[Basic] Advantage of the Week: Mind Control

[johndallman]

Mind Control [50] is an exotic mental advantage, allowing you to mentally dominate those you can see, or touch. It appeared at GURPS 4e, replacing the 3e advantages Telecontrol and Mindwipe.

To use the basic form of the advantage, concentrate for a second, and win a Quick Contest of your IQ against your intended victim’s Will. This takes normal range modifiers, ‑1 for each person you currently have under control, and time modifiers on an unusual scale: +2 for a minute of concentration, or +4 for an hour. If you succeed, the victim becomes effectively Reprogrammable, with you as their master, while you keep concentrating, and for as many minutes after that as your margin of victory in the quick contest. If you lose the contest, you cannot retry for 24 hours, and your target realises that you’re attempting some kind of coercion. On a critical failure, you also lose control of anyone else you had at the time.

This advantage does not provide telepathic communication, or anything similar. Buy that separately if you want it. Your victim is compelled to act as you tell them, but they use their own capabilities to do so; you don’t have control of muscles (that needs Possession), but of motivations. The Reprogrammable disadvantage has the rules on victims’ ability to interpret orders.

If you are forced to stop controlling a victim (knocked out, moved to another plane, etc.) or you try to get a victim to do something against their principles or sense of self-preservation (harm loved ones, kill themselves, etc.) roll another Quick Contest, and if the victim wins, they break free of your control. They may well seek immediate revenge.

Mind Control is frequently modified. It usually requires a Power Modifier, and Extended Duration, to increase your time in control after stopping concentrating, is valuable. Useful enhancements include Cybernetic (from Mind Reading, allows you to affect Digital Minds), and all attack modifiers that are compatible with Malediction. Plausible limitations include Aspected (Only on opposite sex, or only on same sex), Sense-Based and Cybernetic Only (also from Mind Reading).

Special modifiers include Conditioning (+50%) which allows you to change someone’s personality (altering mental disadvantages) for periods of days, or permanently on a critical success. Memories can be removed by adding aspected Amnesia, or added as Delusions; note that someone else with this ability can undo your work! Conditioning Only (‑50%) means you can only do that. For +10%, your victims have no memory of what happened to them while you were controlling them, and for ‑40%, your victims have no initiative while under control and are mindlessly obedient.

Powers has significant additions: Independent (+70%) frees you of the need for ongoing concentration, which has major benefits and a few downsides. Emotion Control (‑50%) only lets you control feelings, rather than actions, and Suggestion (‑40%) limits you to general suggestions. Powers also has implementations via drugs, hypnosis, pheromones and vibrations.

Psionic Powers adds more: enhancements to make the victim rationalise their memories, a straightforward way to make Conditioning last until changed via drugs, hypnotism or therapy, and a combination of Suggestion and Emotion Control. There are also lots of complete abilities built on Mind Control.

The Mind Control spell college does similar things to this advantage, but in a very different style. Bio-Tech points out that this advantage doesn’t have to be supernatural, and DF makes it an ability for bards and druids. Some DF clerics have aspected versions, and Summoners have a variety of creatures on tap with immunity, or serious resistance. DF 14 Psi has a simplified build. Horror has lots of nasty things to do with this advantage, and Emotion Control (One Emotion, ‑80%). Hellsgate demons are uniformly immune to this advantage, while Locations: Monster Hunters has the same simplified advantage as DF 14 for PCs, and variations for monsters. Social Engineering: Back to School provides Mind Control’s bonuses to Brainwashing, and Supers lets you buy your victim as a Minion Ally. Zombies provides the Zombie Command (‑25%) limitation, although many types of zombie are immune.

Powers mentions that extreme Charisma can provide similar effects. This is certainly true for the only character I’ve seen played with this advantage, who only uses it when reactions and talking won’t work. People get much crosser about having their will overridden than about being persuaded.

How has this advantage played in your games?

[Icelander]

Mind Control with limitations that required speech was scary enough so that an NPC with it was shot down in cold blood, unarmed and pleading for his life, because the PC had no way of knowing whether they might be trying to Mind Control people.

Well, also for other reasons, but in general, any character who is known to have Mind Control is going to have to deal with a lot of people reacting to their mere presence as someone threatening them with WMDs.

[Emerald Cat]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Well, also for other reasons, but in general, any character who is known to have Mind Control is going to have to deal with a lot of people reacting to their mere presence as someone threatening them with WMDs.

To be fair, anyone with Mind Control would have access to WMDs if they had access to the right people. Securing nuclear weapons against mind control would be an issue.

Players should expect psionic Secret Service agents on worlds where Mind Control is known. Otherwise, they should pay for the surprise factor by taking Unusual Background.

[johndallman]

Here's a pretty benign use of Mind Control, which probably wouldn't be thought of as mind-control within a setting. That's just the GURPS advantage it is based on.

Mind Control [50], Conditioning Only (‑50%), Sense-Based (Hearing only, ‑20%), Only on those who share a language with me (‑10%), Slow and Sure Only (Psionic Powers, p. 15, +40%), Aspected (Only in accordance with the Hippocratic Oath, ‑20%), Power Modifier (‑10%). [15]

This lets you cure mental illnesses in an hour of conversation. The effects are permanent, unless interfered with via therapy, hypnotism, drugs, etc. It could plausibly have the IQ roll changed to IQ+Empathy, or Psychology (Applied), or Physician (Psychiatric), which is from Horror.

If the GM required that the subject's disadvantage total didn't change, this gets harder, because there aren't many mental disadvantages that it's ethical to give people in trade for their existing ones. Sense of Duty to family, and other culturally-specific groups, such as churches, organisations or countries qualify, as do some Codes of Honour, and Honesty.

[Otaku]

Originally Posted by johndallman

If the GM required that the subject's disadvantage total didn't change, this gets harder, because there aren't many mental disadvantages that it's ethical to give people in trade for their existing ones. Sense of Duty to family, and other culturally-specific groups, such as churches, organisations or countries qualify, as do some Codes of Honour, and Honesty.

Possibly a deep sense of gratitude (Sense of Duty) to the one who cured them could also work. Though, there is some room for abuse there as well, and its value would only offset a portion of the cost.

Some of the issue is that it is one hour of therapy. If the time required scaled according to the value of the Disadvantage being removed, that could be another solution. Just use the rules for learnable Advantages, and apply them to removing the Disadvantage. What is more, the character providing the "therapy" also loses that time, so it is hardly a way to cheat the system. If monetary compensation can sufficiently burden the players, that might also be appropriate as well. Certainly, the one providing the "therapy" has likely earned it.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Otaku

Possibly a deep sense of gratitude (Sense of Duty) to the one who cured them could also work. Though, there is some room for abuse there as well, and its value would only offset a portion of the cost.

That would definitely be abusive,

Some of the issue is that it is one hour of therapy. If the time required scaled according to the value of the Disadvantage being removed, that could be another solution. Just use the rules for learnable Advantages, and apply them to removing the Disadvantage.

I'd point out that this is a an exotic advantage, and the hour takes the form of therapy, because people are used to that. 200 hours per point of disadvantage bought off is a plausible rate for effective mundane therapy.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by johndallman

If the GM required that the subject's disadvantage total didn't change, this gets harder, because there aren't many mental disadvantages that it's ethical to give people in trade for their existing ones. Sense of Duty to family, and other culturally-specific groups, such as churches, organisations or countries qualify, as do some Codes of Honour, and Honesty.

I think I have to disagree with that. As an atheist since early childhood, I would call a process that turned me into a Christian, Muslim, or Hindu and that transcended the normal process of reasoned argument "brainwashing." More generally, I'm opposed to ethical indoctrination that bypasses informed consent, which the process you describe seems to do.

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I think I have to disagree with that. As an atheist since early childhood, I would call a process that turned me into a Christian, Muslim, or Hindu and that transcended the normal process of reasoned argument "brainwashing." More generally, I'm opposed to ethical indoctrination that bypasses informed consent, which the process you describe seems to do.

Technically, people can give informed consent to their Mind Control therapy.

Realistically, a lot of people dislike themselves enough so that they would probably do it.

[Vikingv]

Does the ethical boundaries rely on the perception of the user of the power, or some other standard?

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by johndallman

If the GM required that the subject's disadvantage total didn't change, this gets harder, because there aren't many mental disadvantages that it's ethical to give people in trade for their existing ones. Sense of Duty to family, and other culturally-specific groups, such as churches, organisations or countries qualify, as do some Codes of Honour, and Honesty.

One way to square this circle is Compulsive Behavior (Counteract Existing Disadvantage) or Obsession (Remove Disadvantage).

The psychiatrist implants the suggestion that the patient act in a harmless but time consuming way which directly counters their original problem for a certain amount of time each day (a Compulsive Behavior) or as an overarching goal (Obsession) until the problem is completely gone.

As part of the power, however, the new disadvantage can be bought off with character points.

Assume that both the original disad and the countering disad can be "bought off" at a rate of 1 CP per 200 hours of countering activity at the same rate as Learning Through Self-Study. Each 200 hours buys off -1 point of either the original disad and the new disadvantage. After n x 200 hours the old disad is gone leaving just the new one. After 400 x n hours both disads are gone.

During the time that both disadvantages exist the patient is susceptible to them both - time and attention spent on buying off the original problem and a chance that the original problem will manifest.

As an modifier to Mind Control, this trick might count as a +50% version of the Cosmic (Breaks Rules) enhancement.