Talk:Aberrant 2.0 Social Systems

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Weapons and Armor

  • Objection: Ideological and other personal objections can halt arguments in their tracks. It's harder for a man to persuade a disinterested girl to go out with him if she's a lesbian, personally dislikes him, or believes she should only date people chosen by her parents. Something that is distasteful to a person's views (asking an honourable police officer to overlook a minor offence) gives them a +2 soak bonus. Something repellent (asking an honourable police officer to overlook a murder) gives a soak bonus equal to their Willpower.
Accuracy +0, Damage +0, Soak +2 or +willpower

Quantum Powers in Social Combat

Enhancements

  • Generally, an enhancement that adds bonus dice to Sway or resistance to Sway adds bonus dice to social attacks and defences in similar situations.
  • The Voice only lasts for an instant and so cannot win social combat by itself unless the goal of social combat can be completed in that instant. Like Dominate, it is only directly useful for intimidation.

Powers

Dominate

Dominate is not a social attack, it is direct mind control and uses its own system. The threat of Dominate may be used as a social attack, but an attempt to use the power itself (successful or not) will quite likely burn bridges with the target and certainly damage your relationship with them.

Hypnosis

hmmm

Telepathy

Telepathy is a potent tool in social combat, beyond the obvious utility of searching your opponent's mind for buttons to push and blackmail material. If a telepath is reading her opponent's mind, she always declares last and gains [Telepathy] automatic successes against social attacks based on deception. However, unless the telepath has appropriate extras, she will need to concentrate to use Telepathy and so will suffer multiple action penalties for the round. Furthermore, most people resent the idea that their minds are not private. If the target believes or suspect the nova to be using telepathy, it will increase the difficulty of attacks against them by anything from 1-5 points.

Biomanipulation

Much like how Molecular Manipulation can be used to brute force hack hardened computer systems by physically rewiring them, Biomanipulation can do as well using the Body Manipulation sub-power to induce the mental parameters that make the desired outcome possible. Psions and powerful Novas should be able to resist this to some degree, although weaker Novas and baselines in general won't be able to notice until it's too late (at which point they probably won't care anymore). On the other hand, should the attempt fail, the effect is the same as trying to use Dominate on a character, and there are extensive risks to the mental health of the target, not to mention philosophical and moral rammifications.

Empathic Manipulation

Empathic Manipulation allows a character to elicit strong emotional reactions that might be useful in scenarios where reason would be less effective. Like Telapathy, using Empathic Manipulation grants [Empathic Manipulation] successes against deception, with the added benefit of gaining additional successes from the usage of the power when trying to use an emotional appeal understandable by the target. A Brazillian rent-a-cop with siblings or a family might buy the 'But I'm a father!' excuse more readily than a Coalition Spinal. As with Telepathy, using EM is a risky venture should the character suspect them using such powers, imposing a penalty between 1 to 5 points. People don't like knowing or even considering that their emotions aren't necessarily their own.

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