Mind Control Revisited

[jburneko]

Hello Again,

So, after reading some of demon building excerises I've realized that Psychic Forces is a VERY interesting ability and is sort of your catch all, "I just want to wipe out some of my opponent's dice" ability.  I then thought about it some more and went back to the old Mind Control thread and discovered that I still had a question open in that thread that was never really answered to my satisfaction and infact has now grown in scope.

Honestly I don't see the difference between these four things:

1) Out-and-Out Mind Control.

2) Just having a Possessor with Hop that takes over those you would otherwise Mind Control with some demon ability.

3) Using Psychic Forces to stack on penalty dice and then use the standard Will vs. Will persuation mechanics.  I assume that once the victim had taken double his stamina in lasting penalties from this ability you could easily persuade him to commit suicide, kill someone, whatever.

4) The Lore vs. Will Hypnotism technique outlined in Sorcerer & Sword.

So on the one hand, I understand that mind control can be pretty boring.  I often cringe anytime Charm Person gets whipped out in a D&D game.  But when there are three different ways outlined in the rules that basically function the SAME as mind control, I really don't see how it's "excluded" at all.

Jesse

[Ron Edwards]

Hi Jesse,

The #3 doesn't really work by the rules. Clinton's example in the other thread was based on doing damage to the character that killed him or her. I don't see that altering behavior is accomplished through damage in the way that you describe - as opposed to (as Clinton described) doing damage via altering behavior as a justifier.

But your general point is something I'd say, "OK!" about. Fine - call those mind control if you'd like, I don't mind. My own take is that I don't see any of them as being like classic Mind Control abilities in other games (Champions, Vampire, etc), and that's all I wanted.

Best,
Ron