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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Lorillomar on September 14, 2010, 06:39:29 PM
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Hello,
Our D&D group will be starting a campaign in DFRPG this weekend, set in Baton Rouge where we live. As a matter of fact, we are going to try an ankle-deep world where everyone plays themselves as pure-vanilla mortals. Their actual, statted-out selves. Should be an interesting way to get into the campaign.
Anyway, with a group full of vanilla mortals, I can't very well reward them with magic items, since they can't use them. It is such an odd viewpoint for me, coming from a D&D mindset. How do I keep their interest in the game? If I don't progress the world to knee-deep and beyond (taking it very slow), and I can't reward them with magic items, how do I reward them after missions? If I give them money, eventually they will have enough money that their Resources skill should reflect their newfound affluence, right? After all, if they make a major drug bust (for example), and liberate a huge pile of cash, and invest it, they will have access to a much bigger income. But if they don't raise their Resources skill, how is this reflected in the game?
Very confused,
Dave
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They will gain access to more skills and stunts as time progresses. In addition, certain character templates may open up based upon their actions.
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Another way to reward them is with cash to spend at local stores...like gun stores, magic shops, car dealerships, etc. Perhaps one particularly grateful client owns a manor house that he then donates to the group as a home base/safe-house.
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Another very simple reward option is to just give out extra fate points. Player just did something really neat? Give them a fate point for it. (This would, presumably, be on top of the normal fate point refresh.)
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I assume you're still using a Dresdenified world, right? I.e., your characters are starting out as vanilla mortals, but there's still supernatural stuff, and the possibility to learn mystical stuff? If so, then there's still lots you can play with. For example:
* Assuming you give out milestones, the characters will eventually start building up skills and/or skills. They may learn to use weapons where they previously could not. This can even happen at minor milestones, where a player might shift a point of skill from one skill to another or reword an aspect, thereby evolving themselves in some way; at significant milestones they can actually increase their skill pool.
* Characters might be given the opportunity to gain powers of some form. For example, a player might discuss with you about the possibility that their character was actually a Changeling who had yet to develop any Changeling powers. So over the course of a number of game sessions, they might slowly begin filling out the Changeling template. (See the rules for mid-session power upgrades (YS91) for this sort of thing.) Or they might rescue a Wizard, then find out that one (or more) of them has the potential to learn spellcasting from him.
* While the Refresh of your character may start out low, it will grow as you grant major milestones. If you *want* them to start out mundane but quickly submerge themselves, you could give out the first few major milestones more quickly than normal (then taper off).
* As to magic items, you might still have the players find Items of Power ... and if a player choses to bond with it, they add it to their sheet and reduce their Refresh (again, use the mid-session upgrade rules).
As to your question about money, you can handle this in a number of ways. For example, they might just have a pile of cash which is a limited resource that they can use (without touching their resources) until it's gone. Or you could allow them to use it as an excuse to upgrade their Resources when they reach milestones. Or you might even give them a 'bonus milestone', used specifically to increase Resources. Or you could let use a mid-session upgrade to trade in Refresh in exchange for one of the Resources stunts, like 'Windfall'. Or you could even let them take the stunt 'for free', which is kind of like a major milestone with the Refresh dedicated to a specific purpose.
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Another very simple reward option is to just give out extra fate points. Player just did something really neat? Give them a fate point for it. (This would, presumably, be on top of the normal fate point refresh.)
This, and do it immediately. Don't wait for the end of the session.
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They will gain access to more skills and stunts as time progresses. In addition, certain character templates may open up based upon their actions.
Yes, but doesn't this require a significant milestone to occur? I am used to running campaigns which start at 1st level (D&D) and progress well into Epic after years of gameplay. I would like to emulate this slow, steady progression in DFRPG. It's going to be interesting finding non-magic and non-stat ways to mete out rewards as the game progresses.
As far as cash and goodies go, unless they provide real in-game benefits, I assume that they will lose interest in them after a while. What good is cash if they can't buy anything that changes their situation with it? For example, we are playing with people who IRL own various guns (for hunting). I am going to allow them to start with them, since they are after all playing as themselves. One owns a 357 magnum, if I remember correctly. That should equate to a Weapon-3 by the chart. Where does one go from there? A Weapon-4 would be like a 50-cal MG.
After reviewing other posts...
Yes, this is a Dresden-fied world. I am going to start things looking exactly like it would be if you looked out your window and expose the Supernatural elements to the world slowly as the party becomes enmeshed and aware of just how much lies beneath the surface. It could be weeks before they encounter anything not explainable by mundane causes.
Sorry to be obstinate, but I am still in the process of wrapping my brain around this. I appreciate your assistance.
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Well, what are the rewards available in real life? What motivates, say, Butters, to help out Dresden?
The notion that loot of some sort is an integral part of the roleplaying experience is actually relatively unique to D&D; I don't think I've encountered any other game system that puts anywhere near as much emphasis on what stuff you have.
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tbh,
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One relatively simply way you could do this is whenever the party accomplishes something important put an aspect on the group or campaign related to it. To use your drug bust example if they should do that and invest it all give them the aspect "Big Money" that can be tagged every so often or fate pointed to give them boost's to their resources representing taking out money from their accounts. Then later you could start compeling it saying remnents of the gang are coming after them wanting their drug money back.
Another thing you could do (following the idea above) is have npc's the party interact go in debt to the party, like owe them favors or markers that they can call in at a later date.
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As far as cash and goodies go, unless they provide real in-game benefits, I assume that they will lose interest in them after a while. What good is cash if they can't buy anything that changes their situation with it? For example, we are playing with people who IRL own various guns (for hunting). I am going to allow them to start with them, since they are after all playing as themselves. One owns a 357 magnum, if I remember correctly. That should equate to a Weapon-3 by the chart. Where does one go from there? A Weapon-4 would be like a 50-cal MG.
There is a wide continuum of role playing games in the world. Some of them tend towards nit-picking every detail with lots of stuff, loot, powers, and other "goodies". Others are more story based and focus towards the broader strokes of the story over equipment. Dresden Files is one of those games.
If your players need the loot and the constant in-game stuff acquisition, they may be happier with a more standard game. Find a few people who would be happier with character development in a less structured system to try out DFRPG.
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Find a few people who would be happier with character development in a less structured system to try out DFRPG.
Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I like this crew and I think they have it in them. It's probable that we are all just in a rut from too many years of 3.5 and Pathfinder.
Big Money sounds interesting. How do you guys manage to keep track of all the aspects that might add up all over the place? It makes my brain hurt just thinking of the organizational skills it would take to keep track of them all.
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It really is easier than you might think. Just start slow and let yourself get into the groove.
And don't be afraid to let your players shoulder some of the work to keep track of some. Esp the ones they inflict temporarily. Heck, Im sure you have juggled more info in a large scale battle from D&D than you will in this game.
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Another idea is one that I just used in game.
One of my players is a Police Officer who assisted the group in rescuing a kidnapped Judge. They did a good job, and she got the "The Station Chief's Approval" as a moderate reward (anti-consequence). I treat it like an Aspect that she has a free tag on once, and will remain for a while. She can invoke it for a favor here or there using Declarations or to improve certain rolls.
The great thing about this system is while there is not a lot of hard rewards (except for milestones), there is always an in-game reward that may be ephemeral that the players may really enjoy.
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I'm sure if you give them a chance, part of their reward is going to be telling a cool story.
Also, knowledge and favours are good rewards. They're specific and sometimes they expire, which means that they tend to promote using them quickly. (There are exceptions, especially creatures of faerie.) They have the added benefit of sometimes making trouble for the people who have earned them, which leads to more stories.
Emergent powers are another route. Someone can discover an aptitude for magic. They can start taking up being a focused practitioner, then eventually (as the game gets that far) become a full wizard. This is especially valuable because it generates a ton of story events.
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Hello,
Our D&D group will be starting a campaign in DFRPG this weekend, set in Baton Rouge where we live. As a matter of fact, we are going to try an ankle-deep world where everyone plays themselves as pure-vanilla mortals. Their actual, statted-out selves. Should be an interesting way to get into the campaign.
Anyway, with a group full of vanilla mortals, I can't very well reward them with magic items, since they can't use them. It is such an odd viewpoint for me, coming from a D&D mindset. How do I keep their interest in the game? If I don't progress the world to knee-deep and beyond (taking it very slow), and I can't reward them with magic items, how do I reward them after missions? If I give them money, eventually they will have enough money that their Resources skill should reflect their newfound affluence, right? After all, if they make a major drug bust (for example), and liberate a huge pile of cash, and invest it, they will have access to a much bigger income. But if they don't raise their Resources skill, how is this reflected in the game?
Very confused,
Dave
Hey Dave,
If you really want to reward your players with a bonus to their Resources skills after they stole money at a Drug Bust, then give them all an Aspect to represent the cash. Essentially make it a very permanent Aspect on each of their characters and on the game and call it something like "Dirty Money" or "Filthy Lucre", then each one of them gets to tag it for free for an instant +2 or a reroll on their Resources roll or they can tag it to make a Declaration, something like "I've bought a new boat" or "Paid off my Mortgage". Of course after that they are going to need to spend a Fate Point to Invoke the Aspect, but hey having great big piles of drug money around is still a great resource to have if they need it. And if they make a bunch of such thefts they could soon be swimming in all sorts of loot based Aspects just like Scrooge McDuck at his money bin.
Now comes fun part, now that you've made their loot an Aspect you now get to Compel the hell out of it! The Drug Dealers they stole from are going to want it back. If any or all of them are part of Law Enforcement then Internal Affairs might become curious about their suddenly bulging bank accounts after a major drug bust. If they aren't Law Enforcement maybe the cops are curious about just who ripped off that drug bust. If they are investing it (ie Laundering Stolen Money) who can they trust to do that? And who is to say that person won't get greedy? Finally if you think the Things That Go Bump in the Dresdenverse Night, are nasty creatures of evil and darkness introduce your players to the IRS! Let them rake in the Fate Points and then have to deal with the consequences of their exciting new life of crime.
Hope that helps.
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Big Money sounds interesting. How do you guys manage to keep track of all the aspects that might add up all over the place? It makes my brain hurt just thinking of the organizational skills it would take to keep track of them all.
Index cards and Sharpies, hand them out to your players and encourage them to write their own Aspects down after they've created them with Assessments, Declarations, and Maneuvers. Then have the player check them off when they get Tagged so you know they have to pay for them. Make your players do the work for you. Also a small Dry Erase White Board and some markers in the middle of the table works just as well.
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Someone that starts with a shotgun and .45 is by no means fully equipped.
Weapons
Sniper Rifle - weapon 3 with a scope to negate range penalties to attack and maybe night vision.
Grenades - weapon 4, usually straight damage but also flashbangs, smoke or poison.
Elephant Gun - weapon 4, armor piercing 1
Mines - weapon 5+
Specialized ammo - poison/sleeper darts, HE rounds, AP rounds and later silver, cast iron and the like vs supernaturals.
Defense
Tactical armor - armor 2 vs piercing and crushing, 3 vs low-caliber rounds.
Ceramic plating - improves tactical armor to 3 vs all bullets.
Insulated underlays - armor 2 vs heat, cold, electricity.
Nanofiber Suit - armor 3 vs most attacks, can be hidden under heavy clothing (replaces tactical armor components)
Gas mask - protects vs airborne poisons
Protective Headgear - protects vs visual and sonic attacks
Utility
Comm gear
Night Vision goggles
Hearing amplifier
Wrist computer+GPS
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One of my fave rewards in the Fate system (We playes Spirit awhile back) is to reward them with new contacts that brings them deeper into the world that they're on the outskirts of. Have them start off using a street guy as a contact or a bartender and then work their way into a minor fae or a rep of the white court. You can also have them meet up with a rogue wizard of Council Wizard.
In this system, contacts and story hooks are valuable.
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Someone that starts with a shotgun and .45 is by no means fully equipped.
Or you know you could just take the Aspect "ATF's Worst Nightmare!" on your character sheet. Then Invoke it to have the just the right gun or gear for the job, and not sweat the details. ;)
Then you'd also get a shiny new Fate Point when you have to explain to the nice officer that you're hunting fairies while kitted up in full tactical gear and wielding an Elephant Gun.
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Yeah, honestly, pretty much throw out the idea of experience, cash, and treasure as a reward. Throw out the idea of a reward.
DFRPG (I read this from someone else, most likely Rick Neal's amazing blog) sells itself on emotional investment in the characters. Not in their cool shiny powers. It really is a game about a created story, and I think it is most enjoyable when it steps completely away from the video game mentality of D&D or pathfinder. The reward is time spent with your friends, creating this story together.
As I am running it for a bunch of power-gaming LEZ BrEAK EvURYthING! people, I am myself working on how to do just that. Stealing heavily from Rick Neal along the way lol... but here are some suggestions.
Make them care about NPCS... Rick's post on his upcoming campaign asks people to design NPCs. He also wants to link them into the PC's aspects. Honestly, I have 2 (of 7) PCs linked to NPCs, and they seem to care the most... so this is prolly a great idea.
Make them care more about their characters... I've found that some basic character sketch ideas work great here. Use the "10 thinks your character would carry at all times" idea, but ask them specifically to NOT include their item of power, focus items, ect. Just say "I know those will probably be on you, and I will want a detailed description of each later, but not for this."
And when someone says "car keys", say "Tell me more about your car keys. What other keys are on your keychain? What type of key-chain is it? Who bought it?"
You'll probably get at least 1 story or NPC idea just from that. Say, if it's an ex-girlfriend, what happens later when the bad guys try to hold her ransom to get at your PCs? "Dude, you kidnapped Michelle? Go ahead and stab that beotch." (And then you bring her back as a vampire, seriously pissed at the PC for leaving her to suffer.)
Speaking of that, flat-out ask the characters who they want to be sacrosanct. Many times (and I'm sure you found this in D&D) people will make their characters unattached orphans to avoid the "bad guys after my family" storyline. It's totally cool (if unrealistic) to just tell your players "If you'd prefer to not have to deal with the emotionally sensitive subject of bad guys coming after your certain members of your family or friends, I can totally just make it so that never happens. That person will always be able to escape or hide on their own."
This may sound weird, but you really want emotional buy-in, and you're not going to get that if your NPCs kidnap the younger sister of a PC whose player actually had something like that happen, or is just uncomfortable with it.
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Remember what constitutes a significant or major milestone may vary with respect to Refresh level. You killed a RCV? That may easily be a major milestone in a feet in the water campaign, but may be only a significant milestone in a submerged game.
So perhaps you could adapt the D&D mindset to "level" your PCs, reward your players with Significant milestones and Major milestones out of the gate and gradually tune it down. The nice thing in DFRPG is that the reward can take shape in many ways. For example, a Significant milestone may well mean that the character gets more money as he increases his Resources.
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Consider some "non-loot" ideas for what constitutes a reward. Make the game focused on the character aspects, push the players to pursue goals that they are interested in seeing their characters pursue, and you can easily turn the resolution of these goals into their own rewards.
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I suppose if you absolutely had to make a monetary loot mechanic in the game, you could do it by using flavored Fate tokens, perhaps. You could hand the players a stack of green tokens with dollar signs on them (or your currency of choice) and a card that says "I'm Rich!" They now have a party Aspect and a set of Fate tokens that can only be used to boost Resource skill rolls (or reasonably related rolls) until their money-Fate runs out. (Note that for this purpose, the money-Fate tokens could be used to power other money-related Aspects with the same restrictions, allowing multiple aspects to be invoked with them.)
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As posted above, there are ways in which characters who start out as pure mortals can gain magical power:
From the books:
- Become an Emissary of Power (one of the Knights, Winter/Summer mantle, etc)
- Pick up a Denarian Coin (or other such items).
- Infected Red-Court Vampire.
- Become a "True Believer" (for any god or Adversary).
- Someone gives you hexunwulf pelt. You need to roll against conviction not to turn evil every time you use it or something.
Other powers:
- Barter for power with entity/ritual.
- Someone gives you a Noose.
- Dragon Emissary. Become a Monoc employee (good health plan).
- Find Bob on a shelf in a curio shop.
Not-quite-human possibilities (mainly works for younger characters):
- White Court but never knew it (hadn't killed anyone during sex yet).
- Changeling but never knew it.
- Scion but never knew it.
- Latent wizard powers:
Molly only became a wizard around 18, and she has Council-level powers. A minor talent might only manifest itself later on.
Billy and the Alphas only became shapeshifters in college, and had to be taught by Tara.
Shadowman in first book only found real magic later on in life.
Weirder:
- Involuntary body switch with necromancer into a wizard body (not sure what the rules are on that one).
- Involuntary shapeshift into more powerful body (ghoul)?
- Bob the skull takes over your body (maybe only partially). He has the power to cast spells.
- Get killed. Come back as ghost/zombie/undead/force ghost with free will.
- Accidentally stand in middle of a vortex at during a DarkHallow.
- Your mother just died. Turns out she was the Archive.
Finally:
Get Cursed by a Saint to become a Loup-Garou. ;D
Edit: Or maybe you are a relative of Macfinn. The curse is that there would always be someone in the family who was afflicted. Macfinn just died...
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Well, if they are playing game versions of themselves, this should be a lot easier to identify what your players would count as a "reward" in game as it would be similar to what they'd like to receive in life. If one or more of your players are in a band, have their characters receive praise and recognition in the local (or even national, or international) media. If one of them is big into technology, have them be given a powerful new gadget, perhaps to provide market research. Or have your players' characters meet your players' heroes (real or fictional).
Basically, look at them as "super charged" Christmas presents: if resources and "real-world" limitations didn't apply, what would you give your players as a gift? And once you've given it to them, look for ways to incorporate it into the story: What if a rival band decides to take down your players using so black magic? What if the shiney latest techo-toy has a sinister agenda in making sure everyone in the world has one? What if the hero actually needs the player's help with something?
Essentially, it's the same idea as giving D&D characters knighthoods, land grants, or the hand of the prince(ss) in marriage, but applying to a modern day setting.
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Try this: Ask them what they want to see happen to their characters and reward them based on that.
I've found this works really well, because the GM isn't a mind-reader and putting all of the burden on the GM to reward/tempt/coax the character often leaves players disappointed. If a player wants to see how far his character can go as a pure mortal, rewarding him with powers isn't really going to be a reward. If the player is eying the Changeling stuff but gets infected by a Red Court vampire, you could end up with a disappointed player.
So ask them. Maybe have them give you a list of a few things, this can be as abstract or as specific as they're willing to give you, from "I'd like to see my character eventually develop powers, but I'm okay being surprised by them" to "I want my character to become a power in the city, but I don't care how" to "I want to become a wizard."
You're telling a collective story. Get their input or it isn't really their story.
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The easiest way to handle this would be to start in character generation. And honestly this is one of two areas where "make yourself" is going to be a problem. Basically, encourage them to add in some dramatic problem to their lives. It's cool to start as yourself but hey... maybe in addition to the normal stuff you add in a friend with acquaintances of the "questionable legality" type? Or a boyfriend/girlfriend who works in a local hospital in the ER and gets exposed to as much weirdness as you do in your adventures? Basically you'll want some aspects on the characters that basically say something like "I'm getting involved in the supernatural, it's real and OMG I am so in over my head!" Or at least lend themselves to being used that way.
To echo some of the posts above, this game is more about interacting with people than just having all the right beat sticks to knock the bad guys on their arses. In some of the novels the hardest part is just figuring out who the bad guy really is. They are detective novels after all. :)
The best way to reward people is to give them ties to NPCs, groups and information. Part of the draw of a story that slowly reveals the supernatural to you is knowing that... now the ball is in your court. Now you know. And you have to decide what you want to do about it. Between that and the new character ties you probably won't miss the item rewards from D&D. Consider actually some of your older games. If you've been playing awhile there's likely been some point where the PCs ran into a thieves guild, an order of mages, dark elves that weren't quite the vile evil things they were supposed to be, a love interest or some kind of character tie. Unless your guys were rushing you along saying "Yeah, yeah, the NPC is cool, now how many pluses does that sword have again?" then you'll likely be fine. :)
P.S. Remember to work with your players a bit. It's harder when they've made themselves, but if they've really made good characters then they'll have handed you ideas and problems that are already built into who the character is. If you don't have that... You probably need to sit down with the players and work out how to get it. It's a big part of what makes things work in this system and going without really puts a lot more pressure on the GM than is really intended.
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you can have them find a tome or two detailing a common ritual or if someone in the group has a knack for magic, a tome that allows one spell of a sponsored magic type - see the "temporary access" rules.
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you can have them find a tome or two detailing a common ritual or if someone in the group has a knack for magic, a tome that allows one spell of a sponsored magic type - see the "temporary access" rules.
"Guys, I found this old dusty book in a house sale. The author's name's Kemml...something, can't quite read that last bit. Anyway, when I ran the first paragraph through Babelfish it said something about a path to magical power!...." ;D
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Some very cool ideas so far. I think it will be a blast as the game progresses and they discover powers within themselves that they never suspected they were capable of. I am planning a little intro-lead-off after city creation where they as a gaming group hear about a contest here in town: stay overnight in a haunted house and, if you make it until dawn, you get to keep the house. Mayhem abounds. If it all goes well, they will end up with a base of operations.
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One more trick for granting rewards in DFRPG: Give them an extra aspect, with free tag attached, as a reward.
"Tony Soprano Owes me a Favor", "Elf-friend", "I looted Magnovax's hoard", "Champion of the lower-east side". In appropriate circumstance, free tag it when making a resources role, if phat lewt is what the player wants, or for a contacting roll, or a maybe a researching roll with lore or scholarship, or a rapport or intimidate roll if the target would be impressed/intimidated by the character's accomplishments. Possibilities abound.
Sounds like a great opening scenario, here's hoping you guys all have a blast.
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Another, related question.
My wife will be playing in the campaign. Normally, in a D&D game, she plays a bow specialist, due to the fact that she doesn't like getting down-and-dirty with the enemies in the middle of all the muck and mire.
IRL, she is a school psychologist. I was thinking that the rules in the Dresdenverse allow you to make attacks against an enemy's social stress track using Intimidation and/or Rapport and her years of psychological training to undermine their confidence and exploit their social weaknesses, leading to their fleeing the conflict.
Am I missing something, or is this a valid approach? She is not the type of person to pick up a gun or a sword IRL and hew into the baddies, but I could very easily see her dissecting their sanity and using cutting language to rip them an new one. It should serve her quite well until enough refresh is available to the party to allow her to start learning some supernatural abilities, should she so choose.
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You could, theoretically, hold both a physical conflict and a social conflict simultaneously in the same scene. I personally don't think that social attacks are meant to be able to win physical fights. One consequence of allowing this is that all conflicts become kind of samey, with just different skills for attacking and defending based on each character. There becomes little to distinguish the fist fighter from the fast talker in physical conflict. Also, I think talking skills would start to become much more valuable than physical skills because social skills would be a viable route in purely physical conflicts while physical skills wouldn't be applicable in non physical conflicts (talker talks mayor into agreeing, then intimidates attackers out of fight. fighter, meanwhile, only contributes his apex skill to the fight. kind of makes fighter feel like he's been hosed).
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Quick note: Some of the suggestions here are good but others, while they'd work out fine, kind of muddle the waters a bit as far as the default setting goes. Common rituals as a reward (for example) is kind of the equivalent of giving someone Blackrazor in D&D. Sure it's cool... It's just going to devour their soul sooner or later. You can ignore that in your game but you may have to create your own way to give the supernatural that scary "OMG, this is cool but it can seriously bite me in the arse if I'm not careful" edge.
As for the physical/social thing, I'm going with Luminos on this one. In general I believe the info on social exchanges says they kind of don't happen when you're in physical danger. I'd suggest rereading that section if you plan on seeing that type of conflict much. In addition to the limitations it also gives a better idea of what being taken out socially can mean (a lot of different things as it turns out).
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I think that the basic problem would be how much occurs during an exchange. An exchange in physical combat is certainly enough time to toss around some attacks, but is it enough time to do a meaningful social attack? I'm not sure.
However, you might want to look into something along the lines of a White Court vampire for the effect you're talking about. Perhaps Incite Fear, or even Incite Insanity? The character could either be a member of some branch of WCVs, or could alternatively be a Scion of some sort with similar powers. Basically a supernaturally charger version of what you suggested. Though I have a hard time envisioning a non-monster character who'd use Incite Insanity as their standard attack...
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The rules say that social conflicts occur when the participants aren't engaged in physical violence. It's in the second paragraph of the social conflict section on page 215.
I find this a little unsatisfying, though. Attackers can be frightened off. They can be calmed. They can be placated.
Of course, you could choose to model this as putting a block up by using a social skill or by doing a maneuver with a social skill. Putting the Aspect "Afraid of me" on someone and compelling it should accomplish what you want in many cases. A flexible GM might allow you to toss up a block through intimidation, forbidding a combatant entrance into your zone.
If that doesn't do the trick for you, you have options.
First, you can allow social conflict during physical. I would suggest placing limitations on this, such as no complex thoughts, or maybe something you can say in three seconds. Maybe social attacks receive some sort of penalty. As long as there are some limits, it shouldn't be too overwhelming because social attacks lack weapon ratings, so someone punching you in the face will tend to win out.
Or maybe you can come up with a Stunt that adds another trapping to a social skill: During combat. This adds a surcharge to using social combat in a physical fight and limits the number of people who can pull off this option.
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I think allowing social skills in physical conflicts as maneuvers and blocks, but not attacks is probably the best way to do it. Intimidation just seems like it fits physical conflicts. And Harry is always using his intimidation in combat to piss off bad guys and cause them to make mistakes.
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You're probably right. She can use her analytical tools to dissect their desire to fight before fists or bullets start to fly, but she had better start taking lessons at the gun range (not IRL, no time in the day for that) if she wants to be of assistance in the thick of things. A good call.
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This snippet from YS133 might be of interest:
"Under certain conditions, Intimidation is one
of the few skills able to deal direct mental stress
(see “Mental Conflicts,” page 217) to a target as an
attack, and you can use it both in physical and
social conflict situations."
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Two quick thoughts for you. One, if you're having a tough time rewarding players without a loot table make "loot" actually appear in game. Say your players walk into their favorite coffee house in Baltimore, looking beaten up and tired. The local caffeine-o-mancer, who owes the PC (could be written down as an aspect like "I owe Ethan my life" or something like that) sees how bad he looks and decides to help (GM cashes in the tag to change the stories narrative). She hands him his drink, infused with her magic, which when consumed heals a moderate consequence. Roughly stated you just "gave" your player a potion of healing. Another way to do this is to give free aspects at points to reward players. If you helped the only wizard in the phone book with a case and suddenly find yourself in need to make some ghost dust a contact roll might give your player access to this npc and instead of just giving some information to help you make your own dust perhaps he gives you a pinch of uranium as well (two tags for the price of one). These examples give you a rough GP to favor mechanic that simulates a loot table if you need it.
As for your more socially inclined player maneuvers, blocks, as well as assessments and declarations could be come her "combat" forte. In my game I have a WCV who has taken a stunt called "Look! A distraction!" which allows her to use her rapport to make combat maneuvers, to which she has a secondary stunt that givers her a bonus to rapport. So far she gives a decent combat set up for my other players, who, in turn, use more physical skills to help her in conflicts. They've done things like tossed around desks and tossed knives near the "opponent" to place maneuvers on a subject so she could tag them to get information out of a subject (A social conflict).