Psychic Senses powers



Alignment Discovery

Axioms: Star Sphere reality only
Groups: Psychic Senses, Telepathy
Activation Difficulty: 14
Difficulty based on: NA
Psi Strain:
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Bonus Number to:
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Suggested Enhancements and Limitations:

Awareness

Axioms: Social 20
Groups: Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty: 17
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain: Effect Value + 3
Base Effect Value: variable
Base Range: area effect, radius skill value in meters
Base Duration: 9 (1 minute)
Bonus Number to:Duration
Description: alerts psychic to danger

    This power warns the character of imminent danger ("imminent" meaning that the danger to the character will occur within one round of game time, ten seconds.)  The Effect Value functions as a free Perception check for the character to detect danger, even if it is something that he would otherwise not be able to detect such as a hidden trap or an attack from an unseen opponent. Attacks which come from outside the Range of the power, such as a sniper shot, are detectable but the Success Level will be reduced by one step.
    The success level of the check determines how much information the character receives from the power: with a Minimal or Average result the character only receives a warning of danger, with a Good result the character knows the direction the danger will come from, a Superior result will provide a vague idea of the nature of the danger while a Spectacular result will provide the character with a psychic vision of the source of the danger.
    The power may be extended to sense danger to characters other than the psychic himself, as long as those characters are within the power's Range.  Other characters that are to be covered must be declared before the power is activated because it will affect the Activation Difficulty and Psi Strain of the power.  The number of characters being covered, including the psychic, is read on the One-on-Many chart to find the modifier, which may be split between the Activation Difficulty and the Psi Strain Rating as the player sees fit.

Suggested Enhancements and Limitations:A Permanant Adjustment to boost Range is a common Enhancement for this power. Reduced Control could be used to eliminate the ability to sense danger from outside the Range of the Power or to remove the ability to sense danger to other characters.

Channel

Axioms: Social 18
Groups: Psychic Senses, Telepathy
Activation Difficulty: 21
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain: Effect Value - 3
Base Effect Value: variable
Base Range: skill adds in meters
Base Duration: 9 (1 minute)
Bonus Number to: Duration
Description: lets the character interact with psychic shadows

    This version of Channel allows the character to interact with the psychic shadows people leave behind in the Akashic Record. It is very often mistaken as communicating with the dead, but that is not actually the case.  To actually speak with the spirit of someone who has died requires the Telepathy version of this power.  These shadows that can be contacted through the use of this power are more like interactive recordings of information that the psychic can manipulate.  
    Everything a person does leaves traces in the Record.  Most are very faint, but emotionally charged events can leave very strong traces behind in the location where they occured that even non-psychics may be able to subconsciously detect (assuming that the local reality supports psionics.) A mysterious cold spot in a room may be a place where someone was murdered, and the impact that death had on the Record can sometimes be felt when a person stands on that same spot, which a non-psychic person's mind interprets as a sudden chill.  Some ghost sightings, especially in cosms like Core Earth which lack the Magic axiom to support real ghosts, could be psychic shadows which are strong enough for non-psychics to see them.  This power allows a psychic to sense shadows which are much weaker.
    The psychic shadows detectable by this Power are associated with specific locations.  In order to channel the shadow of a person who was murdered, the psychic would have to use the Power at a location the person had actually been to - the location where the person was killed would probably have the strongest and easiest to detect shadows, but their home, their job, their favorite restaurant, anywhere the person went in his life he left a shadow behind. To detect psychic shadows attached to objects rather than locations, such as a knife used in a murder, requires the use of the Postcognition power.
    Psychic shadows have a power rating which determines how difficult it is to perceive them.  Traumatic events or ones involving intense emotions leave stronger shadows and are easier to perceive. So the stronger the shadow, the lower its power rating.  Some example power ratings and situational modifiers:
* relative time frames, within a few weeks to a few months could be recent while anything measured in years would probably be old.

    Note that it is quite possible for an area to have many different shadows, each with its own power rating.  For example, if a person was murdered in his own home there would be several different PRs for the shadows in that house - one for the murder itself, one for the day-to-day events of his life in the house, maybe others related to strong emotional experiences he had while living in the house. A psychic trying to view something other than the murder in the house may end up seeing the murder anyway if his Effect Value is not high enough to see any of the other shadows in the house.
    The Effect Value of this Power is compared to the power rating of a shadow and the success level determines how much information the psychic receives and how much he can interact with the shadow: on a Minimal or Average result the psychic receives an impression or brief sensations of the event but nothing more. With a Good result he is able to witness a brief moment of the shadow, a Superior success allows him to perceive the entire event and interact with it like a recording (freeze frame, rewind, repeat, fast forward, etc) and on a Spectacular success he can even interact with the shadow as if it were the actual person in question (interrupt the replay of events and speak with the person, ask it questions, etc.) 
    The amount of information contained in a shadow in related to its power rating.  The lower the power rating (the stronger the shadow), the less information it usually contains. The shadow of a suicide would contain information about why the person killed himself, but it probably wouldn't have much beyond that. The shadow of a person's daily, mundane life on the other hand could contain so much information about the person that interacting with it is just like conversing with him, the psychic could ask him anything about his life and the shadow would probably be able to answer him.

Suggested Enhancements and Limitations: Requires Extra Concentration Time, Not Maintainable, Set Duration and Uncontrollable are Limitations frequently associated with this power.

Combat Awareness

Axioms: Social 23
Groups: Psychic Senses, Telepathy
Activation Difficulty: 17
Difficulty based on:
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Suggested Enhancements and Limitations:

Database

Axioms: Social 21
Groups: Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty: 16
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain: Effect Value
Base Effect Value: variable
Base Range: self
Base Duration: 5 (10 seconds)
Bonus Number to: Duration
Description: character can scan the Record for information

    Database allows a character to search through a reality's Akashic Record to locate general information about that world,  functioning like the scholar (realm lore) skill.  It must be bought seperately for each reality whose Akashic Record the character can scan for data.  It may be bought for realities which do not support psionics so long as the character's own reality supports the power (a Record still exists in a cosm even if the inhabitants are unable to access it themselves.)  One major difference from the realm lore skill is that for realities different from the psychic's own, the power can only be used when she is in that reality (otherwise she has no access to that reality's Akashic Record.)  For example, a Core Earth psychic with Database (Nile Empire) can only use that power while she is in the Nile Empire.
    The Effect Value is compared to a difficulty value determined by the gamemaster based on the obscurity of the information desired.  Success level is used to determine the amount and quality of the information gained.  For more information, consult the description of the scholar skill in the rulebook and the scholar (realm lore) skill in the Storm Knights' Guide to the Possibility Wars supplement.
    Generally, finding the answer to one question will take the psychic one round, so with a lengthy Duration the character can search for information on multiple topics.  Alternately, she can spend more time on fewer questions to increase the amount of information gathered - subtract five from the time value spent on a question to find the bonus she gets to her Effect Value.  (Example: spending two rounds on a single question is 20 second which has a time value of 7, subtracting five from that gives her a +2 bonus to her Effect Value.)

Suggested Enhancements and Limitations: Improved Control could broaden the scope of the power and allow it to acquire information like any scholar skill instead of just realm lore. Usable Only Unconscious/In a Trance is a common Limitation.

Diagnostic Probe

Axioms: Social 19
Groups: Body Control, Psionic Defense, Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty: 20
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain: 11
Base Effect Value: 15
Base Range: touch
Base Duration: 9 (1 minute)
Bonus Number to: Effect Value
Description: assesses scope and nature of mental damage, assists in healing

    This power works the same as Diagnostic Probe (self-only) under Body Control except that the psychic can also probe the minds of others to assess any mental damage they may have taken and to assist them in the healing process, which gives it an increased Activation Difficulty.

Suggested Enhancements and Limitations: Share Power cannot be taken for this power since it is already part of the power's effects. A Permanent Adjustment can be made to reduce the required Duration, or the Set Duration Limitation could be bought off by increasing the Activation Difficulty by +4.  The Reduced Control Limitation could be used to eliminate the ability to ask questions about the damage, leaving only the healing benefits. Usable Only in a Trance is a common Limitation.  Reduced Range could be used to reduce it to Self, the power would only work on the psychic.

Energy Sense

Axioms: Social 19
Groups: Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty: 17
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain:
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Suggested Enhancements and Limitations:

Imprint Object

Axioms: Social 20
Groups: Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty: 14
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain:
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Suggested Enhancements and Limitations:

Life Sense

Axioms: Social 18
Groups: Psychic Senses, Telepathy
Activation Difficulty: 16
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain: Effect Value - 2
Base Effect Value: variable
Base Range: area effect, radius is skill value in meters
Base Duration: 5 (10 seconds)
Bonus Number to: Range
Description: detects the presence of living creatures

    This Power allows the psychic to sense the presence of living creatures within the range of the power.  The Effect Value must equal or exceed the Spirit attribute of a creature in order for the power to detect it.  The success level against each detected creature's Spirit determines how much information the psychic can gather about that creature.  If there are any psychics within Range of the Power when it is used, their Spirit attribute still determines if they are detected by the power but their psionic resistance skill is used in place of their Spirit attribute to determine how much information is gathered about them.  Psychics will automatically realize that they have been scanned by Life Sense if it does not achieve at least a Good success level against their psionic resistance skill.
    Minimal only allows the psychic to detect a creature's presence ("I sense three creatures nearby"), Average will reveal the number and general direction and distance from the psychic ("there are two creatures about eight meters ahead of me and one creature three meters off to my left"), Good will provide the relative sizes of the creatures detected ("the two creatures ahead of me are about my size and weight, the one to my left is shorter but weighs almost as much") , Superior tells the psychic if the creature is sapient ("the two creatures ahead of me are thinking creatures, the one to my left is an animal") and a Spectacular will disclose the creature's attitude (Loyal, Friendly, Neutral, Hostile, Enemy) towards the psychic ("the animal is Hostile, the two others are Neutral").  Note that at no time does the power actually tell the character what it is that he is sensing (two men and a large guard dog in the above examples)!
    Life Sense can also be focused to search for a specific living being rather than used to scan all living beings within Range.  This doubles the Range and provides different information based on the success level: a Minimal to Good will reveal the target's general direction and distance from the character ("Bob is in the room at the end of that hallway"), a Superior will allow the character to view the area surrounding the target ("I can see Bob and what he is doing in that room") and on a Spectacular result the character also acquires a "psychic lock" on the target.
    A psychic lock on a creature greatly extends the character's ability to sense it.  It extends the Range of this Power to the character's skill measure on the Torg Value Chart and the Duration increases to the measure of the character's psionic resistance skill value on the Value Chart.  (Example: a character with psionic manipuation 15 and psionic resistance 14 would have a Range of one kilometer and a Duration of ten minutes when tracking someone for which the character has a psychic lock.)
    Creatures which are not considered to be living but possess a Spirit attribute, such as undead and some constructed beings, can still be detected by the power but the success level against them is reduced by two levels - if the psychic only achieved a Minimal or Average success he fails to detect them.  If he does manage to detect them, he will be able to tell that there is something "wrong" with the creatures but probably little else about them.

Suggested Enhancements and Limitations:Increased Control could be used to reduce the two step success level penalty for sensing nonliving creatures to a one step penalty while Reduced Control could eliminate that ability entirely.

Postcognition

Axioms: Social 18
Groups: Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty: 21
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain: special
Base Effect Value: variable
Base Range: special
Base Duration: 5 (10 seconds)
Bonus Number to: Effect Value
Description: view events which occured in the past

    This power functions in a similar fashion to the Psychic Senses version of Channel except that it is primarily used to sense the psychic shadows associated with objects, not locations.  It can also be used to see past events in the Record of a living person.
    When used on an object, events in which the object played a part will have Power Ratings associated with them as detailed previously in Channel. For example, if a knife was used to murder someone that event would have a Power Rating of 8. If the knife was used to threaten someone's life, that event might have a Power Rating of 13. If it's a kitchen knife used for nothing more than cutting vegetables, its shadows would probably have a Power Rating of 18 or higher. Compare the Effect Value to the Power Rating to determine a Success Level as per Channel with the change that a Spectacular success doesn't give the character the ability to speak to the object! When used on an object, Range is not applicable.  The Psi Strain is equal to the Effect Value.
    When used on a person, the Effect Value is compared to the target's psionic resistance skill or Mind attribute if they don't have the skill. Range is the measure of the maximum time value, not distance, into the past over which the Power can function and it is variable (for example, a Range of 38 is one year).  The Psi Strain is equal to the Effect Value plus Range, divided by three. The success levels work as per Channel. If the event the psychic is searching for occured farther in the past than the Range of the Power, the Power fails regardless of the success level.
    With either application of the power, the psychic must touch the object or person in order to detect the psychic shadows. Events viewed with Postcognition appear to play out in real time but are actually seen entirely within the Duration of the power.

Suggested Enhancements and Limitations:Selective Efficiency can be used to make the power more effective at reading objects than people or vice versa. Reduced Control could be used to limit the power to either objects or people instead of both. Uncontrollable is a very common Limitation.

Precognition

Axioms: Social 18
Groups: Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty: 25
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain: (Range + Effect Value) / 2
Base Effect Value: variable
Base Range: skill measure in time
Base Duration: 5 (10 seconds)
Bonus Number to: Range
Description: view probable events of the immediate future

    This Power enables the psychic to look into their future and see what might happen - the future is always in flux so no precognitive vision can be 100% accurate. The Effect Value is used to determine the quality of information gathered while the Range is the measure of the maximum time value, not distance, into the future over which the power functions (for example, a Range of 18 is one hour).
    In general, the farther into the future a psychic looks, the less accurate her visions become because the number of possible futures increase with each additional second forward. If the psychic is trying to view a specific point of time in the future the Effect Value is compared to time value for how far into the future she is looking to determine the success level.  For example, if she wants to look one minute into the future, the Effect Value is compared to a DN of 9. If the psychic is instead looking for a specific event in the future, assuming that it will occur within the Range of the power the gamemaster should determine when in the future the event is most likely to occur and the Effect Value is compared to that time value. For example, if the psychic is searching to see if she encounters Wu Han in the immediate future, the gamemaster must determine if it's likely to happen within the Range of the Power and if it is, when it would most likely occur.
    The success level determines the accuracy and kind of information the character receives: on a Minimal or Average result the character only receives a "good/bad" or "yes/no" impression about how events will proceed - if she was looking at a specific time she will only be able to tell if things are going well or poorly then, or if looking for a specific event she would know that at some point within Range she will or will not encounter that event. With a Good result the impression becomes a bit stronger but still indistinct - "safe", "interesting", "menace" and "happy" are examples of the kind of impressions the character may receive in addition to the good/bad or yes/no they get from the lesser success levels.  With a Superior result the character receives a vague but generally reliable picture of events that may transpire and when, and on a Spectacular result she gets a very clear image of what will probably happen and when.
    Characters with the power may also choose to attempt non-specific precognitive visions; instead of looking at a specific time or for a specific event, the psychic goes 'siteseeing' through the Akashic Record until something captures her attention. This has the effect of doubling the effective Range value of the Power (for example, a character with psionic manipulation 15 would have an effective Range of two weeks, the measure of time value 30, rather than 15 minutes, the measure of time value 15). Psi Strain is calculated with the base Range value, not the doubled effective value. When used this way, the gamemaster will come up with a future event that catches the character's attention, usually something bad involving other people rather than the psychic herself - makes for great plot hooks!  Success level can be determined in the same manner as looking for a specific event.
    Events viewed with Precognition appear to play out in real time but are actually seen entirely within the Duration of the power.
   
Suggested Enhancements and Limitations: Share Power can be used to make the power usable with others, the psychic would be able to see possible futures for other people instead of just her own possible future. (The spatial range would be Touch unless the player also adds a Range Enhancement to the power.)   Usable Only Unconscious/In a Trance and Uncontrollable are very common Limitations.

Psi Detection

Axioms: Social 20
Groups: Psionic Defense, Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty: 13
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain: Effect Value
Base Effect Value: variable
Base Range: area effect, radius is skill adds in meters
Base Duration: 5 (10 seconds)
Bonus Number to: Duration
Description:detects the use of psionic powers

    This power is virutally identical to the Psionic Defense version of Psi Detection with one exception. Even if the character is not actively using his Psi Detection, this version of the power allow him the chance to passively detect the use of psi powers within his Range; the gamemaster generates a psionic manipulation total for the character against the Activation Difficulty + 4; if successful the character becomes aware that psionics are being used nearby, but gains no other information.

Suggested Enhancements and Limitations: Reduced Control could be used to eliminate the passive ability to detect use of psionics. See the Psionic Defense version of the power for more suggestions.

Reality Probe

Axioms: Social 23
Groups: Psychic Senses, Telepathy
Activation Difficulty: 18
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain: Effect Value + 8
Base Effect Value: variable
Base Range: skill adds in meters
Base Duration: 5 (10 seconds)
Bonus Number to:Range
Description: sense the axioms of beings or axiom requirements of tools

    This power enables the character to sense the relative axioms of another creature or of a tool.  The Effect Value is compared to the Spirit attribute of a creature or to a DN of 10 for tools to determine the amount of information the character learns about the target.  Because possibility-rated creatures have very strong connections to their native reality, it is actually easier to gain information about them than it is for ords - the adds they have in their reality skill are subtracted from their Spirit attribute when determining success level.
    For creatures, a Minimal success will only reveal if the creature has a different reality, but nothing more. An Average will reveal how many of the axioms are different but not which ones, a Good result will reveal which axioms are different, a Superior will indicate the relative values of the different axioms ("higher", "lower", "much higher", "much lower") and a Spectacular will give the character a reality fix on the target creature's reality.
    A reality fix gives the character a permanent memory of the "feel" of that particular reality.  If he later uses Reality Probe on other creatures from that particular reality he will be able to recognize them as being from that reality on just a Minimal result.
    When used to probe possibility-rated creatures, a Superior success will also reveal that the target is possibility-rated and a Spectacular success will provide a general idea of how many Possibility Points the creature possesses.
    Note that regardless of success level the character will not acquire any information about the world laws of a creature's reality.
    Tools usually do not possess a reality, only an axiom requirement, so different information is revealed by the power. A Minimal or Average result will only tell the character if the tool is a contradiction to his own axioms. If the tool possesses more than one axiom requirement (such as Tharkold Occultech devices) an Average result will additionally reveal which axiom requirements are the ones that exceed the character's own axioms. A Good result will indicate how much higher the axioms requirements are than the character's own axioms.
    With a Superior result, the power will not only indicate the axiom requirements but it will also reveal to the character the tool's precise purpose or function.  The character will be able to use the information to operate the tool properly if it can be used unskilled. A Spectacular result will allow him to properly use the tool even if it cannot be operated unskilled, but only for as long as the character maintains the power.  Note that even in the case of a Superior or Spectacular success a contradictory tool still requires a contradiction check if the character attempts to use it.

Suggested Enhancements and Limitations: Selective Efficiency could be used to make the power more effective at determining the axioms of  a creature over a tool or vice versa.  Note that Reduced Control cannot be used to limit the power to only reading the axioms of creatures, the Telepathy version of the power already covers that.  Reduced Control could be used to limit the power to only reading the axiom requirements of tools though.

Remote Presence

Axioms: Social 20
Groups: Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty: 19
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain:
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Base Range:
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Bonus Number to:
Description:


Suggested Enhancements and Limitations:

Remote Viewing

Axioms: Social 19
Groups: Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty: 17
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain: Effect Value - 5
Base Effect Value: variable
Base Range: NA
Base Duration: 13 (5 minutes)
Bonus Number to: Duration
Description: character can mentally view other locations

    This power lets the character mentally observe people or locations that are otherwise not within the character's line of sight.  The power does not have a normal Range like other powers since the range is a factor in determining if the power works successfully or not.
    The Effect Value is compared to a DN determined by the distance between the character and his target and on the character's familiarity with the target - the less familiar the character is with the target, the easier it is to accurately observe the target.  This is because the more familiar the character is with a target, the harder it is for him to screen out his own knowledge and preconceptions from the information he gathers from the Akashic Record.
    The base DN to observe creatures is their Mind or psionic resistance skill.  To observe a location the base DN is 12.  The modifiers for range to the target are:

Range
 Modifier
skill adds in meters
 -3
skill value
 +0
skill measure
 +2
skill value in kilometers
 +4
skill measure in kilometers
 +5
on Earth
 +7
within Core Earth cosm
 +14
physically connected realm
 +17

Skill value in kilometers means read the skill value as kilometers instead of as meters like usual.  For example, with a psionic manipulation skill of 15 the modifier would be +4 to use Remote Viewing on a target 15 kilometers away. Skill measure in kilometers means read the measure as kilometers instead of as meters like usual.  For example, with the same skill value of 15 the modifier would be +5 to use Remote Viewing on a target 1000 kilometers away (measure of 15 is 1000.) Physically connected reailty includes fringe realities of a cosm (such as the Land Below) as well as the invading realms of the High Lords.  It is not possible to view into another cosm even if it is connected by a maelstrom bridge.
    The last three entries on the table assume that the viewing is attempted within Core Earth reality.  If the character is in a fringe reality or one of the invading realms, viewing into Core Earth counts as viewing a physically connected reality.

The DN is further modified by the familarity of the character with the target:

Familiarity
 Modifier
None
 +0
Limited
 +2
Casual
 +4
Close
 +5
Intimate
 +7
Oblivious
 -3

Limited familiarity is when the character might recognize the target despite never having personally visited the location or met the individual. Some examples might be famous landmarks, major cities, well-known political figures or celebrities.  Casual familiarity indicates more knowledge about the target, either from research or personal experience.  Some examples might be a location the character has visited once or twice in his life, someone he has read about in newspapers and magazines or a person he knew years ago but has not seen or communicated with in a long time. Close familiarity would be places or people the character sees very frequently or someone he knows well, either through research or personal experiences. Intimate would be places or people the character sees all the time, like his own home or place of employment, very close friends, or a family member.
    Oblivious works somewhat differently; it means the character does not have a specific target in mind when he activates the power, not how familiar he is with the target.  Once activated, another person can provide a target to the character and the modifier for Oblivious is added to the normal modifier.  For example, if an American psychic activates his power and then a companion tells him the target is the President of the United States, the modifier for Oblivious would be added to the modifier for Limited or Casual, depending on how familiar the character is with the President.  So instead of a +2 or +4 modifier, it would be a -1 or +1 modifier.  
    The modifier for Oblivious can only be applied if the psychic has no previous indication or foreknowledge about the target before activating the power.  For example, players cannot say that their character is activating the power without a specific target to get the modifier and then has another character tell them to look at the NPC they have been discussing for the last half hour. The target has to be something completely out of the blue, something the psychic would not expect when he activates the power.
    The success level determines the quality of the information the character is able to gather from his viewing.  On a Minimal or Average result the character only receives an impression or brief sensations involving the target. On a Good result he is able to view the target but it has a dreamlike quality that makes details difficult to remember. With a Superior the target is more clearly visible but the surroundings are still hazy (if a location is being viewed the opposite it true, the location is more clearly visible but any people present are blurry and indistinct) and on a Spectacular he is able to observe the target as if he were physically present.
    If the target moves or the psychic is trying to observe a large location, the character is able to move his point of view at a speed value equal to his Perception attribute.  (Example: a Perception of 12 lets a remote viewer cover a maximum of 250 meters a round, a speed value of 12.)
    The default version of the power has a built-in Reduced Control Limitation - characters are unable to accurately read letters or numbers in their visions.  A newspaper seen through Remote Viewing is a meaningless jumble of symbols, road signs are undecipherable, the time seen on a digital clock could not be trusted, and so on.
     
Suggested Enhancements and Limitations: Improved Control can be used to remove the restriction on reading letters and numbers. There are many Limitations commonly associated with the power - Requires Extra Concentration, Set Duration, Difficult, Usable Only Unconscious/In a Trance.  

Sense Trace

Axioms: Social 20
Groups: Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty: 18
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain:
Base Effect Value:
Base Range:
Base Duration:
Bonus Number to:
Description:


Suggested Enhancements and Limitations:

Shift Sense

Axioms: Social 20
Groups: Body Control, Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty: 16
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain: Effect Value + 2
Base Effect Value: variable
Base Range: skill value in meters
Base Duration: 9 (1 minute)
Bonus Number to: Range
Description: improves natural sensory abilities or shifts them into different areas

    This version of the power allows the character to overlay information from the Akashic Record onto what her normal five senses are able to detect, greatly increasing their sensitivity and even shifting their sensitivity into areas beyond the normal physical limits. It differs from the Body Control version of this power in that it does not alter the physical nature of the character's sensory organs, instead it provides additional information on top of what he can normally sense. As a result it is a little easier to use and can be more far-reaching, as evidenced by the Bonus Number being added to Range instead of to Duration as with the other version of this power.
    To enhance senses within their normal ranges, the Effect Value of the power substitutes for the character's normal Perception attribute or skill that would normally be used (such as find to spot something.)  To shift a sense so that it works outside the normal human ranges, the Effect Value is compared to the character's Perception attribute and the result points are read through the Power Push chart to find the modifier to the character's Perception or appropriate skills. 

Suggested Enhancements and Limitations: Selective Efficiency could be used to make it more effective at improving one particular sense over the others. Selective Weakness could be used for the opposite effect.  Set Duration is a common problem, the character is unable to ignore the extra sensory information from the Record until the power expires normally.

Skill Search

Axioms: Social 24
Groups: Psychic Senses, Telepathy
Activation Difficulty: 20
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain: Effect Value
Base Effect Value: variable
Base Range: skill value in meters
Base Duration: 5 (10 seconds)
Bonus Number to: Duration
Description: determine the abilities of another character

    This version of the power searches through the Akashic Record for information relevant to another character's abilities.  The Effect Value is compared to the target's Mind or psionic resistance skill.  Psychics will automatically feel the probe and may roll an active defense with their psionic resistance skill or attempt to block it using a power such as Obscure. Non-psychics will detect the probe if it fails to achieve at least a Good success level, but it is unlikely they will know what it is they are feeling, and there is nothing they could do to impede it anyway.
    The success level determines how many attributes of the target he can gather information about concerning skills.  A Minimal or Average success allows the character to scan one attribute of the target.  A Good success allows the character to scan one attribute group (Adrenalin, Willpower and Presence, as per the Drama Deck cards), Superior lets him scan two groups and a Spectacular lets him look at all of the target's attributes.
    Each round of a scan will reveal a number of skill adds equal to the Effect Value minus the attribute being scanned, beginning with the skill that has the most adds.  For example, a psychic uses the power with an Effect Value of 12 to probe the Dexterity skills of an enemy.  The enemy has a Dexterity of 10 so the psychic will only learn about two skill adds each round he uses the power.  If the enemy has +2 adds in dodge, +1 add in melee weapons, +1 add in missile weapons and +4 adds in unarmed combat the psychic would learn in the first round that he has +2 adds in unarmed combat, in the second round he will learn his target has two more adds in that skill, in the third round he will learn his target has +2 adds in dodge and in the fourth round he will learn about the one add in melee weapons and the one add in missile weapons and be finished with the probe.  It may take a long time to get through a single attribute of a highly-skilled character!
    Alternately, the character may choose to simply learn what skills the target has and not how many adds are in each skill - in this case the result points indicate the number of skills revealed each round of the scan, in order from highest to lowest. In the previous example, if the psychic only wanted to know what skills his enemy had his two result points would let him learn in the first round his target has unarmed combat and dodge and in the second round he would learn his target has melee weapons and missile weapons.

Suggested Enhancements and Limitations: Selective Efficiency would make the power more effective at probing the skills of a particular attribute or attribute group. Selective Weakness would do the opposite.  Eye Contact Required is a classic Limitation.

Stargate Navigation

Axioms: Social 27
Groups: Psychic Senses
Activation Difficulty:
Difficulty based on: Social
Psi Strain:
Base Effect Value:
Base Range:
Base Duration:
Bonus Number to:
Description:


Suggested Enhancements and Limitations:

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