Each creature has a base Bloodthirst. Some examples, sorted by racial stereotype, follow, but players may choose any value at character creation:
| Race: | Bloodthirst: |
| Devil: | 1 |
| Human, Elf: | 2 |
| Goblin, Dwarf: | 3 |
| Orc: | 4 |
| Gnoll: | 5 |
| Demon: | 8 |
| Murder Hobo: | 10 |
At the beginning of every encounter that might be combat, creatures pick Leaders and Peer groups, and choose a Circumstance modifier to their Bloodthirst for this conversation of anywhere from -4 to x2. Then, each creature makes a Reaction Roll. Creatures that have Leaders do not roll, but rather accept whatever roll their Leader got.
Then, Conversation begins.
At the beginning of each round of Conversation, creatures roll Social Initiative. They perform one Social Action from the list on their turn (Social Actions probably should have a failure rate):
[*]Psyche Up: Target gets +2 to Bloodthirst for the remainder of this conversation. If they don't have a Leader, they make a new Reaction Roll.
[*]Provoke: Target rolls its own Reaction Roll, even if it does have a Leader.
[*]Calm: Everyone gets -1 to Bloodthirst.
[*]Stay Out of It: If the target's Bloodthirst is 0 or less when combat starts, they will choose to delay during the first round of combat unless attacked (and maybe even longer?).
[*]Other Stuff: Convince people of things. Social Interaction Rules Go Here.
A "target" is by default a single creature, but if it is a member of a Peer group, any other members may choose to be affected as well. For some penalty to the action's success rate, the speaker may choose to force the other members to choose to be affected.
After three turns, the round of Conversation is over. Creatures that did not get to act that round get +6 to Social Initiative for the next round, and Social Initiative is rolled again.
Reaction Roll: To do a Reaction Roll, roll 1d20. If it is less than or equal to your Bloodthirst, attack. (Have a surprise round or something)
Justifications and Apologies
Murder Hobos have a Bloodthirst of 10 because they sometimes flip out and kill shopkeepers.
Sorry about how the Circumstance modifier thing makes 4 and 10 the strongest Bloodthirst values.
I'm really not even sure how level-dependent the Social Action rolls should be, but I am sure there's no social interaction statistic in D&D that fits them properly.
The Three Turns thing serves to keeps the massed hordes from all speaking at once.
