Influence

You are a natural people person—whether people like it or not. You can’t control minds outright, but you can make them malleable.

Basic Influence: You can use Rapport to attack, defended against with Will. If you succeed against a nameless NPC, you may give them a task, which they will then attempt to fulfill. Against a named NPC or a PC, they may follow your order or take mental stress from the attack, their choice. Anyone you give a task to will try their best to accomplish it until they succeed or the scene ends, whichever comes first. The tasks you assign are short-term objectives, such as “Give me that gun,” or “Go away.” Because even the weakest-willed are driven by self-preservation, you cannot force someone to directly harm themself or put themself in an inevitably fatal position, such as jumping off a building, but you can force them to take riskier actions than they would like to.

Enhancements

Master Influence: You are very convincing. Gain +2 to Rapport when using your power.

Overwhelming Voice: If you would inflict mental stress on someone using your power, you may instead inflict a mild consequence, if your target does not already have one.

Convincing: Because people tend to believe what you say, you gain +2 to Deceive when lying to someone.

Familiar Presence: Your power makes you seem vaguely familiar to everyone. As a result, as long as you don’t interact with them directly, security guards and other official personnel will assume that you have the right to be wherever you are, and won’t demand ID. If you draw attention to yourself, or are forced to speak to personnel—for instance, because they are guarding a door you are trying to go through—the effect will wear off.

Common Power Synergies

Telepathy: Your power already lets you rewire someone’s brain. Might as well pick up some information while you’re there.

Drawbacks

• Something about always being able to get everything you want has left you, well, a little dead inside. You have No Empathy.
• While you can direct your power, you can’t turn it off. You have an incessant aura of likability, so you always wind up Surrounded by Admirers.

Collateral Damage Effects

“DIE!”: Normally your orders are limited to things your target might be willing to do, but if you’re mad enough, you can instruct an entire zone to just die. Nameless NPCs are taken out instantly, while named NPCs and PCs must use Will to successfully overcome a Fair (+2) obstacle or take a moderate physical consequence as their own body tears itself apart.

Puppetry: You can attempt to control someone else’s body entirely. They can still take actions in a conflict as normal, but on your turn you may either take an action yourself or have your target take an action. You cannot make someone attack themself or cause themself purposeful harm—for instance, by leaping off a rooftop when they can’t fly—but you can have them target their allies and move into disadvantageous positions. Collateral damage tends to stem from the imperfect control you have over their body, or the psychological damage you cause to the both of you.