NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 9550176" data-attributes="member: 4937">[USER=7031982]@Bill Zebub[/USER] I think there is a general agreement that "magic" is by being rare a specific exception to the general rule that a player always has agency over their character's decisions.I also think that there is widespread agreement that even though mind control magic exists, you don't use it for anything that could be considered repulsive and even if you could use that as an excuse to puppeteer a player, it's best to avoid ever doing that.In my own game, if mind control occurs it generally is passed as a note to players with a stipulation like, "You now want to protect the fairy as best as you are able." or "You feel the need to get out of this situation right now."  The idea is to leave to the players to act out the character impulse in a way they think their customer would act on that impulse.  This relies on me of course having high trust in the player to do so in a reasonable manner and not immediately try to subvert the impulse, but it seems to work when playing with friends.But if I wasn't playing with friends, I'd probably just avoid mind control magic entirely.  Even magical fear has proved problematic with groups not familiar with me.I will also say that in my homebrew magical charms and compulsions are considered in the classes of morally abhorrent magic that aren't acceptable - witchcraft if you will.  Merely casting "Charm Person" is considered such a drastic act that if caught you will be tried and burned at the stake.  It's considered a generally a crime as vile as sexual assault even if it isn't used for something that vile.  Even so much as proof you know the spell could be considered proof of guilt.  My impression is that most players are very glib about using magic to take away the consent of another sentient being and don't consider the moral implications there of in a way I think beings in a universe were that was possible would consider it and find it horrifying.  This shows up even in popular media, such as Obi Wan Kenobi saying "These aren't the droids we are looking for", would by most observers from my homebrew world be considered a bit repulsive, but justifiable given that it seemed the only way to protect innocent life at that time - no "dark side point" if you will.  But the case in the prequels where he does it casually and it is played for laughs, "You don't want to sell me death sticks..." or Qui-Gon-Jinn attempting to use it to con a businessman out of his wage, those made me squirm and in the context of my homebrew would have been acts that were at best questionable and at worst deplorable evil.  The extremis was not so great as to justify violating mental consent and using a compulsion.  Likewise, monsters that rely on compulsion are considered things of absolute horror and are often hunted and killed without mercy.  Even dryads and hamadryads, which are of the natural world, aren't treated as cute or attractive, but as things of terror greatly to be feared and avoided.  Go to sleep, tree.  Be a tree.  Please don't do us harm.  Wood cutters literally scarify their faces to avoid the attention of the trees.  Nothing funny about it.</blockquote>

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