Emotional Mind Magic and Demons
Aug 15, 2015 2:39:44 GMT -8
Lιттle Ƭree (Cedar Ashland), Cyn, and 1 more like this
Post by alecksin on Aug 15, 2015 2:39:44 GMT -8
Hello everyone. I will try not to bug you guys too much, but something did cross my mind in regards to the current sentiment rules on the Demon race area, and the conflict of the current mind magics that we have. I understand completely that everything is still in progress, but I thought that maybe for book keeping, or perhaps to alert someone in case no one noticed, I would bring up this balance issue that maybe someone could clarify on the official race page, OR personally try to find a solution according to what I personally think is a good interpretation of "Demon emotional problems"... I was actually kinda pushed to bring this up myself, and I'm sorry if it seems a bit naggy, but I'm doing my best to be a good girl! So.. Here I go!
Now, a while ago I inquired as to what would happen if a Demon, possessing no natural emotions and being normally unable to comprehend typical feelings such as love, hatred, anger, sadness and the so forth, was cast with an instill [Insert here] spell, the example I gave being love. I received a response that they would be overwhelmed with said emotion, have to experience it, and most likely be completely disoriented..
At first, I settled with this, but after some thought I came to the conclusion that there is a severe balancing issue in this idea that could come into play.
Demon characters, as it stands, have no ability to form any true sentiments for another individual. They cannot truly care about anyone, cannot feel remorse, anguish, concern or anything of that nature whatsoever. They are limited purely to interest and disinterest. This is fine. This is incredible, actually, as Demons are not supposed to be emotional and caring creatures.
The issue however is that with the current effects of the mind spells and their placement on a Demon, they inherit a completely undocumented, unwritten racial weakness that they have to abide to : The weakness that they are, by default EXTRA affected by all emotional spells cast upon them, much more than the other races, Blessed and otherwise.
There are plenty of benefits in RP that a emotion-capable character has in terms of story. They can love and care for one another, come to changes in their morality, form bonds of like and dislike, and even have enemies. As it stands, Demons cannot have any of this, not even true rivals. As I mentioned before, this is fine. Players willingly accept that their Demon character development is based on what their characters will be interested in or what their summoners will them to do, and that is exactly what they signed up for.
But if they cannot have such pros of these emotions willingly as a player, is it truly fair to be forced by others to have their characters undergo the pure negative of these spells, should a casting be successful? If so, should there be some trade-off for this?
A better example would be a race that is completely opposite to Fae coming in. Suppose they are blessed, it is a widespread race. They, however, have NO ability for magic. None at all. Their home just doesn't have magic, it doesn't exist. It isn't a part of their being. Should they then, from a logical standpoint, be assumed to have a dastardly STRONG weakness to magic? Perhaps, perhaps not, but if so, it should have the right balances again to make up for this.
My solutions are sorta' simple, and really there are a lot of options one can go about to fixing up the little emotional problem :
1. It becomes an official weakness. Demons, because they cannot comprehend emotions, they do not have them, it is simply not something they experience, will be EXTRA susceptible to emotional mind magic and receive the boosted effect of disorientation and overwhelming emotion. In return for this weakness, they receive an extra boost or resistance to something else to make up for this added official downfall. As the way it stands, this would be adding an OFFICIAL new weakness all current Demon players would have to agree to having at the expense of not being able to personally RP having emotions otherwise, and also gives IC knowledge to those knowing about Demons about how to further hunt them. After all, a disoriented Demon is an easy kill, and this is just another clue to single them out.
2. The effect is met in the middle. Demons will not experience any of the emotions, but will instead become INCREDIBLY interested in whatever target there is, perhaps drawing attention in a positive or negative way depending on the a dice roll. Positive as in distracted or stunned, Negative as in leaving the specific "Interest" to the Demon themselves. The reasoning behind this would be that tampering with the mind of something so out of this world has its risks.
3. Demons are not affected by the MAJORITY of Emotions. Nope, not at all. It will fly over their heads, because they simply do not have them to begin with. HOWEVER, Demons will choose one "Vice" that their psyche actively mimics on a daily basis. Most Demons have something of a bad habit, be it violence, laziness, whatever. For example, my Demon is Greedy. For food, for money, for power, whatever. His Vice will be Greed. For this particular spell they will be susceptible, increasing their pattern of behavior thrice fold, following the spell as anyone else would.
These makes sure that the original concept that Demons are NOT supposed to have human emotions, and aren't supposed to think like a mortal nor even be able to if they wanted to, is in line with the fact that these potentially mind-RUPTURING mind magics for a Demon exist. Remember, they can't RP any of the good parts of these emotions that anyone else can, Demons can't have real friends, Demons can't even hate anyone, so it doesn't make sense for anyone to have the ability to force them to unless there is a good reason for it. Demons behave based on interest and the directions of their summoner, but you can't force a dog to suddenly fly through the air like a plane just because it listens to your every command. They just don't have the parts to do so.
Of course, these are just suggestions! I don't completely know the intentions of Demons for Valesk, and I am always happy to be corrected. I got my own ideas and ideals obviously, as all of us do. They might not even be the most balanced, but that's why you guys are here, to bounce ideas and help everyone out when something comes up.
My main hope is that something is put up there so everyone knows what to do when their Demon PC is caste with an Instill anything spell, and that there are no needs for questions, discussions, or repeated conversations in the chats.
If you guys can come up with a cooler solution that is just as fair, perhaps with numbers of rollings, maybe even a boost to resolve against mind magics or whatever, that would be welcome with me, just as much as a reply explaining why they should have this weakness without any trade-off would be welcomed, should it somehow have some reasoning I was not yet enlightened to. Either way, I was pushed to write a suggestion thread for this, so I'm gonna do it!
Alleo!
Now, a while ago I inquired as to what would happen if a Demon, possessing no natural emotions and being normally unable to comprehend typical feelings such as love, hatred, anger, sadness and the so forth, was cast with an instill [Insert here] spell, the example I gave being love. I received a response that they would be overwhelmed with said emotion, have to experience it, and most likely be completely disoriented..
At first, I settled with this, but after some thought I came to the conclusion that there is a severe balancing issue in this idea that could come into play.
Demon characters, as it stands, have no ability to form any true sentiments for another individual. They cannot truly care about anyone, cannot feel remorse, anguish, concern or anything of that nature whatsoever. They are limited purely to interest and disinterest. This is fine. This is incredible, actually, as Demons are not supposed to be emotional and caring creatures.
The issue however is that with the current effects of the mind spells and their placement on a Demon, they inherit a completely undocumented, unwritten racial weakness that they have to abide to : The weakness that they are, by default EXTRA affected by all emotional spells cast upon them, much more than the other races, Blessed and otherwise.
There are plenty of benefits in RP that a emotion-capable character has in terms of story. They can love and care for one another, come to changes in their morality, form bonds of like and dislike, and even have enemies. As it stands, Demons cannot have any of this, not even true rivals. As I mentioned before, this is fine. Players willingly accept that their Demon character development is based on what their characters will be interested in or what their summoners will them to do, and that is exactly what they signed up for.
But if they cannot have such pros of these emotions willingly as a player, is it truly fair to be forced by others to have their characters undergo the pure negative of these spells, should a casting be successful? If so, should there be some trade-off for this?
A better example would be a race that is completely opposite to Fae coming in. Suppose they are blessed, it is a widespread race. They, however, have NO ability for magic. None at all. Their home just doesn't have magic, it doesn't exist. It isn't a part of their being. Should they then, from a logical standpoint, be assumed to have a dastardly STRONG weakness to magic? Perhaps, perhaps not, but if so, it should have the right balances again to make up for this.
My solutions are sorta' simple, and really there are a lot of options one can go about to fixing up the little emotional problem :
1. It becomes an official weakness. Demons, because they cannot comprehend emotions, they do not have them, it is simply not something they experience, will be EXTRA susceptible to emotional mind magic and receive the boosted effect of disorientation and overwhelming emotion. In return for this weakness, they receive an extra boost or resistance to something else to make up for this added official downfall. As the way it stands, this would be adding an OFFICIAL new weakness all current Demon players would have to agree to having at the expense of not being able to personally RP having emotions otherwise, and also gives IC knowledge to those knowing about Demons about how to further hunt them. After all, a disoriented Demon is an easy kill, and this is just another clue to single them out.
2. The effect is met in the middle. Demons will not experience any of the emotions, but will instead become INCREDIBLY interested in whatever target there is, perhaps drawing attention in a positive or negative way depending on the a dice roll. Positive as in distracted or stunned, Negative as in leaving the specific "Interest" to the Demon themselves. The reasoning behind this would be that tampering with the mind of something so out of this world has its risks.
3. Demons are not affected by the MAJORITY of Emotions. Nope, not at all. It will fly over their heads, because they simply do not have them to begin with. HOWEVER, Demons will choose one "Vice" that their psyche actively mimics on a daily basis. Most Demons have something of a bad habit, be it violence, laziness, whatever. For example, my Demon is Greedy. For food, for money, for power, whatever. His Vice will be Greed. For this particular spell they will be susceptible, increasing their pattern of behavior thrice fold, following the spell as anyone else would.
These makes sure that the original concept that Demons are NOT supposed to have human emotions, and aren't supposed to think like a mortal nor even be able to if they wanted to, is in line with the fact that these potentially mind-RUPTURING mind magics for a Demon exist. Remember, they can't RP any of the good parts of these emotions that anyone else can, Demons can't have real friends, Demons can't even hate anyone, so it doesn't make sense for anyone to have the ability to force them to unless there is a good reason for it. Demons behave based on interest and the directions of their summoner, but you can't force a dog to suddenly fly through the air like a plane just because it listens to your every command. They just don't have the parts to do so.
Of course, these are just suggestions! I don't completely know the intentions of Demons for Valesk, and I am always happy to be corrected. I got my own ideas and ideals obviously, as all of us do. They might not even be the most balanced, but that's why you guys are here, to bounce ideas and help everyone out when something comes up.
My main hope is that something is put up there so everyone knows what to do when their Demon PC is caste with an Instill anything spell, and that there are no needs for questions, discussions, or repeated conversations in the chats.
If you guys can come up with a cooler solution that is just as fair, perhaps with numbers of rollings, maybe even a boost to resolve against mind magics or whatever, that would be welcome with me, just as much as a reply explaining why they should have this weakness without any trade-off would be welcomed, should it somehow have some reasoning I was not yet enlightened to. Either way, I was pushed to write a suggestion thread for this, so I'm gonna do it!
Alleo!
