Love Awareness

Status
Not open for further replies.
Draven

Draven

Count
Charm specifically states that the character is unaware they are under the effects of a Charm, however, Love does not state such (despite it is similarly emotion-affecting). Has there ever been a clarification that a character does not know they are under a Love effect?
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
My knee jerk reaction would be similar to charm, not knowing until after being cleared of the effect. Emotions and brain chemicals like to go crazy sometimes and make you do weird stuff, but once you are back in balance, you think "OMG WHAT WAS I THINKING?!" :)
 
Upvote 0
My reaction would be the opposite--Charm being a specific exception, none of the other Command effects prevent you from being aware of the effect. Fear, berserk, shun etc don't say specifically that you're not aware of the effect, but Charm would be completely useless as a combat ability if you were aware of it. Knowing about it doesn't make the effect not do anything, though: if you're Shunned and you know you're Shunned you still have to stay ten feet away. Similarly, you might know the love you feel is just Love elixir and not "real" but that doesn't stop you from experiencing the feeling.

Also, Love is primarily an RP effect that has the potential to make people uncomfortable so I wouldn't want to force people to engage in the RP if the rule doesn't specifically require it. Love is not primarily a combat ability whereas Charm is.
 
Upvote 0
Love does not mean you have to go running for the person and try to sweep them into an embrace. Different characters experience love differently. Maybe obsession with the person from afar is their schtick. Maybe valiantly defending that person is your character's idea of love. There are multiple ways to play it.
 
Upvote 0
I don't know that its been ruled one way or another definitively, perhaps we send this to ARC?
 
Upvote 0
Is this regarding "Love" or "Love Potion #9"?

Love is a "command" effect and as such would act accordingly (not aware), imho. Also, as a Command effect, it can be overridden with any other Command effect (or Awaken). Being aware would likely circumvent the spirit of Command being an effect that you have to deal with rather than just being able to drink an Awaken Potion to "get rid of it" or whatever.

Love Potion #9 is a Greater Command effect, and would also act accordingly (aware, but unable to act against, etc). Similar to above, being aware of Greater Command effects but being unable to do anything about them seems to be the spirit of the theme of this effect group. There was an ARC ruling talking about Enslavement specifically awhile back that said the victim is aware, but unable to help themselves. The example given was being ordered to kill their friend - they have to do it, and are aware that they are not able to control themselves as why, and can even yell, "Sorry, I'm enslaved, I can't help myself!" -- unless specifically ordered not do to that.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
"Seems to be the intent" and "written in the rulebook" are different things, though. I don't see anything in the rulebook specifying that Command effects make you unaware of them, nor that you are always aware of Greater Command effects. I might agree that you could extrapolate from Charm and Enslavement, but there are Command effects that you specifically are aware of, such as Shun and Fear.

ARC could answer this more definitively, but without any rules saying you aren't aware of a Love or Love 9 effect on you, I'd say you are.
 
Upvote 0
KyleSchmelz said:
but without any rules saying you aren't aware of a Love or Love 9 effect on you, I'd say you are.
Click to expand...

The problem with being aware of Command effects (with no explicit rule against doing so), my character can be affected by a Love effect and simply drink an Awaken Potion - as my character would most certainly do as he as zero interest in love/romance/blah-blah-blah - and simply go on about my character's day, murdering the F*** out of whatever put that effect on him.

It's better to be consistent across an effect group (see: Charm) than it is to have exceptions; thus my reasoning in my first post.

Same with Love Potion #9 - my character would self-res himself immediately and do everything in his power to perm whomever or whatever did that to him.

Do you really think those are intended choices as a response to those effects?
 
Upvote 0
Under Fear, it gives an example showing that you can Awaken yourself 5 seconds after you've left line of sight of whatever cast the Fear on you, so you are clearly aware of the effect. I'll also point out that the effect description doesn't specifically say you're aware of it - it's in the example of how it works in game - so it's not like it's being stated as an exception to a general rule. I'd say it implies the opposite - that unless the effect specifically makes you unaware, you know it's on you.

Consistency within an effect group would be better, but it doesn't exist now so I don't think it is valid to extrapolate the specific rule written in Charm over to Love. Love would definitely be more effective if it worked like Charm, but given the rules as written I don't think this is a clear "spirit of the rules" situation where we can assume it works any differently than described. Love does not say that you are unaware, so in my opinion, you are aware of the effect.
 
Upvote 0
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top