Enthrallment Skill Used on PC's

[inflatus]

Should a GM allow a player to use the Enthrallment, Captivate, Persuade, Suggest or Sway Emotion skill on another player to make him do something that he is adamantly against? I can see these skills being used on NPC's but using on player characters might cause some issues. My opinion is that the GM should allow some roleplaying for the persuasion but it should never come to skill checks. The roleplaying should also be stopped if the conversation becomes personal out of game.

I wanted to know if any players or GM's have encountered this situation in their sessions and if so, what came about?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by inflatus

Should a GM allow a player to use the Enthrallment, Captivate, Persuade, Suggest or Sway Emotion skill on another player to make him do something that he is adamantly against? I can see these skills being used on NPC's but using on player characters might cause some issues. My opinion is that the GM should allow some roleplaying for the persuasion but it should never come to skill checks. The roleplaying should also be stopped if the conversation becomes personal out of game.

I wanted to know if any players or GM's have encountered this situation in their sessions and if so, what came about?

I had a Courtesan use Sway Emotion (using Sex Appeal) on a PC once, I ended up using the rules for using Influence skills on PCs. Seemed to work fine to me.

[inflatus]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

I had a Courtesan use Sway Emotion (using Sex Appeal) on a PC once, I ended up using the rules for using Influence skills on PCs. Seemed to work fine to me.

What if you were trying to persuade the PC to seriously harm a family member or change their religious beliefs? Do you think that another player could roll a skill check to change a PC's diehard religious beliefs? I was thinking that every character has an imaginary line that they will not cross. How does a skill check figure into this instance?

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by inflatus

What if you were trying to persuade the PC to seriously harm a family member or change their religious beliefs? Do you think that another player could roll a skill check to change a PC's diehard religious beliefs? I was thinking that every character has an imaginary line that they will not cross. How does a skill check figure into this instance?

Usually with bonuses to Will rolls. I could have sworn there was a section in Social Engineering but I can't seem to find it.

I suppose it would come down to what sort of disadvantages the PC in question has. Maybe a +1 bonus per -5 in disads could work. Do keep in mind that just because they think they will never cross that line doesn't mean they won't. Just my 2 cents of course, YMMV.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by inflatus

Should a GM allow a player to use the Enthrallment, Captivate, Persuade, Suggest or Sway Emotion skill on another player to make him do something that he is adamantly against?

Yes. Those are actual mind control abilities. They cost fatigue. Being in the grip of Captivate or Suggest is no different from being hit with a spell from the Mind Control College.

edit. Oh, sorry. I didn't understand the question. It's not fundamentally different from having players steal from each other. If you'd allow one, allow the other.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by inflatus

Should a GM allow a player to use the Enthrallment, Captivate, Persuade, Suggest or Sway Emotion skill on another player to make him do something that he is adamantly against?

That's a game style issue, not a rules issue. Those abilities do work on PCs, but like any sort of PvP, can cause problems between the players.

[roguebfl]

See the box on B359 Influencing the PCs which talks about using influance rolls against PCs.

Other than that treat stronger mind control as you would physical violence in intra-party conflict in accordance with your group's social contract.

In most of my groups cases I remind them they agreed to play characters that wouldn't willingly devolve into such fights as I have not intrest in GMing such games

[gjc8]

Originally Posted by inflatus

Should a GM allow a player to use the Enthrallment, Captivate, Persuade, Suggest or Sway Emotion skill on another player to make him do something that he is adamantly against? I can see these skills being used on NPC's but using on player characters might cause some issues.

The effect of Persuade is to provide a +3 (+4 on a critical success) to reaction rolls. That's not enough to make an NPC do something they're adamantly against. No problems there. Likewise with Sway Emotions. People don't do things that they're adamantly against just because they're angry. Players should roleplay the emotion properly, but it doesn't control their actions like that.

The only issue is Suggest and Captivate. And there I'd say they're pretty much mind control abilities, as David Johnston2 says. Note that you get a resistance roll against the Entrallment in the first place, and both explicitly have rules for what to do if they're forced to do something they're adamantly against (for Suggest, a bonus to the resistance roll; for Captivate, a new Will roll which is at a penalty but is not opposed). Note also that if the PCs have reason to believe that the storyteller has hostile intent, I don't see anything that prevents them from leaving or even attacking during the 20 or 30 minutes it takes for Enthrallment to have an effect.

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by inflatus

What if you were trying to persuade the PC to seriously harm a family member or change their religious beliefs? Do you think that another player could roll a skill check to change a PC's diehard religious beliefs? I was thinking that every character has an imaginary line that they will not cross. How does a skill check figure into this instance?

For the sake of realism, that should be as difficult to make a PC do as it is to make an NPC do. After all, PCs aren't surrounded by invisible "magic resistance" fields just by virtue of being PCs. They live in the world in which the game takes place, and are therefore subject to all the metaphysics of that world to the exact same degree as those characters who are played by the GM.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Ghostdancer

Usually with bonuses to Will rolls. I could have sworn there was a section in Social Engineering but I can't seem to find it.

Influencing PCs, p. 32, may be what you're looking for.

Bill Stoddard