From: | kyle kohler <kkohler@**.UCR.EDU> |
---|---|
Subject: | PSI: Hacking |
Date: | Sun, 24 Jul 1994 00:50:44 -0700 |
reasons and examples.
Rob proposed his idea for hacking skills. Here's mine. If a
Psionic wants to use a ability that he does not have, he uses his rating
in the discipline divided by two (rounded down, of course). Alternately,
he can use it at a lower rating if he wishes. He can use any ability
under his discipline and may use Psi Pool. The limitation is that he must
resist drain as if he had used the power at the discipline's rating.
Here's an example. Joe D. Psionic has a Telepathy Discipline with
a rating of 6. He has the ability of Mind Talk. He is about to get his
head blown off by Bob the Bad Guy. Desperate, Joe decides to try and turn
Bob's brain into Grape Jello (ooooh, my favorite!). He does not have the
Telepathic Ability of Turn Brain to Grape Jello, so he is going to have to
hack it. He decides that he's going to need all the force he can get, so
he is using his full rating for the hack. Thus, he temporarily has the
Turn Brain to Grape Jello ability at a Force of 3. He uses the power
(allocating 3 dice from his Psi-Pool) and ends up succeeding (way to go
Joe!). Now comes the bad part. Drain. Since Joe used the ability at a 3
Force, he must now resist the Drain as if he used it at a Force of 6 (not
looking good, Joe). He rolls his Willpower to resist drain (once again
using Psi-Pool) and barely stays conscious.
The reasoning: Gaining the Discipline gives the Psi an overall
understanding of said Discipline. The abilities he chooses are the one he
chose to focus on for whatever reason. In times of need, the Psi will
need to use one of the abilties that he did not focus on. Because he has
the discipline, he has a basic understanding of the power. This is
represented by being allowed to use the power at 1/2 the Discipline
rating. The drain is reasoned as follows. Even if he can somehow hack
the power, he has little idea of how much it is going to take out of him.
The power also stretches his mind in ways he is not used to (because he
did noon the effect it Psi's raw ability/power. This is not going to
change if he is using a power he is familiar with, or one he is trying for
the hell of it. It is therefore used as normal, allowing more Powerful
Psis (those with higher Psi Pools) to be able to hack powers a little
easier (still limited by the amount of dice rolled). This makes sense
because a Psi with a higher Psi Pool will most likely have had it boosted
through Karma and therefore be more experienced. Most likely, this
experience will have included hacking powers before.
Make sense?
Kyle Kohler
kkohler@*****.ucr.edu
Keeper of the Psi Recap (version 2.0 coming soon!)