In Dogs in the Vineyard, for instance, the escalation level of a given conflict determines the intensity of the Fallout (aka Consequences), as well as how competent a character is with that type of conflict.
Players have four ability scores (Acuity, Heart, Body, and Will) which determine dice pools, and four levels of escalation (talking, physical, fisticuffs, and gunfighting). Each of those levels of escalation uses two of those ability scores. When the conflict escalates, you bring in any new dice you have left for that level of conflict. So if you go from talking, to pushing, to fighting, to guns, you will have eventually blown through your dice for all four of your ability scores. And if you had any bad turns (took Fallout), the Fallout will range from smaller dice to much larger dice, and the larger the dice, the more likely it is you will have been injured or killed in a fight (gunfighting, as you can imagine, is a surefire - ha ha - way to get death results).
So the level of escalation is self-policing: you're only bringing in the ability scores appropriate to that level of escalation, and any lasting damage you take is going to be appropriate to that type of conflict. The gunfighter who isn't very socially adept is going to fare poorly in a battle of words. The diplomat shouldn't pull out a gun first thing in a conflict. But in an important conflict, all characters will likely have burned through all of their dice, and escalated through all levels of conflict, so it kinda evens out, and the only difference is how the dice fell and how tactically people used their abilities.
I explained all that to explain this: in DFRPG, the Consequences are basically the same. They may differ slightly in how they can be worked off, but they all take up the same battery of Consequence slots, and a person who has been hit hard by a Social Conflict is going to be less equipped to take Consequences in a physical confrontation. It's how the game works, and it's kind of how the fiction works. Stunts or high skills may give someone *more* slots for a particular type of Consequence.
So it becomes vital to establish *what* a given conflict is, and parse all attacks/maneuvers/etc. in ways which pertain to that conflict.