Future Imperfect chapter 8

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Psionics

The Operative: "Key members of Parliament." Key. The minds behind every military, diplomatic and covert operation in the galaxy, and you put them in a room with a psychic.

Dr. Mathias: Look... even if River Tam did, by any chance, read the minds of any of the visiting Parliament members here, whatever government secrets she may have read she may not even remember any them, for they are all probably buried under layers of psychosis...

The Operative: Secrets are not my concern. Keeping them is.

--Serenity

---

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, 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 or Adept. 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…

Psionic Ability

Chosen during character creation, there are 5 ranks 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, psions 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 being. 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 checks against psi abilities, these characters earn significant bonuses, equivalent to starting their check as though they had rolled the max for the resistance check, or drawn an "added effect" card for their resistance check; if they draw an added effect card, they may draw another card in addition to the bonus card). 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—A Hero with latent psionic talents has the ability to use psionic abilities. Maybe they know of their gift, 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 and edge 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 spent enough experience, adventured enough or whatever method the Master and player(s) choose to bring about the Hero's psionic awakening, 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 in the wild will likely hail; whether the majority of Heroes hail from this group is up to the tastes of the players in your group!.

Adept—A psion is one who can wield psi abilities. An Adept, however, is a particularly talented type 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 skill 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 out of the gate.

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 Sense Mind 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.

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; at least among one or more races that populated the galaxy long before the rise of the cosmos' current inhabitants. 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. Or maybe you will, and have one hell of an adventure finding out!

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 life 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. This method of awakening is most appropriate for heroes that purchased the Adept level of psionic ability, but an Adept could have been awakened by one of the other methods.

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/or 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, though other shapes and configurations are possible. 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. 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, draw a card and check the effect using the character’s Psionic Focus skill (a Hero with a 2d10 Essence trait and Psionic Focus/2 would look at the 4d10 result). Make this check as you would a damage check. 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 2d10 Essence now rolls as though he had 2d8 Essence. This also means that any further skills or abilities that use his Essence trait 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 2d6). 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. (Designer's note: I noticed that use of psionic abilities in combat could rapidly drain a Hero's CT to the point that one minor hit could take a psion out of the fight. Being able to draw on the PK crystal to bolster CT reserves remedies that at a potentially hefty price, namely the fact that it makes the Hero less capable of activating his talents and/or requiring he spend more CT to ensure his talents activate when he needs them. It can also allow psions to be "damage sponges" if they use CT refreshes just to soak damage without getting KO'd. May need to watch out for that, but some might like the notion that a psion has vast reserves of stamina and can keep going after taking a beating, however wounds would still take the psion out of the fight.)

A psionicist creates a special bond with his crystal. Since he is aligned with it, he will always know where it is (exactly where if it is within 10m, direction and a general range if it is beyond that), 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. 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.

Psionic Foci

There are four fields of Psionic focus. Each one harnesses specific energies, and for each Focus, there are two that are considered "adjacent" and one that is considered "in opposition" to it. A latent or adept must choose a primary focus during character creation (for adepts) or during their awakening (for latents). A psion will most easily learn talents that fall within their focus. Talents from adjacent foci may be learned, as well, but these require more training to achieve similar power levels. Talents from an opposing focus will be the most difficult to learn as the energies used to harness them are so fundamentally different than what the psion is used to dealing with. It is not impossible to learn opposing talents, but the investment may not be worth the end results. The foci are as follows:

Telepathy--This is the art of detecting and influencing the minds of other sentients. Telepathy is adjacent to Clairvoyance and Discipline. It is in opposition to Telekinesis.

Clairvoyance--This focus deals with attuning oneself to the energies of the universe around them, allowing them to perceive events that no normal sentient can. Clairvoyance is adjacent to Telepathy and Telekinesis. It is in opposition to Discipline.

Telekinesis--Students of this focus attune themselves to matter and energy. They can manipulate and move objects and create various types of disrupting fields. Telekinesis is adjacent to Clairvoyance and Discipline. It is in opposition to Telepathy. Psionic Null characters are not immune to the powers of Telekinesis because these talents focus on manipulating matter and energy rather than the target's mind.

Disipline--This field of psionic study focuses on pushing the practitioner beyond normal limits by conditioning his mind and body. With enough knowledge of the self and the energies of various organic systems, students of this art can also manipulate living tissues, mending them to heal wounds and disease, or breaking them down to inflict grievous wounds. Discipline is adjacent to Telepathy and Telekinesis. As the art of the self, it is in opposition to Clairvoyance, the art of the other.

Learning Psionic Talents

Psionic characters have access to special abilities called talents. In other genres these may be referred to as "spells" or "powers." Learning these talents can involve quite an investment in time, mental energy, study and practice. In much the same way that a non-psion would hone mundane skills, so too does an adept cultivate and hone various talents. As such, acquiring psionic talents uses a Hero's precious skill points (during character creation) or experience points if developing talents during the course of a campaign. Psions who are wholly dedicated to psionic studies may find themselves lacking when it comes to more worldly skills, but they will have access to abilities that no amount of worldly study and training will allow.

Because of the nature of psionic abilities--namely, the psion being able to tap into otherworldly energies, detect them and manipulate them with the power of his mind--most talents cannot be "cast" on another being to lend them abilities that the psion has access to; being able to use the ability at all requires much training. It would be like an Olympic athlete handing her skates over to someone who has never stepped into an ice rink and expecting them to pull off a triple-axel. Some talents may be used on others to their benefit, but generally the control of the talents will reside with the psion who activated the talent.

Psionic talents are acquired using "psi points." During character creation, each skill point or edge point can be exchanged for 3 psi points to assign talents. During game play, 1 experience point can be exchanged for 3 psi points to learn new talents or improve existing ones.

Talents by Focus

Each of the four foci will focus on various aspects. Some foci overlap others to some degree. More details will be given later, but here is a brief overview of the more common general talents broken down by focus. This is not an exhaustive list, but it does cover a lot of bases. If you would like to create a custom ability not listed here, the examples and guidelines later in the chapter should aid the process. Work out the details with the Master and go to town.

Telepathy

• Mental attacks (stun, disorient, pain)
  
• Mind control (terrify, dominate, confuse)
  
• Mental projections (Illusions, words, ideas, images)
  
• Mind reading
  
• Mental-based detection (detect/locate living, sentient beings)
  
• Communication (emotional and verbal telepathy)
  
• Mind shield
  
• Sensory block
  
• Social combat defenses (detect lie, detect aura, danger sense)
  

Telekinesis

• TK attacks (melee, ranged, disorient, hold, slow, EMP, ARPO)
  
• Pyro/Cryokinesis (temperature manipulation)
  
• Physical/energy/radiation defenses
  
• Levitation
  
• Flight
  
• Remote skill use
  
• Remote speaking (audio "illusion" or voice/sound projection)
  
• Identify/exploit material weaknesses
  
• Detect motion
  
• Power generation
  
• Physics hax (such as simulating or nullifying gravity or atmospheric pressure)
  

Clairvoyance

• Sense/locate danger
  
• Enhanced senses
  
• Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP) such as detect lifeforms, Psi activity, auras, etc.
  
• Mind shield
  
• Clairaudience
  
• Remote viewing
  
• Direction sense/tracking/pathfinding
  
• Psychometry
  
• Mental projection
  
• Retrocognition
  
• Astral projection
  

Discipline

• Boost traits/derived attributes
  
• Increase combat initiative/number of actions
  
• Healing (injuries, poison, crippling wounds, regeneration, revivification)
  
• Mental attack (pain/injury)
  
• Reduce biological requirements (food/water, sleep, breathing)
  
• Temporary skill edges
  

Designer's Note: This portion of the manual is not intended to be a "Tome of Spells," and we hope that Psionic talents within your game can be creatively applied to cover a wide range of uses and circumstances, rather than listing hundreds of different talents, many of which do almost exactly the same thing as several other talents except for certain variables. Even in sci-fi films and literature that include some form of psionics (whatever name it takes), the abilities shown to the audience often fall into a surprisingly narrow range of categories. That being said, many of the talents listed here are inspired from popular films and literature. Others are considered "traditional" mental abilities, the pop-culture perception of the CIA's MKUltra research. Some abilities listed here are also the bread and butter of the "Psychic Medium" set, however we have intentionally omitted any overtly ghost-y or religious/supernatural material. If that's up your alley, feel free to include it yourself. For the purposes of this set of rules, we shall attempt to endorse more mainstream sci-fi faire.

The R/A/T/E/D System

The cost and capabilities of any particular talent are determined by the levels assigned to several categories:

• Range
  
• Aura
  
• Targets
  
• Effect strength
  
• Duration
  

Each category starts at 1 for a basic talent, and generally goes up to 4. For most talents, these categories will be fairly consistent; two different attacks that produce different results (say, a painful mental blast and a telekinetic bullet attack) will have the same effective range if assigned a 2 in the R category. Some talents may use the various categories to reflect different capabilities; for illusions or enhanced senses, the T category (# of targets) may refer to how many senses are affected (how realistic an illusion is or how immersive a clairvoyant talent is). For telekinetic flight, Range may determine how far one can travel in one combat round. Some talents may have one or more categories that are not used, or essentially will not benefit by any value greater than 1. Categories that are unused or default to a value of 1 are considered to have a value of zero. For example, telekinetic flight only works on the psion using the talent, so there is no need to increase the A category beyond 1 (self), so under A, flight would always have a value of zero. Flight does use the R category, so if you only applied a value of 1 to it, it would remain at 1. This distinction is made for calculating the psi point cost for talents (explained below).

Range

Some talents can reach a distance from the psion and affect targets other than the Psion. The range category determines how far out and how "accurate" the talent is. The list below is standard distances. Some talents may use a different scale. If so, this will be noted in the general talent description.

Value	Effect
1	Touch
2	Pistol (10m)
3	Rifle (25m)
4	Heavy Weapon (100m)

Aura

Some talents can affect targets other than the psion. If the talent can be used on another, the Aura ranking should be 2 or greater. Some talents may also affect those within close proximity to the psion; this is used to reflect the powers of some telepathic talents where the target need only be close enough to hear the psion's voice. If aura is combined with range, the psion may project the source of his power outside his own body. Note also that levels in the Aura category greater than 2 are not compatible with increased levels in the Targets category for most talents (notably mental attacks); if a talent's A rating is 3 or more, the T value will default to 0. The list below is standard distances. Some talents may use a different scale; The A category may be used as a range multiplier. If so, this will be noted in the general talent description.

Value	Effect
1	Self
2	Other
3	Speaking distance/Grenade (5m radius)
4	Shouting distance/Bomb (25m radius)

Targets

Some talents, often mental attacks, can be used to affect a group of targets within close proximity and in the same "line of fire," or to deliver multiple psionic blasts on one target. For some talents (such as non-attack talents), the Targets category may be used to reflect a different series of options. If so, this will be noted in the general talent description.

Value	Effect
1	Single target
2	Burst 3
3	Burst 5
4	Burst 10

Effect Strength

Psions with a high Essence trait will have naturally more potent effects to the talents they employ. However, a psion can hone a talent to more effectively channel the forces he employs and see improved results. Some talents may use a different scale for effect strength. If so, this will be noted in the talent description.

Value	Effect
1	Essence trait @ base training value (XdY)
2	Essence +1 row
3	Essence +2 rows
4	Essence +3 rows

Duration

The effects of some talents are instantaneous or non-persistent. Others may have an extended duration. The "Effect A" duration column should be used when the talent is activated during an encounter (such as social or physical combat). "Effect B" duration column should be used if the talent is activated outside of an encounter, and is on for "normal adventuring" purposes. If an encounter occurs while the talent is still active, the psion may begin the encounter with the talent active, but its duration would then shift to the "Effect A" column. Talents that cause damage subtract 1 from their effective combat duration (i.e., you cannot have a talent that causes damage until the target is dead or incapacitated). For attacks with duration, damage beyond the initial attack occurs on the source's action (the action of the psion that activated the talent causing the damage). This extra damage is always "reduced" by shifting up one row and left one column compared to the initial strength of the attack. For example, a pyrokinesis attack that burns over time starts at 3d10 damage. On each subsequent action the psion gets, the fire from the attack deals 2d8. On each of the target's actions, he may make an attempt to resist further damage by making a TN 7 Toughness or Mental Conditioning check (depending on whether the attack is physical or mental in nature).

Value	Effect A	Effect B
1	1 action/check/test	1 extended action
2	Rounds x Essence Training	Minutes x Essence Trait Value
3	Actions x Essence Trait Value	10 minutes x Essence Trait Value
4	Duration of the encounter	Indefinite (active until dropped/neutralized)

The values listed above are general guidelines, and may not fit for every talent. Where necessary, variations will be noted. With Master approval, some categories for some talents may exceed 4. For example, for Range, a value of 5 might be "Line of sight" (to imply that the talent works as far as the Psion can see and that there are no range penalties). A range of 6 might be something outlandish, such as the ability to use a talent regardless of the range, so long as the Psion can see the target through either psionic or technological means. For example, being able to choke out an admiral that has displeased you just by seeing him on a video monitor, even though he is on an entirely different ship, or the ability to target a telekinetic blast on an enemy you have spotted through remote viewing. R/A/T/E/D values in excess of 4 should be approved by the Master, not just to determine the new effect, but to ensure that the proposed talent will not disrupt game balance.

Enhancing Talents

Mastering powerful talents can be exceedingly difficult (i.e., expensive!). One way of increasing the power of your talents is to enhance them with the power of other talents. Each psionic focus has a talent that is used to enhance specific aspects of other talents:

Category	Focus (Talent)
R	Clairvoyance (ESP)
A	Telepathy (Sense Mind)
T	Telekinesis (Detect Motion)
E	Special*
D	Discipline

*Effect can only be boosted if one is a psionic adept (rank 5 Psi purchased during character creation).

Certain basic talents within each focus will be identified as "enhancing" talents, and they can be linked to other talents to boost one of its R/A/T/E/D categories by one level, if the enhancing talent is properly activated. This can be a cost-effective method to eke a bit more mileage out of a lesser talent, but it is not without its drawbacks: In use, enhanced talents are more likely to fail, they will cost more to activate, and they are slightly more costly to purchase/learn (though not nearly as costly as permanently boosting a R/A/T/E/D value for an already-potent talent can be). The sections on cost calculation and use will explain more about enhancing talents.

Calculating Talent Cost

To determine the cost of a talent, multiply all of the non-zero R/A/T/E/D values and add any modifiers. This is the total cost in Psi points. The cost of powerful talents can easily skyrocket, so be mindful of your budget!

Modifier	Psi Point Cost
Each enhanced R/A/T/E/D value	+2
Linked to skill (cause)	+1
Linked to skill (effect)	+1
Linked to skill (cause and effect)	+3

If you wish to improve an existing talent by improving the rank in one or more of its R/A/T/E/D categories, calculate the new cost and subtract the original cost. The difference is the cost in psi points for the improvement.

Using Psionic Talents

Psionics are fueled by energies of the universe that the psion can channel through his body and mind. Tapping into these energies will eventually exhaust the psion by draining his Concussion Threshold points. These will quickly return, but in the heat of a battle or while the psion is under stress or time pressure, the loss of CT may have dire consequences.

To use a talent, the hero must successfully activate it. Depending on the talent, this involves trait and/or skill checks and the expenditure of CT points. All talent checks will require two checks, made on the same card draw. All talents will require a primary and secondary Essence trait checks. Bump one row up (one die less) to determine the result for the secondary check, as per the Double Tap rules. If both checks succeed, the talent activates at the normal CT cost. If only one succeeds, the talent may still be activated, but the CT cost is doubled. Alternatively, the psion can voluntarily choose to abort the activation and lose only 1 CT. If both checks fail or one of the results is a critical failure (CF), the talent does not activate, and the psion loses the full CT cost to activate. If both checks come up with a CF result, the talent spectacularly backfires somehow.

When a psionic talent calls for or allows the target to resist (usually through the mental conditioning skill), the target's TN to resist is the highest of the two activation results.

The base TN to activate a talent that is within your psionic focus is 5. For an adjacent focus it is 6. For the oppositional focus, the TN is 7. For every R/A/T/E/D category of 3, add +1 to the activation TN. For each R/A/T/E/D category of 4, add +2. If the TN is uncomfortably high for your tastes, or you want to minimize the risk of having to expend extra CT to allow a talent to activate, each action spent concentrating will reduce the TN by 1 to a minimum of TN 3.

When other talents are used to enhance the R/A/T/E/D levels of a talent, each one is activated (Check at TN 5) using its own secondary activation trait. If the secondary activation for the enhancing talent refers to a cell on the cause table that has already been checked, bump one row up. More than one enhancement may be applied when a talent is activated. Each attempted enhancement costs 1 CT. Check the activation of each enhancement on the original card drawn to activate the primary talent. If the enhancement check(s) is(are) successful, the talent activates at the increased R/A/T/E/D values. If any enhancement check fails, its R/A/T/E/D category is not increased. If the activation check for the enhancement is a CF result, you lose the enhancement and the talent's CT cost is doubled (unless the entire primary activation is aborted at a cost of 1 CT).

Using other talents to enhance primary talents can make them increasingly powerful, but more difficult to pull off without a hitch, and more draining, even when things go right (and exceedingly so when they do not!)

Psionic talents deplete the psion's CT when they are used. The CT cost for a talent is its cost in Psi point/3, rounding down. A minor power that costs 7 Psi points would cost 2 CT to activate, while a major power that cost 36 Psi points would cost 12 CT to activate. Talents from adjacent foci cost +1 CT, and talents from the focus in opposition to your own cost +2. For adepts, all talents cost 1 CT less, to a minimum of 1. A bump on the primary activation check can be used to cut the CT cost in half, rounding up.

Psionic attacks always take an action. Many talents can be activated as free actions. The talent description will indicate if an ability requires an action.

Some talents may have a duration. In combat, these will expire after a certain number of actions or rounds. Talents will remain active during a psion's action or round, expiring at the end, allowing the psion to take advantage of the talent while it is their turn to go. If the talent expires, the psion may pay upkeep equal to the normal activation cost to maintain it with no activation check. This also means that if the psion had to pay double CT to activate it, or half because they got a bump when activating the talent, they do not have to pay more or less to maintain it, just the normal CT cost.

Example: Xenes is facing another psion in combat and on his turn, activates the Mind Shield talent to protect him from mental attacks. Xenes' Mind Shield talent only has a D/2, so in combat it will only remain active for a number of rounds equal to his Essence training (which is 2). He partially fails the activation roll, meaning he must pay double CT (normally 2, doubled to 4) to activate it, which he gladly pays for the protection it will offer. For all of the current round and next round, Xenes' mind shield will be active. When the talent's duration is up, Xenes is still locked in combat with the enemy adept, so he chooses to maintain his mind shield, which only costs him 2 CT this time. With the maintenance paid, the talent will remain active for another 2 combat rounds.

Targeting and Range

For talents that target opponents, such as mental attacks or telekinetic strikes, the psion generally only needs to be able to see or otherwise accurately sense the opponent to target it. If the talent activates, the target is hit. Some talents may allow the target a chance to resist the effects.

If a psionic talent can be used at range, it can be used on a target out to the listed range with no penalty to the activation TN. For each increment of the range beyond the listed range, add +2 to the activation TN, just as with ranged attacks in physical combat.

Mental attacks are not affected by movement or cover penalties, while telekinetic attacks are. Mental attacks are not affected by armor. Telekinetic attacks will have a penetration value and are affected by worn armor and some types of battlescreens.

Designers Note: Part of the choice not to have an "attack roll" for psionic attacks is to prevent the need for a second card draw to determine whether the attack hits. Another part is to prevent a situation where the attack roll and the activation roll are drawn from the same cell on the cause chart. Finally, every check in the process is, essentially, a chance for the action to fail. If multiple checks are endlessly thrown up for the player, it only increases the likelihood of failure, and it doesn't seem fair to punish the player for having a hero with a nifty ability. After all, a hero firing a gun doesn't have to make multiple checks to hit a target, and using psionics has other limitations without throwing an extra failure-check into the mix.

Psionic Talent Descriptions

The following is a basic list of suggested, general psionic abilities. As mentioned previously, this list is not exhaustive, but covers a lot of the field and should serve you and your players well. If there is an ability you would like to see that is not on the list, making additions should be relatively easy.

In relation to the above, minutiae regarding the abilities listed here can, for the sake of sanity, only be described so far. Anticipation of what purposes any large number of players might attempt to put them toward is beyond our abilities as authors to predict, and too fine a ruling on how a talent may or may not be used (in our opinion) stifles creativity. For some applications of psionic talents, the players may just have to work more closely with the Master and vice-versa, and judgement calls may sometimes have to be made.

Telepathy

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Mental Attacks: The psion can focus the energies of his mind to inflict harm on another person. This damage will originate in the target's mind (so any kind of mental conditioning or tech that protects one's mind can help mitigate the effects), but the effects on the target can be very real and incapacitating, even deadly. Mental attacks can be touch-based or ranged.

• Stun: The damage done with a stun attack is pure CT damage with no wounds inflicted (as per a stunner). Target must make a stun save.
  
• Disorient: The psion attempts to overwhelm the senses of the target, making it very difficult to focus their attention. Every wound inflicted (each full 6 points of effect) will cause the target to lose one action card. Cards may be kept if the target spends story chips. A white chip would prevent the loss of one action, a red chip two and a blue chip three. No stun save required.
  
• Pain: The psion taps into specific portions of the target's mind. By tweaking certain key synapses, the psion can inflict debilitating pain, wrack muscles and even stop the functions of vital organs. Pain attacks deal damage like normal attacks, they cause wounds that must be repaired or allowed to heal naturally, and the target must make a stun save after suffering damage. The wounds inflicted by pain attacks affect the target like regular wounds (penalties to rolls), and the location of the hit determines what kind of damage is being inflicted (hits to the head and vitals cause increased damage).
  

Mental Influence: The psion can instill ideas and thoughts into the mind of another hidden within their spoken words. This greatly enhances a psion's capabilities in social/psychological combat. This talent has several different forms, each linked to a different social combat technique.

• Terrify: Linked to the psion's Intimidation skill.
  
• Convince: Linked to the psion's Argument skill.
  
• Charm: Linked to the psion's Persuasion skill.
  
• Deceive: Linked to the psion's Deception skill.
  
• Confuse: Linked to the psion's Blather skill.
  

Mental Projections (Illusions, words, ideas, images): The psion can project thoughts, feelings and images into the minds of others. This can allow the psion to make the targets sense things that aren't there, make people look or sound different in the mind of the target, make them hear things that were not said, etc. If used during social combat, this talent can be used to decrease the effect of an opponent's counterattack by making them react poorly to false information. It can be activated as a free action in response to an opponent in social combat.

Mind Reading: The psion can lift thoughts from the target's mind. The greater the effect, the deeper and more detailed the reading. If the Mind Reading talent is used with one of the Mental Influence talents, the psion can add the effect value of his mind reading to the effect value of his Mental Influence. As the psion can read what the target is thinking about, it can make his influence into their mind even more effective.

Sense Mind (detect/locate living, sentient beings): This basic talent allows the psion to detect living beings nearby by the energies given off by the workings of a sentient mind. This is the enhancing talent for Telepathy. If a talent is able to have its "A" category enhanced, use the Sense Mind talent to do so. This talent gets +1 to the R category for free. The range denotes the distance out to which this sensory ability operates. The A category for this talent can remain at 1, however when the R category is maxed out, the A category may be increased, which multiplies the detection range, doubling it at A/2, x5 at A/3 and x25 at A/4. The Targets category refers to the number of targets the psion can be simultaneously aware of; if there are more targets than the T value, he can "flip" between them (he can ignore targets known to him or that he can detect with normal senses), which may be relevant in a combat situation. The Effect category is used to determine how accurate the level of detection is:

Value	Effect
1	Presence & number of targets
2	Distance of target(s)
3	Direction of target(s) (accurate enough for suppressing fire)
4	Pinpoint location of target(s) (accurate enough for direct weapons fire or to be targeted by psionic talents)

Telepathy (verbal and emotive communication): This talent allows a psion to communicate with another sentient being regardless of language barriers by establishing a link directly to the target's mind. If the psion is familiar with the target (spent at least a day around them), or has detected the target's mind with the Sense Mind talent, he can communicate with the target using telepathy. The target will not automatically know the source of the telepathic communication unless the psion chooses to reveal himself; as far as the target knows, the voice he hears is coming from inside his own head! In many advanced cultures (TL 7 or above), the existence of Psions may be known; if so, the target may recognize the nature of telepathy, and may assume that someone nearby is the source. Only another psion with the proper talents (Telepathy, ESP, or an active Mind Shield) may be able to detect and identify the source of a telepathic projection, though, in your campaign, there may be technological devices available that can do this as well. The range denotes the distance out to which this sensory ability operates. If taken at R/1, the psion can only communicate telepathically if maintaining physical contact with the target! The A category for this talent can remain at 1, however when the R category is maxed out, the A category may be increased, which improves the range by orders of magnitude, increasing the range to 100km at A/2, x100 LS at A/3 and x100 LY at A/4. Targets denotes how many beings the psion can be in contact with at the same time, and targets the psion is in contact with can telepathically speak with each other through him. If the T category remains at 1, the A category can also be used to telepathically communicate with multiple targets nearby, but increasing the A category does not increase the magnitude of the range until the talent is improved to R/4. Effect strength is not used with telepathy, and defaults to 0. Telepathy will allow a psion to use Mental Influence talents at range, and without the need to interact with the individual directly; this begins to tip-toe into the realm of actual "mind control." If the target tries to resist the telepathic link, they can make a Mental Conditioning skill check against the Psion's Telepathic focus skill.

Mind shield: Allows the psion to shield his mind from other psions. While the talent is active, the psion and all others affected by it defend against unwanted psionic talents as though they were psionic nulls.

Sensory block: This allows the psion to manipulate the sensory input that the target receives in much the opposite manner of the Mental Projection talent. Using this talent, the psion can edit what input the target consciously perceives. This can make it possible for the psion to make a target not notice obvious details right before his eyes such as a person walking in front of him, the smell of a fire, the sound of gunshots or the touch of someone picking his pocket. If applicable, each full effect level (6 points of effect) can increase a skill check against a target (such as stealth or sleight of hand) by +2.

Telepathic Senses (detect lie, detect aura, danger sense)

• Detect Lie: While the talent is active or immediately after a target speaks, the psion may use this talent to determine if what was said was true or deceptive (as far as the target knows). In a social combat, this talent will prevent your opponent from successfully using a deception maneuver. You may not know what the truth is, but you can tell if someone is lying.
  
• Detect Aura: The psion can attempt to read the psychic aura a person emanates. This will manifest as an understanding of the target's feelings or intent, and can often sway wildly depending on a person's thoughts. It can give an indication as to what a person is thinking, planning on doing, or their reaction to stimuli. If used in conjunction with Mental Influence talents, it can increase the cause by one per level of Effect strength.
  
• Danger Sense: The psion has developed an acute sense of when and how others mean to do him harm. While this talent is active, the psion may draw and additional card per level of Effect strength during the first round of an encounter. Additionally, add the Effect strength to the step of your action cards in an encounter to resolve ties (and if the step number is still equal to an opponent, the psion wins ties).
  

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Clairvoyance

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Danger Sense: The psion has developed an acute sense of when and how others mean to do him harm. While this talent is active, the psion may draw and additional card per level of Effect strength during the first round of an encounter. Additionally, add the Effect strength to the step of your action cards in an encounter to resolve ties (and if the step number is still equal to an opponent, the psion wins ties).

Locate Danger/Hazard: This basic talent allows the psion to detect likely dangers or hazards nearby by means of quantum precognition. The definition of what constitutes a danger or hazard may vary. Some generally accepted triggers are hostile lifeforms that intend the psion harm, mines, traps and structurally unsound scenery. This talent gets +1 to the R category for free. The range denotes the distance out to which this sensory ability operates. The A category for this talent can remain at 1, however when the R category is maxed out, the A category may be increased, which multiplies the detection range, doubling it at A/2, x5 at A/3 and x25 at A/4. The Targets category refers to the number of targets the psion can be simultaneously aware of; if there are more targets than the T value, he can "flip" between them (he can ignore hazards known to him or that he can detect with normal senses), which may be relevant in a combat situation. While this talent may give the psion a feeling of unease about some things, it does not reveal the nature of the hazard. It may indicate that an envelope is a hazard, but it may be because it contains a toxic powder or because if the psion reads the documents inside assassins will hunt him to keep him from spilling company secrets. The Effect category is used to determine how accurate the level of detection is:

Enhanced Vision: The psion can tap into the energies flowing between this universe and the tachyon universe to perceive it as never before. Each level of effect adds +2 to visual awareness checks. The range category allows the psion to focus his vision on something out to the range listed and examine it as though it were within arm's reach.

Enhanced Hearing: Effects as per Enhanced vision. Note that for a psion to hear something as though he were within arm's reach, he will need an unobstructed line of sight. This talent may also be used to detect sonic vibrations far above or below normal hearing ranges for one's race.

Extra-Sensory Perception (ESP): This describes a broad range of abilities wherein the psion can receive information about the world around them through means beyond normally understood senses. ESP is the enhancing talent for Clairvoyance. If a talent is able to have its "R" category enhanced, use the ESP talent to do so. Some examples of ESP might include the ability to detect lifeforms, Psi activity, auras, hidden objects, secret passages, personal belongings, the contents of hidden packages, the faces of playing cards the psion cannot see, etc. When the talent is activated, check for effect. If attempting to detect the presence or location of a target, every level in the E category gives a level of detail as described for Sense mind. For other forms of ESP (such as identifying cards or detecting the contents containers, the psion can make a Clairvoyance Focus skill check using Acuity at TN 9. For these types of checks, Each level in the E category adds +1 training dice to the skill roll. Activating the Enhanced Vision or Hearing talents may also aid in certain types of ESP checks.

Mind shield: Allows the psion to shield his mind from other psions. While the talent is active, the psion and all others affected by it defend against unwanted psionic talents as though they were psionic nulls.

Clairaudience: This talent allows the psion to pick up auditory information by extra-sensory means. At the Master's discretion, this may allow the Psion to listen in on any area the psion has visited (if it is within range), or perhaps just any area the psion is intimately familiar with. It may also be used to "jack into" and hear through the ears of others. If the other party is not a willing participant to lending their ears to the psion, they will make a mental conditioning check with the TN being the psion's highest activation roll. This talent can be used simultaneously with Enhanced hearing.

Remote viewing: This talent allows the psion to pick up visual information by extra-sensory means. At the Master's discretion, this may allow the Psion to peer into any area the psion has visited (if it is within range), or perhaps just any area the psion is intimately familiar with. It may also be used to "jack into" and see through the eyes of others. If the other party is not a willing participant to lending their sight to the psion, they will make a mental conditioning check with the TN being the psion's highest activation roll. This talent can be used simultaneously with Enhanced vision.

Navigation

• Direction sense/tracking/pathfinding
  

Psychometry

Mental Projection

Retrocognition

Astral Projection

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Telekinesis

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• TK attacks (melee, ranged, disorient, hold, slow, EMP, ARPO)
  

• Pyro/Cryokinesis (temperature manipulation)
  

• Physical/energy/radiation defenses
  

• Levitation
  

• Flight
  

• Remote skill use
  

• Remote speaking (audio "illusion" or voice/sound projection)
  

• Identify/exploit material weaknesses
  

• Detect motion
  

• Power generation
  

• Physics hax (such as simulating or nullifying gravity or atmospheric pressure)
  

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Discipline

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• Boost traits/derived attributes
  

• Increase combat initiative/number of actions
  

• Healing (injuries, poison, crippling wounds, regeneration, revivification)
  

• Mental attack (pain/injury)
  

• Reduce biological requirements (food/water, sleep, breathing)
  

• Temporary skill edges
  

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