This was something I was thinking about for a hot minute, especially since this sparked a semi-heated discussion in a chatroom I lurk in, and I wanted to know what everyone here thought about it.
From a narrative and mechanical perspective, what do you guys think about using the advancement “Someone permanently loses Influence over you;
add +1 to a Label” when it’s used against other PCs?
Example;
Alchemy, the Transformed, levels up and takes the advancement, permanently removing influence from their team mate Valkyrie, the Star.
[Edit: should’ve probably clarified that this isn’t something I’m planning to do myself, so this isn’t a “should I? shouldn’t I?” Question. This is just a “What are your guys’ personal opinions about it?” Sort of deal. Still cool to already see 2 different responses already!]
It works just fine.
Remember that removing Influence permanently doesn’t mean that you don’t care what they think. It means you hold to yourself in the face of their opinions. Their opinions about you or the world don’t cause you to emotionally pingpong around.
Interestingly, it also means they can’t be as an effective team leader over you…
Vicious, extremely interesting, and probably a bad move! No more +1s when they try to defend you, or comfort you, they can’t give you pep talks to shift your labels anymore, and if it’s the Team Leader who is targeted by this then it denies everyone a bonus Team Point from then on.
But hey, if things have really gotten that bad on the team, then hell yeah, do it.
I don’t agree that it’s vicious – there really is nothing healthy about the way Influence works. You’re just growing up!
You’re not required to agree, it’s all good 🙂
It’s definitely got its downsides.
A little bit of Column A and a little bit of Column B. I agree with Jason Corley that the way influence works is unhealthy. Growing up means being effected by it less and it definitely isn’t mean to stop allowing your friends to change who you are according to their whims or moods. However, it IS pretty much a cornerstone of the game, so from a purely OOC Player to Player basis it could definitely be uncool as Alfred Rudzki Hitchcock suggests.
For me personally, when IC needs and OOC needs butt heads, I go with OOC. “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” “The needs of the game outweigh the needs of the roleplay”. You should be able to adapt your rp. However, I do think it is possible someone could be OOCly bothered by influence being used on their character. (I know it bothers me a lot. It makes me instantly upset. Altering my character without permission borders on X-card territory) If that’s the case, a conversation about how to fix things is probably in order.
OK for a penultimate session IMO.
As the GM, I’d be all for it. I’d probably push the scene in which it happens hard to see the why and how of it happening, but what an incredible moment between two PCs! I can just imagine the way villains might try to take advantage of what they would see as a team starting to fracture. And the public perception of a team where one member seems to have outgrown at least one relationship within it. Obviously, a lot of the ripple-effect drama fallout would depend on how the scene played out, but the possibilities are pretty rich.