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Old 05-01-2013, 02:50 PM   #1
JCurwen3
 
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Default Friends Noticing Possession, Mind Control, general influence

I might be missing them, and I don't have my books with me right now, but what are the rules for friends and close associates noticing that something is "off" or "he's not himself" when it comes to an entity possessing their friend, or using mind control, emotion control, or suggestions on them? Or to notice that their friend has been Afflicted with something that has changed their personality (for instance, given them a mental disadvantage)?

With Possession I'm pretty sure the possessing entity's Acting skill comes into play, and the comrades' Detect Lies, Body Language, and possibly Psychology skills as well. I'm not clear how that all fits together though, and if there's anything more to it.

With mind altering abilities used on the character, I'm at a loss as to the rules and the probabilities that your friends will feel that you're "acting strange". Obviously if it's a big in-your-face change, that's easy, but what if it's more subtle? I'd assume the closeness of the relationship should play a role, as well as the extent of the mind alteration (a quirk level Bad Temper might be missed by all but your closest friends, if even, but a very poor self-control number for Bad Temper might be obvious to even casual longer term acquaintances).

Of course, this is all about feeling that "something is off" with the person. Only if they have experience with and reason to believe that things like possession or mind altering will they come to those conclusions.

Hope that all made sense. Sorry for long post.
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Old 05-01-2013, 03:11 PM   #2
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Default Re: Friends Noticing Possession, Mind Control, general influence

The most detailed rules for this can be found in Detecting Psi (GURPS Psionic Powers, pp. 11-12):

"If the subject describes his pain or begins acting 'funny' (which requires a Psychology or Observation roll to notice, modified for behavior and for how well one knows the subject), a trained observer can roll to realize what's going on, as above, at a -4 penalty." The rules for that actual roll (the second one, made at -4) are too in-depth to reproduce here, but they basically boil down to a Per or Per-based Expert Skill (Psionics) roll, at a modifier based on exactly what's going on.

Note that the rules work well for any subtle, personality-affecting ability -- it's just that psi is the most common umbrella under which such abilities gather.
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Old 05-01-2013, 03:18 PM   #3
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Default Re: Friends Noticing Possession, Mind Control, general influence

There are also bits in the Morph entry of Basic (IIRC), and some more in Social Engineering (essentially, Morph/Possession gives the perfect disguise, but you still need Acting to have the perfect acting).
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