Idea for a mind control RPG system
This is a topic that gets brought up every once in a while. Because MC is unbalanced by design, I suppose it's just about impossible to create a hypnosis-based RPG that's both fun and fair.
But after a bit of tinkering, I believe I've come up with a system that's easy and balanced enough to play. Please tell me what you think!
h1. Characters
All characters belong to one of two classes: doms or subs (uninspired, I know!).
At level 1, dom characters will have a certain number of induction dice, a trance deck (structured accordingly to their MC powers) and a plot objective of their choosing. In a fantasy setting, this might be to recover the ancient artifact of kinky power no. 362, while a sci-fi dom might aim to take control of a spaceship and sex up its crew.
Meanwhile, level 1 subs have a certain number of resistance dice, a fetish deck and a list of fetishes, which function as the weaknesses of a given sub's mind. Each fetish is assigned a score, representing how susceptible the character is to that particular kink. Finally, every sub has a resistance point target. We'll get to it later.
h1. "Combat"
In a mind control RPG, players taking turns at brainwashing each other's characters obviously takes center stage. So, I tried to come up with a system that would allow for doms to gradually impose their will on the subs, and for the subs to slowly free themselves from the doms' influence. Here's what I thought of.
h2. The first turn
At the beginning of 'combat', the dom and the sub draw 5 cards from their respective decks, and discard 2. The sub always begins by playing one of her 3 fetish cards. These allow her to pick one or more fetishes from her list, and compel the dom to create a scenario where she uses those fetishes to hypnotize the sub.
A practical example: Princess Innocence (sub) plays a card that lets her pick two fetishes from her list. She chooses 'shoes' and 'pendulums'. Evilena, the Witch (dom) ponders for a bit, before slipping off her shoe. She brings it up to the Princess's eyes and swings it gently before her face. Back and forth, back and forth... back and... zzzzz...
h2. The first turn 2: electric boogaloo
Huh?! Sorry, where was I? Ah, yes! Now it's time to roll some dice. The sub will roll one of her resistance dice, while the dom can choose to either go soft (play one of her induction dice), go hard (play two dice and take the higher roll), or hold out (don't play any dice, equivalent to rolling 0).
As long as the dom's roll is equal to or greater than the sub's roll, the induction has been successful and the dom may play one of her trance cards. This will allow her to implant a suggestion, a trigger, some kind of programming on the sub's mind. Should the sub roll higher, she will trigger the effect of her fetish card (if it has any) and gain resistance points equal to the sum of the scores of any fetishes she picked along with the card.
Sound complicated? Here's another example: last we saw her, Princess Innocence had been left to stare, transfixed, on Evilena's shoe. But now it's time to see if the witch's ploy paid off - the princess rolls one of the resistance dice (let's say, a d6) and rolls a 5. Evilena decides it's best to go hard on her victim - she swings her shoe ever more insistently, puts on her best hypnotist voice and rolls two induction dice.
Blast! She rolled a 2 and a 4. Princess Innocence wins this one! She blinks awake and looks away from Evilena's makeshift pendulum. Since her shoe fetish was worth 3 points and the pendulum one was worth 2 points on her list, she gains 5 resistance points. Furthermore, the card she played let her regain one resistance dice should she win the roll. Princess Innocence FTW!
h2. The second turn and onwards
The mental chess continues. But now, the sub has a few more choices. She can resist, which means she won't be able to draw a card this turn but, on the other hand, the next time the dom rolls, she will roll twice and take the lower result;
She can let go, drawing one more card at the expense of having the dom roll twice and take the higher result on the next roll; or she can choose to submit, which lets her draw two more cards and also play two fetish cards in one turn, at the cost of letting the dom play one of trance cards right away.
Let's see how this works: wary from her close encounter with a hypnotic shoe, Princess Innocence decides to resist. She draws no card this turn, but that's okay 'cause she still has some left in her hand. In fact, she decides to risk it and plays a card that lets her pick THREE fetishes from her list - she picks 'shoes', 'spirals' and 'bimbos'.
Evilena scratches her head, before removing her other shoe. This time, she fits it over the princess's eyes like a visor - within seconds, a magical spiral appears inside the shoe and Princess Innocence begins to feel a bit... ditzy, teehee! Time to roll.
The princess throws forth her d6 and receives a whopping 2 in return. So much for resisting. Evilena decides to go soft - going hard would negate the princess's decision to resist, but it would also cost her two induction dice. She rolls a 2 and 3. Just enough to put the Princess under her spell!
Evilena plays one of her trance cards, which lets her add or remove one memory from the sub's mind. She figures it wouldn't be good if the Princess knew her most trusted friend Evilena was playing around with her mind - so she commands her to forget anything related to this little hypnosis session.
h2. But when does it end?
Combat will end when either character runs out of dice. If the sub runs out of dice first, then the dom can play a free trance card at the end. If the dom runs out of dice, instead, the sub gets to remove one bit of the dom's programming.
h1. Leveling up
"Okay, so that's the combat. But now, how can I make my character better?" you ask. Simple - if you're a dom, accomplish your goal. Or rather, implant suggestions into your sub, so they will accomplish your goal for you. Once that happens, you automagically gain a level. You will get one more induction die, you get to add one trance card to your deck, and you become a lot sexier too. Oh, and you set a new objective for your character!
If you're a sub, on the other hand, you level up when you hit your resistance point target. Remember me talking about it? Yeah, so you accrue resistance points when you battle your dom, and you can eventually use them to advance your character. Now, sub leveling is a bit more complex...
First off, the sub gains a new resistance die, a new fetish card, and gets to add one more point to their fetish list. But then, you also gain two induction dice and two trance cards. That's right, you also get to hypnotize people now! Yay. And what's more, you get to hypnotize *your* dom. She will gain one resistance die and one fetish card, allowing you to finally turn the tables on her. That bitch! Or, hum... dog. Man. Whatever. Let's keep going!
h1. Overall gameplay
A standard campaign with this system should proceed as a kind of hypnotic arms race between the doms and the subs, as these quickly acquire MC powers of their own. If a sub has more induction dice than her dom, she can try to assert dominance over her - leading them to swap classes. This will lead to a constantly shifting equilibrium, as the two characters oscillate between classes with different leveling rates.
Not only that, but dom goals will become more and more ambitious, make them harder to accomplish without giving the sub too many resistance points. Throw a few events to spice things up, equipment which gives characters special cards and/or extra dice, and you pretty much have the basis for your game. I leave it to the GMs to figure out how you can integrate this system into other RPGs.
Thank you for sticking around to read this! Please tell me if you consider this system practical, if you think it would make for a fun game and, if not, what you found boring or complicated in it. Ciao! ^_^
But after a bit of tinkering, I believe I've come up with a system that's easy and balanced enough to play. Please tell me what you think!
h1. Characters
All characters belong to one of two classes: doms or subs (uninspired, I know!).
At level 1, dom characters will have a certain number of induction dice, a trance deck (structured accordingly to their MC powers) and a plot objective of their choosing. In a fantasy setting, this might be to recover the ancient artifact of kinky power no. 362, while a sci-fi dom might aim to take control of a spaceship and sex up its crew.
Meanwhile, level 1 subs have a certain number of resistance dice, a fetish deck and a list of fetishes, which function as the weaknesses of a given sub's mind. Each fetish is assigned a score, representing how susceptible the character is to that particular kink. Finally, every sub has a resistance point target. We'll get to it later.
h1. "Combat"
In a mind control RPG, players taking turns at brainwashing each other's characters obviously takes center stage. So, I tried to come up with a system that would allow for doms to gradually impose their will on the subs, and for the subs to slowly free themselves from the doms' influence. Here's what I thought of.
h2. The first turn
At the beginning of 'combat', the dom and the sub draw 5 cards from their respective decks, and discard 2. The sub always begins by playing one of her 3 fetish cards. These allow her to pick one or more fetishes from her list, and compel the dom to create a scenario where she uses those fetishes to hypnotize the sub.
A practical example: Princess Innocence (sub) plays a card that lets her pick two fetishes from her list. She chooses 'shoes' and 'pendulums'. Evilena, the Witch (dom) ponders for a bit, before slipping off her shoe. She brings it up to the Princess's eyes and swings it gently before her face. Back and forth, back and forth... back and... zzzzz...
h2. The first turn 2: electric boogaloo
Huh?! Sorry, where was I? Ah, yes! Now it's time to roll some dice. The sub will roll one of her resistance dice, while the dom can choose to either go soft (play one of her induction dice), go hard (play two dice and take the higher roll), or hold out (don't play any dice, equivalent to rolling 0).
As long as the dom's roll is equal to or greater than the sub's roll, the induction has been successful and the dom may play one of her trance cards. This will allow her to implant a suggestion, a trigger, some kind of programming on the sub's mind. Should the sub roll higher, she will trigger the effect of her fetish card (if it has any) and gain resistance points equal to the sum of the scores of any fetishes she picked along with the card.
Sound complicated? Here's another example: last we saw her, Princess Innocence had been left to stare, transfixed, on Evilena's shoe. But now it's time to see if the witch's ploy paid off - the princess rolls one of the resistance dice (let's say, a d6) and rolls a 5. Evilena decides it's best to go hard on her victim - she swings her shoe ever more insistently, puts on her best hypnotist voice and rolls two induction dice.
Blast! She rolled a 2 and a 4. Princess Innocence wins this one! She blinks awake and looks away from Evilena's makeshift pendulum. Since her shoe fetish was worth 3 points and the pendulum one was worth 2 points on her list, she gains 5 resistance points. Furthermore, the card she played let her regain one resistance dice should she win the roll. Princess Innocence FTW!
h2. The second turn and onwards
The mental chess continues. But now, the sub has a few more choices. She can resist, which means she won't be able to draw a card this turn but, on the other hand, the next time the dom rolls, she will roll twice and take the lower result;
She can let go, drawing one more card at the expense of having the dom roll twice and take the higher result on the next roll; or she can choose to submit, which lets her draw two more cards and also play two fetish cards in one turn, at the cost of letting the dom play one of trance cards right away.
Let's see how this works: wary from her close encounter with a hypnotic shoe, Princess Innocence decides to resist. She draws no card this turn, but that's okay 'cause she still has some left in her hand. In fact, she decides to risk it and plays a card that lets her pick THREE fetishes from her list - she picks 'shoes', 'spirals' and 'bimbos'.
Evilena scratches her head, before removing her other shoe. This time, she fits it over the princess's eyes like a visor - within seconds, a magical spiral appears inside the shoe and Princess Innocence begins to feel a bit... ditzy, teehee! Time to roll.
The princess throws forth her d6 and receives a whopping 2 in return. So much for resisting. Evilena decides to go soft - going hard would negate the princess's decision to resist, but it would also cost her two induction dice. She rolls a 2 and 3. Just enough to put the Princess under her spell!
Evilena plays one of her trance cards, which lets her add or remove one memory from the sub's mind. She figures it wouldn't be good if the Princess knew her most trusted friend Evilena was playing around with her mind - so she commands her to forget anything related to this little hypnosis session.
h2. But when does it end?
Combat will end when either character runs out of dice. If the sub runs out of dice first, then the dom can play a free trance card at the end. If the dom runs out of dice, instead, the sub gets to remove one bit of the dom's programming.
h1. Leveling up
"Okay, so that's the combat. But now, how can I make my character better?" you ask. Simple - if you're a dom, accomplish your goal. Or rather, implant suggestions into your sub, so they will accomplish your goal for you. Once that happens, you automagically gain a level. You will get one more induction die, you get to add one trance card to your deck, and you become a lot sexier too. Oh, and you set a new objective for your character!
If you're a sub, on the other hand, you level up when you hit your resistance point target. Remember me talking about it? Yeah, so you accrue resistance points when you battle your dom, and you can eventually use them to advance your character. Now, sub leveling is a bit more complex...
First off, the sub gains a new resistance die, a new fetish card, and gets to add one more point to their fetish list. But then, you also gain two induction dice and two trance cards. That's right, you also get to hypnotize people now! Yay. And what's more, you get to hypnotize *your* dom. She will gain one resistance die and one fetish card, allowing you to finally turn the tables on her. That bitch! Or, hum... dog. Man. Whatever. Let's keep going!
h1. Overall gameplay
A standard campaign with this system should proceed as a kind of hypnotic arms race between the doms and the subs, as these quickly acquire MC powers of their own. If a sub has more induction dice than her dom, she can try to assert dominance over her - leading them to swap classes. This will lead to a constantly shifting equilibrium, as the two characters oscillate between classes with different leveling rates.
Not only that, but dom goals will become more and more ambitious, make them harder to accomplish without giving the sub too many resistance points. Throw a few events to spice things up, equipment which gives characters special cards and/or extra dice, and you pretty much have the basis for your game. I leave it to the GMs to figure out how you can integrate this system into other RPGs.
Thank you for sticking around to read this! Please tell me if you consider this system practical, if you think it would make for a fun game and, if not, what you found boring or complicated in it. Ciao! ^_^
