(Jason Corley) DOMINATING MALKAVIANS INTO SANITY: THE FAQ FOR JASON'S HOUSE RULES ================================================================== Since I've told a couple of people about these rules and they've said that they would read them if they got around to them sometime, I will bow to the frenzied public demand and post the house rules for dominating Malkavians into sanity, partially stolen from the LARP people down here in Tucson. WARNING: OVERSIMPLIFIED PSYCHOLOGY FOLLOWS. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE, GRAB A PSYCHOLOGY BOOK AND READ IT. DON'T BLAME ME. ================================================================= QUESTION ONE: Why would anyone want to do such a thing? Well, there are several reasons. You might feel sorry for them. You might not understand that it's part of them. More likely, you want some information that they have that they refuse to tell you or refuse to tell you in a way you understand. (I am notorious in my gaming group, in any game, for giving important information to NPCs who have no ability to communicate it to the characters.) It's also a good method of torture. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2. Torture? What do you mean? Hm. Think about this: what do you consider your most important intellectual possession? Are you friendly? Inquisitive? Outgoing? Conservative? Creative? This trait is central to your personality. Without it, you are not yourself---you are some other person. Identity is the most basic thing you have, and if someone trod into your brain and took it out, your identity would be taken away from you. For Malkavians, it's even worse---their identities result from their perceptions (the technical term is "apperception", the mental end of the physical process of perception.) of some reality that does not match up with "ordinary" reality. And given a choice, would you rather live in the World of Darkness or a world you made yourself? It hurts. A lot. ====================================================================== 3. OK, so you've convinced me. How do you do it? It depends on the Malkavian of course. For most of them, you just look them in the eye, get the old Piercing Gaze (tm) going and say "You are now sane." It acts just like a regular Dominate. Same roll, same difficulty. Now, for those for whom language is a closed book, some form of telepathy is in order, but whether you actually want to risk putting your mind into contact with theirs is another matter entirely. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 4. Can I Presence a Malkavian into being sane? Not really. Presence affects people's reactions to you---but Dominate puts reactions into people's heads. ====================================================================== 5. So what happens after I do it? Again, a lot depends on the Malkavian. If successful, they will take on a far more lucid mental state...for a while. How long it lasts depends on how much Willpower you wanted to pour into it. A good rule of thumb is 15-20 seconds per success for a non-Willpower spender and another minute for every point of Willpower on top of that. But in many instances, the Malkavian was lucid to begin with---just possessed of delusions and hallucinations. That's where things start to get a little strange. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6. What do you mean, strange? I think this whole idea is pretty strange. Consider: many psychological disorders cause delusions in the subject. These delusions fall into two categories: those that are contradicted by observable external reality, and those that are not. Now, given that you've just allowed external reality to be observed by the Malkavian (instead of observed---then liberally "interpreted"), it's no great leap to see that you've just done away with a tremendous batch of delusions. But unobservable delusions (such as "She's in love with me." or "The CIA is beaming mind control lasers at me from outer space."), just can't be contradicted by things the Malkavian observes. They may be more rational about thinking about them ("The CIA beaming lasers at me? How absurd!"), but they do not automatically go away. Of course, this is assuming it works at all. ===================================================================== 7. What do you mean "assuming it works at all."? I made my roll, didn't I? But you haven't done preventive brain surgery, have you? See, there are two chief types of insanity: psychological and organic. Psychological disorders result from personality dysfunction ("Somethings wrong with the way he thinks.") Organic disorders result from the way the neurons in the brain are wired up (wrong). You can't Dominate someone out of organic disorders. Now, I can see the slavering herds of munchkin Malkavian players at my door (uhh...both of them) and they say "Hey! This is great! You mean we can't be dominated if we take organic disorders as Derangements?" No. You just can't be Dominated into not having them. "Oh, but still...why would we want to take Psychological disorders then?" It's very simple: organic disorders are, by and large, much more frightening and terrible, because there's no way anyone can stop them, especially not the victim. Organic disorders are extremely vicious. You want them in my game, you gotta prove to me you can play them well. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 8. Will you stop talking to them and pay attention to me? I Dominated the Malkavian into sanity and he spent the whole time insulting me and telling me what an idiot I was. Why? Inside every ordinary person there is a lunatic waiting to get out. For Malkavians, the situation is reversed. If you've treated them nicely, or tried to play along without being condescending, the ordinary person that you release when you Dominate them is going to be much more friendly to you than otherwise. Of course, you also have to remember the intense pain they're going through at that time, too---and the fact that you're responsible for it. ================================================================== 9. So it's useless then? I'll just say that it's a lot more useful if you're willing to spend Willpower on it, and even more useful if you have someone else ready to Presence the guy into calming down. Also if you have them in restraints, that helps too. Drugs are also good.