ESP
This skill allows a character to experience his environment through an agency beyond normal senses (Extrasensory Perception).
Battle Mind
This skill allows a character to focus the mind on the battle around him or her, thereby increasing the character’s reaction time and accuracy. Each success with this skill grants a bonus to the character’s Action Checks.
- Ordinary: +1 to action check score.
- Good: +2 to action check score.
- Amazing: +3 to action check score.
Rank Benefits:
- At rank 4 [Increased Duration], the bonus lasts for two rounds. The character can extend this bonus by spending 1 psionic energy point per extra round.
- At rank 8 [Increased Attack Accuracy], the character is also able to increase his or her accuracy in one of the following Combat broad skills: Unarmed Combat, Melee Weapons, Primitive Ranged Weapons, or Modern Ranged Weapons. The success of the Battle Mind skill check grants the following bonus to the selected combat skill check: Ordinary: –1 step; Good: –2 steps; Amazing: –3 steps.
- At rank 12 [Dual Combat Bonus], the character can apply the combat bonus to two different Combat broad skills simultaneously.
Clairaudience
With this skill, a character selects a location and projects his or her mind to that spot, hearing sounds as though physically present.
Clairaudience does not filter out ambient noise, so the user might have trouble distinguishing particular sounds. It provides no help in interpreting unfamiliar languages or recognizing unfamiliar sounds, and the mental ear can’t move from the selected spot. The location itself can be moving (a vehicle, for example), but such a target requires additional skill checks if the range to the target increases.
The user remains conscious within his or her body and is aware of what’s happening around it.
The better the result of the skill check, the longer the ability lasts:
- Ordinary: 1 round
- Good: 2 rounds
- Amazing: 3 rounds
This duration can be extended by spending 1 psionic energy point for every additional round. Situation modifiers for the familiarity of the location and the distance at which clairaudience is being used are as follows:
| Situation/distance | Modifier |
|---|---|
| Familiar location | –1 |
| Unfamiliar location | none |
| 1–10 meters | –1 |
| 11–100 meters | none |
| 101 m–1 km | +1 |
| 2–10 km | +2 |
| 11–100 km | +3 |
| 101–1,000 km (low orbit) | +4 |
| 1,001–10,000 km (high orbit) | +5 |
Rank Benefits:
- At rank 4 [Increased Duration], the time increment for a successful use of the skill increases to minutes (Ordinary: 1 minute; Good: 2 minutes; Amazing: 3 minutes). Each additional psionic energy point used to extend the duration adds 1 minute to the duration.
- At rank 6 [Change of Perspective], the character can attempt another ESP-clairaudience skill check to shift the location to which the mental ear has been projected. The new check is modified by the distance from the current location that the psion is listening to, rather than the physical distance the psion is from the target area.
- At rank 8 [Increased Duration], the time increment increases again: Ordinary: 5 minutes; Good: 10 minutes; Amazing: 15 minutes. Each additional psionic energy point adds 5 minutes.
- At rank 12 [Increased Duration], the time increment becomes: Ordinary: 30 minutes; Good: 60 minutes; Amazing: 90 minutes. Each additional psionic energy point adds 30 minutes.
Clairvoyance
To employ this skill, a character selects a location and projects his or her mind to that spot, seeing everything going on around that spot as though physically there. This projection must be to an unobstructed location, not (for instance) to a place inside a solid object.
The use of the skill doesn’t block normal vision, so the user sees double images unless his or her eyes are closed. It also provides no help in seeing through obscuring elements, such as walls, closed doors, or darkness, and the mental eye can’t move from the selected spot.
The user remains conscious within his or her body and is aware of what’s happening around it.
The better the result of the skill check, the longer the ability lasts:
- Ordinary: 1 round
- Good: 2 rounds
- Amazing: 3 rounds
Dream Hunt
Mindwalkers take the role of mystics and shamans in sesheyan society. Though originally developed for hunting animals, the technique works on any living being. The sesheyan (or sesheyan-trained) psion concentrates on the subject and mentally engages in a hunt. The better the subject’s habits are known, the easier the hunt. If the skill check is successful, the psion determines the place where the quarry will be at any single locale in the next 24 hours, though not when the prey will be there.
The degree of success determines how accurately the psion can pinpoint the location:
- Ordinary: within 1000 meters.
- Good: within 500 meters.
- Amazing: within 100 meters.
Rank Benefits:
- At rank 3 [Improved Accuracy], the psion is able to narrow a given locale to within 3 hours.
- At rank 6, an Ordinary success narrows the location to within 500 meters, a Good success narrows it to within 100 meters, and an Amazing success narrows it to within 50 meters.
- At rank 9, the psion can determine when the prey will be at a particular location to within 30 minutes.
- At rank 12, accuracy improves further: Ordinary: 100 meters, Good: 50 meters, Amazing: 10 meters.
Empathy
This skill allows a psion to “read” the surface emotions of another character in visual range. A successful use of empathy provides a bonus when using encounter skills upon that target character:
- Ordinary: –1 step
- Good: –2 steps
- Amazing: –3 steps
Rank Benefits:
- At rank 4 [Relationship], the empath can sense the surface emotions of two other characters—specifically, how they feel toward each other.
- At rank 6 [Aura Reading], the user gains the ability to see the body’s bioelectric field to evaluate a person’s overall health and mental state. Success grants a –1, –2, or –3 step bonus to Medical checks.
- At rank 9 [Connection], an empath may develop a permanent connection with another individual to use empathy even beyond visual range (max 1 mile per rank).
Mind Reading
This skill allows a psion to “read” the surface thoughts of another character within 500 meters. The contact lasts for a limited time:
- Ordinary: 1 phase (random thoughts)
- Good: 2 phases (coherent context)
- Amazing: 3 phases (full surface thoughts)
Rank Benefits:
- At rank 3 [Extra Time], duration increases to 2/3/4 phases.
- At rank 6 [Probe], search the mind for specific information (+2 step penalty for alien species).
- At rank 12 [Extra Time], duration increases to 1/2/3 minutes.
Navcognition
This specialty skill represents a psion’s innate ability to know exactly where he or she is in relation to a fixed location. This allows for astrogation and mapping without specialized equipment.
Rank Benefits:
- At rank 1, select one specialty: Surface Navigation, System Astrogation, or Drivespace Astrogation.
- At rank 6 [Clarity of Mind], –4 step bonus to navigation during extreme conditions (chases, combat).
- At rank 12 [Tracking], track the most likely destination of a target subject, even through drivespace.
Postcognition
The character can sense the psychic residue of an area or object to see past events:
- Ordinary: sensing general emotions.
- Good: brief flashes of events.
- Amazing: experiencing a full scene as an observer.
In general, a character can see a number of days into the past equal to his or her skill rank.
Rank Benefits:
- At rank 3, 6, 9, 12 [Extended Reach], the past-viewing window increases to weeks, months, years, and then decades.
Precognition
Receive impressions about possible future events. Usually triggered by the Gamemaster, but can be forced at double PP cost and a +3 step penalty. Success grants a “last resort point” usable only in that scene.
Rank Benefits:
- At rank 3, 6, 9, 12 [Increased Time], the future-viewing window increases from hours to days, weeks, months, and then years.
Psychometry
Read psychic impressions from inanimate objects through touch:
- Ordinary: receive simple emotions.
- Good: receive simple images.
- Amazing: experience a brief encounter as the owner.