Alexander Shearer wrote: As written, the demons seem like they'll be spending a notable portion of their time corrupting people, and they'll do it with ease. The former is logical, the latter is what gets me. I could see playing a demon who convinces a person to listen to their worse judgement...but IN demons don't seem to operate that way. They don't need to have the human's help to get them doing bad stuff.
Part of that may just be a mechanical thing.
I tend to agree with you that demons should be portrayed as tempting rather than forcing behavior; however, it may be that the reason demons *appear* to force behavior is that the humans they deal with tend to be NPCs. That resistance roll on Will represents the human's attempt to resist the demon. If the human loses, he/she gives in. It's not mind control; the human does have to cooperate (says so even in the description of Shedim). However, the decision to cooperate or not to cooperate is modeled by the Will roll.
Now, humans in IN *do* tend to have pretty low Wills, so your point is still valid. It's really easy for a demon to work its will on just about any human, even one described as otherwise saintly. (Not Saintly, just saintly.) In many other games using a similar "willpower" mechanic, bonuses and penalties are given depending on the character's established personality traits. (In GURPS, for example, this is formalized with the advantage/disadvantage system.) Since IN doesn't have such a system (Discord is much less common than GURPS disads, and there are no corresponding virtuous traits to represent behavior patterns that harmonize well with the larger Symphony), we'll have to adapt the generic difficulty modifiers. Just knock the human's Will up a notch or two if the demon is trying to feed him a lie/emotion/Geas/foul deed/charming line that just isn't in line with the person's basic personality and past behavior; conversely, you could penalize Will if the person is particularly prone to go along with the demon's suggestion (especially if the human actually has developed an appropriate Discord).
Stacy Stroud
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