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ShortQuests -- Pocket Sized Adventures! An all-new collection of digest-sized D&D adventures designed for 1-2 game sessions.

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="bsss" data-source="post: 9872704" data-attributes="member: 7054302">I think losing control of your character is not to be taken lightly in any context. Even within those contexts, it should be very clearly bound. Here's some relevant 13th Age 2E text for classic "mind control" conditions, as an example:Charmed isn't even a risk of losing control per se, more just a constraint. Confused is, but it's very heavily constrained --- no burning good attacks, no dealing tons of damage, should only last a turn against PCs, and not deployed often (three times that I can see in the core book, more in older books, but the 2E rules explicitly recommend toning it down if you see it in a 1E book).Point is, I agree, I think defined abilities with mechanical effects should be mostly completely agreeable, and they don't have to be "magic". At least one creature I ran into with a confuse attack produces hallucinogenic spores, that doesn't seem at all out of line to me. The more tightly defined those mechanics are, the better the chances of avoiding conflict or debate about overreach or railroading or whatever.Also worth distinguishing, I think, is that losing control of the situation is maybe a bit more open-ended but allowable, as long as it's open-ended in both directions, action and reaction. Diplomacy failed because of roleplaying and/or mechanics, the PC's vices are triggered because of roleplaying and/or mechanics, whatever. A system that accounts for those kinds of failures and encodes them in the rules of the game ought to present that as "the situation has changed: deal with it how you will", even if not everyone needs to use the mechanics all the time to lose control of the situation. It's this belief that draws out some of my ideas like "okay, you failed that, some later diplomacy is going to be at a penalty" (again, with mechanics or not).EDIT: I forgot to point it out, but those two effects from 13A are clearly only relevant in combat. There are no specific "diplomacy x loss of control" or "vice x loss of control" or so on rules in it.</blockquote>

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