Negotiation gives the heroes a chance to get what they want without combat… or at least without further combat! You might negotiate with a king to obtain military support against an incursion of demons in a neighboring country. You could enter into talks with a bandit leader to convince her to stop attacking merchant caravans on the road, and instead target nobles loyal to a tyrant. You might attempt to convince an archmage to allow you access to their secret library so you can research the location of a dragon-slaying axe. Negotiation covers all these scenarios and more.
Think of negotiation as something like learning a new system for combat, exploration, or investigation in an RPG. This set of rules provides a framework for roleplaying. The negotiation rules are meant to be read by players and Directors, so that both understand the rules of negotiation. If you’ve never played a game with a dedicated negotiation system like this, you might need to run it once or twice before you master it, similar to learning any new subsystem in an RPG. If a player hasn’t read these rules, the Director and other players who have can explain them to that player during their first negotiation.
Negotiation is a framework for important roleplaying encounters in which the heroes want to convince an NPC to take a particular course of action, such as lending the heroes an artifact or pardoning a prisoner. This framework tracks the NPC’s interest in the hero’s arguments and their patience, so that the Director know what the NPC is willing to offer and when it’s time to end the scene. This framework shouldn’t replace roleplaying (though it certainly can if your group doesn’t enjoy that part of RPGs). It’s here to help players and Directors understand the structure of a give and take conversation and give some rules that can make a high-stakes conversation even more dramatic!