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<blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8856788" data-attributes="member: 6785785"><p><u>Dictator</u></p><p></p><p>The Dictator is a kind of nightmare bard. They influence people with their Voice. When you create your character, you have to select one of eight emotions that you can influence: Ecstasy, Admiration, Terror, Amazement, Grief, Loathing, Rage, and Vigilance. You also have to craft some telltale sign that you are using your power (there are some suggestions to inspire). You can use your Voice to control people, or to attack them.</p><p></p><p>It’s interesting that this class is described first because it is one of the more complex ones, perhaps the most complex. It’s also suggested that during character creation, there should be a discussion about whether the Dictator can use the Voice on other PCs. The default assumption is that the Dictator can use the voice to attack other PCs, but not to control them. It’s up to each table to decide how they want to handle this.</p><p></p><p>When attempting to use the Voice, you roll a Charisma dice pool, plus the Dictator’s d4. However, this roll is calculated differently. The d4 indicates the number of successes you get. Then, any successes from the d6s can adjust the total up or down accordingly. The higher the number of successes, the stronger the emotion is felt by the target. There are 6 degrees, and if you get high enough to equal or exceed the Target’s Willpower score, then they submit entirely to the compulsion. If you were attacking them instead, they either die or are incapacitated, at your whim.</p><p></p><p>If you don’t exceed the Target’s Willpower score, each degree gives a Disadvantage (-1d6) to any action taken against the compulsion. If you instead attack them with the Voice, they would suffer a Disadvantage on any attacks for each level of the emotion. Targets can spend their action attempting a Wisdom roll to resist, with a Difficulty equal to half the level of the emotion, rounded down.</p><p></p><p>When you’ve used the Voice on a character, you pass your d4 to that player. In order to use the Voice again, you must reclaim the d4, which you can do instantly, but that frees the previous target from your compulsion. You can attempt to affect more than one target, but doing so removes a Success from your roll for each additional target.</p><p></p><p>One risk whenever you do this is that if you roll a Critical Failure when you use the voice (meaning the d6s show no successes, and at least one of them shows a 1) then you cannot remove the emotion from the Target. You’ve permanently broken someone.</p><p></p><p>There is also a more subtle use of the Dictator’s d4. Without using the voice, if subtle manipulation is at play, the Dictator can include the d4 as part of the dice pool. In this case, the number on the d4 can be added to any one d6.</p><p></p><p>This Paragon is all about removing agency from others. It examines through play what that would actually mean, and the impact it would have on people. There are recommendations throughout to discuss consent and how this class should work in play, and to revisit this regularly throughout play.</p><p></p><p>As the Dictator advances, they get to add new emotions to their repertoire. They become reviled by many due to their controlling nature, but they also may acquire henchmen and followers along the way. They can manifest the monster within and alter their form much like a werewolf or a vampire, gaining some physical benefits. They can learn to influence larger groups of people. They ultimately can take control of one of the realms of the world of Die entirely.</p><p></p><p>At level 4, “Live at the Witch Trials” happens. This means that their reputation as a Dictator has become strong enough that there is a bounty on their head, and hunters that are seeking that bounty. You must decide why you are hunted (simply being a Dictator is enough, but you can be more specific) and you also have to determine why you are still alive. Are you protected by a powerful patron? Are you the member of some guild that protects you? Something else? What does this protection cost? These choices will give the GM some material to work with to make your life complicated.</p><p></p><p>The Dictator is interesting for sure. The comic focused heavily on the Dictator character, and I can see how one could lend itself to a primary character. They’re certainly not the most straightforward character, but use of the Voice can be potent with a creative player. You’d probably need to consider what players may be (or maybe more importantly, may not be) suited to play this class. They potentially hold a lot of power in the game world, and a lot of possibility to steer the narrative. Having a player who realizes that and can manage it is important.</p><p></p><p>From a more technical standpoint, I’d almost have liked one of the other Paragons to be described first, but that’s a minor quibble. One other complaint, and this is throughout; some of the special abilities you gain with an advance allow you to pick from a list of options. Those abilities and the options they allow don’t have much differentiation in the text, and so it can be easy to miss that you’re looking at a specific ability or one that’s meant to be selected from a list. Again, minor quibble, but a quick fix like underlining the main choices and not the options would have fixed it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="hawkeyefan, post: 8856788, member: 6785785"] [U]Dictator[/U] The Dictator is a kind of nightmare bard. They influence people with their Voice. When you create your character, you have to select one of eight emotions that you can influence: Ecstasy, Admiration, Terror, Amazement, Grief, Loathing, Rage, and Vigilance. You also have to craft some telltale sign that you are using your power (there are some suggestions to inspire). You can use your Voice to control people, or to attack them. It’s interesting that this class is described first because it is one of the more complex ones, perhaps the most complex. It’s also suggested that during character creation, there should be a discussion about whether the Dictator can use the Voice on other PCs. The default assumption is that the Dictator can use the voice to attack other PCs, but not to control them. It’s up to each table to decide how they want to handle this. When attempting to use the Voice, you roll a Charisma dice pool, plus the Dictator’s d4. However, this roll is calculated differently. The d4 indicates the number of successes you get. Then, any successes from the d6s can adjust the total up or down accordingly. The higher the number of successes, the stronger the emotion is felt by the target. There are 6 degrees, and if you get high enough to equal or exceed the Target’s Willpower score, then they submit entirely to the compulsion. If you were attacking them instead, they either die or are incapacitated, at your whim. If you don’t exceed the Target’s Willpower score, each degree gives a Disadvantage (-1d6) to any action taken against the compulsion. If you instead attack them with the Voice, they would suffer a Disadvantage on any attacks for each level of the emotion. Targets can spend their action attempting a Wisdom roll to resist, with a Difficulty equal to half the level of the emotion, rounded down. When you’ve used the Voice on a character, you pass your d4 to that player. In order to use the Voice again, you must reclaim the d4, which you can do instantly, but that frees the previous target from your compulsion. You can attempt to affect more than one target, but doing so removes a Success from your roll for each additional target. One risk whenever you do this is that if you roll a Critical Failure when you use the voice (meaning the d6s show no successes, and at least one of them shows a 1) then you cannot remove the emotion from the Target. You’ve permanently broken someone. There is also a more subtle use of the Dictator’s d4. Without using the voice, if subtle manipulation is at play, the Dictator can include the d4 as part of the dice pool. In this case, the number on the d4 can be added to any one d6. This Paragon is all about removing agency from others. It examines through play what that would actually mean, and the impact it would have on people. There are recommendations throughout to discuss consent and how this class should work in play, and to revisit this regularly throughout play. As the Dictator advances, they get to add new emotions to their repertoire. They become reviled by many due to their controlling nature, but they also may acquire henchmen and followers along the way. They can manifest the monster within and alter their form much like a werewolf or a vampire, gaining some physical benefits. They can learn to influence larger groups of people. They ultimately can take control of one of the realms of the world of Die entirely. At level 4, “Live at the Witch Trials” happens. This means that their reputation as a Dictator has become strong enough that there is a bounty on their head, and hunters that are seeking that bounty. You must decide why you are hunted (simply being a Dictator is enough, but you can be more specific) and you also have to determine why you are still alive. Are you protected by a powerful patron? Are you the member of some guild that protects you? Something else? What does this protection cost? These choices will give the GM some material to work with to make your life complicated. The Dictator is interesting for sure. The comic focused heavily on the Dictator character, and I can see how one could lend itself to a primary character. They’re certainly not the most straightforward character, but use of the Voice can be potent with a creative player. You’d probably need to consider what players may be (or maybe more importantly, may not be) suited to play this class. They potentially hold a lot of power in the game world, and a lot of possibility to steer the narrative. Having a player who realizes that and can manage it is important. From a more technical standpoint, I’d almost have liked one of the other Paragons to be described first, but that’s a minor quibble. One other complaint, and this is throughout; some of the special abilities you gain with an advance allow you to pick from a list of options. Those abilities and the options they allow don’t have much differentiation in the text, and so it can be easy to miss that you’re looking at a specific ability or one that’s meant to be selected from a list. Again, minor quibble, but a quick fix like underlining the main choices and not the options would have fixed it. [/QUOTE]
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