With the Special Rule in Influence on page 282, I am wandering how other GMs have used this. When I attempted to use it tonight in my game, my GM seemed a bit lost but said that Influence Basic only allowed me to cause strain, even though the special rule listed says that light side and dark side points can be used to guide emotions. It is a tough call, because this can be a powerful ability. I am just wandering how others see this, because my GM is a good friend, and open to changing the way the power behaves, if I can give him some good feedback.

The biggest thing is that there seems to be no contest, as long as I get my Light Side point, I can start to soothe a savage beast. Any thoughts?

I think that you can justify it with "Social Strain" from Far Horizons. Also its just some type on "mini stun". Maybe the one that Qui-Gon did to Jar-Jar on Ep 1.

The "guide emotions" part really only applies to the Control Upgrade to affect a person's thoughts, since the basic power really is just "inflict 1 strain on the target" with no emotional context or guiding really applied.

So if you're using the "affect thoughts" Control Upgrade, then you'd need to use Light Side points to induce calm or soothing thoughts. But if you're just dealing strain, then it doesn't matter and you'd use whichever type of Force points you'd normally use to activate Sense or Move.

I'd think you could use it with some good role playing and get a boost die on a social check. Guide thoughts to be friendly when using charm. Guide thoughts to be afraid when using coericion. Guide thoughts to be generious when using Negotiation. Guide thoughts to be nieve when using Deception.