THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

[Steve Long]

I'm about to get started on writing and designing TUM, and that means it's time for another "fan input" thread!

 

As usual with these threads, PLEASE READ THIS INTRODUCTORY POST AND PAY ATTENTION TO IT BEFORE POSTING. There's no need to waste your time or mine suggesting things that I already intend to include in the book.

 

So, here's the basic outline of what I intend to have in TUM. It follows more or less the same organization/format as recent Ultimate books like UB, UMM, and USP.

 

Chapter One: Character Creation: the basics of mentalist character creation (archetypes, backgrounds, etc.); a review of Characteristics, Skills, etc. as they pertain to mentalists (including some new mentalist-only Skills from the old TUM, if appropriate); a thorough review and expansion of the Mental Powers rules; a review of other Powers pertaining to mentalists (such as Clairsentience and Telekinesis); Power Modifiers (esp. BOECV); Disadvantages.

 

Chapter Two: Mentalist Powers: I take the relevant sections of USPD 1 & 2, then expand upon them until I'm out of ideas. This will include providing lower-powered/Heroic versions of appropriate powers for SH, FH, etc. campaigns.

 

Chapter Three: Mentalists Genre By Genre: A discussion of how mental powers work in the various genres, with sample characters as appropriate. Some of these may be old favorites reworked using the new TUM rules, but most will be all-new.

 

Chapter Four: Mentalist Campaigning: Mainly this chapter discusses Mental Powers in combat (such as how Mental Powers interact with Combat Maneuvers, and probably a whole set of new rules for "Mental Combat Maneuvers" and mental duels), but it may also provide some "sourcebook" style information like mentalist gadgets.

 

 

So, keeping all that in mind (no pun intended:eek:)... what would you like to see in TUM?

[Vondy]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I would like to see a

 

A rework of Mental Martial Arts fromt the 1st Ed.

 

Ways of building a mental doppleganger (sp?).

 

Dealing with dreams, dreamscapes, and the like.

[SAVeira]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Rules for handling combat on the astral plane, a classic feature of comic books. Where two mentalist would battle on a completely psyche level. Professor X was famous for doing this.

[Bloodstone]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

What would I like to see? How about a Mentalla centerfold?

 

Personally, I would like a very thorough treatment of the various Body Snatching / Posession constructs, paying extra attention to how things like utilizing skills and knowledges, issuing commands and difference of SPD and DEX between host body and mentalist might be resolved.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

What Von D Man said.

 

As well, I would like to see some discussion of mental powers as substitutes or enhancers for other abilities. For example:

 

- use as SuperSkills, such as interaction skills and interrogation skills, and the gradations between a great roll by a skilled user of such a skill vs the use of a limited mental power

 

- use of Mental Illusions and/or Mind Control to "cloud men's minds" - ie as a substitute for Invisibility and/or Images

 

- one area of common contention in respect of mental powers is the various levels (+10, +20, +30). More examples of these, and as detailed a framework as possible for making these determinations, would seem beneficial. In particular, their interaction with disadvantages, whether making the roll more or less difficult, should be expanded.

 

- Classes of Mind - some discussion of variants including the elimination of classes of mind, having a wider array of classes (eg. a Star Hero game where each type of alien is its own class of mind), or simply using different classes of mind (Fantasy having an Undead class comes to mind as one example). Some discussion of balancing the utility of each class of mind (eg. ensuring that AnimalMan, whose mental powers affect only the Animal class of mind, gets the same gameplay value from his points as Professor & gets from his abilities, which only affect the Human class of mind) would also be very useful. This might also include an option for applying limitations based on classes (or subclasses Hombre di Agua's "only vs sea life" powers, for example) of mind where one is considered less valuable than others.

 

- means by which opponents may react to mental powers - such as the possibility of psychic interrogation via telepathy or mind control - which prevent game breaking use of these powers without making them valueless.

 

- Again, I have to agree with Saveira, but I suspect "enter the astral plane" will carry many of the same isssues as "enter the speed zone"

[ghost-angel]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Rules for mental Martial Arts would be really cool.

 

And all that other stuff, especially "entering the Astral Plane" for mental combat.

[Vondy]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

 

And all that other stuff, especially "entering the Astral Plane" for mental combat.

 

This might apply to any number of primarily mind-centered environments, and is a pretty good idea.

[rjcurrie]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

One of the things I would like to see is a simpler method for handling possession than what currently exists. Ideally, this would be a separate Possesion power or a set of modifiers to Mind Control.

[Teflon Billy]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

One of the things I would like to see is a simpler method for handling possession than what currently exists. Ideally' date=' this would be a separate Possesion power or a set of modifiers to Mind Control.[/quote']Second this, my preference would be for seperate Power. But anything that makes this easier to conceptualize and not need as much handwaving/rules gymnastics would be very nice.

 

TB

[bigdamnhero]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Another vote for the Astral Plane and Possession suggestions discussed above.

 

I'm a big fan of the mental combat maneuvers from 4Ed TUM, and look forward to seeing those get re-worked. Mental martial arts is a great idea, but there should also be some “free” mental combat maneuvers available.

 

Apart from that, I’m most interested in a detailed discussion of ways to run low-powered mental powers in heroic games. I don’t just mean low-Active-Point powers; I mean guidance on how to change the way mental powers work in your world to get the “feel” you want. For example, in many books/movies/whatever, non-mentalists are not normally aware they are being targeted by mental powers. Buying extra dice “Only to reach +20 Cannot Be Detected level” works, but gets cumbersome and kludgy when you have to buy it for every power in the entire game world. So I’d like to see some discussion of easier ways to handle this without unbalancing the game. (For example, in one game I ran characters could buy Mental Stealth as a skill, and roll that vs the target’s Perception to try and hide the use of their powers; worked well in that game, but could be horribly unbalancing in others.)

 

The “Coercion” maneuver from 4Ed TUM could also be expanded on: not just as a maneuver, but as an optional default way of running mental powers to make them less all-or-nothing.

 

It would be nice to see Pyrokinesis/Cryokinesis given a good treatment, especially at the heroic level where you’re not actually setting people on fire, just starting fires, boiling water, maybe causing a little heatstroke, etc. And I’d love to see some decent way to handle low-to-negative STR Telekinesis. In some campaigns, the ability to float a pencil can be very useful out of combat (unlock locks from a distance, steal the guard’s keys, etc), but how do you purchase TK with -25 STR without a ton of handwaving?

 

You may be sensing a theme here. Obviously I’m not saying TUM shouldn’t also cover superhero-level mental powers. But TUM probably has more cross-genre utility than any Ultimate book since UMA. And since I do think mental powers is one area where Hero’s superhero roots show through a little more strongly, I’d like to see TUM really delve into heroic-level options.

 

Sorry for the long post - I've been waiting for this book for awhile.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Something else I’d like to see in the section on mental dueling are optional ways for non-mentalists to fight back once a mentalist initiates mental combat. In some genres (like many Pulps), heroes who do not have mental powers are nevertheless able to use their Towering Will And Intellect to fight back when an enemy mentalist attacks them. But under the standard rules, there’s not really any way to simulate this other than buying some level of EGO Attack for all characters.

 

Also, to reiterate what Hugh said, some advise for GMs on how to keep powerful mentalists from taking over the game, without just giving every minion 15 points of MD and thus making mentalists useless. I'm thinking more of advise on writing scenarios, so that one good Telepathy roll doesn't derail an entire campaign.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Steve, you've probably already seen this thread, with gobs of ideas from various fans including myself. I have a gob of posts there, so I'll comb ine them all here (mostly via cut-and-paste, and even including some things you've already mentioned are going to be in the book because they also mention other details about them) in roughly the order they'd probably appear in the manuscript:

 

Chapter One:

 

Bring forward Psionic Familiarities and all the EGO-based Skills from the first edition. I'd like to see more EGO-based Skills -- like, say, a kind of Mental Sleight Of Hand -- and perhaps some applications for non-Mentalists to have these Skills. They might be usable in Skill vs Skill contests against certain Interaction Skills. For instance, Veil (the "mental Stealth" IIRC) could be used to oppose Conversation, Interrogation, or other information-seeking Skills.

 

Let the "Increased Differentiation" on STR, as shown in TUB, be applicable to Mental Powers.

 

To always get a certain effect from a Mental Power, simply add the effect modifier as an Adder. For example, suppose my mentalist has a Mind Control in which the target always remembers his actions and thinks they're natural. He can't "turn off" this effect; it's always there. Currently the character would just buy +6d6 of Mind Control with a Limitation Only To Make Target Always Remember His Actions And Think They Are Natural (-1/2). With my rule, this would be a simple +20 point Adder. And this could be done with anything, including the current Mandatory Effect Limitation on 5ER page 121. It's a rule I used back with 3rd Ed characters, and with great success; it simplifies a lot of powers with this kind of effect.

 

Also, I like the Mental Combat Maneuvers Coercion (for Mind Control), Mind Probe (for Telepathy), and Mind Search (for Mind Scan), but I'd make two changes. First, I'd add one for Mental Illusions (I'd call it Manipulation). Second, instead of making them maneuvers, I'd just make them alternate ways for the Powers to work by default. The character would have to define which way it works when the Power is bought, or could let the Power work either way for a +1/4 Advantage.

 

Under Clairsentience I'd like to see some discussion on the pros and cons of others being able to see what the characters see -- for example, if the character is using a crystal ball, what's the functional (game-terms) difference between the character alone being able to see the visions, and everyone who can make LOS on the ball being able to see them? Should this be an Advantage/Adder, Limitation, or just Special Effects?

 

A system for true "hive mind" consciousness. Somehow a simple Mind Link to the entire rest of the population (or even a large chunk of it) seems too many points for too little effect. Maybe a Mind Link to the "central consciousness" with an extra Advantage for True Single Consciousness (+1).

 

Since recosting Telekinesis is clearly not going to be an possibility for the main rules, I'd like to see it as an option here. The recosting I have in mind is to eliminate Telekinetic Squeeze/Punch (if you want to do telekinetic damage, buy Energy Blast) and let TK cost 1 point per 1 STR only to move things. Note that this is not quite the same as just applying the Affects Whole Object (-1/4) Limitation, in that a straight 1:1 cost would fit more snugly into Multipowers and would cost less END. (I repeat: this would be something the GM may do as an option; I know lots of GMs are happy with TK as it is.)

 

I'd like to see Voice Range from FH included, possibly as an entirely self-contained version of Area Of Effect. (Just call it Area Of Effect (Voice) and it automatically has No Range and requires the use of the voice; Incantations as a Limitation sold separately, in case the spoken part isn't obvious enough to qualify.) Some abilities could also be based on "Sight Range" ("anyone who lays eyes on my Psi-Orb comes under my power!"), or even "Smell Range" (as with some pheromonal abilities). Also, it might be possible for Sense-based Mental Powers to use the appropriate kind of Flash Defense. In particular I like the idea of pheromones that work at "Smell Range" and work against Smell Flash Defense.

 

I'd also like to see a version of BOECV that simply turns whatever it's applied to into a bone fide Mental Power, with all the bells and whistles.

 

Chapter Two:

 

Lots and lots of "Mental Power Based On [another Characteristic]" examples. Super-Presence and Super-Comeliness can be two really powerful and interesting areas, especially in Heroic-level games.

 

I'd also like to see an official write-up of the ever-popular Jedi trick of making someone believe something just by saying so ("These are not the droids you're looking for"). I suspect this will be PRE-based Mind Control, or Psionic Familiarity for Persuasion with Mind Control. (For that matter, do as much as you can with Jedi mind tricks. That's one very specific request I had for Space Wizards.)

 

I've also been long bothered by the assertion that one cannot transmit on Empathy. Of course that should be possible! If, for example, I transmit "love," it's roughly the same as saying, "I love you," with all of the intricacies involved in expressing the type and depth of affection. It doesn't control how the recipient feels or reacts; it simply communicates the emotion, just as receptive Empathy does in the other direction. (I think this may have been addressed in USPD2 after I originally wrote this paragraph, but it still warrants addressing.)

 

Stuff like electrokinesis, pyrokinesis, and so forth deserves a mention, though the bulk of it certainly belongs in TUEP.

 

Isabel Evans' Dreamwalking ability from Roswell. The ability to see someone's dreams is already around, but Isabel could (1) converse with the person during the dream, and (2) bring someone else along and let them interact with the dreamer as well. Those are just minor variations on existing stuff, of course, but I think there should be some awareness of it.

 

I'm told that President James Garfield could write in Latin using one hand and Greek in the other, at the same time. I'm not 100% certain the story is true (though the sources are relatively reliable), but it's an interesting idea that goes beyond mere ambidexterity. The ability to literally and fully concentrate on more than one task at the same time is a good "super-intellect" ability, but to model it using the Hero System? Offhand I'd either use the "Five Points Double" rule -- for 5 points the character can use two Skills, or carry out two tasks using the same Skill, simultaneously, and for every +5 points the number of tasks doubles -- or call it Extra Limbs BOECV (in either case calling it a Talent). Naturally the character would have to have the physical equipment (that is, available limbs) to perform all manual tasks on the list.

 

Chapter Three:

 

In the Dark Champions sampler, let at least one character have no literal Mental Powers, but Super-Skills with effects bought as Mental Powers. The ideal here would be a seductress for espionage campaigns (going back to the COM-based Mental Powers).

 

Since your write-ups of Star Hero entities lately seem to concentrate on organizations rather than individuals, I think a Jedi-like group would be the most popular here. Still, a particularly draconian Mind Police officer would be a welcome inclusion.

 

Chapter Four:

 

I'd like to see a redux of the lists of object weights from TUB, put either here or into the Telekinesis section. It would probably be abbreviated, but I'd hope to see some mountains included in there (I'll just take it on faith ).

 

I'd like to see the Mental Maneuvers stuff integrated with the material from TUMA (though you probably already plan to do it that way).

 

Lots of stuff on psychology, especially abnormal psychology as it relates to Psychological Limitations. Some of this can be brought in from DC, and probably can be given its own chapter.

 

Other:

 

The Spirit rules -- or, more precisely, Spirits as a Hero System entity, building the old Spirit Powers using the existing rules. You might include "Spirit Defense" (PRE/5) as an optional Figured Characteristic, but that would probably be only in passing.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Man, lots of great ideas here.

 

Second on bringing as many of the old optional Mentalist Skills, Martial Arts etc. from the original TUM as possible; on dealing with Astral/Spirit forms, combat and travel; and more/cleaner options for possession and its variants. Persuant to discussing the use of Presence and Comeliness with the SFX of mental powers, I'd like to see more guidelines for the interaction of Mental Powers with Presence Attacks and Interaction Skills - how the use of one affects the success of the other.

 

Since it often comes up in discussion here on the boards, I'd suggest some detailing of the degree of Advantage or Limitation, and mechanical effects, of making Powers that are normally ECV use normal CV, or vice versa, but not take all the benefits of BOECV or drawbacks of Based On CON. For example, a Mental Power based on CV but still working against Mental Defense and EGO; or Telekinesis that uses ECV instead of OCV, but rolls against the target's DCV.

[BobGreenwade]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Re: Possession.... this is one thing I did want to add to my list. There should be a clear difference between saying, even telepathically, "Jump off that ledge" (that is, bending the target's will) and mentally manipulating his motor control to make his body jump off the ledge whether he particularly wants to go or not. The latter could, for example, be a form of TK BOECV (with Fine Manipulation), or it could be a special Advantage on Mind Control.

 

On a similar note, the Jericho/Deadman trick of entering another person's body and using it as your own could be done with a sort of Combine Multiform. I'm not sure how the exact mechanics would work for that (other than the obvious Physical Characteristics And Skills Must Be Based On Target Limitation), but it's at least something to think about.

[SirViss]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Incorporating the Entangle advantage "Taking No Damage" from DH#35, as an official option wouldn't be a bad idea. I always have a problem with picturing a Mental Entangle being broken by a physical action of a teammate of the target.

[Barton]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

What would REALLY help a lot of GM's IMHO would be:

 

1) A very detailed explaination of the levels (+10, +20) of telepathy, mind control and others with a lot of examples and maybe even some combat examples. I have a hard time as a GM on what is a +20 effect and what is +30 and so on.

 

2) A set of optional rules for GM's who hate mentalists (you know who you are...)

Some ideas on how to modify powers to make them more plot friendly (telepathy not ruining the investigation).

 

3) How to use mental powers with PRE attacks.

 

4) How drugs/gadgets can be used like mental powers or in conjunction with them (you already mentioned that you going to do gadgets).

 

I will purchase this book and the PDF as soon as it is published, I love playing mentalists and GM them.

[ghost-angel]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Another thing I'd like to see is options to change out CVs used on mental powers. Using more granulairty than the current Based On CON.

 

For instance, allowing OECV on a standard EB; against DCV on an Ego Blast; but not switching any other CVs used; using OECV vs DCV is what I'm getting at.

[Steve Long]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

from 3ed TUM

 

Just to make sure I'm not mis-understanding -- there was no TUM for 3E HERO System. The previous book written by me was for *4E* HERO System, and was published in 1995. Is that what you're referring to, or did you have some other book in mind?

[bigdamnhero]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

Just to make sure I'm not mis-understanding -- there was no TUM for 3E HERO System. The previous book written by me was for *4E* HERO System' date=' and was published in 1995. Is that what you're referring to, or did you have some other book in mind?[/quote']

Sorry, post-convention fatigue, having trouble counting past 2. Yes, I meant 4Ed TUM. Great book, BTW; one of only two pre-5Ed books still getting active use. (The other being Horror Hero.) I look forward to retiring it when the new edition comes out.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

For instance' date=' allowing OECV on a standard EB; against DCV on an Ego Blast; but not switching any other CVs used; using OECV vs DCV is what I'm getting at.[/quote']

 

Seconded - the ability to use Ego based CV with a non-mental power, apply a mental based power against DEX-based DCV, etc. is something that seems to arise fairly regularly conceptually, and should be easily done in the game.

[Sean Waters]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

At present, mentalists operate mainly in the 'physical' world - mental powers are not that different from an EB mechanically or in combat. Well the effect of a MC is different but they work the same and there are no real problems intergrating mental powers into a 'standard' combat.

 

If you do include 'mental plane combat' what we really need are suggestions and systems for integrating physical and mental combats when they could potentially be taking part in two quite different arenas simultanously and not all PCs can necessarily access the mental plane - so we need to be able to run this stuff without half the players sighing and starting out of the window.

 

If there is to be a 'mental plane' please Lord, don't make it a straight alternative to the normal physical one - mess witht he rules and systems. Allow mentalists to combine into gestalt entities to boost their power and team fight. Perhaps even mess with the way combat works - I'm not that interested in just having 'physical combat with mental labels' - if the system is going to be interesting it has to have something really distcinctive about it.

 

One other thing - I'd really like a detailed discussion of effect levels for mental powers - and some sort of system for calculating effect and what can change it. Maybe even 5 point steps rather than 10 point steps.

 

The interaction of tech and mental powers - the effects of a world in which you can buy a 'mind defence helmet' as against those in which you can't.

 

A section explaining why telepathic/MC/mental transform villains don't run the world.

 

Finally I'd like a section on non-mentalists in a campaign including mentalist elements - integration, systems for getting them in on the act and so on, or ways in which they can defend themselves from the raging mind controllers and telepaths.

[mattingly]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

An Advantage (or rule) that allows a mentalist to force the target to use his EGO instead of his CON to determine whether the target is Stunned from an Ego Attack.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

To always get a certain effect from a Mental Power, simply add the effect modifier as an Adder.

.....

With my rule, this would be a simple +20 point Adder. And this could be done with anything, including the current Mandatory Effect Limitation on 5ER page 121. It's a rule I used back with 3rd Ed characters, and with great success; it simplifies a lot of powers with this kind of effect.

 

ooh. Consider this stolen immediatly. Thanks Bob, great one.

 

 

 

As for what I'd like- many have been mentioned.

 

The Mental skills and martial arts from the previous version.

A lot more in depth discussion of what each level of effect means for each of the powers.

Utilizing ECV vs CV for (they target with the mind, agaisnt dex) and as was mentioned detailed other variations of mental/physical powers and BOECV.

A lot of detail spent on possession (Jericho), mind control, and physcial control of the body.

[bigdamnhero]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

To always get a certain effect from a Mental Power' date=' simply add the effect modifier as an Adder.[/quote']ooh. Consider this stolen immediatly. Thanks Bob, great one.

Yeah, that is a very simple and effective way of handling it. Repped and stolen here as well!

 

If there is to be a 'mental plane' please Lord' date=' don't make it a straight alternative to the normal physical one - mess witht he rules and systems. Allow mentalists to combine into gestalt entities to boost their power and team fight. Perhaps even mess with the way combat works - I'm not that interested in just having 'physical combat with mental labels' - if the system is going to be interesting it has to have something really distcinctive about it.[/quote']

I agree with most of your post, Sean, but personally I'm of two minds about this part. I agree it'd be nice to have something that feels unique and distinctive; and I really like the "gestalt entities" idea. But I'm not sure I want to have to teach a totally new combat system when we step onto the "mental plane" or whatever. Of course, any such system would presumably be optional, so if I don't like it I don't have to use it, right? Still, my vote FWIW would be to have something that at least generally parallels the regular system.

 

For example, I sometimes use what I call Mind Wrestling, which essentially works like HtH combat, but with EGO instead of DEX, INT instead of STR, and PRE instead of CON. Of course, you can add a lot of options on top of that if you think this might be a major part of your game; but the core mechanic is very simple and takes 2 seconds to teach to anyone already familiar with Hero. (Not saying this is the best way to go, just using it as an example.)

[PhilFleischmann]

Re: THE ULTIMATE MENTALIST -- What Do *You* Want To See?

 

I second everything so far.

 

I especially want to see clearer definitions for the levels of control with Mind Control. It has always seemed silly to me that a successful attack with MC that exceeds the target's EGO, will only make them do something they were going to do anyway. Sounds like a non-power to me. It would be nice to see increased granularity for these control levels, like every +5, as Sean Waters said.

 

I'd like to see some discussion of the visibility of Mental Powers. In all of the source material that I have seen, mental powers are always undetectable to those who don't have mental awareness themselves. In my games, I allow Mental Powers to take a +1/4 Advantage: Invisible to those without Mental Awareness/Mental Powers. Of course, the results of the mental power could still lead a non-mentalist to figure out that a mental power was used on him. I would like to see this option, or something like it, included.

 

I'd like to see options for other "forms" of Mind Control. That is, whereas the standard mind control changes someone's behavior - "Do this!" - there could also be MC's that control in other ways. We already have examples of emotion control - "Feel this way!" - without specifying the resulting behavior. There can also be "thought control" or "idea control" or "belief control" - "Believe this!" "Think this!". These other forms should be done with a limitation, because the resulting behavior will not be known or dictated in advance.

 

I also have a house rule granting another Advantage option for Mental Powers. I don't have a good name for it, but I'm currently calling it, "Lock-on Feedback". It allows the mentallist to roll the effect dice and know the level achieved *before* declaring the desired effect. I have this as a +1/2 Advantage.

 

Example: Transendor is fighting Mortis. He wants to Mind Control her into surrendering. He hits her ECV and rolls his effect dice, achieving EGO+20 effect. Transendor suspects that Mortis would be "violently opposed" to simply surrendering, but guesses that she would only be "normally opposed" to running away. Transendor decides that making her run away is good enough and declares that as his desired effect. The GM then decides if this is indeed a "normally opposed" action for the villainess.

 

Note that this advantage doesn't tell the mentallist what level they'd need for each possible effect. Also, if the GM wishes, he may roll the effect dice himself behind his screen and announce the level achieved, so as not to give away the value of the target's EGO/Mental Defense/Vulnerability to Mental Powers/Circumstancial modifiers, etc.

 

Also, the mentallist should declare the desired effect in a general way prior to rolling the dice, the final effect should fall within the general description, but may be "toned down" or intensified depending on the effect roll. For example, if the desired effect is "fall in love with me," but the dice don't roll high enough for that result, it can be reduced to "like me a lot" or even "tolerate me," but it couldn't be changed to something completely different like, "go rob the bank" or "give me the keys to your car."

 

And one more thing: a discussion of long-term Mind Control, including Gradual Effect, Cumulative, etc. Subtle uses, a Mind Control that slowly and changes the target's behavior patterns and/or personality. Over days/weeks/months, etc. The non-combat-time uses of Mind Control and other Mental Powers.