Interpersonal Interaction Map - Beta concept

    I played my first game of Starfinder a few nights ago.  I don't have any deep thoughts about the system, it pretty much felt like playing Pathfinder again.  But one thing did jump out at me.  The party was trying to negotiate with a gangster and things got very complicated.  I'm a veteran role-player, I've been playing RPGs since I was a kid (which was a very long time ago).  But in the party I was the tank, an Android Soldier with a -1 Charisma mod, a racial penalty to Sense Motive checks, and no skill ranks in any interpersonal skills.  I am just in the party to shoot stuff.  Thus, I was sitting back and listening to the negotiations.  The ones talking were two friends who are new role-players, they've been playing with some of my other friends for a few years now, so they aren't totally green.  While I was listening I was struck by how badly the scene was going.  After a few minutes I had to jump in and try to get things on track so that we could wrap up this side quest and get on to the main story.  But what really struck me was not that my new players were having trouble - no, I was really hit by the fact that the game does not give any help to players about how to handle talking to NPCs.  Really, no game I've ever played does a very good job of helping the players with conversations.
    It's taken a few days, but this morning I woke up with a crazy idea: what if I created a map for talking to people?  I have a rough draft that I'd like to share with everybody in case this is a useful tool for someone out there.

The Interpersonal Interaction Map
    Yeah, the name is a work in progress :)   Here is the image file you can print out:

    I want this to be system-neutral, so I'm going to describe how to use this, but you'll have to customize it to your game.
    We start at the top, there are two sections for Incentives and Obstacles.  An Incentive is a reason for the NPC to do whatever it is the PCs want.  Each incentive is rated from +1 to +5.  A +1 incentive is a small reason to help, while a +5 is a very big/ compelling/ forceful reason to help.  Opposing the incentives are Obstacles, which are rated on the same scale but as negative numbers instead of positive.  Now, it's very possible that an NPC will not have any incentives at the start of the conversation - but almost every conversation should have at least one Obstacle, or else why are we bothering to play this out?
    Incentives and Obstacles combine to create the Co-operation Level.  This is a statement about what the NPC is willing to do for (or to) the PCs.  The edges ("Extreme Opposition" and "Total Support") mean that the NPC is willing to engage in behavior with significant risk to themselves for or against the party.  That may mean risking jail or death to help or stop the party (so a fight could break out at that level).  Moving a step inside, the "Active Hindrance" and "Willing Aid" means the NPC will take action for or against the party, but only if there is relatively little risk to themselves.  "Passive Resistance" means the NPC will not help at all, and will attempt to flee the PCs or call for help if possible/ necessary.  "Secret Assistance" means the NPC will help, but only in a way that will not draw attention to them - this could be a tip, or a pointer to someone else to talk to.
    What Co-operation Level the party needs and where they start is something the GM needs to think about when setting up the encounter, of course.

    The NPCs do not start at the level the PCs want, if they did there wouldn't be a need to play this out, so how do the PCs change the Co-operation Level?  Well, they use their skills/ role-playing.  That side of things is covered by the bottom half of the map.
    Rapport and Authority represent the NPCs outlook towards the PCs.  This is kind of the "reaction roll" of D&D/ Pathfinder, but I want to break it into two parts and explicitly give it a measurement.  Rapport is personal, how the NPC feels towards the PCs.  Authority is impersonal, how the NPC views the PCs position, reputation, or connections to other people.  Both are measured as positive or negative numbers.  The exact values are going to depend on your game system - a +1 in Pathfinder is a trivial bonus, it's a little more useful in D&D 5th ed, but it's a big deal in Fate.  So exactly how to measure this you'll need to work out for your rules.
    These can be negative, if the PCs are elves and the NPC hates elves, then Rapport could be a -3.  Likewise if the PCs are police officers, usually that would be a bonus to Authority, but it may be a penalty to some criminals (or 20-year-olds with laptops and authority issues, to quote Nate Ford).  The scores for Rapport and Authority are combined, and they are a modifier to the PCs rolls (or weighed by the GM in diceless or skill-less systems).
    Finally we have the NPC themselves.  While the Incentives and Obstacles talk about the NPC's motivations, weather they want to help or not, the final section of the map talks about the NPC's personality.  There are 6 broad action types, which you should be able to map to your skill system (if you have one), and the PCs need to choose one to roll/ use to change the NPCs mind.  This can take 4 forms.  The PCs can...

• Try to create or increase an Incentive - making a new Incentive should be harder (higher DC), either way you add one point to an Incentive (max is still 5).
• Try to decrease an Obstacle - this removes a point from an Obstacle (min is zero of course).
• Increase Rapport - this adds to Rapport, by an amount that will vary depending on your system.
• Increase Authority - as with Rapport above.

Of course, the PCs need to describe a logical way they can do one of these actions.  Then, they need to choose one of the 6 methods of interaction...

• Threat/ Intimidate - this does not have to be a direct threat of violence, it can be anything that points out how not co-operating will hurt the NPC physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually or socially.
• Offer/ Entice - with this method the PC is going to offer some reward for co-operation, either directly (like a bribe) or implied (the princess will like you if you save her, and she's rich).
• Prey Upon/ Manipulate - this is an appeal to the NPCs weakness, using an NPCs greed is this method.  The Offer/ Entice is for NPCs who are not signficantly greedy.  This can also be an attempt to prey upon the NPCs fears or sense of duty.
• Reason/ Convince - this is an attempt to calmly and rationally lay out why the NPC should help the PCs.
• Negotiate/ Exchange - while Offer/ Entice is giving something to the NPC, this is a quid-pro-quo exchange (or you scratch my back I'll scratch yours).  It could also be negotiation between other parties (help me and I'll get my friend to help you).
• Flatter/ Promote - this attempts to show how the NPC will be a better person, or be seen as a better person, for helping.

Right now these definitions are works in progress, and the area where I'd appreciate feedback the most.  The idea though is that this method sets the DC or target number for the roll, how hard it's going to be to convince the NPC.  Trying to bribe a loyal and honest guard is pretty hard (even perhaps impossible), but a shady guard might go for it.  A part of the challenge for the players is to assess the NPCs (either through the GM's description or by researching an NPC they know they'll have to interact with) and pick the method that would have the best chance of success.  And then, in skill-based games, the question also becomes how good the players are at those interaction types.
    Also, there may be outside elements that could help a certain method.  For example, if the party has found some blackmail information about the NPC then they should get a bonus to Threat/ Intimidate (or, if they can find a way to give the NPC more of what they want, a bonus to Prey Upon/ Manipulate).
    I would love for the system to track the NPCs future reaction (while a threat may work to elicit co-operation it's going to leave a bad taste in the NPCs mouth and may make a future enemy).  Generally speaking the top row of methods are not going to make the NPC like the PCs much (even giving a bribe just makes you a source of money, not a friend) - while the bottom row is neutral to potentially favorable.  That's up to you about how you want to use any future repercussions or not.

    Finally, along the left side there is a track for the number of failures.  No one wants to talk forever, you only get so many chances to change someone's mind.  I'm currently thinking of tracking that by failures.  As long as the party is succeeding at their rolls I'd figure the conversation is going well.  And giving the group 10 failures is pretty generous - you could say that the NPC is in a bad mood or caught at a bad time and thus starts with 1 or more failures.  Or, you could track it in turns, and give the party a maximum of 10 turns (or fewer) to change the NPCs mind.

Conclusion
    I know this is pretty rough, I have some ideas on how I want to refine the system so you'll see an update to this sooner or later.  This might be way too much detail for some tables, but I think for some groups - in particular new players - having different factors laid out and clear/ easy to see might help them formulate a plan on how to talk to people.  Let me know what you think in the comments below :)