Legal Construction

[Colossus]

I’m creating an NPC (a villain actually) who is a Mind Control who has the ability to force targets to answer questions while under the effects of mind control. In your opinions is this legal construction

 

Telepathy 10d6 (- ½ linked to Mind Control; - ½ Must communicate verbally): Total Cost: 25

[RadeFox]

It looks legal to me, but if you have the poor sod under Mind Control, you could save the points and just command him to answer you truthfully.

[badger3k]

Originally posted by RadeFox

It looks legal to me, but if you have the poor sod under Mind Control, you could save the points and just command him to answer you truthfully.

 

It looks good and I can see that it may be useful in situations where the mind control roll was low, the info is buried deep, or whatever - besides it gives the pcs another chance to resist the evil bad-guy dude. Just curious thoughm if thats linked to the mind control, whats the mind control like?

[Colossus]

The Mind Control is built into a multi-power of "eye contact" powers (no it would not be a legal constition for a EC. but this is an MP)

 

Anyway it is a 60 MP;

 

Construction: 12d6 Mind Control

 

There is no telepathic link, so the target is in a state of super hypnotism. I don't think mind Control should include free access to Telepathy. An order to "tell me about Dr. Wong's plan," should be handled through Telepahy - Mind Control can just be to powerful otherwise.

 

The same character can change memories, bought as a Transform.

[Simon]

Looks legal to me, though it would depend on the Telepathy not being in the MP (or any other Power Framework). You cannot Link two different slots of a Power Framework (or two slots of different Power Frameworks). One of the drawbacks of a Power Framework.

 

I also wouldn't give the "Must communicate verbally" a -1/2. The cases in which this actually limits you are pretty rare, and the limitation is not terribly "limiting"....I'd call it a -1/4 tops. Unless you also want this to mean that you can only get to conscious thoughts....it would be very difficult to "verbalize" some subconscious thoughts....

 

One comment on the "Mind Control should not give Telepathy-like abilities": while I applaud the sentiment of not allowing one Power to overlap on another, using Mind Control to tell someone to "tell me the truth about X" is not the same as Telepathy.

 

Simple example: You roll your Mind Control and give your command. The target tells you about X. Is it the truth? You have no real way of knowing...it depends entirely on whether you made your roll -- something you don't know in this case. The target might just be "playing along" and lying through their teeth, having successfully resisted the attempt to control them.

 

With Telepathy, you don't have this problem. You're not relying on them telling you the truth, you're reading directly into their thoughts.

[Hugh Neilson]

Originally posted by dsimon

One comment on the "Mind Control should not give Telepathy-like abilities": while I applaud the sentiment of not allowing one Power to overlap on another, using Mind Control to tell someone to "tell me the truth about X" is not the same as Telepathy.

 

Simple example: You roll your Mind Control and give your command. The target tells you about X. Is it the truth? You have no real way of knowing...it depends entirely on whether you made your roll -- something you don't know in this case. The target might just be "playing along" and lying through their teeth, having successfully resisted the attempt to control them.

 

With Telepathy, you don't have this problem. You're not relying on them telling you the truth, you're reading directly into their thoughts.

 

Also, if you can read deep with Telepathy, you can pick up things the target has forgotten, repressed or wrote off as insignificant - all still buried in his mind somewhere. With Mind Control, he tells you only what he knows and believes to be important.

 

For example, he describes "Mr. Big" when you mind control him. He doesn't, however, recall that "Mr. Big" alweays had the same associate with him. A telepath reading his mind would, on a good enough roll, get a mental image of this associate, and recognize him as a VIPER nest leader the heroes have encountered before, who is likely pulling Mr. Big's strings and possibly supplying him with more firepower than the characters would otherwise expect.

 

Hearing about it and seeing it through the target's eyes are entirely different things.

 

Oh, and even if you know what you rolled, you don't know how much aversion your target has to telling you the answer. if he's scared for his life, that makes the Mind Control tougher to accomplish, as our target is more reluctant to tell you. His memories aren't any more repressed, though.

[prestidigitator]

I also view Mind Control as a relatively tricky thing to pull off. Especially if you are giving commands verbally. Sure, you can tell them what to do, but their subconscience is going to twist your exact words in whatever way it can get away with.

 

Asking Truthbender to tell you about Dr. Rabbit's secret back door might easily result in a description of the base said villain had 15 years ago....

 

I regard it as much easier to get what you are really looking for through Telepathy.