CCG-like approach might work for dialogue. Depending one your skills, you could have a "deck" of options, such as Bluff, Intimidate, Reason, Flatter etc, or even something more particular, such as Strawman Argument. The number of "cards" would then represent how many arguments of a given type you are able to come up with during a conversation. IMO, that sort of abstraction makes sense. Some people are better at logic, some are better at making jokes or isulting people. Actually, I think that could turn out to be a decent alternative to [Diplomacy 100] to Win mechanics.
Edit:
Combat might work in a similar way too. Here's an example. A Boxer is well trained at puching but has no trained at kicking and grappling, so he gets a lot of Punch cards, and can buy extra punches cheaply, but no free Kick and Grapple are in his deck by default, and the price of buying such cards is higher than for Punch cards. An MMA dude is trained in either punching, kicking and grappling, but he is less proficient in punching than the boxer. So his deck has all types of cards, but Punch cards are more expensive then for the boxer. A karate dude would have cheaper Kick and Punch cards, but more expensive Grapple. As with the dialogue, the cards could represent not general types of attack, but all sorts of particular combat maneuvers.
This is an abstraction that actually allows to create a number of pretty diverse and well-defined fighting styles.
