Chapter Five: Gamemaster Options Stage Two: Tactic Reveal At this stage both sides will reveal what tactic they have written down on their notecard Once revealed, the tactic may not be changed Stage Three: Speech At this stage the players take turns roleplaying the speech that goes along with their chosen tactic A couple sentences is usually all that is needed If a player provides an exceptionally strong argument, or roleplays their speech particularly well, the GM may choose to award the player with either a +1 to their skill roll or a +1 to their defense They may only receive one bonus or the other It is not possible to receive both bonuses Stage Four: Tactic Resolution At this point it is time to see how well chosen the tactic was Determine the Difficulty for your skill roll and then see if your skill check meets or exceeds that Difficulty If you roll lower than the Difficulty, well then did perform the tactic well enough to weaken your opponent’s argument If any Wit Points are being spent during this bout, they must be spent before either side rolls their skill check If your skill roll meets or exceeds your target number you have successfully used your tactic and your opponent’s argument is all the weaker for it Roll the damage die indicated by the tactic you used and remove that many Resolve points from your opponents Resolve Point total If neither side has been reduced to or fewer Resolve Points, both sides will go back to stage one, choose new tactics and engange in another bout If at least one side has been reduced to or fewer Resolve Points, the debate is concluded and phase four begins Phase Four: The Resolution All debates must come to an end and this phase is where the result of the War of Words is determined The side which has lost all of their Resolve Points is considered to either have been convinced of the opposing view or they have lost the will to continue the debate and concede The side who still has Resolve Points is the winner and the Intent they put forth in Phase One will be acted upon Once the resolution has been reached no more discussion will change the outcome and all parties involved in the War of Words must fulfill the terms of the winning Intent If the losing side wishes to ignore the result and try to bring about their losing intent, physical combat is the only course of action left open to them However, if the winning side of the War of Words is reduced to less than half of their Resolve Points during The Debate, their win is not so clear cut In this situation the winning side must give some concession to the losing side for having weakened the winning argument A concession will not change the result of the winner’s Intent, but the winner must give something to the opposing side For example, if the winner’s Intent is “The party will go to the village to save the magistrate”, they might concede that after the party goes to the village and an attempt to save the magistrate is made, the winning side will back the losing side’s decision as to where they will go next without any argument Advice: Winning a War of Words does not mean the victor will get exactly what they want without repercussions Sure the victor may have convinced the Magistrate of the village that she should step down and allow the victor to take over the town, but others might need convincing as well The captain of the guards may not see the validity of the claim, and the merchants in town may prefer the old magistrate to the silver tongued newcomer Just as in defeating a foe with physical combat, sometimes others may step in and challenge a victor An example of play: The paladin Roland stands face to face with an imp who is poised to strike his son in the neck with his poisoned tail Roland’s Intent: “The imp releases my son.” Imp’s Intent: “Roland attacks.” The imp’s intent is sinister indeed—if he can lure Roland into attacking him, then his son’s blood will be on his hands The player and the DM agree to these stakes, and the War of Words begins Roland’s RP: + Wisdom (+1) + Intelligence (-1) + Charisma (+3) = Imp’s RP: + Wisdom (+1) + Intelligence (+1) + Charisma (+2) = Roland is a paladin but not particularly cunning The imp has a slight edge in his resolve Roland: Intimidate +3, Diplomacy +11, Bluff +3, Interrogate +3, Sense Motive +9; Wit Points: Imp: Intimidate +2, Diplomacy +2, Bluff +8, Interrogate +5; Wit Points: Roland is a fifth-level paladin, and imps have three HD Whenever one or the other spends a Wit Point, they will add +1d2 The storyteller rules that the imp would have some skill in interrogation and gives him +3 to Interrogate 61