Need help creating and pricing modifiers to make a Devil's Deal advantage

[Krillean]

I am struggling to make an ability that was essentially like a deal with a devil. Whenever two people, one of which having this advantage, come to a verbal agreement they are bound to do whatever it is they agreed to do or some type of consequences befall the one who breaks the agreement.

If you have read/played Juniper's Knot I'm wanting it to work pretty much exactly like that. The basic premise is a Fiend offers to cook for a boy if he tells her a story and he says deal accidentally sealing himself into a binding verbal agreement with the fiend and is now forced to stay.

Mind Control is really the only Advantage I have found that suits it to any degree this but I don't have all the rulebooks so maybe there is something better. The Lesser Geas spell is even closer as it only works for the one command but since it's a spell it doesn't work for my purposes.

There are some obvious ones like Cosmic(Unresistable) +300%, Accessibility(Only after a verbal agreement) -?%, but other modifications are just escaping me. I don't know how to price the Accessibility but I imagine that's what the limiter would be to perform that function.

To give a quick rundown of the modifications I was thinking for it but don't really know how to create.

1) Inability to Opt Out of using the ability. I could potentially see this as just Always On but it feels wrong since it is not actually a switchable advantage. Maybe it's just a re-flavor of Always On -10% or maybe its just a slight re-flavoring of Unconscious Only -20%.

2) User of the ability suffers the same effect but for their end of the deal. Nuisance Effect or Temporary Disadvantage seems likely but the mechanics of them are a little bit off cause the effect would end once the advantage holder completed their end of the deal. Even if it is one of these there is no Disadvantage that makes sense and I have no clue how to price the Nuisance Effect nor a way to remove the Nuisance Effect after the one character's end of the deal is fulfilled.

3) Limiting the Advantage to a single command. I don't think this is a limitation that exists and I would have no way to really work around it as nothing I have seen is really functionally similar to Mind Control.

4) Taking away the concentration requirement and being knocked out not ending the effect. This only really applies if Mind Control is the base advantage. It wouldn't really be something the character would be doing to maintain the bond so the concentration is just an extra hindering effect but rather the effect would just linger until the task was completed much like Lesser Geas. Maybe just another Cosmic modifier? I don't know.

5) Ability to break the deal in general. Mind Control does not allow the subject to break the deal at all, the entire concept hinges on the fact that the "command" can be broken; although, usually at the cost of some negative effect.

6) Penalty upon breaking the deal for either side. My only thought for this would be a Follow Up with Trigger(Broken Deal) but I don't know if that works. And there's even opportunity for the penalty to change on a case by case basis so I have no clue where to even begin on that.

I think that is all the modifications needed in order to make the ability work like it does in Juniper's Knot. Any help in making this ability is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Michele]

You could represent this as a magical item enchanted with Oath. With Oath, unlike with Geas, the subject must willingly pronounce his oath, which is the same thing as willingly entering the agreement. Then you add Link, which will activate a spell that will affect negatively the subject if he breaks the Oath (and the caster also needs to cast this spell).
The Oath should include an obligation never to remove the item, and never to go outside the area of effect of the Link.
The caster can always remove the item, so that the subject is set free, once he has accomplished what he had to do.

[David Johnston2]

Uh-hunh. Why are you doing that? It's fairly clearly an Unusual Origin. 10 points I'd say since it's the ability to make a contract actually binding on both parties and that means it has a substantial potential for blowback on the person making the offer.

[Krillean]

Originally Posted by Michele

You could represent this as a magical item enchanted with Oath. With Oath, unlike with Geas, the subject must willingly pronounce his oath, which is the same thing as willingly entering the agreement. Then you add Link, which will activate a spell that will affect negatively the subject if he breaks the Oath (and the caster also needs to cast this spell).
The Oath should include an obligation never to remove the item, and never to go outside the area of effect of the Link.
The caster can always remove the item, so that the subject is set free, once he has accomplished what he had to do.

This would be perfect if the item didn't have to be on the one taking the oath, unfortunately it breaks the thematic I was going for with the ability. If I can't find anything else I'm sure I could make it work because outside of that it is perfect.

[Krillean]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

Uh-hunh. Why are you doing that? It's fairly clearly an Unusual Origin. 10 points I'd say since it's the ability to make a contract actually binding on both parties and that means it has a substantial potential for blowback on the person making the offer.

I don't think Unusual Origin/Background really works as I thought it was just an advantage that allows a character to purchase abilities that would not be normal for the setting. In which case it would just be a 0 point advantage as the setting is with a bunch of demons that could have this ability.

Maybe I'm wrong and it could be used in the way you describe but one of the examples says "'Raised by wizards' to justify access to magic spells might be a 0-point special effect in a fantasy world..." so I'm inclined to believe it just gives the ability to purchase these abilities rather than gives the abilities themselves.

[Taneli]

Sounds like the devil is afflicting the victim with a disadvantage, maybe involuntary duty?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Krillean

I don't think Unusual Origin/Background really works as I thought it was just an advantage that allows a character to purchase abilities that would not be normal for the setting.

No. The GM decides what the cost and benefit of an Unusual Background is. The use of UBs as a premium on especially exotic power purchases is only one approach, although its the most common use. For example Omnilingual originated as Unusual Background. An extension of the example given earlier where a person got two Native Languages as an Unusual Background in fact.

[Krillean]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

No. The GM decides what the cost and benefit of an Unusual Background is.

Alright, I'll bring this up with the GM then to see what he thinks.

[whswhs]

The way I handle this in my fantasy campaign is that each party acquires a Destiny, always a negative one, as it's comparable to a Duty. If one party succeeds in resisting the Destiny, they then acquire twice the point value in new disads.

[Kelly Pedersen]

Personally, I think the inability to disobey the terms of the deal, once its been agreed to, is a Divine Curse of some sort. Determining the price of that can be tricky, but the article "Cursed Thou Art", in Pyramid #3/78 will help. I'll get into what I think the price should be below.

The ability to put this curse on people, on the other hand, is Affliction, I would say. I'd put Malediction on the Affliction, to make a Quick Contest of Will (probably using Malediction 3 for long-range penalties, and adding Long-Range 1 to remove range penalties entirely, unless you want this to be more difficult to inflict at range). You'll also need Extended Duration, Permanent, to put the duration of the deal long enough. I'd price that as the +150% version if something like killing you, a divine pardon, or something else can end the deal.

To add the part about the afflictor having to adhere to the deal too, I'd just add Temporary Disadvantage: Divine Curse, at the same value as the Divine Curse you're afflicting, to the Affliction advantage. For the "must use the ability whenever someone agrees to a deal", I agree that Always On is appropriate, at the -10% level, since I presume the afflictor has to offer a deal for it to take effect, and thus it's relatively easy to avoid triggering it.

You can put Cosmic, No Resistance on the Affliction, but note that that doesn't actually remove the target's resistance roll, simply prevents them from using any advantages (like Mind Shield, Resistant to Curses, etc.) to aid their resistance rolls. If you want to make this truly irresistible, the only way is to take enough levels of Affliction to apply a penalty that nobody can overcome. That is going to get very, very expensive, but I think that's actually reasonable - the ability to force people into unbreakable deals as long as they verbally agree, regardless of their intent, should cost quite a lot.

A cheaper alternative, if it fits your character concept, would be to still use Affliction, but limit it to only applying to targets who knowingly agree to your bargain, with an understanding of what that will mean. That would effectively limit it to people who are waiving their resistance rolls to the Affliction, meaning you wouldn't have to buy high levels of Affliction. In any case, the Affliction does need an Accessibility to limit it to only people who agree to your deal. The first one, "Only people who verbally agree to some kind of deal with me", I'd rate at -20%, while the second, "Only people who willingly agree to the true terms of the deal and understand what that means", I'd price at -50%.

For the price of the Divine Curse itself, I'd say that "Obey the terms of a deal, which must be a single command", is best priced as a Minor Vow, at -5 points. "Cursed Thou Art" suggests that a Vow that can be disobeyed, but with penalties equivalent to disadvantages worth twice the value of the Vow, is worth the standard value if atonement for transgressing is about as difficult as fulfilling the original Vow. I think that seems to match what you were thinking, so I'd go with that: -5 points for the Divine Curse that's being afflicted. Just plug the value into Affliction as an afflicted Disadvantage enhancement, and you've got your final ability.