[Psionic Powers] Psychic Familiarity

[Prince Charon]

Psychic Familiarity (Control Psi Energy (Only for effects conceptually-related to current Familiar, -40%; Meta-Psi, -10%) 1 [10] + Psi Sense 1 (with Signature Sniffer) [13] + Visions (Aspected: Psi activity related to current Familiar) [8] + Modular Abilities (Cosmic; Only for skills et al relating to current or previous Familiars, -30%; ESP, -10%; Requires IQ Roll, -10%) 1 [5] & (Cosmic; Only for skills et al relating to current Familiar, -40%; ESP, -10%; Requires IQ Roll, -10%) 2 [8] + Gestalt Familiarity [1]) [45]

(I was originally going to post this in Power Stunts as Spells, but the idea filled out so much in the process of typing it up that it seems like it needs its own thread. Also, something like this could be used to justify the use of 'magical ingredients' in an 'Old-Time Psi' setting.)

You can 'synchronize' yourself with a target (mainly called a 'Familiar' (especially if the target is a creature or person), but sometimes called a 'Focus' (plural 'Foci'), or a 'Catalyst'), gaining a limited form of what some call Intellectus (link chosen because the description is useful; the hypothetical setting does not need to be crossed with Dresden Files). The Familiar might be an object or place, or might be a lifeform of some sort, including other people (though GMs may want to forbid the latter). You retain a small connection to Foci that you have once been attuned to, enough to still use skills connected to them, but not to reach them currently if they are out of your normal range. With some effort (and spending of points on a Mindlink variant, and probably some abilities with the 'Granted by Familiar' limitation) it is possible to gain a permanent connection to a Familiar. (For purposes of Alternate Abilities and power stunts, Psychic Familiarity should be treated as one ability - the Control advantage manipulates the psi energy of the other component advantages, and the psi energy in the environment, if any.)

The core skill is Control (Psi Energy) [Will/VH], with Autohypnosis and Meditation being complementary skills. The normal skill for Modular Abilities is Borrow Skill (ESP) [IQ/H], Psionic Powers pp57-58 (with 'ESP' being a required specialization). You will generally have a bonus to skills et al from your current Familiar, and a penalty for skills et al from previous Familiars which you have not connected to in a long time - the longer it's been, the worse the penalty should be (on the Size and Speed/Range Table, treat 'yards' as 'days' - though some GMs might a different base timespan for their settings, or it might vary from enhancements and limitations). While you can use the Control skill for all advantages incorporated into this ability (mostly with a penalty of -2), getting at least one lower-difficulty skill may be a good idea. You can study skills et al gained from this ability, to make them a permanent part of your character.

Even when not attuned, Psi Sense still works, and so do most Modular Abilities. For switching Modular Abilities to power techniques, the skill roll is affected by how closely or distantly related what you want to do is from the catalyst's concept & history (future history can be used if you get a vision, but will be more tenuous). If your current Familiar is another psi (if the GM permits that), or if you and another psi or psis with this ability (or one that the GM agrees is sufficiently similar) are synchronized with the same target, you can form a Gestalt without touching, and without telepathy. You can also attempt to force another psi synchronized to same target to disconnect (using a Contest of Wills, or of their Will vs. your skill), or vice-versa, in which case connections with greater auctoritas (conceptual authority and relationship) should have bonuses set by the GM, and connections with especially low auctoritas should have penalties; likewise, a sufficiently-aware Familiar can try to force you to disconnect (also a Contest of Wills), if they wish to.

'Skills et al' means not only skills, techniques, & familiarities, but also languages, Cultural Familiarities, and sufficiently skill-like perks (Dabbler and Style Familiarity certainly count, any others are up to GM). Available skills include those for using and understanding the Familiar (or manipulating them if the Familiar is intelligent enough for that), healing or repairing (or making) the Familiar, things related to the history of people who owned or used the Focus, and various other things that the GM considers fitting. If the Familiar has or had skills (e.g. a person or creature, or the remains of one; also a computer, or something similar), or was carried by someone who left a strong impression using skills that the Focus was not used with, or represents someone who had such skills, those skills may also be available (e.g. Strategy from the ring or statue of a famous general, detective skills from a Batman comic); the more steps removed from the source of the skills the Familiar is, the greater the penalty to try to manifest them. Like psi techniques, it depends on how closely or distantly related what you want to do is from the Familiar's concept & history (or future history). You can use your own hair or similar as a catalyst, but you would very rarely get much out of it beyond using it for diagnosis, memory enhancement, or to learn secrets you didn't know you had (thus, Amnesia and related disadvantages should probably be forbidden to characters with this ability, or another limitation added); it can also be useful for seeking information about your possible futures, to a degree.

Synchronizing with larger things usually takes longer. For simplicity, use the longest dimension of the object and check the Size and Speed/Range Table for the penalty; alternatively, use the average of all three dimensions. Taking Extra Time is acceptable (e.g. you absolutely could connect to the battleship USS Iowa, but not quickly unless you already have a strong conceptual connection); of course, if you've connected to something before, it is faster and easier to do it again, and even more so if you have a Mindlink (assuming that you disconnected at all). Synchronizing with a book or other recording allows you to understand the recording (even if you didn't know the language before), and to call skills et al relating to the recording; more distant relationships will tend to grant lower skills and/or worse penalties (e.g. it's easier to get movie-making skills from a detective film than detective skills, but it is still possible to get detective skills, or powers that imitate them; on the other hand, while you could use a chemistry textbook to get skills in 'Writing,' 'Teaching,' and 'Professional Skills (Printing & Bookbinding),' it's easier to get the 'Chemistry' skill, because that's what the purpose of the textbook is).


(A couple of more expensive variants):
*Psychic Familiarity (Control Psi Energy (Only for effects conceptually-related to current Familiar, -40%; Meta-Psi, -10%) 3 [30] + Psi Sense 4 (with Signature Sniffer) [37] + Retrocognitive Flashbacks 4 [36] + Visions (Aspected: Psi activity related to current Familiar) [8] + Modular Abilities (Cosmic; Only for skills et al relating to current or previous Familiars, -30%; ESP, -10%) 13 [78]; Gestalt Familiarity [1]) [190]
Retrocognition seems like it would be redundant when you can use the skills from Modular Abilities to find a catalyst's history, but Retrocognitive Flashbacks can tell you what to look for, where with the Modular Abilities skills, you need to think to look.

*Psychic Familiarity (Control Psi Energy (Only for effects conceptually-related to current Familiar, -40%; Meta-Psi, -10%) 4 [40] + Psi Sense 4 (with Signature Sniffer) [37] + Prognostication 4 (Temporary Disadvantage (Watcher (future selves); More powerful; 9 or less), -5%) [32] + Modular Abilities (Cosmic; Only for skills et al relating to current or previous Familiars, -30%; ESP, -10%; Requires IQ Roll, -10%) 8 [40]; Gestalt Familiarity [1]) [150]
If you gaze into the future, the future also gazes into you... and may find you wanting. In this case, your future selves may look back at you and try to nudge you onto a different path, or otherwise cause minor problems for you (their ability to affect the past is very limited, being based on manipulating you, but they may be able to affect your subconscious if you connect to one - or worse, to more than one, who may or may not like each other). (A game in which the players are playing different future selves of an NPC, or of another player's character, might be fun once and a while with the right group, though that's not the only thing this version could be used for.)


I gave 'Control Psi Energy' a base cost of 20 and a 40% limitation to simplify the math; I'm not sold on that limitation cost, and the base cost depends on how common psi energy is in the setting (check with your GM for that).

Many who have this ability also have an Energy Reserve (Psi), which recharges while synchronized. Given how easy synchronizing with a new Familiar generally is, -70% for Special Recharge may be far too much of a discount, but I'm not sure what would be appropriate. Suggestions?

[Prince Charon]

Some examples:

Let's say that you have a matchbook from the Cobalt Club in 1930s NYC. Getting information about the club and its staff and members would be fairly easy, as would skills related to running the club, cooking fancy meals, singing or playing music, et cetra; likewise, papermaking skills and Chemistry would be quite easy, as would Artist in the style of the matchbook's logo. In terms of power techniques, abilities related to fire, food, wealth, or sound are all plausible, but only fire would be easy to get (Pyrokinesis is the most obvious example, but certainly not the only option), because it's a matchbook. Imitating the Shadow's powers (or getting his mundane skills) would be at a rather high penalty, unless he handled or was at the table with that specific matchbook; it would be rather easier if he used his power on someone at the same table, such as clouding the police commissioner's mind to get a look at some files.

The Shadow's girasol ring (or one of the rings he gives out to his network of agents, if you're going with the movie) would be far more useful in terms of gaining skills and Shadow-related power techniques. A modern psychic inheriting the ring or finding it in the attic, and their power of Psychic Familiarity activating for the first time due to the weight of history in the ring, could make for an interesting Origin Story.

Going from fire to rings to the Ring of Fire - Narya from Tolkien's Legendarium. Consider five visually-similar rings: an expensive modern ring that just happens to fit the description from the books; a piece of cheap costume jewelry from a Gandalf costume; a good replica of the movie prop; an actual movie prop; a ring of gold with a polished red stone, from a Bronze Age tomb which had burnt offerings and cremated remains. As you might guess, they are written in ascending order of how useful they would be in imitating the vaguely-described abilities of the ring that Gandalf wore: The random nice-looking gold ring with a ruby on it is note useless, but it's association with Narya is very weak. The bit of costume jewelry and the replica of the prop from the Peter Jackson film are almost equal, but the replica edges out the cheaper ring because of durability and perceived metaphysical 'weight.' Obviously the actual prop from the movie has the most direct association, but the ring from a literal Bronze Age tomb beats it due to being an ancient ring with the right look and a clear association with fire; the only way that it could be better is if Tolkein had seen it in a museum, or even held it, and it had formed the image of Narya in his mind (as far as I know, there is no specific ancient ring that did this, but in your game, maybe there was one).

The powers of Narya are subtle, as befits Tolkien's setting by the Third Age, but by no means weak. They are also, as noted above, frustratingly vague, which for gaming purposes, means the GM and player have a bit more freedom working them out. It likely could grant (in the context of this power) some form of Obscure (Divination), grant Will bonuses to both the user and others, and is likely to have some variety of Serendipity (Aspected: Fire) and/or Visualization (Aspected: Fire), as well as abilities related to Gandalf and Círdan. Using it to gain abilities associated with the other Rings or from other Elves or Istari would be possible at a greater penalty depending on how far removed they are. On the downside, someone using Psychic Familiarity of a replica of the One Ring is more likely to notice you if you do too much or abandon subtlety, which is likely to be a problem.


Thoughts?

[Prince Charon]

Psiphone (Psychic Familiarity (Control Psi Energy (Malediction 2, +150%; Reduced Time 2, +40%; Only for effects conceptually-related to current Familiar, -40%; Locations only, -40%; Meta-Psi, -10%) 2 [72] + Control Psi Energy (Alternate Ability of Control Psi Energy; Malediction 3, +200%; Reduced Time 2, +40%; Only for effects conceptually-related to current Familiar, -40%; Locations only, -40%; Meta-Psi, -10%) 1 [50] + Psi Sense 3 (with Signature Sniffer) [27] + Visions (Aspected: Psi activity related to current Familiar) [8] + Modular Abilities (Slotted Cosmic, Slot 1; Only for skills et al relating to current or previous Familiars, -30%; ESP, -10%) 4 [16], (Slotted Cosmic, Slot 2; Only for power techniques relating to current or previous Familiars, -50%; ESP, -10%; Requires IQ Roll, -10%) 6 [11], (Slotted Cosmic, Slot 3; Only for Area Knowledge or Hidden Lore relating to current Familiar, -80%; ESP, -10%) 2 [4]; Gestalt Familiarity [1]) [189]; Breakable, DR5, -15%, SM-7, -5%; Can be Stolen by ST (Will not immediately work for thief), -15%) [123]
Appearing to be an unknown model of Nokia cellphone from the late 1990s or early 2000s, this psychotronic device must be attuned to the user before it will do anything the base phone wouldn't; this requires a successful Computer Programming/TL8^ roll, which can be resisted by the current owner's Will (the owner will thus know someone is trying this, and on a critical success, will know who). A location may be designated using a phone number, or with the GPS coordinates, or by pointing the phone at it if it's in line-of-sight, after which the size of the location must be entered, either as a radius or a shape; as noted in the OP, the larger the area is, the longer is takes to synchronize with it. As with many other phones, long-distance calls have issues, in this case being less powerful. Some variants of this device have an optional Astral Projection ability: Modular Abilities (Only for Astral Contacts related to the location).

Reduced Time it there because it's often needed to counter Taking Extra Time when switching catalysts, due to combination of distance penalties and the penalty for the size of a location.

Honestly not sure about the way I'm doing this one, since 'Malediction,' 'Reduced Time,' and 'Locations only' affect only switching familiars/catalysts, while using the abilities is still centered on you, with unmodified range. Should that be a modifier on the modifiers (and if so, how much), or just a feature, or something else?

[Donny Brook]

What does Control of psi energy do?

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Donny Brook

What does Control of psi energy do?

(It's possible that I may be misinterpreting your question, in which case please clarify it.) It's the core advantage that the ability is built around, justifying it's versatility. That's why the modifiers in question are applied to it. I suppose that they could be applied to Psi Sense instead (since that's what you're 'reading' the Familiar with), which would certainly be cheaper, but I'm not sure whether it's the better choice in this context.

[Donny Brook]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

(It's possible that I may be misinterpreting your question, in which case please clarify it.) It's the core advantage that the ability is built around, justifying it's versatility. That's why the modifiers in question are applied to it. I suppose that they could be applied to Psi Sense instead (since that's what you're 'reading' the Familiar with), which would certainly be cheaper, but I'm not sure whether it's the better choice in this context.

I guess my question has two facets. What can Control of Psi energy do in the setting? Which might answer the other facet -- what does it add to overall build?