your characters.  My own spreadsheet has columns for: Description, Character Traits and Manners, Romantic Preference, Motivations/Story Goal, Family History, and Language Usage (their signature expressions like “zoinks” or “by the balls of Cerberus”.)

After writing this article, I can better see the value of breaking “character traits” into two columns for strengths and weaknesses.

I hope this article has been of some small use for your game development, although I’m sure it’s very incomplete and could be much better and more insightful, especially in the area of examples of what worked or didn’t work in existing games. I might play Planescape Torment again soon if it goes on sale on Steam. Feel free to leave a comment, and thanks for reading.

More Reading:

https://v1.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/features/galleryoftheday/13818-8-RPGs-Where-Diplomacy-Matters

Diplomacy Roleplay In Video Games: Part One

Persuasion As A Diplomacy Stat


Jan 28 2021

Main Storyline Playthrough And Bug Fixes: January 2021

Mini Patch Notes – January 2021

I had time and energy over the holidays to work on Elven Academy. These were all edits and bug fixes. I am still working on the second dungeon (Geomancer’s Deathtrap). Here is a list of ‘patch notes’, which are now uploaded by not playtested on live at this time. This might break existing save codes, in which case you will need to start a new game.

General:

Ora’s affection is now equal to Owl River reputation.
Fixed broken modules on the live server, which were caused by an update to Ora = not affection enabled.
Fixed broken save code during a manual update validity check (again).
Added a quest notification sound (trumpet).
Fixed the overlapping music issues between scenes.
Worked on sound controls to some extent.
Connor has a six more facial expressions in his standard portrait set.
Implemented some of Connor’s new facial expressions in chapter A.
Added character traits isBoss, isGay, isLesbian.
Started adding some dialog for these tags.
Implemented individual module results to save code, so choices (might) matter more.
Enabled completion of modules out of order.
Updated game reference spreadsheet for all updated game functions.
Added total item bonus display to character sheet for blessing, jewelry, and charm.
Language selection should now save in your room and/or when your save code is saved.

Module A0:

Added total items owned #’s in wardrobe for male, and for jewelry and misc items.
Fixed owned common magical accessories not displaying properly in the dressing room.
Fixed several other bugs, mislabeled items.
Removed text indicating dungeons ‘levels 2-4’ in adventure select menu. Ambiguous meaning.

Module A1:

Fixed broken variables that blocked dialog options.
Added a honking sound effect to VW bus.
Fixed incorrect help text.
Fixed some typos and missing preloads, character sheet not updating properly.

Module A2:

Many cuts and edits to boil down overly wordy paragraphs.
Fixed a statue blessing.

Module A3:

Proofreads to the Spanish translation.
Edits to reduce wordy paragraphs.
Cricket and waterfall sound was reduced in volume.
Fixed overlapping sound issues.
Fixed a few typos.

Module A4:

Showing up late to the meeting now means something.
Shortened many overlong paragraphs.
Broken dialog.
Fixed some missing NPC portraits server side.
Fixed typos and made many corrections to Spanish text.
Added 2 new scenes, and facial expressions for Connor.
Added more flirting, since flirt is in the title of the module. So.
Added dialog branches for dominant and lgbt character traits.

Module A5:

Fixed many errors in the Spanish translation (a few of them super mangled.) Like a few other modules, it appears this translation never received much proofreading.

Module A6:

More refinement to long paragraphs.

Main Quests For Development:

Finish dungeon D2: The Geomancer’s Deathtrap
Complete a few new library books possibly re: oil painting, Tonalism and French painting at the end of the 19th century, and/or Fin De Siecle, Belle Epoque, Victorian periods in England and France.
Finish playtesting all existing content in Chapter A, for a Free-to-play download package. Then I can develop premium content so I can receive donations, and then I can think about promoting.

Side Quests for Development:

Develop more for situations needing specific skills and clothing/gear.

Need a dungeon theme songs and sound effects for d1 and d2.

Dump jQuery.
Playtest on Firefox, etc.

Constantine’s Coat is missing an outfit graphic (44f and 44m)

Consider challenge rolls to be a three-die bell curve instead of two-die. This makes gear and CR weighted more and luck of the roll weighted less.

Leonie needs upset mood portrait. (In A6 dialog 97 and elsewhere.)

Leonie’s hearts (only Leonie) don’t seem to be updating visually on the speaker panel??

Fretzel needs upset mood portrait in A6.

(Spoiler Plot/Character Issues:)

Where is Gregory’s Grimoire? Who has it? Aspen made a deal with Glumskayah to speak with the dead, got the information, and got the grimoire. Only Ora knows the grimoire is missing, but she isn’t saying. Now Glumskayah has it after she got Aspen.

What’s with Glumskayah’s fairy dragon wings?

Jeanie playing milkmaid? Serpent reversal?


Feb 29 2020

February Update

The main project this month was illustrating the game’s first dungeon. Another fight was added for a total of 4. The areas are fully illustrated. The fights should be better illustrated. The ‘beta’ is uploaded, direct link here.

The character sheet has also been completely revamped to be more readable and make more sense. Another gear slot was added, with support for potentially 50 more magic items. I have been sick the entire month, so this has limited production somewhat. Here is the monthly list of updates.

Feb. Updates:

Illustrated the first Owl River dungeon, approx. 70 pieces of art in 1 month despite having a virus and working full time.

Added a fourth fight and two more rooms.

Some playtesting, still needs Spanish translation.

Redesigned character panels to be more like a familiar classic character sheet.

Added another gear slot “Jewelry” slot, to go with the previous “Accessory” slot. Jewelry is now a separate and equal category to Accessory, which includes misc. trinkets, tomes, magical belt buckles, whatever.

Recruited a new dungeon developer, who is working on a second dungeon.

Planning and plotting second chapter of main storyline.


Dec 8 2019

Diplomacy Roleplay In Video Games: Part One

In the past two months, many, many improvements have been made to the game now called Elven Academy. Several more sound files are added. I’ve written a new game module and a new book for the in-game library: Fungus Facts!

I’m currently concerned about the 6 MMO-style faction reputation attributes. They aren’t fitting into a dialog-based single-player RPG. I either need to replace them with stats that provide more gameplay, or I need to find better ways to use them.

The elves and fairies are hardcore negotiators. They will steal your voice, steal your life, destroy your farm, and abduct your firstborn if you cross them.

Maybe I need diplomacy stats that offer gameplay, instead of the old boring reputation scores representing how much different factions like you, which only really offer rewards. So let’s research different diplomacy systems and ideas from articles and blog posts online.

Below is a digest of the each system, with a reaction summary. At the end, hopefully, we’ll have a useful conclusion.


Vampire the Masquerade: Storyteller System


The White Wolf wiki mentions the concept of “a character’s natural prowess and learned ability coming together to perform a task.” The “storyteller system” used by VtM/White Wolf, categorizes physical, social and mental attributes. These are for tabletop roleplaying, so we need to keep that in mind.

Social attributes:

Charisma
Manipulation
Appearance

Mental attributes:

Intelligence
Perception
Wits

Social Skills:

Animal Ken
Empathy
Expression
Intimidation
Persuasion
Socialize
Streetwise
Subterfuge (aka Deception in other systems)

Mental Skills:

(Various i.e. Medicine, Politics, Science, Computer, Academics, etc.)

Analysis: According to White Wolf’s Storyteller game System, an attribute + a skill creates a Dice Pool to roll to attempt an action. I’m not sure I want to use that in a CRPG, but I do want to derive character stats created by mixing skills and attributes.

Elven Academy has 6 attributes and 6 skills, so this approach seems promising. I really want to look at VtM:Bloodlines now (the CRPG), but let’s look at a few other tabletop games first.


Tunnels and Trolls (Deluxe Ed. 2015):


T&T has a talent system among its rule extensions in the latest edition. Looking through the list for ideas, I find:

Charming. This is literally the #1 stat in Elven Academy.
Cleverness. This is almost literally the #2 stat in Elven Academy. I didn’t copy T&T. I swear. Except for the Luck attribute. I’ll admit to an abnormal respect for Luck due to T&T, but it does fit into a fairy/elf/Irish themed setting.
Diplomat is included in a cultural category that includes History, Literature, and Poetry. I would like to do better in this area in an elf game, but stats could get bloated.
Persuasion. Leadership and Seduction are subcategories.

Analysis: This is why Tunnels and Trolls, although obscure, is an influence. It was created way back in the beginning as a KISS system. That’s why I started with it as a kid in the 1970s, and there is a lot of wisdom in that design principle.


5E D&D:


Neither the PHB or the DMG has Diplomacy or Reputation listed in their indexes. That’s a problem. 5E removed the Diplomacy skills.

Languages. Languages? D&D is still using languages for roleplay? Not something I ever considered as part of diplomacy, but it’s realistic and something to consider in game writing.

Feats of Actor, Leader, and Linguist.

“Fuck the 5E,” declared the party leader, with a grandiose tone. “No Diplomacy?”

Analysis: Is a dedicated Diplomacy skill useful? In my RPG project, I designated the attributes Charm and Cunning to be the primary diplomatic skill checks (currently), because they are personal. Whether you are more charming or more devious (as shown in the dialog text), you have more agency in the immediate outcome in the conversation.

Negatives: Diplomacy (as a skill) seems fitting for sitting down for a political negotiation in a meeting room. It works for a D&D live game where you want to sum up a scenario into a result/outcome instead of talking it all out. Surely 5E has a system, and I can’t find it in the books or online. So let’s go back in time.


3.5E D&D (Baldur’s Gate 2, Neverwinter Nights):


Appraise.

Bluff! Remember Bluff? Remember using Bluff in combat? That was silly. Then you have the Sense Motive skill in 3.5E to evade a bluff.

Diplomacy. DnD 3E and 3.5 had Diplomacy skill checks, with a DC based on initial attitude of the NPC (Hostile, Unfriendly, Indiffferent, Friendly, or Helpful). Success on the check moves the NPC’s attitude level. Charisma modifies the check

Disguise.
Forgery.
Gather Information.
Intimidate skill. The Persuasive feat gives a bonus.
Sense Motive.

Analysis: I like Intimidation. I do have a Fighter skill, which is underused. This and Cunning would go very well towards an Intimidation score. Suppose a monk is playing a Charm/Fighter ‘build’ in the game. Currently only Cunning can reasonably intimidate, since Fighter intimidation doesn’t really make sense in most elven diplomacy. Martial presence would just play a small factor. So I’m liking these amalgam diplomacy skills here.

Negatives: I can’t imagine using Bluff against elves very successfully. I notice these 3.5E skills again seem to be oriented towards tabletop, DM’d gameplay. There is a passage of time that’s awkward in an RPG? I need to work on expanding time in my CRPG. Allow actions that take much more time. Is worth an entire skill slot out of the 18 that I’m using?


3.5E D&D (Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2):


After reviewing D&D rules, it’s clear that many tabletop roleplay skills don’t translate well to a CRPG. So let’s study games again, instead.

NWN divided Diplomacy into Persuade and Taunt. Animal Empathy. Lore.
NWN2 brought in Diplomacy, Intimidate, Bluff, and Appraise.

Analysis: Someone in a NWN2 forum asked if party members contribute to Diplomacy. This is an interesting idea, since I’ve gone to the trouble of allowing the player to customize their party a bit when the embark on a module. Currently, I allow the player to ask a party member to handle something. I could consider modifications to rolls based on the company you keep.

Negatives: These options are underwhelming, made for a game where you are supposed to fight 90% of the time.


Fallout 1,2:


F1,2: Deception, Persuasion, Speech
F3: Barter, Speech (limited by Charisma)

Analysis: Fallout 3 actually removed a number of roleplay skills. Lame. I don’t really find other CRPGs that add to what has already been mentioned. Sadly.


Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR):


Awareness (Wisdom) – used to spot mines.
Persuade (Charisma) – Level up to pass dialogue options.
Affect/Dominate mind – Jedi mind tricks! Worth considering.

It’s also worth noting that squad mates can help with skills in KOTOR. That’s about it. I searched Steam and found zero RPG’s tagged with diplomacy.


Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines:


Let’s look, at last, at the most promising inspiration for my CRPG design issues, which is the VtM:Bloodlines CRPG. Let’s see how they are putting attributes and skills together to form derived diplomacy-related stats, as mentioned by the White Wolf general game system wiki.

To be clear, I’m looking for inspiration, not emulation. The world of elves is very different from the world of vampires. For reference, I’m looking at a VtMB character sheet. https://vtmb.fandom.com/wiki/Character_Sheet

I have Charm and Cunning as main stats in my game. This sort of correlates to light side/dark side choices in Star Wars RPG dialogues. If I add an Appearance score to my character sheet, as a stat derived from quality level of outfit and perfume, that roughly correlates to the three VTMB social attributes.

I have a Perception stat as my third social/mental main stat of six. The other three are Toughness, Agility, and Luck. “Wits” in VTMB seems to be related to things like Hacking and Defense. “Intelligence” is not something I want. This post sums up my thoughts on it.

So I have three Social attributes: Charm, Cunning, and Appearance. Perception will also be useful. Next I’ll try to mix them with skills to create some new, useful diplomacy abilities, using everything I’ve gathered in my research.

Current learned skills in the game system:

Aesthetics (includes sense of fashion and style)
Scholar (includes history, literature)
Psychic (mind-reading, divination)
Craftsman (???)
Ranger (includes botany)
Fighter (???)

Learned skills used in other game systems:

Affect/Dominate Mind*
Animal Ken*
Barter
Deception
Empathy*
Expression*
Intimidation*
Persuasion
Socialize*
Speech (public speaking?)
Streetwise–will not use, this is a forest
Subterfuge–dupe of deception
Disguise.–not worth a skill
Forgery.*
Gather Information.+worth a look
Lie–dupe of deception
Jest–not worth a skill, just say the jest
Plead--persuasion
Fascinate–seduction
Perform–already have in aesthetics
Inspire–similar to Leadership

Analysis:

*Existing Aesthetics skill includes Expression, Socialize.
*Psychic skill could include Affect/dominate mind, Animal Ken, and Empathy.
*Craftsman could include Forgery.
*Fighter skill could contribute to Intimidation.

Gather Info is a time dilating/skipping skill, to be considered as a new game design approach. So the only categories not covered are Barter/Merchant. Deception, and Persuasion. Let’s move those down to a possible new diplomatic ability.

Possible derived diplomatic abilities:

Barter/Haggle/Merchant
Deception
Intimidate
Persuasion
Seduction dupe of Persuasion, Affect/Dominate Mind or Fascinate?
Leadership
Sense Motive.
Bluff, Lie–no, can be rolled into Deception

I need six derived diplomacy skills to swap out the boring set of rep scores and go “full diplomacy” mode. Do we have enough? It looks sketchy.

The problem I see is that Charm and Cunning are essentially lightside and darkside stats in the game. So a 100% build with one or the other will have trouble with certain diplomacy options. Seems fair, but they need to be balanced. That leads to a 3-stat derivation instead of two.

Charm-based Diplomacy:

Leadership** (includes Inspire): Charm + Ranger + Appearance
Empathy : (includes Sense Motive) Charm + Psychic + Aesthetics

Mixed Or Non-Charm/Cunning Diplomacy:

Mercantile (includes Haggle and Barter): Perception + Luck + Craftsman
Persuasion (includes Fascination, Seduction): Charm + Cunning + Appearance

Cunning-based Diplomacy:

Intimidation : Cunning + Toughness + Fighter
Deception (includes Bluffing and Lying) : Cunning + Perception + Appearance

Analysis: I’m remembering now why I created only 6 attributes and 6 skills. It’s because I was concerned I wouldn’t be able to create enough gameplay to satisfy the existence of more stats. The best RPG’s we have only use a small handful of simple diplomatic stats in conversations.

Also can I realistically add enough conversation options to satisfy these additional abilities? Will all of these stats confuse the casual player too much, and all be underutilized?

I do think they would satisfy the thinking RPG player who wants to get into the stats. I don’t think I need the complexity of the Storyteller dice roll system. I would definitely like to include more diplomacy in the game, with meaningful branching outcomes to dialogues.

At this time, I’m still keeping the reputation scores as invisible stats, quantified results of diplomacy. I need to find rewards to pay off the use of the diplomacy skills.

Final Bullet Points To Mull Over:

  1. Natural ability + learned ability = Approach to a task (Storyteller system.)
  2. Consider racial languages as a feature of the game writing.
  3. Consider leaving immediate time sequence and writing diplomacy (or etc.) that skips a block of time, to leverage the player imagination into feeling a lot more is happening.
  4. Allow party members to contribute to diplomacy?
  5. Affect/dominate mind. Jedi and Sith. Vampires. These are huge favorites, worth considering in the gameplay and/or story writing.
  6. Beware of diplomatic solutions giving significantly less rewards than violence.

**EDIT- after revising the game code for the new 6-skill diplomacy system, I decided to replace Leadership with Presence.  This is coincidentally a Discipline in in VTMB, which essentially boils down to mind control.

My concept is human presence, which encompasses Personality, Speech, Leadership, and other subtleties. I feel “Leadership” is not quite the right feel for a game that values emo, non-violence, tree-hugging, etc.

Thanks for reading. I hope this blog post helps stimulate some brain cells for someone out there in human land. In Part 2 of this essay, I will try to research uses of Diplomacy, how to handle it, ways to make it meaningful in game writing, etc.. Horse. Cart.