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After much delay and technical difficulties, we will be covering Dominance and Infectious Attack today. I had intended to include Mind Control, as it strikes me as being not entirely dissimilar to Dominance,
but not only did it prove to be too much (we already need two posts for today's subjects), I was already running very late with this thread. As I was rushing, let me know if anything looks odd; at the last minute I had to cut out a good third of the post, which means I easily could have deleted something I referenced elsewhere.
Thank you for your patience!
If you need help finding something we've already discussed, johndallman is maintaining an
index of which traits we've discussed.
Basic
Dominance (p. B50) is a Supernatural, Exotic trait that costs 20 CP. It is
very dependent upon the GM, who has final say over almost everything about the trait; I mention this now so that I don't have to constantly say it throughout the rest of this write-up. Those with Dominance can infect others with a supernatural condition
and control those they infect. The wording strongly implies that the character with Dominance shares this condition, which is often how it is handled in fiction; a vampire making other vampires, a werewolf making other werewolves, etc.
You may only infect those of the same race* and (possibly) those of similar races. How you infect them is determined when you first gain the Dominance trait; select an inborn attack your character possesses, and that becomes the one method with which you may infect others. Whenever you damage someone susceptible to your condition, you roll 3d6 versus the amount of injury taken. Rolling
under means they are infected and will change within 2d days, possibly sooner, without intervention (possibly even with, depending upon the specifics). There may be additional conditions for spreading the condition as well, either instead of the attack or in addition to it.
Once the process is done, the infected character gains the corresponding supernatural racial template, and you must make a decision; pay the points to take the newly infected character as an Ally with the "Minion" and "Special Abilities" (p.B38) Enhancements. Minion is because anyone you infect and buy as an Ally gains not just the appropriate template, but the
Slave Mentality Disadvantage (p. B154) with
you as their master. This also means the Enhancement is worth 0%, due to the drawbacks of Slave Mentality (which I'll explain in the next paragraph). Special Abilities is because it can, in turn, infect others, which then also fall under your say if you can afford to buy them as Allies. This is worth +50%. The Frequency of Appearance is up to you, and it can be raised in the future if you wish with earned CP.
For the character receiving Slave Mentality, it is a Mental Disadvantage worth -40 CP. It can be Mundane, but probably not in this case as it is was caused by Dominance (which is not Mundane). A character with Slave Mentality
needs a master to give it orders, as it has no initiative of its own. The trait does not restrict the character's IQ or Will but does provide penalties for certain situations. Will rolls to assert one's self or resist social influence skills fail automatically, though under GM determined circumstances, a roll at -6 may be permitted. Taking any action that isn't part of an established routine or a direct order requires an IQ-8 roll. This
includes rolls for things that seem simple and are necessary to survival. The text provides the example of a starving character with Slave Mentality finding $10; if its master hadn't established it as part of the routine, or didn't give the order to do so this character would still require the IQ-8 roll to pick up the money to purchase food.
There are a few ways you can lose your infected servant. If either you or they suffer a permanent death is the simplest. If your servant grows in power and you either can't or won't spend the CP needed to maintain them as an Ally when they grow in power, you also lose them. The text doesn't specify if you can opt for a lower Frequency of Appearance than they were initially purchased with, but even if that is the case, 6 or less is still the minimum. Finally, if they are cured, they are also freed from your control. With that last option - possibly all, as I find the text a bit ambiguous - the points invested in a former Dominance-based Ally may be spent on a new Dominance-based Ally.
So what happens to the infected if you do
not pay for them as an Ally, cannot afford to keep them as an Ally, or the GM allows only the "Slave Mentality" aspect of the curse to be broken? They still gain (or retain) the supernatural template in question but won't gain (or retain) the Slave Mentality Disadvantage. This can be very dangerous if your victim resents you; whatever other powers it gained, it will have Dominance as well, and thus could raise its own slave army!
This brings us to the related trait
Infectious Attack (p. B140), a Physical, Supernatural Disadvantage worth -5 CP. All it is is "Dominance" without the dominating; Use all the same rules as with Dominance
except your victims
lack Slave Mentality. Careless use of whatever the infecting attack is for your template can result in survivors who have motivation for revenge
and received a powerup. Yes, this means you could infect other PCs for a power up, but they have to pay the CP appropriate to the template or gain the appropriate Disadvantages to balance things out.
Other Supplements
If you know of a Supplement that features one of today's traits, or something very closely related, feel free to either PM me or post about it in the thread, and I will add it here. Please remember the page references, but don't sweat stuff like CP cost or percentage, as I usually won't mention those.
GURPS Zombies covers these extensively; just read Bruno's post below for the details. ;)
GURPS Powers only mentions Dominance in relation to other traits, and I didn't find any mentions of Infectious Attack at all. GURPS Social Engineering brings up Dominance in the first chapter, but only to explain it was outside the scope of the text. The only other supplement I own to mention Dominance and Infectious Attack is GURPS Update, bringing us to the next section.
Third Edition
Dominance and Infectious Attack are still counterparts under the Third Edition rules. I am specifically referencing Compendium I page 53 for Dominance and page 97 for Infectious Attack. Dominance is listed in the Racial And Super Advantages chapter, with a base cost of 5 CP
plus 15 CP per 100 points controlled, bringing us to the major difference; instead of being purchased as Allies, the price for controlling those you infect is baked into Dominance directly. Next is that you don't get a choice about assuming control of those you infect; you either fork over the CP and/or are forced to take new Disadvantages (as is appropriate).
The text for Dominance also stresses that once a PC is freed from his master's control, it must buy off Slave Mentality immediately
and purchase (the Third Edition) version of Dominance, which might actually still be true if I misunderstood the Fourth Edition rules earlier when I stated it would be included in the supernatural template for the condition. Instead of forcing new Disadvantage on a PC who can't afford to actually buy off Slave Mentality and purchase Dominance, these rules states that all CP will be applied to the remaining point balance until it is paid off. For the record, the Third Edition version of Slave Mentality from page 94 of Compendium I is more or less the same as its Fourth Edition counterpart.
Lycanthropic Dominance and
Regancy are also listed in the same Chapter of Compendium I, on pages 60 and 64, respectively. Lycanthropic Dominance is probably only listed separately because it first appeared in GURPS Bestiary (no page number given) with slightly different rules, but Compendium I informs us to use the rules for Dominance instead. Recency is a special version of Dominance that first appeared in GURPS: Vampire the Masquerade (again, no page reference), and its price is just 15 CP per 100 CP worth of characters controlled.
Vampiric Dominance is listed in Appendix 2 - Advantage Listings, but the page reference is for regular Dominance. An interesting note in their GURPS Update Entries is that these Allies may be purchased with the Unwilling (p. B38) Limitation, which is worth -50%. That is a nice discount but seems to clash with the "Minion" Enhancement, as Slave Mentality ought to prevent the major drawback of Unwilling (your Ally despising you for controlling them and scheming to get free). Perhaps that means these alternate forms of Dominance don't force Slave Mentality on those you Dominate?
Infectious Attack has few differences, with the main one being additional text that (in Fourth Edition) is part of Dominance. It is listed in the Chapter for Supernatural Disadvantages.
*GURPS definition of race; so things like human, elf, dwarf, etc.