Fun with Inter-party (Social) Conflict

[Ren]

Been a while since I posted but wanted to share a scenario from our most recent session that everyone seemed to enjoy that involved inter-party conflict, though in this case it was a social conflict.

The set-up for the scenario involves them searching through a cruise ship, in this case an updated sister ship of the Titanic called the Queen Anne, for the drummer maintaining the necromantic ritual that had brought a sunken naval destroyer to the surface along with its complement of now zombified crew who had been boarding the cruise ship and attacking everything in sight.
So they get to the No.5 Hold, defeat the Renfield's at the door, get inside and pinpoint the Drumming to a large pile of crates in the middle but as the begin to remove crates to get to the center one of the characters is mentally attacked by the unknown baddy they can't see yet who tries to dominate him into stopping the others from removing the crates and I tagged an aspect of his in addition and he accepted (Fate point whore!). Which lead into the Social Combat / Mexican standoff as he pointed his gun at one character and another character (an FBI agent who didn't like him to begin with) pointed his gun at him. This lead to several rounds of social challenges of deceit and intimidation or presence while he tried to convince them to stop, they were confused and trying to get him to stand down etc etc etc...and every round the baddy continued the domination until they finally defeated him (earning him bonus Fate Points for being "taken out") and the baddy switched to a new target.

The upshot is that Social or Mental Combat can prove to be just as challenging and fun as Physical Combat!
I think I read somewhere or was falsely told somewhere that characters couldn't run social or mental challenges against each other, but if you can shoot at each other, why not? The difficulty in this particular scenario is in having good enough role-players that won't act on out-of-game knowledge and fortunately my players are all excellent role-players so the scenario was a lot of fun! So don't be afraid to use social Combat to talk down a character that is about to do something stupid, sometimes failure can be rewarding!

[fantazero]

Jayne Cobb: Boy, it sure would be nice if we had some grenades, don't you think? 

[Sanctaphrax]

Personally, I find this thread very amusing.

I think I read somewhere or was falsely told somewhere that characters couldn't run social or mental challenges against each other, but if you can shoot at each other, why not?

You say that as though being able to shoot at each other is a given.

[ways and means]

I once tried to get my party into social combat with the classic hostage situation the party goes into the building and is acosted by  several red court vampire standing over helpless prisoners with there claws to the prisoners Jugulars. The reds then inististed that the party drop there weapons or they would kill all of the prisoners to which the majority of the party aquised except for the pychotic melee character who ran up to the red court leader and stabbed her through the heart, she then looked at him quizically and asked 'but the prisoners ?' to which he replied 'It sucks to be them.'    

[toturi]

The reds then inististed that the party drop there weapons or they would kill all of the prisoners to which the majority of the party aquised accept for the pychotic melee character who ran up to the red court leader and stabbed her through the heart she looked at him quizically and asked 'but the prisoners ?' to which he replied 'It sucks to be them.'   

Did the psychotic melee character get a Compel? If not, then he should.

[jadecourtflunky]

I've had my characters run social conflicts against each other before. I love throwing them against each other.

[AlexFallad]

I'll long story short this as much as possible, but my Pure Mortal bodyguard for the WCV, Weretiger, and noob Wizard in the group was socially maneuvered into letting them go off on their own.  It was a great scene since for the last 5 months rt of play my pc has just been a complete ass of an overprotective lioness to them...I mean ALL up in their business, following them, sleeping outside their rooms, etc.

It hurt when I was told to stay home and help the Changeling Princess with a Katana hack computer records to find a money trail.

[Ren]

Did the psychotic melee character get a Compel? If not, then he should.

That's when you do fun stuff like have that scene show up on local news "Psychotic with Sword Stabs Woman!" but of course edit out the bits with the hostages...