Custom Power Request Line

[Drachasor]

Maybe we can rule that as a limitation of Mimic Abilities, providing a Rebate of [+1]. The power would work the same, but whenever the Eater used a memory or Power, it would:

A) Invoke Personality Debt.
B) We could rule it like a Hunger Track (call it a Persona Track), and using the stolen abilities causes "Persona" Stress, which makes it more and more easy for the stolen personality to assert itself.
C) We can reskin Demonic Co-Pilot but, instead of a Demon and Demon agenda, it's the personality you just ate trying to turn you against yourself. Instead of taking Mimic Points, you could just determine that "Eaten Persona Co-Pilot" gives you a +1 to its important skills.

All those sound like good ways to go.  (B) is probably best, since it handles depending on those abilities makes the personality get in your head more really well.

[Mal_Luck]

How would someone recover from this "Persona Stress"?

[Drachasor]

How would someone recover from this "Persona Stress"?

You have to feed the persona, so you'd do something they'd do for a bit.  That might be talking to a secretary for a little bit if you fed on a business guy, talking to the person's wife like you were the husband, etc.  If you completely lose control though, then the persona would fully assert itself and be able to tell people what was really going on and really act against your interests.  Otherwise, essentially you'd have to waste time and potentially do somewhat risky or mildly counter-productive things to keep overall control of what you did.

I think that would work, generally speaking.

Edit:  If you took consequences they could be things like "Bob is trying to warn his friends" for something mild or "Which one am I?" perhaps for a severe consequence.

[devonapple]

How would someone recover from this "Persona Stress"?

Good question. My initial thought was that they would fade with time.

If that's too easy, then perhaps the mindstealer needs to feed periodically on the original victim, which would motivate them to kidnap their target and hide them away, sneaking off now and then to "top off" the Persona tank. Which the heroes could eventually discover. And if the original got away, that would be additional plot zaniness as the mindstealer slowly started losing control.

You have to feed the persona, so you'd do something they'd do for a bit.  That might be talking to a secretary for a little bit if you fed on a business guy, talking to the person's wife like you were the husband, etc.  If you completely lose control though, then the persona would fully assert itself and be able to tell people what was really going on and act against your interests.  Otherwise, essentially you'd have to waste time and potentially do somewhat risky things to keep overall control of what you did.

That would work as well. Convince the swallowed persona that "things are fine" by showing it a normal life, in a manner reminiscent of the way Necromancers need to keep a drumbeat going to keep their zombies in line.

[Drachasor]

If that's too easy, then perhaps the mindstealer needs to feed periodically on the original victim, which would motivate them to kidnap their target and hide them away, sneaking off now and then to "top off" the Persona tank. Which the heroes could eventually discover. And if the original got away, that would be additional plot zaniness as the mindstealer slowly started losing control.

Ah yes, the Parasite technique.

Anyway you do it, pretty awesome for a villain, I think.  It would be pretty memorable, especially if the target knew the PCs.

[mithrandirthewhite]

The power was for a NPC who I was going to turn into a Hive Mind which consumed its enemies body and soul and then used the material (Mimic Power) to augment itself and added it's victims minds to it's own.

Am I the only one who thought Zerg when i read this? though the soul bit would be different

[Drachasor]

Am I the only one who thought Zerg when i read this? though the soul bit would be different

This sort of thing is a lot older than the zerg...and the zerg don't really gobble people up into one organic composite (which is pretty gross).

[mithrandirthewhite]

I know it is, but I was just playing Starcraft the other day...   and the Zerg do seek to perfect thier genome so they do take bits and pieces from others.  At least thats how I saw it. but ignore me on this

[newtinmpls]

I like the 'stolen persona' idea, but I'd use the mental stress track; it would make the power more dangerous. Anyone familiar with a Marvel comix version of this a while back? Rogue stole (and accidentally permanently kept) Ms Marvel's memories, and during a stressful situation, reverted to the stolen persona to the extent of being compelled to rescue a friend of the original personality; well and tragically done.

Dian

[Drachasor]

I like the 'stolen persona' idea, but I'd use the mental stress track; it would make the power more dangerous. Anyone familiar with a Marvel comix version of this a while back? Rogue stole (and accidentally permanently kept) Ms Marvel's memories, and during a stressful situation, reverted to the stolen persona to the extent of being compelled to rescue a friend of the original personality; well and tragically done.

Dian

I like using a new track more since it let's you have a "reverse" corpsetaker (if you use mental stress, then a wizard can't really do this that effectively).  You still can get compels and all sorts of other things with that.  The Hunger rules for stats seem to make good sense here as well.

[newtinmpls]

Me
"I like the 'stolen persona' idea, but I'd use the mental stress track; it would make the power more dangerous. Anyone familiar with a Marvel comix version of this a while back? Rogue stole (and accidentally permanently kept) Ms Marvel's memories, and during a stressful situation, reverted to the stolen persona to the extent of being compelled to rescue a friend of the original personality; well and tragically done."

reply:
"I like using a new track more since it let's you have a "reverse" corpsetaker (if you use mental stress, then a wizard can't really do this that effectively).  You still can get compels and all sorts of other things with that.  The Hunger rules for stats seem to make good sense here as well."

I agree that using a mental stress track makes it less easy for a wizard to to it; which is why I would do it that way. It makes it much more fun (challenging, whatever) to play - and for me & my gamers, that would be the point.

dian

[Drachasor]

I agree that using a mental stress track makes it less easy for a wizard to to it; which is why I would do it that way. It makes it much more fun (challenging, whatever) to play - and for me & my gamers, that would be the point.

My point was that it only makes it more challenging for a wizard or evoker of some sort.