Mind Control Question

Parabola · 12-24-2015, 06:43 PM

I watched the "Jessica Jones" series recently with Kilgrave. Granted he's sort of in the unstoppable mind control category that just doesn't work in a game. Until Jessica, it's as if nobody ever ever rolled a critical success or he ever fumbled (in game terms, of course). That's fine for a story but it doesn't work in a game.

But it got me to looking at the new (4e) version of Mind Control. Now, I really haven't gamed since the 4e stuff came out so I've read it but haven't explored it in detail. However, the impression I get is that Mind Control in the new rules is, well, pretty useless. What I mean is that, reading the advantage, it is basically the Mind Controller rolling his IQ versus the Will (IQ + Will) of the target. It would seem that, in most situations against another player or significant NPC, the Mind Controller is going to have way less than a 50-50 chance of having any effect. In my experience, players like to have resistance to things like mind control and it's far cheaper than buying IQ. Plus you've got the rule of 20 though people can still buy Mind Shield.

I was wondering if this is fairly accurate or are there a lot of qualifiers and boosts to mind control that I don't know about?

Thanks in advance. It's really just an academic question. While I don't get much chance to roleplay anymore, I'm still fascinated with it.

12-24-2015, 06:43 PM	#1
Parabola Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Indiana	Mind Control Question I watched the "Jessica Jones" series recently with Kilgrave. Granted he's sort of in the unstoppable mind control category that just doesn't work in a game. Until Jessica, it's as if nobody ever ever rolled a critical success or he ever fumbled (in game terms, of course). That's fine for a story but it doesn't work in a game. But it got me to looking at the new (4e) version of Mind Control. Now, I really haven't gamed since the 4e stuff came out so I've read it but haven't explored it in detail. However, the impression I get is that Mind Control in the new rules is, well, pretty useless. What I mean is that, reading the advantage, it is basically the Mind Controller rolling his IQ versus the Will (IQ + Will) of the target. It would seem that, in most situations against another player or significant NPC, the Mind Controller is going to have way less than a 50-50 chance of having any effect. In my experience, players like to have resistance to things like mind control and it's far cheaper than buying IQ. Plus you've got the rule of 20 though people can still buy Mind Shield. I was wondering if this is fairly accurate or are there a lot of qualifiers and boosts to mind control that I don't know about? Thanks in advance. It's really just an academic question. While I don't get much chance to roleplay anymore, I'm still fascinated with it.