Untested Idea: The Social Network
Idea: A hidden network of social influence which players must navigate in order to gain the trust or attention of someone influential.
Imagine this: your party is visiting The Stairway, a fancy new nightclub in Northside. There's a live band playing. People are dancing, drinking, and socializing. Wait staff are circulating around the tables. The goal of the evening is to convince the club owner, Alex Angel to cancel a huge event being held at the club tomorrow because it's actually going to be a mass alien abduction (or whatever). It sounds nuts but it's true (maybe)! But how do you convince Alex of this? Direct confrontation is impossible: they are up in the overlook suite with some extra buff bouncers at the door. Besides, even if you DID get to them, they would never believe you just because you say so. So what do you do?
Convince their advisors.
There are three people at the club who have the owner's trust:
- Alex's romantic partner / financial manager Charlie
- their childhood friend / strategist Lou
- their older sibling / talent manager Chriss
We'll call these three "advisors." The players will need to convince at least two of them of the truth, at which point the advisors will bring the players to talk to Alex. But the advisors have the same issue as the club owner: they also don't want to talk to you.
Luckily, each advisor has three "confidants." These confidants are more street-facing. Maybe one is the bartender. One is a regular who has developed a rapport with the staff. One is a photographer. One is a journalist for a local culture magazine. One is a security guard. They are your way in. Each advisor is attached to three of these confidants. If you can convince two of them that you are worth talking to, then you can get to their associated advisors. However: the players likely don't know who is associated with who.
So in order to succeed, the party needs to convince at least four confidants and two advisors of the value of their intel. Chances are good they will talk to more since they have no idea who works for who, and figuring that out will be part of the challenge.
Of course every person in this node is a special weirdo, so convincing them is its own little social encounter. Maybe they're unscrupulous and willing to accept a bribe. Maybe they're power hungry and are excited to bring juicy gossip to the boss. Maybe they hate someone else in the club and want you to perform some sabotage.
Of course, frame this all within the narrative. Describe the sights and sounds. Paint a picture of the notable characters. Have the NPCs already involved in some dramas. Make it feel alive and dynamic as usual. Remember that the minigame is not the game.
Inspiration for this idea comes from two places:
The game Deviant: The Renegades provides a neat system for building conspiracy networks. They consist of layers of nodes, each of which has its own function and relationships to other nodes. I love this idea as it provides a good framework for both players and GMs to slowly reveal the nature of this hidden conspiracy.
This video by Power Word Spill. One of the tips provided here discussed a similar topic. It's helping to solve a problem I do often experience (not knowing how to manage large, open ended social encounters) but it felt a bit too gamified for my tastes.
You'll notice this flowchart results in thirteen total people. Make it clear up front who the "final boss" of the social encounter is (Alex in our nightclub example). That leaves 12 people in the room. If you're having trouble determining who is nearby and available to approach, roll a few d12s and see what you get.
Some additional wrinkles for fun:
Use some familiar NPCs as part of the network (probably as confidants). If they're relatively friendly, they may be able to provide a few bits of intel about the network beyond their own connection to it. If you do add a friendly familiar NPC, add an unfriendly one, too.
Throw in some NPCs who aren't involved in the network, but may provide other benefits. Information about the network is a great boon, but other options can be fun as well: access to off-limits areas, leverage on people in the network, etc.
Throw in some agents working against the party! In the nightclub example perhaps the aliens are trying to undermine the players' efforts.