Mind Control - when do they act?

[kevperrine]

For the Mind Control power, when a character (PC in this case) is taken control of and given an order...

a. when do they do the action? On the Mind Controller's panel (just following the Mind Control contest)? or Does the order happen on the mind controlled person's next panel? ... and if so do they have to DO the order first, or can they get a Mind contest to avoid it on their turn? (this seems wrong, because it would essentially give the controlled character two chances to not be controlled)

also...

b. if a Mind Controlled person is ordered to do an act they don't want to, do they get any other chance to snap out of it? Before or after the action?


In our most recent issue - the villainous godling "Cassiopeia" charmed our good English hero-gent "Pro Patria Mori"... Noting that he reminded her of her farther, and she HATES her father... she orders him to take his revolver and shoot himself in the head.
Shaking (failing the Mind contest) he puts the gun to his head (the player rolls to hit then ALSO to dodge!) and shoots himself in the head!

thoughts?
-kev-

[BASHMAN]

You give the order when you take your turn w/ Mind Control. The person carries out the order on their panel (roll to see if they do it right before their turn).

Each time the Controller gives a new order, they have to roll another contest. Each time the controlled person has to do something they don't want to do, they get to roll again. If one of the victim's friends tries to "talk them down" they get to roll again (actually the friend rolls for them).

Also, if it is something you strongly wouldn't want to do, you get to roll with a bonus, by the way. Being told to attack your friends, might be a minor hindrance. Being told to shoot yourself would be a MAJOR Hindrance on the person giving the order's roll). If you have the Virtuous Advantage (from the fantasy section) you get bonuses to break free of Mind Control.

Lastly, if you spend a Hero Die, you Snap Out of It, automatically. If you have Never Surrender, you can do that 1/session for free.

b. if a Mind Controlled person is ordered to do an act they don't want to, do they get any other chance to snap out of it? Before or after the action?

It would be before the action.

[BASHMAN]

The gun to the head scenario you describe would not likely happen in my game. 1. The player would use a Hero Die if they failed the check. If they didn't have a Hero Die, or enough points to make one, they would "Push Themselves" to get one. 2. Before that, one of the other players might spend a Hero die to take an interupt action to talk them out of shooting themself. 3. Before that, I would be giving the Mind Controller a -4 Dice Penalty to their roll, as telling someone to kill themself is CRAZY hard (this is shown on table 2-2 on page 16. The example given is "trying to use Mind Control to make someone harm their child" but I would say it'd be just as hard to make them try to kill themself (unless they were suicidal already, in which case it would be easier).

So for this to happen, the player would have to roll really bad, while the villain rolled really high. That does happen, though. Next, the Hero would have to be out of Hero Dice & points, and not be willing to Push Themself. Then, one of the player's allys would have to be unwilling to spend a Hero Die to interrupt to stop them (giving them another chance to break free).

Note: once Mind Control fails, it can never work on that person again (by that controller) for the rest of the issue.

Now- assuming all those things happened- the perfect storm of Mind Controller trying to make a Hero shoot himself- Then, yeah, it could happen. I wouldn't let the Hero Roll to dodge. Since he is ordered to shoot himself, he won't dodge it. (He takes a defense of 0). Since the attack is to the head, I'd say that's a called shot for damage- so his target number is a 10 with the attack. He *could* still miss (rolling a 9 or less) but would probably hit himself! Luckly, Heroes aren't so easy to take out (an average pistol shot would do 24 damage w/ a +10 Result Bonus). That 100 Hits also represents luck, I guess!

[Boost]

I've got a further question on this subject, came up a couple of sessions ago. The Azure Blur, a speedster player in my game, has super speed 5. Now, Shade, a villain made from shadow who's primary power is sinking into someone else's shadow and taking control of them through it, has seized control over Azure's shadow. He is "commanding" Azure to attack his ally, on his next panel the speedster does that... and has two panels left over.

I made a split decision to let him resist each panel, and he had to continue attacking, should he have gone free on his second and third? Should he have been denied his second and third panel, and only use super running?

[Nestor]

Dunno what the official response would be, but my call would've been to have the speedster keep following the order (i.e. keep attacking) until given a new order.

If the order is such that continued action is not applicable (such as, "open the door") he would stand waiting in a trance waiting for his next order.

He would still get his regular chances to resist the order, though.