Apologies if this issue has come up before.

My PCs are one dwarf magician, one ork TM, and two Elven-Physads-in-Suits™. One physad is a revolver-and-karate style killer, the other is the group's Face.

In a recent session, they found themselves meeting with a dozen or so Yak thugs in an empty warehouse (the PCs were the bait for an ambush against the Yaks). When the NPC allies of the runners burst in through the windows and the drek hit the fan, everyone jumped into the fight, except for the social adept. Instead, his player smiled at me and announced he would be using Commanding Voice on the Yaks, his order being "Shoot your friends!"

I ruled right there that he couldn't give obviously suicidal commands, so he changed his command to "Drop your weapons!". Now there were probably two dozen people in that warehouse at the time, so I ruled that he would have to target just one group of the thugs.

He rolls his 13+ dice in the opposed test and beats them, even with their +5 dice for numbers. Eight of the twelve Yakuza drop their guns and never get a chance to pick them back up as two NPC allies with assault rifles force them to put their hands up. This really helps end the fight quickly, with only one NPC death.

Only later did I notice that the area of effect on the power is everyone within earshot. That means technically I should've made EVERYONE drop their weapons, friend and foe alike! This wouldn't really have hurt the PCs much, as two fight unarmed half the time, one throws spells, and another chucks knives.

How do you interpret this power? Am I going to need to house-rule the hell out of it?

If it includes everyone, that means everyone counts for the dice mod too.

Perhaps if stated this way, someone who does not count for the dice modifiers should not be affected.

While I can readily accept the idea of the power being targetable, the opening line of the power reads: "This power channels the adept's magic into his voice to enhance the modulation and pitch, subliminally influencing the actions of any listeners." (p. 176 SM)

It's that "any listeners" part which has me confused and worrying it may affect everyone within earshot.

Treat Within Earshot like LOS. This qualifies the range for the effects. It identifies all possible targets.

As to which targets are actually affected within that range. The adept obviously selects some targets. The next item to consider is if people within range that the adept has not targeted can be affected. My opinion, I wouldn't allow it, but for your game you may decide to do so.

For resolution, regardless of how the targets within earshot are selected, all targets that are effected affect the dice pool modifiers. If you don't modify the pool as an extra target, you shouldn't be affected. If you are affected by the power, you modify the dice pool.

So... he should have yelled,"Shoot the Yakuza!"

[QUOTE]"The adept takes a Complex Action to give a simple but forceful command (five words or less) to the target
notice that that is singular target, not targets. I don't know exactly how I would rule, but I think it would be an all ore one type thing. You either effect everyone who can hear you or only one target.

I dunno about that. In the magic section it often differentiates between target and targets. For instance area effect spells effect all valid targets within the area.

Why not limit the number of affected people to Magic rating? That's a pretty common standard and should work well...

The text for this power does not limit the number of targets. It also does not allow for the user of the power to choose particular targets. Seems to me that going strictly off of the wording of the power, the command given would effect any "metahumans who can directly hear and understand the adept's words".

In terms of the example talked about above, there could have been clarification made in the command. Something to the effect of "Yakuza, drop your weapons!" follows the requirements of the command given in the power's description, but the command itself is directed to a particular group of people in auditory range.

I'm hoping this would be something that's changed in the errata. Otherwise it seems overpowered to me. really, someone that has this skill is going to develop a good leadership skill, while not too many others will. It quickly becomes very difficult to resist. If it effects an unlimited amount of people that the speaker chooses, that's damn strong. If it's everyone that hears it, that's strong and potentially problematic. I'd limit it to single targets as it was before IIRC.

Not really a limitation. Just depends on implemitation. Say for example the speaker is looking for a distraction. Walks up to a crowd and yells out something like "Riot!" or "Get Naked!"

Honestly, I don't see how it's a huge deal.
You get two simple actions each pass. The commanding voice forces one of those actions to do something (or stop, dazed for the one action). The other action can be used as normal. It's not an influence spell that lasts until resisted; it gets one single forced action from the target.

which is pretty much my point. Sorry that I didn't explain further. I wasn't trying to suggest that you could cause a riot, but that you can and would cause all kinds of trouble, or depending on what the people were doing at the moment, destruction. Either way, it doesn't really jive with the way limitations are normally built in to powers/magic in the game. Generally, if you have an ability with magic that can effect a large area/amount of people, there's a way to limit it, like with spell casting. It makes more sense (IMO at least) to assume the power was desinged to effect a limited number of people as it was in the previous edition, than to assume that it effects anyone and everyone.

I think the power was meant to be used in a pick-and-choose sense. At least to an extent. The rules for multiple targets (use the largest dice pool and add 1 dice for each member of the group, max +5) are exactly the same as group negotiations. This means that the group gets a 'leader of the pack' to resist. If the power were to be used on any metahuman within earshot, it makes little sense that the phys ad's own teammate would represent the target group.

How about a skill roll to remove selected characters? If you have four people in your party, including you, you would need to roll a threshold of 3 to select them out of the effect.