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Psionics

Psionics (sy-ON-iks), or Psi, is the pseudo-mystical science of the mind and the underlying energies of the universe. When one is attuned to these energies, and their mind has been trained and conditioned to them, a person may sense their influence just as we can see when we open our eyes; he can manipulate them by projecting these energies from his own mind, just as we can turn a knob with our fingers. Psionics is the manipulation of the universe by normally unseen forces. It is easy for the unschooled to pass if off as magic or sleight of hand, or for information gained from telepathy or psychometry to be discounted, but the psionicist knows the truth. Because of the fear, hatred and mysticism within many cultures that surrounds psionics, its practitioners are known by many epithets: Warlocks, witches, Psykers, etc. The more neutral term we shall use in this text is Psion. This struggle against ignorance will likely play a role in the life of any adept. The story often lies in how they deal with it.

Of course for some, ignorance is bliss, and many adepts couldn’t agree more. Dependent on the views of the local culture or government, an adept may be seen as a witch, heretic or enemy of the state; some adepts may choose to wear their mundane lives like a cowl and cape, always keeping the secret of the power beneath from those around them at all cost. To do otherwise might risk persecution or worse, and the chains will ever be stronger and tighter on those who may have the means to break them…

Latent Psionic Ability

During character creation, there are 5 categories of psi ability. These are weak, normal, null, latent and adept.

Weak—Sentient beings with psionically weak minds are like an open book to a psion. While a psion may sometimes struggle to focus energies to activate a talent, a weak mind acts like a beacon, allowing talents targeted against these people to trigger with ease. While it gives the character no direct disadvantage, per se, any psion directly targeting a psi-weak character will gain a +1 bonus to the activation roll of his talents. Luckily for the psi-weak, psion are a rare breed. Unless they are not. These characters will never have access to psionic abilities.

Normal— This is just what it sounds like—nothing. The character is no more or less susceptible to many psi abilities than the average sentient. These characters will never have access to psionic abilities.

Null—Psionic nulls are those rare people whose minds are resistant to psychic meddling. Some aspect of their biology or sometimes arduous mental conditioning will proof their minds from being read, having thoughts or feelings implanted, or even make them resistant to mental attacks. When making resistance rolls against psi abilities, these characters begin rolling with an exceptional success. They will also be resistant to any kind of psionic aid one can render, but it’s the price they pay. Psionic nulls can never use psionic abilities.

A telepath attempts to whisper a suggestion to Flint in order to get him to divulge a bit of information. Flint’s player rolls his mental conditioning of 2d8 to resist, getting a 2 and a 4, not the best results. Flint is a null, however, so each of his rolls read as though he had previously rolled an exceptional success (8), so they jump to 10 and 12. The telepath’s normally decent roll of 11 just doesn’t cut it this time. The outlaw sees through the telepath’s trickery and draws his force blade. “Not this time,” Flint hisses as he slices at the adept’s throat…

Latent—The latent character has the ability to use psionic abilities. Maybe they know, maybe they do not. They have likely suspected things have been different for them their whole lives compared to the experiences they have heard from those around them. Latent psions can use experience gained to purchase psi abilities. If the Master chooses, latent psions may allocate skill points to psi foci and talents during character creation, but the character will not have the ability to use them until his “awakening.” Once they have sacrificed enough fate chips or experience, opportunity will come knocking, and they may have the opportunity to find a PK crystal (see below). This is the field from which the vast majority of psions will likely hail.

Adept—A psion is one who can wield psi abilities. An Adept, however, is a particularly talented category of psion. An adept is not an adversary to be taken lightly. These individuals can wield great natural talent, and often discovered their abilities—or were discovered—years ago, giving them plenty of time to train and hone their talents. Adepts can use attribute points to purchase psionic foci and talents during character creation. Adepts have already been awakened, and begin the story with a PK crystal and the ability to use their talents.

The Psionic Adept
Adepts have the capacity to master all fields of psionic talent. Psions with latent abilities may dabble and learn of Telepathy, Telekinesis and Clairvoyance, but only adepts can learn the focus of Self-Awareness, the art of mastering oneself so completely that, with mastery, they verge on becoming transcendent.

Psionic Nulls
The mind of a sentient being is unique by its very nature and definition, and some of them simply don’t seem to operate the same way as the vast majority of the population. Many Psionic talents rely on picking up or syncing with the mental energies radiated by other beings; Psionic Nulls seem to generate no such energy.

During character creation, you may choose to classify your character as a psionic “null.” This means that for the most part, many psionic talents that detect or influence the mind will have little to no effect on the character. A telepath would not sense a null with his Detect Life talent, and targeting a null with most Mental Attacks is extremely difficult (but not impossible). Being a null would not, however protect him from the TK attacks of a telekinetic, as those psions are manipulating real world objects to cause damage. If a talent will not work or have reduced effects on a null, the talent description will make this distinction. Psi-null characters can never learn psionic talents, and will still take backlash from contact with an attuned PK crystal (see below).

Psionic Awakening

Even with great natural ability, one cannot normally exercise any psi talents. The minds of all known races during this age of the galaxy simply do not operate on those levels, they are not built to pick up on the forces and energies that a psion taps into and manipulates. It is believed that these abilities were commonplace, once. They were perhaps even a racial trait as natural as a canine’s sensitive nose or some humanoids’ ability to breathe underwater with mutant gills. The truth is not fully understood, but what is known is that those who can wield psi talents were at some point exposed—or “awakened”—and at that point the structure of their mind began to change to interface with a whole new world of energies all around them. The awakening usually happens in one of three ways:

1. The latent suffers a mental attack. Perhaps an adept sensed some great potential in the latent, and targeted him to jar something loose, to get his psychic gears turning, or possibly the latent was the victim of a careless lesser psion who didn’t realize the can of worms he was opening up. The newly awakened psion soon finds a PK crystal in his possession. Where it comes from is a mystery. Did it materialize out of the æthir? Was it created by the psion’s mind? Did an adept of some ancient order leave it for the new psion? The answer is up to you and the Master, and you might never learn the truth.

2. The latent comes into contact with an unaligned PK crystal (see below), and its energies sync with the latent, stripping bare the mundane mechanisms of their mind and re-forging it anew with the capability to detect and influence the subtle underlying energies of the universe. This will sometimes happen to explorers or archaeologists attempting to uncover secrets of the ForeRunners or other ancient civilizations, or to colonists on freshly terraformed frontier worlds who happen to stumble across ancient ruins.

3. Psions are sometimes scouted out at an early age by mysterious agencies or secret orders. They are observed and studied, and when the time is right, they may be contacted. When this contact occurs, the latent disappears for a time, then returns to his old live unharmed, but irrevocably changed. He will be in possession of a PK crystal, and will have learned some talents. How he uses these talents is up to him, but one can be assured that it will likely be in the service and best interests of whoever contacted him in the first place.

For a character with latent psi ability to achieve his awakening, he must spend a number of bounty points (experience) or sacrifice a specified number of fate chips. When this requirement is met, the Master should work with the player to determine how the awakening occurs, and whether the character comes out of it with a PK crystal. Alternatively, the master may assign costs to each aspect (awakening and PK crystal). These costs are not specified here because it should be a matter of personal preference as to how much the Master wants the players to work to earn their psi abilities. If the cost is exceedingly high, however, psionics may not be a very attractive character option in your story, as any budding psion will be hamstrung for a large number of game sessions with no option to use a potentially large portion of the power that their character has allocated to psionics.

The PK Crystal

Even an adept will find it taxing to attempt to channel the energies in our material universe to influence the world around him. The PK crystal is a ForeRunner artifact about the size of a large coin, and shaped like a lens. It is opaque and utterly black—no light reflects from it at all. The few that have found their way into the collections of research laboratories have proven difficult and downright hazardous to study directly. Even still, little is known about them. The material that composes them is completely unknown, and what they do largely remains a mystery. By itself, the PK crystal is inert, but when it becomes aligned with the mind of a latent or adept, it seems to act as a gateway or focus to some alternate, high-energy—possibly even Tachyon—universe beyond our own. With a PK crystal, a psion’s powers truly become manifest. Without a PK crystal, a psionicist will exhaust his energy reserves much faster, and his talents will sometimes be much weaker. Some talents require such energies to unleash that attempting them without a PK crystal will be impossible.

The PK crystal also serves another very important purpose. It channels energy that the psion uses to fuel his talents. Heavy use of psi abilities in combat may leave a psion so physically and mentally drained that even a light injury may take them out of the fight. Or sometimes, a psion may need to tap into additional reserves to keep on fighting. As a speed 2 action, the psion may draw energy from his PK crystal. He must remain motionless while concentrating (so taking cover first is a good idea). When the action completes, roll the character’s Essence trait (with all trainings, so a Hero with a 3d10 Essence trait would now roll 3d10). Make this roll as you would a damage roll; combine the dice and continue to roll exceptional successes, adding them to the total. The psion can then add this result to his current CT. It may raise his CT above his maximum. These points will fade over time, but remain until used or the end of the combat. The downside to this ability is that it taxes the psion greatly, and tends to burn the candle at both ends. After channeling energy in this manner, the psion reduces his Essence die type by one category. The Hero who had a 3d10 Essence not rolls as though he had 3d8 Essence. This also means that any further psi abilities that use his Essence dice for activation or other effects use the reduced die type (in the previous example, the Hero would use d8s instead of d10s). If he performs this action again, he is further reduced (in this case, to 3d6). If a psion is reduced to a d4 in his Essence trait, he has exhausted his reserves and can channel no further energy for the moment. A full block of 6-8 hours of sleep will restore one level of Essence reduced in this manner. For each additional level, at least 16 hours must pass before the psion can rest again to recover lost Essence, so essentially one level will be restored every day.

A psionicist doesn’t need to worry overmuch about the sanctity of his crystal, however. Since he is aligned with it, he will always know where it is, granting him very specific clairvoyant capabilities to find it. Also, since it has aligned with one person and him alone, its physical composition will become completely antithetical to the mind of anyone else, and it will serve no purpose to another living being other than what aid may come to them by taking it away from the psionicist. Prolonged physical contact with an attuned PK crystal will unleash a psychic backlash upon the holder equivalent to the telepathic talent of MindSlay. As such, a psionicist doesn’t generally need to fear his PK crystal being stolen and used by someone else, though someone may try and take it to temporarily weaken the psionicist or draw him out, because he will surely come looking for what is his...

(Designer’s note: We are purposely vague about the nature and mechanics of the PK crystal. In your story, you may decide that the PK crystal is much better understood and choose to flesh out its composition, capabilities and the science behind it. There is also absolutely nothing that says it need exist in your game at all, or be a “PK crystal,” for that matter. It might be some other kind of focus. The preserved pineal gland of a spectacularly psychoactive creature might serve the same purpose, or maybe the symbolic lightsword of the order of StarPaladins in your game. You can consider the PK crystal a sort of Maguffin, in this sense; a narrative object that serves a defined purpose.)

Psionics in Your Game

Ultimately, this is your game. Run it as you see fit. If you choose a “hard” sci-fi approach, you may eschew psionics altogether. If psionics are part of your setting, be prepared for the possibility that players will now have a set of tools to overcome obstacles that are not available in the real world (for now, at least; never say never!). This may be akin to placing a wall as an obstacle for the players if you have forgotten that they have access to jet packs. While it may seem a simple notion of casually telling players that their psionic talents don’t work for some reason at various points in the game to force them to deal with an issue by other means, one should tread cautiously when it comes to the notion of so casually neutering an aspect of the game that you have allowed to exist and one or more players have designed their characters to take advantage of. (Likewise, the players would probably be unimpressed if you used the excuse of their jet packs being out of fuel more than once!) You would likely be better served by remembering what abilities are available to your players, and planning accordingly. Our general suggestion is that if your oversight as Master allows the Heroes a solution to an obstacle that is less challenging than what you had envisioned, let the players bask in the glory of a job well done. The story is supposed to be about them, after all! Besides, as the Master, you have an infinite supply of obstacles to drop in their laps. If they learn the location of the antagonist’s hideout in ten minutes of game time when you expected them to spend an hour going to a different location first, maybe they get into a battle with some henchmen who wouldn’t have been at the hideout if they had gotten here a little bit later (and occupy the team with a fight scene to take advantage of the extra time at the game table you have. Learn from the experience and move on. You can throw up a bigger challenge in the next arc, the next scene or around the next corner if you choose! To help prevent hiccups, it may be advantageous to consider a few points both for the benefit of the story and the expectations of the players if you choose to include psionics in your game.

If a Hero has psionic talents, is he a diamond in the rough? Could he expect to be one of only a handful of such gifted people on his home world? Or is your setting downright lousy with Forerunner artifacts like abandoned PK crystals? Are adepts a dime a dozen? Do planetary governments have a Bureau of Psionic Affairs? This will help you answer a few questions down the road. It will help the players determine how rare their abilities are and how likely they are to be seen in the employ of the antagonists. It may also inform them how other actors in the story might view their talents and how subtle or blatant they need to be in the use of psionics. In a psionic-poor setting, only Masterminds, possibly Villains and the occasional major NPC might have access to psionics. In a psionic-rich setting, some types of Henchmen might even have psionic talents!

You might also consider how the rest of the universe views psionics in general. Is it largely unknown? Is it the stuff of legend and mysticism? Is it a legitimate, recognized field of scientific study? Does the common man know about psions? You may opt for different answers to any or all of these questions depending on where the crew finds themselves. On an advanced, cosmopolitan core world of a major Stellar Empire, psions may be easily accepted by society. However, within a primitive xeno culture or frontier world, an adept may be seen as a witch and be persecuted by the locals. Various governmental types may also have their own stances toward beings with “otherworldly” abilities. A Theocratic government may see psions as heretics, while in a dictatorship, psions may be brought to heel and work for the supreme leader or face execution as an enemy of the state. A social democracy might welcome them and even offer employment opportunities. These examples are not hard and fast; a theocracy might instead view psions as prophets of their deities and lavish them with favor! It is up to you, but you should be prepared to portray the feelings and reactions of the actors in your story, especially if the players flaunt their talents.

Related to the questions above, you should also figure out how well the science of your fiction understands psionics. Have scientists developed purely technological methods and devices to detect psi activity or block it? Can people purchase or build “mind shields” and wear them like armor against telepaths? Answers to these questions will also let the players know how they can prepare themselves to deal with psion antagonists.

Ultimately, these questions can only be answered by you, but if you take time to think them out before playing and share what you can with the players, you can bet on fewer unwelcome surprises.

The Psionics Deck

Every player will draw from a communal action card deck, but players who choose to play a Hero with psionic abilities will need their own ability deck. The cards in the psionics ability deck will provide reference to any positive or negative modifiers the adept will face if they play that card to activate a talent. Many cards will also allow the adept to use a minor psionic ability to some effect in combat. Each psionic focus will have its own list of minor abilities, and the player may choose to attempt one of these abilities as his Hero’s action. For more on ability decks and how they are used with psionics, see chapter XX.

Using Psionic Talents

Tapping into the underlying energies of the universe requires that the psionicist expend some of his own energies to channel much greater forces. This will exhaust a psionicist over time, but not cause any lasting physical harm. This is represented in game by talents costing CT to activate or maintain.

CT costs listed in the talent descriptions assume the psionicist is using a PK crystal. If using talents without one, double activation and maintenance costs unless otherwise noted. This doubling occurs before any CT modifiers from ability cards are applied.

When the CT cost is subtracted, the player makes an activation roll. This reflects the psion’s ability to focus his mind and channel the energies needed to use his talent. Each talent will have an activation number. Some talents will use the level skill Mastery to determine the dice pool. Others will use the Psi Focus level to determine the dice pool. This distinction will be made in the talent description. Most psionic activation rolls will use the character’s Essence trait (very important to psionic characters, like dexterity is to marksmen). If the activation roll uses a trait other than Essence, it will be noted in the description.

Some talents are known as “mental attacks.” These target the minds or bodies of other beings, and as such, may be resisted, or might just miss. For a Telepathic mental attack such as Stun, your activation roll is the attack roll. The target rolls a dice pool using his Mental Conditioning and Essence trait (If the target doesn’t have the mental conditioning skill, they can make an unskilled check). Psionic nulls add their die type to their resistance rolls. If the target meets or exceeds the attack roll, the attack fails. For telekinetic attacks such as TK Blow or TK Bullet, determine whether the attack hits as you would a melee or ranged attack, respectively (again, with the activation roll also serving as the attack roll). Psionic nulls do not get any special defense against Telekinetic attacks; the psion’s powers are effecting inanimate objects, not the mind of the target. Some attacks will only work when in direct contact with an opponent, such as DeathTouch. If engaged in combat while attempting a touch attack, you may need to spend an action attempting to grapple the target, first.

In most circumstances, attempting to activate a talent will cost CT, regardless of whether the activation roll is successful or whether a mental attack actually “hits.”

In Combat

When a psion enters combat time (when the Master asks the players to make initiative rolls), in addition to drawing action cards, the player needs to draw a hand of psi cards from his psionics ability deck. For every 2 levels of psionic focus the character has, he can draw 1 ability card. At any point in the combat, the psion can spend 1 CT to discard his current hand and redraw a new one. Also, if you use all your ability cards, to redraw a new hand will require you spend one CT. If you choose not to draw a new hand, you can discard one ability card currently in your hand to draw a new one at the beginning of the round. If you have no ability cards left you can draw a new card without discarding. Psions with more training will have a greater chance to have cards in their hand that have beneficial effects rather than negative ones, and will also be able to use this pool for a longer time before replenishing.

The ability cards may have bonuses or penalties associated with them that may increase or decrease the following traits of any talent: speed, delay, activation #, CT cost, attack roll or effect. In addition, the cards may allow for special maneuvers (similar to martial arts ability cards) that allow the psion to play the card to attempt the maneuver associated with the card.

To use a talent in combat, you must have an action card available to use the talent as your action on that step of the initiative. When a step comes up that you have an action card for, state your intent to use a psionic talent and play one of the ability cards from your pool. If the talent or ability card requires a delay, you can start placing counters on it until it activates, or if the speed of the talent is greater than 1, you can begin placing action cards on it (as you would when firing a weapon with speed >1).

Concentrating
Like aiming a weapon, an adept can concentrate to improve the attack number of a mental attack or telekinetic attack. It takes 3 phases of aiming to get a +1 bonus. The adept can concentrate for up to 6 phases to get +2.

Activation
When it is time for the talent to activate, pay the CT cost and draw an (action/ability) card/roll vs. the talent’s activation number. If the check is successful, the talent activates. The target makes whatever resistance checks may be allowed, and effects of the talent are resolved per the talent’s description.

If the player chooses, he may expend additional CT on a 1/1 basis to add +1 to the activation roll. Likewise, if the talent or psi card requires a delay, the psion can reduce the delay on a 1/1 basis by increasing the activation #.

Tara 7 is attempting a mental attack in combat to stun an enemy before he flees the scene. The only psi card she has left indicates a delay of 3. The talent has an activation roll of 7. She can’t risk the enemy getting away, so she rushes the attack, reducing the delay to 0. This adds +3 to the activation number, making it 10. She focuses her mental energies and expends 7 additional CT points to reduce the activation roll to 3. Tara 7 stretches her hand out and the cosmic energies swirl around her, whipping up her short blond hair as the power becomes manifest! She releases the psychic blast with a roll of 9. Her opponent only rolls a 4 for his defense, stumbles, falls and skids on his face to a stop.

Using additional CT in this manner can make talents less chancy to use, but will rapidly drain a psion’s CT and thus make them more prone to being incapacitated in combat. Sometimes, however, you have to give it everything you’ve got, and this allows players the chance to have their Heroes scrunch their brows and focus all they’ve got, a staple element of many sci-fi stories we have seen or read before.

If your action card’s PSI modifier reduces the CT cost to zero or less, it costs no CT for this activation. You managed to tap into energy reserves and were not exhausted at all by using the talent.

Outside of Combat

Each time you use a talent outside of combat, draw a card from the action deck. That card will determine any modifiers to the talent’s activation.

Some of these modifiers might not seem important at first glance. A CT penalty for a non-combat activation may seem negligible, but CT loss from using psi talents should not be replenished until the current scene has ended, or the Master has declared a significant time has passed. If using talents that have a lengthy duration, the adept will not replenish CT until the talent’s effects end or he shuts it down. If you’re using telepathy to communicate with your crew to set up before a fight, it’s just gaming the system to say “okay, now we need to wait 5 minutes before we spring our trap.” Or if you’re talking to people in a bar and use your Detect Lies talent on a bunch of people when you start talking to someone who picks a fight, you should start the combat with reduced CT because you have not had a chance to rest; you’ve been constantly probing people with your mind. Now if you had planned to wait until sundown to spring that ambush, or got into a fight on the way to apprehend someone after interrogating a bunch of people in the bar, you should likely start the fight with your CT refreshed, Master’s discretion.

Passive Psionic Talents

Some talents merely require you have learned them and their effects are “always on;” they yield some kind of bonus at all times. Others activate without the psion’s conscious thought, and if these trigger, the psionicist only pays the CT cost if the talent activates.

To aid his investigations, Xenas has decided to learn some skills in the Clairvoyant focus. For now, the only talent he knows is Danger Sense. This talent is “always on.” Whenever he is in a situation that the Master knows to be dangerous, he will make an activation check for Xenas. In this case, the activation check succeeds, Xenas loses a point of CT, and gets a nudge from his extrasensory perception in the form of a note from the Master: “As you make your way out of the bar and walk to Silas Stargrave’s offices to arrest him, your danger sense tells you that you are being followed with ill intent…” This heads-up allows Xenas to draw his blaster and open fire on his tail rather than being ambushed. And, since Xenas is a licensed Psi Operative, “following his gut” is acceptable BRINT procedure in justifying a use of lethal force… However, if Xenas’ activation roll had failed, his Danger Sense would not have told him anything in this instance. But hey, at least he would have been ambushed with all his CT points at max.

Psionics as “Magic”

Clarke's third law:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Future Imperfect embraces the sci-fi genre in many forms and flavors. For the default setting and its history, psionics seems to fit the style of “supernatural” power we have opted to include. But why include it at all? Since this is a game, the ultimate answer would be that we hope it is fun for you. We want players and masters to have the choice to include a touch of the fantastic and mystical to their cold, hard science if they so choose.

In many Fantasy settings, there is often some rationalization or explanation of “how magic works.” Sometimes the devout pray to their gods and are granted blessings that take the form of spells, or they are channeling eldritch powers utilizing a set pool of mana. This is fine. It creates an internal consistency that ultimately is part of the story, but at its core, it is still the unknown, the supernatural. It is usually the domain in which the common man can never tread, not without a life of spiritual or arcane devotion.

In sci-fi, the supernatural is often dabbled with. You have the Lensmen of E.E. Doc Smith; the Jedi and Sith of Star Wars; Deanna Troi of Betazed from Star Trek and the Sectoids and Ethereals of X-Com, just to name a few. Instead of deities and mysticism, the sci-fi story often rationalizes the “supernatural” with science. These stories take the “super” out of the natural, but it is still something beyond the common man; without training or the right genes, you’ll never have what it takes, so a similar purpose is served as in a fantasy setting.

In Future Imperfect, we choose the focus of Psionics—mental powers—and rationalize it as a “science” that deals with types of energy that are normally difficult to detect or manipulate. Hell, X-rays are difficult to detect and manipulate, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. However, if you told someone two hundred years ago you could shine a special light to photograph their bones without harming them, they’d think you were nuts! And, to put things in perspective, some real-world scientists and physicists might claim that FTL travel as romanticized in the sci-fi genre is far more magical and improbable than the idea that someone may be able to develop the ability to read someone else’s mind.

We will, at our core, aim for a more realistic portrayal of physics and science when possible. Or, one might say that our Mohs scale of Science Fiction Hardness (probably a 3.5-4.0) is a bit harder than George Lucas’, but maybe not as high as Robert Heinlein’s! Our system has its phoney-baloney rationales and malarkey explanations, but we have also attempted to adhere to some internal consistencies (mental attacks won’t work on trucks; you can’t read a robot’s mind), which makes psionics just a part of the setting and sort of a theme for the story. This doesn’t mean that your own sci-fi game cannot be more of a science fantasy type game. Do with it as you see fit. As a Master, feel free to alter the psionic foci as you please, remove talents, alter existing talents or make new ones entirely. Or, if you think FTL and artificial gravity are enough magic for your sci-fi epic, you can choose not to use psionics at all.

Alternatively, one might wish to use this system for something other than the portrayal of a sci-fi game. You might choose to run a swords & sorcery game using this system. If you so choose, these Psionics rules could easily be adapted. You could have different names for the foci, such as Dark Arts, different types of Elemental Magic, Summoning, Divination, etc. You certainly don’t need our permission or blessing, but these basic rules could serve many different purposes. Or you could make your own, just like we did (kind of).

Talent List

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Telepathy
Telekinesis
Clairvoyance
Self-Awareness

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Psionic talents are purchased with attribute points or are learned at the same XP cost as attributes. There are many different psionic talents, though, and they are grouped into four separate Foci. Each Focus must also be purchased like an attribute. Each level in a focus can be invested (called mastery) in, as well, and it may have several related talents. The greater the mastery of any level of a focus, the more talents become available, and/or the more attuned the psion becomes at using them.

Xenas has chosen to become a Telepath. He invests 5 attribute points in the Psi: Telepathy focus. This allows him to put attribute points in any of the first 5 levels of Telepathy. Since he is an BRINT agent, and being able to get answers out of people or getting them to do what he wants may come in handy, he puts 3 points in level 4 which will give him the talents of Suggestion and Detect Lies. Xenas’ player notes the juicy Mind Probe talent available at level 5, and decides to put the points there, giving him the talents of Mental Attack: Stun, Coma and Mind Probe. He puts a single point in level 3, getting Mind Touch because it might be handy to communicate with somebody silently, and one point in level 1 to get Life Sense. He decides not to invest in Level 2 and develop a Mind Shield because the player doesn’t expect to see many Adepts in his neck of the galaxy. Hopefully that choice doesn’t come back to bite him in the brainpan…In one fell swoop, Xenas’ player has invested 15 attribute points in his Psionic talents, leaving him pathetically few points left to flesh out his more corporeal skills. To make it in BRINT, Xenas must have rode his talents hard, because the rest of his skills certainly wouldn’t have gotten him far in the organization!

Each talent description will use the following format:

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Talent Name* (“*” indicates that this talent is ineffective against psionic nulls)
CT cost: Activation cost/maintenance cost (if applicable)
Activation #:
Speed/Delay: X/X
Dice Pool: The dice pool will usually be Focus or Mastery (with “Mastery” being the skill level assigned to that particular talent level of the focus). If the dice pool uses something other than Essence, it will be noted (as Focus-Presence, for example.
Description of talent. This will include the range of the talent, duration and maintenance cost (if applicable)

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Telepathy

The people person

This psi focus allows the psion to sense and influence the thoughts of other sentient beings. At higher levels of mastery, the telepath can wreak havoc on the minds of others, binding them to his will or even killing them outright with nothing more than the power of his own mind. Telepaths have a wide range of talents available, but some talents are more narrow and specific in their use compared to the talents of other psionic foci.

Level 1—Life Sense/1, Thought Projection/3, Locate/5

Life Sense*
CT cost: 1
Activation #: 5
Speed/Delay: 1/0
Dice Pool: Focus
The adept can detect the presence of living beings through the energies given off from their mental auras. Successive uses of this talent can be used to determine (1) the nature of the life readings, (2) the number and (3) the general direction and range. Each bump tells the psion another level of information. Detection range is Essence die type x 50m. Duration for each activation 5 minutes.

Thought Projection*
CT cost: 1
Activation #: 7
Speed/Delay: 1/0
Dice Pool: Focus-Presence
The adept can project empathic messages into another mind. He can send a one word “message” to the target. It may be open to some interpretation, but will generally be regarded favorably. Often, this talent is used to project a message of “honesty” or “openness” to the target, allowing them to feel like they can trust the psion or make them more willing to engage in conversation. Timing and contextual dialog may be helpful to get the best effects out of this talent. Each bump allows the projection of an additional word in the same message, which can cut down ambiguity and get more specific results. Alternately, this talent can be used to read a target’s general mood. Range is 20m.

Locate*
CT cost: 1
Activation #: 7
Speed/Delay: 1/0
Dice Pool: Focus
This talent is a refinement of Life Sense. It can be actively used to pinpoint the position of any mental aura within range, as well as locate any psionic powers aimed at him or anyone in his vicinity. Use of the talent in this fashion is accurate enough that the psion could direct reasonably accurate weapons fire at a located target! Locate acts passively as a kind of “sixth sense,” and will give warning of the presence of an unseen observer. If the adept’s locate talent warns him he is being watched, he can actively use the talent to pinpoint the watcher’s location to within a few meters. Range is Essence die type x 50m.

Level 2—Mind shield/1, Mental Attack: Stop/4

Mind Shield
CT cost: 2/1 (active);1 (passive)
Activation #: 5
Speed/Delay: 1/0
Dice Pool: Focus
Active use of this talent allows the adept to project a psychic shell around his mind that renders him nearly impervious to telepathic talents for 5 minutes per activation (The adept defends as a Null would). Passively, each 2 levels act as one level of the mental conditioning skill.

Mental Attack: Stop
CT cost: 1
Activation #: 5
Speed/Delay: 1/0
Dice Pool: Mastery
This mental attack allows the psion to interrupt the target's thought processes for a short time, almost like a limited form of amnesia or disorientation. If the target fails to resist, results depend on what the target is currently doing. If the target is in the middle of a multi-action procedure or waiting for a delay (such as firing a speed 2 weapon, aiming, or waiting for a psi ability with a delay to activate), the action is interrupted and stopped. If the target has not acted yet, they lose their highest action card. Each bump eliminates an additional action card. If the target has no action cards, he gains "amnesia counters" that must be removed by playing action cards in later rounds before he can act again. Range is 20m x Essence die type.

Level 3—Mind Touch/1, Telepathy/3, Aura (Presence)/5

Mind Touch*
CT cost: 1/1
Activation #: 5
Speed/Delay: 1/0
Dice Pool: Focus
This talent allows the psion to enter into one-way or two-way communication with another being’s mind if he can establish physical contact. Skin-to-skin contact is best; add 2 to the activation number is contact is through clothing or armor. The psion can freely converse with the target, and each party’s thoughts will be understood regardless of language differences. For one-way communication, the psion can read surface thoughts, which will generally be no more than a handful of words at each attempt. Contextual dialog with the target may be necessary to get him to “mentally flinch” and start thinking about what the psion wants to hear, otherwise one might listen in while the target is pondering what he wants for dinner or overhear how much he wants to have sex with the green-skinned girl across the room. If used on a sleeping target, Mind Touch can be used to deeply probe the target’s thoughts as though he were in a trance or under the effect of a “truth serum.” Each simple question the psion wants answered will require one activation, and it will be answered truthfully. Each bump allows the psion to ask one more question or to ask a more complex question. (“Did you steal the package” is a simple question; “How did you break into the vault to steal the package” is a complex question.) Failure to activate may wake the subject (Target’s Acuity vs. TN 7). Range is touch. Duration is 1 minute per activation for two-way conversation.

Telepathy*
CT cost: 1/1
Activation #: 7 (5 if target has been contacted before and does not resist)
Speed/Delay: 1/0
Dice Pool: Focus
This talent allows the adept to communicate with another being at great distances as though he were having a face-to-face conversation (regardless of language barriers). If the telepath has line of sight to the target, he can initiate contact. If the target has been contacted before and does not resist the telepath, the activation roll is 5. If the contact is not in sight, the adept must know their psychic “aura” by having made some form of telepathic contact with them previously. A telepathic “shout” can be made which can be heard by any telepath in range. Range is 20 km for level 1 Telepathy focus, doubled for each level after, up to a maximum of just over 2500 kilometers. Duration is 1 minute per activation.

Aura*
CT cost: 3/3
Activation #: 7
Speed/Delay: 1/0
Dice Pool: Focus
This talent allows the adept to subtly affect the minds of all those around him by altering his own mental signature in a favorable light. It manifests as improved charisma, leadership and personal appeal. While the talent is active, the adept raises his Presence die type by one. The adept’s Aura can also be focused on one person each day (they are allowed to resist as per mental attacks). After a number of successful daily checks equal to the target’s Essence die type, the target becomes permanently loyal to the adept, or in the case of a potential lover, infatuated with him or her. Some less scrupulous adepts will use this talent over the course of years to establish cult-like followings of devotees. Range for infatuation check: Conversational distance. Duration is 1 hour/1 scene.

Level 4—Suggestion/1, Detect Lies/3, Illusion/5

Suggestion*
CT cost: 2
Activation #: 7
Speed/Delay: 2/0
Dice Pool: Focus-Presence
This talent allows the adept to project an emotional state onto a neutral person or animal so that he seems friendly. This talent cannot be used to override any strong emotions the target is feeling at the time of the suggestion, nor will it cause the target to oppose its nature or threaten its safety. The suggestion is open to interpretation by the target, and takes the form of a very short phrase, usually only two or three words. If the target fails to resist, he tends to believe the suggestion that has been implanted. Range is Essence die type x 5 meters.

Detect Lies*
CT cost: 1
Activation #: 5
Speed/Delay: 0
Dice Pool: Focus-Acuity
With a successful activation, the adept can ascertain whether the speaker believes what he is saying is the truth in regard to the answer to one question or the making of a single statement. Before asking a question or immediately after getting an answer or hearing a statement, the adept can activate this talent to determine if the target is speaking the truth. The adept will know if he failed to activate the talent, but will not be able to tell if what the target is saying is incorrect—even if the facts are wrong, the target may believe them to be true. Range is close conversational range, approximately 2-3 meters, to allow the adept to clearly see all the visual cues the target is giving off. Because this talent is not completely psionic in nature, a psion can attempt to detect lies even if the person is not present (such as watching a recording) or if they are a psionic null at a -4 penalty. Likewise, if the psion cannot see the speaker but they are within range (such as if they are wearing a masked helmet or are on the other side of a door), an attempt can still be made at -4.

Illusion*
CT cost: 1
Activation #: 5
Speed/Delay: 2/0
Dice Pool: Mastery
This talent allows the adept to create a believable illusion around an inanimate or unmoving object (which can be living creatures so long as they remain relatively motionless). The target(s) are able to make a resistance roll to see through the illusion. Range is line of sight. Duration of an illusion is up to 1 day.

Level 5—Mental Attack: Stun/1, Coma/3, Mind probe/5

Mental Attack: Stun*
CT cost: 2
Activation #: 7
Speed/Delay: 1/0
Dice Pool: Mastery
This mental attack is aimed at a specific target, and has the same effect as a stun pistol beam, (see page XX) but it is unaffected by personal armor. Range is 20m x Essence die type.

Mental Attack: Coma*
CT cost: 5
Activation #: 9
Speed/Delay: 2/3
Dice Pool: Mastery
This mental attack is an improved stun attack. If the victim fails his resistance check, he falls unconscious. Each round the victim is allowed to make a Fortitude check at TN 11. If the target fails this check a number of times equal to his fortitude die type, he is comatose for a minimum of 5 minutes, and can then only check to wake every 5 minutes. If the victim falls into a coma, he makes a TN 9 Essence check. If he fails that, he suffers short term amnesia, forgetting the events leading up to him being placed in a coma. If the adept expends 10 CT, he can force the amnesia on the victim. The use of drugs to revive the target (such as smelling salts, adrenaline or more exotic means) will add a +4 bonus to the Fortitude check to wake the target. Range is 20m x Essence die type.

Mental Attack: Mind Probe*
CT cost: 5
Activation #: 9
Speed/Delay: 2/0
Dice Pool: Mastery
This is a powerful mental attack that allows the psion to enter the mind of the victim and subject it to close scrutiny. If the target fails to resist, the psion can ask one very pointed question which the victim’s mind must answer truthfully. If the psion so chooses, he can ask additional questions for 2 CT each, but the victim is given a chance to resist each question after the first (Target Essence/Mental Conditioning vs. Psion’s Psi Focus: Telepathy). If the target resists, the mind probe ends. The psion may ask as many questions as his Psi Focus: Telepathy level. The target will be aware of the questions he is being asked and what answers he is giving. It is normally not possible to Mind Probe someone in the middle of combat. Range is 20m x Essence die type. Duration is one round; maintenance is 2 CT per round.

Level 6—Delusion/1, Dominate/3, Great Command/5
Delusion*
CT cost: 5
Activation #: 9
Speed/Delay: 2/0
Dice Pool: Focus
This talent is a refinement of Illusion and suggestion, it will allow the adept to create a simple belief structure in the mind of the victim which may affect his decisions and attitudes. The victim will believe the essence of a simple—4 to 5 word—message and will act accordingly when involved in any situation on which that belief has a bearing. For example, the delusionary message “The police are corrupt,” might make the victim fear for his life and make him flee the police or refuse to cooperate with them if arrested. As with the Aura talent, Delusion can be reinforced on an individual repeatedly. If it takes hold, the mantra that the psion implants will be held by the target as a nearly unshakeable truth. Range is 20m x Essence die type. Duration is 1 day.

Dominate*
CT cost: 5
Activation #: 7
Speed/Delay: 2/3 (Dominate) 1/3 (Issue commands)
Dice Pool: Mastery-Presence
This mental attack allows the psion to dominate the will of the subject, basically turning the target into his puppet. Each bump to the activation roll allows an additional target to be dominated. The target must be sentient; animals or members of hive minds cannot be influenced. If the attack is successful, the victim will carry out any verbal instructions given by the psion (or telepathic commands if the psion has established a telepathic connection). However, orders to commit blatantly suicidal acts (“Jump off this building”) will allow the target to make a simple (TN 3) Essence check to release the target from control. The target will then also gain a permanent +4 bonus to resist any domination attempts by that psion in the future. This does not preclude compulsions toward normally “heroic” orders where the victim might stand a reasonable chance of survival (“Run to that cover over there to draw fire!”). A psion can have more than one victim dominated at a time, but can only make one attempt per round and can only issue orders to one at a time or the same orders to the entire group. Issuing commands in combat takes an action with a delay of 3; the target will obey on his next available action. Every time a victim suffers a wound, they may make a resistance check to snap out of their fugue state. If they are knocked out, the link is broken and the domination ends. Another telepath with the Dominate talent can release a victim if they fail to resist the “release” command. Dominated victims will have no memory of what happened while they were under the adept’s control. Duration is one scene.

Great Command*
CT cost: 5
Activation #: 11
Speed/Delay: 2/0 (activation) 1/0 (Defiant Gaze)
Dice Pool: Focus
The adept begins to develop a psychic aura so intense that lesser men begin to pale before it. When utilizing this talent, the adept appears regal, almost godly in the eyes of others. Those who fight at his side in battle never need to make Bravery or Fear checks while the aura is active. Also, NPCs must make an Essence check at TN 5 just to actively oppose the psion each action. Once the Great Command talent is active, the psion can (as a speed 1 action) send such a menacing look at any NPC who crosses him that they must make an instant fear check at TN 11, with subsequent essence checks at 7 if the NPC attempts to further oppose him (line-of-sight is necessary for the Defiant Gaze). If the psion is of good character, his aura takes the form of respect and admiration by his followers. If the psion is of a violent and cruel nature, he earns their respect and fear. When one is exposed to an exercise of Great Command, a lasting impression will be made. Great Command can be used to sway the minds of large groups of people; the psion will not be elected supreme leader overnight, but if given time to speak, for 1 CT per 50 listeners he can sway 10% of the crowd for every point he exceeds a TN 3 leadership check. Range is line of sight. Duration is one scene.

Level 7—Mental Attack: PainBlast/1, DeathBolt/3, MindSlay/5

Mental Attack: PainBlast*
CT cost: 3
Activation #: 9
Speed/Delay: 1/0
Dice Pool: Mastery
This savage mental attack causes a violent shock to the target’s nervous system, forcing the target to make a Fortitude check at TN 9 to remain conscious. The pain is so terrible that the mere threat of another treatment will cause a TN 11 fear check. Failing that roll, the target will attempt to flee, or if flight is impossible he may willingly succumb to interrogation or even cooperate freely with the psion. Each application of PainBlast causes 3d8 CT damage which bypasses armor, but causes no wounds. Each bump to the activation roll will cause an additional d8 damage. Repeated use of this talent is often regarded as outright torture. Range is 20m x Essence die type.

Mental Attack: DeathBolt*
CT cost: 5
Activation #: 7
Speed/Delay: 2/0
Dice Pool: Mastery
A devastating mental attack that causes 4d10 damage and bypasses armor. Any wounds are applied singly to random locations due to extreme seizure-like activity that can be so powerful as to tear muscles and break bones. Range is 20m x Essence die type.

Mental Attack: MindSlay*
CT cost: 7
Activation #: 9
Speed/Delay: 2/0
Dice Pool: Mastery
MindSlay acts like a DeathBolt attack that then leaps out to effect all other sentient minds within 5 meters of the target. Each bump to the activation roll increases the AoE by 5m. The attack causes 4d10 damage and bypasses armor. If only the target is within range of the AoE, the energy of the mental attack is focused, causing 5d12 damage. Any wounds are applied singly to random locations from extreme seizure-like activity that can be so powerful as to tear muscles and break bones. Range is 20m x Essence die type.

Level 8—Elemental Force

Elemental Force*
CT cost: 10
Activation #: 3
Speed/Delay: 3/0
Dice Pool: Mastery
—A truly awesome display of the ultimate telepathic assault. This talent allows the adept to attack multiple targets simultaneously. For each 2 points the activation roll is exceeded, an additional target may be targeted by the mental attack. Those that fail to resist are struck by 4d10 damage. If only one victim is targeted, the damage is increased to 5d12. This damage bypasses armor. Any wounds are applied singly to random locations from extreme seizure-like activity that can be so powerful as to tear muscles and break bones. The adept does not need line of sight to target; if he has established their location through the use of Sense Life, Locate or Telepathy, they can be targeted. Range is 50m all around the adept.

Psionics--Deprecated

Psionics is the pseudo-mystical science of the mind and the underlying energies of the universe. When one is attuned to these energies, and their mind has been trained and conditioned to them, a person may sense their influence just as we can see when we open our eyes; he can manipulate them by projecting these energies from his own mind, just as we can turn a knob with our fingers. Psionics is the manipulation of the universe by normally unseen forces. It is easy for the unschooled to pass if off as magic or sleight of hand, or for information gained from telepathy or psychometry to be discounted, but the psionicist knows the truth. This struggle against ignorance will likely play a role in the life of any adept. The story often lies in how they deal with it.

Of course for some, ignorance is bliss, and many adepts couldn’t agree more. Dependent on the views of the local culture or government, an adept may be seen as a witch, heretic or enemy of the state; some adepts may choose to wear their mundane lives like a cowl and cape, always keeping the secret of the power beneath from those around them at all cost. To do otherwise might risk persecution or worse, and the chains will ever be stronger and tighter on those who may have the means to break them…

Latent Psionic Ability

During character creation, there are 5 categories of psionic ability. These are null, normal, conditioned, latent and adept.

Normal— This is just what it sounds like—nothing. The character is more susceptible to many psionic abilities. His mind is not prepared to stave off mental attacks. Perhaps the psychology behind the way he thinks makes his “inner voice” easier to hear. He also leaves a greater psychic stain wherever he goes that can be picked up more easily by clairvoyants. Luckily for the psionically normal character, Psionicists are a rare breed. Unless they are not. While normal characters do not start the game with the mental conditioning skill, they can still purchase or learn it. These characters will never have access to psionic abilities.

Conditioned—These people have had some form of mental conditioning, formal training or are naturally chaotic in their thought patterns. This character has no psionic abilities, but starts with one level in the mental conditioning skill as an everyman skill. This allows them to make defense rolls against mental attacks instead of unskilled Essence rolls.

Null—Psionic nulls are those rare people whose minds are resistant to psychic meddling. Some aspect of their biology or sometimes arduous mental conditioning will proof their minds from being read, having thoughts or feelings implanted, or even make them resistant to mental attacks. They will also be resistant to any kind of psionic aid one can render, but it’s the price they pay. Psionic nulls can never use psionic abilities.

Latent—The latent character has the ability to use psionic abilities. Maybe they know, maybe they do not. They have likely suspected things have been different for them their whole lives compared to the experiences they have heard from those around them. Latents can use experience gained to purchase psionic abilities, and once they have sacrificed enough fate chips or experience, opportunity will come knocking, and they may have the opportunity to be "awakened" and possibly find a PK crystal of their own (see below).

Adept—The psionic adept is not one to be taken lightly. These individuals can wield great natural talent, and often discovered their abilities—or were discovered—years ago, giving them plenty of time to train and hone their talents. Characters who spend their highest rank on psionics at character creation are considered adepts, and can use attribute points to purchase psionic foci and talents during character creation. Adepts also begin the game with a PK crystal.

The Psionic Adept

Adepts have the capacity to master all fields of psionic talent. Psionicists with latent abilities may dabble and learn of Telepathy, Telekinesis and Clairvoyance, but only adepts can learn the focus of Self-Awareness, the art of knowing oneself so completely that, with mastery, they verge on becoming transcendent.

Psionic Awakening

Even with great natural ability, one cannot exercise any psionic talents. The minds of all known races during this age of the galaxy simply do not operate on those levels, they are not built to pick up on the forces and energies that a psionicist taps into and manipulates. It is believed that these abilities were commonplace, once. Perhaps even a racial trait as natural as a canine’s nose or some humanoids’ ability to breathe underwater with mutant gills. The truth is not fully understood, but what is known is that those with psionic talents were at some point exposed—awakened—and at that point the structure of their mind began to change to interface with a whole new world of energies all around them. The awakening usually happens in one of three ways:

1. The latent suffers a mental attack. Perhaps a psionicist sensed some great potential in the latent, and targeted him to jar something loose, to get his psychic gears turning, or possibly the latent was the victim of a psionicist who didn’t realize the can of worms he was opening up.

2. The latent comes into contact with an unaligned PK crystal (see below), and its energies sync with the latent, stripping bare the mundane mechanisms of their mind and re-forging it anew with the capability to detect and influence the subtle underlying energies of the universe. This will sometimes happen to explorers or archaeologists attempting to uncover secrets of the ForeRunners or other ancient civilizations, or to colonists on freshly terraformed frontier worlds who happen to stumble across ancient ruins.

3. Adepts are sometimes scouted out at an early age by mysterious agencies. They are observed and studied, and at some point, they may be contacted. When this contact occurs, they disappear for a number of weeks or months, then return to their old lives unharmed, but irrevocably changed. They will find themselves in possession of a PK crystal, and they will have learned some talents. How they use these talents is up to them, but one can be assured that it will likely be in the service and best interests of whoever contacted them in the first place.

The PK Crystal

Even an adept will find it taxing to attempt to channel the energies in our material universe to influence the world around him. The PK crystal is a ForeRunner artifact about the size of a large coin, and shaped like a lens. It is opaque and utterly black—no light reflects from it at all. The few that have found their way into the collections of research laboratories have proven difficult and downright hazardous to study directly. Even still, little is known about them. The material that composes them is completely unknown, and what they do largely remains a mystery. By itself, the PK crystal is inert, but when it becomes aligned with the mind of a latent or adept, it seems to act as a gateway or focus to some alternate, high-energy—possibly even Tachyon—universe beyond our own. With a PK crystal, a psionicist’s powers truly become manifest. Without a PK crystal, a psionicist will exhaust his energy reserves much faster, and his talents will sometimes be much weaker. Some talents require such energies to unleash that attempting them without a PK crystal will be impossible.

A psionicist doesn’t need to worry overmuch about the sanctity of his crystal, however. Since he is aligned with it, he will always know where it is, granting him very specific clairvoyant capabilities to find it. Also, since it has aligned with one person and him alone, its physical composition will become completely antithetical to the mind of anyone else. Physical contact with it will unleash such psychic backlash that it will slowly destroy any other sentient being as though they had come in contact with a powerful neurotoxin that leaves no trace. Each round that a character is in direct physical contact with an aligned PK crystal, they will lose one level of die type from one of their mental traits, starting with the highest. When one mental type is reduced from d4, they will begin to lose coordinations. At this point they will enter a coma. When they have lost all points of coordination with their mental traits, they suffer brain death. These “injuries” can be healed over time, treating each one as a serious wound. As such, a psionicist doesn’t generally need to fear his PK crystal being stolen and used by someone else, though someone may try and take it to temporarily weaken the psionicist or draw him out, because he will surely come looking for what is his...

Talent List

Psionic talents are purchased with attribute points or are learned by spending XP. There are many different psionic talents, though, and they are grouped into four separate Foci. Each Focus must be purchased like a skill. Each level in a focus can be invested in, as well, and it may have several related talents. The greater the mastery of any level of a focus, the more talents become available, and/or the more attuned the adept becomes at using them.

Example: Xenas has chosen to become a Telepath. He invests 5 attribute points in the Psi: Telepathy focus. This allows him to put attribute points in any of the first 5 levels of Telepathy. Since he is a BRINT agent, and being able to get answers out of people or getting them to do what he wants may come in handy, he puts 3 points in level 4 which will give him the talents of Suggestion and TruthTell. Xenas’ player notes the juicy Mind Probe talent available at level 5, and decides to put the points there, giving him the talents of Mental Attack: Stun, Coma and Mind Probe. He puts a single point in level 3, getting Mind Touch because it might be handy to communicate with somebody silently, and one point in level 1 to get Life Sense. He decides not to invest in Level 2 and develop a Mind Shield because the player doesn’t expect to see many adepts in his neck of the galaxy. Hopefully that choice doesn’t come back to bite him in the brainpan… In one fell swoop, Xenas’ player has invested 15 attribute points in his Psionic talents, leaving him pathetically few points left to flesh out his more corporeal skills. To make it in BRINT, Xenas must have rode his talents hard, because the rest of his skills certainly wouldn’t have gotten him far in the organization!

Each talent description will use the following format:

Talent Name (1/5/Dice Pool)—Description of talent. Range (if applicable). Duration (if applicable). Maintenance cost (if applicable).

The numbers in parentheses indicate the (CT cost/activation number/what skill is used for the dice pool) The dice pool will usually be Focus or Mastery (with “Mastery” being the skill level assigned to that particular talent level of the focus). If the dice pool uses something other than Essence, it will be noted as (Focus-Presence), for example.

Telepathy
Telekinesis
Clairvoyance
Self-Awareness

Psionic Nulls

The mind of a sentient being is unique by its very nature and definition, and some of them simply don’t seem to operate the same way as the vast majority of the population. Many psionic talents rely on picking up or syncing with the mental energies radiated by other beings; Psionic Nulls seem to generate no such energy.

If, during character creation, you chose rank 3 for Psionics, this rates your character as a Psionic “Null.” This means that for the most part, many Psionic talents that detect or influence the mind will have little to no effect on the character. A telepath would not sense a Null with his Detect Life talent, and targeting a Null with most Mental Attacks is extremely difficult (but not impossible). Being a Null would not, however protect him from the TK attacks of a telekinetic adept, as those psionicists are manipulating real world objects to cause damage. If a talent will not work or have reduced effects on a Null, the talent description will make this distinction. Psionic Null characters can never, ever learn psionic talents, and are so out of tune with psionic energies that mere physical contact with a PK crystal will act as the most virulent neurotoxin imaginable as the energies the crystal channels into our dimension breaks down and subsumes the bonds in the Null’s mind. This will result in incurable brain death, regardless of whether they maintain physical contact with the crystal. You have been warned.

Using Psionic Talents

Tapping into the underlying energies of the universe requires that the psionicist expend some of his own energies to channel much greater forces. This will exhaust a psionicist over time, but not cause any lasting physical harm. This is represented in game by talents costing CT to activate or maintain. CT costs listed in the talent descriptions assume the psionicist is using a PK crystal. If using talents without one, double activation and maintenance costs unless otherwise noted. If a psionicist is reduced to 0 or fewer CT by using talents, he falls out, exhausted, until he can recover (just as though he had taken CT damage from injury).

When the CT cost is subtracted, the player makes an activation roll. Each talent will have an activation number. Some talents will use their level mastery (the number of skill points assigned to a particular level) to determine the dice pool. Others will use the focus level to determine the dice pool. This distinction will be made in the talent description. Most psionic activation rolls will use the character’s Essence trait (very important to psionic characters, like deftness is to marksmen). If the activation roll uses a trait other than Essence, it will be noted in the description.

Some talents are known as “mental attacks.” These target the minds or bodies of other beings, and as such, may be resisted, or might just miss. For a Telepathic mental attack such as Stun, roll your dice pool for the attack. The target rolls a dice pool using his Mental Conditioning skill and Essence trait (If the target doesn’t have the mental conditioning skill, they can make an unskilled check using their Essence trait). Psionic nulls add their die type to their resistance rolls (as though their first round of dice had already exploded). If the attacker meets or exceeds the target’s resistance roll, the attack succeeds. For telekinetic attacks such as TK Blow or TK Bullet, determine whether the attack hits as you would a melee or ranged attack, respectively. Some attacks will only work when in direct contact with an opponent, such as DeathTouch. The attack roll will determine if you can touch your opponent if they are trying to resist.

In most circumstances, attempting to activate a talent will cost CT, regardless of whether the activation roll is successful or whether a mental attack actually “hits.”

In Combat

To use a talent in combat, play an action card to use the talent as your action on that phase of the initiative. Action cards will have modifiers for PSI, and when you play your action card, these modifiers will affect the current activation of the talent. Faster cards will tend to have penalties, while slower cards will tend to have bonuses; this reflects that the longer you take to focus, the better it is for the talent to activate properly.

If the psionicist concentrates, they can “aim” to target an opponent (for certain types of mental attacks). Unless otherwise specified, it takes 3 phases to aim to get a +1 bonus. You can “aim” up to twice for an attack. Also, you can increase the CT cost by 2 to get a +1 on the activation roll.

If your action card’s PSI modifier reduces the CT cost to zero or less, it costs no CT for this activation. You managed to tap into energy reserves and were not exhausted at all by using the talent.

Outside of Combat

Each time you use a talent outside of combat, draw a card from the action deck. That card will determine any modifiers to the talent’s activation. If you initiate combat by making a mental attack, and mere seconds will likely not play a factor, the psionicist will almost always be able to gain the +2 bonus from "aiming."

Some of these modifiers might not seem important at first glance. A CT penalty for a non-combat activation may seem negligible, but CT loss from Psionic use should not be replenished until the current scene has ended, or the Master has declared a significant time has passed. If using talents that have a lengthy duration, the adept will not replenish CT until the talent’s effects end or he shuts it down. If you’re using telepathy to communicate with your crew to set up before a fight, it’s just gaming the system to say “okay, now we need to wait 5 minutes before we spring our trap.” Or, if you’re talking to suspects in a bar and use your Detect Lies talent on a bunch of people when you start talking to someone who picks a fight, you should start the combat with reduced CT because you have not had a chance to rest; you’ve been constantly probing people with your mind. Now, if you had planned to wait until sundown to pull off that ambush, or got into a fight on the way to apprehend someone after interrogating a bunch of people in that bar (either one being a potential scene change, either from the passage of time or change of setting), you should likely start the fight with your CT refreshed at the Master’s discretion.

Passive Psionic Talents

Some talents merely require you have learned them and their effects are “always on;” they yield some kind of bonus at all times. Others activate without the psionicist’s conscious thought, and if these trigger, the psionicist only pays the CT cost if the talent activates.

Example: To aid his investigations, Xenas has decided to learn some skills in the Clairvoyant focus. For now, the only talent he knows is Danger Sense. This talent is “always on.” Unbeknownst to Xenas, he is in a situation that the Master knows to be dangerous, so the Master makes an activation check for Xenas. The activation check succeeds, Xenas loses a point of CT, and gets a nudge from his extrasensory perception in the form of a note from the Master: “As you make your way out of the bar and walk to Silas Stargrave’s offices to arrest him, your danger sense tells you that you are being followed with ill intent…” This heads-up allows Xenas to draw his blaster and open fire on a group of Stargrave's henchmen on his tail rather than being ambushed. And, since Xenas is a licensed Psionic Operative, “following his gut” is acceptable BRINT procedure in justifying a use of lethal force… However, if Xenas’ activation roll had failed, his Danger Sense would have told him nothing in this instance. But hey, at least he would have been ambushed with all his CT points at max.

Psionics as “Magic”

Clarke's third law:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Future Imperfect embraces the sci-fi genre in many forms and flavors. For the default setting and its history, “Psionics” seems to fit the style of supernatural power we have opted to include. But why include it at all?

In many Fantasy settings, there is often some rationalization or explanation of “how magic works.” Sometimes the devout pray to their gods and are granted blessings that take the form of spells, or they are channeling eldritch powers utilizing a set pool of mana. This is fine. It has an internal consistency that ultimately is part of the story, but at its core, it is still the unknown, the supernatural. It is usually the domain in which the common man can never tread, not without a life of spiritual devotion or arcane studies.

In sci-fi, the supernatural is often touched upon. You have the Lensmen of E.E. "Doc" Smith; the Jedi and Sith of Star Wars; Deanna Troi of Betazed from Star Trek and the Sectoids and Ethereals of X-Com. Instead of deities and mysticism, the sci-fi story often rationalizes the “supernatural” with science. These stories take the “super” out of the natural, but it is still something beyond the common man; without training or the right genes, you’ll never have what it takes, so a similar end result is achieved as in a fantasy setting.

In Future Imperfect, we choose the focus of Psionics—mental powers—and rationalize it as a “science” that deals with types of energy that are normally difficult to detect or manipulate. Hell, X-rays are difficult to detect and manipulate, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. However, if you told someone two hundred years ago you could shine a special light and see their bones without harming them, they’d think you were nuts! And, to put things in perspective, some real-world scientists and physicists might claim that FTL travel is far more magical than the idea that someone may be able to develop the ability to read someone else’s mind.

We will, at our core, aim for a more realistic portrayal of physics and science when possible. Or, you could say that our Mohs scale of Science Fiction Hardness (probably a 3.5-4.0) is a bit harder than George Lucas’ (but maybe not as high as Robert Heinlein’s!). Our system has its phoney-baloney rationales and malarkey explanations, but we have also attempted to adhere to some internal consistencies (mental attacks won’t work on trucks; you can’t read a robot’s mind), which makes Psionics just a part of the setting and sort of a theme for the story. This doesn’t mean that your own Sci-fi game cannot be more of a science fantasy type game. Do with it as you see fit. As a Master, feel free to alter the psionic foci as you please, or remove talents, alter existing talents or make new ones entirely. Or, if you think FTL and artificial gravity are enough "magic" for your sci-fi epic, you can choose not to use psionics at all.

Alternatively, one might wish to use this system for something other than the portrayal of a sci-fi game. You might choose to run a swords-sorcery game using this system. If you so choose, these Psionics rules could easily be adapted. You could have different names for the foci, such as Dark Arts, different types of Elemental Magic, Summoning, Divination, etc. You certainly don’t need our permission or blessing, but these basic rules could serve many different purposes. Or you could make your own, just like we did (kind of).