Social encounters, however, are something I find myself struggling with. I just have a hard time wrapping my head around social attacks, maneuvers etc.
I've had one major social conflict so far, a lot of other stuff I've just played out as well. Not every social interaction needs to be a social conflict.
For any conflict, but social conflicts in particular, it's far more important to have a goal for each party, not just go about it and see who "wins". Because without a clear goal, nobody wins anything and everything is murky as hell. It doesn't matter as much in physical conflicts, because you can easily default to "I want to get out with my skin attached to m body", but it all but falls apart in a social situation.
If you have a goal, an attack would be something like a straight forward argument that's supposed to persuade your opponent of your position. A maneuver might be something like an anecdote that's meant to soften your opponent up or make them view your arguments in a different light, a bribe, and so forth.
I've had one extensive social scene so far, maybe that can help you. Spoiler Warning: The game is set after Changes.
http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,28668.msg1638254.html#msg1638254It starts in the church part of my post and JayTee is the player whose character is involved in the talking. It's a fairly early work in getting to understand the system, but I thought the scene worked pretty well. The set up is the man Ryan is talking to is planning to blow up the church the evildoers are hiding in, to destroy them. He already placed the explosives, now Ryan is trying to keep him from using them, so he won't kill all the innocent churchgoers inside.
I'm much more accustomed to just roleplaying that kind of stuff out, only occasionally calling for rolls. But then this neglects some of my players' strengths, especially when they specifically choose something because it helps them in social conflicts.
That's because you're not thinking 4th dimensionally, Marty!
The trick is to not roleplay and then roll, the trick is to roll and then roleplay. You roll the dice and look at the results and then play out how you interpret the results. That's going to make things a bit easier, since you at least know which direction the talk is headed, and it won't take away the benefits of powers or stunts from a player.
I also have difficulty in distributing fate points. From everything I've read, the exchange of fate points between players and GM should be pretty constant, but I'm struggling with actually enacting that. Part of that is a less than stellar selection of aspects to compel (another problem on my part as well as my players'), but even with ones that seem solid I don't find myself tossing fate points at them.
Patience, Padawan.
Yeah, that's surprisingly difficult and takes quite a while to get used to. I regularly find myself forgetting that as well, still. I've come to have a sort of rule for myself where I try to start any new scene with a compel. Not by forcing the compel, but by agreeing on what the next scene will be and then looking at how this might be a compel. It's a bit backwards, but this way it is the natural flow of the game and the characters really do what's in their nature. The private eye following a clue? I guess that's a compel on his private eye aspect. The Knight of the Cross goes after a Denarian? Compel on the Knight of the Cross aspect. It's not always that clear cut, but it is a good way to drill them into your head.
Also, ask your players for help. They are the ones who want to have the Fate points in the first place. Let them know they can self-compel or offer a compel to you in return for a Fate point. They don't always have to be perfect, but the more you do it and the more you get your players involved in the process, the sooner you'll get the hang of it.
