Making Friends and Influencing Your Peers

There is a move that I feel like is missing from Monsterhearts: making people like you. Not like-like you, necessarily. It's not when you turn them on. It's more...like...

A real world example:

When I was a freshman in college I befriended an older philosophy major. He took me under his wing, in a way. I thought he was the bee's knees. I idolized him and everything he did. He was cool, he was smart, he was suave, he was sexy, and I wanted to be just like him. It wasn't sexual (well, okay, it was a little sexual, but I hero-worshiped him much more than I fantasized about him), but he had me wrapped around his finger.

I figure, this is basically how Strings work, so the question is, how could one go about acquiring Strings in this fashion? The Strings you get from turning someone on are from their sexual attraction (or confusion) towards you, while those you get from shutting someone down are more representative of a character being intimidated by you rather than respecting you.

I have currently three different possible solutions to this problem:

1) Repurpose the Fae move The Constant Bargain and make it a basic move. The main problems here are that it takes a move away from the Fae, and also the concept I'm going for is about more than just doing things for someone, though that can obviously be one route to social leverage.

2) Just make it a facet of the turn someone on move. Teenage sexuality is complicated and not being sure if you want to be your idol or just want him plays right into that (as I am all too aware). If I go with this option, I might have to turn the move into a bit of a flowchart, asking for player intention when undertaking the maneuver.

3) Make a new move wholecloth. When you curry favor? When you make an impression? Actually I kind of like that second one.

When you make an impression, roll with Hot.

On a 10+, you choose one:

• Take a String on them.
• They have to hold steady to act against you this scene (NPCs act at disadvantage).
• Get +1 forward on your next action against them.

On a 7-9, they choose one:

• They give you a String.
• They promise you something they think you want.

Some notes on the move:

• Making an impression is similar to turning someone on in that you don't have to be actively trying to do it. Maybe you just say that when you get called up to the board in math class to do a geometry proof, you solve it with such elegance and panache that the resident Alpha Nerd can't help but be impressed.
• Making an impression could quite easily turn into turning someone on, or vice versa. When you choose to do one, the MC is encouraged from time to time to ask if that's what's really going on.
• I was originally going to make giving the subject a Condition an option, but that turned into the +1 forward. Less messy that way. (Though maybe messy is better? Condition: Awe-struck. Inspired. Devotee. Whatever seems appropriate.) I suppose you can take the String you get from the move and turn it into a Condition, therefore making their private admiration of you public.

Example of Play:

Szandor the Serpentine's family wants him to bring Kalima the Ghoul to their next Special Gathering to honor Wadjet, because they believe the necromantic energy she exudes will please the cobra goddess. Kalima is another PC, so Szandor can't manipulate her into coming. Past experience has taught him that she's basically immune to scare tactics, so shutting her down probably isn't going to work. He could try seducing her but she's kind of creepy and Szandor doesn't want to risk getting that anywhere near his snake junk. So he decides that he needs to make himself look super-cool in her eyes. He's going to make an impression on her. At lunch, he asks if he can sit with her (already a draw he figures, because no one ever does) and makes witty banter, building off her snipes, gossiping about the art teacher's weird habits, all those adolescent pleasantries. He rolls with Hot, and gets a 3 and a 6. With his Hot score of +1, that's an easy 10. Super. He chooses to gain a String on her as Kalima's player describes how she's impressed by the snake boy's way with words. He then spends that String to get her to come to his family's Special Gathering because that would just be killer, and he thinks she'd love it. Kalima accepts, marks XP for the String, and soon the dark ritual will be complete.

Personally I don't feel the need to make this a move. When you create the NPC's, which is mainly the players' jobs, they're free to create a friend. It worked just fine in the games I've run so far.
If you really need rules, you can always just Manipulate an NPC, since you've already decided you're friends, that kowledge will reflect in the demands made.

Well, it's not just about making friends, and it's not just for use on NPCs either. It's about getting people to take notice of you. You could use it on one of your friends so that they're really impressed by whatever you're doing as an opening for a manipulation roll.

I'd say reading your example of play, that's a straight-up manipulate. He tries to impress her to do what he wants. That's the definition of manipulate. That move doesn't mean it has to be a bad thing or nasty or unpleasant.

It would be manipulate, yes, but since both characters are PCs, that move is off the table. This is, I feel, a new way to work around it.

Spend string. Offer them XP to idolize you.

If both are PC's, it's true, you can't manipulate. You can, however, offer strings, xp or, you know, roleplay it out. If I've decided my character hates your character, then no mechanics would make them friends. Or rather, if mechanics suddenly decided how my character felt towards someone (emotionally, not physically), then it would no longer be my character. And while I know someone will likely make a comparison with "Turn someone on", let me state that inflicting lust is like inflicting pain. You may hit me, and it will hurt, but I get to decide how I feel about it.