Exile Game Studio

[madwabbit]

So, for those who have a copy of SotSW, l'd like to throw some questions out there for your feedback, accompanied by my opinion of what the answer is.

1) Should physical exhaustion caused by psychic over-exertion be "healable" by a Medicine roll? I say NO.

2) A psychic attempting mind control gets a minus to his roll for acquiring or maintaining control if they take an action whilst trying to do so -- does that include moving or a reflexive action? I say YES.

3) A psychic with a Mind Control rating of 10 acquires control of the minds of six mooks, each with Willpower of 2. If he simply takes the average each combat round (depending on the answer to 2 above) he can essentially boss them all around for as long as he wants, right? OR, is there a minus to each opposed roll for every controlled target above the first he chooses as his primary controllee? I think that it should be the latter, that there should be a minus.

I ask all of these questions, and more to come, because (as per usual) I've got a player in the group who's playing a psychic that is "gaming" the system to his advantage, and his interpretations of the rules (which are good, but perhaps need a little more clarification) are somewhat imbalancing.

I'm very inclined to rule the way I think the answers should be, as specified above, but I wanted to get some input from the HEX Collective first.

--tom

[HarrierPotter]

I say 1) NO, 2) YES, and

3) The Telepathy Mods table shows a -2 penalty to your roll for each subject after the first. So my reading is when you try to make that initial roll versus all 6 mooks (one roll, not six successive ones) you're starting with a -10 penalty right out of the box (-2 x 5 additional subjects), not even counting any distance mods. So you're starting from 0 (Avg =0). If you can pony up enough Style to control them, great, but next turn you'll be back at a base of 0. If you can pony up enough to double their Willpower, then congrats - NOW you can boss 'em around as long as you want.
_________________
- Daniel Potter (MYTHIC ERAS)

LOCATION: "Back in Nagasaki / Where the fellas chew tabaccy / And the women wiki-waki-woo"

[Nestor]

[madwabbit]

[madwabbit]

[madwabbit]

As a variant of mind control, one of my players is suggesting that the player (Khirov) have to ability to use "suggestion".

She says "I would think a psychic planting a little thought in our heads that it may be a good idea to keep him around and alive would be enough, instead of outright trying to force the party to do his bidding. It's my thought (and our GM can correct me if I'm wrong in my thinking) that the power of suggestion would be an option for a psychic, but not quite as exhausting, or as time consuming, as direct mind control. Suggesting things to people, beneath a conscious level, would be much like hypnosis, which just lowers inhibitions, and does not actually make people do what they truly do not wish to do.

"Planting a suggestion that we'd like to keep someone around who has never made himself threatening to us, nor given us any reason to outright distrust him, should not be a difficult consideration, and would therefore not require constant maintenance of that suggestion (which is different than a directive -- you want to keep the suggestion vague and harmless -- not a "PROTECT KHIROV, HE IS YOUR GOD" sort of thing) and would also therefore not require overexertion or non-lethal damage to keep it going. A day or two of sending out a suggestion would, to my mind, be enough to create a spot for him in the group and allow inertia to take care of the rest."

What say you, HEX Collective? I mean, she's not suggesting an overly complex or major game mechanic here, but it is something to consider... how would y'all rule on something like this?

--tom

[HarrierPotter]

Hard to say. It's possibly okay. I will note that according to the Telepahty writeup itself (1st para) "When projecting thoughts, the target knows someone else is speaking, and may recognize the telepath’s “voice” if he has previously identified himself or if she knows him well."

So, it might 1) require just as much effort as outright control because you have to 'conceal' your projection, 2) require a penalty to the Telepathy roll due to the effort to conceal, or 3) require a more refined Talent ("Suggestion") that has Mind Control as a prereq.

Depends on how you want to treat it in your game I'd say.
_________________
- Daniel Potter (MYTHIC ERAS)

LOCATION: "Back in Nagasaki / Where the fellas chew tabaccy / And the women wiki-waki-woo"

[Nestor]

It sounds like something you could potentially fudge for story's sake.

If it's an issue of providing an in-game reason for the character to be in the group, I could see hand-waving it and saying sure. If the player is looking to abuse the privilege, say, demanding another character give his character money because he placed a suggestion on the guy to do so, then start demanding dice rolls.

Actually, when you think about it, it's just as much a use of Diplomacy (or Influence) than an application of psychic power. Making a subtle change in another person's opinion is as much a matter of finesse as power, especially if he wants to do so unnoticed. He may be able to whisper into someone's mind but he still needs to know what to whisper to make it work.

Having a finely-honed sword is good, but only in the hands of a skilled user can its potential be fully realized.
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"I've got a degree in kicking arse and I'd have a doctorate in not giving a damn if I'd bothered to attend the ceremony."

[HarrierPotter]

[madwabbit]

New player questions...

1. The Psychic Talent must be purchased at character creation, but may be
increased later. It says that increases can be used to raise the
effective level of the skill, or alternatively, to add a psychic ability.
Is it correct to assume that additional instances of the talent purchased
after character creation can be used to add new psychic abilities?

madwabbit says... yes?

2. The 'Focus' skill says you can use the skill level as a subsitute for
Willpower rolls. Would this include psychic abilities (which generally
are Willpower x 2)?

madwabbit says ... yes?

What say you, HEX Collective?

--tom

[Nestor]

[HarrierPotter]

[HarrierPotter]

[Rabbit in the Moon]

Re: questions

[gfrantsen]

I also allow Focus (instead of Willpower) to be used as the target in a psychic attack. It seemed to make sense to me when you read the Skill. Even tho it doesn't explicitly say it.

What do you guys think?

later.
greg.