Orichalcum Universe: New Psionic/Psychic/Supernatural Phenomena and Skills...

[D10]

Very helpful!

Can an Alpha with assistance from an experienced psion, learn to turn off his antipsi and develop the other powers?

And if so, does that mean Alpha's classify as "most psions" ?

Meaning that a standard warrior guy in the group who wanted to start developing his ESP for instance, would have a the normal roll to define his celling.


While the guy who is focusing on making a psionic character from the begging should probably get more leeway into what are his max levels (assuming hes not specifically playing an usual psi)

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by D10

Very helpful!

Can an Alpha with assistance from an experienced psion, learn to turn off his antipsi and develop the other powers?

Sometimes, but usually not. The problem is genetic, after all, for reasons of evolutionary history most people's Antipsi is 'self-directed' by default. For most people that needs some more than just training to overcome. Now, certain drugs and psi-tech can often do the job, at which point the 'awakened' psion is like any other 'normal' psion.

And if so, does that mean Alpha's classify as "most psions" ?

Meaning that a standard warrior guy in the group who wanted to start developing his ESP for instance, would have a the normal roll to define his celling.

Yes. Just about everyone in my world has psionic potential, it's just that the vast majority (999/1000 on modern Earth) can't get to it. It's like being born with normal eyes but eyelids are are normally shut. If you can somehow open them, the eyes work normally. But opening them is not trivial for most people.

So your somehow-awakened psion would have power ceilings of 1d+4 unless he was one of that tiny minority of high-power ones. (And note that these are just as hard to awaken, because their Antipsi is also stronger...)

[D10]

Thats what I thought, thanks for the clarification.

the campaign im GMing in that fantasy-like world in the OU (technically an Eldren experiment in another galaxy), its going very well

Otoh, everyone eventually wants to have some psi powers, so its very usefull to know this kind of stuff ^^

Im planning an atlantis like downfall in the scenario, but not nearly as destructive, so after the major empire falls, theres many dungeons and knowledge left around for the world to get an ever greater fantasy feel.

Fluxons will be portrayed like wizards, masters of lore that need tons of study to master their "arcane" art (and for all its worth, they would have some remaining enclaves that study it and have political power within their regions)

Psions would be more like sorcerers and blessed people, they inately have the powers, which can be studied and developed but almost never are because of the low ammount of knowledge and infrastructure in most societies.

Mysticism would invade both sets of powers, and the real pure knowledge would be lost to all but a few, who doesnt have all the pieces.

I really think it is one of the best alternatives to having "magic" in a realistic setting.

Cya

[Johnny1A.2]

PSYCHONULLS (continued)...

To calculate the Power of a Psychonull, roll or assign the Power ceiling
that he or she would have had in each of the six basic Powers,
using the usual formula (1d+4) each time, or simply pick a level from
7 to 10 for each Power.

Then add up those power ceilings, and divide by 8. That gives the basic
Power of the psychonull. Round fractional results downward.

EXAMPLE 1:

John is a psychonull with Power 5. Susan is a very powerful psion with
good Power in some abilities. Kalinda is a very powerful psion
in all abilities.

Susan attempts to use her Power 14 ESP to remote view John. At Power
14 (using Telepathy Range Table from GURPS 3e Psionics) Susan has a
range of 1 mile, and John with Power 5 (same table) has a range of 4
yards, so he can't directly interfere with her powers unless he's
within 4 yards of her.

So Susan, 1/3 of a mile away, tries to remote view him. Since he is a
psychonull, however, she must subtract 10 (twice John's Power) from her
own Power and his Power again from her skill. So her range is
effective reduce to Power 4 (2 yards) and her skill, normally 16, is
reduced to 6. Net result, she cannot use her ESP on him from outside
his own personal range at all, and if she gets within his personal
range to try she'll suffer further direct interference, effectively
reducing her ESP Power to nil with regard to John. John is immune to
her ESP for all practical purposes.

Note that as long as Susan stays out of John's personal range of 4
yards, she can still use her ESP normally on anyone else, even someone
standing right beside John and allied with him. She just can not remote
view John because he is too potent a psychonull for ESP to handle.

Now, if she is standing within John’s personal range of 4 yards, then his
super-Antipsi Power of 5 cuts into her abilities directly, reducing her
ESP from 14 to 4 (double his Power) and her skill from 16 to 6, and now
it affects her abilities with regard to everything, because she is in his
personal interference range.

EXAMPLE 2: Kalinda attempts to use her Power 18 ESP and skill of 20
to remote view John. Her native range is 16 miles, so she can theoretically
watch him as long as he is that close. But again, since he is what he is, she
has to subtract 10 (double John’s Power) from her own Power and 5 from
her skill, reducing her to an effective Power of 8 and skill of 13.

So whenever she tries to remote view John her actual range is just 10 yards.
(With anyone else her ESP works normally as long as she stays out of John's
own personal range.)

Since this leaves her with enough range to stay out of his own 4 yard
range, she can remote view him as long as he's no further than 10
yards away and no closer than 4 yards. But since her default range is
16 miles, that's still a major limitation! But at least her ESP
works normally until she gets within 4 yards of John, at which point
she takes another 10 level penalty to Power and 5 level penalty to
skill when dealing with him, and just the latter when dealing with
others. So within 4 yards of John, her effective range with regard to
John drops to zero, and her range with regard to anyone and anything
else drops to 10 yards as long as she's within 4 yards of John.

Example 3: Susan has power 18 Psychokinesis. If at any time she wants
to use it on John, it effectively drops to Power 8 (double his Power as
a penalty to her own Power). If her reduced range brings her within 4 yards
of John, the additional interference takes her below 0 and John is then
immune to her PK. If not, then she can use her PK on him, but a Power that
could normally barely move 2000 pounds is reduced to a force that can barely
move 2 pounds. John may not have much to worry about...

As above, as long as Susan stays out of John's own range of 4 yards, her
PK works normally on everyone and everything else...which does mean
that indirect attacks on him work normally. Thus she can only
apply a trivial force to him, but can apply a lot of force to his clothing,
gear, or the heavy rock above him. But if she gets within that 4 yard
radius of his own Power, then her power drops to 8 for all purposes
and attempts to use it on John drop to Power zero. (Any time the penalty
gives a negative result, round up to zero).

MORE LATER (with more examples)

[Johnny1A.2]

PSYCHONULLS continued...

Psychonulls also interfere with the power of the Flux. Though this vast
cosmic-scale psychic potential can seem very different than the
personal psionic abilities of a given Homosapient, and the differences are
significant in terms of the details, the underlying physics of the Flux and
psi are basically the same, they are two aspects of one natural
phenomenon, and the influence of a psychonull does interfere with both.

In terms of the sheer scale of difference between the cosmic awareness
that is the Matrix and any particular Homosapient, even the strongest
psychonull is infinitesimal. If the Matrix were to take a direct interest in
any psychonull, it could overwhelm him or her with trivial ease. The
Matrix, however, is so diffuse and its scale is so vast such a development
is overwhelmingly improbable. It would be improbable for any Homosapient
to draw the conscious (to the degree the Matrix can be said to have such a
human trait) attention of the Matrix with any action short of the scale of a
supernova. In contrast, the tiny actions of the Flux that can be brought
about by mortal fluxons are very susceptible to the power of a psychonull.

Within the ‘personal range’ of a psychonull, the local Flux Rating of a site
decreases by the Power of the psychonull. This can easily turn a strong
local Flux Rating into a nil or negative one, with significant effects for
any fluxon attempting to make use of his or her abilities in that area.

Furthermore, any fluxon within the ‘personal range’ of a psychonull also
suffers from a penalty on all[ Flux Awareness, Flux Mastery, Matrix
Perception, and other comparable skill rolls equal to twice the Power of
the psychonull. Flux Points can be used to offset this, of course, but every
Flux Point spend in that way is one unavailable for the needs of the fluxon.

If there are multiple psychonulls within the relevant ‘personal range’,
the effects are cumulative with regard to both the local Flux Rating
and the effects on the skill rolls of fluxons.

All attempts to use the Flux on or against a psychonull also suffer,
in a more complicated way. Any attempt to use Matrix Perception to
remotely observe or gain information about a psychonull suffers from a
penalty on Flux Awareness and Matrix Perception rolls equal to ten
times the Power of the psychonull, regardless of range. Ditto
attempts to use the Flux to coerce the mind or behavior.

(Note that intent is not relevant, the interference occurs whether the
fluxon wishes to help or harm.)

MORE LATER with examples...

[Johnny1A.2]

PSYCHONULLS continued...

EXAMPLE 4:

John is a psychonull with Power 5. Janet is a psychonull with
Power 15.

Adaronades has Flux Mastery 37 and Flux Mastery and Matrix
Perception both at 35. Ylarines has Flux Awareness 30, Flux
Mastery 28, and Flux Perception 28.

OK, Ylarines has captured John, but doesn't know what he is
(not a likely scenario, but for our purposes we can assume
Ylarines was absent from class that day), and is holding him
prisoner while he attempts to use the site of Stonehenge to do
a nefarious deed with his powers. John is two yards from
Ylarines, bound, gagged, and blindfolded...none of which
affects his psychonull status in any way.

The site, at that particular time, would normally have a local
Flux Rating of +4. But within four yards of John, it suffers a
-5 penalty so the functional Flux Rating within that four
yard radius is actually -1! Ylarines is puzzled to find that
Stonehenge is behaving as if its Flux potentials were lower
than the background average, which would normally never
happen there.

(All he has to do is move more than four yards from John and
the rest of the site will behave normally, but he doesn't know
that.)

We'll assume that Ylarines is bull-headed (he is) and dumb
(not normally) and proceeds anyway, even though he knows
something weird is going on. He tries to make contact with
the Flux only to find it hard to touch, both because the site
rating is low now and because his Flux Awareness skill takes
a hit at double the Power level of John, so his normal Flux
Awareness skill of 30 drops to 20 off the bat. Even if he
succeeds on this roll it reduces his bonuses for the next one,
the Flux Mastery roll, for which his effective skill is now 18
rather than 28.

This makes everything harder, and proportionately increases
the risk of something Going Wrong in a big way on a major
working, which is always a consideration in Flux work.

(He can spend Flux Points to make up for it, but he has a finite
number of those.)

Example 5: Not only is John tied up on site, so is Janet similarly
bound and helpless. At Power 15, Janet has a personal range
of two miles. Now not only Stonehenge itself but everything
within a 2 mile radius of Janet suffers from a -15 penalty on
Flux Rating, so Stonehenge drops to -11 and the surrounding
area (normally FR 0) drops to FR -15! Within that area the
effect of John, though smaller and weaker, is cumulative, so
within four yards of the pair there is an additional -5 penalty,
taking the Flux Rating down to an amazing -19!

Ylarines, who is standing next to both of them, suffers from a
cumulative penalty of -40 ((15*2) for Janet and (5*2)
for John added together) on his Flux skills, which reduces
them to effectively zero. For practical purposes the proximity
of both psychonulls had rendered him powerless, since
you have to have at least a minimal skill to use Flux Points at
all. With his skills at zero Ylarines must either move away
from the psychonulls or accept that his Flux powers are
gone for the duration.

(Psychonulls never interfere with each other, by the way, they
only reinforce.)

By moving more than four yards from John, he could reduce
the skill penalties to a mere (!) -30 (Janet's Power 15 * 2),
leaving him with...a skill of zero in Flux Awareness (round
negative results in skill penalties up to zero). So even without
John in the mix, Janet renders him powerless as long as he is
within two miles of her.

So...assuming Ylarines figures out what the problem is, would
shooting one or both of them help?

MORE LATER (and more examples)...

[Johnny1A.2]

PSYCHONULLS continued...

Well...that depends.

Upon the death of a psychonull, the immediate effects
of his or her Power cease. Likewise, the direct effects
of a psychonull cease when a psion or fluxon leaves the radius
of effect. The power in question does not necessarily instantly
return, however. Psionics returns faster than flux power, but
both may require some time.

Exposure to a psychonull (meaning within the personal range
of the psychonull) for more than 3d minutes (GM should roll
with each exposure) leaves a lasting imprint. In that case, it
takes some time for the missing power and skill to come back.
The Power has to recharge itself, the skills are 'rattled' and the
mind has to regain its subconscious self-confidence.

A psion, upon leaving the 'personal range' of a psychonull,
will begin to regain his or her reduced Powers and skills after
(1d * the Power of the psychonull(s) ) minutes, and the lost
Power and skill will return over that many more minutes.

A fluxon in that situation will begin to regain lost skills after
(the Power of the psychonull * 1d) hours, and it will
take the same number of hours to regain full skill.

(The Flux Rating of a site returns to normal as soon as the
psychonull is removed from the site).

EXAMPLE 6: In the example above, Ylarines realizes what
the problem is, pulls out his .44, and shoots John and Janet,
both die instantly. Immediately the direct effects fade, the
Flux Rating of Stonehenge immediately returns to it's 'proper'
+4. However...when he first entered the effect of John and
Janet, the GM rolled 3d for each one, coming up with 5 and
8 minutes respectively, meaning that's how long he had to be
'exposed' to each one before a lasting imprint happened.
He was around them for hours, he is nailed.

The GM rolls 1d for each psychonull, getting a 6 for John and
a 4 for Janet. This is multiplied by their Power, 6 times Power
5 for John, 4 times Power 15 for Janet, giving a 30 and a 60
respectively. This means that after 30 hours he begins to
regain the skill he lost to John, and it takes 60 hours to begin
to regain what Janet cost him, and it'll take another 30
and 60 hours to get all the way back to normal.

Luckily for Ylarines, the 'sentences' are served concurrently,
so after 60 hours he's back to full normal, rather than 90 hours.

Psions in the same boat recover much faster, because their
powers and abilities are innate to them, rather than involving
a clumsier connection to an outside psychic field such as the
Flux. This makes it much harder to lastingly scramble them.

EXAMPLE 7: As above, except that Ylarines being an
Atlantean, he is also a psion. His psionic abilities were also
scrambled by John and Janet, but they begin to return merely
30 and 60 minutes after he shoots the psychonulls, and
require only another 30 and 60 minutes to regain full
strength. Again, the recovery time is concurrent.

[D10]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

If the psion also has Pyrokinesis at skill 15+, s/he can at will add
an exothermic component to the Blast, that is, the explosion will be
fire-hot as well as concussive. Again, since the energy is expended
in a fraction of a second, even a modest level of Power can produce
very high temperatures, albeit momentarily. For every two levels of
power, a psion with Pyrokinesis can do an additional (1d6*{(power/2)^2})
heat damage.

Lemme see if I got this right.

at Power 2 in PK, you can use PK blast to deal 1d6/2 damage, and if you have the pyrokinetic skills, you can make it (1d6*{(1d6/2)^2})

assuming I roll 6 in both dices, that would be (6*{(3)^2})

which would be 6*9 or 54 damage ?

also, is this the correct progression ?

power 4 (1d6*{(2d6/2)^2})

power 6 (1d6*{(4d6/2)^2})

Power 8 (1d6*{(8d6/2)^2})

Power 10 (1d6*{(16d6/2)^2})

Power 12 (1d6*{(32d6/2)^2})

Power 14 (1d6*{(64d6/2)^2})

Power 16 (1d6*{(128d6/2)^2})

Power 18 (1d6*{(256d6/2)^2})

Power 20 (1d6*{(512d6/2)^2})

its a bit scary, because a PC fluxon who has some psionic duplications stored (btw can they be stored like flux bolts?) from a +2 flux area could very well roll a 20! for example

I used some random dice roller and got (2*{(512d6/2)^2})

the 512d6 was 1764 divided by two it 882.

so (1d6*{(886)^2})

Im bad at math (psychology student) but I assume I must multiply 882 by 882
arriving at 777924, which multiplied by 2 is 1555848.

Thats like a nuke at the PC's hands.

Is this correct ?

[Johnny1A.2]

Originally Posted by D10

Lemme see if I got this right.

at Power 2 in PK, you can use PK blast to deal 1d6/2 damage, and if you have the pyrokinetic skills, you can make it (1d6*{(1d6/2)^2})

assuming I roll 6 in both dices, that would be (6*{(3)^2})

which would be 6*9 or 54 damage ?

also, is this the correct progression ?

power 4 (1d6*{(2d6/2)^2})

power 6 (1d6*{(4d6/2)^2})

Power 8 (1d6*{(8d6/2)^2})

Power 10 (1d6*{(16d6/2)^2})

Power 12 (1d6*{(32d6/2)^2})

Power 14 (1d6*{(64d6/2)^2})

Power 16 (1d6*{(128d6/2)^2})

Power 18 (1d6*{(256d6/2)^2})

Power 20 (1d6*{(512d6/2)^2})

its a bit scary, because a PC fluxon who has some psionic duplications stored (btw can they be stored like flux bolts?) from a +2 flux area could very well roll a 20! for example

I used some random dice roller and got (2*{(512d6/2)^2})

the 512d6 was 1764 divided by two it 882.

so (1d6*{(886)^2})

Im bad at math (psychology student) but I assume I must multiply 882 by 882
arriving at 777924, which multiplied by 2 is 1555848.

Thats like a nuke at the PC's hands.

Is this correct ?

No, as I'm sure you guessed. I screwed up badly when I posted my formulas, I wasn't paying proper attention. My fault.

The correct formula is: [(1d6) * ((2 ^ (Power/2))] up to power 20 for concussive damange, and the same for the heat damage. This gives totally different results than what I had posted.

So if the psion at Power 2 uses PK Blast, the roll would be 1d6 * 2, because Power 2 divided by 2 is 1, 2 to the first power is 2, so the psion does from 2 to 12 points of concussive damage at Power 2.

If s/he has Pyrokinesis at skill level 15+, s/he can also add another 2 to 12 points of heat damage, because Power 2 divided by 2 is 1, and again 2 to the first is 2, so our psion could potentially do 2 to 12 extra points of heat related damage.

The exponent comes in because damage doubles with every 2 levels of Power increase, up to 20. So, a psion with Power 10:

The same first step applies, the psion uses the skill and roles 1d6 for concussive damage and (if applicable) 1d6 for heat damage. But now each one is doubled for every 2 levels of additional Power. 10/2 is 5, so 2^5 is 32, so now our psion can do 1d6 * 32 points of each kind of damage, or from 32 to 196 points.

It goes on up doubling every 2 levels to Power 20, where it becomes inefficient, above that level the extra energy is wasted using this skill.

If you don't have a calculator handy with the exponent feature, just double the damage every 2 levels to 20, so:

Concussive and Heat (if applicable) damage:


Power 2-3: 2-12
Power 4-5: 4-24
Power 6-7: 8-48
Power 8-9: 16-96
Power 10-11: 32-192
Power: 12-13: 64-384
Power: 14-15: 128-768
Power: 16-17: 256-1536
Power: 18-19: 512-3072
Power 20+: 1024-6144

Notice that these ranges apply to both the concussive damage and the heat damage, so you could have that much from each. So yes, this skill gets really, really powerful at high levels of Power. At the highest end, it could be used to blow a hole through the armor of a WW II battleshiip, or blast apart armored redoubts. But those levels of Power are really, really rare in normal humans. Remember that the vast majority of all psions in the OE are from Power 1 to Power 10, for whom this skill is potent, but more limited.

The roll should be made twice, once for the concussive damage and again (if applicable) for the heat damage, so they won't be the same even though they use the same formula. So in theory, with two rolls of 6, a Power 20 Psychokinetic could do 12,288 points of combined damage. But attaining that level of Power, plus a sufficient level of skill in the necessary skills, means that that sort of power isn't cheap in point terms.

(In fact, that level of psionic Power is so rare in normal humans that a GM would be totally within reason to forbid it to PCs. Most normal humans cannot go above an innate ceiling of 1d6+4 on their own natural strength.)

[D10]

Great thanks, I have been play testing many of your rules.

what area does it affect ? only 1 hex ?

Also, to the other question, can you "store" psionic duplications ?