Mental Conflict

## **Mental Conflicts**

There is another kind of interpersonal **conflict** that goes beyond just a social scope. Most of the time, the effects of losing a social conflict are transient, in the sense that they don’t really transform a person utterly. Someone can make you lose your temper, but he can’t turn you into a sociopath. Someone can damage your reputation, but he can’t make you hate yourself utterly. In some cases, however, people do inflict that kind of deep-seated harm to one another, crossing the line from mere social consequence into deep and abiding psychological trauma. When this kind of damage is accessible in a conflict, it marks a transition from social into mental territory and puts perhaps the direst stakes of all on the line—the individual’s mind, soul, or sense of self. These are mental conflicts, probably the rarest (or at least most potentially profound) examples of conflict you’ll see in your game.

The mental stress track is modified by the Conviction skill, representing the resistance of the character’s inner self to abuse. The Discipline skill is almost always called on to defend against mental attacks, though magic can also help protect someone in this kind of conflict.

Being able to attack the mental stress track is no small feat. The kind of abuse necessary to inflict this kind of damage on another person usually takes a great deal of time and energy, the result of established relationships going horribly awry. Shortcuts exist—certain triggers in the character’s history might allow access to deeper recesses of the mind. Perhaps the most terrifying example of this is the mind magic available to wizards or the mental powers of other supernatural creatures. Even as total strangers, these people can instantly strike at the heart of what makes people who they are, forcing them to be temporary thralls to the creature’s will—or worse.

Between mortals, some sort of prior connection or justification must exist to inflict mental stress and consequences. An aspect that defines a relationship rife with abandonment, emotional degradation, violence, rape, or other potential triggers would qualify for this, as it’s assumed that the relationship has been going on long enough to justify being vulnerable to this kind of severe effect. When this is the case, many actions that qualify as social attacks can affect the mental stress track.

Certain individuals might also have the training to accomplish this sort of thing, going beyond the usual trappings of Intimidation and into torture, represented by an appropriate stunt.

### **Zones and Movement**

Zones and movement are even more potentially insignificant in a mental conflict than a social one—they tend to take place entirely within the mind, especially in the cases where supernatural powers are used. The only situation where zones and movement might matter is if there’s a mental conflict taking place as part of a larger, physical one. If a demon is trying to possess your friend, it might become important to know how hard it will be for you to get to him. In this case, you’d use physical movement as appropriate and just assume it doesn’t matter for the mental combatants.

### **Attacks, Maneuvers, and Blocks**

The context of a mental attack is a little more strictly defined when it comes to supernatural abilities—the rules for the powers are given in either Supernatural Powers or Spellcraft, and the targets of those abilities can use Discipline to defend against the attacks. Strictly speaking, these kinds of encounters seldom last long enough to be considered full conflicts—failing to defend against thaumaturgy usually results in directly suffering some level of consequence, but some powers like Incite Emotion will take more effort on the part of the attacker.

Between mortals who have established the ability to affect each other in that way, either due to the relationship between them or thanks to training in inflicting mental anguish, most mental attacks look like social attacks. The relationship or training adds context to the narration and the outcome, rather than to the act itself—when a person who has savagely beaten you since childhood stares you down with Intimidation, it’s a whole different ball game than when some guy on the other end of the bar does it. This is reflected mainly in what consequences a person stands to take from the conflict.

A mental maneuver is basically the difference between manipulation and force. Think about the inherently deceptive things someone could attempt to get another person to believe in order to do serious damage to him. Again, these are more than likely going to look a great deal like social maneuvers, but mental conflict changes the effect in the scene somewhat. Where a person might use Deceit in a social conflict to make you wonder if he’s killed your friend, in a mental conflict he could make you temporarily believeit.

Blocks in mental conflict are also difficult to parse out—most people are wholly unable to prepare for those who can push their deepest buttons. Between mortals, without therapy or conditioning to draw on (which could also be represented by an aspect), a block probably wouldn’t be possible. Against supernatural incursion, blocks are meaningless, save for those established by a threshold or other supernatural defense.

### **Stress and Consequences**

The stress and **consequences** suffered by mental conflicts are the deepest of the deep—forays into suicidal thoughts, emotional dependencies, deep compulsions, and other behaviors and thoughts typically classified as dysfunctional in some way or another. Mental damage is the kind of damage that changes or erodes a person’s sense of self; suffering enough of these consequences over time tends to presage a trip to the mental ward, or at least to permanent counseling. That’s one of the things that makes mind magic so dangerous—even when used with good intention, it can completely scar a person’s mind beyond repair.

One important thing to keep in mind about mental conflicts is that often the combatants are not equally matched in terms of their ability to affect one another. Usually, people don’t engage in mental conflict unless they’re operating from a position of power; this is routine for supernaturals, where the best strong-willed mortal victims can hope for is to simply force the assailant from their minds. Even among mortals, mental combat usually springs from an unequal power dynamic.

In a mental conflict, the character in the inferior position will probably not be able to attack his opponent—he can still defend and maneuver, but unless he can come up with a really good rationale for being able to strike back, defensive options are all he has. The disadvantaged character will have to change the circumstances to put himself on more equal footing, or (more than likely) switch the conflict to the physical or social arena so that he can be effective. Someone who’s being tortured, for example, usually doesn’t have the means to turn the tables on his torturer unless he can get free. Fighting back against supernatural or magical mental attackers requires having mojo of your own, be that innate power or assistance from an item.

Also see **Advice on Mental and Social Conflict**.