AGE of Politics

When you want to forge a relationship with important NPCs that don't necessarily like you, convince such NPCs to do something significant for you, or influence the opinions of a population or group of people, you might want to use these rules.
Every such social encounter is a complex test, with a success threshold based on what you want to achieve, and a number of rounds depending on the situation. And they all serve the purpose of meddling in the social networks of the campaign.
Every faction and NPC has an opinion score for the whole group of player characters, and every social interaction with them will be modified by this score, which can go from -4 to +4, where -4 is extreme hostility, +4 is confident trust, and 0 is neutrality.
If an NPC has an opinion of you that’s different from their faction’s opinion, you add those 2 opinions together, but they can’t go beyond the -4 and +4 limits.
There are many ways to raise someone’s opinion of you, such as doing them favors or making alliances, but these rules only concern themselves with three possibilities: Conversations, Speeches and Debates.
You can also influence people’s opinions on things other than yourself, and ask them to do specific things, but we’ll discuss these things further on.

Conversations

The best way to make friends is simply to have a good chat. Before making rolls, the GM will determine the NPC’s disposition. That’s the TN for all tests during this conversation. It starts at 12 and can be raised or lowered depending on the NPC’s mood and how gullible they are. Then, the GM will decide how much time you’ll have for this conversation, and give you a number of rounds with which you will be able to change the NPC’s impression of you.
After that, choose a topic of conversation. The GM will determine the appropriate focus you’ll be tested on for that conversation, and it can be any focus. From Communication (Animal Handling) when talking about pets, to Fighting (Heavy Blades) when discussing the proper techniques of combat. You can’t repeat subjects except for small talk, which is a Communication (Etiquette) test.
The disposition can be further modified depending on the NPC’s interest on the subject. And people always like to talk about themselves, so if the players prompt the NPC to talk highly of themself, the TN can be further reduced.
On a success, add the number of the stunt die to the running total. On a failure, subtract the value of the stunt die from the running total, and lower the number of rounds for this conversation, as you’re testing the NPC’s patience.
Once the conversation ends, the GM will use the running total of this conversation to raise or lower the disposition of the NPC towards the PCs.

Requests

If you want the NPC to do something specific for you, or act in a certain way, you usually only have to do one test to convince them. If the request is complex enough that it needs to be debated, there will be a success threshold you’ll be aiming to to achieve that.
The disposition will be altered according to how likely the NPC is to do the thing you want them to do. If you achieve this threshold, the NPC will do what you ask, but will only raise their opinion of you if you significantly surpass the threshold. Stunts can help with that.

Group Conversations

If a group of PCs is talking to an NPC or group of NPCs, all PCs can roll the tests they wish to make, choose the best overall roll to determine success, and take the best stunt die roll to add to the success total.

Intoxication

If the conversation is happening over drinks, you can use one turn of this conversation to convince the NPC to drink more than they normally would. This is an opposed Constitution (Tolerance) test between the PC and the NPC, and if the PC wins, the NPC’s disposition is lowered by 2 for the rest of the encounter and add the stunt die to the running total. If the PC loses, nothing happens except for the NPC possibly laughing at them, and the conversation carries on normally.
This can only be done once per encounter.

Sensitive Subjects

If you approach a subject of conversation the NPC finds contentious, you must express your opinion or insight into said subject before rolling anything, and there are 3 possibilities for this.

They find your opinion abhorrent, and will immediately leave the conversation if you don’t apologize in some way.
They find you immediately understand them, and automatically add 6 to the running total.
They consider your words carefully, and you roll the appropriate focus like normal against a +2 disposition.
Apologizing to the NPC could be a Communication (Deception, Etiquette or Persuasion) test against a +2 disposition. If you succeed and the NPC accepts the apology, the conversation ends abruptly, but the GM still modifies the NPC’s opinion according to the running total.
If you fail and the NPC does not accept your apology, the conversation ends and their opinion of you is lowered by 1 or 2 depending on the gravity of the situation.

Intimidation and Anger

You can use a conversation to make the NPC angry or intimidated. In that case, the GM will determine a success threshold at which the NPC will react the way you want them to, and every time you steer the NPCs' emotions to that direction, you add to the running total.
At the end of this conversation, the NPC will usually have a negative opinion of you - at least -1 - but will act according to your manipulation of their feelings.
Certain NPCs, however, respond positively to intimidation. If they like to be challenged and see you as a rival, their opinion of you is raised by 1 at the end of the conversation.
If the conversation is between 1 PC and 1 NPC or 2 of each at most, you can use Communication (Seduction) to flirt with the NPC. This automatically fails if the NPC is not attracted to the gender expression of the PC, and failure in this test only reduces the running total by 1 and does nothing to the number of rounds.
If after the first failure you try to flirt again and fail again, the NPC will be offended and you’ll have to apologize like in the sensitive subject section.
If you succeed, the GM will start tracking a seduction threshold, and any successes in seduction will add both to the general running total and to the seduction running total. If you achieve the seduction threshold the NPC will either invite you for some private time or consent to your invitation. After that is done, their opinion of you will be raised by +2 on top of the normal running total consideration.
You can also flirt while trying to intimidate the NPC, but it will only add to a seduction threshold if the NPC likes to be challenged and is into some kinky shit. And if you achieve the seduction threshold they will either invite you to private time, or readily consent to your invitation, and will have their opinion of you raised by 2 at the end of the private time.

Speeches

You can sway the opinions of large groups of people in the very same way you can sway the opinions of individual NPCs. All the same rules for conversations apply! Except for the flavoring and outcome of these tests.
Factions - which can be any group of people - Have 2 stats regarding their opinions about the PCs.
First you have the percentage of how many people are favorable towards the PCs. It starts at 50% and can be modified by the PCs’ ancestries, country of origin, religion, reputation etc.
If the favorability tips over 60% or under 40% they have a majority opinion stat like the NPCs.
Through the running total of your speech you can change both the favorability percentage and the majority opinion. The GM will be the arbiter of the result.

Rally

You can rally a crowd towards action using the same rules as making requests for NPCs. Except that if you actually manage to rally the crowd, their opinion and favorability you will only be changed after the rally concludes. If the thing you make them do is successful, it’ll be a huge boost for your popularity! But people really don’t like being led astray, so if the action fails, you’ll become considerably less popular.

Being Hot

There is only so much attractiveness can do for you when dealing with a crowd. Communication (Seduction) rolls can only be done as the very first or the very last action during a speech and it (obviously) does not add to a seduction total.

Debates

Sometimes you’ll have opposition during conversations and speeches when you’re trying to sway a third party to your side, such as during a court judgment or a political debate.
Debates always have a third party that will be the arbiter of the dispute, such as a judge or a crowd. Each side of a debate will have one turn per round of the debate, and in each turn they will make an argument for their side, and make opposite rolls regarding that issue.
The side that wins the opposed roll adds their stunt die to their running total, and whoever gets to the success threshold first wins.
These rolls HAVE to surpass the arbiter’s disposition to be valid, and if none of them do, neither side adds to their running total.
If no one reaches the threshold before the debate ends, the arbiter will begrudgingly accept the terms, opinions or suggestion of the side who got the closest, but they won’t be happy about it.

Seducing the arbiter

If the arbiter is only one person, you can attempt a Communication (Seduction) roll as one of your turns, but it will only work if the arbiter feels attracted to your character’s gender expression. If you don’t succeed you will subtract the value of your stunt die from your running total.
If you do succeed the opposition can test their Communication (Etiquette, Persuasion), Perception (Empathy), Intelligence (Heraldry, Religious Lore) or Willpower (Faith, Morale, Discipline) against your roll. If they succeed you reduce THEIR stunt die from your running total.
If they fail, however, you add your stunt die + 2 to your running total.

Lying

When making a false statement during any of these encounters the Focus used is always Communication (Deception). And if you fail a roll based on a false statement, you get a -2 penalty on the next test, and a cumulative -1 penalty for every action taken after that that is not Addressing a Lie.
The objective of Addressing a Lie is erasing the penalty for lying. It does not affect your running total. You can do this by rolling Communication (Persuasion) to justify your lie, Intelligence (Lore) to humbly correct your lie, or Communication (Performance) to double down on the lie. All against the target’s disposition.
Humbly correcting your own lie, on the other hand, could have good consequences for the player’s reputation. Such as being known as a person who owns their mistakes and tries to do better.
Players can fail to Address a Lie once during any given speech. Should they fail to Address a Lie a second time, they lose all their running total and the encounter ends.

Other Opinions

NPCs have various opinions about many different things and people. If you want to change someone’s opinion on something other than yourself, the GM will determine a success threshold for that outcome. This way you can convince people of the importance of a sewage system or besmirch the reputation of your political adversary.

Investigations

During interactions with NPCs, players may want to keep note of personality traits, interests and other characteristics of important NPCs so they can apply this knowledge on social tests against them.
You can learn tidbits of information about a target with a Perception (Empathy) test. The GM will determine how important the information found is according to the result of the stunt die.
To make more thorough investigation on an NPC’s life and personality you can make an investigation advanced test, where you will try to find specific gossip, documents and other info about the NPC that should help you when dealing with them.

Spreading Rumors

You can spread rumors in order to influence a population towards a certain position. Again, this is an advanced test but each round might take hours or entire days as you try to covertly influence a population.
It works similarly to speeches except with a success threshold based on your objective.
Failing a test for spreading rumors does not reduce your running total, but if you fail half the total number of rounds given to you by the GM, people will notice what you’re doing and you’ll fail the test.