| From: | "J.D. Falk" <jdfalk@****.CAIS.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | NERPS PSI 0.04 4 of 4 |
| Date: | Mon, 26 Sep 1994 14:29:44 -0400 |
"Hacking" Psionic Abilities
by Robert A. Hayden
Psionic Hacking Pool:
Psionic Theory (Hacking) Rating + Mastery Level
How to Hack
Allocate dice from your Psionic Hacking Pool. Each dice allocated
represents one for level of force. Maximum force of power to be
hacked cannot exceed 1/2 the dicipline rating.
Any sustained hacked power gives a (force)+1 penalty to additional
power uses (instead of the standard +2).
Drain resistance for hacked powers can only be augmented by dice in
your Psionic hacking pool, not by dice in your standard Psionic Pool.
Example:
Trog the Troll is a Full Psionic with the following Psionic abilities.
Telekinesis: 7
General Telekinesis 4
Finite Manipulation 4
Telekinetic Punch 2
Levitation 3
Divinitation: 4
ESP 2
Combat Sense 4
Precognition 2
Telepathy: 4
Detect Lie 2
Psionic Pool: 6
Psionic Hacking Pool: 5
Trog is in the middle of a fierce fire-fight, and he is currently is
systaining a force 4 Combat Sense (which he knows). Trog has decided
that his standard armour isn't enough, and so he wants to erect a
Bullet Barrier (telekinetic) to stop that hot lead with his name on
it.
Because he doesn't know Bullet Barrier, he must hack it. To do this,
he can allocate up to a maximum of 3 dice from his Psionic Hacking
Pool (1/2 of his telekinesis Dicipline rating, rounded down) to erect
a Bullet Barrier.
The GM assigns a target number of 4 to the task. Trog rolls his three
dice, getting a 2, 4 and 9; two successes. Trog easily resists the
drain with the help of his last two Psionic Hacking Pool dice. The
hacked Bullet Barrier winks into place just as a .44 slug comes into
range.
On the next turn, Trog decides that he wants to sustain the hacked
Bullet Barrier. This causes an addition +4 sustaining penalty (force
+ 1). So, to sustain both of the powers, he has a +6 penalty to deal
with, which can make things rather miserable.
A Psionicist with the 'Divided Attention' meta-ability could allocate
pool dice to partially or totally negate the penalties that sustaining
a psionic power produces.
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Telepathic Communications (PsiNet)
by J.D. Falk and Keith Graham
This ability, dubbed "PsiNet" by an historian working as a freelance
journalist, allows any number of Psis to chat telepathically. It is
not a seperate ability; rather, every full Psi with access to the
Telepathy discipline, and all Telepathic Adepts, can utilize it.
Range of the ability is currently unknown, but as with other
Telepathic abilities you must either know the target well or be able
to see them clearly in order to trigger that little tug in the back of
the mind which means another Psi wishes to converse.
This power can be used to tell other psis when to "trigger" their own
abilities for a concerted effort, or to help focus the use of some
other telepathic power; telepaths linked in this fashion gain a +2 to
all powers practiced upon others in the link.
The only real drawback to using this ability is that it counts as a
sustained telepathic power, with all appropriate modifiers fully in
effect.
There is no known limit to the number of psis which can be linked in
this fashion.
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Mental Combat
by Keith Graham
Given that PSIs can merge powers, it seems likely that there is some
"pathway between minds" available. If that is happening, then using
the same mechanism, you can "attack" someone and disrupt their power
(and therefore their mind/brain/body.)
If you've not got any PSI powers, you're immune. (Just like you're
immune to Astral Combat if you're mundane.)
Again, this may be limited to full PSIs, which might be the edge that
I'm looking for under Robert's system that a full PSI might have over
a TK adept.
It just seems rather strange to me that, given the "wrong" choice of
abilities, 2 PSIs locking in mortal combat might be best off trying to
strangle one another. And the decker/mage locked into mortal solo
combat with their counterpart while the rest of the party desperately
needs their skills "in the real world" makes for good role-play.
Might as well let the PSIs in on the fun. :-)
----------
reply from Robert A. Hayden
Only FULL psis shoudl be able to do this. Target number woudl have to
be reflected by the force of the power, the willpower of the user, or
a composite of both.
----------
Keith Graham adds
The correct solution to this might be to allow "direct PSI combat" to
bypass shielding. (Or else make it a factor, but not as serious of a
factor as it is if you use a power directly on a PSI.)
----------
more from Robert A. Hayden
Psionic "shielding" could be both your willpower AND your Psionic
Rating (remember, this rating decreases as you currupt your body with
bioware or cyberware). This means that a PSI that was pure could
whomp on one that was nothing more than a mass of wires.
---------
final words from J.D. Falk
So, how are we going to work this? No consensus was reached AFAIK.
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Initiating
by J.D. Falk and Kyle Kohler
Not much on the stuff behind it yet. This will probably just end up
mimicing the Magic rules, using similar/identical karma costs and
gaesa (maybe add or delete a few). Some want you to have the option
of either gaining a Mastery Level, or gaining a meta-ability when you
fork out the Karma. While reasonable, we have an awful lot of
meta-abilities proposed. Perhaps gaining the level and getting one
power would work better.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Meta-Abilities
by Robert A. Hayden
Powers that involve the control of Psionics and/or more powerful
abilites that are reserved for Initiates. The format for such powers,
once we start submitting them are:
NAME: Obvious
COST: This is the number of points of karma you spend in order
to get this ability. In addition, there is a time listed that is the
base number of days or weeks it takes to learn this ability. This
time can be decreased by successes based on intelligence (and maybe my
the amount of spent on training.)
PREREQUISITES: This are the MINIMUM levels of ability you must have
in various areas. This includes not just the diciplines you have, but
also the initiate "Mastery" Rating. If your current ratings are below
this, you will have to raise them before you can get this ability.
EFFECT: Again, obvious.
SPECIAL NOTES: Basically, anything additional needed or weird that a
person needs to be aware of.
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The World Around a Psi
The Beings
unwritten
Chuck in some critters
----------
The Places
unwritten
Astral Space, Worldmind
----------
The World
unwritten
PsiCorps, PsiHunters, Renegade Mentalists
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Psionic Design
How Powers Work
unwritten
Force, plus specifics for each Discipline
----------
Psionic Formul‘
unwritten
Inspiration, Design, Usage
----------
Inventing New Abilities
unwritten
Defining a Power
----------
Examples of Design
unwritten
Foo.
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Directory of Powers
unwritten
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Glossary
unwritten
----------------------------------------------------------------------
