Control Crazy

On the subject of creating the new Force power 'control crazy', how will I be going about doing that?

You start doing some research into the matter and you come across some info on a former Caduceus Force Healer who went on to work in an asylum on Bimmisaari and wrote a book on a Force technique he developed called, "Curing the Brain through Mindwalking".

The Captain may mistake me for Dannel/Freya, then, because Artemis will spend the majority of his time on the ship with his nose in that book.

Mindwalking. Explain! Sort of like what we did to cure Mina of her mark? And what the psychiatrist did for Tryce?

Sorry it's taking me a while to get back to you I had some trouble finding my campaign noted dealing with that particular plot line that got ignored.

The name of the doctor is Maxwell Thegas, and he is a Bimm. It seems that by pooling your powers together the lot of you were able to fake using Mindwalk. However, it seems to be an actual technique used by Dr. Thegas in curing insanities. In order to take this power the prereqs are Receptive and Projective Telepathy as well as Affect Mind. Using it a Jedi can enter an unconcious mind, even their own if they enter a hibernation trance though the roll is harder. It is considered by many Jedi to be a Dark power as it allows the user to often see things a subject might generally keep hidden and is something of an invasion of privacy. Dr. Thegas has figured out however that many insanities in his patients were caused by particular traumatic experiences in their past. He walks their dreamscapes looking for these experiences and often rips them out of the patients. This is another reason it is considered a darkside power as you are ripping memories out of a patient. However, the Dr. feels the good it does for his patients is worth the price.

Okay, since I have Sense Life already, can I drop three character points each to pick up Receptive Telepathy and Affect Mind? Not sure if I can spend three more to get Projective Telepathy or if you'd rather I wait (might make more sense to wait).

Since you guys got a crash course in it already yes you can pick those up right away. If points are a problem you could try and convince another player that has them to teach you in order to make it cheaper. Basically the six points you'd be spending on two could potentially get you all three.

Also you'll be getting your intended dyes for Artemis soon. lol

Hrmmmm...but if I get another player to teach me, would that have to be done between sessions? Or no? Just checking my options.

I'm actually in no rush for the dyes ^_^ I'm kind of having fun messing with the colour balance in Artemis's portrait levels. I figured out a race! Mirialan! They're more yellow-green than green, but I figure I have some wiggle room. It's the closest thing I could find.

You can talk to the characters either between or during sessions, I don't care either way. You can only buy them before or after a session however.

Okay, so looks like I do need hibernation trance. I'll drop three character points for that right now, as I don't think it has any prereqs (could be wrong on that..)

Artemis will start working on that immediately, though I'm not sure how you'd like me to do this. Wait to roll dice for hibernation trance? Or can this be started here? Do you need me to elaborate on any backstory?

Okay when I set this stuff up as backstory I never intended it to be used for PCs to go mucking about in their own heads trying to cure crazy. For the sake of backstory the people Dr. Thegas was able to cure basically had a trigger that caused their madness. Usually a traumatic experience in their past that was the root of their disorder. So you do have to elaborate on your backstory if you want to cure this properly...what caused your paranoia?

I understand you did this due to being overstressed, but if stress is the only cause of your madness there's no curing this thing.

The stress was never the cause. Stress--mental and physical over a period of weeks--merely triggered a psychotic episode. Artemis has schizophreniform disorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizophreniform_disorder). It's not really known how or why a person develops this. Genetics play a strong role in the likelihood of developing it, and it's probably a large part due to chemical imbalances in the brain. So he was at risk since birth, but since Artemis's childhood experiences didn't help his mental state, I can give you elaboration on that. What I'm really looking for, though, is a way to cure the disorder itself (using the Force to correct the chemical state in his brain?).

Paranoia can come with the delusions and hallucinations, but Artemis was exceptionally susceptible thanks to his father. I mentioned that his father and grandfather were extremely demanding, but I didn't really get into the details of that at all. Nothing Artemis did was ever good enough. His mother left them shortly after he was born--she simply had had enough of Aretak and of Artemis's father. Typically, the blame was placed onto Artemis. In everything that he did, he was set up for failure. He was assigned impossible tasks and was psychologically tortured when he failed at them--sleep deprivation, starvation, poisoned food, memory tricks (ala the movie "Gaslight" if you've seen it), and constant verbal assault. He began to question his own perception of reality at a very young age. He began to fear coming home from school, sitting down to dinner, and going to bed at night, because he never knew what would happen to him.

Fortunately, Artemis really did possess a brilliant mind, which was the only reason that he didn't crack completely at the start. He began to spend as much time as he could at school--away from home--and in everything that he did, he tried to be perfect. He worried constantly that his work was not good enough. Once he hit college and was able to live away from home legitimately, his mental health did improve, but the damage was already done. He had a few minor episodes in his early twenties, but nothing too serious thanks to his best friend Everett. Everett was... a child of the world. A student of everything. But mostly he liked to play games. He was brilliant, like Artemis, but unlike Artemis he never felt the need to push himself any harder than he had to. He saw Artemis, recognized a soul in desperate need of relaxation, became his first real friend, and proceeded to force Artemis to take two evenings off every week to play video games at his dorm room.

The ingrained instincts of perfectionism and paranoia from childhood never left, though. Once the mental illness manifested itself (aided by those early year experiences), stress became the main trigger to set off an episode.

Let me know if you need anything else, and I'm sorry for the extra work :( I didn't realize it was such a bother.

While I appreciate you bringing some real world science into all this, do keep in mind Star Wars is Space Fantasy, not Sci-Fi. So while in reality I'm sure the doc is treatable through drugs to make a chemical balance that's not really what the Force is for. When you guys accelerate healing or control a disease nothing scientific is really going on, it's pretty much magic. So this curing Mental illnesses works along a similar path, it's a more spiritual thing than not.

Stop apologizing for game stuff also. I love running the game, I love exercising my creative improvisation skills. So while your insanity cure was unexpected it is certainly not unwelcome. Same goes with you taking over the game. I do the same with certain characters from time to time, like Freya and her brother there. I like doing a bit of one on one with characters from time to time. It creates unique opportunities for characters while at the same time forcing them to face decisions on their own rather than look to the rest of the party.

Back in Mike's Werewolf game one on one interactions with the GM were pretty regular. Most of us were more than content listening in on what usually amounted to some fun character development, and others had books, portable electronics, or pc to pc interactions if it took a while for Mike to get to us. I'm sure no one in my game similarly minds you stealing me for a few minutes.

Okay, thanks :) I know I worry too much, but I can't help it. I understand the 'magic' aspect, and that's cool, but I'm often not sure where the line is drawn between real-world logic and magical handwaving, so I figure I'll give you as much information as I can think of, and you can just toss out anything irrelevant. Is that okay?

Spiritual curing works for me--that's actually more interesting. Can that be done with the backstory I've elaborated on here?

Generally as far as stuff you're dealing with the virus all the real world stuff applies until you use the Force. Then we're out of the realm of reality. Also I'm obviously no expert on viral stuff like you, so just don't expect much realism from me on that kind of stuff either and we're good.

I can work with the elaborated backstory you've given me here. We can definitely go a bit deeper on your next trip into the recesses of your mind.