Social Influence

In Exalted, the words of prophets, courtiers, and princes carry as much power as a warrior's sword or a sorcerer's magic. Social influence is the system used for resolving interactions in which characters attempt to manipulate, persuade, or coerce each other. With the social actions listed below, characters can gain the trust of others and then use that to influence them, changing or shaping their beliefs over the course of a conversation, oration, or artistic performance.

The core of the social influence system is the influence roll. The dice pool for an influence roll is always one of your social Attributes (Charisma, Manipulation, or Appearance) plus a relevant Ability, against a difficulty of the Resolve rating of the character you're trying to influence. Successful influence rolls allow you to alter a character's feelings or beliefs or to convince him to do something for you, based on the social action or Charm used. Occasionally, you will use other Attributes and Abilities to take actions that are not influence rolls, such as rolling (Perception + Socialize) to read a person's personality, beliefs, or agenda. All of these social actions are described in more detail below.

Overview

Social influence in Exalted revolves around Intimacies. In terms of gameplay, you're either going to be influencing someone's outlook (by creating, destroying, strengthening, or weakening Intimacies), or using Intimacies to persuade someone to do what you want.

Intimacies are the key to this system— a character's Intimacies dictate what they believe and care about. By studying and interacting with other characters, you can figure out what makes them tick. By engaging other characters socially, you can try to change how they feel about things, and thus change their Intimacies.

Without exploiting an Intimacy, persuasion isn't possible. No matter how charismatic you might be, a stranger won't give over his life to your cause just because you say so— there has to be a reason to make him take such course of action. Perhaps they trust and respect you; perhaps they hate someone you've set yourself against; perhaps by doing so, they'll further their own goals or stand up for what they believe in. All such motives are described by Intimacies. In short: You need to play on an Intimacy to be able to talk people into doing things you want them to do. The stronger the Intimacy, the more you can convince people to do in its name.

The resulting gameplay can depict anything from angering a great warrior into declaring war, to gaining the martial support of your sworn brothers because they respect you, to alienating a queen from her consort (to lessen his influence), to using propaganda to stir a revolt, to making a mighty bodyguard distrust and abandon the man he's sworn to protect.

In such a milieu, enormous charisma and forthright conviction might win the day, but it's often more effective to first learn what people want and what they care about. You might use your personality to win over a merchant prince, the better to convince him to back your agenda—or you might find it simpler to seduce his favored and trusted concubine, who can whisper your desires into his ear.

This also means Storyteller characters will seek to influence your character's opinions and actions. Creation is a world of strife and turmoil, full of heroes with their own agendas. Some characters will seek to use or recruit you, and some will offer and take advantage simultaneously— it's up to your character's judgment to determine who to trust, who to shun, who to follow, and who to turn away. Creation is a world that thrives on social influence, and no Exalt is an island.

Social Influence at a Glance

Social Influence is about:

• Discovering the Intimacies of others.
• Protecting your own Intimacies from discovery.
• Exploiting others' Intimacies to persuade them.
• Instilling others with new Intimacies to affect their feelings or beliefs.
• Strengthening or weakening the Intimacies others already hold.

In short: The social influence system is all about discovering, building or weakening the beliefs or emotional connections of others in order to convince them to do what you want them to do.

Order of Actions

Social actions don't usually have special timing—there are no "Social turns." When a player's character tries to seduce a beautiful youth or convince a despot to ally with his fledgling kingdom, he'll probably be the only person rolling dice—everything else is roleplay between his character and the Storyteller character. When multiple characters attempt social actions in the same scene, who rolls when can be decided by the natural flow of the conversation, or by procedure (in a court, for example, there are strict rules regarding who speaks when). If two characters are both trying to present different arguments to a single individual, then that individual's player decides who to listen to first. If it's still not clear who acts in which order, then the characters with the highest (Wits + Socialize) go first, with the Storyteller breaking any ties.

Resolve

The Resolve trait represents a character's mental solidity and strength of will, her ability to resist being influenced by the persuasion and manipulation of others. A character's Resolve rating is the difficulty for any influence roll made against her. Resolve is calculated as the character's ([Wits + Integrity + specialty] / 2, round up). If a character is applying her Resolve, then it means she's resistant to or skeptical of the influence being applied—there's no need to roll against a character's Resolve if she's happy to accept whatever influence is being offered. Resolve is mainly used to resist instill, inspire, persuade, bargain and threaten actions.

Guile

The Guile trait represents a character's ability to conceal his thoughts and innermost feelings. A character with high Guile reveals little about himself through his expression, posture, and speech, while a character with low Guile wears his heart (and Intimacies) on his sleeve. A character's Guile rating is the difficulty for actions that attempt to figure out his Intimacies, emotions, or thoughts. Guile is calculated as the character's (([Manipulation + Socialize + specialty] / 2, round up). Guile is typically used to defend against the read intentions action.

Intimacies

Intimacies represent a character's relationships, beliefs, ideals, and goals. A character's Intimacies help determine what types of influence will affect him.

Intensity

The strength of an Intimacy is defined by its intensity— Minor, Major, or Defining. When a character is targeted by an influence roll that opposes one or more of his Intimacies, add a bonus to his Resolve based on the intensity of the most applicable Intimacy. On the other hand, if one or more of a character's Intimacies supports an influence roll applied against him, then he suffers a corresponding penalty to Resolve based on the most applicable Intimacy.

If more than one Intimacy supports or opposes a social action, only the most relevant Intimacy modifies the target's Resolve. For example, if you have a Major Tie of hatred against the Realm, and a Defining Tie of hatred toward Ragara Jirun, and Ragara Jirun tries to convince you to act in support of the Realm, both Intimacies would logically oppose the influence, but only the Defining Tie of "Ragara Jirun (Hatred)" boosts your Resolve, as it has the strongest intensity.

Sometimes Social influence is supported by one Intimacy and opposed by another at the same time. For example, if Righteous Thorn has a Defining Tie of hatred toward the Realm, but the Major Principle "Violence solves nothing," then an attempt to convince him to support an armed revolt against Realm occupation would face no bonus or penalty to his Resolve since the two cancel one another out (-3 for the Defining Intimacy in support, +3 for the Major Intimacy in opposition).

The effects of these different Intensities are listed below.

• Minor Intimacies are notable relationships or beliefs that have some influence over a character's actions without being an integral part of who he is. Characters will usually let their Minor Intimacies dictate their behavior in situations where it is directly relevant, as long as it does not act against a stronger Intimacy or their own self-interest. A man with a Minor Tie of "My Wife (Love)" has a real and profound relationship with his spouse, but it doesn't have a strong influence on his actions outside the context of his romantic and family life. A peasant with a Minor Principle of "The Immaculate Philosophy" believes sincerely in the teachings of the Immaculate Order, but her reverence has little sway over her non-religious behavior. Minor Intimacies apply a +2 Resolve bonus against influence rolls that oppose them, or a -1 Resolve penalty against rolls that align with them.
• Major Intimacies are relationships or beliefs that influence the way the character acts in many areas of life. Major Intimacies influence the behavior of characters even in situations where they are only tangentially or indirectly relevant, and might lead a character to act against their own self-interest as long as they do not face severe harm or life-altering inconveniences because of it. A man with a Major Tie of "My Wife (Love)" has a strong relationship that dictates how he acts outside of just the context of the relationship. A peasant with a Major Principle of "The Immaculate Philosophy" applies the teachings of the Immaculates to almost every aspect of her life. Major Intimacies apply a +3 Resolve bonus against influence rolls that oppose them, or a -2 Resolve penalty against rolls that align with them.
• Defining Intimacies represent the most important things in a character's life, the relationships or beliefs that they place above all others and refuse to compromise. Defining Intimacies influence the greater part of a character's behavior in all fields of life. If there's something for which a character is willing to lay down his life, then it is best represented by this level of intensity. A man with a Defining Tie of "My Wife (Love)" is not just a committed spouse; his relationship influences almost everything he does. A peasant with a Defining Principle of "The Immaculate Philosophy" is defined as a person by her reverence for Immaculate tenets. Defining Intimacies apply a +4 Resolve bonus against influence rolls that oppose them, or a -3 Resolve penalty against rolls that align with them.

Transparency

By default, Exalted assumes system transparency—players know what kind of dice pools they're facing, when their enemy has used a Charm, and so forth, and this applies to social influence as well. However, some Storytellers may prefer more opaque social results in the interest of heightening drama and tension—perhaps you think it's more interesting if players don't know whether they really convinced the Lunar warlord, or if he simply took their bribe but plans to betray the characters. Perhaps you've got a player who can't resist acting on out-of-character knowledge.

In these circumstances, you might not announce when Storyteller characters spend Willpower to reject social influence, or might even roll players' social actions yourself, behind the screen, so that nobody is sure how well their attempt was received—in this style of play, read intentions actions become even more vital not only to gauge a character's attitude before approaching them, but afterwards as well!

Social Actions

The following is a list of social influence actions, what they can accomplish, and what conditions must be met to retry them after they fail (see "Retrying Social Actions").

• Instill: The instill action is used to change the feelings and beliefs of others. When a player takes an instill action, he declares what he wants to make his target feel or believe. The Storyteller may apply penalties to the roll if this belief is particularly implausible or hard to accept, up to a maximum penalty of -5 for truly unbelievable claims. On a successful roll, the target forms an Intimacy towards that belief.

However, there are limits to what someone will believe when they already have strong opinions to the contrary. The character may need to lessen existing Intimacies before instilling new ones. While the instill action can always be used to create new Minor Intimacies, altering existing Intimacies is more difficult:

— Strengthening a Minor Intimacy, or weakening a Major Intimacy, can only be done if the target has a different Minor or better Intimacy that supports the attempted influence.

— Likewise, raising a Major Intimacy, or weakening a Defining Intimacy, is only possible if the target has a different Major or better Intimacy that supports the attempted influence.

— Strengthening an existing Intimacy requires that the evidence raised or argument made in favor of strengthening it be more compelling than whatever caused the Intimacy to arrive at its current intensity. For example, if a shopkeeper gained a Minor Intimacy of distrust toward the Guild after learning that they often undercut local merchants, he would need even stronger evidence in order to strengthen his Intimacy to Major. Perhaps he learns that a Guild merchant plans to buy out his shop, or speaks to a man who once partnered with a Guildsman and was betrayed and sold into slavery.

• Persuade: The persuade action allows you to convince other characters to perform an action or task that you give to them. The extent of the action you can compel with persuade depends on the Intimacies of your target.

Without an Intimacy to support your influence roll, you can only convince others to take relatively trivial and riskfree actions—begging a coin from a passing stranger is about the limit. On the other hand, characters who have an appropriate Tie or Principle can be convinced to undertake great risks, dedicate their lives to a cause, or even die in your name. There are three categories of tasks characters might be asked to undertake, each based on the Intimacy being exploited:

Inconvenient Tasks: Characters who have an appropriate Minor Intimacy can be convinced to perform tasks that pose some mild danger or hindrance to them, as long as it is not severe enough to seriously disrupt their life or livelihood—the prospect of a severe injury, an angry superior, or heavy financial loss is still more than they will allow. With this level of Intimacy, you can persuade people to do things that take longer than a scene to complete, if the amount of time needed is not so long as to disrupt the target's life.

Example: "I need you to deliver this parcel to that big house in Cinnabar District, with the red jade lion statues by the door. If the man on the door has a scorpion tattoo, don't leave it with him—insist to see the master of the house."

Serious Tasks: Characters who have an appropriate Major Intimacy can be convinced to perform even tasks that carry the risk of extreme harm or impediment. At this level, a farmer could be convinced to join your personal militia despite the risk of dying on the battlefield, while an apothecary might provide you with poisons even though he faces imprisonment or corporal punishment for doing so. However, they will still balk if the risk of death or ruin is almost certain. Tasks that take extended amounts of time are possible at this level, even if they require a longterm commitment such as joining an organization.

Example: "Just because he's your father doesn't make you his slave—why should his fear deny you a place in An- Teng's glorious uprising against its oppressors? This nation needs heroes; men like you!"

Life-Changing Tasks: Characters who have a Defining Intimacy can be made to do almost anything. At this level, you could convince a devoted follower to hold off a Wyld Hunt long enough to buy time for your escape, or make a wealthy noble donate the better portion of his fortune to your personal cult. Only in cases where death or utter ruin are absolutely, unavoidably certain will they balk, and even then the Storyteller might decide they're willing to do it despite all odds.

Example: "I know the old scrolls said the heart of this temple is guarded by a fearsome beast of brass and flame. I know it's frightening, but isn't this why we came so far and spent our fortunes, to be the first ones to scavenge the Great Ziggurat of Lost Zarlath? I'll never make it into the final chambers with my leg like this—you'll have to dare it for both of us!"

Bargain: Bargaining is similar to the persuade action, but doesn't depend on your target's Intimacies. Instead, you must offer a bribe, gift, or favor that the character you're convincing believes is worth the difficulty or danger of the task you're asking him to perform. The Storyteller should take into account the Intimacies, wealth, and social status of the character in deciding what they will consider sufficient payment (a wealthy noble is not going to be moved to favor your cause in court by the gift of an apple, though a starving beggar might be).

Threaten: When all else fails, pain and intimidation are brutally effective motivators. Sometimes also called an intimidate action, threaten works like a bargain: You can convince people to do things without having to appeal to their Intimacies, only rather than offering something they want, you present them with something they don't—usually the threat of bodily harm, although social blackmail, economic ruin, and general intimidation will also do the job. It can also be used as an instill action which gives the target a Tie of fear towards you, or intensifies such an Intimacy he already has. For a threaten action to be effective, the target must be more afraid of the consequences of refusing you than he is of whatever you want him to do. If the target has any awe- or fear-based Intimacies you're aware of, that's usually a good place to start.

Blackmail and bullying won't make you many friends. Using the threaten action on someone almost always causes him to form an immediate negative Tie towards you, with a context chosen by the target's player, regardless of whether the attempt succeeds or fails. It can also often weaken any existing positive Ties the target might have, although that's ultimately up to his player (p. 170).

Inspire: The inspire action is used to incite emotions and strong passions in the hearts of others, usually with the Performance Ability, which those others then act on. When a player takes an inspire action, he chooses which emotion he is attempting to inspire—anger, sorrow, hope, lust, hatred, delight, or any other. On a successful inspire roll, the target is impassioned according to the emotion evoked—but the target's player chooses what form that passion takes.

An impassioned character might form a new passion, or act upon an existing Intimacy that aligns with the emotion evoked. A tribal warrior-queen who is inspired with anger after hearing a Dawn Caste's roaring oration against her enemies might decide to lead a raid against a hated rival clan, or might decide to begin harassing a political enemy within her own tribe. A merchant prince who is filled with sorrow by the song of a Zenith Caste playing outside his window might spend the rest of the scene weeping with longing for a dead wife or might resolve to undertake some act of generosity with his fortune in remembrance of her kind-hearted ways.

A character doesn't have to drop everything he's doing to act upon an inspire action, but he must be genuinely resolved to action. If a devout follower of the Immaculate Philosophy is inspired to make a pilgrimage to the Imperial Mountain, he will generally set his affairs in order, supply himself for the journey, and explain to his family where he is going before setting off. Inspiration doesn't automatically create or strengthen Intimacies, but it's often appropriate for it to do so as characters act upon their inflamed passions. An inflamed passion may be treated as a Major Intimacy for the purposes of modifying Resolve and enabling persuade actions, for as long as the character is acting on it.

The inspiring character doesn't automatically know what passions he has inspired in his audience; he must use read intentions (see below) to find out. Because a character does not—and without magic, cannot—tailor the outcome of an inspire action to a specific target, inspire actions aren't subject to the penalty for group influence detailed on page 221, unless specified by a Charm or other effect.

Read Intentions: The read intentions action allows a character to discern what another character wants to achieve in a scene of interaction. Reading someone's intentions is not an influence roll—instead, it is a (Perception + Socialize) roll against the target's Guile. On a success, the Storyteller should give a brief description of what the character wants out of the interaction: "He's seducing you to get you alone," or "She's making polite small talk and waiting for this party to end."

Alternatively, this action can be used in order to determine what Intimacies a character has. Before rolling for the action, the player should generally describe what kind of Intimacy he wants to discern ("Does he love anyone?" "How does he feel about me?" "Is he a devout Immaculate?"). On a success, the Storyteller chooses and reveals one of the target's Intimacies that fits those criteria. If there is no Intimacy that does, the Storyteller should let the player know this.

The read intentions action is not a form of magic. The character using it is analyzing the target's words and behavior to get a better feel for his motives and Intimacies, and the Storyteller should use common sense in deciding how much information can be gleaned from a character's behavior and appearance. You might deduce that a young princeling is in love from a look of longing in his eyes or a wistful sigh, but discerning his paramour's identity might be impossible unless she's physically present or if he's carrying some evidence of her identity.

Finally, a character who is unaware he's being observed suffers a -2 penalty to his Guile.

Appearance

While the Appearance Attribute may be rolled as part of social actions, it also has another function in social influence, granting a bonus against weak-willed characters. Those of low Resolve are more easily impressed and awed by striking, beautiful individuals, or easily intimidated by the profoundly ugly (see the Hideous Merit, p. 162).

If a character's Appearance rating is higher than his target's Resolve, then he gains a dice bonus on all instill and persuasion attempts against that individual equal to the difference. Thus, a character with Appearance 5 attempting to use a persuade action on an individual with Resolve 3 would gain a +2 bonus. This comparison is made before any bonuses to Resolve are factored in.

If addressing a group (p. 220), compare Appearance to the average Resolve of the group (usually 2 or 3) to determine any appropriate bonus.

Roleplaying: A Reminder

There are a lot of rules here dealing with aggressively cultivating Intimacies, convincing people to do things, or tricking people into abandoning things they care about. These mechanical hooks exist to help facilitate persuasive character concepts, from tricksters to grand orators; moreover, we've crafted these rules to determine when it's fair for such characters to fail in their aims. These rules are not a replacement for roleplaying or organic character growth, however. Just because we've devoted a number of pages to rules about provoking Intimacy growth or loss, don't forget— your character can (and should) intensify, weaken, gain, and lose Intimacies based on the course of the story and character development, without anyone using any social actions to goad such change. Likewise, characters are constantly evaluating the words and deeds of those around them when deciding what to do, even when not targeted by persuade actions.

In short: Remember that these rules are there to supplement good old-fashioned roleplaying, not to cast a net over it or box it in.

Resisting Influence Rolls

The base difficulty for an influence roll is always the Resolve rating of the character targeted by the roll. On a failed roll, the character is unimpressed or unmoved by whatever argument or offer was made. On a successful roll, the target is persuaded or moved by your words.

Spending Willpower

Even if a character's Resolve is overcome, he may still have an opportunity to deny the influence. If the influence is trying to change how he feels, such as by creating, destroying, or changing his Intimacies, he may spend a point of Willpower to:

• Stop a new Intimacy from being created. Although the character is moved, he just can't afford to invest himself in a new person or cause!
• Stop a Major or Defining Intimacy from being weakened. Even though the influence was convincing, the character just has too much invested in the Intimacy to give up now, even if he wants to!
• Reject a successful inspire action—the character uses his force of will to deny his swelling passions.

Decision Points

Refusing successful influence to make the character do something is trickier. When a character fails to resist such influence with his Resolve, he enters into a special state called a Decision Point.

In the Decision Point, the player must choose an Intimacy and explain how it justifies resisting that specific influence. The Intimacy he chooses must be of equal or greater intensity than the Intimacy which supported the influence roll, and it can't be the one that strengthened his Resolve against the roll in the first place—the influence already overcame that particular source of reluctance when it beat his Resolve, after all.

If those requirements are met, and if the Storyteller accepts the player's argument for why one of his Intimacies would make him reject the influence, then the character may spend one Willpower point to resist the influence roll. Otherwise, resistance is impossible§. As an example Decision Point, consider Son of Wolves, a Zenith Caste whose Resolve rating has just been overcome by the influence roll of Naya, a scheming Sidereal. The Sidereal seeks to turn him against his Circle (a serious task), and her persuade action is supported by Son of Wolves's Major Principle of belief in the Immaculate Faith, which manifests as a lingering and unshakable conviction that he and his fellow Solar Exalted are Anathema. Unless Son of Wolves can match this with an Intimacy of Major or Defining intensity, he will be powerless to defy the truth he hears in Naya's words. While he has a Defining Tie of loyalty towards his Circlemates, he already used that Intimacy to bolster his Resolve, rendering it unavailable in a Decision Point. Luckily, he also has a Major Principle of "I can't abide a traitor," owing back to a terrible betrayal he suffered long ago. His player argues that this allows him not to betray his Circlemates even if they are Anathema. The Storyteller accepts this argument, and Son of Wolves is able to spend a point of Willpower to resist.

What Does Influence Mean?

Social influence isn't some kind of mind control. The changes produced by successful influence rolls represent the way in which people can be affected by the opinions and attitudes of others. When a Zenith Caste prophet takes an instill action to convince a warriorprince of the righteousness of the Unconquered Sun, he is making reasoned arguments or emotional appeals that the warlord will agree with, not brainwashing the prince into his cult.

Resisting influence means you're exerting effort to override your feelings or better judgment. You may be convinced by a person's argument or moved by his emotional appeal, but the stakes are too high and your idealism is too strong for you to back down. Alternately, an application of Resolve can be seen as rejecting an appealing or well-supported claim that contradicts one of your own strong beliefs (hello, Intimacies). However, a character need not strongly object to an idea to apply Resolve. She may just be uncertain about a course of action, wary of an unforeseen risk, or may simply hate the speaker despite his wisdom.

That said, Exalted does feature mind control and other forms of severe influence. This is always the province of powerful and dangerous magic, generally marked with the psyche keyword.

Lengthy Debates

Sometimes after a character has spent Willpower in a Decision Point in order to reject influence, the initiate will return with a new or stronger argument. When this happens, the initiate is engaging the reset rules for social actions (see "Retrying Social Actions,"). If the same issue is being argued as a result, the target may not use an Intimacy which boosted his Resolve against the initial roll. After all, that logic was not enough to stop him from being forced into the Decision Point in the first place. To boost his Resolve against the initiate's second attempt, he must find another Intimacy to raise his Resolve—or use the one that allowed him to reject influence in the Decision Point. Remember that according to the rules of Decision Points, the Intimacy a character uses to raise his Resolve cannot be invoked in a Decision Point. This rule continues to apply throughout the story—as long as the initiate can find new angles with which to demonstrate the rightness of her persuasion, she can cause her target to use up all of his valid excuses over the course of a story. When a character has no valid Intimacies with which to enter a Decision Point, beating his Resolve will finally convince him to agree with the initiate's arguments. Thus a prophet may soften the heart of a prince over time.

Special note: Because your Intimacies are the key to avoiding influence you absolutely cannot abide, it's important to spend a few moments thinking about good "safety net" Intimacies when making your character. For example, if the idea of your character violating his sworn oath is antithetical to how you imagine him, you probably want a Major or Defining Principle along the lines of "My word is my bond" or "Once I give my word, I never go back on it."

Unacceptable Influence

There are limits on what can be achieved with social influence. No amount of charisma is sufficient to talk someone into suicide, or to convince a die-hard patriot to betray his cause. If a request is so antithetical to the nature and personality of its target that it cannot possibly succeed, it is said to be unacceptable influence. A character targeted by unacceptable influence may reject it outright without spending Willpower, even if his Resolve would not normally be high enough to defend against it. A player can still choose to have his character follow the course of action put forward by unacceptable influence, but only because he thinks it makes sense—the character cannot be coerced into doing it. Some powerful Charms and spells can also compel characters into bowing to unacceptable influence.

Unacceptable influence includes:

• Any instill action to strengthen or weaken an Intimacy which doesn't exploit an appropriately strong Intimacy to do so.

Example: A Deathlord's agent sits down next to a Solar in a teahouse and intimates that the Solar's Lunar companion is not to be trusted, but she gives no reasons—only dim intimations. The Solar has a Major Tie of trust toward the Lunar. Because the Abyssal exploits no Intimacies to support her suggestions, the Solar can ignore her attempt at weakening his Intimacy toward the Lunar.

• Any persuasion attempt which doesn't exploit an Intimacy strong enough to support the proposed task.

Example: A zealous Immaculate missionary attempts to convince the high priestess of Hamoji, great volcano god of the Wavecrest Archipelago, to abandon her life of worship. This would be a life-changing task, and the priestess has no Defining Intimacies which would support the missionary's exhortations. As such, the priestess is free to reject the proposed influence at no cost, without the need of a Decision Point.

• Any bargain attempt which fails to offer a properly enticing incentive or threaten action which is insufficiently threatening.
• Any influence that would cause a character to kill himself, or to do something that he knows would result in his certain death.
• Any influence that would cause a character to completely abandon or end one of his Defining Intimacies is unacceptable. A farmer with a Defining Tie of love to his wife might be seduced by another person, but could not be convinced to abandon or murder his wife. A Solar with a Defining Principle of "I will win the allegiance of the sorceress Raksi" could not be convinced to kill her, as this would make fulfilling that goal impossible. Weakening a Defining Intimacy is still allowed, making it possible to first degrade an Intimacy from Defining to Major and then issue the otherwise unacceptable influence.
• Any seduction attempt that violates a character's sexual orientation (as defined by the player, or by the Storyteller in the case of Storyteller characters) is unacceptable.
• Certain Charms allow characters to define special kinds of influence that they may treat as unacceptable.

NPCs and Willpower

NPCs don't have limitless reserves of Willpower to spend on resisting influence rolls. The average mortal has only a precious few points of Willpower at any given time, and even an Exalt is unlikely to empty his entire pool of Willpower without good cause. As a rule of thumb, most minor mortal characters won't spend Willpower to resist successful influence rolls—if every peasant, innkeeper, and hired goon is paying Willpower to defy the players' characters, it only bogs down the game.

For more significant or powerful characters, the Storyteller should base the decision to resist or not on the character's Intimacies—the higher the intensity of Intimacy that opposes the influence roll, the more likely the character is to resist. For example, a wandering Abyssal swordsman will almost always spend Willpower when his Defining Tie of love to his dead husband is opposed. However, against an influence roll that only opposes a Minor Principle of greed, he might conserve his Willpower if he believes he will need it for future conflicts. If an influence roll isn't opposed by any of the character's Intimacies, he's unlikely to resist it unless he has a pressing reason to do so.

Social Complications

A number of considerations may arise when winning friends and influencing people:

One Target vs. Many Targets

Much of the time, an influence roll only affects one character. An envoy warns a prince of a coming war; a smuggler bribes a magistrate to overlook his cargo; a hedonistic noble seduces an innocent farm boy. Sometimes, however, a character may wish to make a single influence roll against multiple characters. He can choose to target only a select group, or to apply the influence roll against anyone who hears him. However, people find it easier to ignore arguments that are not directly addressed to them. Whenever an influence roll targets more than one character, it suffers a -3 penalty.

Because the different targets of an influence roll can have varying Resolve ratings, the success or failure of the action is determined separately for each target. A Dawn Caste who rolls four successes to threaten a mercenary cadre into backing down from a fight might successfully intimidate the rank and file with Resolve 2, but not the unit's God-Blooded leader with Resolve 5.

Written Social Actions

The written word can be used to persuade or manipulate others just as easily as speech or whisper. Characters who wish to convey influence through a letter, pamphlet, book, or other written work do so as a written social action. The time taken to create a written missive varies based on the form and length of the work. The Storyteller decides how long it takes, with a minimum time of five minutes in most cases. Likewise, the time needed to read the missive is decided by the Storyteller based on length.

The Ability used when rolling for a written social action is always Linguistics. When a character reads the message, compare the successes rolled for it to his Resolve to determine if it succeeds, as with normal influence rolls. Written social actions can be written to apply either against a single intended reader or against anyone who reads them, with the usual effects for targeting multiple characters (p. 220).

Gestures and Body Language

When a character attempts to communicate through gestures, appearance, and body language alone, the target of such silent influence adds +2 to his Resolve. This is normally only useful for attempts at intimidation or seduction, but players are free to be creative and think up with other applications. Many things are impossible to communicate silently—no amount of hand-waving or quirked eyebrows can explain the intricacies of a First Age relic or the intricate politics of a Dynastic household. This penalty doesn't apply to inspire actions using dance.

Overturning Influence

Imagine this scenario—Rellus the Glorious Mantle of Dawn, warrior of the Dawn Caste, is speaking with his Lunar lover, who has a standing grudge against the Mask of Winters. She persuades him to round up his Marukani followers and ride against the Mask's armies, using a persuade action. Upon hearing of his forces mobilizing, a Sidereal approaches Rellus and attempts to convince him that his planned war is ill-omened, and that he would be better off seeking allies rather than taking on the Deathlord alone. Rellus has already been persuaded—how to resolve this situation?

Characters in the world of Exalted are generally loath to abandon a course of action one they've set themselves upon it, and so overturning existing social influence with additional social influence is difficult. First, a character who has already been persuaded to do something receives a +3 bonus to his Resolve against any influence that would cause him to abandon or disregard that persuasion. This bonus stacks with the Intimacy bonus from a relevant Intimacy. Second, a petitioner who wishes to overturn existing persuasive influence must spend a point of Willpower before making her argument and roll. So, in the above example, the Sidereal must spend a point of Willpower to impress upon Rellus the dire urgency of the omens she has foreseen— and Rellus's Resolve is automatically at +3 to resist her influence, before Intimacies come into play.

If the contradictory persuasion succeeds, the targeted character may use a Decision Point to resist it by citing a conflicting Intimacy, without spending a point of Willpower to initiate the Decision Point—it's easier to stand by a hard-fought decision than to abandon it and reverse yourself. Conversely, if he wants to abandon his present course of action and accept the new influence, the character must spend a point of Willpower and cite the Intimacy which was used to change his mind.

It's possible to use these rules to model several reversals— if Rellus were to listen to the Sidereal and order his forces to stand down, his Lunar lover would have to spend a Willpower point to convince him to ignore the Sidereal and follow her original advice! However, the Lunar can't use the same argument she did the first time around—that has already been rejected, and so she'll have to come up with a new tack, playing off of a different Intimacy to get Rellus to change his mind again.

These conditions remain in place for one story after a character has been influenced to take a course of action— once the next story begins, any lingering influence can be overturned with an ordinary persuasion, bribery, or intimidation attempt.

Seduction

The Exalted are often driven by their desires, inflamed by passions that span the centuries. Many Chosen while away the years in pursuit of torrid love affairs and whirlwind romances. With some of the Chosen, seduction is an art form, and with others it's an instinct. In the social influence system, seduction can be accomplished a number of ways. The seducer might rely on the instill action—through suggestion, innuendo or poesy, she plants a seed of interest in the mind of her love interest. She may then use the persuade action, insinuating herself into the comforts of her target. Others may find it easier to simply attract interest at social gatherings, through seductive gestures or facial expressions, perhaps accentuating their most provocative clothing or their favorite features in other to draw attention. In these and many other cases, the character need not use the instill action, and if a persuade action is required, it can often be perfunctory— characters who respond to such signals are usually eager to explore their significance. Generally, when the seducer's target is already interested in sex, no roll is needed. Seduction can also be accomplished through the bargain action, in a roundabout way. The Empress herself once wrote of her frustrating attraction to the "boorish" Brem Marst, whose wealth drew her as surely as his handsome brow.

The Red Rule

In almost all aspects, Exalted doesn't mechanically distinguish between Storyteller characters and those the players control. Here's the exception:

A player-controlled character can only be seduced or otherwise put in a sexual situation if the player is okay with it. Otherwise, any such attempt fails automatically. This is completely up to the player's discretion, and they can waive this rule's protection if they want their character to be seduced, if they think it would improve the story, or for whatever other reason. This is entirely up to the player, and on an attempt-by-attempt basis—waiving the rule once doesn't void your ability to call on it later against the same character, or even in the same scene. If no one in your group ever invokes this rule, that's also fine—but players don't have to watch their character put into a sexual situation they're not comfortable with.

Groups that feel comfortable in doing so should allow player characters the full range of their seductive prowess when entangled with Storyteller-controlled characters… although remember that the Storyteller is also a player and their boundaries should be respected.

Retrying Social Actions

When a scheming courtier's bid to gain the trust of a prince goes awry or a young lover fails to seduce the object of her desires, they cannot simply repeat their old arguments and expect a different result. Instead, they must change the situation in a way that allows them to try again. Below are retry conditions for each of the social actions. Once this condition has been met, the character may attempt to retry. For example, Shan Min, an Eclipse Caste merchant, tries to win the favor of a barbarian warlord with an offering of steel weapons and horses—a bargain action. However, he fails his (Charisma + Presence) roll. The warlord still takes the weapons, but refuses to ally with Shan Min. As described below, he cannot retry the roll until he can make a better offer to the warlord, such as an armory of enchanted weapons or a jade daiklave. Having done so, he can make a new roll, and win the warlord's tribe over to his cause.

The Storyteller should use common sense in adjudicating retry conditions. Once Shan Min has failed his bargain roll, he couldn't simply send one of his circlemates to offer the same bribes to the warlord in hope of a second chance— even though that character didn't make the initial roll, common sense dictates that he must still bring a bigger bribe to win over the chieftain.

Instill: If you fail an instill action, you must present your target with substantially greater evidence for whatever you are trying to convince him of before you can retry. A Solar who wishes to make the people of a small farming village trust him might need to defend them from a predatory god or greedy Imperial tax collector before they will accept him. A strategist who fails to convince a general that a war with An-Teng would be a disaster would need to bring back intelligence reports that prove his point before he will be heard. A suitor trying to win a prince's affection would need to present a much grander display of love. Alternately, you can try again after the current story has ended.

Persuade: There are three ways to retry a failed persuade action. One is by making a different argument, playing on a different Intimacy of equal or greater strength. Another is to wait and try again during the next story. The final route is to wait until the Intimacy that supported your influence roll has been strengthened to a higher level of intensity—either by using a different social action to strengthen it, or by waiting until the character has strengthened it himself—and then try again.

Bargain: You can only retry a failed bargain roll by making a new offering that's substantially greater than your previous one. If a peasant is unswayed by a gift equivalent to a day's wage, then perhaps he will listen to a week's or month's pay. A courtier who rejects an offer of marriage to a minor noble might be convinced by a wedding contract with a young Dragon-Blood.

Threaten: You can only retry a failed Threaten roll if you significantly escalate the threat used to coerce your target. A torturer might progress from light cuts to broken bones to potentially lethal torture. A scheming eunuch who fails to cow a court rival with the threat of revealing an illicit affair might threaten to frame him for treason. A Solar might flare his anima banner, revealing that the threat behind his menacing glare is far, far greater than his foes first realized.

Inspire: You must wait until the scene has ended to retry an inspire action.

Read Intentions: Once a Read Intentions action has failed, it can't be retried on the same target for the rest of the scene.

Playing to the Audience

Sometimes, a player will attempt to simply sway a mass of people with social influence, rather than appealing to any one character or specific group. While a player character or significant NPC should always be allowed to resist influence with her Resolve, if all the characters in the audience are effectively minor, unimportant characters who would not normally be given their own mechanical definition, the Storyteller can simply treat the entire audience as a single entity with a single Resolve rating.

Most mortal audiences will have a Resolve of 1 or 2, while audiences of exceptional mental resilience, such as ascetic monks or spiritually powerful beings, may have a Resolve of 3 or 5 (though there are few cases when it would be appropriate to lump magical creatures into an audience) The Storyteller can assign Intimacies to the audience based on the general feelings of the crowd—an audience composed of Gem citizens is likely to have a Tie of patriotism towards Gem, for example.

Generally, when the rules for targeting an audience are brought into play, the Storyteller shouldn't bother with the rules for rejecting influence with Willpower, but instead define what percentage of the audience is convinced, usually based on how it aligns with their Intimacies. This might range from the entire crowd, if the influence aligns with a Defining Intimacy, to only a sizable minority, if it opposes a Defining Intimacy.

Any character who has her own individual traits always resists social influence using her own Resolve and Willpower, even if she's a member of an audience being targeted by such an action. In the case of magic that specifically targets an audience, such characters are treated as separate targets, rather than automatically following the actions of the crowd.

Social Actions in Combat

All of the social actions described above work normally during combat, although within the dictates of common sense—you can certainly shout out a fast, desperate offer to triple a mercenary's pay if he'll switch sides in the midst of battle (a bargain attempt), or even confess your hopeless love for the beautiful Abyssal trying to take your head (an instill action), but trying to engage in complex contract negotiations in the space of a single turn is probably absurd.

All social actions are considered combat actions, and may be placed in a flurry. They're resisted as normal. One special case is worth independent consideration: surrender.

Pleading for mercy can convince enemies to accept your surrender rather than killing you. This might be a persuade action, or even a bargain ("My family will pay a great ransom for my safe return!"). On a successful roll, your enemy will allow you to surrender, taking you captive or letting you retreat rather than killing you. In most cases, this doesn't require an Intimacy to exploit at all—letting a defeated stranger run away is no great hardship. In some cases, it might require exploiting a Minor Intimacy (when the enemy has some particular reason to want you dead rather than merely captured or vanquished), or even in extraordinary cases a Major Intimacy (such as a Solar trying to surrender to the Wyld Hunt—a course we don't generally recommend, since the master of the Hunt is likely to have a valid Intimacy to cite in the resulting Decision Point as grounds to deny you mercy.)