Remote control vs. The Rules vs. Mind Control App vs ?

Switching from MtG for a moment... (heresy I know)

I've been playing around with a related idea to this one for a while now, it was inspired by the miniseries "The Lost Room" (if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it!). In the series a detective comes into possession of a motel room key. The key, when inserted into any lock, opens a door into a mysterious 1950s-1960s motel room. When the key-holder leaves, the exit opens to anywhere in the world.

Anyway, in the world there are multiple objects that originated from the motel room and all of them have some weird powers. The pen electrocutes people. The glass-eye reduces organic matter to dust. The comb stops time. The watch... boils an egg. That's it. Literally. It boils an egg. That's all it does. It's explained that there are like 160 different recorded items. All items are indestructible outside of the room. And it got me to thinking about something similar where in the world there are these everyday mundane objects that have a mysterious origin and each object has a special superpower.

In my idea the pen has the ability to alter reality. Anything that the user writes down, once they've finished, becomes reality. The problem is it's limited to the ink in the pen. Each change soaks up ink. Small changes take up very little, big changes could soak up every last drop. The pen keeps a memory of everyone that uses it and each new user gets a full amount of ink.

But there are other objects in the world, and each object is immune to each other. Object bearers gain resistance to the abilities of other objects, and EVERYONE who knows about the objects is looking for the pen. As it's naturally regarded as the most powerful object. But that doesn't necessarily mean it is the most powerful object.

Anyway, I've occasionally thought about about writing it but the problem is I can't think of other objects. Or powers. So... I guess I'm asking for suggestions?

 

Off the Top of my head:

Beer Stein of Cold: Keeps things cold. Anything within the stein can be reduced in temperature to any degree needed. That's it.
Word Processor of Typos: Can fix any "Typo" in the world. Long sought after by Priests who want to fix that damn "Celibate/Celebrate" Typo. Only works with printed material.
Lighter of Acclaim: When Held aloft, any musician nearby will increase the quality of their performance to extreme levels. Also never runs out of fluid, and can set things on fire if they are flammible
Giant Purple Dildo Bat of Thwacking: It's a Giant Purple Dildo that has it's normal uses, but also renders anyone hit by it unconscious for several hours. (H/T Saint's Row)
Bong of blessing: A marijuana pipe that causes any shitweed put into it to become extremely high quality Bud. However, it only stays that way if it is smoked out of the bong. Currently in possession of Tommy Chong.

 

Those are certainly ideas.

Might want to go with white-out instead of the Word Processor.

 

Here are a couple of places you can borrow from:

There's at least one interactive here on CHYOA that's focused on various objects/artifacts: Items of Power

The BEAddventure also has a story root that contains a bunch of objects/artifacts: Things of Power

 

This seems like a fun idea and definitely one for the short list of Chapter branches.

Related to this what happens if someone uses a mind control device or potion or whatever to enslave/control themselves

Sure the easy answer would be nothing. But if playing for laughs maybe the character ends up with two different personalities, a Slave and a Master/Mistress. They completly obey their own desires and wants. Which on the one hand might make them super disciplined (you will go for that 10km run Slave) on the other might make them completly lose control (Master wants me to punch my boss in the face).

Might just descend into a farce about whether it is your Id, your ego or super ego thst is the real driver.

Not just hypothetical btw.

I am thinking about a story branch where a character loses a contest if sperm enters their body. The Loser is enslaved to the owner of the sperm. No other conditions apply. MC is female but has just magically aquired a penis and balls. What happens if she tastes her own sperm?

(Writing that I realise how bizarre that story has become. It makes sense in context).

 

This sounds fascinating, was this a paperback or online?

By the way, I love all sotires that takes an outdone clichee with overconfident protagonists and fokuses on solving all the problematic issues caused by these sex-crazed MC. IT's an emerging genre, at least in the chinese webnovel world. Even more fun when they are pitted against each other!

 

https://mcstories.com/MasterPC/index.html

Found it, and I wasnt kidding about it being a loooong time ago. The first chapter was published online in 1998

 

Great thanks! Lol I couldn't even read when it was published!

Edit: I'm surprised this site even still exists!

 

Call me old without calling me old lol

 

lol, sorry. Let's call you experienced

 

In terms of story, I think it would be much more interesting if the protag has a very much underpowered and limited mind control device. (Eg only works for 20 minutes a day. Or when victim is within touching distance, or only on redheads). Then they have to work under the radar to avoid all those with apps or rulebooks etc. And find novel ways of defeating them.

 

We definitely have too many mind control stories with unlimited power. It's much more interesting when you have to use your power creatively. As someone else mentioned, Items of Power has some branches where it's not just the MC with mind control.

There was this manga that I think would translate well into a chyoa story, if I could write better. The basic plot is that the MC unlocks video-game like abilities, like time-stopping, personal forcefields... just about anything really, but they all require points to purchase. To earn points he has to finish missions that pits him against dangerous women, ranging from a simple serial killer to a bored heiress of a Yakuza gang whose personal army would immediately kill him if he tries anything funny. For example, he could use his limited time-stopping abilities, or other offensive items to beat anyone in a fight, but they could just as easily track him down and kill him in his sleep afterwards with mundane guns. It puts a huge limiter on what the MC can do even though he has supernatural powers.

 

There are a few stories like that on CHYOA too, like Kink Development Kit.

I think in general omnipotence makes for a lousy plot device. Limits are almost always more interesting than abilities.

 

The problem with omnipotence and mind control with unlimited powers is that typically there's no context and there's no escalation. Usually the MC will get powers immediately and go off and bank the first girl they see. There might be a little context. The character involved might be their sister, girlfriend, or school bully...but because the MC's powers are unlimited from the start... you never see this.

I remember reading a doujinshi which started with the main character getting bullied by a group of girls. It's not very long. Just the first few pages, then he gets the power to mind control them. The first few pages were enough to establish the context of the relationship before he got powers and that allows the reader to get into the mindset of the main character and empathize more with his newfound powers. Don't get me wrong. It's still Junk Food Porn(erotica only really meant to be consumed once and for only masturbatory reasons).

Personally, i prefer mind control stories where the powers grow gradually and there's even a few games out in the internet that plays with that idea (such as Book of Lust).

I should really go back to writing Fiend of Possession because I was planning a slow burn of mind control powers in that story/game.

 

I really want to write that type of story too but I'm just really bad at keeping to a thread for more than a few chapters. There's been multiple attempts. One story I wrote had the main character slowly brainwash people using a cursed arcade machine. It was limited in that it could only process one person at a time. I still felt like I went too fast as after a few chapters the MC already had most of his town under a cult-like control. I was intending to introduce an antagonist in the form of an FBI agent investigating the strange happenings, but wasn't sure how to make it work.

 

Regarding the app or program flavor of this genre, I've started to tinker with the limitations of the "If, Then" statements that basic coding applies. For example,

If
See X = True
In Public = True
If number of people, excluding self and X,
≥ Y, act as normal
> Y≤, run Perform Oral Sex (Public-nervous).exe
< Y, run Perform Oral Sex (Public-excited).exe


Or something like that.