Mental block: Disad, limitation, or both

[Tae Kwon Dan]

I have a player with a character concept where when his power (molecular control) first manifested he accidentally killed somebody with it and therefore lives in fear of using on actual living beings to the point that he has a mental\subconscious block.

 

Obviously, this is easily bought with power limitations, but my concern is should the player also be entitled to a Psychological Limitation? I'm thinking both, because eventually he could buy off the limitation on the power, but still be concerned about it mentally.

 

Your opinions?

[BNakagawa]

IMO, this should probably be bought only as a Psych Lim.

 

If there is no actual mechanical limitation, then your character would have no problem using his power on a living target if:

 

He has been mentally compelled (taking the psych lim into consideration) into doing it.

 

He has been tricked (having been convinced that the target is in fact an automaton or construct)

 

He is unaware, there might be a living being between himself and his intended target, but the living being is invisible.

 

All of these things represent cases where the character's reluctance is the only barrier to using the power in question. Sounds like a disad and not a limitation.

 

$0.02

[Chuckg]

The game mechanic here is, your character has to succeed with an EGO roll before he can use that power, right?

 

This is represented in one of two ways:

 

 

"Requires unmodified EGO roll", a -1/4 power Limitation

 

*OR*

 

Psych Lim -- Fears Using Specific Power (Uncommon, Strong) -- 10 points

 

Not both.

 

And to deal with the Mind Control situation, the Disadvantage would be more appropriate than the Limitation.

[Tae Kwon Dan]

Gotcha, so a power limitation would be more proper if say he just hadn't figured out how to manipulate organic matter yet. Makes sense to me.

 

Thanks for the help guys.