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Chaosium Digest Volume 15 Number 10
Chaosium Digest Volume 15, Number 10
Date: Sunday, August 18, 1996
Number: 1 of 3
Contents:
Announcement: Pacificon Cthulhu Rally (Chaosium) CALL OF CTHULHU
BRP Psionics, Part One (Tal Meta) RUNEQUEST/BRP
Editor's Note:
This week, a quick announcement on the Pacificon Cthulhu Rally, for
those of you in the California Bay Area, and then a big article on
Psionics. This Psionics system is specifically designed for RuneQuest,
but it should work with only a little rewriting in just about any BRP
game, thus the system has been labelled RUNEQUEST/BRP.
Shannon
NEW RELEASES:
* Call of Cthulhu - _Cthulhu for President_ (Chaosium, $14.95) is the
1996 campaign kit that can help you elect the only truly experienced
candidate. It contains: a postcard, a yard sign, an Elder Party
window sign, a button, a bumper sticker, a full-color poster, a book
of memorabilia and a vision booklet, and is filled with patriotic
red, white and blue. It just shipped, and should be arriving in
stores by the end of the week.
NEW ELECTRONIC RESOURCES:
Elric! Reviews
http://www.igs.net/~mtr/role-playing/elric-review.html
This site contains reviews on the entire Elric! product line. It gains
great descriptions of the contents of the books, and also insightful
commentary.
--------------------
From: chaosium@aol.com (Chaosium)
Subject: Announcement: Pacificon Cthulhu Rally
System: Call of Cthulhu
Announcing...
THE CTHULHU RALLY
* Pacificon '96 *
Confused between the choice of two lesser evils this political season?
Now is the time to cast your ballot for the only truly experienced
candidate, Great Cthulhu!
In a show of support for the Elder Party, Chaosium will be sponsoring
a Cthulhu Rally at this year's PacifiCon, August 30-September 2, and
you're invited to participate. Great Cthulhu needs orators, musicians
and crazed cultists to help spread the word about the R'lyeh Kid, so
bring your speeches, musical instruments and wild enthusiasm. Prizes
will be given for the best costume, and the best Cthulhu support.
A reunion of many Miskatonic U Alumni is also expected at the Rally.
Wear your MU t-shirts to help show you care about the Old School.
The exact time of the rally has not yet been set, but it will be
listed in the PacifiCon Convention booklet, which should be available
when you arrive at the Convention. A Saturday afternoon timeslot has
been requested, but the final decision is up to the whims of the elder
gods.
Don't Vote for the Lesser Evil!
Cthulhu in '96!
No More Years!
--
Pacificon runs Friday the 30th of August to Monday the 2nd of
September in the Dunfey Hotel in San Mateo, CA. For questions on the
Cthulhu Rally, send mail to chaosium@aol.com
--------------------
From: Tal Meta <talmeta@cybercomm.net>
Subject: BRP Psionics, Part One
System: RUNEQUEST/BRP
- * -
BRP PSIONICS, PART ONE
Psionic Rules
- * -
Certain aspects of this system were inspired the works of Marion
Zimmer Bradley, Katherine Kurtz, Sandy Petersen, and a long ago post
by Burton Choinsky. No copyright infringements are intended. The
system as written is used in my RQ campaign, and is easily adapted
(I'd like to think) to Call of Cthulhu, Elric, or Ringworld. Just add
technology!
Feel free to edit this to suit your own campaign.
PSIONICS
--------
Psionics is the exercise of mental energy. The psionicist's worldview
is one where the mind, body and spirit have been honed to perfection.
Since a psionicist must spend permanent characteristic points to
acquire their abilities, they also spend a great deal of time building
those same abilities back to their former levels, or beyond.
BECOMING A PSIONICIST
Psionicists tend towards two forms of groupings: solitary and Towers.
Finding a solitary teacher is rare, as they seldom seek out students.
Towers are somewhat easier to run across, especially if the seek
especially if the seeker already has some psionic talent.
Towers generally accept students without requiring payment, but only
if there is a need within the group for more workers. In areas where
they are common, Towers serve as communication stations to link
kingdoms and empires together, so telepathic aptitude is generally
well sought after. However, some areas have found use for psionicists
as anything from police forces to the nobility itself.
ASPECT
------
A psionic individual's power is rated in two ways. The first is his
Aspect which is simply the total of his CON, INT, and POW. A
non-psionicist has an Aspect equal to his POW, even if they possess no
other psionic abilities. A psi's AsPect is his limiting factor mainly
in how long or how often he may employ his abilities, and it is also a
measurement of how powerful he is overall. Aspect is generally written
as AsP.
[Example: Chase Marin is a newly awakened psionic. He has a CON of 13,
an INT of 15, and a POW of 16. His Aspect is 44.]
INCREASING ASPECT
A psionic individual can elect to expend permanent POW to improve
their Aspect by one point, if they have access to the metapsionic
science of Power Transfer (described later). Improving the individual
characteristic scores of CON, INT and POW (by training, research, etc)
has the same effect.
EFFECTS
-------
The second important factor to consider is the relative strengths of a
Psionicist's invidual Effects, which are acquired by the expenditure
of characteristic points. Much like Divine Magic, a psi's effects have
a 95% chance of success, modified by his encumbrance. (ie, a roll of
96-00 will fail even for an unencumbered psionic, and one with 10 ENC
would fail on a roll of 86-00).
CLASSES OF EFFECTS
Psionic effects are divided into six sub-groups, known as classes,
namely: Clairsentient (INT), Psychokinetic (POW), Psychometabolic
(CON), Psychoportive (POW), Telepathic (INT), and Metapsionic (CON).
The characteristic listed after the class of the ability is what the
strength of a psionic's abilities are based upon. Generally, it is
from these attributes that the psionic must sacrifice points to gain
access to its effects, however, POW can be freely substituted for
either CON or INT.
EFFECT SUB-GROUPS
Effects are further divided within each sub-group into Devotions,
Disciplines, and Sciences. Any effect can be learned by any psionic
individual by either training or research using standard rules as if
they were spells (ie, spend 50 hours and roll under INTx1). If a
player specials his roll to learn a specific psionic ability, he will
initially know it at +1; if he criticals his roll, he will initially
know it at +2. After succeeding at a roll, the Psionicist must
permanently expend a certain number of points of the appropriate
characteristic, depending on if he is learning a Devotion, a
Discipline or a Science. This procedure must be followed for each
individual ability that a Psionicist learns.
Characteristic points expended to master psionic effects can be
trained back without damaging the psionic's Aspect and will improve
his relative strengths with regards to the effects he knows. However,
magical effects that temporarily raise CON, INT, or POW, and/or
enchantments which accomplish the same thing will never increase a
psi's Aspect or his effect degrees.
Devotions
Mastering a devotion requires the expenditure of 1 point of the
applicable stat, and gives the individual a degree equal to that new,
lessened stat. In some cases, the "degree" of an ability will be
unimportant, but all the abilities are rated this way for
convenience's sake.
[Example: Fred Parker the Psionicist has an INT of 14. He desires to
master the Clairsentient devotion Danger Sense, and studies a text
describing this effect for 50 hours. At the end, he makes a % die roll
of his INTx1 and rolls a 12, a success. In order to master the
discipline, he chooses to expend 1 INT, leaving him with 13. His
degree in Danger Sense is now 13. If Fred already knew other INT based
devotions, their degrees have also just dropped to 13. If Fred had
managed to make a special roll while learning Danger Sense, his degree
with that effect (and only that effect) would be equal to his INT+1,
and with a critical success it would have been equal to his INT+2.]
Devotions generally affect only the psionicist himself, and while in
use take up an amount of Aspect equal to the characteristic they are
based on (possibly modified by additional points addded to improve
their degree). Once dropped, the Aspect used to maintain the devotion
returns instantly.
Disciplines
Disciplines are mastered by expending 2 points from the applicable
stat, but only give a degree equal to half the stat in question. In
the above example, any INT-based discipline Fred possessed would now
have a degree of 6. Special successes in learning disciplines give a
degree of (INT/2)+1, and criticals (INT/2)+2.
Disciplines generally have a point cost per melee round for activation
and maintainance, and will not operate unless their is sufficient
Aspect for them to do so. This Aspect does not return until a day has
passed.
Sciences
Sciences require 3 points to master, and give a degree equal to a
quarter of the applicable stat (Fred's INT-based arts would be at
degree 3). Special successes in learning sciences give a degree of
(INT/4)+1, while criticals give (INT/4)+2.
Sciences generally create permanent changes in the enviroment, and
require either the expenditure of characteristic points to create
these effects, or large amounts of the psionic's Aspect to create
and/or maintain. This Aspect does not return until a day has
passed.
IMPROVING PSIONIC EFFECTS
A psionic individual can give himself added levels of ability by
imparting extra characteristic points into his abilities. In the
example above, if Fred had chosen to expend 2 INT, he'd have lowered
his INT to 12, but would have had his Danger Sense at a degree equal
to his INT+1 (his other INT based devotions would remain at the degree
of his new, lessened INT). Although there might initially seem to be
no gain in this (since Fred's total in Danger Sense would be 13 either
way, it will be easier to improve the skill, by increasing the stat,
and also some abilities become more powerful if a character puts
multiple points into it).
NATURAL PSIONICS
----------------
Some races are just naturally psionic. Whether this is a survival
trait for the species, or something selectively bred for, such beings
have a flair for psionics that "endowed" individuals cannot match.
For races with such a natural gift (Deryni, Larani, Thayzun, Duergar,
etc), Aspect is automatically 1.2x larger than that of other races.
In addition, all effects gained in the course of their careers
automatically gain a +1 modifier, even on a normal success roll for
acquiring the efffect. Certain races may receive certain effects by
'default' such as having natural defense forms, etc.
PSIONICS IN GAME PLAY
---------------------
MULTIPLE PSIONIC OPERATIONS
When psionicists work together in groups, it is required that all of
the participants in an operation have the same effects. For each
psionic in a link, +1 is gained to the modifier with the talent they
are using. If one or more of them already have modifiers, they can add
those modifiers to the group total.
When working together in a group, psionicists form what are known as
gestalts. To form a working link, the psionicists in question must
live in close association with one another for several weeks as well
as develop a positive percentile skill in Gestalt.
GESTALT (00)
Simply put, Gestalt is the skill of linking minds together easily
for the purposes of psionic operations. To form a Gestalt, the group
must successfully roll against the lowest of the member's Gestalt
skill, which is modified by -5% for every member of the group. In a
Tower, new members are usually restricted to minor tasks that only
involve small groups, so that their low skill does not negatively
affect the operations of the Tower as a whiole.
A Gestalt takes a number of melee rounds to enter equal to the
number of participants. This check can be made once per melee round.
USING PSIONIC POWERS
Psionicists begin all psionic activity on a SR based on their INT.
See the table below for exact INT-based Strike Ranks.
INT SR
01-09 4
10-15 3
16-20 2
21+ 1
PSIONIC RECOVERY
Each individual effect also has a listed amount of Aspect that must be
expended to operate or maintain an effect. Aspect regenerates at a
rate comparable to Magic Points, ie total recovery in a 24 hour
period.
PSIONIC RANGE
All psionic DEVOTIONS have a basic range of self.
DISCIPLINES have a Range based on their relative strengths. A
discipline whose strength is equal only to the characteristic it is
related to has a Range of 10m. A discipline whose strength is rated at
+1 (CON+1, for example) has a Range of 20 m. A +2 discipline would
have a Range of 40 m, etc.
By expending extra points of Aspect, these ranges can be extended
according to the table below.
Range Aspect Point Cost
10 m 0
20 m 1
40 m 2
80 m 3
160 m 4
320 m 5
640 m 6
1.28 km 7
2.56 km 8
5.12 km 9
10.24 km 10
The Aspect point cost described on the table above applies only to
disciplines without a modifier.
[Example: Nuril Chya received no modifiers to his Telekinesis ability.
If he choses to use his Tk at a range of 10m, there is no additional
cost in Aspect points. If, however, he needed to use it at a range of
80m, it would cost an additional 3 Aspect points per melee round he
needed to maintain it.]
[Example 2: His brother, Abed Chya, received a critical success in his
endevours to master Telekinesis, and so his Tk. is rated at +2. He can
use his Tk. to a Range of 40 m at no additional cost, and if he needed
to use it at a range of 320 m, there would only be an additional cost
of 3 Aspect points per melee round.]
SCIENCES have a base Range of Touch, which cannot be extended.
PSIONIC DURATION AND RANGE-BANDS
Certain psionic operations involving the past or future have what are
called range-bands. One degree of range is equal to 10 minutes, and
doubles with each additional degree. See the table below for an
example of how Range-Bands work.
Distance Past/Future Required
in Minutes Degree
10 0
20 1
40 2
80 (1 hour +) 3
160 (2 hours +) 4
320 (4 hours +) 5
640 (10 hours +) 6
1280 (21 hours +) 7
2560 (1 day +) 8
5120 (3 days +) 9
10240 (1 week +) 10
20480 (2 weeks +) 11
40960 (4 weeks +) 12
81920 (8 weeks +) 13
163480 (16 weeks +) 14
327680 (32 weeks +) 15
655360 (1 year +) 16
1310720 (2 years +) 17
2621440 (5 years +) 18
5242880 (10 years +) 19
10485760 (20 years +) 20
[Example: Camber is attempting to use the Clairsentient Discipline,
Precognition, to forsee any dangers that lie ahead on the trail his
caravan will be travelling. His INT is 14, giving him a degree of 7 in
Precognition, so he can see a maximum of 21 hours into the future.
Based on the description of Clairsentience (see V15.11), the
gamemaster rolls percentils dice for Camber, and gets a 12, which is
inside the 21% chance of Camber seeing a totally false future. The
gamemaster tells Camber that 21 hours later, the caravan is in ruins
after a bandit attack. Camber promptly doubles the guards around his
caraavan, and when they encounter a ragged group of Earth Mother
pilgrims 8 hours later, Camber orders the guards to attack them
(thinking that they are scouts for the bandits). The daughter of a
local lord was among the pilgrims...]
PSIONICS vs. PSIONICS & NON-PSIONICS
Psionics are not magic. Spells designed to protect a character from
magic generally have either no effect whatsoever, or a lessened effect
against psionics (although, depending on the number of psionics in
your campaign, the magic users are sure to design spells to better
counter their effects). Spells which provide the user with bonuses in
Spirit Combat work at half effectiveness against Telepathic psionic
attacks. Conversely, Magic is not psionics, and while there are
psionic abilities designed to detect magic, there aren't many designed
to directly counter magic, either.
A special skill exists for Psi v. Psi combat:
PSIONIC COMBAT (00)
Psionicists are taught the skill of Psionic Combat, a highly
specialized form of attack and defense that in some ways resembles
Spirit Combat. Every trained psionicist has the skill, Psionic
Combat.
Each turn combatants get a number of points of action equal to
1/10th their Psionic Combat skill (round up). These points are
divided into dice as the combatant desires, attack and defense. N
points convert into an "1dN" roll. To keep it easy, only the values
of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 12 may be used. No more then 2
actions may be made, but if you make 2 attacks you can make no
defensive rolls. If you make 1 or no attacks you can make as many
defensive rolls as you can pay for. Obviously, a d1 roll has a value
of 1.
Psionic combat normally costs no Aspect points for attack or defense
(unless your defenses fail), though there are several telepathic
powers, called "Forms", that require Aspect points to activate.
While the cost of activation for these forms is generally high, they
act as multipliers to the damage done by successful attacks. You'll
find the forms in the TELEPATHY section, which is located in V15.12
of the Digest.
[Example: Nuril Chya (Aspect curently 32, Psionic Combat 75% = 8
points) takes on a Fred Parker (Aspect currently 35, Psionic Combat
67% = 7 points).
The first turn Nuril decides to use 6 on attack, and 2 on defense.
Fred decides to use 3 on attack and 4 on defense. Nuril rolls 4 for
attack and 1 for defense, and Fred gets 2 for attack and 3 for
defense. Nuril's defenses soak up 1 point of the damage, so he takes
1 point of damage to his Aspect, lowering it to 31. Fred's defenses
block 3 points of damage, so he also takes one point, lowering his
Aspect to 34.
The next round, seeing that they are getting nowhere, Nuril brings
to mind the Forms of an Neural Lash and Synaptic Wall, and pits 4
points each to attack and defense. Fred envisions the Forms of
Psychic Shock and Cerebral Castle, as well as pitting 5 to attack
and 2 to defense. Nuril rolls a 3 for attack, and a 4 for defense,
while Fred rolls a 3 for attack and 2 for defense. Nuril's 3+7
(Neural Lash) is 10, well below Fred's 2+16 (Cerebral Castle).
However, Fred's 3+20 (Psychic Shock) far outweighs Nuril's 4+9
(Synaptic Wall) and does 10 points of damage to Nuril's current
Aspect, which had already been lowered 10 points by the Forms he'd
chosen to employ to 21, so it is now 11. Fred's current Aspect is
lowered from 34 to 6 by his use of the Forms he'd chosen. Combat
from this point reverts back to the slower pace not using Forms
allows.]
Non-psionicists do not have access to Forms, although they can be
taught psionic combat (generally, they are taught only to defend,
since attacking is pointless for them). For these purposes, a
non-psionic (with or without skill in psionic combat) is assumed to
have an Aspect equal to his POW.
The whole purpose of psionic combat is that most telepathic powers
work better if the mind of the subject is "opened" to the will of
the telepath. By reducing the Aspect of one's opponent to zero, they
may not resist subsequent telepathic compulsions from their
attacker.
PSIONIC SPECIALISTS
-------------------
Psionicists, like most other arcane practitioners, can specialize in
their abilities. Specialists in Clairsentient, Psychokinetic,
Psychometabolic, Psychoportive, and Telepathic abilities are possible;
specializing in Metapsionics is not. Specialists gain the following
benefits: an automatic +2 to all devotions, +1 to all disciplines.
However, specialists can gain abilities only in the effect he has
chosen to specialize in; all other effects are forbidden.
--------------------
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