[Condition Set] Eyes of the Devil

[amechra]

The Devil's Eyes [Persistent]
You have the devil's eyes; no matter how mundane or freakish they look, they stare and glance deep into the hearts of those you speak to. You may, once per Scene, improve a Social roll made to intimidate or put someone down as if you had spent Willpower. Doing so does not cost Willpower, but counts against the amount of Willpower you may spend in a turn. Your eyes stifle trust; the first failure you suffer on a Social roll made to make someone like or trust you each Scene is automatically turned into a Dramatic Failure. Your eyes whisper to you, too - take care that you don't listen to them.
Beat: Suffer a Dramatic Failure due to this Condition
Resolution: Have your eyes removed; Accept the whispers and take the Vicious Glare condition.

Vicious Glare [Persistent]
Your eyes are... different now. In addition to the benefits and drawbacks of The Devil's Eyes, other characters cannot look you in the eyes without spending Willpower. What's worse (for them, at least), a failure to do so is practically assent - you may treat your opponent's Resistance traits as 0 for the purposes of Social rolls made to intimidate them or put them down unless they can meet your glare or they don't have to meet your glare (because they're in another room, or on the phone with you, or otherwise cannot see your face). As a strange side effect, you no longer can attempt Abjuration, Binding, or Warding against demons; the whispers and groans break your concentration should you try.
Beat: Hurt someone you care about with a vicious word or poorly-considered glance
Resolution: Have your eyes removed; Accept the whispers once again and take the Bloody Tears condition.

Bloody Tears [Persistent]
You cry blood, now - no, that's not right. Tears don't come from your pupils. In addition to the benefits and drawbacks of Vicious Glare, you can force someone to bleed just by looking at them. You may now improve appropriate Social rolls without spending Willpower twice per Scene (and automatically downgrade the first two failed Social rolls made to make someone like or trust you to Dramatic Failures as well). More oddly, you may forgo the three bonus dice when spending Willpower on an appropriate social roll to instead give your victim the Bleeding Tilt until the end of the Scene. The tempting words your eyes whisper to you offer an "in"; you suffer a -2 penalty on all rolls to be possessed by demons.
Beat: Hurt someone you care about with a vicious word or poorly-considered glance
Resolution: Have your eyes removed; Accept the whispers a third time and take the Piercing Stare condition.

Piercing Stare [Persistent]
Your eyes might as well be a pair of 6-foot needles; you can drive someone into a weeping fit with a glance. In addition to the benefits and drawbacks of Bloody Tears, you may choose to inflict the Bleeding or Insensate Tilt. In addition, you may choose to inflict those tilts without bothering to make a Social roll if you have eye contact with your victim; doing so costs Willpower, but the Tilts remain even if they look away. For you, though? The whispers and moans have invaded your dreams and are twined around your brain like indelicate flowers; you no longer recover Willpower from rest or surrender. They want you to take the next step, and strip away their hateful prison.
Beat: Hurt someone you care about with a vicious word or poorly-considered glance
Resolution: Remove your eyes and take the Windows to the Soul condition

Windows to the Soul [Persistent]
Eyes are the window to the soul - and anyone who looks into yours sees a blackened, bloody wasteland void of beauty. You receive all the benefits and drawbacks of the Piercing Stare condition, as well as immunity to the Blinded Tilt (you are able to see through the ruined remains of your eyes, after all). Now that your true nature has been exposed to the world, your soul leaks out through your sockets; the benefits of your Vice and Virtue are reversed, and any use of your Vice is a Breaking Point at a -5 penalty unless you've reached Integrity 1. As a (perhaps welcome) side-effect, you may use eye contact and the threat of fulfilling your Vice as Hard Leverage when engaged in Social Maneuvering attempts based around intimidation or destroying someone else's self worth; successfully completing such Social Maneuvering attempts (whether or not you applied Hard Leverage) also restores a dot of Integrity.
Beat: Lose Integrity due to fulfilling your Vice; When your Integrity reaches 1, gain the Enervated Condition.
Resolution: N/A

[GibberingEloquence]

This is just terrifying. I'd go as far as to say that if there is a Satan in the CoD, he/she/it would not have a character sheet, but would manifest through vicious and ruinous phenomena like this one. As much as I prefer mundane explanations for evil, there is something deeply disturbing about the idea that your sins aren't just wrong for the harm they cause in the moment.

[Vent0]

What made you choose a set of progressive Conditions? (Also, could you list Possible Sources on at least the first one.) These look like they'd also work as a Style Merit.

[Griautis]

Yeah, I'd much prefer this to be a style merit. Especially the part on each of them "In addition to the last one" looks horrendous. Now I have to remember all the conditions if I'm using the last one? And this is written up with drawbacks/benefits, so this does seem to me like a merit, where "accepting the whispers" is buying up the merit dots. Maybe a condition of "The Devil's Eye" which provides a very minor thing, with a clause "You can now accept the whispers, which means buying the Devil's Eyes style merit at one dot. If you do, resolve this condition."

[Geckopirateship]

Seconding/thirding/whatever the idea of this as a style merit. The mechanics and imagery are great otherwise!

[amechra]

I did it as a set of Conditions because I could. Neener neener neener

More seriously, I did it to try something out - Conditions let you set up a weird sort of Kafkaesque morality play in a way Merits just don't.

I also dashed it off quickly - in retrospect, this kind of thing works better if the Conditions stack, rather than replace, and if they have more of an "out".

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To summarize the mechanics (because they're kinda mish-mashed in there - I'm out of practice with writing Conditions), by the time you have Windows to the Soul, you have the following:

Benefits
• Twice per Scene, you may spend Willpower on Social rolls to bully people without actually spending Willpower.
• People need to spend Willpower to look you in the eyes.
• You can spend Willpower to make people bleed or collapse by just looking at them.
• You can use the threat of satisfying your Vice (and eye contact) as Hard Leverage - technically, you already could (since it's a Breaking Point), but it's really weird otherwise.
• Social Maneuvering that brutalizes someone emotionally gives you back Integrity dots.
• You are immune to the Blinded tilt.

Drawbacks
• The first two Social rolls you fail that involve being nice to people each Scene? Those are now Dramatic Failures.
• You suffer the drawbacks of Soul Loss.
• You have to gouge out your own eyes. That's a Breaking Point if I ever saw one, my friend.
• No one can ever love you, and you have no friends.

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One thing I might do (since I based the escalating Soul Loss penalties off of an earlier set of Conditions) is have The Devil's Eyes stay a Condition, and have Vicious Glare, Bloody Tears, Piercing Stare, and Window to the Soul be things you can pick up with the Contracted, Negotiated, Obliged, and Damned conditions - with a note that you can negotiate with your own eyes.

If I did this, I'd probably tweak the Beat trigger for The Devil's Eyes.

---

This is just terrifying. I'd go as far as to say that if there is a Satan in the CoD, he/she/it would not have a character sheet, but would manifest through vicious and ruinous phenomena like this one. As much as I prefer mundane explanations for evil, there is something deeply disturbing about the idea that your sins aren't just wrong for the harm they cause in the moment.

Part of me likes The Devil's Eyes as a Condition you can potentially pick up through a Dramatic Failure on a Breaking Point caused by you doing something awful. Or just because you were in the wrong place at the wrong time. You watched that thing crawl and wretch its way out of that sewer grating, and your eyes reflect that.

[Vent0]

I did it as a set of Conditions because I could. Neener neener neener

More seriously, I did it to try something out - Conditions let you set up a weird sort of Kafkaesque morality play in a way Merits just don't.

Fair enough. Might you be interested in more Chained Conditions? It occurs to me that they make a great way to model achievement-based rewards as well.

[amechra]

Here's the second rendition; this requires the Conditions from here:

The Devil's Eyes [Persistent]
You have the devil's eyes; no matter how mundane or freakish they look, they stare and glance deep into the hearts of those you speak to. You may, once per Scene, improve a Social roll made to intimidate or put someone down as if you had spent Willpower. Doing so does not cost Willpower, but counts against the amount of Willpower you may spend in a turn. Your eyes stifle trust; the first failure you suffer on a Social roll made to make someone like or trust you each Scene is automatically turned into a Dramatic Failure. Your eyes whisper to you, too - take care that you don't listen to them.
Potential Sources: Dramatically Failing a Breaking Point; Be born with them; See Hell
Beat: Hurt someone you care about with a vicious word or poorly-considered glance; listen to your eyes and accept the Contracted condition.
Resolution: Have your eyes removed; Receive absolution.

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Your eyes may act as a "demon" for the purposes of the Contracted condition, as well as all of the other conditions that build off of it. In place of Castigations, however, you gain the following:

Vicious Glare (Contracted)
Your eyes are... different now. Other characters cannot look you in the eyes without spending Willpower. What's worse (for them, at least), a failure to do so is practically assent - you may treat your opponent's Resistance traits as 0 for the purposes of Social rolls made to intimidate them or put them down unless they can meet your glare or they don't have to meet your glare (because they're in another room, or on the phone with you, or otherwise cannot see your face).

Bloody Tears (Renegotiated)
You cry blood, now - no, that's not right. Tears don't come from your pupils. You can force someone to bleed just by looking at them. You may now improve appropriate Social rolls without spending Willpower twice per Scene (and automatically downgrade the first two failed Social rolls made to make someone like or trust you to Dramatic Failures as well). More oddly, you may forgo the three bonus dice when spending Willpower on an appropriate social roll to instead give your victim the Bleeding Tilt until the end of the Scene.

Piercing Stare (Obliged)
Your eyes might as well be a pair of 6-foot needles; you can drive someone into a weeping fit with a glance. You may choose to inflict either the Bleeding or Insensate Tilt when using Bloody Tears. In addition, you may choose to inflict those tilts without bothering to make a Social roll if you have eye contact with your victim; doing so costs Willpower, but the Tilts remain even if they look away.

Windows to the Soul (Damned)
Eyes are the windows to the soul; and anyone looking into yours sees a blasted landscape void of beauty. Your eyes are open and hungry - you may use the threat of fulfilling your Vice (and eye contact) as Hard Leverage on Social Maneuvering attempts where the goal is intimidation or the destruction of someone else's self worth. Moreover, successfully completing such a Social Maneuvering attempt allows you to immediately gain a dot of Integrity.

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I could make some more - depends on when I have time and inspiration.