This chapter covers the ability to manipulate the forces of the mind for extraordinary effects. The Psionics skills are available only to characters with the Psionics Extranormal attribute.
Gamemasters are discouraged from allowing characters to have dice in both Psionics and Magic, but it is possible, especially if the character has several Disadvantages that show up frequently in each session.
A list of individual psychic skills is provided herein. While many psychics have only one strong psychic talent, and most will have no more than a few such talents, a character may select and develop as many of these skills as they desire and the gamemaster will allow. Remember that the list below is not all- inclusive. Gamemasters should feel free to develop other psychic skills for use in their campaign.
Obtaining Access to Psionics
There are only two ways to get psionic abilities. The first is to put dice in the Psionics attribute at character creation.
The other way is to obtain your gamemaster’s permission after play has begun. If you can come up with a “reason” for your character to learn or gain psionic abilities (such as they were latent or were gained through a strange accident) and your gamemaster agrees, then you may acquire them. The cost to get the initial 1D in Psionics is 20 Character Points. After that, it is 10 times the number in front of the “D” to improve this attribute by one pip. You must still purchase Psionics skill pips sepa- rately.
Learning Psionics Skills
Psionics skills may be learned between adventures, like regular skills. The cost for a Psionics skill, in Character Points, equals twice the normal cost for gaining or improving a normal skill. This cost is doubled again if a teacher — simply another psionic with the skill at a higher level — is not available to instruct the character. A character may learn or improve one Psionics skill after each adventure.
Using and Resisting Psionics
The character rolls a skill attempt and if they beat the difficulty set by the gamemaster, she succeeds with all the concomitant benefits. Psionicists can also push their Psionics attempts when times are rough, using Character Points and Fate Points; perform Psionics actions while multitasking (un- less they have to go into a trance); and anything else one might expect for any standard skill. It is even possible to specialize in a certain area of an Psionics skill, if the concept is well- explained and the gamemaster approves.
A target can actively resist a Psionics skill attempt, assum- ing the target is aware of it. See the “Mental Defenses” sidebar on page 39 in Chapter 3 for more details.
Delay
Few characters can use their psychic abilities repeatedly in a short period. Should the character fail an attempt, the difference between the difficulty and the skill roll becomes the time in minutes before the psionicist can use that skill again. Delay is always a minimum of one minute, and it’s measured from the moment a psionicist quits using his talent to the time he can try once more. If it involved a Critical Failure, that is the number of minutes before the character may employ that Psionics skill at all. This makes it difficult for a character to give someone the evil eye more than once during a combat, or to read the minds of everyone in a meeting over the course of a few minutes.
Psionics Modifiers
Difficulties and modifiers specific to each psychic skill are included in each description. These generic and optional modi- fiers can further affect the difficulty, generally trading a negative effect on the character for a lower difficulty or a higher skill total. Note that none of these modifiers are re- quired to use any Psionics skill, but they can help.
Community: Unless the gamemaster rules otherwise, psy- chic characters may help each other, using the game mechan- ics in the “Related Skills” section on page 36 of Chapter 3 as guidelines.
Components, Incantations, and Gestures: Psychic tal- ents only require the power of the brain, although a person can have a psychological dependency on a certain sort of item to use his gift more effectively. A dowser, for example, could require a dowsing rod to do his work. Someone else might feel a need to have a crystal ball or read tea leaves or rub a lucky rabbit’s foot. This is a psychological crutch, which can be reflected in the character concept as the Advantage Flaw (III): Minor
• Other Psionics Systems •
If you’re allowing psionic characters made using other D6 rules sets to be transferred to this one, you and your players may find it easier to rely on the rules from that system for those characters rather than switching to the D6 Adventure rules.
However, characters using other psionic rules may not rely on the D6 Adventure rules — and vice versa. Consider each psionics rules set as a different and distinct way special mental abilities manifest themselves.
Stigma Disadvantage, but it has no bearing on the difficulty of the psychic attempt. However, gamemasters may allow a +2 Psionics skill total modifier per type of additional part. (There is a limit of one component, one incantation, and one gesture per skill attempt.) The gamemaster may adjust it depending on how complex or rare the added part is. This can be combined with a concentration modifier.
Concentration: The character spends time preparing her- self before releasing her psionic ability. For each round in which the character concentrates strictly on her upcoming action (with or without performing related rituals), the player may apply a bonus number to her skill total. This concentra- tion bonus number is derived from the success of a willpower roll in each round. The minimum difficulty for this roll is 10, modified based on how distracting the environment is. A completely isolated chamber has modifies the difficulty by zero, while a tightly packed ballroom ups the difficulty by +20. The bonus number equals one-half, rounded up, of the differ- ence between the difficulty and the successful willpower roll. An unsuccessful skill roll, but without a Critical Failure and with a total greater than 10, adds nothing to the future psionic skill attempt, though the character may keep concentrating. A Critical Failure on the willpower roll or a roll of less than 10 means that the character was interrupted and loses all bo- nuses garnered to date. The player must specify, before having her character concentrate, which Psionics skill the bonus will affect and whether the bonus will be included only in the activation roll or spread out among the activation and mainte- nance rolls. (Activation and maintenance rolls do not apply to all Psionics skills.) The bonus cannot be transferred to another skill. The maximum bonus a character may get for concentrat- ing is 10 times the number dice (not including pips) the character has in the Psionics attribute.
Countenance: Psionicists’ bodies can undergo changes due to side effects of their psionic talents. Some go pale or even blue with a lack of blood flow to their skin, others shake uncontrolla- bly or foam at the mouth, still others get bulging eyes or swollen lolling tongues. The physical shell can react in unpredictable ways to the effects of extrasensory perception. The correspond-
ing chart lists modifiers to the Psionics skill difficulty. Nothing unreal can happen here: eyes can’t glow red, or flames billow forth from someone’s nostrils, except as a psychic illusion that only the victim can see. The drawback to an illusion is that, no matter what the victim’s perceptions and predisposi- tions were before the fact, after the image is seen, the victim is forever firmly convinced that the psychic is an inhuman mon- ster. Only those already endowed with a psychic or magic ability can accept that image for what it truly is.
Feedback: For every two points of physical harm the character chooses to take, the character receives a +1 to the Psionics skill total. This damage may be cured only through natural healing. Neither armor nor any type of Special Ability may defend against feedback.
Link to Target: When an astral form, empath, or telepath wishes to seek out a specific person, the relationship of that person can affect how easy it is to get in touch with the person. Include the Link to Target Psionics skill total modifiers when using the relevant skill (see accompanying table). Note that this is different than an astral anchor in that the character and her target need not have been in recent contact. The gamemaster can also use these modifiers for honing in on specific items (as with far-sensing) or extending the range of certain skills that other- wise have a limited range (such as damage or healing).
Physical Contact: Close proximity to the target can en- hance the Psionics use. Physical contact requires a successful grab attempt for an unwilling or moving target and no special action for a willing target. Physical contact adds +2 to the Psionics skill total.
Reception: The target is aware (to some extent) that his mind is being messed with. The corresponding chart lists the modifier to the Psionics skill difficulty. Obviously, this does not apply to those dealing with dead or inanimate objects, but it is a perfect handicap for a telepath.
• Countenance •
Difficulty
Change in Appearance Modifier
No change 0
Noticeable (gray pallor, foaming) -1
Extreme (convulsions, psychic image) -2
• Reception •
Difficulty
Target... Modifier
Gets a funny feeling -1
Can make an Perception roll to realize
what’s happening -2
Can make a search roll to realize what’s
happening -3
Automatically realizes what’s happening -4
Identifies the psychic automatically upon
realization (in addition to other modifier) -1
• Link to Target •
Skill Total
Relationship Years Known Modifier
Constant influence (parents, grandparents, spouse, old friends) 10+ years +5
Recent influence (friends, roommates, old enemies) 5–10 years +3
Newer influence (friends, acquaintances) 1–5 years +2
Sporadic influence (on-and-off relationships) variable +2
New acquaintances 2–6 months 0
New faces/only just met, but have talked for a while (at a party, etc.) -2
Personal sight and name recognition (have met in person briefly) -3
Distant sight and name recognition (celebrities never met in person, etc.) -5
• Psionics Range •
Unless otherwise noted in the skill’s description, use this chart to determine the maximum distance to which the ability can reach. Ranges are given in kilometers.
For every +1 added to the skill difficulty, the range may be increased by one kilometer.
Skill Adds* Max Range
0-2 pips 4 1D 10 2D 15 2D+1 25 2D+2 40 3D 60
For every +1 pip beyond +3D, add another 60 kilometers to the range.
* To determine the number of skill adds, subtract the Psionics die code from the skill die code.
Basically, when the psionicist succeeds in penetrating the target’s mind, the target feels funny. It may be something as minor as an itch inside the ear, or the funny feeling you get that someone is watching you somewhere. It may be more direct, allowing the target to make a roll to realize his brain is being picked or even to identify the culprit psionicist.
Speed: As most psychic talents are instantaneous in effect, a Psionics skill does not generally take more than one round for the victim to feel the effect. If a slower speed seems appropriate (forcing the character to “reach out” with her mind), the difficulty of the attempt is reduced by 1 for each additional round that it takes before the effect reaches the victim. After the initial skill activation, the psychic does not incur a multi- action penalty for using other skills in subsequent rounds between the Psionics skill use and its result.
Untrained: Many Psionics skills may be used (or should we say “experienced”) even if the character has no dice in the particular skill. As long as the character has at least one die in Psionics, the skills represent latent potential in the character — potential that may manifest spontaneously from time to time. Stressful situations may jolt the character from one realm into the next. All actions taken by a character untrained at the use of the Psionics skills are at +5 to the difficulty.