Hi there,

if a Force User has the magnitude upgrades of the Influence force power to use it against multiple targets, does he have to roll aganist every targets defense or only against the target with the strongest defense within his range?

The target with the highest Discipline would set the difficulty for the opposed roll required by the Control upgrade to force a person to believe something is untrue.

The base powers effect only requires a Force Power check, so there is no difficulty involved.

Edit: as you won't specifically know how many are affected until after the roll you would need to decide who the main target is before rolling, then affect only those that have a lower Discipline with Magnitude upgrades.

Sometimes you may choose to target a leader to get them to order their troops off, other times you may want to target the troops in order to enact a revolt.

I would use the strongest defense and make one check.

I will roll for each unless it is a minion group.

And (as the book suggests) when dealing with crowds it's best to set a difficulty instead of using an opposed check.

I will roll for each unless it is a minion group.

Adjudicating the Threat/Advantage could become quite daunting and fudge with the difficulty balance.

I think a set difficulty or a modified difficulty based on the strongest person is the simplest solution.

I will roll for each unless it is a minion group.

Adjudicating the Threat/Advantage could become quite daunting and fudge with the difficulty balance.

I think a set difficulty or a modified difficulty based on the strongest person is the simplest solution.

Sure it the most easy handle but it ins't realistic. Not being able to influence the strongest of the 2 you target doesn't mean the second one become suddently immune. The reverse situation is also true. Influencing one person doesn,t mean you magically influenced all the targets.

I will roll for each unless it is a minion group.

Adjudicating the Threat/Advantage could become quite daunting and fudge with the difficulty balance.

I think a set difficulty or a modified difficulty based on the strongest person is the simplest solution.

Sure it the most easy handle but it ins't realistic. Not being able to influence the strongest of the 2 you target doesn't mean the second one become suddently immune. The reverse situation is also true. Influencing one person doesn,t mean you magically influenced all the targets.

What we know about mob mentality would indicate otherwise.

Yes but mob mentality has less to do with willpower and more to deal with leadership, charm and presence.

Maybe individual rolls against Nemeses and named Rivals, but against unnamed Rivals and Minions only the strongest defense?

I will roll for each unless it is a minion group.

Adjudicating the Threat/Advantage could become quite daunting and fudge with the difficulty balance.

I think a set difficulty or a modified difficulty based on the strongest person is the simplest solution.

Sure it the most easy handle but it ins't realistic. Not being able to influence the strongest of the 2 you target doesn't mean the second one become suddently immune. The reverse situation is also true. Influencing one person doesn,t mean you magically influenced all the targets.

That's where I would use threat/advantage/despair/triumph.

If you generate some threat or a despair, you may not have influenced the entire group. And that could cause you some problems.

Ideally, the highest disciplined would be the leader. If you can get them to fall in line, they could command the others. And as I said, some threat or despair could really complicate the situation.

I will roll for each unless it is a minion group.

Adjudicating the Threat/Advantage could become quite daunting and fudge with the difficulty balance.

I think a set difficulty or a modified difficulty based on the strongest person is the simplest solution.

Sure it the most easy handle but it ins't realistic. Not being able to influence the strongest of the 2 you target doesn't mean the second one become suddently immune. The reverse situation is also true. Influencing one person doesn,t mean you magically influenced all the targets.

That's where I would use threat/advantage/despair/triumph.

If you generate some threat or a despair, you may not have influenced the entire group. And that could cause you some problems.

Ideally, the highest disciplined would be the leader. If you can get them to fall in line, they could command the others. And as I said, some threat or despair could really complicate the situation.

I will roll for each unless it is a minion group.

Adjudicating the Threat/Advantage could become quite daunting and fudge with the difficulty balance.

I think a set difficulty or a modified difficulty based on the strongest person is the simplest solution.

Sure it the most easy handle but it ins't realistic. Not being able to influence the strongest of the 2 you target doesn't mean the second one become suddently immune. The reverse situation is also true. Influencing one person doesn,t mean you magically influenced all the targets.

That's where I would use threat/advantage/despair/triumph.

If you generate some threat or a despair, you may not have influenced the entire group. And that could cause you some problems.

Ideally, the highest disciplined would be the leader. If you can get them to fall in line, they could command the others. And as I said, some threat or despair could really complicate the situation.

Interresting idea.

Would you do the same thing if a NPC manage to use this power on all your party? In my case I can forsee my players complaining.

Good question.

Normally I wouldn't have an NPC use influence on the party. I just don't run stories that way, but If I did want to influence the entire party, I would make the difficulty be based on a group check. So the dice pool would be the highest Willpower and highest Discipline. Depending on the situation I may throw in a setback dice for any other skilled party (so they feel like they are contributing).

However, if I was going to have a slick Force using silvertongue NPC, I would have them pull what they consider the weakest-willed PC aside and influence that PC specifically.

Ultimately, for me, it would depend on the situation and what the NPCs motivations are.

Yes but mob mentality has less to do with willpower and more to deal with leadership, charm and presence.

The mechanics of how it occurs are less important to the fact that we know that if you can influence one or two key indivudals to follow a plan you can get the rest of the group to go along too.

For the Force power check, do we treat minion group as one target, or each minion in the group is a separate target?

Let us say I am facing 2 groups of stormtroopers, 3 trooper for each group (Will 3, Discipline as group skill). If I activate one magnitude upgrade, can I influence both groups (6 troopers) with a succesful Discipline check against RRP? Or only 2 troopers from one group / 1 trooper from each group (check against PPP)? Same question for the basic use of inflicting strain damage, just without the Discipline check.

Same situation for Move power (disarm 3 troopers without magnitude upgrade) or Sunder (destroy weapon of 3 troopers with 4 advantages)?

My understanding is that all above are possible, since unlike Nemesis / Rival, Minions are by design far inferior compared to PCs.

Maybe individual rolls against Nemeses and named Rivals, but against unnamed Rivals and Minions only the strongest defense?

I recommend leaning towards keeping the game moving in an entertaining direction for the players. Only make as many rolls as needed to keep it moving. Chances are the outcome on the story telling really only matters if either 1) one or two key people are influenced or 2) everyone is.

If you convince the named boss to take the deal and walk away, is it really going to matter to the mooks don't? The players are going to wipe the floor with them anyway. Just have them all move along.