WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

[OddHat]

Your character has been tracking a series of crimes, some of them quite hideous, performed by the ordinary people of Campaign City. The pattern is clear; ordinary men and women, without super powers or, generally, criminal histories sudenly commit violent crimes. They later admit their actions, and seem genuinely repentant.

 

You track down a previously unknown psychic, a young man in his twenties who sneers and suggests that it's time for your character (and any team mates) to "show your true face" before vanishing. Characters completely immune to mind control ignore this, but any other character now spends from several minutes to several days unable to resist any impulse.

 

From a mechanics POV, assume all Psych Limits are now total (including positive limits), and that your list of limits now includes any quirks you've shown in RPing your charcter. At the least, assume that your character is now Lecherous, Greedy, and Enraged 11- if denied what he or she wants.

 

In the darkest hour, what does your character do?

 

How long until your character breaks free?

 

When back to his or her normal self, how does your character track down and catch a powerful teleporting mentalist?

[Hermit]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Ironically, my mentalist, while not 'immune to mind control' himself (though depending on the dice he might shrug it off) has a psych lim of 'ethical mentalist' at common strong. He might actually be totally dedicated against abusing such, or turn his powers inward to 'fix' himself. Then he'd hunt down that little snot and possibly kill him. A line he's not yet crossed.

 

The others would be toast. I'll have to think on it.

[Yansuf]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Your character has been tracking a series of crimes, some of them quite hideous, performed by the ordinary people of Campaign City. The pattern is clear; ordinary men and women, without super powers or, generally, criminal histories sudenly commit violent crimes. They later admit their actions, and seem genuinely repentant.

 

You track down a previously unknown psycic, a young man in his twenties who sneers and suggests that it's time for your character (and any team mates) to "show your true face" before vanishing. Characters completely immune to mind control ignore this, but any other character now spends from several minutes to several days unable to resist any impulse.

 

From a mechanics POV, assume all Psych Limits are now total (including positive limits), and that your list of limits now includes any quirks you've shown in RPing your charcter. At the least, assume that your character is now Lecherous, Greedy, and Enraged 11- if denied what he or she wants.

 

In the darkest hour, what does your character do?

 

How long until your character breaks free?

 

When back to his or her normal self, how does your character track down and catch a powerful teleporting mentalist?

 

Well, I don't know what level of ego/mental defenses you consider immune to mind control, but most of mine have hatred of mind control, even if not specifically listed on the sheet (normally I consider it 0 points.) So the boy better be very fast at teleporting, cause they are going to get him, before the impulse wears off.

[assault]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

From a mechanics POV, assume all Psych Limits are now total (including positive limits), and that your list of limits now includes any quirks you've shown in RPing your charcter. At the least, assume that your character is now Lecherous, Greedy, and Enraged 11- if denied what he or she wants.

 

In the darkest hour, what does your character do?

 

How long until your character breaks free?

 

When back to his or her normal self, how does your character track down and catch a powerful teleporting mentalist?

 

Ironically, Assault would do fairly well. That pesky 'Protects Innocents" limitation would be extremely helpful.

 

What he would probably do is loaf about in a pub, being obnoxious and cynical. He might, unintentionally, goad people into attacking him through this, but he wouldn't do them any harm. He might break some stuff though.

 

Oh, and he would eat a whole lot of glass, and do other "freak out the straights" kind of things.

 

How long until he breaks free? Well... hmm... He does have a relatively high Ego, which might help.

 

Catching a teleporting mentalist would be tricky. First of all, he would try and dig up a mentalist ally of his own from amongst his contacts, in order to get some degree of protection from the bad guy's powers. He would then try to set up a situation where he would be where the mentalist was, and attempt to ambush him.

[David Johnston]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Well' date=' I don't know what level of ego/mental defenses you consider immune to mind control, but most of mine have hatred of mind control, even if not specifically listed on the sheet (normally I consider it 0 points.) So the boy better be very fast at teleporting, cause they are going to get him, before the impulse wears off.[/quote']

 

Your character wouldn't really know he'd been mind controlled until it wore off, though right?

[OddHat]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Your character wouldn't really know he'd been mind controlled until it wore off' date=' though right?[/quote']

 

I've always treated Mind Control that way; you don't know you're being controlled until it wears off. The alternative is to give everyone in the campaign an effective free +10 Ego vs Mind Control, as all actions would need to be moved up on the chart.

 

However, it would be fair to assume that, by the time your characters tracked down the psychic, they'd have a reasonable suspicion that he was a mind controller.

[Drhoz]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Wooo... this is going to get ugly... not only does Vitus have Casual Killer (altho he protests that he's NOT a casual killer, he's an extremely deliberate killer) he's not very fond of humans, and especially Earth humans, at all.

 

Add to that mounting resentment ever his he found himself trapped on Earth, the grudges he'sd barely holding in check against his own teammates, the way they keep telling him he has to give up his concubine 3...

 

It's probably going to significant carnage until they call in the UNTIL swat teams...

[Tarek]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

The "early years" Blue Star wouldn't change all that much, apart from complimenting women more often.

 

Culturally, he comes from an alien society which is very "utopian"; Greed and Lechery have no meaning for him. And that "Total Commitment" to the Galactic Rangers means he's a nice guy in all situations.

 

The "later years" Blue Star is still much the same, but that mentalist isn't going to be teleporting anywhere any time soon... and by this time Blue Star is pretty good at psych warfare. Stranding the guy on the moon, or leaving him free-floating in space for a few hours, wouldn't be beyond him.

 

It's really a bad idea, even if you *think* you're going to be safe, to remove the inhibitions on any superhero, so "Mr. Teen Angst" is going to get a pretty good dose of payback, one way or another, before being incarcerated.

 

The toughest job Blue Star will have, actually, is preventing the Speedster, the Brick and the Mentalist from using "Mr. Teen Angst" as a drum...

[Hermit]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Well, Gaze has mental Awareness so I'm assuming he'd 'see' the psychic energy. The other guys would be toast.

 

Mole- A Teen champ would go on a killing spree by virtue of his psych lims of wanting to make the city a better place, being easily bored, AND over confident. He'd not wait till he caught folks in a crime any more. He'd burrow up and start killing 'corrupt or bad' people in their sleep if need be to get them. Of course, he'd probably try to get it on with a lot of ladies as well so that might distract him.

[input.jack]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

REVENANT, if he were susceptible (and he may or may not be, depending on how the Ref decided to call it), would ignore his "secret ID" and go full-bore into crimefighting, beating the living tar out of perps and probably breaking far more criminals' bones than usual. (The "Frank Miller's Dark Knight" version of Revenant). Eventually he would recognizer that his behavior has changed, and want to find out why. And thats when Mr. Teen Angst gets whats coming to him.

 

BLACK EAGLE would basically forget to fight crime at all, and become a full-time party girl until someone stopped her. Shes pretty rambunctious on her own, already, but feels an obligation to use her Powers to help people. Stripped of that responsibility, shed become a non-stop lust-bunny with superhuman endurance.

 

WOW would she be angry when she came out of it. She HATES not being in control of her own decisions!

[Sundog]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Ack. Terminus would just go nuts. His primary motivations are a determination to destroy the Disruption, matched with his Vengeful - and the Disruption is responsible for the deaths of all of the other Terminus Soldiers. Plus, he's no more resistant to mental attacks then any normal.

 

He'd probably go into "behind enemy lines/infiltrate and sabotage" mode. Requiring the rest of The Edge to try to hunt him down before he does something really bad.

 

Afterwards? WE have our own teleporter, and our own psychic. This guy would meet two Retributor Pistols (.50 Coilguns) head on.

[Badger]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Badger does hold back a lot of desire to kill. But, generally he wouldnt kill unless provoked. If he is chasing down a person he thinks is a mind controller who has been the cause of all that is happened he will have a hatred of the guy right off. He does tend to consider mind controllers trash that should be eliminated. So, if he is fighting from killing and that inhibition is dropped......OUCH. He better teleport. I f nobody else he has a grudge going against shows up he might not hurt anybody. Course, at least one teammate he doesnt particularly like.

[wrestlinggeek]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Voltage : Would go on a party spree, first off. He'd hit on every woman in sight, hang out with his wang out, and tip strippers with 20s instead of singles. He'd also continue to fight crime, probably even more vigirously than before, and would put on 10 pounds from the food he would be eating. And God help any Viper agents he runs across. Once it wore off, Mr. Teen Angst better hope he can teleport faster than a lightning bolt.

[Stormraven]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Checkmate's disads are already largely total. Code Vs. Killing, Emotionless and Cold, Ruthless... Nothing much would change for him - assuming that the boy could even control a mind as complex as his... In the game worlds where I run him, he's among the smartest, if not THE smartest person on the planet, and he has mental defense backing that up... His mind is very difficult for mentalists to get a hold on...

[Catacomb]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Well, this being the case then my Psych lim of responding violently to innocents being harmed gets the 'Previously unknown psychic' geeked... literally.

[Weldun]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Add to that mounting resentment ever his he found himself trapped on Earth' date=' the grudges he'sd barely holding in check against his own teammates, the way they keep telling him he has to give up his concubine [b']3...[/b]

Nobody said that you have to give her up, just that she can't be your slave.

 

The Specter is an interesting sort. His already existant psych lims are Mildly Anachronistic (Frequently, Slightly), Chivalrous (Common, Strong), Strong Reluctance to Kill (Common, Strong), and Honorable (Common Total).

Under the enhancement effect, this would mean that he would psychologically revert to a Southern Gentleman from the 1850's, with his abolitionist views of the time becoming quite strongly pronounced, to the point of claiming the secret ID of the party Powered Armor character (which as far as we know is his patron, ala Iron Man) to be of the new bourgeois, exploiting the underclass that comprises the half of Kingdom City called Skeleton City. And as for his quirky sexual hang-ups, he will ever be the gentleman, but will avoid anything even remotely resembling a potentially romantic encounter. (He pretty much would have needed a full genealogical report going back to the early 1800's, anyway.) Basically, he goes Golden-age, I guess.

 

Now, assuming that this had happened before the Specter had taken a position in the court of an alien ruler in another dimension, he would probably look up some old aquaintances who were well versed in the ethical usage of psionic abilities, prove to them that he is the same fellow they knew 30-50 years ago, and hunt down the poor sod for some "forceable re-education."

 

The Lesson here? Don't openly frag with the mind of a superhero with over a century of experience.

[Zed-F]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Well, hmm.

 

Soulbarb: Eek. Any GM pulling this sort of thing on her is asking for the campaign to go in a distinctly iron age direction -- rusty iron at that. She does have Protective of Innocents, but she does not have a CvK, she does have Vengeful as a psych lim, and doesn't have any special resistance to mental powers other than being a bit more stubborn than your average civilian. If she knows or strongly suspects, dude is a mind controller, he's probably dead if she catches up with him, his soul given a one-way ticket to Hell. She'll have to resort to detective work to figure out where he's holed up, though, and stealth to catch him again before he can blink away. However, the odds that any of this comes to the attention of the media (or pretty much anyone else for that matter) are slim, as her other psych lim is 'Overly Secretive.'

 

Sylph: Will probably give up superheroing, and just go work in the hospital healing people, until she gets over it! Her main psych lims are 'Overly Compassionate' and 'Timid', as well as her CvK. Plus she doesn't have any special resistance to mental attacks. Her 'boyfriend,' however, seems to be a mentalist of some stripe, if a secretive one, and may be able to cure her. On the other hand, if her Maenad side gets control while she's under the influence of this, watch out!

 

Cerulean: Adjustment magic VPPer. Can probably partly resist this with his innate defenses and can certainly boost his EGO and/or mental defense up enough to be able to overcome this shortly. He can similarly boost his teammates' resistance to this sort of attack. And while Cerulean doesn't have an easy way to track this guy, a couple of his teammates do, and once they do Cerulean would have no trouble draining this guy's teleport into the ground. I'd say he's in for a bad day.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Interesting -

 

Blackcat wouldn't really be all that different. She has a "Code of least force" and a protective of the weak disads, no enrages and has always been an ascetic, so no real desires or impulses to act on.

 

If anything she starts beating up her teammates for not following her orders or using good tactics.

 

Angelfire would be completely schizophrenic, as she would be acting on impulses from her Demonic heritage and then her Angelic ones. And the demonic heritage is a succubus.....

[Questar]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Atomic Gladiator, with his overconfidence and general bossy, take-charge attitude would immediately demand that the rest of the team appoint him permanent leader and become a military cadre under his command. Those on the team who rejected his leadership would be expelled, and he would fight them for control of the base. (For the greater good.)

 

He would recruit as many other supers and agents as he could, all sworn to unquestioning obedience of his authority, and declare war on DEMON on every level. He would definitely cross legal lines to eradicate DEMON, but would not kill. (Incarceration on the moon, perhaps.)

 

This would probably not wear off for a long time. When it did, he would leave it to the others to track down the mentalist, with a subconscious belief that for him at least, the mind control probably brought about more good than evil.

[Blue]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

I think Uncle Slam would be fairly resistant to this.

 

Anthem, however, would find herself unable to take any action that even remotely might injure a normal person. She starts pulling her punches and that makes her easy to defeat. She becomes overly protective of those people in her life, coming across almost stalker-like in her devotion. These two things would come to cross purposes when someone "seems" to be endangering a friend, then she'd enrage (Damaging a car that came too close in a cross-walk, picking a fight with a normal who carelessly elbowed her friend, etc.)

 

 

Audra Blue struggles to control her voyeuristic impulses. She's a shut-in at the base, and has disabled cameras in the private rooms, but I could see her becoming obsessed enough to reconnect them and watching the every day lives of the heroes. She'd pick out at least one and let yer repressed sexual urges come out, to their benefit (And probably her own, seeing as how she could use a good ____). She'd be increasingly paranoid about the network, actually becoming fearful that she might be directly physically attacked if someone managed to hack throught he defenses, so she'd stay offline, which in itself causes her certain physical and psychological symptoms (Mostly exhaustion, since that's how she sleeps).

 

Anthem would be outrageously apologetic afterwords, and too embarassed to say much beyond that.

 

Audra Blue would try to cover up the fact that she had been watching, by disabling those cameras again as fast as possible. She'd try and avoid the team member(s) she had sex with. But ultimately there would be one of those embarrassed and awkward discussions as they bump into one another. She'd rather it all remain unspoken. If there were reason beyond normal to be embarassed (Such as if she'd had sex with the old professor, the rodeo clown, or the only other girl in the base), she might actually try to point out that it was a one time thing.

[ghost-angel]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Jessica - she's already prone to a bit of violence, but mostly when others are threatened. There might be a few maimings and accidental killings (normal squish easy). But mostly ... she just likes to play the blues and have sex with her fiancee. The world would probably be pretty safe as long as it left her alone.

 

Sarah - the destruction would be total, apocalyptic in scale. She's already frustrated with her situation and is a cold blooded killer - trying to do the right thing to save the world, frequently held in check by other members of the group out of simple respect and love for them. Remove that single inhibition ... an invisible assassin on the loose who controls an army of demons. She would tear the planet apart in a rampage to destroy her enemies. She would not regret anything; though when she finds that mentalist his soul will be rended to peices.

[dbsousa]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Golden Eagle would find his disbelief of magic become an obsession, alienating allies and teammates alike. He would also be driven even harder to invent solutions to society's problems. Eventually he would conflate the two, and decide that all the world's problems can be solved by proving that there is no magic and imprisoning all the magic based heroes.

[Guest daeudi_454]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

Ion: Would prob only trigger his accidental change to Ion's Negative personality. Negative would hunt the kid down and use him as a weapon... even if it meant some serious Clockwork Orange crap. He'd know... oh yes.. he'd know.

Quantum Cat: The Ghosts would not put up with it... and together they could take control. Teleporters? Ha! They don't stand a chance against a master of String Theory!

Firedrake: Different class of mind I suppose. Once caught, the twerp would be forced to spend some personal time with individuals who have no impulse control. If he survived, he would be remanded to the authorities.

The PC: "I hate teleporters. I hate them. I really do. That's why I bought tracking sense... not at a store, jackass. ach- nevermind where!"

 

"Really, what did you think I was gonna do? huh? I don't have any inhibitions- I'm just naturally this uptight. And now I'm ticked. And now you bleed... slowly."

[prodigyduck]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

REVENANT, if he were susceptible (and he may or may not be, depending on how the Ref decided to call it), would ignore his "secret ID" and go full-bore into crimefighting, beating the living tar out of perps and probably breaking far more criminals' bones than usual. (The "Frank Miller's Dark Knight" version of Revenant). Eventually he would recognizer that his behavior has changed, and want to find out why. And thats when Mr. Teen Angst gets whats coming to him.

 

BLACK EAGLE would basically forget to fight crime at all, and become a full-time party girl until someone stopped her. Shes pretty rambunctious on her own, already, but feels an obligation to use her Powers to help people. Stripped of that responsibility, shed become a non-stop lust-bunny with superhuman endurance.

 

 

Requiem would pretty much be at both of their mercies. He would not be able to stop Black Eagle from being on him, and if he saw any other girls in the area, he would be all over them. Of course, bullies and bigots would get the beatings of their lives. Lex's Code vs. Killing would go to Total, as well, thus preventing him from doing any serious harm.

[6-Sided_Buddha]

Re: WWYCD: The Darkest Hour

 

From a mechanics POV, assume all Psych Limits are now total (including positive limits), and that your list of limits now includes any quirks you've shown in RPing your charcter. At the least, assume that your character is now Lecherous, Greedy, and Enraged 11- if denied what he or she wants.

 

In the darkest hour, what does your character do?

 

Let's see, Sable is a skirt chasing anthropomorphic erminoid with shrinking powers who normally spends his time tracking down information and working up the nerve to ask Sparkle, the team hotness, out. After the psychological mindjob, you'll find Sable every night in the local strip club stuffed down the shirt of the stipper of the night, swimming in rum and cleavage.

 

Oh wait, we're supposed to catch this psychic?