Dual of Wits for 4ed
Burning Wheel features some interesting mechanics for staging a debate as if it were a combat. The system is called Dual of Wits and seems like a very fun and gameable idea. Some of its core concepts can be extrapolated and applied to 4ed. I realize debates can easily be covered by skill challenges, but this provides an alternate way to engage the players–especially when something would otherwise rely heavily on a single skill, like Diplomacy for a debate.
The first step is to determine principle debaters. There should be a single character per side in the debate. More than one character can be involved in a debate per side, but each side needs a champion to be the main actor and defender. Each of these principle debaters will provide an argument pool. The argument pool is analogous to hit points, and when the pool is depleted the debater has been defeated. This pool is calculated by taking the character’s charisma and adding to it the highest of the character’s intelligence or wisdom. In this sense, a character might be very wise and practical or very crafty and intelligent, but ultimately their presentation and charisma also provide firmament to their platform.
Just like combat, initiative is rolled on the first round of debating. (I originally flirted with the idea of having debate initiative use a character’s intelligence or charisma modifier, but I realized this system should use standard initiative to more easily integrate into combat situations.)
Most debate powers take a standard action that provokes opportunity attacks. The careful planning and deliverance of a thought takes too much time and concentration to allow for any sort of dedicated or vigorous physical movement. Debate powers are marked with the ‘Debate’ keyword.
Most debate powers will use a skill as a bonus instead of an attribute. This bonus is added to the result of a d20 roll, just like an attack. Most debate powers will also have a skill as a target instead of a defense. The target number to hit with the debate power will be 10 + the target’s total value for that skill. A debate power that has an attack of Diplomacy vs. Insight would require a character to roll a d20 + their Diplomacy and score a total greater than or equal to the target’s Insight + 10 to “hit” with the power.
When choosing the target of a debate power, the attacker may target any character involved in the debate (even those that are not principle debaters.) If the power hits, any status affects are applied to the target character, but any derision points come from the argument pool that was established by the principle debater. In this way all characters that rally behind a cause risk defeat, and their defenses are only as strong as their weakest link. (It is best for people not so skilled at oration to shut their mouth and not get involved.)
Instead of damage, many debate actions cause a number of points of derision. Derision is subtracted from the target’s argument pool, much like damage is subtracted from a target’s hit points. When an opponent is reduced to zero or less argument points, they have been bested with no chance of rebuttal. In most cases, this means that the opponent is forced to temporarily concede, or that the audience favors one debater’s argument over others.
The system requires some new status effects to be defined. These are essentially the debate equivalent of some of the combat status effects. Similar to combat status effects, these debate status effects either end with a save, or expire at the end of the attacker’s next turn. Below are some of the effects:
Stymied – The target cannot make debate actions during its turn. (Similar to Stunned.)
Provoked – If the target makes a debate action that targets someone other than the provoking character, that debate action suffers a -2 to its attack roll. (Similar to Marking.)
Sputtering – Reduce the derision of the target’s debate powers by half. (Similar to Weakened.)
Next post: A small list of powers, feats, and permutations to add content and depth to this system.
Great idea, and interesting take on the conversion of the Duel of Wits system to 4e. This sort of system might find a place between the system-heavy skill challenge, with the 3 failure lose being a tad arbitrary, and the “just RP it out” which is fine but might not be enough mechanical meat for some folks. Can’t wait to see how you further flesh this idea out!
Love it. The main thing is it allows for nos so socially adept palyers to play socially adept characters just like it lets us all play wizards and powerful barbarians which we are not.