So I had this dream the other day that I was running the SR4 scenario I'm working on and after giving the main description of the scene one of my players (one that's played way too much DnD) decides to be a smart ass and says he's gonna "check for traps". As this is a dream and not a real session (I'd never come up with a witty retort like this when I'm awake) I tell him he found a mousetrap behind the fridge and to roll charisma to reduce 3 points Pride Damage. He fails to reduce all of it and I inform him that he now suffers -1 die to all social tests until the end of the session.

After waking, I began to seriously consider using this tool in the future. What do you think?

It's cute, but a little arbitrary. A lot of people don't negotiate from a point of pride (in fact, pride fouls up negotiation. To the contrary, pride damage should be damage from having lots of pride.) However, the idea of a temporary 'stat penalty' to social tests based off of a recent setback is not without its merits.

Could be a useful tool...I would definitely consider using it or a similar penelty for references to Evercrack ...more of a control device really...

Sort of follows that the -2 on subsequent test following a failed test might be in part due to damaged pride, ok not really, but might be good IC rational. Anyway, if you start with "Distracted" as a modifier, seems easy to follow-up with "Aggravated", then a "In Love" penalty (which might be too damaging, really), it's just another step to "Wounded Pride". From there we can hit on the "Sanity" issue. Hm, is it a bonus or a penalty as Sanity goes down? Hm.

Heh, mousetraps...

I've heard of a recent game that pushes "social combat" further with some kind of "social hitpoints". When they're down to 0, your character is completely broken and becomes unimportant, or commits suicide.

In my current campaign I use Edge as some kind of "Hope" counter: you use it when you're in a difficult situation, or when you aren't good enough to do something, and so on. In my houserules, you get back Edge point by point, when you succeed in a run, do something impressive, fulfill a personal objective but also when you have fun, take time to rest and generally feel good.

Well the idea was that his "pride" was wounded and that stung pride would cause him to subtly behave in a way that would put him at a disadvantage in social circumstances. And it wasn't meant to be arbitrary but rather a tit for tat- you want to be a smart ass and ruin the tension I'm trying to build with the scene then I'll be a smart ass too. But as I said, this was a dream not an actual exchange at the table.

Give him a self-esteem condition monitor. When it fills up, he offs himself.

Wouldn't he only kill himself when his self-esteem depletes? Hehehe, an interesting concept, to be sure.

Not that I have anything to add here, but... you dream about tabletop roleplaying? Nerd.

Kidding aside, I actually like that mechanic; much better warning that a Thor shot that just BARELY misses the PC pissing you off! Much more subtle, too. Hehehe.

I've pondered Social Combat also, and it comes up every now and then on the forums. I don't if it's the game you're thinking of, but A Dirty World is basically all about social combat (sort of).

I think social combat can be VERY interesting in games like A Dirty World, but I'm not sure it works in Shadowrun.

I think it is reasonable for a recent failure to shake your confidence in your skills. This could be from cheesy decisions from the player, or just rolling extremely low at a critical point.

I would give a penalty of 1-2 dice, but have it only last until the character has "earned back his cool".

So, if the 17-die gunslinger adept crit fails a shot on a fleeing ganger, who brings down the rest of the gang on the group, he might regain his cool by successfully 1-shotting 4 gangers in one action.

I recall Earthdawn used to have a Social Defense score (along with Physical and Spell Defense), which I always thought was a cool idea. The idea of a Social Condition Modifier would be an interesting one, but rather than off themselves, the character would be more likely to sit in a corner and sulk, or have a tantrum and leave, wouldn't they?

If I was going to use this "pride damage", the DV would be variable regarding how severe the embarassment is, and it would be resisted with Willpower + Charisma.

I also wonder if taking Pride damage wouldn't put a negative modifier on willpower rolls - not for drain or magic resistance mind you, but rather against losing one's temper. Such an application being for NPCs (just how many wisecracks can you make before that Mafia Torpedo decides to do something rash?) rather than PCs.

All in all it's probably just another bit of paperwork that doesn't need to be dealt with. But I will keep it "in the toolbox" for my campaign.

Check out Humiliation Damage in the Slayers RPG.

Keep in mind that whatever system you do import you have to take into account bonuses to rolls for the reverse of taking damage.

Say the guy says, "I search for traps" and to the guffaws of his friends finds one. Now his ego is stroked ("told you so"), he gets a +1 die pool modifier later to some test.

I like this idea. Whenever I have a belligerent player I think it is the responsibility of the GM to belittle the player and their in game character. Helps curb bad behaviour like power gaming.