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Old 05-10-2021, 04:36 AM   #31
panton41
 
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Default Re: Examples of failed self-control rolls in fiction

In Charles de Lint's Newford books Jilly Coppercorn fails Charitable and Compulsive Generosity rolls so often she comes across as naïve to people who don't really know her. (She's extremely street smart, but has a 6 for her control number.)

The Crow Girls have quite a few Disadvantages related to acting goofy and childish (probably to the point of an Odious Personal Habit), but only when they're together. Individually they're introspective and level-headed. (I'd argue, though, they don't even try to control themselves.)
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Old 05-10-2021, 07:16 AM   #32
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Frodo volunteering to take the Ring to Mordor is a failure against Charitable perhaps. Or Destiny as a disad.
Probably more a function of Sense of Duty or the like - although it could have been a function of the Ring making anyone who encountered it wanting to keep it for themselves. Arguably, the Ring Afflicts Obsession (Possess the Ring) on anyone who sees or touches it. Most of the Fellowship either made their Self Control Roll or successfully resisted the Affliction, but Boromir failed at both - and so did Frodo, both at the Council of Elrond and later, in Mount Doom.
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Old 05-10-2021, 08:02 AM   #33
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Default Re: Examples of failed self-control rolls in fiction

Frodo didn't volunteer to take the ring despite his better judgment. He volunteered to take it because "this task is appointed for you, Frodo; and that if you do not find a way, no one will."

In other words, he wasn't trying to resist doing something he didn't want to do; he was trying to motivate himself to do what he knew only he could do.
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Old 05-10-2021, 08:09 AM   #34
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Frodo didn't volunteer to take the ring despite his better judgment. He volunteered to take it because "this task is appointed for you, Frodo; and that if you do not find a way, no one will."

In other words, he wasn't trying to resist doing something he didn't want to do; he was trying to motivate himself to do what he knew only he could do.
I may be mixing up what happened in the book and what happened in the movie - I seem to distinctly recall him volunteering to take up the Ring when they were trying to decide who should be Ringbearer, but I'm not sure if that happened in the book or only in the movie. I also can't recall if Sam, Pippin and Merry were discovered spying on the council and were voluntold to join the Fellowship, or if they popped up and volunteered once Frodo was appointed as Ringbearer, but them spying on the council may have been a failed SC roll against Curious and/or Impulsive for at least one of them (Sam's presence was more Sense of Duty, however).
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Old 05-10-2021, 08:19 AM   #35
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Someone already gave a Firefly example, but I'll give another: Mal, when he fails to resist Saffron's seduction attempt and decides to go to the Special Hell... and then gets knocked unconscious.
Is that a self-control roll, or just a failed contest against Saffron's manipulation? Does he demonstrate Lecherousness anywhere else?
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Old 05-10-2021, 08:20 AM   #36
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I may be mixing up what happened in the book and what happened in the movie - I seem to distinctly recall him volunteering to take up the Ring when they were trying to decide who should be Ringbearer, but I'm not sure if that happened in the book or only in the movie. I also can't recall if Sam, Pippin and Merry were discovered spying on the council and were voluntold to join the Fellowship, or if they popped up and volunteered once Frodo was appointed as Ringbearer, but them spying on the council may have been a failed SC roll against Curious and/or Impulsive for at least one of them (Sam's presence was more Sense of Duty, however).
In the book, Frodo volunteers to take the ring (despite a strong desire to stay in Rivendell with Bilbo) after a call for suggestions for who should do so is met with resounding silence. You may, as you choose, call this Sense of Duty: Free People of Middle Earth, Charitable, or just knowing a plot-hook when he sees one. Sam (and only Sam) was listening in on the Council (probably more out of Sense of Duty: Frodo than Curiosity or Impulsiveness) and is told that, since even a secret meeting to which he is not invited is insufficient to keep him from Frodo's side, he had better accompany him to Mordor- though, despite the fact he is well aware that this is a "nice pickle", one may be sure he would have demanded to accompany Frodo had doing so not been forced on him. Merry and Pippin later learn that Frodo and Sam are going and beg permission to accompany them (again, this might be Sense of Duty: Friends, or just a desire for adventure- with a certain amount of not being able to picture the consequences thrown in in either case).
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Old 05-10-2021, 08:35 AM   #37
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Does he demonstrate Lecherousness anywhere else?
No; Inara's friend who is running the brothel even comments on the fact he isn't taking any of his payment "in kind" (Jayne, meanwhile, probably burns through the bulk of his payment in this manner). It really is a function more of Saffron's skills - a man can only resist so much temptation (Jayne, meanwhile, may well have succumbed to his own Lecherousness when he offered to trade Vera for Saffron; Jayne's whole character concept seems to revolve around failing a lot of SC rolls...).

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In the book, Frodo volunteers to take the ring (despite a strong desire to stay in Rivendell with Bilbo) after a call for suggestions for who should do so is met with resounding silence. You may, as you choose, call this Sense of Duty: Free People of Middle Earth, Charitable, or just knowing a plot-hook when he sees one. Sam (and only Sam) was listening in on the Council (probably more out of Sense of Duty: Frodo than Curiosity or Impulsiveness) and is told that, since even a secret meeting to which he is not invited is insufficient to keep him from Frodo's side, he had better accompany him to Mordor- though, despite the fact he is well aware that this is a "nice pickle", one may be sure he would have demanded to accompany Frodo had doing so not been forced on him. Merry and Pippin later learn that Frodo and Sam are going and beg permission to accompany them (again, this might be Sense of Duty: Friends, or just a desire for adventure- with a certain amount of not being able to picture the consequences thrown in in either case).
Ah, thanks for that. I believe in the movie Merry and Pippin were also spying on the meeting, coming out from hiding to volunteer once Sam gets voluntold. I could still be misremembering - it's been a very long time since I saw the movies, and even longer since I read the books.
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Old 05-10-2021, 09:20 AM   #38
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Default Re: Examples of failed self-control rolls in fiction

Ben Grimm fails Bad Temper rolls now and then.
Wolverine has improved his control of Berserk in this character history, but still loses it against Sabretooth from time to time.
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Old 05-12-2021, 07:57 PM   #39
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Default Re: Examples of failed self-control rolls in fiction

Almost any act ever performed by 'Half-Cocked' Jack Shaftoe (aka L'Emmerdeur, aka Quicksilver, aka Ali Zaybak, aka Jack the Coiner, etc, etc.) in The Baroque Cycle trilogy by Neal Stephenson. I re-read the entire series every year or two.

He even calls the tendency his "imp of the perverse". But he sort of has an excuse, what with being half-mad from advanced syphilis...

The best thing Stephenson ever wrote, though admittedly it is NOT for everyone.

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Old 05-12-2021, 09:03 PM   #40
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Someone already gave a Firefly example, but I'll give another: Mal, when he fails to resist Saffron's seduction attempt and decides to go to the Special Hell... and then gets knocked unconscious.
While we're on Firefly;

River sees the Blue Suns logo on Cobb's shirt, falls prey to her Flashbacks trait, and slashes it with a knife while he is still wearing it.

Heck, River is a poster-girl for "super powerful character whose player did not realize he was crippling her by taking all those mental Disadvantages to pay for her psychic powers and cinematic fighting style".
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