Quick question about the rules laid out on page 208 for Focus Power Tests. There is a paragraph stating that it's a willpower test but it's upped by +5 bonus per point of psy rating. Then, in the paragraph following, it goes on to say that some focus tests are opposed tests using will power. My question is, does the +5 per point of psy rating bonus apply to the opposed tests?

Example: Delude with a 5 psy rating PC who has a base willpower of 50. Does the PC have an effective 75 willpower for the opposed test?

Secondly, I'm not really sure in what way PCs are to use the delude skill. My group has been using it in conjunction with decieve to soften the target. However, in the end, my group tries to decieve the character into acting against his better judgment. In the delude description it specifies that it cannot be used to force others to act against their better judgement, but how else would you use it? If you're trying to delude someone, obviously it's against their better judgement; otherwise you wouldn't have to delude them...

Example: (Delude Succeeds) Can they convince a Imperial Guard Lieutenant that they are his superiors because he now trusts them? (Decieve Succeeds) How about now?

Thanks!

A test to activate a power is always a Focus Power test. All Focus Power tests add effective psy rating X 5. So yes, a psyker doing any opposed test to activate a power, be it willpower or otherwise, adds the usual psy rating bonus. He'd also add any bonuses to Focus power tests from things like psychic hoods.

As for Delude, in this case "against his better judgement" is, to me, more of the effect of pointing out this is not mind control. What Delude does is increase your social influence with the target. Also, and this is to me important, it prevents you from forcing him, not convincing him.

For example:

You can not activate Delude, walk up to the target and go "Shot your boss, right now, in front of a thousand witnesses." Because... why would he? You're just some random person. A nice, charming and fantastic random person, but a random person all the same.

However, you could convince him. For example if you were to walk up to him, strike up a conversation (perhaps while probing his mind) and then point out that, hey, you saw that guy make out with that girl in an alley. "What, he's your boss? AND SHE'S YOUR GIRLFRIEND!? If that happened to me, I'd kill the guy dead! Show all these rich, spoiled elitist snobs they can't just walk all over us. I'd strike a blow for freedom, is what I'd do. " With a bit of luck and a solid deceive test, chances are said guard might just do it.

Not because he's been mentally coerced to put aside his judgement but because he's been swayed by emotional appeals to act on base emotions.

Delude does not implant false suggestions, it does not create mental illusions, turn falsehoods into perceived truths or any other jedi mindtrick style shenanigans. What it does is increase your social influence. It makes any sort of social interaction gain more traction. In short, if it's not something a really charming, erudite, silver tongued normal human could achieve, Delude can't achieve it either. However, as any conman will tell you, a silver tongue can do a lot.

In this particular case, presuming the psyker already has the right skills and a solid base to build upon, since +25 to the untrained skill of a slack-jawed social failure is not gonna do much more than compensate for his lack of training.

However, to respond to your example, that depends. Does he know how his superior looks? If so, no. No matter how charming the guy who walks up to you is, you can tell he doesn't have the right face. However, presuming we're just going for the "I am A superior" aka merely convincing him you're someone who outranks him and that he's never meet, then yes. It would need, however, to go like this:

You activate delude. You succeed. You now approach the target and attempt your lie, doing a deceive test with the bonuses from the power. Assuming you succeed well enough for your GM, you've now convinced the guard you're his superior.

In short, it does exactly what it says: make you a better at interaction tests. That's all.

In one of our sessions my psyker used delude to convince an Imperial space dock commander that he was an Inquisitorial acolyte that had just barely escaped the massive rebellion on the world below. It was used to convince him that I didn't have my credentials on me for a reason, and that I was an agent. I pulled it out (barely), and only because of delude.

Remember, delude can be sustained as well. This keeps the bonus for any interaction tests made on the delude target. This is good for commerce checks for haggling and setting up contracts. Delude the chief negotiator, and start those commerce checks.

Delude is an amazing power, but people seem to overlook the implications of its use. But yes, they way delude works is the way you have been doing it. Delude activation, deceive/charm/commerce/intimidate/ect., then see if their interaction skill succeeded with the bonus from delude.