Freeform Psion Rules

[The Story Guide]

I'm working on messaging the freeform rules from TPG to something useable. Here's the first section, please discuss and make suggestions.

 

Aptitudes:

1 Primary where the Modes may all be taken up to 5.

2 Secondary where the Modes may all be taken up to 4.

All others may be taken as Tertiary, only up to 3.

 

Mastering Effects:

Each dot purchased in a mode provides one free effect that uses only that mode. Additional effects cost twice the rating of the highest mode used plus one additional xp per extra mode used in the effect. A character may not purchase effects that make use of higher ratings than they have in a mode (so, you improvise an effect that uses the boost option, but you can't purchase it).

 

Improvisation: 

Improvised effects have a +1 difficulty per mode used in the effect. Mastered effects (one's the PC has bought) do not suffer this extra difficulty.

 

Boosting:

You may temporarily boost a mode up to the highest rating the character has in that Aptitude. This increases the difficulty of effect by +1 for each level above the rating the character has in the mode they are using. If the character has no dots in the Mode they are trying to boost, add +2 to the difficulty for the first dot and the player must spend a temporary Willpower point to attempt the effect (each "covered" mode in an effect costs its own temporary Willpower point).

 

Teamwork:

Psions can work together on an effect. They each roll their Psi and combine successes and any extra Psi spent is added to the success pool. Each character must spend a temporary Willpower to engage in Teamwork for a scene. When determining any need to "boost" modes for an effect, use the highest rank among all involved in the Teamwork. 

 

Investing Psi:

A psion can invest a temporary Willpower point to maintain an effect indefinitely. The ST may determine if an effect is too complex to maintain or requires more than one invested willpower point. The invested willpower point cannot be recovered until the effect is canceled; they are then regained in the normal matter. 

[Nina]

Looks good so far, two things 

1. I would call them Techniques instead effects. Effects are results Technique is how you do them.

 

2. Improvisation and mastering. The whole point imo of the free form system is improvisation. in the tpg there is no added difficulty for improvisation and the effect of mastering is to reduce the difficulty by two., of course this is assuming that your difficulty would be higher in the original due to the mess that the variable parameters are in that book. Keeping in mind that i haven't seen anything else except for what you have above, I dont see any  real incentive to Mastering a technique especially at higher levels 10+ xp for a -1 difficulty I know that unless XP is coming at use like water out of a hose I wouldn't waste that many xp on that small of a bonus.

 

 

[The Story Guide]

Success Parameters

Target
Mass

• Psi rating in kg.
• Psi x 10 kg.
• Psi x 30 kg.
• Psi x 60 kg.
• Psi x 100 kg.
• Each additional dot adds 50 to the multiplier.

Area

• One meter. 
• Psi meters.
• Psi x 3 meters.
• Psi x 5 meters.
• Psi x 10 meters.
• Each addtional dot adds 10 to the multiplier.

Subjects

• One.
• Each additional success adds two more subjects.

 

Duration

1. 3 turns.
2. 10 turns/1 minute.
3. 15 minutes.
4. 60 minutes.
5. One scene.
6. Each additional success adds another scene. For long-term Duration, look at the Psi investment rules.

 

Range

Short

1. One meter.
2. Each additional success adds two more meters.

Long

1. Psi meters.
2. Psi x 5 meters.
3. Psi x 10 meters.
4. Psi x 20 meters.
5. Psi x 30 meters.
6. Each additional success adds 20 to the multiplier.

 

Result

Bashing Damage/Healing

1. 2 levels.
2. Each additional success adds a level of bashing damage.

 

Lethal Damage/Healing

1. n/a
2. Two dots per level of Lethal damage.

*Damage effects can be stored as a reactive effect for the Duration of the effect (example: electric shock shield effect that is triggered by touch).

 

 

Modifier Bonus/Difficulty

1. Each dot either lowers the difficulty of a particular action by one per dot, adds an automatic success to rolls with a specified Ability, or adds an extra level to another Trait (such as Willpower, Attributes, or Health levels). 

 

Communication

1. Handful of Words
2. Basic Concept
3. General conversation or one specific subject technical conversation
4. Any conversation
5. Combined intuition, communion
6. Each extra success increases the completeness of understanding and reduces the time to communicate by half the time.

 

Control

1. Subconscious: Forget a name of someone you know, sneeze.
2. Minor: Remember a different person that was actually there, face the opposite direction.
3. Major: Think an enemy is a close friend, put away your weapon.
4. Severe: Forget your native language, climb up a ladder and put on an EVA suit.
5. Epic: Take on a new personality, reprogram a computer and attack anyone that tries to stop you or remove you from the room.
6. Add additional complexity to actions or more severely reprogram the subjects mind.

 

Minor Disability

1. One level of disability per success. I will put up the chart later.

 

Major Disability

1. n/a
2. Every two successes is one level of major disability.

*Mental disabilities are more accurately represented using the Control results.

 

 

Movement

1. 1/2 Psi kph.
2. Psi kmh.
3. Psi x 2 kph.
4. Psi x 5 kph.
5. Psi x 10 kph.
6. Each additional success adds 5 to the multiplier.

 

Precision Accuracy & Familiarity

1. Must know the place very well (have been there consistently for a year, made a psi imprint of the place, or it's in view) or 15% accuracy.
2. Must be familiar with the place (six months, a good friend) or 40% accuracy.
3. Must have had three months consistent contact or be a known associate, otherwise 60% accuracy.
4. One week of consistent contact or someone you knew but have not had contact with in a while, otherwise 80% accuracy.
5. Evocative memory of a place or the item is one of kind, otherwise 95% accuracy.
6. Each additional point adds 1%, but only up to 99%.

 

Sensory

1. General data. ("four blobs here and an opening over here")
2. Basic information. ("two humans and two rocks")
3. Standard detail. ("a tall man and a shorter woman standing next to each other, twenty feet from the rocks and thirty feet from the opening")
4. Subjective or abstract detail. ("a dangerous woman and a handsome, frightened man are staring at each other in the courtyard")
5. Highly detailed. ("a uniformed police officer is trying to capture and arrest a local celebrity suspected of killing someone at the party inside the house attached to the courtyard they are in")
6. Each additional success provides some unique insight or information from the sense.

 

Survival

1. Each success provides a level of soak for the specified effect (thick hide would be soak against general damage, a shield of ice is soak against fire damage, etc). Automatic damage can be soaked this way, if it is of the correct type to counteract the attack. Use of the Range/Area with Survival can allow the psion to cancel a harmful environmental condition if the soak is high enough and it covers the entire area (say, sucking away all the heat of a building on fire, effectively putting out the fire).

 

Utility

1. One success means psi energy creates a subpar substitute for a tool.
2. Working approximation.
3. Quality substitute.
4. Exceptional equivalent.
5. More useful than the actual tool.

 

Catch-All - This for any effect not covered by all of the above, just a general indication of how well the psion did it.

1. Pitiful.
2. Substandard.
3. Fitting for the Mode used.
4. Exceptional.
5. Superb.

[The Story Guide]

First edit:

 

Improvisation: 

Improvised effects have a +1 difficulty per mode used in the effect. Mastered effects (one's the PC has bought) do not suffer this extra difficulty.

 

 

This makes improvisation possible, but more difficult the more complex the improvisation, providing an incentive to master effects.

[Sailor OOC]

Setting this up to help Rorx? I like it! Thanks, Mala!

[The Story Guide]

I'll be doing write-ups for each Aptitude, but I don't want to rewrite the whole section. I'll put up anything I change, anything that simply needs to be much more clearly written, and anything new. I'll also note if I'm suggesting something in the book section specifically not be allowed.

 

Biokinesis

 

Investment: A psion with Biokinesis as a primary or secondary Aptitude may maintain one biokinetic alteration to their body for "free", they do not have to have a willpower point invested in the change. They may switch out their maintained alteration once per scene. 

 

Reflexive Adaptation: A psion with Biokinesis as a primary or secondary Aptitude may make a reflexive defensive Adaptation action each turn, even if unconscious. This action does not count when determining multiple actions in a turn.

 

Quick Transformation: Biokinetic transformations usually take as many minutes to complete as total levels of Modes used. A psion with Biokinesis as a primary or secondary Aptitude may quicken the transformation, but the strain may damage the body. The psion takes a number of levels of unsoakable bashing damage equal to the highest Mode level used minus the level of Adaptation the character posses. This does mean a psion with Adaptation 5 may perform quick transformations without risking damage to themselves. 

 

Basic Technique: Biosense

Roll Psi. Successes may only be spent on a second rank of Sensory (allows the distinguishing between types of life: animal, plant, other), and Area or Range. The first use of Biosense in a scene is free, all subsequent uses in the same scene cost 1 Psi.

 

[The Story Guide]

Clairsentience

 

Focal Crystal: We don't have these, unless Rorx wants to put an equivalent in the game.

 

 

Electrokinesis

 

Shock: Shock is dumb. A better and less weird alternative is that any time a character fails a roll using an Electrokinetic Mode in the effect, they shock themselves. They gain a +1 difficult on their next action. Otherwise, I'd just ignore it.

 

Visible Power: Electrokinetic powers are always visible unless the psion adds a +1 difficulty to any effect involving Electrokinesis to suppress the display.

 

Static Burst: This is the same as Shock, but done deliberately to a target. Any psion with Electrokinesis as a primary or secondary Aptitude may use this effect once per scene without spending psi. Subsequent uses cost one psi.

 

Energy Awareness: A psion with Electrokinesis may use their Attunement background to sense electric currents the same way other sense psi.

 

 

Psychokinesis

 

The looks pretty good as-is.

 

 

Telepathy

 

Mind Scan: Instead of using Psi, investing in Mind Scan psychic signatures beyond you Psi score rating requires an investiture of a temporary Willpower point.

 

 

Teleportation

 

Visible Effect: The teleporter may dampen the sound of a ‘port (usually a loud bang) to the equivalent of a light cough at a +1 difficulty. The flash of light may not be dampened in this manner.

 

 

Vitakinesis

 

Increased Psi Cost: This is dumb and just makes it that much more difficult for a character to use Algesis. I’d suggest ditching it completely. This is dictating that your character has the psionic equivalent of Pacifist and just…guh…it’s dumb.

 

Killing Blow: See above.

 

Because IPC and KB are dumb, VK needs a new drawback(s). I propose that any time a vitakinetic botches a roll, they take one level of whatever type of damage they were trying to heal (or inflict, in the case of Algesis). So, if they were healing bashing damage, they take one bashing, lethal for lethal and agg for agg. If they were trying to heal multiple types, they take one level of the highest type. If they were healing psychological damage, they suffer the condition they were trying to heal for the rest of the scene.

[The Story Guide]

Okay, having just gone over the Aptitudes for a second time (thanks chat glitch -.-) I will say that if we're really going to go freeform, then we should break these down into the modes and treat each mode as its own "Aptitude". Either we ditch basic techniques all together, or we come up with one per Mode (my preference, if we do this) and we create (and reshuffle is necessary) a single drawback and benefit to each Mode. It's a bit more work, but I think it would make the freeform rules flow much better and allow more coherent characters.