When most people discuss ESP, they really refer to clairvoyance — the power to perceive things beyond the normal range of human senses. The default form of clairvoyance permits a seer to project all of her senses to a distant location, observing what happens there as if she were physically present. The events witnessed happen contemporaneously. The seer can neither see into the future nor into the past of the location viewed, unless she also has precognition and/or postcognition. A person who possesses this Merit is often referred to as a clairvoyant. While this power is in use, a player is at a –2 penalty to all Perception rolls pertaining to both the status of her character’s body and anything going on in the character’s immediate surroundings.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wits + Composure
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character receives erroneous or misleading information.
Failure:
The character is unable to project her senses.
Success:
The character can perceive events at the location she wishes to observe for up to one scene.
Exceptional Success:
The character can “move around,” changing the vantage point of her vision at will. She can even “pause” and “rewind” as needed, although she cannot see what happened before her vision began (see “Postcognition,” below).
Suggested Modifiers
| Modifier | Situation |
|---|---|
| +2 | The intended vision is of a person or place with which the clairvoyant has a strong emotional attachment, such as with a loved one or home. |
| +1 | The intended vision is of a person or place with which the clairvoyant has some emotional attachment, such as with a friend or workplace. |
| +1 | The clairvoyant holds some object or is in the presence of someone with a strong emotional attachment to the subject of the desired vision, or is in a location strongly resonant with the desired vision (such as the last place a missing person was seen). |
| 0 | The clairvoyant attempts to perceive someone she knows personally and whose location is currently known. |
| -1 | The clairvoyant either does not know the person whom she attempts to scry or she has no idea of the location she attempts to scry. If both situations apply, the penalty is –2. |
| -2 | The person or location that’s the subject of the intended vision is not currently resonant with strong emotion. That is, it is hard to scry a location if nothing interesting is happening there at the moment, and it is hard to scry a person if he is simply asleep or watching TV as opposed to running for his life. This penalty may also apply if the intended subject of this vision is dead, although that may depend on the situation and the Storyteller. |
Option [Crystal Gazer]: The clairvoyant can perceive only the target location while focusing on some type of special surface such as a mirror or crystal.
Option [Eyes of Another]: The psychic can view a scene only through the eyes of someone witnessing that scene. Thus, the clairvoyant cannot scry a location if no one is present there. The clairvoyant can get a +1 bonus if she can simply choose any person to view through, or she can get a +2 dice bonus if she is limited to only seeing through they eyes of a certain class of individuals. For example, the title character in The Eyes of Laura Mars had the power to observe murders taking place, but only through the eyes of the murderer and only in an uncontrolled manner. A character with those options gains +4 bonus on all Clairvoyance rolls — +2 for the Eyes of Another option and +2 for the Uncontrolled option (see below).
Option [One Sense Only]: The clairvoyant can perceive the target location with only one of his senses, most commonly vision or hearing (i.e., clairaudience).
Option [Trance Only]: The psychic can use his clairvoyant powers only while in a trance state. While the psychic is using his powers, he suffers the –5 penalty for Perception rolls inflflicted by trances, instead of the normal –2 penalty. A psychic with this option gains a +2 dice bonus to activate this power.
Option [Uncontrolled]: A psychic whose powers are uncontrolled has visions only at times of the Storyteller’s choosing, although the psychic should generally have at least one vision per session. A common form of Uncontrolled Clairvoyance causes the ESPer to perceive only visions of nearby individuals who are in danger. Another form might be combined with the Eyes of Another option (see above) to cause the ESPer to involuntarily see “through the eyes” of another person, perhaps a serial killer who stalks prey. The psychic can attempt to force a vision, but doing so reduces the player to a chance die. The psychic’s player spends a Willpower point only on Clairvoyance rolls if a vision is forced.