Social Conditioning doesn’t have to become permanent. Certain Technocratic groups – notably the Friends of Courage, the Harbingers of Avalon, Project Invictus, and many Void Engineer groups – specialize in breaking such Conditioning.

• Individual Resistance: If the character strives to break free, the player can spend a point of Willpower, then either roll her current Willpower (difficulty is the level of Conditioning) or perform a successful Mind 3 Effect upon herself. Each success eliminates one level of Conditioning for that scene; five successes or more breaks it for good.

• Reconditioning: Another group that understands Social Conditioning techniques can overwrite the previous Conditioning with their own. Again, each success replaces one level of Conditioning with that group’s own Conditioning. If, for example, the Friends of Courage overwrite a Black Suit’s programming, that Black Suit becomes equally loyal to the Friends of Courage. That’s a good thing if the group behind the reconditioning process happens to be the Friends of Courage… and a really bad thing if it happens to be a Nephandic infiltration sect!