[Psionic Powers] "Get by with a little help... from myself?"

[tetrahedron]

Ken Hood created a wonderful world in the Sleeping Imperium and I want to incorporate some of his psionic powers into my game. But I'm having some trouble with one - Non-linear Time Perception. I'm thinking Snatcher (information) would work, but not sure of the modifiers. Also not sure about the "I told myself retroactively" bit is Snatcher... The power is written in the original d20 below:

For a normal sentient being, consciousness and selfawareness is an instantaneous point in the ever-forwardmoving present. However, you – for very brief moments – can expand your awareness beyond and through that point, becoming an infinite wave-function of consciousness that stretches through all your possible pasts, presents, and futures. During this moment, you can perceive an effect without or before its cause, you can think to all your possible selves, transmitting a message through every point in your existence, or you can attempt to remember events that occur outside your time-line.

This is a taxing ability that exhausts you after you use it, but that is a small price for peering beyond the boundaries of space and time.

Check: There are three basic tasks you can perform with Non-linear Time Perception: Non-linear Memory, Non-linear Thought, and Perceive Effect before Cause. Each use of this skill is an active application of psionics. Furthermore, ESP can detect the use of Non-linear Time Perception as if it were a “major distortion to reality.”

Non-linear Memory: For a brief, eternal moment, you expand your consciousness to all your possible past, present, and future selves and attempt to remember some piece of information. This piece of information could be something you remember in the future, such as the contents of room beyond a locked door or the winner of a sports event several years from now. It could be a piece of information you could have possibly learned in an alternate past or present where circumstances different, such as recalling a memory from an alternate past where you overhead the conversation of an important political official at a dinner party you attended recently.

To perform this task, you must state the memory you wish to recall. Then, you enter a meditative state of total concentration for 10 minutes. At the end of this time, you perform a Non-linear Time Perception skill check. The DC is based on the likelihood that you would possess the memory, per table NLM-1.

If the skill check succeeds, you “recall” the alternate memory. It exists side-by-side with your old memory (if any) of the event and seems just as real. If the skill check fails, you cannot use Non-Linear Time Perception for twenty-four hours.

Any use of non-linear memory – successful or unsuccessful – immediately fatigues you. Also, you must make a Will saving throw against DC 20. If failed, you are stunned for 2d6 rounds after use of non-linear memory.

Non-linear Memory Example . . .
Jack has Non-linear Time Perception +15. He and his companions are exploring ancient ruins. They find an ancient set of hieroglyphs. Jack dimly recalls something about these glyphs. He had been in a lecture about the civilization that built the ruins, but had fallen asleep as the lecturer droned on.Jack decides that he wishes to “remember” the contents of the lecture from an alternate past where he actually paid attention. The information may be helpful.

The referee determines that it is highly probable for Jack to possess this information. All he had to do was stay awake. This sets the DC at 20. Jack rolls 30. He clearly “recalls” the lecture and uses that information to decipher the hieroglyphs.

Non-linear Thought: For a brief, eternal moment, you expand your consciousness to all your possible past, present, and future selves and transmit a single thought to one of your selves. The thought must be brief, no more than a couple of sentences. For instance, you could send a message to yourself in the past, saying “Do not trust the vizier.” You could think to yourself in the future, “Remember to pick up milk at the grocery store.” (Always helpful if one has a spouse.)

This ability allows you to send messages that can potentially change your past, present, or future, creating an entirely new time-line. For example, you could tell yourself several years in the past to bury a pound of uranium in the middle of the desert because you need it in the present to power an atomic device. To form a non-linear thought, you must first determine the thought you wish to send and where/when in your timeline you desire to send it.

Then, you enter a meditative state of total concentration for 10 minutes. At the end of this time, you perform a Non-linear Time Perception skill check. The DC is based on the likelihood that you would be able to implement your thought, per table NLT-1.

If you succeed in the skill check, your non-linear thought has made some alteration to your time-line, though not necessarily the one you intended. The actual change, its effectiveness, and its consequences are the discretion of your referee.

If you fail the skill check, you cannot use Non- Linear Time Perception for twenty-four hours. Any use of non-linear thought – successful or unsuccessful – immediately fatigues you. Also, you must make a Will saving throw against DC 20. If failed, you are stunned for 2d6 rounds after the use of this psionic ability.

Note: The action required by your non-linear thought must be one that you can fulfill personally or at least initiate personally. You cannot send thoughts to other people.

Also, the more people your thought affects, the more difficult it is to perform and less likely to occur. The acts that you must perform to fulfill the request must occur “off camera.” That is, it must occur during times in the game that you have not actually roleplayed.

For example, you could not plant uranium in the desert during the same time you fought a battle. If the act would change or interfere with significant historical events in your life, then it is impossible to reap its benefits. Instead, if your skill check is successful, you create a divergent reality from your current timeline. You do not gain the benefits of this reality, but one of your “other selves” does. (For game purposes, anything that is explicit in your character’s back-story or events that have been role-played count as “significant historical events.”)

For example, assume that you have role-played a battle in which you are surprised and several of your comrades slain. You send a message to yourself to be wary of the ambush. Since not being ambushed would alter a significant historical event (as well as creating a serious paradox, because you would no longer have a reason to send yourself that message), a divergent reality is created – sideways to your own – in which the surprise was defeated. You gain no benefit.

In another example, assume you met an untrustworthy merchant who double-crossed you and stole all of your money. If you sent a message to yourself to not trust said merchant, you would create a divergent reality because you are changing a significant past event. However, if you sent a message to yourself that said, “Bury gold near the tree at the crossroads.” You are not changing the event where the merchant double-crossed you. Instead, “off camera,” you buried the money. In fact, you remember doing that. Off you go, and you now have cash in your pockets again.

Making yourself pack a potion of healing and a rope in your backpack so you can climb out of a pit changes your present circumstances. Sending a message to warn yourself of the pit so you don’t fall into it in the first place changes your past.

The best use of this skill is to change your present circumstances, rather than your past history. A degree of subtlety and cleverness are necessary to use this ability.

Non-linear Thought Example . . .
Jack has Non-linear Time Perception +15. He and his companions are exploring ancient ruins. They come to a hallway blocked by a collapsed section of ceiling. If they had the proper tools, they could easily pass it — with a lot of hard work.

Jack and his companions search through their gear and find no useful tools. Just as the last companion’s backpack is about to be searched, Jack stops them. He is going to use non-linear thought to send a message to himself in the past, telling himself to sneak a crowbar into his companion’s pack.

The referee decides that it is probable that Jack would be able to fulfill this task. The DC is 30. Jack meditates, expanding his consciousness. His skill check is 32. He succeeds in the non-linear thought.

Once he returns to normal awareness, his companions search the backpack and find a crowbar. They begin clearing debris, while Jack rests away his fatigue.

If Jack had chosen to send this thought after all the packs had been searched, it would have only been a mathematical possibility that he could have hidden it.

If Jack had chosen to send a message to his past self to tromp out to this ruined building and bury several tools for future use, the difficulty would have been improbable or highly improbable.

Continued on the next post...

T