Quote Originally Posted by Zevox View Post
Hypnosis: While creepy in-character, in mechanics this is in practice an always-on +2 to Allure, because it's so easy to qualify for that you will basically never not. I'd be very leery of that, and consider either dropping it to +1 or giving it a harder to fulfill requirement.
The idea for this came from the Improved Vampire I use for Trevor, which has an exactly similar ability; Trevor even has that ability, but the RP drawbacks (that you're hypnotizing people) mean that he's only ever used it once so far in the entire time I've been playing the character, and that was fluffed as being an accident and him losing sight of his morals for a second. But then, I guess depending on people to respect the RP drawbacks of an ability is asking a lot of this community, from what I've seen, so I'll just use my fall back argument of "it's basically a dress power with different fluff". I agree that this would be more powerful than a dress power if you 1) completely ignored the RP drawbacks of constantly hypnotizing people, and 2) were operating in the intended Japanese setting with a dress code. As it stands, this is equivalent to a Shameless in my mind, since it's a +2 to all Allure rolls that comes with RP consequences that nobody cares about.

Love and War: Compared to existing advantages, this is basically four rolled into one. Advantages like Overachiever and Stage Presence already give +1 to a roll just for it being opposed, but only to a specific type of roll, not all four. That said, those advantages also feel kind of weak, but I wonder if that's not just because Illven tends to use a lot fewer opposed rolls than unopposed, so they feel like they don't come into play often. Kind of hard to say what I'd do with this one as a result of that.
I am aware of advantages like that, and yes this is the equivalent of four such advantages rolled together. As a counterargument that you yourself point out, however, most of those advantages suck eggs. Now, maybe Illven's games don't use Opposed rolls very often, so let's compare it to other advantages in a game with a perfect split (say, a 16-scene episode with 8 opposed and 8 unopposed rolls, with those 8 divided evenly between the four roll types): across this hypothetical 16 episode game, Idol Singer's "Stage Presence" would apply +1 in two scenes, Idol Singer's "Kira Kira" would apply +2 in four scenes, Idol Singer's "Idol Talent" would apply +2 in four scenes, and Changeling's "Love Is War" would apply +1 in eight scenes.

Yeah, Love Is War is 400% as powerful as similar abilities, but that's because those abilities are weak, especially when most games favor unopposed rolls anyway.

Master of Disguise: This is probably overpowered. It compares favorably to Deep Freeze and Thaw Out - it's more flexible (lets you choose the rolls it benefits and penalizes) and lasts overall longer (4 scenes instead of 3, with the added benefit of them being spread across two uses, so you can split them up compared to DF/TO always being stuck on for 3 scenes once activated), and speaking from experience, both of those are very potent already. I'd drop it to one use per episode, and perhaps even leave it at only two scenes, since it still has flexibility on DF and TO even then.
Yeah, this is the one I was most concerned about, and it was for precisely the reason you're bringing up. My reasoning at the time was that I didn't tend to think of those powers as particularly useful, but that's likely due to not using them myself much or seeing them in action much; combined with the RP involved (you have to pretend to be someone other than your normal character for those scenes), I thought it might be a bit more balanced. I will defer to your experience on this one.

Siphon: Extremely overpowered. Both a non-conditional +2 to your roll and a -2 penalty to another player's are very potent effects and typically have a drawback attached (see Overclock, Fortune Talisman, or Faustian Pact) or are restricted to specific rolls (see Serious Business or Misfortune Talisman). Even as a one scene effect this would be pretty good; as three it's totally absurd. It might be okay as a one scene effect if you keep it at one use per episode, but if you want it to affect multiple scenes or get multiple uses, it needs to either be weaker or have a drawback attached.
Another one I was worried about, to be honest. Taking it to the point where it only affects one scene would be good (allowing the victim to recover more quickly), but then it just feels kinda weak compared to other 1/ep advantages like Less Is More, Odd, Just As Planned, Simpler Times, Shadow Out Of Time, and so on. Maybe I just overvalue 1/ep abilities though...

Talented Actor: Extremely weak. It's mechanically identical to Multiple Personalities, which is a pretty poor advantage. You just can't predict which strong and weak roll will be to your advantage in the future, just for whatever scene you're currently in, and it's not giving you an additional bonus you didn't already have, just rearranging your base stats slightly. At the very least I think an advantage like this needs several uses per episode - at least 3, maybe even 4 honestly, so it actually gives you some flexibility rather than just being effectively a one time +1 to something you didn't normally have +1 to, and honestly I might try to re-write it to work a completely different way entirely, because I'm not sure that even giving it several uses makes the advantage all that good.
Another one I wasn't too sure on. Honestly, it feels weak, but I'm not sure how to make it better without making it too similar to Master Of Disguise. Maybe if the current ability was 3/ep and double strength? Like, "When you activate this ability, your Strong and Weak Roll are reassigned for the rest of the episode, and grant a +2/-2 instead of +1/-1. Using this ability changes these bonuses." It would essentially be a constant +1/-1 that can be reassigned 3/ep, since it only increases the strong/weak roll rather than adding onto them. Would that work?

Quote Originally Posted by Qwertystop View Post
Love and War would make more sense if it's an opposed roll with at least two opponents - the power rush is from others competing, Changelings don't eat their own emotions.
That's...that's probably a good idea for limiting this power a bit. Yeah, okay.