You have learned to hypnotize others, bending them to carry out your orders. Even complicated instructions can be given with this level of hypnosis.

Challenge Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion vs. Intelligence + Resolve

Cost: One Rouse check

System: With Mesmerize, you can issue complex commands to your targets. To Mesmerize your target, make one Rouse check, speak a simple set of instructions aloud, and perform a contested challenge. If successful, the target will immediately attempt to carry out your instructions until the activity is reasonably complete or for one hour, whichever comes first. 

The Mesmerism user may dictate anything from simple directives (“hand me your car keys”) to complex ones (“take detailed notes at the Brujah clan meeting, and bring those notes to me afterwards”). Mesmerism cannot rob your target of the ability to defend herself. A character forced to count loudly to one million can still dodge, run away, or even attack, so long as she keeps counting. However, she probably could not effectively hide (or use her Obfuscate to vanish) while calling out numbers.

Mesmerism cannot string together multiple unrelated actions. You cannot use Mesmerism to force another character to perform a list of tasks: “Tell me where your ghoul lives, and give me your car keys, then go punch that Brujah, and, finally, sit in the corner for the rest of the hour.” You may imply more than one action in a single command, such as, “Give me the money in your wallet.” In this case, the recipient will unbutton their back pocket, remove their wallet, extract any currency they have and hand it to you.

Mesmerism cannot be used to prevent a character from using a Discipline, although it can be used to prevent a victim from acting in certain ways. For example, you cannot tell someone not to use Conceal, but you can order them to show you all of the weapons on their person. In all cases, your Storyteller is the final arbiter of what is or is not appropriate for a Mesmerism. 

This power may not be used during combat, but, if initiated prior to the start of combat, its duration continues into combat. For example, when a Mesmerism given outside of combat to “murder the Prince when he enters the room” activates and causes the target to begin attacking the Prince, the compulsion continues until the task is completed or another effect would cause the attack to stop. When Mesmerism commands that carry into combat  cannot rob your target of the ability to defend herself.

An individual can only have one active Mesmerism from a given Dominate user. If you attempt to implant a new suggestion in the mind of a victim currently under a previous Mesmerism from you, the new application of this power erases your earlier instruction. A victim may have multiple Mesmerisms lurking in her psyche at the same time, provided each Mesmerism was implanted by a different individual.

If two mesmerists implant conflicting orders in a target, the victim will follow the newer Mesmerism first. The victim will perform those tasks until completed (or for an hour). Once that Mesmerism has ended, the subject will attempt to fulfill the older Mesmerism. Note that the older Mesmerism’s duration begins at the point it was triggered, so the victim may have only a few minutes of duration left in such a situation.

If you fail a test to use Mesmerism, you may not test against the same target for five minutes.

Duration: Until the order is carried out or one hour