I have a question regarding the brainer.
How is the In-Brain Puppet Strings move supposed to work?
Do you override their will by inputting a command?
I’m asking because in my group there’s a brainer that decided to use the move on a particularly “slow” npc. When he succeded, he announced that the guy was going to protect him, which is fine. What isn’t that much to me is that he kind of “mindfucked” him and now he’s docile and follows pretty much the Brainer everywere without questioning, since it’s not life threatening.
I figured it would be more like “you have to do this, if you don’t, I’ll fry your brain” type of collaboration. What’s your input on this?
So… now you’re Brainer has a NPC he might happen to rely upon? I’d say it’s another weapon in your hand, so I would allow this.
You have to do this or I’ll fry your brain is how it works if I remember correctly.
What command did the Brainer give? A simple “protect me” or were there specifics, like “protect me from [x]”?
If there weren’t any specifics, which is how it sounds, I would say the NPC has fulfilled the implanted command the first time they intentionally do something to protect the Brainer. The MC shouldn’t cheat the Brainer out of the effect (“I protected you from stubbing your toe.”) but the Brainer shouldn’t minimize things the NPC does to keep them around indefinitely.
Also, the MC should play the NPC as a real person. If the NPC is slow, do they understand what happened? Do they realize that the Brainer has some power over them, and so looks for opportunities to fulfill the command? Or are they oblivious to what happened, forcing the Brainer to use some of that hold to bring them back in line.
The move is purposely vague, but if the command is to protect the brainer, then the move is over as soon as the npc has protected the brainer. The move does not alter the personality of the victim directly, but then again the guy could just be cowed by the experience of having the brainer get direct access to his pain receptors. You can also decide that there is something else weird driving the npc. Afterall, the world psychic maelstrom can fuck with quite a lot.
Actually, it works like this. The Brainer rolls and if successful ends up with some Hold, which can be spent to cause 1 harm or give the NPC a -1. The Brainer also issues a command like “protect me.” If the NPC protects the Brainer even once, all the hold is spent and the Brainer has no more sway over the NPC.
So, you don’t have to make the NPC a docile lapdog unless you want to. You don’t have to protect the Brainer, but the Brainer can spend hold to cause you harm/penalties until their Hold is gone.
I’d also say this seems rife with opportunities for hard moves that disrupt the status quo. If they’re relying heavily on that npc and you’ve not pushed back on limiting the move to one occasion then kill the npc. Or if he’s slow, have an enemy figure out what’s going on and manipulate the npc, either directly by making him mad about the strings or indirectly by making the npc think he’s protecting the pc but is really doing the wrong thing.
I think the initial question has already been adequately answered but I just wanted to add this thought to what Andrew Dacey said about hard moves. Remember that what the Brainer does is not especially subtle; if you want to manipulate someone without them realizing you play the Skinner, not the Brainer. Items like the Violation Glove are generally meant to be obvious, not something they can hide and sneakily use.
So, the Brainer can manipulate people into doing what they want, sure, and as long as they have hold over them they can threaten them and get them to obey and all that, but as soon as that hold is gone there need to be consequences. At best the victim(s) should be awkward/nervous around the Brainer, at worst the victims should be outright hostile towards them afterwards. This lets the Brainer’s moves be powerful but creates the potential for lots of trouble to come afterwards.
At least, that’s how I play.
Interesting inputs from all of you, thanks. I’ll have a talk with my MC about this 🙂