Aberrant RPG - Mega Social Defenses

[metaphysician]

Okay, recent debates have brought to front the fact that, against even a 10 WP individual, someone with high mega socials should routinely get 5+ net sux. Given you can't go any higher than 10, this seems a bit out of whack.

So, suggested defenses for mega socials, mechanics-wise?

Two ideas:

-Wits/Mega Wits: allow a Wits roll to maintain one's bearing and composure amidst attempts to subject you to megasocial abilities, or perhaps apply mega wits as increased difficulty to the action.

-'Social Fu': usage of megasocials on a character with megasocials allows him to 'parry', and perhaps 'reverse' the attempts suasion with a megasocial roll of his own.

[Alex Green]

I think Mega-Manip already gives a +1 die per dot... but I don't remember the exact limits of that.

[Finbar]

I know why Psychic Shield doesn't apply to emotional attacks (specific limitation of the power), but why doesn't Invulnerabilty: Emotional Attacks (BC or otherwise) work?

FR

I think Mega-Manip already gives a +1 die per dot... but I don't remember the exact limits of that.

It just adds +1/dot to any attempt to deceive or trick the character...

FR

[Alex Green]

IMHO INV Does work.

I also think we should have a level 1 power "Emotion Shield" that compliments Psy-Shield.

[Finbar]

Why not just have an extra like: Emotional Shield (Psychic Shield also protects against emtional attacks, like mega-socials and Empathic Manipulation)? Or is that too easy?

FR

[BlueNinja]

Okay, recent debates have brought to front the fact that, against even a 10 WP individual, someone with high mega socials should routinely get 5+ net sux. Given you can't go any higher than 10, this seems a bit out of whack.

So, suggested defenses for mega socials, mechanics-wise?

Burn a temporary willpower point to temporarily ignore the effect. This would allow for characters to teleport/warp/hypermove away from the nova in question, or for the really desperate to initiate combat. Having Iron Will thus renders you immune for the scene. In the section on Willpower, it mentions butning a point in situations like that. Admittedly, at best, this means you can hold off a mega-social character for a handful of minutes until you run out of Willpower (which you're going to do before they run out of quantum pool).

[metaphysician]

IIRC, you need Iron Will in order to resist megasocials that way at all.

[BlueNinja]

IIRC, you need Iron Will in order to resist megasocials that way at all.

In the section on willpower, page 145 in the core book:

Resist Instinctual Response: Sometimes the Storyteller may have your character react to something out of instinct - whether fear of a monstrous aberrant, revulsion at the sight of a gruesome corpse, or lust for a stunning individual. Your character can resist this urge with the expenditure of a Willpower point (although the urge may return depending on the circumstances, calling for further expenditure.

Italics mine; this is why I say you can burn a temp Willpower to ignore the mega-social effects for a short time. All they have to do is try again, say a minute later - and if you can't get away, you're going to be hosed. Iron Will, being almost the cost of a point of Quantum, should give a correspondingly greater benefit, and the simplest way to do that is to increase the duration to the scene.

[Blue Thunder]

The Discerning Mind enhancement for Mega-Intelligence from Brainwaves gives a substantial boost to any defense against Mega-Social Abilities. The Unfazeable enhancement from Mega-Wits (same book) could aso help in certain situations. And of course, each dot in Mega-Manipulation helps against being decieved.

In Forceful Personalities, the Autonomous enhancement for Mega-Charisma can defend against many social situations:

The nova is automatically immune to implanted suggestions, delusions, and compulsions (either via mundane mind-control and brainwashing methods or nova techniques such as Hypnotism and Creeping Paranoia), detrimental aspects of group psychology such as mass hysteria and the mob mentality, psychosomatic damage and illness, and the long-term effects of Social Mega-Attributes. The nova also gains six extra Willpower successes against Empathic Manipulation and/or any social ability or power that lasts longer than one scene.

That's all I could find, beyond what has been mentioned.

I think something like an "Emotion Shield" or "Social Bolster" would work. Take Psychic Shield, but make it apply to emotional manipulation (including the power Emotion Manipulation). And maybe just +1 soak...after all, Social rolls are made against characters far more often than Psychic rolls are, and not just in the form of quantum powers...so if Emotion Shield gave +2 soak per dot, the character would become immune to practically ANY Social rolls made against him. With 5 dots (very cheap as a level 1 power) he would become immune to 1/3 of the Abilities and Mega-Attribute enhancements in the book! So I think a +1 soak (like Sensory Shield) would be better and more balanced, since (like Sensory Shield) you would be getting more use from the power.

[Alex Green]

Sensory Shield gives a +2 succ to oppose other people effecting you, effectively a +2 Diff.

[Blue Thunder]

I thought it was +1...guess I should have looked.

But my point still stands. A +1 bonus makes more sense than a +2 bonus, seeing how pervasive Social Abilities and Mega-Social enhancements are.

[BlueNinja]

Lemme suggest the following extra. I'm undecided whether or not to put it on Psychic Shield (to show that the nova's mind is exceptionally centered) or Sensory Shield (to show that the nova can shut out the visual, audial, and scents).

Emotional Shield

A nova with this extra adds two bonus dice for each dot in the power to rolls made to resist the effects of Emotional Manipulation and Mega-Social enhancements.

Done this way, it's the quantum that triggers the shield.

[metaphysician]

I'm honestly leery of applying Psychic Shield to mega socials ( though I could see Sensory Shield applying to Mega Appearance ).

Other option, is importing the Exalted 2e social combat rules. . .

[Alex Green]

Other option, is importing the Exalted 2e social combat rules. . .

? I don't have E 2e.

[metaphysician]

I'd have to pull it out myself, its rather complicated. The basic premise though, is that 'hostile' social interaction is just like combat. Each party has defensive and offensive ratings of various types, and there's several 'maneuvers' they can engage in. Successful social 'attacks' produce a variety of mechanically defined effects. A character has a variety of motivations, some of them core ( equivalent to one's Nature ) and hard to change, for both the character and others; some of them are more passing, and are easy to change for both the character and others.

IIRC, they also distinguish between "natural" and "unnatural" social influences. The former are more common, more subtle, and more socially acceptable; but they can generally only change one's lesser motivations. The latter can at least temporarily change even core motives and Nature, but they are more rare, usually more obvious, and inspire about the same response to their usage as mind control.

Willpower is not used to defend against social 'attacks', so much as to resist the 'damage.' Against natural influences, one WP point can be spent to ignore them from a single character for a whole scene ( why would you ever choose not to resist? Because you may need the WP for something else, and following the newly induced motivation at all earns back WP too ). Against unnatural influences, a WP point can be spent to resist the social attacks, once each per attack. If the first such effort fails, they can try again the next turn.

[Alex Green]

Sounds complicated.

Personally I like letting novas spend a willpower point to negate one specific social attempt. This doesn't quite devalue Ironwill since it even works for outright telepathic attacks and domination and the like (and I don't remember if Ironwill works for the scene or not).