Psychic Powers (Psykers)
Psychic Powers come about from mutant Psykers tapping into their abnormal awareness of the other-realm known as the Warp and channeling its energies to alter reality at their whim. Feared and distrusted, they are bound as virtual slaves to the Imperium and taught Rotes to focus their minds on achieving a particular outcome such as blasts of devastating energy, reading the possibilities of the future, altering minds or reknitting flesh. The fear they are treated with, however, is justified for their powers come with the dangers of mutation, madness and worse.
Power Tests
Several traits and abilities request that a character performs a Power Test - this is a test with a 25% chance of failure. In all cases you can always delay a test until it would not interrupt the flow of roleplay or combat - you are free to do it earlier, but we generally recommend doing tests at the end of a combat for example.
The standard suggestion for doing this is take a bag of beads and fill it with 12 beads, 9 of one colour (representing success) 3 of another (representing failure) and do a draw. But any other method capable of determining a 25% chance of failure is acceptable.
There may be conditions where this will flip and it will be a 75% chance of failure and a 25% chance of success.
Witchbane
Psykers are far more vulnerable to the Null call then other humans and as such should make note of its increased effect when used on them - fortunately such weapons, and indeed beings that cause such effects innately, are mercifully rare outside of the Servants of the Inquisition.
Psychic Disciplines
Each psyker is different in how they personally manipulate the energies of the warp then they pull them though to realspace. Though, in theory, the possibilities of what one can achieve with warp energies is infinite the human mind is narrow and its ability to creatively shape the energy of unreality into reality limited by the creativity and imagination of the psyker - because of this most Psykers find it easier to shape reality in one way rather than another and each Psyker is different due to their own personal experiences. The Adeptus Astra Telepathica has shaped these various ‘schools’ of usage into formalised Disciplines that Psykers are trained to harness.
Each Psychic Discipline is divided into two types of ability the Rote Majoris and the Rotes Minoris - each Discipline has access to only a handful of Rotes Minoris and a single Rote Majoris.
The majority of rotes are trivial for a psyker to do and place them at very little risk however psykers can increase their potency by pushing themselves further to achieve greater effects. However unlike others with powers Psykers can often Unleash some rotes opening their mind to to the warp and becoming a conduit for the warp at the cost of 1 willpower to achieve it.
Once after any scene where you have used your powers and for each time you Push or Unleash any of your Rotes - do a power test - for each one you fail you suffer the a ‘peril’ of dealing with the warp and draw a card from the Warp Phenomena deck.
If you choose to Unleash this increases the risk of a peril, flip your Power Tests so that 75% is failure and 25% is success.
Each Psyker must choose a Psychic Discipline and cannot know more powers than that without a Unique Trait.
All Psykers have access to the following generic Rote Minoris;
Psyniscience
All Psykers have the capacity to sense the presence of the Warp pressing in against the physical world giving warning of impending disturbances in reality or the thinning of the veil or all manner of other minor perceptions of the warp - after spending some time concentrating you may ask a member of the Game Team a question about the state of warp or the veil in your immediate area - you may also use this after 30s of roleplay to call Sense Warp or Sense Daemon after which you cannot do this again until you have Recuperated.
The following Psychic Disciplines are available to be taken;
Characters with the Astropath Trait can, in addition to their other disciplines, utilise powers from the Astropathy discipline.
Warp Phenomena
The infinite power offered from the Warp is not without consequence even Psykers, with their innate ability to manipulate it, are vulnerable to the fickle nature of its energies which can demand a horrendous price from their minds and bodies to channel its eldritch power.
This risk is represented by the Warp Phenomena Deck. This deck consists of;
- 50% of cards are Phenomena side effects that represent a successful use of a power but with unusual side effects,
- 25% of cards are Perils of the Warp that represent a horrendous consequence for tapping into these chaotic energies, these are usually affects personal to the psyker.
- 25% of cards are Major Perils that represent a cataclysmic consequence for tapping into these chaotic energies, these are usually effects with consequences to the entire party.