REWORK IN PROGRESS
If “I think therefore I am,” psychics expand the concept to “I think therefore I do.” They are masters of the mind with abilities that let them interact with the world without exerting their physical body. Furthermore, they can detect the minds of others, some able to read those minds, some able to manipulate them – providing commands, or altering their awareness or emotions.
The LARP variation of this legacy can be found HERE
Playstyle
Psychics are the masters of discrete behavior and information gathering. They are great at discretely communicating information and uncovering secret knowledge. Although information is a great tool, psychics have more direct ways of manipulating individuals, able to incept goals and subtly redirect attention away from themselves and towards more productive avenues.
Play a psionic if you want to gather information and manipulate others from the shadows.
Visual Identity
Description TBD
Signature Ability: What are you thinking?
Psychics specialize on a single question: What are you thinking?
For the next minute, while concentrating this question on a target, the psychic can hear that target’s surface thoughts. Subsequent uses on the same target are more noticeable however; easier to resist and more harmful to the target (inflicting stress).
Targets can attempt to resist attempts to probe their mind only if they are aware of the potential threat or have taken harm from a recent mental attack. If the target is a player, they can actively resist with a contested skill check or resolve check. If the target is an NPC, the attacker takes 1 cut on their attempt.
What are surface thoughts? Surface thoughts are those most immediate and active within a thinking creature – their inner monologue. Often they relate to the immediate environment or a task that the creature is thinking about, however they can be controlled. For example, a person can intentionally think the word “Watermelon” on repeat in their head while walking down the street or even doing monotonous tasks or those guided by muscle memory.
Disadvantage: Open Doors
Easiest way to block memory reading is to put up a mental wall and focus on it – picturing something, reading a list, etc.
Merits
Merits represent the core characteristics, traits, gear, and companions that a character has at their disposal. Merits Tracks represent a form of character health, merits help make actions easier to perform, and many merits provide unique powers and abilities for a character to take advantage of.
Each legacy has 1 signature merit (underlined below), a powerful and complex merit that provides the core ability characters within that legacy are known for. Signature merits can be further enhanced with the meta merits of the same legacy, up to the number of Meta Slots the signature merit has (see the following list after regular Merits).
| Signature Merit | Effect | Track | Meta Slots |
| What are you thinking? | The player may ask the GM (for NPCs) or another player (for their PC) “What are you thinking?” to activate this ability on a visible, nearby target. While concentrating, for the next minute you can hear the target’s learn the surface thoughts. Subsequent attempts on the same target within 30 minutes of the last attempt acts as a mental attack, requiring an action check and dealing a mark of stress harm if successful. |
3 | 2 |
| Psychic Merits | Effect | Track |
| Piercing Stare | 5 | |
| Eyes flicker with eldritch, fractal patterns impossible to read and understand. | ||
| Split Processing | You can concentrate on two things at the same time. | 4 |
| An electronic chip that sticks out of your head. | ||
| Telekinesis Grip | Mark to pickup and move nearby objects without touching them, though you must have the physical strength to lift them and feel them as if you physically touched them. | 3 |
| Thick leather gloves with internal wired patches that stick to one’s hands. | ||
| Emotion Dial | Mark to enhance or diminish a nearby target’s emotions, making them either impossible for the target to avoid acting on, or easy for them to ignore. | 4 |
| A sound adaptor lacking in input or output ports. | ||
| Mind Maker | Mark to create a brand new human-like intelligence within an object or yourself. The intelligence is capable of manipulating any electronic or mechanical manipulation available to the object. Mark again to influence the character, priorities, and desires of the newly created intelligence. The intelligence disappears after the scene. | 3 |
| A jar of miniature brains filled with electronic wires and various connection ports on the lid. | ||
| Thought Provoker | After spending at least a minute with an object, you can mark to imbue that object with a single simple idea, goal, or desire. The first creature to carry or hold onto the object for at least a minute gains that idea as though it was their own for the remainder of the scene. Repeat uses on the same target with the same idea may create a more permanent imprint. The imbuement disappears from the object at the end of the day. | 2 |
| A small spinning top that leaves an afterimage after being stared at for too long. | ||
| Shared Pain | You may take 2 additional injuries per session. You can take an action to injure yourself, taking up to a level 3 injury. When you take this action, choose a target that you can see live (including through cameras or reflections). That target takes stress harm equal to the severity of your new injury and is shaken unless immune. (No check to avoid the harm or side-effect). | |
| A jar of miniature brains filled with electronic wires and various connection ports on the lid. | ||
| Command Circlet | If you have a creature’s attention for at least 1 minute, you can command that creature to perform a single one-word action. The action must not be something you or it believe would put the creature in danger. Spend a lost word to affect the same creature within the same scene. | 4 |
| A softly adorned but expensive looking circlet of metal and gems. | ||
| Obscurity Potion | Spend an esoteric to make you or a willing adjacent ally take on an aura of obscurity, appearing unimportant and inconspicuous to nearby people unless you or something else takes action to clearly draw attention to you. This lasts as long as you or the ally concentrates on the effect. | 4 |
| A sports-bottle with a thick, smoothie like potion inside. | ||
| Memory Dust | Mark to use. When consumed by an individual, you can use 20 words or less to adjust the details of their recent memory from the current scene. | 3 |
| A bitter, almost sticky, airy powder. | ||
| Relation Shipping | Spend a lost word to alter the relationship between two characters in a small manner. Burn to completely change, create, or remove the relationship. | 3 |
| An boat shaped knickknack that randomly appears in new pockets and spaces. | ||
| Dream Catcher | Spend a lost word to enter and view an adjacent sleeping character’s dream. You can also bring allies with you if they spend their own lost words. | 4 |
| A crystal-woven dreamcatcher | ||
| Mind Palace | You can invite any creature you can see to a mental space that you control. Invited creatures can enter and exit the space anytime they want, but they cannot break objects or unlock anything within the palace unless you let them. The mind palace is a mental space only. A creature can walk and talk within it while still doing physical tasks in the real world, though multitasking may be difficult. Creatures within the palace cannot talk to each other if they are in different and closed off rooms. |
3 |
| A gemmed, forehead adornment. | ||
META Merits
Meta Merits alter or enhance a legacy’s signature merit and automatically extend that merit’s track with their own. Meta merits are unique to their legacy and cannot enhance any merit other than the signature merit of the same legacy.
| Meta Psychic Merits | Effect | Track |
| Distant Thoughts | Extend the range of What are you thinking? to far away targets. | – |
| Lock Down | You can choose to make an attack with What are you thinking? at a cut of 1. If the attack succeeds, you and the target cannot take any actions for as long as you concentrate on this effect. (Does not work on targets with resistance to stress)(you may freely drop concentration). | – |
| Mental Sonar | You can detect the presence of intelligent minds through physical barriers as long as they are within range of What are you thinking?. You can use What are you thinking? without having vision of the target. | – |
| Repository | You can create memory packets to near-perfectly preserve a memory and can allow others to view those memories. You can have up to 10 memory packets. | – |
| Memory Parser | If the thought of a creature who’s mind you are scanning with What are you thinking? thinks of a memory, you can record that memory in full into your mind for review after concentration ends. | – |
| Peaceful Questioning | When you use What are you thinking? on a willing target, you may do so without inflicting stress on them for subsequent uses as long as they remain willing. When you do this, they can also hear your surface thoughts. | – |
| What’s that About? | When you use What are you thinking? you may ask for more detail/context of the target’s thoughts on a specific subject that crossed their mind. For example, if a target is reading a book and the name “Bilbo” comes up in their surface thoughts, you can ask for more information about what the target knows and thinks about this “Bilbo.” |
– |
Alternative Concepts
TBD