Author Archives: Tim Hall

Take two of my Fate Core psionics draft, following feedback from various sources to the first draft I posted a couple of days ago.

I’ve reduced the skills to from ten to five by merging the three “mind” skills into one, ditto the three perception-type skills, and made matter manipulation into a stunt rather than a skill it’s own right. At the moment I’m not 100% sure about the Psychic Senses skill. It may need some of the “big” uses split out into stunts, but not sure which ones, and don’t want to leave the core skill too underpowered.

Psionics are extras; requiring a dedicated aspect defining the nature of a character’s powers, and one refresh for each skill.

The basic skills can be used for three of the four standard FATE actions, Overcome Obstacle, Create Advantage and Defence. An additional stunt is required to use any skill as an attack.

Telepathy

Covers sending projecting your own thought and emotions, along with sensing and influencing the thoughts of others.

Overcome obstacle
Communicate silently and privately with another willing (or at least not actively unwilling) person at a distance. Communication with another telepath is easier and faster, but two-way communication with non-telepaths can still take place with the non-telepath subvocalising replies.

Create Advantage
Read strong surface thoughts or determine emotional state of a target, or project emotions or plant suggestions in the target’s mind. Or even send distracting thoughts and images.

Defence
Read attacker’s surface thoughts so you know what they’re going to do and can counter their attack, or by mentally disrupting the attack itself.

Telepathy Stunts

Mental Blast
Use Telepathy for a direct mental attack, overloading their brain with static. Take them out and they’re knocked unconscious.

Mind Control
Use Telepathy for a direct mental attack, with the objective of taking control of their mind, If you take out your opponent in mental combat, they become a puppet under your control. You need to make another roll each time you try to force them to act against their nature, and they break free from your control if you fail the roll.

Mind Reading
Use Telepathy for a direct mental attack with the intention of reading their mind. If you take out your opponent in mental combat, you can search through their memories, rolling for each piece of information.

Psychic Senses

The ability to project senses into the past, present and future.

Overcome Obstacle
Passive “danger sense” that can give warning that something bad (like an ambush) is about to happen. Detect any actual use of psionics within range. Project your senses to see, hear or otherwise sense things a distance away.

Create Advantage
Create predictions as as Aspects on a target (or just “the future”) which can then be tagged. Persistant aspects stick around until either the foretold event comes to pass, or is prevented. Psychometry to determine one of an item or location’s Aspects.

Defence
Predict attacker’s moves in advance in time to counter them

Psychokinesis

The power of Mind Over Matter

Overcome obstacle

Anything that needs physical things to be lifted or moved. Difficulty based on a combination of weight, size and distance.

Create Advantage
Create obstacles, disarm, throw opponents off-balance, whatever…

Defence
Foil a physical attack

Psychokinesis Stunts

Psychokinetic Attack
An attack that causes physical damage to opponent, e.g psychokintically hurling rocks at them or throwing your opponent into the scenery.

Matter Manipulation
Destroy or alter unliving things by altering their chemical properties.

Lightsculpt

The power to manipulate light and create illusions

Overcome Obstacle
Conceal objects or people. Or for something completely different, use illusions for entertainment.

Create Advantage
Distract opponent with illusions

Defence
Distract opponent with illusions

Lightsculpt Stunts

Shock and Awe
Create an illusion sufficiently realistic and frightening that it causes mental shock, and counts as an attack.

Body Control

The power of Mind over Body

Overcome obstacle

Heal injuries to yourself and others.

Create Advantage
Push yourself past normal limits for feats of strength or endurance

Defence
You can soak up injuries

Body Control Stunts

Cause Injury
An attack cause physical hard to an opponent, essentially healing in reverse. Opponent must be in the same zone as you.

Advanced Stunts

These stunts require more than one skill as pre-requisites.

Energy Blast
Requires both Psychokinesis and Lightsculpt. Create a bolt of energy (fire, lightning, whatever) as a ranged attack.

Mindswitch
Requires Telepathy with the Mind Control stunt, and Body Control. You can swap minds with an opponent you’ve taken out in mental combat.

Shapechange
Requires both Lightsculpt and Body Control. You can change your appearance into that of another being. You don’t change size, and do not gain any special abilities of the new body shape unless you can simulate them with another power.