[UA] Compulsion and PCs

[Katie and Saul]

I am a little worried about the use magical compulsion or other
mind-affecting spells against PCs. Many of the adept schools and archetypes
have spells or channels that compel the target to perform (or restrain from
performing) certain actions or behaviours, or mess with their mind in some
other way. The spells are written from the point of view of the caster,
which is all very well if the adept or avatar is a PC using them on GMCs,
but what about the other way around?

Is it fair to simply say to the player "your character is suddenly and
inexplicably obsessed with such-an-such, and you must try to seek her out
regardless of your other plans." (The Amoromancy spell 'You're My
Obsession') or "your character now believes such-an-such, no matter how
illogical it may seem to you". Is there a more subtle way to go about
running these kinds of effects, or is it just a matter of the player
accepting that they must play their PC in a certain manner for the duration
of the spell (or else suffer self checks or even have the GM take it over).

A related question: A few of these kinds of spells say they can be resisted
with a Self check-- if this check is failed, does the spell take effect
normally, or do they simply suffer the usual Madness check failure
consequences (fight, freeze or flee)?

Saul


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