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 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. -------------------- The Chaosium Digest is an unofficial electronic 'zine about Chaosium's Games. In no way should it be considered representative of the views or beliefs of Chaosium Inc. 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