Merits

Merits are special capabilities or knacks that add individuality to your character. They’re purchased during character creation or with experience points over the course of your chronicle.

The Merits in this chapter are organized alphabetically into three broad categories: Physical, Mental and Social. Some apply to your character’s basic traits to enhance them in particular situations. Some have prerequisites that must be met before they can be purchased. For example, a character with the Gunslinger Merit must have a Dexterity of 3 and Firearms of 3 or higher to be able to accurately fire two weapons at the same time. By the same token, some Merits apply drawbacks that balance out their inherent advantages. A character with the Fame Merit, for example, is treated like a star wherever he goes — but has a hard time blending into the crowd when he wants to.

Each Merit has a number of dots (•) associated with it. These dots represent the number of points that must be spent to purchase the Merit. Some Merits allow for a range of dots (say, • to •••). These allow you to purchase a low rating if it’s appropriate to your character concept, or you can start with a low level and increase it over time with experience points.

A character is born with some Merits or develops them early in life, while others can be acquired through trail and error, training and effort later in life.

The first kind can be acquired at character creation only and are labeled as such. The second kind can be acquired during play with experience points.

Merit dots must be purchased sequentially with experience points. You have to buy • and then •• before your character can have ••• or more.

Animal Empathy
•• - ••••
SS, p.55
communicate and manipulate animal

Although Animal Empathy is sometimes considered a rare gift, some parapsychologists speculate that it is more common than it appears, since the average observer cannot readily distinguish between a psychic with the innate ability to communicate with non-sentient creatures and an ordinary “horse whisperer” who is simply “good with animals.” Regardless, this Merit combines a wide number of psychic effects, including Mind Reading, Thought Projection and Emotion Control under a single power, albeit one which can affect only animals.

The two-dot version allows a psychic to affect a single species of animal such as dogs, cats or rats.

The four-dot version permits a psychic to affect any type of animal.

Either version can allow a psychic to affect multiple animals at once, although the power usually inflicts a dice penalty on a roll. Also, a psychic attempting to control large numbers of animals at one time must give the same instructions to all of them, and cannot send different animals off on individual missions without a separate roll for each of them. There is also a separate Merit called Animal Rapport that creates a permanent psychic link with a single animal. No version of this power can affect truly sentient animals or other beings that have transformed into animals.


Cost: None if the psychic has time to interact with the animal and achieve some kind of rapport. If the psychic has never seen the animal before or it is currently hostile, one Willpower point must be spent to instantly seize control of the animal. One point of Willpower must be spent to control multiple animals simultaneously.
Action: Instant or contested
Dice Pool: Wits + Animal Ken to communicate. Manipulation + Animal Ken (versus animal’s Resolve rolled reflexively) to control.


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character triggers psychic feedback in the animal, making it immediately hostile. Further attempts to use Animal Empathy against the animal fail automatically for the remainder of the scene.

Failure:
The character fails to influence the animal in any way.

Success:
The psychic can intuitively understand the animal’s mood and thought processes. Although true communication is not yet possible, the psychic can intuit crude impressions such as “I’m hungry,” “I want to play” or “That man beats me.” With Manipulation, the psychic can command the animal to follow simple instructions such as “Heel,” “Fetch” or “Tear him apart!” Animals that were previously hostile become docile, and trained guard dogs let an intruder walk right by.

Exceptional Success:
The psychic can freely communicate with the animal, almost to the point of sharing its senses. The psychic can also give relatively complex instructions and expect them to be obeyed, such as “Go fetch Timmy! He’s in town at the movie theater, in the third row!”

Dice Modifiers

Modifier Situation
+1 The psychic has previously used this power successfully on the same animal(s).
The animal is a mammal or bird.
-1 The animal is a common fish or a group of up to three mammals.
-3 The animal is a single insect, a school/swarm of up to 25 fish or vermin or a group of up to 10 larger mammals.
-5 The animal is a swarm of insects with a hive mentality, or a collective group of up to 100 small creatures or up to 25 larger mammals.
Animal Possession
••••
SS, p.56
take control of an animal

If the psychic has only the two-dot version of Animal Empathy, he is limited to possessing the type of animal with which he is attuned. The four-dot version allows possession of any type of animal.

Animal Possession builds on the power of Animal Empathy to actually allow a psychic to possess a particular animal, totally controlling its body and perceiving through all of its senses. The psychic’s own body is completely inert and helpless while this power is in effect, and she cannot perceive anything about her body’s surroundings unless the possessed animal is nearby. If the character’s body is damaged, though, she knows it and can reflexively end the possession after taking any damage, although she may be subject to a killing blow in the duration of the possession. If the character’s physical body is killed while possessing an animal, her mind dies as well. If the animal is killed during the possession, the psychic’s mind is immediately sent back to her body.

This power requires the animal to be possessed to have at least the intelligence of a small rodent or fish. Simpler creatures such as insects cannot be possessed. Possession lasts for one scene, but can be extended at the cost of one Willpower point per scene. Under no circumstances can the time of possession last beyond a number of hours equal to the lesser of the psychic’s Stamina or Resolve. This power cannot be used against sentient creatures, including mages, vampires or werewolves who have simply assumed the forms of animals. The psychic can never possess more than one animal at a time. The psychic also cannot possess an animal smaller than a mouse. Animals larger than Size 5 confer a penalty on the roll.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Action: Instant or contested
Dice Pool: Presence + Animal Ken versus animal’s Resolve; resistance is reflexive


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character triggers psychic feedback in the animal, making it immediately hostile. Further attempts to use Animal Possession against the animal fail automatically for the remainder of the scene.

Failure:
The character fails to possess the animal.

Success:
The psychic projects his own consciousness into the animal, totally controlling its body and replacing its Mental (but not Social) Attributes with his own. The psychic cannot use any other psychic powers while possessing the animal, although he can end the possession at any time. The animal’s Physical Traits prevail.

Exceptional Success:
The psychic can maintain the possession for up to the lesser of his Stamina or Resolve in hours without paying any additional Willpower.

Dice Modifiers

Modifier Situation
+1 The psychic has previously used the Animal Possession power on the animal to be possessed.
The animal is a mammal or bird.
-1 Per point of the animal’s Size in excess of 5.
-2 The animal is a reptile or sophisticated aquatic life form such as a dolphin or shark.
-4 The animal is a fish.
Animal Rapport
••• - •••••
Animal Ken 2
SS, p.57
innate mental bond with a single animal

This Merit acts as a version of Animal Empathy. The character has an innate mental bond with a single animal. The character can communicate with the creature, understanding its barks or hisses as speech and allowing the animal to comprehend the character’s normal language. The character must speak to the animal to communicate with it, but the expenditure of one Willpower point allows the character to communicate non-verbally with his pet. The cost of this Merit is determined by the Size of the animal, based on the chart below.

Merit Dots Size of Animal
3 Size 3 or smaller
4 Size 4 to Size 5
5 Size 6 to Size 10

No roll is ever required for verbal communication, but the character does not have the capacity to control the creature outright. If he wishes it to do something that the animal might consider dangerous, you must win a contested roll against the animal, which, while generally loyal, does not normally commit suicide on its master’s behalf. Resolve or Composure is rolled reflexively for the animal, while Manipulation or Presence + an appropriate Skill is rolled for the character.

The animal with which the character has a bond is a normal example of its species, but a side effect of the rapport permanently increases the animal’s Intelligence by one. If the character seriously mistreats his pet, it is capable of turning, at the Storyteller’s discretion. The character must be within line of sight to communicate freely with the animal, but if the animal can hear the character even at great distance (such as Timmy yelling from down a well a half-mile away), the animal likely travels as quickly as it can to its master’s location.

If the animal is ever lost or killed, experience spent or dots assigned to this Merit may be lost or reassigned at the Storyteller’s discretion. The character may even forge a bond with another such amazing animal, assuming one can be found.

Anti-Psi
•••••
Merits that confer psychic powers.
SS, p.64
greatly inhibit psychic powers around

Anti-Psi is a rare ability, the existence of which has only recently been theorized by parapsychologists. A person gifted with Anti-Psi (who can never be an active psychic) has the power to greatly inhibit psychic powers by her mere presence. Any individual who strongly disbelieves in psychic phenomena can impose a –1 or –2 penalty on a psychic’s abilities (see Doubting Thomas, below), but an Anti-Psi goes even further, literally jamming a psychic’s ability to function at all. Any psychic in the presence of an Anti-Psi is automatically reduced to a chance die on any attempts to use psychic powers. A person with this Merit likely has no idea that she has any special abilities, and simply ascribes any failure of psychics to perform in her presence as proof of the fraudulent nature of such phenomena. This Merit has no effect on the paranormal abilities of supernatural creatures.

Drawback: Any character with this Merit also suffers from a severe derangement triggered by the presence of overt psychic phenomena. Whenever the character is confronted by another person claiming to have psychic powers, or by clear evidence of psychic phenomena, the Anti-Psi manifests an intense hostility toward the object of the offense. Exactly how this derangement plays out is for you to decide, but the character is likely obsessed with debunking the psychic’s claims and exposing him publicly as a fraud. Possible derangements include Hysteria, Megalomania, Paranoia and Anxiety (see Derangements)

Astral Projection
•••
Clairvoyance & clairvoyant who has the “Uncontrolled Clairvoyance” option cannot learn to project astrally.
SS, p.36
Instantly travel mentally

Astral Projection allows a clairvoyant to completely free his consciousness from his physical form and travel mentally to distant locations while leaving his body behind. The psychic must first enter a trance state (see “Entering a Trance”). Then, the player makes a reflexive Stamina + Composure roll to determine how long the character can remain away from his body. Once separated, the psychic can instantly travel to any location he is capable of perceiving with a normal Clairvoyance roll (Wits + Composure).

Once at a desired location, a psychic can move around freely but is generally intangible and invisible. He can, however, be perceived through any appropriate psychic means (such as Aura Reading •••••). Other astral projectors or other beings existing in Twilight — an ephemeral state in the material world, such as a ghost’s — can perceive him normally. Returning to his body requires an instant action and a successful Wits + Composure roll, or the clairvoyant can return to his body reflexively with an exceptional success.

If the psychic’s physical body is tampered with while he is “gone,” the he may sense the intrusion with a successful Intelligence + Composure roll. The psychic always feels actual pain inflicted on his physical body and may react accordingly. However, an astral projector’s physical body may be subjected to a killing blow if the body is left unprotected.

If a psychic using Astral Projection uses the optional form of Clairvoyance that grants only one sense, he is able to use only that one sense while projected. A projector who has only clairaudience is at a severe disadvantage, as he arrives at a location and is functionally blind. Characters whose Clairvoyance grants only vision are slightly less handicapped, but are still effectively deaf. While astrally projecting, a psychic is free to use any other ESP or telepathic Merit he possesses. Thus, a “deaf” projector with Mind Reading can attempt to “ride the senses” of someone nearby, while one with Animal Empathy could do the same to a nearby animal.


Cost: 1 Willpower to project. None to navigate.
Dice Pool: Stamina + Composure (to determine the duration of the projection). Wits + Composure (to navigate astrally to the desired location)
Action: Extended to enter the trance state. Instant to release the astral form and navigate to the desired location.


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic is rendered unable to use his Astral Projection power until he has rested for at least eight hours. A dramatic failure on a navigation roll means he is lost and has traveled to some unintended and possibly dangerous location.

Failure:
The psychic fails to project, but can try again. A failure on the navigation roll means that the ESPer has missed his destination, but is close enough to try again.

Success:
The psychic can maintain his astral form for up to 10 minutes per success. A success on the navigation roll means that he finds the location he was seeking.

Exceptional Success:
The psychic maintains his astral form for the duration of his trance. An exceptional success on a navigation roll gives the psychic a +2 bonus on all Perception rolls while at the desired location, as well as a +1 bonus on any other psychic powers used astrally.

Aura Reading
•• - •••••
SS, p.57
read people's aura

Aura Reading blurs the distinction between telepathy and ESP, as Aura Reading represents a form of psychic perception, but also has elements of mind reading. According to telepaths who have this Merit, all living things (and some “unliving” things) are surrounded by a nimbus of energy that is perceptible by psychic means or by Kirlian photography. Aura Reading allows a psychic to perceive this otherwise invisible halo, and with experience interpret its constantly changing hues to gain insights into a subject. Vampires and mages have access to a similar power known as Aura Perception. Aura Reading, however, does not carry with it the same level of sophistication. And yet, a talented psychic can deduce a target’s general emotional state and perform such feats as determining whether the person is lying.

With the five-dot version, a knowledgeable telepath may use this power to recognize supernatural entities. To a trained telepath, vampires are recognized by their extremely pale auras, werewolves by their vibrant intensity and mages by sparkling lights that appear in the patterns. Dematerialized ghosts and spirits are also visible with this power, as are astral projectors, but only faintly, and a psychic cannot communicate with them without use of other powers. Regardless of the type of supernatural subject, a telepath must have some familiarity with a sort of being to identify it. A psychic who has had opportunity to perceive the auras of vampires might know that a mage is “not right” and also knows that she is not a vampire, but he would not specifically realize that she is a mage unless he also had some familiarity with the auras of willworkers.

Both versions of this Merit require the expenditure of one Willpower point and an Intelligence + Empathy roll, contested by a target’s Composure + Supernatural Advantage; resistance is reflexive. The two-dot version requires the psychic to scrutinize the target for a number of turns equal to the target’s Composure prior to the roll, and a target may be suspicious of someone staring intently at her if a reflexive Wits + Composure (or possibly Wits + Occult) roll for her succeeds. The two-dot version automatically fails against supernatural beings. The five-dot version can be used against supernatural beings, but otherwise functions as the two-dot version. Once a psychic successfully reads a target’s aura, the psychic can continue to view it so long as she maintains concentration, allowing her to observe the target for possible deception or even to predict an imminent attack.

A failure on an attempt at Aura Reading means that the psychic is unable to discern an aura at all, while a dramatic failure means she receives false or misleading information. Thus, the Storyteller should always roll for the player when the possibility of a dramatic failure applies. A telepath who successfully reads the aura of someone in the act of lying may recognize that the subject speaks falsely by rolling Intelligence + Empathy + [the successes gained on the initial Aura Reading roll] versus the subject’s Composure + Subterfuge in a contested action. If the psychic wins the roll, he recognizes the lie.

Applied toward reading the mood of potential combatants, this power grants its user a bonus to Initiative equal to the number of successes rolled in activating the effect, provided the telepathic is actively reading the aura of a target at the time that person initiates an attack.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Empathy versus target’s Composure + Supernatural Advantage (resistance is reflexive)
Action: Reflexive (though a subject may have to be studied in advance of making a roll)


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character gleans utterly misleading and wholly inaccurate information. The Storyteller may wish to make any chance-die rolls for a player, to keep the true results secret.

Failure:
The character can distinguish no information at all.

Success:
The character can determine the target’s general mood and nature, possibly picking up details about a supernatural being’s nature or whether a particular target is lying.

Exceptional Success:
The character gains all the benefits of a normal success. In addition, the character gains an additional +2 dice on all Social rolls made against the target for the remainder of the scene due to his being so in tune with her personality.

Automatic Writing
••
SS, p.42
draw clues to solve a mystery

Automatic Writing permits a medium to access a source of paranormal knowledge through indirect means. Individual mediums disagree on whether they commune with spirits or the Universal Unconscious, or if they simply use clairvoyance. In any case, the mechanical effects are the same. The psychic must first enter a trance state. As she does so, she also randomly draws on paper, usually in a spiral pattern. As her trance takes hold, her writings become less random, and she draws pictures symbolic of whatever questions she seeks to answer. She continues to draw until the trance ends (usually an entire scene unless someone interrupts her), by which time she is typically surrounded by crudely scribbled drawings that may direct her to whatever she wants to find. The precise source of this knowledge is left to the Storyteller’s discretion, but if a psychic possesses the Channeling or Clairvoyance Merits, they may grant a +2 bonus on automatic writing attempts.


Cost: None
Dice Pool: Composure + Craft
Action: Instant; although the psychic must first enter a trance state


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic’s drawings contain false or misleading information. The Storyteller should make any chance-die rolls for the player.

Failure:
The automatic drawing attempt is unsuccessful.

Success:
The psychic’s drawings contain vital clues to whatever mystery she seeks to solve.

Exceptional Success:
The drawings are particularly clear, giving a +1 modifier to any subsequent Investigation rolls pertaining to the drawings’ subject matter.

Suggested Equipment: Any item that has a strong connection to the subject about which the psychic seeks information (+1 to +3, depending on the strength of the connection).

Believers
• - •••••
Any Psychic Merit
SS, p.64
Retainer for a psychic character

Believers are typically Storyteller characters who serve as assistants to a psychic character and who unconditionally believe in the psychic’s powers. Believers are essentially the same as Retainers, except that the Believers’ strong belief in psychic phenomena allows them to aid the character in using his powers.

When a psychic is assisted by Believers, he gains a +1 bonus to a power’s roll for each dot in this Merit, assuming that at least the same number of such people are present. Normally, this bonus is limited to a +3. Some Merit options can allow the bonus gained from Believers to go as high as +5.

So, if Believers ••• is possessed and only two such people are actually present, a +2 bonus is gained. If seven Believers are present and only three dots are possessed when using another Merit, only +3 is gained. If a psychic suffers a dramatic failure while using a power, the results never cause a Believer to withdraw or develop an aversion to the psychic.

Biokinesis
• - •••••
SS, p.46
acquire a single desired Merit

Biokinesis governs a psychic’s ability to manipulate the biological processes of living things. The scientific explanation for biokinesis eludes most parapsychologists. The most commonly accepted explanation relies on Wilhelm Reich’s theories regarding orgone energy, which are consistent with biokinetics’ claims that they can perceive and manipulate some form of ambient “life energy.” Biokinesis permits a psychic to manipulate his own personal life force to alter his body in three ways. First, Biokinesis is a prerequisite for a number of other powers that allow a psychic to manipulate life energy. Second, the power can aid a psychic in attempts to control his own mind and body. Each dot in Biokinesis is added as a bonus die to all attempts to either meditate or to enter a trance state.


Finally, Biokinesis allows a psychic to make minor alterations to his own physical body, temporarily affording him the benefit of certain Physical or Mental Merits, including some from the World of Darkness Rulebook and others listed here. Each Merit gained this way has a “success cost” equivalent to the Merit’s normal rating. The player must make an extended Intelligence + Composure roll with each roll representing a number of minutes equal to the success cost of the desired Trait. A Merit gained through Biokinesis lasts for the duration of a scene unless stated otherwise. Normally, the psychic can gain only a single Merit with a roll, but a biokinetic’s successes can be spent on multiple Merits with an exceptional success. In order to be able to use a Merit, the psychic must meet any prerequisites for that trait, and the psychic must have Biokinesis dots equal to [the success cost of the Merit +1]. The Merits that can be acquired through this power include the following:

Eidetic Memory (Two successes): This Merit lasts for one scene.

Fast Reflexes (One or two successes): This Merit lasts for one scene.

Fleet of Foot (One to three successes): This Merit lasts for one scene.

Fresh Start (One success): This Merit lasts for one scene.

Hysterical Strength (Variable successes): The psychic can trigger a massive surge of adrenaline, temporarily boosting his own Strength. For every success spent to purchase Hysterical Strength, the psychic increases his Strength by one dot to a maximum of 5. Doing so is very taxing and potentially life threatening. Every turn in which the psychic actually uses his augmented Strength (for example, to lift something heavy or to strike a powerful blow), he suffers one point of bashing damage. The increase in adrenaline also makes the psychic extremely excitable, and he is at a –1 penalty on all Composure-based rolls to resist provocation to anger while the power is in effect. This Merit lasts for a number of turns equal to the psychic’s Biokinesis rating.

Improved Awareness (One to three successes): For each success spent, the psychic gains a +1 bonus on all Perception rolls. This Merit lasts for one scene.

Improved Immune System (Four successes): While this Merit is active, the psychic can attempt to cure himself of diseases, poisons or drug effects by temporarily heightening the effectiveness of his immune system. The player must make an extended Stamina + Resolve roll, with each roll reflecting one hour recovering from a drug or poison or one day spent recuperating from an illness. During this period, the character can take no action more strenuous than walking, and, ideally, should have complete bed rest. The number of successes required is determined by the severity of the disease, drug or poison from which the psychic seeks to recover. Generally, common colds require three to five, while cancer, AIDS and other persistent or deadly diseases might require as many as 30 successes to send into remission. Similarly, a single success might be required to overcome the effects of alcohol or minor food poisoning, while five or so might be required to overcome the effects of LSD or a rattlesnake bite. Note that if a poison or toxin is especially fast acting — having a lethal effect within turns or minutes rather than hours or days — this capability may be of no use against it.
This power can affect only mundane diseases, drugs and poisons. It cannot aid the psychic in curing himself of a blood bond. This power also does not affect any supernatural diseases or poisons. It also has no affect on psychological addictions, although it can cure the physiological effect of an addiction.

Iron Stamina (One to three successes): This Merit lasts for one scene.

Iron Stomach (Two successes): This Merit lasts for one scene.

Natural Immunity (One success): This Merit lasts for one day per dot of Biokinesis or until the psychic uses his Biokinesis again, whichever comes first.

Pain Resistance (Three successes): The psychic becomes extraordinarily resistant to the physical side effects of pain and injury. Wound penalties are reduced by one, and the character gains a +1 bonus on rolls to stay conscious after all Health boxes have been filled with bashing damage, all for the duration of the scene.

Quick Healer (Four successes): This Merit lasts for one day per dot of Biokinesis or until the psychic uses his Biokinesis again, whichever comes first.

Strong Back (One success): This Merit lasts for one scene.

Strong Lungs (Three successes): This Merit lasts for one scene.

Toxin Resistance (Two successes): This Merit lasts for one day per point of Biokinesis or until the psychic uses his Biokinesis again, whichever comes first.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Composure
Action: Extended


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic suffers one point of bashing damage due to painful psychic feedback. He cannot attempt to use his Biokinesis powers for the remainder of the scene.

Failure:
The psychic fails to accumulate any successes for now, but may keep trying, or utterly fails to manifest any biokinetic benefi ts.

Success:
Accumulated successes can be used to temporarily acquire a single desired Merit, provided the psychic meets any prerequisites and his Biokinesis dots equal or exceed the desired Merit’s success cost, plus one.

Exceptional Success:
Accumulated successes can be used to acquire multiple Merits temporarily, with successes allocated for dots as the player chooses.

Cayce Channeling
•••
SS, p.43
gain temporary skills points and access to memories

Channeling represents a psychic’s capacity to paranormally gain abilities that he does not normally possess. Cayce Channeling, allow the psychic accesses the Universal Unconscious to gain the knowledge he seeks.

The psychic must successfully enter a trance before he can channel effectively to gain new Traits. Skills gained last until the psychic next sleeps or until he attempts to channel again.

With this technique (named for Edgar Cayce), the psychic enters a trance state in which he can access the Universal Unconscious, the sum total of accumulated human knowledge. Theoretically, anything that has ever been known can be rediscovered through this power. Few modern practitioners have psychic powers on par with Edgar Cayce’s and are thus unable to utilize his techniques to their full extent. Cayce Channeling alone cannot be used to learn personal or secret details about people and places outside the psychic’s vicinity. Clairvoyance and precognition are more useful for that purpose; Cayce was also skilled in both of those powers. Finally, while Cayce Channeling can give a psychic access to potentially any empirical knowledge, Cayce Channeling cannot convey talents that require kinesthetic training (i.e., Physical Skills). A psychic might be able to use this power to identify a particular sword as a 15th-century Japanese katana, but he could not use the power to gain any proficiency in swordsmanship. The Skill dots acquired through this power take the place of any dots a character already possesses. Thus, if a player wishes to raise his character’s Skill above what it currently is, he must roll more successes than the character’s current Skill dots.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Occult
Action: Instant; although the psychic must first enter a trance


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic is trapped in his trance state for hours as he contemplates the infinite mysteries of the Universal Unconscious. Waking requires a number of successes on an extended Intelligence + Resolve roll equal to the psychic’s combined Stamina + Composure, with each roll taking one hour. Alternatively, the psychic is unable to access this Merit again until 24 hours pass.

Failure:
The effort is unsuccessful.

Success:
Each success is converted into one dot of a single Mental or Social Skill selected by the player. The number of successes must exceed the character’s current Skill dots, if any, in order for him to gain any benefit from the power. The new rating lasts until the psychic next sleeps or until he next uses this power.

Exceptional Success:
In addition to the normal benefit of extra successes, the psychic receives one bit of useful knowledge that he randomly comes across in the infinite Universal Unconscious, although the true significance of this nugget might not be immediately clear. If the successes exceed five, any more can be assigned to another single Mental or Social Skill of the character’s choosing.

Clairvoyance
•••
SS, p.37
Perceive events at a location for a scene

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.

Cryokinesis
• - •••••
A character’s dots in this Merit cannot be higher than the lesser of her Resolve or Stamina.
SS, p.47
power to lower temperature

Cryokinesis permits a psychic to decrease ambient temperature. The player must spend one Willpower point to activate, and then roll Intelligence + Composure. The effectiveness of the cryokinetic’s power is based on her Merit dots, with successes rolled lowering the temperature according to this chart.

Merit Dots Temperature Ranges
2 degrees per success
•• 5 degrees per success
••• 10 degrees per success
•••• 15 degrees per success
••••• 25 degrees per success

When used to attack a moving target, treat Cryokinesis as a ranged attack. Defense does not apply, and the temperature shift bypasses armor unless the protection has some type of thermal aspect or the protection is a supernatural armor capable of protecting against cold. The attack also ignores cover, since the character can potentially lower the temperature over an area big enough to encompass even someone behind full cover. Cryokinesis affects the temperature of everything within the affected area, so living targets suffer a drop in body temperature commensurate with successes rolled.

Short range for a cryokinetic attack is equal to a psychic’s Intelligence + Wits + Cryokinesis dots in yards. Medium range is twice that distance and imposes a –2 penalty on an attack dice pool. Long range is up to twice medium range and imposes a –4 penalty on an attack dice pool. The Size of the area to be affected is subtracted from the cryokinetic’s dice pool. Thus, an attempt to freeze a human-sized target suffers a –5 penalty. However, physically touching the object to be affected confers a +2 bonus on the roll.

Once a psychic has successfully lowered the temperature in a given location, he can do one of three things: (1) maintain the reduced temperature as long as he concentrates, (2) release his concentration and let temperature equalize normally or (3) use his Cryokinesis powers again to lower the temperature even further. Thus, with time and a prodigious amount of Willpower, a cryokinetic can reduce ambient temperature to low levels, although the absolute lowest temperature that any cryokinetic can achieve is about –400 degrees, well above absolute zero.

Cryokinesis is potentially deadly to living beings. The record for the lowest body temperature in a human is approximately 60 degrees Fahrenheit, although that patient lost all four limbs as a result. When Cryokinesis is used against a human, the victim suffers nothing more than discomfort until her internal body temperature is reduced by 10 degrees. At that point, the victim suffers a –1 penalty to Dexterity, Strength and Wits (and consequently, a –1 penalty to Initiative and potentially Defense, and a –2 penalty to Speed). For every additional five degrees of reduction, this Attribute penalty intensifies by an additional –1. If any of a victim’s Dexterity, Strength or Wits is reduced to zero, the victim is immobilized due to the onset of hypothermia. Also, if a victim’s body temperature is reduced by 20 degrees or more, she takes one point of lethal damage per turn spent subjected to the cryokinetic attack. If this lethal damage crosses over into aggravated damage, the victim suffers frostbite and may lose Attribute dots or gain Flaws to represent the loss of fingers or even limbs.

Most physical objects suffer no direct damage from low temperatures, but pipes can burst from frozen water, and machines that depend on lubricants may seize up if ambient temperature drops below freezing. At temperatures of 50 degrees below zero, trees snap and splinter spontaneously as heavy ice accumulates on their branches. Ice accumulates on streets and bridges, making travel hazardous. At 100 degrees below zero, almost any amount of water within an area is flash frozen, and living creatures are killed almost instantly unless protected somehow. Vampires and the undead are almost completely immune to low temperatures, but at temperatures of –100 or lower, a vampire’s body might well freeze solid. Unless she can thaw herself out (through the use of blood or Disciplines), she may well remain paralyzed when the sun comes up the next morning.

Once a psychic ceases to focus her attention on a specific location, temperatures equalize normally. In the case of extreme temperature changes in excess of a 400-degree difference from the surrounding area, “equalize normally” may mean an explosive reaction, inflicting two dice of bashing damage on everyone within a radius equal to the Size of the area initially affected x5. The explosion also causes knockdown. If the temperature shift is less than 400 degrees, the affected area returns to normal temperature at a rate of 10 degrees per minute.

Cryokinetics also have an improved resistance to environmental temperature extremes. A psychic with this power is automatically immune to natural temperature extremes ranging from zero to 100 degrees, plus an additional temperature range equal to plus or minus [Merit dots x20] degrees. A cryokinetic is automatically immune to the temperature-based attacks of other cryokinetics whose Merit dots do not exceed her own.


Cost: 1 Willpower per roll to affect temperature. None to resist temperature.
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Composure (– Size of area to be affected) to reduce the ambient temperature. The cryokinetic can resist low temperatures without a roll.
Action: Instant


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic fails to affect the ambient temperature and suffers one point of bashing damage as his own internal body temperature goes haywire.

Failure:
The psychic fails to affect ambient temperature.

Success:
Each success lowers the ambient temperature as described above.

Exceptional Success:
Additional successes are their own reward.


Option [Emotional Cryokinesis]: Whenever the cryokinetic is in the grip of strong emotion, Resolve + Composure must be rolled with a penalty equal to the level of the emotion as described by the Emotional Response table below. If the roll is unsuccessful, the cryokinetic’s powers function uncontrollably, raising or lowering the ambient temperature in random ways. A dramatic failure means that this wild activity might flare up at random intervals over the next several days whenever the psychic becomes agitated, causing freakish “cold spots.” Such uncontrolled power may have catastrophic effects for powerful cryokinetics. These random phenomena do not require the expenditure of a Willpower point.

Modifier Emotional response
0 No discernable signs of the emotional state.
-1 Noticeable signs of the emotional state.
-2 Obvious signs of the emotional state. A Resolve + Composure roll for the subject must succeed to avoid acting on the emotion in minor ways (snide comments toward someone he dislikes, flirting with the person for whom he now feels sexual attraction) every time he has an opportunity to do so.
-3 Unambiguous signs of the emotional state. As with the previous entry, except that the target must get at least as many successes on the Resolve + Composure as the empath does on the Psychic Empathy roll to avoid acting out on the emotion in a very obvious way (picking a fight with a person he now hates, acting in a subservient manner toward a person he now loves).
-4 Overwhelming signs of the emotional state. The emotional state approaches or even exceeds the level of a derangement (homicidal rage, suicidal depression, obsessive stalking). A Willpower point must be spent for the subject to even attempt a Resolve + Composure roll to contest the emotional compulsion, and he must still get as many successes as the empath does on the activation roll. The target seeks out opportunities to act on the emotion in obvious ways, and any attempt to conceal his state is automatically reduced to a chance die.
Death Sight
••••
SS, p.44
perceive and communicate with ghosts

Your medium can see dead people. The psychic may perceive and communicate with any ghost she encounters. The power allows only perception of and communication with ghosts in Twilight — ghosts tied to the material world and not to any otherworldly spirit world. The power affords no ability to contact spirits from the Shadow Realm that have entered the material world and that exist in Twilight. This Merit does not permit the psychic to aid ghosts in manifesting in the physical world (which requires the Ghost-Calling Merit). Most ghosts instinctively realize when a mortal can perceive them, and psychics who possess this power are often inundated by requests from desperate beings seeking help to resolve their earthly affairs.

A character who possesses the Ghost Ally Merit can acquire a limited version of Death Sight capable of letting her see and communicate with his ally by increasing the normal cost of the Ghost Ally Merit.


Cost: None to sense the presence of ghosts. One Willpower to initiate communication with them.
Dice Pool: Wits + Composure
Action: Reflexive


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The medium is unable to use this Merit for the rest of the scene. Alternately, she may suffer horrific visions of some hellish underworld, inflicting a –2 penalty on all actions for the remainder of the scene.

Failure:
The attempt to activate Death Sight is unsuccessful.

Success:
Your character can perceive and communicate with any ghost in her vicinity for the remainder of the scene. Such ghosts remain intangible to her, however.

Exceptional Success:
The medium may gain a +2 bonus on all rolls made in dealing with ghosts during the scene.


Option [Permanent Death Sight]: The medium’s ability to see the dead is always active. The stress of constantly being surrounded by spectral beings inflicts a mild derangement, such as Depression, Phobia, Irrationality or Avoidance. The player must still roll Wits + Composure in order to communicate with ghosts, but with this option, such rolls gain a +3 bonus.

Doubting Thomas
Merits that confer psychic powers.
SS, p.65
impose penalty on psychic powers

A Doubting Thomas is a mortal who strongly and emphatically rejects the existence of psychic phenomena. Almost anyone can simply doubt the existence of such possibilities, but a Doubting Thomas is almost pathological on the subject, as the character himself has a latent potential for psychic powers that he cannot use due to a persistent mental block. The character’s latent abilities are channeled into negating any actual psychic powers in his vicinity in order to help preserve his belief that the possibility is not real. Any attempt to use obvious psychic powers in the Doubting Thomas’ presence automatically suffers a –2 penalty, as he constantly watches the psychic for the slightest hint of fraud. If multiple Thomases are in a psychic’s presence, the penalties they impose are cumulative.

Drawback: A Doubting Thomas also suffers from a mild derangement triggered by assertions of psychic phenomena. Precisely how this ailment manifests is determined by you, but a Doubting Thomas confronted by phenomena purported to be psychic is likely compelled to confront the performer and try to debunk her claims. Common derangements for Doubting Thomases include Fixation, Suspicion and Irrationality (see Derangements).

Dowsing
SS, p.38
rod or pendulum swings slightly in the direction of whatever is sought

A limited form of divination, dowsing is a technique that lets a psychic to search for hidden objects. Traditionally, dowsing was used to search for good places to dig wells for fresh water, although it was also used to find gold and oil with varying degrees of success. The procedure requires a psychic to walk around and concentrate on the object or substance to be found, while holding either a swinging pendulum or a stick called a divining rod. If the psychic is successful, the rod or pendulum swings slightly in the direction of whatever is sought. Exactly how dowsing works is unclear, even to psychics. Some say it is a form of clairvoyance, others a form of mediumship (with spirits moving the divining rod in the same way a ghost might affect a Ouija board). Still others say the practice calls upon the Universal Unconscious. Generally, dowsing can find things and not individuals, although the Storyteller might permit a psychic to perform feats such as find a missing person with a divining rod if the performer has some personal possession belonging to the subject.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wits + Occult
Action: Extended. The number of successes required is determined by the Storyteller based on how well hidden or distant the substance is. A hidden safe might require three successes, while a fresh water source in the Sahara might require 20 or more. Each roll represents 30 minutes of dowsing.


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic is led on a wildgoose chase far from his desired goal. He also loses all accumulated successes.

Failure:
The current dowsing attempt is unsuccessful, but more rolls may be made.

Success:
When the player has accumulated the number of successes required, the attempt succeeds.

Exceptional Success:
The psychic might also gain insight into some other prize hidden nearby.

Dream Travel
• - •••••
SS, p.38
enters a sleeper’s mind

Dream Travel is a refinement of Astral Projection, combined with elements of telepathy. A dream traveler can cause her astral form to enter the mind of a sleeping person and interact with the sleeper during his dreams. The psychic must first astrally project using the normal rules for that Merit. She must then navigate astrally to the physical location of a sleeping person, although doing so may not require any roll if the sleeper is physically near the psychic’s body. Once the psychic locates her subject, she can enter the subject’s dreamscape and communicate with the sleeper as if the two were in the same physical location.

To the dream traveler, the dreamscape is exceptionally realistic, even more so than it is for the person who is actually having the dream. Anything encountered by the psychic in the dreamscape is “real” to her and potentially capable of causing her injury. Normally, this harm occurs only if the psychic enters a nightmare, the dream of a mortal who is a lucid dreamer able to defend himself against an intruder or if the traveler encounters someone else intruding in the same mind.

If a psychic is caught within another’s nightmare, the psychic may be subjected to an attack, depending on the nature of the nightmare and how the psychic responds to it. If the dreamer possesses the Lucid Dreamer Merit, he may be able to initiate dream attacks at the expense of one Willpower point per attack. (Anyone with Dream Travel can initiate attacks in her own dreams without the expenditure of a Willpower point.)

Regardless of the form the dream attack takes, all attacks are represented by a Wits + Resolve + Dream Travel pool, from which the target’s Composure is subtracted. Even if the attack is the result of an ordinary person’s nightmare, the nightmare itself may attack the intruding psychic using the dreamer’s Wits + Resolve pool. Each success inflicts one point of “phantom damage” to the target.

Any phantom damage inflicted has no lingering effect once a psychic withdraws to her own body, unless the phantom damage is enough to kill her in a dream. In that case, the psychic’s physical body dies instantly, usually of a heart attack or cerebral hemorrhage. Attacks initiated by lucid dreamers or by other dream travelers customarily inflict bashing damage. A psychic with Dream Travel •••• or higher can inflict lethal damage. No form of dream attack can inflict aggravated damage.

hile a psychic uses this Merit, she is subject to all the limitations of Astral Projection, including limited awareness of her body’s surroundings and vulnerability to a killing blow. The length of time a psychic can remain free of her body is determined by your initial Astral Projection roll. A dream traveler can remain within her subject’s subconscious only while a dream takes place, however. Generally, REM cycles last between five and 45 minutes, so any attempt to enter and manipulate a dream does not usually last beyond a scene.

If a dreamer wakes or dies, any dream travelers present are expelled back to their bodies. A psychic can make minor cosmetic changes to the dreamscape with an instant Wits + Resolve roll. At the Storyteller’s discretion, particularly vivid, evocative or just plain cool descriptions of how a psychic manipulates a dreamscape may translate into bonus dice.


Cost: 1 Willpower to project into another’s dream. None to initiate dream attacks. Characters with the Lucid Dreamer Merit can initiate attacks by spending one Willpower point, but only in their own dreams.
Dice Pool: Wits + Resolve to enter a sleeping person’s dream and to manipulate it. Prior to an entry effort, a psychic must successfully use Astral Projection in order to leave her body and travel to the target’s location; Astral Projection typically requires a character to enter a trance first.
Action: Instant


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic fails to enter the sleeper’s mind and cannot try again until the sleeper’s next REM cycle. In dream combat, the psychic inflicts one point of phantom damage on herself.

Failure:
The psychic simply fails to enter the sleeper’s mind, or no damage is inflicted.

Success:
The psychic successfully enters the sleeper’s mind. Each success in dream combat inflicts a point of damage.

Exceptional Success:
The psychic enters the sleeper’s mind and gains a +1 bonus die to all other rolls for the duration of her stay.

Ghost Ally
••• - •••••
SS, p.65
A ghost who is able and willing to aid the character

Unlike the Allies Merit available in the World of Darkness Rulebook, which represents influence in a particular field or area, a Ghost Ally represents a specific being — a ghost who is able and willing to aid the character in her endeavors.

A Ghost Ally is built as follows. First, he has seven dots in Attributes, divided among Power, Finesse and Resistance.

These Attributes are used to determine the rest of the ghost’s Advantages according to the rules outlined on p. 208 of the World of Darkness Rulebook. The Ghost Ally has both a Virtue and a Vice, but no Skills. The Ghost Ally has a maximum Essence pool of 10 that is used to fuel Numina. The Ghost Ally has one Numen, chosen from those listed in the World of Darkness Rulebook. The Ally also has a single anchor that must be the character with whom the being is connected.

Finally, a Ghost Ally has a set number of bonus points used to flesh out the restless-dead character. With this Merit at three dots, a Ghost Ally has six bonus points, while the four-dot Merit offers 12 bonus points, and the five-dot version offers 18. These bonus points can be spent as follows: six points per additional Attribute dot, three points per additional anchor and six points per additional Numen. Also, for six points, the bond between ghost and character is made so strong that the character can see and hear the ghost when it is present, even without any psychic abilities. Without such a bond, the character cannot perceive the ghost unless it manifests or otherwise makes its presence known.

Ghost-Calling
•••
SS, p.45
Summon ghosts

Your medium is capable of more than merely perceiving the dead; he can summon them to his presence and even assist them in crossing over to the physical world. A sufficiently talented medium can call out to an existing ghost and draw it to his location. By doing so, he can also help the entity to “cross over,” aiding it in manifesting in the physical world or in using other ghostly powers that affect the material realm. Mediums who possess this Merit and Astral Projection have the option of physically interacting with ghosts and other beings in Twilight with the expenditure of a Willpower point. Ghost-Calling can only summon ghosts; other supernatural beings existing in Twilight are not affected.

Roll** Wits + Occult** for your character to make spiritual contact with an existing ghost. Not all deceased persons continue to exist as ghosts, and few ghosts persist more than a few decades after their demise. If a ghost is still in existence, the medium can potentially contact the ghost wherever it roams. Once the connection is formed, the medium is considered to be a temporary anchor for the ghost, and it can instantly come to his vicinity from wherever it may be. If the ghost is unwilling to come to the medium, he can attempt to compel its attendance with a successful Presence + Occult roll versus the ghost’s Resistance in a contested action. Whether the ghost comes willingly or not, a Willpower point need not be spent for the ghost to travel to its new anchor. A medium cannot control a ghost in any meaningful way. A character with this Merit cannot automatically detect ghosts unless he also has the Death Sight Merit. If he does have that Merit, he receives a +2 bonus on all Ghost-Calling rolls.

When a medium forms a psychic connection with a ghost, the medium continues to serve as the ghost’s anchor for the duration of the scene. If the medium attempts to sever the connection early, a successful Wits + Occult roll must be made versus the ghost’s Power in a contested action, unless the ghost consents to the severing. When a medium no longer serves as an anchor, a ghost returns instantly to wherever it was prior to the summoning. Severing the psychic connection does not harm the ghost in any way.

While a connection is in force, a medium is considered an anchor for all purposes. Thus, the ghost can manifest in the psychic’s vicinity without need for a roll. A medium may place himself in grave danger if he does not know with what sort of ghost he deals.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wits + Occult versus an unwilling ghost’s Resistance to become a temporary anchor to a ghost (resistance is reflexive). Presence + Occult versus an unwilling ghost’s Resistance to forcefully summon one to the medium’s vicinity.
Action: Contested


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
A psychic connection is forged with some entity other than the one the medium sought. The medium may be unable to sever the connection or may even become a permanent anchor to a hostile ghost.

Failure:
You fail to get more successes than the ghost. The attempt to contact or summon is unsuccessful.

Success:
On a contact roll, more successes are rolled for the medium than for the ghost. The medium is considered an anchor for the remainder of the scene unless the effect is ended early. On a summoning roll, the ghost is compelled to come to the medium’s vicinity.

Exceptional Success:
On a contact roll, the player gets five or more successes, more than rolled for the ghost. The medium gains a +2 bonus on all rolls made in dealing with the ghost during the scene.


Modifier Situation
+1 per extra person (max +3) The medium attempts to summon a ghost during a séance in which he is assisted by believers (see “Believers”). During a séance, a ghost’s loved ones are considered to be believers unless they categorically reject the possibility of life after death.
+1 The medium has summoned this particular ghost before.
+1 The medium has some object or person (other than an anchor) important to the ghost during its life.
+3 The medium possesses another anchor of the ghost to be summoned.
-1 Per 50 years that the ghost has been dead.

Option [Spiritualist Medium]: The medium can interact with the dead only in the context of a séance. In order to utilize this power, she must be assisted by one or more people. The medium gains a die bonus equal to the total number of believers in the séance up to a maximum of +5.

Hypnotic Voice
••••
Specialty in Hypnotherapy or a related field (for Science) & Persuasion 3 or Science 3
SS, p.66
hypnotize others into trance states

Although not truly a psychic power, Hypnotic Voice is certainly capable of eerie effects. Whether through training in psychology or simply through having a deep, soothing voice, a character with this Merit is capable of hypnotizing others into trance states. The character can hypnotize anyone given the opportunity, but it is much easier if the subject is willing. While in a hypnotic trance, a subject can be given suggestions or forced to confront repressed memories, possibly memories stolen by vampiric Disciplines or repressed due to Lunacy triggered by werewolves, or Disbelief invoked by vulgar magic.

Inducing a Light Trance
In order to begin the process of hypnotizing a subject, Manipulation + Persuasion or Science (depending on which Skill is used as the prerequisite for the Merit) is rolled. If the subject is willing, the roll is extended but not contested, and the hypnotist must accumulate [subject’s Resolve x5] successes, with each roll representing 10 seconds of induction. If the subject is unwilling, he can resist with Composure + Supernatural Advantage in contested rolls; resistance is reflexive. If the subject ever gets more successes in a single roll, he realizes what the hypnotist is attempting and any further attempts to hypnotize the subject fail automatically. If the subject and hypnotist ever get the same number of successes in a roll, the subject does not begin to enter a trance, but doesn’t realize what the hypnotist attempts either, so the performer can proceed. If the hypnotist’s successes on a roll are ever five or more and exceed the subject’s in that period, the victim begins to enter a trance despite himself and suffers a –1 penalty on all subsequent contested rolls. The hypnotist must have a target’s undivided attention. She cannot hypnotize someone carrying on a conversation with someone else, or who intently watches television while paying the hypnotist no mind.

Once the player accumulates enough successes, the subject is successfully placed into a light trance. The subject is not able to initiate any hostile actions until he wakes up, and is highly suggestible. The hypnotist can induce an entranced subject to give up any non-intimate information or to perform almost any non-hazardous action with a successful Manipulation + Persuasion roll. A light trance lasts for a scene before the subject comes out of it. The trance ends automatically if someone makes a loud noise or even physically shakes the subject, and the hypnotist can wake the subject whenever she desires. If the hypnotist attempts to get the subject to do something that violates her Morality or her Virtue, or that is obviously dangerous or suicidal, the trance ends immediately.

Cost: None
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion or Science (Hypnotherapy Specialty), possibly contested by Composure + Supernatural Advantage
Action: Extended (subject willing) or extended and contested (subject unwilling). The hypnotist must accumulate successes equal to the target’s Resolve x5, with each roll representing 10 seconds of speech.

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The hypnotist fails to entrance his subject and loses any accumulated successes. If the subject was unwilling, she automatically knows that the hypnotist was attempting to hypnotize her and may react accordingly. Any subsequent attempts to hypnotize the subject (or indeed, anyone else who saw what happened) fail automatically.

Failure:
The character gathers no successes at this time.

Success:
The character gets the required number of successes and the subject is placed in a light trance.

Exceptional Success:
The character gathers five or more successes than required. The character gains a +2 bonus on any Social rolls against the subject for the remainder of the trance.

Dice Modifiers Situation
+2 The subject is intoxicated, drugged or otherwise mentally impaired.
+1 The subject is under peer pressure to submit to hypnosis, most commonly during a stage-hypnotist show.

Deepening the Trance
Once a subject is put into a light trance, the character can attempt to hypnotize him further. The player must roll Manipulation + Persuasion (– the subject’s Composure). While such a deep trance lasts, the hypnotist gains a +2 bonus on all Social rolls against the subject (+5 with an exceptional success), she can persuade him to perform almost any non-dangerous action, and she can give post-hypnotic suggestions that can affect the subject’s perceptions or even beliefs (such as the stereotypical depiction of the hypnotist making a subject bark like a dog). A deep trance lasts for a scene, after which the subject goes into a normal sleep and stays out for hours unless awoken by mundane means.

While the subject is in a deep trance, the hypnotist can attempt to get him to perform actions that violate his Morality or Virtue, or that are obviously dangerous or suicidal. The hypnotist must phrase such commands in a manner calculated to work around the subject’s beliefs, however. A conservative preacher might rebel at being ordered to strip down in front of strangers, but if persuaded that he was a male dancer, such inhibitions can be overcome. Commands calculated to overcome Morality or Virtue or that place a subject in grave danger suffer a penalty in a Social roll based on how well the hypnotist works around the subject’s inhibitions.

Cost: None
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion – subject’s Composure
Action: Instant, although the roll can be made only after at least five minutes of induction

Roll Results Dramatic Failure:
The hypnotist fails to entrance the subject, who instantly awakens.

Failure:
The character fails to induce the subject to enter a deep trance. Other attempts can be made if time permits.

Success:
The subject is placed in a deep trance. The character gains a +2 bonus on any Social rolls against the target for the remainder of the trance.

Exceptional Success:
The subject is placed into an exceptionally deep trance. The character gains a +5 bonus on all Social rolls against the subject for the rest of the trance.

Dice Modifiers Situation
+2 The subject is intoxicated, drugged or otherwise mentally impaired.
+1 The subject is under peer pressure to submit to hypnosis, most commonly during a stage-hypnotist show.

Memory Recovery
Once a subject has been put into a deep trance, the hypnotist can attempt to help him to recover repressed or stolen memories, although doing so might be highly traumatic for the subject depending on the experiences’ nature. The player must roll Manipulation + Persuasion, resisted by the subject’s Resolve + Supernatural Advantage, and accumulate [the subject’s Resolve x5] in successes, all as part of an extended and contested action. The player’s dice pool also suffers a penalty according to the nature of the memories recovered. The hypnotist must achieve an exceptional success (gather five or more successes than needed in the time allowed or under the circumstances) for the subject to be able to recall the repressed memories after waking from the trance. If more successes are ever achieved for the subject in any contested roll, that memory cannot be restored by the hypnotist in this effort. Another attempt may be made after 24 hours.

Cost: None
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion versus the subject’s Resolve + Supernatural Advantage (resistance is reflexive)
Action: Extended and contested, with each roll representing 30 minutes of hypnotherapy

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The hypnotist’s attempts to dredge up the lost memories traumatizes the subject, inflicting a mild derangement on him.

Failure:
The character gathers no successes at this time.

Success:
The character gets the required number of successes. The subject is able to recall the lost memories while under a trance, but does not recall them while awake.

Exceptional Success:
Five or more successes than required are accumulated. The subject recalls the lost memories after awakening.

Dice Modifier Lost Memories
Non-traumatic events that have simply been forgotten.
-2 Traumatic but mundane events such as childhood circumstances or a sexual assault.
-4 “Unintentional” supernatural influences that have affected the subject’s memories, such as Disbelief triggered by the actions of a mage or Lunacy triggered by a werewolf.
-5 “Deliberate” supernatural effects intended to alter the subject’s memories, such as vampiric Disciplines or effects created with the Mind Arcana.
Library
• - •••
SS, p.113
personal collection of useful information

Your character maintains a personal collection of useful information, which can help with both natural and supernatural research. Whether in the form of musty occult tomes, encrypted computer files, sacred scrolls, visual art or stranger media, this library includes reference works that can help him understand both magic and the supernatural world. In both fi elds of knowledge — mundane research and occult lore — this collection relates to one or more fields of specialization.

Each dot in this Merit represents one field of study or area of knowledge in which your character has a wealth of tomes, computer fi les or scrolls, and from which he may draw information. If he has Library 3, his dots might be assigned to demons, cryptozoology and one tradition of thaumaturgy, respectively. Topics can include arcane lore that most people don’t know about, or that has been forgotten since antiquity.

Ordinary people have libraries as well, of course, dealing with less exotic specialties. The study of the supernatural is different from ordinary research. Many occult tomes refer to magical insights that only thaumaturges trained in a particular tradition understand. Aging magical tomes don’t typically use indices, keywords or cross-referenced page numbers — they’re as arcane as the mystics who access them.

Gaining information from a library is a research task, as described on pp. 55–56 of the World of Darkness Rulebook, except that a thaumaturge spends only 10 minutes per roll when researching from his library. Success doesn’t guarantee exactly the information for which he looks. Libraries aren’t all-knowing, and they don’t always provide one definitive answer to a question, since multiple authors may have different points of view on the same subject. The Storyteller is perfectly justified in saying that a particular library simply doesn’t reveal something.

An extended research task performed to gain a bonus on a ritual requires a total number of successes equal to the number of dots in the Merit used to perform the ritual.

Roll Results Dramatic Failure:
The character uncovers flawed or inaccurate information that subtracts one die from the roll to perform the ritual.

Failure:
The character can find no useful information to help him perform the ritual.

Success:
The character finds useful information sufficient to provide him with +1 to his dice pool to perform this ritual.

Exceptional Success: The character discovers large amounts of useful information about performing a ritual and gains a +2 bonus to his Merit dice pool.

This bonus cannot exceed the number of dots in the library he uses, however. Any thaumaturge may allow another practitioner the privilege of consulting his library. Unless this consultant has put points toward the Merit, 30 minutes are spent per roll researching a topic.


Special: Thaumaturges can share Library dots, with each contributing to the facility’s areas of knowledge. These characters each receive the full benefits of the library, and may invite others to use the resource so long as all parties agree. It may happen that thaumaturges suffer a falling out, in which case one or more might be asked to forfeit her library privileges. Those who are banned lose whatever dots they contributed, unless an agreement is worked out to split the library, allowing outcasts to take their areas of knowledge (and dots) with them.

Lucid Dreamer
SS, p.67
defense against attacks in dreams

The Lucid Dreamer Merit is common among both ordinary people and psychics. It represents the capacity to realize that one is dreaming and that such dreams cannot truly cause harm. Your character is rarely troubled by any but the most terrifying of mundane nightmares, although he remains vulnerable to supernaturally or psychically induced ones. The Dreamer can defend himself against attacks by psychics who have the Dream Travel Merit.

When a Lucid Dreamer is psychically attacked within one of his own dreams, his Composure is considered to be +2 for purposes of determining whether a dream attack can harm him. Second, a Lucid Dreamer can initiate attacks against intruders of his dreams. One Willpower point must be spent per attack, and each attack is resolved according to the rules for Dream Travel described on p. 38. Unless a Lucid Dreamer has the power of Dream Travel, he can initiate these attacks only within his own dreams.

Mental Blast
•••••
SS, p.58
inflicts damage through telepathy

An extremely rare and dangerous power, Mental Blast allows a telepath to damage the mind of another being by force of will. The psychic uses Thought Projection with such force and intensity that it overwhelms the victim’s brain, potentially causing a stroke or cerebral hemorrhage. Each success achieved on the attack inflicts one point of bashing damage on the target in the form of a blistering migraine. A sustained attack may have lethal results. Fatalities inflicted with Mental Blast generally appear to be strokes or similar maladies, but in some cases the power quite literally causes a victim’s head to explode. Once this power is initiated, the psychic can maintain the assault, the player rolling again every turn so long as the attacker can maintain concentration. While concentrating on the target, the psychic loses his Defense and can take no action other than maintaining the assault and moving up to Speed in a turn. If the psychic’s concentration is broken, another Willpower must be spent to initiate a new Mental Blast.


Cost: 1 Willpower on the first turn of a Mental Blast. The psychic can continue to inflict damage as long as he can maintain concentration on his target.
Dice Pool: Presence + Intimidation – subject’s Stamina
Action:


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character suffers one point of bashing damage from psychic feedback and is unable to use the power for the remainder of the scene.

Failure:
The character fails to inflict any damage.

Success:
The character inflicts damage as noted above.

Exceptional Success:
Additional successes are their own reward. Also, the target must roll her Stamina to avoid knockout.

Mind Breaker
•••••
SS, p.58
inflict madness to a target

Mind Breaker does not inflict any damage on a victim. Instead, it inflicts either a temporary or permanent derangement. Generally, the user simply inflicts madness, with the precise form of ailment is determined by the Storyteller. If the psychic has specialized training as reflected by Science ••• or higher with a Specialty in Psychology or some similar field, the Storyteller may permit her to deliberately tailor the victim’s madness. Derangements gained through use of this power cannot be removed by raising one’s Morality trait.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Presence + Empathy versus the subject’s Resolve + Supernatural Advantage. Intelligence + Science may be rolled instead for characters with specialized training in psychology or something similar, with a successful roll permitting a telepath to tailor the derangement to his desire.
Action: Contested


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character suffers one Storyteller-chosen derangement for the remainder of the scene.

Failure:
The character fails to inflict madness on his target.

Success:
The character gets more successes than the target, who suffers one mild derangement for the remainder of the scene.

Exceptional Success:
The character gets at least five successes and exceeds those of the target. If the psychic wishes, the derangement inflicted may be severe instead of mild. Alternatively, the target can be subjected to a permanent mild derangement that can be removed through only roleplaying.

Mind Control
•••••
SS, p.59
give command to target

The psychic must deliver his instructions verbally unless he is capable of projecting his thoughts. One of the most insidious manifestations of psychic power, Mind Control permits a telepath to project his mind to overcome a subject’s will and render the subject open to suggestion. Unless the character also has Thought Projection or some similar advantage, he must verbally tell his subject what he wants her to do, effectively making this power a form of paranormal hypnosis. Combined with Thought Projection, the psychic can make anyone a puppet, silently seizing a victim’s will from across a room and making her his slave. If he has both Thought Projection and Clairvoyance, he can command the mind of someone from across a city like a modern-day Svengali.

Commands that force a subject to violate deeply held beliefs, to act against Virtues, or to harm loved ones impose a penalty to the roll made for the psychic. Mind Control is effective only against ordinary people and other psychics. A Mind Control attempt automatically fails against anyone who is the subject of a supernatural template (such as mages, vampires and werewolves). However, ghouls, wolf-blooded and similar beings may be affected, although they may gain bonus dice to resist in some circumstances (such as when a ghoul is mentally controlled to betray his undead master).

The benefits of the Striking Looks Merit apply to Mind Control attempts, and psychics with the Hypnotic Voice Merit gain a +2 bonus on all uses of this power. The psychic must concentrate fully on his subject while conveying his instructions, suffering all the normal penalties for concentration. How long this effort takes depends on the complexity of the instructions, and may last for several turns. Once the command is issued, the psychic does not need to continue concentrating. The telepath’s command must be something that can be completed within the scene or the attempt fails, unless the telepath achieves an exceptional success.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion versus subject’s Resolve (resistance is reflexive)
Action: Contested; requires concentration while instructions are conveyed


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character triggers psychic feedback in the target, making him instinctively withdraw or distrust her. The target is also rendered immune to further Mind Control attempts by the psychic for the next day.

Failure:
The target ignores the character’s command.

Success:
The target obeys the character’s command, provided that the order can be fulfilled within one scene.

Exceptional Success:
The player gets five or more successes and they exceed those of the target. There is no time limit on how long the command can take to be executed.


Dice Modifiers

Modifier Situation
+1 The psychic has successfully used Mind Control on the subject within the last week.
-1 The command forces the subject to act against a loved one or to violate deeply held personal beliefs.
-2 The command forces the subject to harm a loved one or to act against a Virtue.
-4 The command forces the subject to kill a loved one or perform an action that might cause her to lose Morality.
-5 The command is clearly suicidal.
Mind Reading
••• - •••••
SS, p.60
read surface and buried thoughts

Mind Reading is the essential telepathic power; the ability to read the thoughts of others.

The three-dot version permits a telepath to read the surface thoughts of an ordinary person, although the telepath cannot yet perceive information that a subject does not currently think about.

The four-dot version permits the telepath to probe the mind of an ordinary person for buried information or even subconscious thoughts, or to perceive the surface thoughts of beings who are the subject of a supernatural template, such as mages, vampires or werewolves.

The five-dot version permits the telepath to probe the buried thoughts of even supernatural beings. This last version also allows a telepath to perform “light scans” of multiple minds at once to discover who among several thinks something in particular (such as identifying which of several murder suspects thinks, I killed her.)


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Empathy versus the subject’s Composure + Supernatural Advantage (resistance is reflexive)
Action: Contested


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character triggers psychic feedback in his target, making her instinctively withdraw or distrust him. The target can also automatically resist any use of Telepathic Merits by the psychic for the next day.

Failure:
The character fails to read the target’s mind.

Success:
The character can perceive the target’s thoughts, and the player is allowed to ask one question about them per success. Surface scans are limited to what a subject currently thinks about, although a telepath can attempt to manipulate a subject into thinking about something in particular with a successful Manipulation + Subterfuge roll (contested by Wits + Subterfuge if the subject is aware of the telepath’s capabilities). If the psychic is capable of deep scans, the player can ask questions about any topic, including questions about a subject’s buried memories or even subconscious thoughts of which the subject is not even aware.

Exceptional Success:
Extra successes are their own reward. Also, the Storyteller may rule that the telepath discovers some useful tidbit of information in the subject’s mind for which he wasn’t even searching.


Dice Modifiers

Modifier Situation
+1 The psychic has successfully used Mind Reading on the subject within the last week.
+1 The psychic touches the subject.
+1 The subject willingly consents to a telepathic probe.
+2 The subject willingly consents to a telepathic probe and also has this Merit, or, at the Storyteller’s discretion, has some other supernatural or psychic power that conveys telepathic abilities.
-1 The subject actively resists the telepathic probe and also has this Merit, or at the Storyteller’s discretion has some other supernatural or psychic power that conveys telepathic abilities.
Past-Life Channeling
•••
SS, p.43
gain temporary skills points and access to memories

Channeling represents a psychic’s capacity to paranormally gain abilities that he does not normally possess. Past-Life Channeling,allow accesses to the talents he possessed in a former life.

The psychic must successfully enter a trance before he can channel effectively to gain new Traits. Skills gained last until the psychic next sleeps or until he attempts to channel again.

The psychic has a preternatural awareness of his own prior incarnations. After entering a trance state, he can summon forth the collective life experiences of one of his prior selves, merging it with his own personality. Although each person conceivably has countless past lives, the more recent they are, the more progressively difficult to channel. Most past lives capable of being channeled are from primitive eras, so this Merit cannot be used to access abilities that require a modern education. Mechanically speaking, Past-Life Channeling cannot be used to gain Mental Skills.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Composure + Occult
Action: Instant; although the psychic must first enter a trance


Roll Results Dramatic Failure:
The psychic assumes a personality from a previous life. He manifests a new Storyteller-assigned personality and background for the duration of the scene, including a new Virtue and Vice. He may (or may not) retain the ability to speak his normal languages, and has no knowledge of any friends, his current situation or, indeed, anything about modern life, viewing everything through the lens of a Roman centurion, a courtesan from the era of Louis XIV, a Mississippi plantation owner on the eve of the Civil War or anything else of which the Storyteller can think.

Failure:
The past-life regression was unsuccessful.

Success:
Each success is converted into one dot of a single Physical or Social Skill selected by the player. The number of successes must exceed the character’s current Skill dots, if any, in order for him to gain any benefit from the power. The new rating lasts until the psychic next sleeps or until he next uses this power.

Exceptional Success:
In addition to the normal benefit of extra successes, the psychic can access the personal memories of the past life sharing his body. These new memories are lost when the power’s effect ends. If the successes exceed five, any more may be assigned to another single Physical or Social Skill of the character’s choosing.

Plant Empathy
SS, p.49
bonus to the cultivation of plant life

Plant Empathy makes a psychic a natural “green thumb,” giving him almost supernatural talent at cultivating plants. There is no roll associated with this power. Instead, the power gives the psychic a bonus to any dice pools pertaining to the cultivation of plant life (most commonly Intelligence + Crafts) equal to the number of dots he has in the Biokinesis Merit. Additionally, the growth rate of plants under the psychic’s care is multiplied by [1 + the psychic’s Biokinesis Merit dots]. Thus, a plant empath with Biokinesis ••• can cause plants to grow at four times their normal rate.

Postcognition
• - •••
Precognition or None for the ••• version.
SS, p.40
glimpse of the past

Your psychic has the ability to see into the past. If the roll to activate this power is successful, you are allowed to ask a variable number of questions about a past event based on your successes. The effort suffers a dice penalty based on temporal proximity, and the Storyteller should always roll for the player who uses Postcognition, since the player may be able to deduce when something might have occurred by noting the penalty applied, even if the roll is unsuccessful. Each success on the roll allows the player to ask one question about the past event viewed.

Dice Modifier Proximity
0 Within a day
-1 Within a week
-2 Within a month
-3 Within a year
-4 Within 5 years
-5 Within 10 years*
* Each additional 10-year increment intensifies the dice penalty by –1.

The effort faces additional penalties if the character lacks any sort of sympathetic connection to the scene he wishes to view. If the psychic is present at the location where the past event took place, he suffers no penalty. If he is in the presence of a person who was present at the past event, the player suffers a –2 penalty. If the psychic is in possession of an object that was present at the scene of the past event, he suffers a –4 penalty. At the Storyteller’s discretion, these penalties might be reduced, depending on the situation. For example, if a psychic attempts to view a violent murder by handling the murder weapon, he might suffer only a –2 penalty, while touching the actual murderer could eliminate any penalty.

Example: Detective Halloran, who secretly uses his Postcognition abilities to help him solve crimes, examines a bloody knife used in a brutal homicide. The Storyteller rolls Halloran’s Wits + Occult, applying a –1 penalty (due to the fact that the murder took place more than a day but less than a week ago) and a –2 penalty (for not actually being at the crime scene, but simply holding the murder weapon). The roll yields three successes, and Halloran gets a brief glimpse of the murder itself. His player can ask three questions about the vision. Triggering the vision costs the player one Willpower point.

Psychics with this Merit commonly possess the Precognition Merit, too. If the psychic does have the Precognition Merit, the cost of Postcognition is only one Merit dot. If the psychic acquires the three-dot version of this power, he does not need Precognition as a prerequisite.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wits + Occult
Action: Instant


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The seer has a wildly false or misleading vision. Since the Storyteller makes the roll on the player’s behalf, allow the player to ask an arbitrary number of questions, say one to three, and invent erroneous or misleading information about the scene observed.

Failure:
Failure indicates that the seer fails to produce a vision.

Success:
The character has a postcognitive vision. The player may ask one question about the vision per success. No more than one successful vision about a specific scene may be had every 24 hours.

Exceptional Success:
Additional successes are their own reward. The Storyteller may point out signifi cant details about which the player does not think to ask.

Precognition
••••
SS, p.40
glimpse of the futur

Precognition represents the power to predict the future. This power is perhaps the most difficult to incorporate into games, and the Storyteller should proceed cautiously. Precognition is also difficult for characters to use properly. While precognitive visions might give a psychic a clear vision of a future event, the future changes constantly based on people’s actions. Thus, when a psychic receives a completely “accurate” vision of the future, time remains in flux, and a seer can never be entirely sure whether his actions in response to the vision will prevent the it from coming to pass or ensure that it will do so. Even with an exceptional success, a character’s vision can still be distorted, blurry or possibly even wrapped in symbolism, particularly in the case of dream precognition or precognition though a focus. Characters must generally use the Occult Skill to interpret what they perceive. Psychics who possess the Precognition Merit are sometimes called “precogs.” Those who require foci such as cards or tea leaves are sometimes referred to as “seers” or (often disparagingly) “fortune-tellers.”

A precog can never predict the immediate future (i.e., what will happen next within the current scene). That is more the purview of the Danger Sense Merit. A roll to see the future suffers a penalty based on temporal proximity, and the Storyteller should always roll for a character who uses Precognition, since the player may be able to deduce when something might occur from noting the penalty applied, even if the roll is unsuccessful. Each success on the roll allows the player to ask one question about the future event.

Dice Modifier Proximity
0 Within a day
-1 Within a week
-2 Within a month
-3 Within a year
-4 Within 5 years
-5 Within 10 years
* Each additional 10-year increment intensifies the dice penalty by –1.

Example: Madame Zora tells the fortune of a young girl who wants to know when she’ll be married, and to whom. The Storyteller knows the girl will most likely get married in about three years, so a –4 penalty is applied to Zora’s dice pool, which is rolled by the Storyteller. Zora gets two successes, and Zora’s player can ask up to two questions about the girl’s wedding. Triggering the vision costs Zora one Willpower point.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wits + Occult
Action: Instant


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The seer has a wildly false or misleading vision. Since the Storyteller makes the roll on the player’s behalf, allow him to ask an arbitrary number of questions, say one to three, and invent erroneous or misleading information about the scene observed.

Failure:
Failure indicates that the precog fails to produce a vision.

Success:
The character has a precognitive vision. The player may ask one question about the vision per success. No more than one successful vision about a specific scene may be had every 24 hours.

Exceptional Success:
Additional successes are their own reward. The Storyteller may point out significant details about which the player does not think to ask.


Option [Precognitive Dreams]: The psychic’s visions come to him in the form of dreams. Thus, he can trigger visions only after entering a trance state.

Option [Required Foci]: The psychic requires some form of divination tool in order to predict the future. Common types of divinatory tools are listed in the “Tools of the Fortune-Teller”. The psychic can attempt to force a vision without using such tools, but doing so reduces the effort to a chance die.

Option [Touch Precognition]: The psychic can predict the future of other people only while physically touching them. The psychic can predict a person’s future with some object close to that person if the seer also has the Psychometry Merit. Otherwise, the psychic can only try to force a vision, which reduces the effort to a chance die. All attempts by a psychic to predict his own future are reduced to a chance die.

Option [Uncontrolled Precognition]: A psychic whose powers are uncontrolled has precognitive visions only at times of the Storyteller’s choosing, although the psychic should generally have at least one vision per session.

Psychic Empathy
•••• - •••••
SS, p.60
manipulate others emotions

Psychic Empathy builds on the underlying power of Aura Reading, as the telepath moves from merely perceiving the emotional aura of a target to actively manipulating it and thereby affecting the subject’s mood. In order to use Psychic Empathy, a character must first successfully use Aura Reading on a target. Once the character can clearly see the target’s aura, he can psychically “adjust the colors,” affecting her mood.

The four-dot version is only capable of short-term manipulations, while the five-dot version can hardwire a victim to feel a particular emotional response for extended periods.

The intensity of any particular emotional state is determined by the chart below.

Modifier Emotional Response
0 No discernable signs of the emotional state.
-1 Noticeable signs of the emotional state.
-2 Obvious signs of the emotional state. A Resolve + Composure roll for the subject must succeed to avoid acting on the emotion in minor ways (snide comments toward someone he dislikes, flirting with the person for whom he now feels sexual attraction) every time he has an opportunity to do so.
-3 Unambiguous signs of the emotional state. As with the previous entry, except that the target must get at least as many successes on the Resolve + Composure as the empath does on the Psychic Empathy roll to avoid acting out on the emotion in a very obvious way (picking a fight with a person he now hates, acting in a subservient manner toward a person he now loves).
-4 Overwhelming signs of the emotional state. The emotional state approaches or even exceeds the level of a derangement (homicidal rage, suicidal depression, obsessive stalking). A Willpower point must be spent for the subject to even attempt a Resolve + Composure roll to contest the emotional compulsion, and he must still get as many successes as the empath does on the activation roll. The target seeks out opportunities to act on the emotion in obvious ways, and any attempt to conceal his state is automatically reduced to a chance die.

Any attempt to manipulate a subject’s emotional state is penalized by the intensity of the emotion to be created or suppressed. Thus, if an empath wanted to make a total stranger fall in love with her (i.e., moving from no discernable signs (0) of love to unambiguous (–3) signs of love), the dice pool suffers a –3 penalty. Or if an empath wants to totally suppress an enemy’s overwhelming (–4) hatred of her in order to allow for peaceful interaction, the dice pool suffers a –4 penalty. Often, an empath seeks to produce an emotion that is the opposite of one a target currently feels, such as causing a man to hate his beloved wife, or when she wants a suicidal person to suddenly feel happy about his life. In such cases, the penalty is the total associated with the previous emotion, plus the new one. Thus, converting a subject’s unambiguous (–3) love for his wife into unambiguous (–3) hate inflicts a total –6 penalty.

Emotions produced with the four-dot version of this power last while the empath concentrates, or for the duration of an entire scene if the empath achieves an exceptional success. The five-dot version automatically lasts for at least a scene, and applies for a day with an exceptional success. With either version, the dice pool for affecting emotions is Manipulation + Empathy, contested by the subject’s Resolve + Composure. The five-dot version is capable of affecting a being with a supernatural template, but the four-dot version automatically fails against such beings.

Any emotion can be affected by this power, and its parameters are limited mainly by the Storyteller’s discretion and a player’s innovation. A few of the more commonly affected emotions include anger, happiness or sadness, love, sexual libido, possessiveness (for an object or a person) and compassion. Only one successful attempt can be made to alter a subject’s emotions per scene.


Cost: 1 Willpower per use. One Willpower must also be spent to activate the character’s Aura Reading powers prior to manipulating a subject’s emotions.
Dice Pool: The psychic must first successfully use Aura Reading on the subject. The roll to alter emotions is Manipulation + Empathy versus Resolve + Composure (resistance is reflexive).
Action: Contested


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character triggers psychic feedback in the target, making him instinctively withdraw or distrust her. The subject is also immune to the psychic’s Psychic Empathy for the rest of the scene.

Failure:
The character fails to influence the target’s emotions.

Success:
The subject’s emotions change according to the empath’s desires.

Exceptional Success:
The emotional change lasts for a longer period of time. With the four-dot version, the effect persists for a scene without concentration. With the five-dot version, the effect lasts for a day.


Option [Limited Empath]:
The empath’s powers are limited in some way, such as in the type of person affected, the type of emotion manipulated or the type of person or object that can be made the subject of an altered emotional connection. The dice bonus is determined by how specific and limited the empath’s powers are. An empath who can affect only women might gain a +1 bonus, while one whose sole power is to trigger intense misogyny in other men might gain a +3 bonus.

Option [Touch Only]:
With this option, the empath can affect another’s emotional state only while physically touching the target, (although concentration is all that’s required after contact is made).

Option [Uncontrolled]:
With this option, the empath’s power is not totally under his control. Whenever he experiences a profound emotion, a reflexive Resolve + Composure roll must be made, with a penalty based on the emotion as determined by the response table, above. If the roll is unsuccessful, Presence + Empathy is rolled, plus a bonus equal to the emotion’s rating, with everyone in his vicinity making a contested Resolve + Composure roll. Anyone who fails to get as many or more successes than the empath instantly experiences the same emotion as the character. Uncontrolled uses of Psychic Empathy do not require use of Aura Reading or the expenditure of a Willpower point. Deliberate uses of this power functions as normal, except that with this option, the empath has a +2 bonus.

Psychic Healing
••• - •••••
SS, p.49
heal self and possibly others

By building on the psychic’s underlying facility with Biokinesis, a psychic can now heal herself and others. The three-dot version of this Merit allows the character to accelerate her own healing, cutting all times in half. This power is cumulative with the Quick Healer Merit, so a character with both heals all injuries in 1/4 the normal time. With the five-dot version, the healer can extend this power to others. Thus, a patient heals all injuries in 1/2 the normal time or 1/4 the normal time if he has the Quick Healer Merit. Using either version of this power requires a player to roll Stamina + Resolve. If a character attempts to heal someone who resists or who rejects the existence of psychic phenomena, the subject can resist with Composure + Supernatural Advantage as a reflexive action in a contested roll.

The healer can also use her gifts to facilitate recovery from disease, poison or drugs. A psychic with the three dot version of this Merit gains the benefits of having an Improved Immune System (see Biokinesis). With the five-dot version, she confers the benefits of an Improved Immune System to another.

A point of Willpower must be spent for a psychic to activate either version of this power. The duration is [the psychic’s Biokinesis dots x 12] hours per application. Using this power on another requires the healer to touch the patient. Although healing someone fully with Psychic Healing may require multiple applications of this power, even one application is considered providing medical attention and thus prevents a dying patient from expiring while the Merit’s effects last. Repeated applications of this power might be necessary to recover from serious diseases, but one application is usually enough to cure someone subjected to drugs or poison. This power does not heal or cure supernatural diseases, drug addictions or other otherworldly effects.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Stamina + Resolve (versus Composure + Supernatural Advantage if the subject resists healing)
Action: Instant (willing) or contested (unwilling)


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic suffers one point of lethal damage due to painful feedback. Alternately, the subject of the attempt might take additional damage or simply develop a strong antipathy toward the healer.

Failure:
The psychic fails to heal the subject.

Success:
The subject’s healing rate is doubled for [the psychic’s Biokinesis rating x 12] hours. If Psychic Healing is used to cure poison, drugs or illness, either the character or the subject gains the benefits of an Improved Immunity System for [the psychic’s Biokinesis dots x 12] hours.

Exceptional Success:
The psychic’s Biokinesis is treated as if one dot higher for purposes of determining the duration of the healing.


Option [Empathic Healing]: The psychic cannot cure the effects of poison, drugs or illness on others, although he can still cure them within himself. When healing another of physical injuries, the psychic feels the pain suffered by his patient. When the power is activated, the psychic suffers one point of “phantom” bashing damage for every point of bashing damage the patient currently has. Phantom bashing damage heals at a rate of one point per turn. Each point of lethal damage the patient has inflicts one point of bashing damage on the psychic, which heals at the normal rate. Each point of aggravated damage to be healed inflicts one point of lethal damage on the psychic, which heals at the normal rate. This damage is inflicted on the healer every time he initiates a healing attempt on anyone other than himself. On the positive side, a healer with this option gains a +2 bonus on all healing attempts, and his Biokinesis is considered to be one dot higher for purposes of determining the duration of the improved healing rate.

Option [Faith Healer]: The psychic’s healing powers are irrevocably tied to her religious faith and she considers her healing powers to be a gift from God, which unbelievers are unworthy to experience. Any attempt to cure or heal someone whom the psychic considers to be immoral or who clearly does not share the psychic’s faith suffers a –2 penalty. Also, if the psychic fails to maintain a Morality of 7 or higher, she suffers an additional penalty equal to [7 – new Morality] on her healing attempts. Thus, a faith healer whose Morality is reduced to 5 suffers a –2 penalty on all healing rolls. When the healer attempts to cures someone who does share her faith, however, the healer gains a +1 bonus, and she gets a +1 bonus on all healing rolls for each point by which her Morality exceeds 7.

Option [New Age Healing]: The psychic must channel her biokinetic energy through some type of focusing mechanism, most commonly a crystal or perhaps herbal remedies or even magnets. Psychics who adhere to New Age religions typically believe that the actual healing power comes from whatever focus is used, instead of from the psychic. Whether such paraphernalia is actually necessary or merely a crutch cannot truly be determined. Regardless, the healer cannot use her power without entering a trance state while meditating on a crystal or using some other type of New Age trapping. Healers with this option gain a +2 bonus on all healing attempts.

Psychic Illusions
•••••
SS, p.61
causes the target to see something that isn’t there

This power represents a refinement of the Mind Control Merit. Instead of giving hypnotic commands to the target, a telepath causes the subject to see something that isn’t there, or to misapprehend some element of his surroundings. The telepath must be able to see the person to be affected, although clairvoyance can substitute for direct observation. Cameras and videotapes are never affected by a psychic illusion. The illusions created can affect any normal senses that the illusionist possesses. The illusionist cannot create an image capable of deceiving psychic powers, so a clairvoyant remotely viewing the scene is not deceived. Likewise, a psychic cannot create an illusion of something he cannot perceive, such as a deaf character creating an illusion that includes an auditory element.

The default use of this power assumes that only one sense is affected, and each additional sense affected imposes a –1 penalty to the roll. The player’s Manipulation + Persuasion roll is resisted by the Composure + Supernatural Advantage of any observers (roll the highest pool for a mob of onlookers) in a contested action. Theoretically, the illusionist can fool any number of people with a particular illusion, but the maximum number of people who can easily be affected at the same time equals the psychic’s Intelligence + Manipulation. Each additional person imposes a –1 penalty to the activation roll. Thus, the more people who are present, the greater the likelihood that some or all are able to see through the deception.

Normally, an illusion is static and cannot interact with beings. If the illusionist wishes his visions to interact with someone who is deceived by them (such as having a “phantom police officer” direct observers away from a crime scene), the player must roll Wits + Persuasion as an instant action. If this roll fails, onlookers see through the illusion, even if they had been previously fooled. Such follow-up rolls are only required when the illusion must be made to interact with an observer in a fairly direct manner. So, if the interactive police officer fools an observer, a reroll is required only if the observer actively tries to engage the police office somehow (whether through communication or an attack), or if the psychic wishes to have the police officer interact in some new and different way, such as writing a ticket.

Regardless of how convincing an illusion is, it is never solid, although it “feels” solid to a deceived observer if the illusionist incorporates tactile sensations into the creation. An illusory chair is not capable of supporting an observer’s weight, no matter how strongly she believes in it. An illusory wall does not prevent someone from passing through it if she leans against it, although both may feel perfectly solid to the casual touch. So, an illusionary item cannot be used as a weapon; any attack with an illusionary weapon fails.


Cost: 1 Willpower. Also, the character must maintain concentration for the duration of the illusion, meaning that he can take no action other than moving Speed per turn, and he loses his Defense.
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Persuasion versus the target’s Composure + Supernatural Advantage to create illusions (resistance is reflexive). Wits + Persuasion to manipulate existing illusions.
Action: Contested to activate; instant to manipulate


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character triggers psychic feedback, making every potential observer in the vicinity instinctively withdraw or distrust her. Also, the illusionist is unable to use this power again for the remainder of the scene.

Failure:
The psychic fails to create any illusion at all.

Success:
Any affected targets perceive whatever sensory effect the psychic desires.

Exceptional Success:
The illusions created are highly realistic. The psychic no longer needs to maintain concentration, although a Wits + Persuasion roll must still be made to cause the illusion to move or react in any way.

Psychic Invisibility
•••••
SS, p.62
invisible to onlookers

As the name suggests, Psychic Invisibility represents a psychic’s ability to “cloud men’s minds” so that onlookers cannot perceive him. The character is not truly invisible; cameras are not affected by this power and anyone sufficiently perceptive can see through the deception. The psychic cannot disappear from view if he has already been seen, but any witnesses he encounters after the power is activated are typically unable to see him unless he does something to call attention to himself. If the psychic affects any physical object while a potential observer is looking, or he makes any particularly loud sound, the invisibility ends automatically for observers. Also, the character must maintain concentration for the duration of the power’s use. He loses his Defense and can take no actions other than moving up to Speed in a turn.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Stealth versus an observer’s Resolve + Supernatural Advantage (resistance is reflexive). If a mob is affected, make one roll for the group using the highest dice pool of its members.
Action: Contested, and requires concentration


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic is convinced that she is invisible and acts accordingly, even though any onlookers are able to see her.

Failure:
The psychic fails to hide her appearance.

Success:
The psychic activates her psychic invisibility power. If anyone in a group points the character out, all onlookers can see her.

Exceptional Success:
The psychic no longer needs to concentrate to maintain invisibility and can take other actions (although any interaction with her environment may end the effect). If she performs no actions, the effect lasts for the remainder of the scene.

Psychic Resistance
• - •••
SS, p.67
Resistance to invasive telepathic powers

Your character, either through extensive training or natural ability, has an innate resistance to invasive telepathic powers such as Mind Breaker, Mind Control, Mind Reading and Psychic Empathy. This resistance might take the form of performing math problems mentally, quoting nursery rhymes or even praying fervently. With even one dot, the character can tell if a psychic attempts to use a telepathic or other mind-affecting psychic power on him with a successful Wits + Composure roll (made reflexively by the Storyteller). The character’s Psychic Resistance dots are also added to his Resolve or Composure when rolling to contest any psychic powers that affect his mind. Neither powers directed against his body (such as Psychic Vampirism or Telekinetic Grapples) nor psychic powers that affect the mind but that do not allow a contested roll (such as Mental Blast or Psychic Invisibility) are affected by this Merit. The benefits of this Merit do not apply to mind-controlling effects used by vampires, werewolves or mages.

Psychic Vampirism
•••• - •••••
SS, p.49
drain willpower from victim

The inverse of Psychic Healing, Psychic Vampirism allows a psychic to take life as well as restore it, draining orgone energy from victims to replenish one’s own Willpower. There are two versions of this Merit, both of which require physical contact with the victim. (See “Touching an Opponent”) The four-dot version allows a psychic to drain a target of temporary Willpower points. The Willpower is lost. With the five-dot version, the psychic regains one point of Willpower for every two points of Willpower stolen. The psychic cannot gain more Willpower points than he has permanent Willpower dots.

Both versions of this power automatically fail when used against mages, werewolves or vampires. Storytellers should be cautious that players of characters with the five dot version do not rely on it to regain Willpower to the exclusion of their own Morality.


Dice Pool: Wits + Resolve (— the target’s Resolve). The psychic vampire must also successfully touch a victim.
Cost: None
Action: Instant


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic fails to steal any Willpower points and actually loses one Willpower point instead.

Failure:
The psychic’s attempt fails.

Success:
The psychic drains the victim of one temporary Willpower per success.

Exceptional Success:
Additional successes are their own reward.

Psychometry
••• - ••••
SS, p.41
get impression from an object

Psychometry is a subset of clairvoyance that deals with perceiving the history of physical objects. Also known as “object reading,” psychometry permits a psychic to handle an object for several seconds and then undergo a brief vision of important moments in the object’s history. Exactly what the most important moments are is a matter for Storyteller discretion, but, as a general rule, the stronger the emotions connected with the item, the more clearly the psychometrist can see events connected to those feelings. Negative emotions tend to resonate more than positive ones, so the fact that a little girl loved her teddy bear will usually be overshadowed by fact that she was holding it as she watched her mother’s murder.

Psychometry is generally tied to objects, not places, and an object must generally be small enough to fit in both hands. For every point of Size an object has over three, the psychic suffers a –1 penalty in addition to the penalties listed below. With the four-dot version of this Merit, location and size limitations do not apply. The psychometrist can perceive the history of any object he can touch, or he can simply walk into a location and “see” the most emotionally charged moments in the recent history of the place.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wits + Composure
Action: Instant


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic gets a “mixed message” or a very believable but entirely false impression. The Storyteller should always make chance-die rolls on behalf of players whose characters use this power.

Failure:
Failure indicates that no impressions come through.

Success:
Success yields a sense of the most emotionally charged event or person connected with the object read, as well as a reliable vision or sense of the memory in question. Only one successful reading of an object is allowed every 24 hours in order to see more events.

Exceptional Success:
An exceptional success provides a comprehensive or extended chronological understanding of an object and its past, such as an entire slideshow of images.

Suggested Modifiers

Modifier Situation
+1 The character has drawn a psychic impression from the object before.
Recent and intense (a murder weapon used a few hours ago)
-1 Recent but mild, or old and intense (a dusty family heirloom in a chest)
-2 Emotionally shallow or long forgotten (a leisure suit found at a secondhand clothing store)
-3 Disconnected or spiritually muted (a set of keys found several weeks ago)
-3 Object read during a fight or other stressful circumstance
Pyrokinesis
•••••
SS, p.50
ignite or snuff a flame

Pyrokinesis represents the ability to cause objects to spontaneously combust. Psychics with this power are usually referred to as pyrokinetics. Pyrokinesis is separate and distinct from Thermokinesis (see below), the latter of which permits a psychokinetic to actually manipulate ambient temperature. Pyrokinesis does not directly produce heat. Instead, this power triggers a chemical reaction that causes a given material to burn. A fire triggered by this power continues to burn until its fuel has been exhausted or until the fire is put out normally. A pyrokinetic can also extinguish an existing flame (whether or not she started it), but stopping a fire may be more difficult than starting one, as a fire may quickly spread to encompass a bigger area than where it was ignited. Once a fire is set, it follows all normal rules for fire damage.

A character with Pyrokinesis must overcome three difficulties in starting a fire: the size of the fire to be set, the desired heat level of the flame and the relative flammability of the material to be ignited. The modifiers applied to an attack roll for each of these criteria are listed below.

Modifier Size*
0 A candle wick or match. About a three-inch radius.
-1 A torch. About a six-inch radius (+1 lethal damage).
-2 A small campfire. About a one-foot radius or a Size 1 object.
-3 A large campfire. About a two-foot radius or a Size 2 object.
-4 Roughly the size of a man. About a four-foot radius or a Size 5 object.
-5 A bonfire. About an eight-foot radius or a Size 10 object (+2 lethal damage).

* A pyrokinetic cannot create a fire larger than a bonfire with a single application of this power.

Modifier Intensity*
0 Candle heat sufficient to cause a first degree burn.
-1 Torch heat sufficient to cause a second degree burn (+1 lethal damage).
-2 Bunsen burner heat sufficient to cause a third degree burn (+2 lethal damage).

* Thermokinesis is required to create temperatures hotter than a Bunsen burner, such as a chemical fire or molten metal.

Modifier Fuel*
+2 A flammable gas (butane, hydrogen, pure oxygen)
+1 A flammable liquid (gasoline, kerosene)
0 An easily flammable solid (match heads, oily rags, wax, fireworks)
-1 Dry and lightweight flammable materials (paper, dry leaves, cotton)
-2 Wood, cardboard, most clothing, vampires
-3 Wet wood or clothing, hair
-4 Plastic, fire retardant cloth, human flesh

* Igniting anything more flame resistant than this requires Thermokinesis.

The roll to start a fire involves Wits + Resolve. When the pyrokinetic seeks to ignite a person or some other target capable of movement, the attempt is treated as a ranged attack. Defense does not apply, but the pyrokinetic suffers a –2 penalty when attempting to ignite a moving target. Short range for a pyrokinetic attack is equal to a psychic’s Intelligence + Wits + Pyrokinesis dots in yards. Medium range is twice that distance and imposes a –2 penalty on an attack dice pool. Long range is up to twice medium range and imposes a –4 penalty on an attack dice pool.

The damage inflicted with a successful pyrokinetic attack is equal to one point of lethal damage for each success. This damage pool (minus the benefits of any heat-resistant armor) is inflicted every turn on anyone set ablaze until the fire is put out.

Once a fire is set, it can be put out normally or extinguished instantly with another application of Pyrokinesis. Putting out an existing fire requires an extended Stamina + Resolve roll with the number of successes required equal to the Size of the blaze +1, with each roll taking one turn’s action.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Wits + Resolve to start a fire. Stamina + Resolve to snuff one out.
Action: Instant to start a fire. Extended to snuff out a fire, with each roll representing one turn.


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic suffers one point of lethal damage due to painful psychic feedback. Alternately, the psychic might produce a flame of the desired intensity but not where he wants it to combust. A pyrokinetic attempting to snuff a flame might make it larger instead.

Failure:
The attempt to start or extinguish a fire is unsuccessful.

Success:
The pyrokinetic ignites his target. If attempting to snuff out a flame, the pyrokinetic accumulates a number of successes equal to the Size of the fire +1.

Exceptional Success:
Additional successes are their own reward.


Option [Emotional Pyrokinesis]: Whenever a pyrokinetic is in the grip of strong emotion, the Storyteller may direct the player to roll Resolve + Composure with a dice penalty equal to the intensity of the emotion as described by the Emotional Response table below. If the roll is unsuccessful, the pyrokinetic’s powers function randomly, igniting small, nearby flammable objects. A dramatic failure means that this pyrokinetic activity might flare up at random intervals over the next several days whenever the pyrokinetic is agitated. Such wild phenomena do not require the expenditure of a Willpower point. A pyrokinetic with this option gains a +2 bonus on all deliberate uses of this power.

Modifier Emotional response
0 No discernable signs of the emotional state.
-1 Noticeable signs of the emotional state.
-2 Obvious signs of the emotional state. A Resolve + Composure roll for the subject must succeed to avoid acting on the emotion in minor ways (snide comments toward someone he dislikes, flirting with the person for whom he now feels sexual attraction) every time he has an opportunity to do so.
-3 Unambiguous signs of the emotional state. As with the previous entry, except that the target must get at least as many successes on the Resolve + Composure as the empath does on the Psychic Empathy roll to avoid acting out on the emotion in a very obvious way (picking a fight with a person he now hates, acting in a subservient manner toward a person he now loves).
-4 Overwhelming signs of the emotional state. The emotional state approaches or even exceeds the level of a derangement (homicidal rage, suicidal depression, obsessive stalking). A Willpower point must be spent for the subject to even attempt a Resolve + Composure roll to contest the emotional compulsion, and he must still get as many successes as the empath does on the activation roll. The target seeks out opportunities to act on the emotion in obvious ways, and any attempt to conceal his state is automatically reduced to a chance die.
Pyrokinetic Immunity
•• - ••••
SS, p.52
protection from mundane fire

Your pyrokinetic is highly resistant if not completely immune to fire.

With the two-dot version, make a reflexive Stamina + Resolve roll when your character is exposed to mundane fire, with each success providing one point of armor that protects against only fire damage.

With the four-dot version, you need only spend one Willpower point to render your character totally immune to fire damage. If any Doubting Thomas is present when the four-dot version of this Trait is invoked, a successful Stamina + Resolve roll subject to normal penalties is required for unilateral protection to activate.

The effects of either version last for one scene, although clothes and possessions are not protected. No protection is provided against supernaturally induced fires or flames.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Stamina + Resolve for the two-dot version. None for the four-dot version, unless a Doubting Thomas is present.
Action: Reflexive


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic is not protected from the flames, and fire damage is increased by one.

Failure:
The psychic is not protected from the flames, but she can try again in the next turn as a subsequent attempt.

Success:
Each success provides one dot of armor with the two-dot version. With the four-dot version, total immunity is conferred despite the presence of a Doubting Thomas.

Exceptional Success:
With the two-dot version, additional successes are their own reward. With the four-dot version, any Doubting Thomases present are treated as ordinary people for the duration of the scene and do not inflict any further dice penalties on the psychic during that time.

Pyrokinetic Shaping
•••••
SS, p.52
Manipulate fire

A pyrokinetic can manipulate how an existing fire (whether natural or created by psychic powers) grows. By pointing toward an existing flame and gesturing in the direction of a gas main, a psychic might cause a jet of flame to spread across the ground in a straight line, as if there were a trail of gasoline to burn. The pyrokinetic cannot truly shoot fireballs, as a fire must still have a fuel source and must generally spread along a surface of some kind. Within those limitations, the psychic can manipulate a fire as she wishes, using this power to “sculpt” the flames according to her desire.

Shaping a fire requires concentration, so a pyrokinetic loses her Defense and can take no action other than movement up to Speed per turn. If the pyrokinetic’s concentration is broken, she loses control of the flames. An additional Willpower point must be spent and a new activation roll made to regain control. If a pyrokinetic attempts to direct a flame toward a target capable of movement, the attack is treated as a normal ranged attack, with Wits + Crafts rolled to make the attack. Short range for this action equals your character’s Dexterity + Composure in yards, with medium range double that distance (and at a –2 penalty) and long range double medium range(and at a –4 penalty). Although the fire moves quickly, it is still slow enough to be evaded, so the target’s Defense applies. Each success on an attack roll inflicts one point of lethal damage.


Cost: 1 Willpower to activate this power for a scene or until all nearby fires have been extinguished, whichever comes first.
Dice Pool: Wits + Crafts to shape flames. Wits + Crafts (— target’s Defense) to attack with a flame.
Action: Instant


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic suffers one point of lethal damage due to painful psychic feedback. Alternately, the psychic might send the flames to a different location than intended.

Failure:
The attempt to shape the fire is unsuccessful.

Success:
The pyrokinetic manipulates the fire to his desires, determining the direction in which it spreads and perhaps even shaping it into simple forms. If used as an attack, the flames inflict one point of lethal damage per success.

Exceptional Success:
In addition to damage inflicted, the target is set ablaze and continues to take lethal damage per turn until the fire is extinguished.

Dice Modifiers

Modifier Situation
+1 The pyrokinetic created the flames with his Pyrokinesis Merit, and they are now manipulated.
0 The flames being manipulated are natural fire.
-1 The flames being manipulated were created by another pyrokinetic.
-3 The intended manipulation is something wholly unnatural to fire, such as shaping it into a face or into the form of an animal.
Spirit Channeling
•••
SS, p.43
gain temporary skills points and access to memories

Channeling represents a psychic’s capacity to paranormally gain abilities that he does not normally possess. Spirit Channeling allows a ghost to possess his body and give him access to its wisdom. The psychic must successfully enter a trance before he can channel effectively to gain new Traits. Skills gained last until the psychic next sleeps or until he attempts to channel again.

A medium uses his powers to commune with the dead to summon a ghost capable of providing the capabilities that he needs. After entering the necessary trance state, the medium invites a ghost with useful traits into his body. Spirit Channeling is also used by professional mediums to allow ghosts to commune directly with bereaved loved ones. The weakness of Spirit Channeling is that ghosts generally lack the capacity to interact normally with the living. Spirit Channeling can never be used to gain dots in Social Skills.


Cost: 1 Willpower
Dice Pool: Resolve + Occult
Action: Instant; although the psychic must first enter a trance


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The ghost summoned is instinctively hostile toward the psychic or the effect summons a different and more malevolent entity than intended. The hostile spirit can automatically succeed on a roll to possess the psychic (see the World of Darkness Rulebook, p. 212).

Failure:
The medium was unsuccessful.

Success: Each success is converted into one dot of a single Physical or Mental Skill selected by the player. The number of successes must exceed the character’s current Skill dots, if any, in order for him to gain any benefit from the power. The new rating lasts until the psychic next sleeps or until he next uses this power.

Exceptional Success:
In addition to the normal benefit of extra successes, the psychic can access the personal memories of the ghost who shares the psychic’s body. If the successes exceed five, any more can be assigned to another single Physical or Mental Skill of the character’s choosing.

Telekinesis
• - •••••
A telekinetic can possess but cannot use more dots in this Merit at one time than he has Resolve.
SS, p.52
lift and move item by mind alone

The power to move physical objects by mind alone. The psychic can lift objects, assuming they are light enough for his Telekinesis to handle. He can also throw objects that he is capable of lifting at a target. At high dots, a telekinetic can immobilize someone with a telekinetic grapple or even strike someone with a telekinetic blow.


Lifting an Object
The simplest use of Telekinesis is to lift objects. The player must first spend a Willpower point to activate the power. Each dot gives a character one dot of Strength that can be applied to move any physical object within the telekinetic’s direct line of sight, pursuant to the lifting/moving objects chart.

When attempting to lift something, consult the chart and compare the psychic’s Telekinesis dots to the item. If the telekinetic’s dots exceed the Strength required to lift the object, he can move it freely. If his Merit dots equal the Strength required, he can slide the object across the floor at about a yard per turn. If the telekinetic seeks to lift something even bigger, roll Resolve + Composure reflexively, with each success adding to the telekinetic’s Merit dots for the action.

Telekinesis is both physically and mentally taxing; a character can hold up an object for a number of turns equal to the lesser of his Stamina or Resolve. After that, he must either drop the object or another Willpower point must be spent to retain control. A telekinetic can lift objects smaller than Size 1, but he must still be able to see the object directly.

Cost: 1 Willpower + 1 additional Willpower after every [lesser of Stamina or Resolve] turns
Dice Pool: No roll is required to lift an object, provided that the psychic’s Telekinesis Merit dots are sufficient to do so. If the object is too big, a Resolve + Composure roll is required.
Action: Reflexive

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The item is dropped and/or the telekinetic suffers one point of bashing damage due to psychic feedback from the effort.

Failure:
The telekinesis attempt is unsuccessful.

Success:
Telekinesis dots increase by one per success.

Exceptional Success:
The telekinetic increases his Merit dots by five or more and gains a +1 bonus on any attempt to manipulate the item, such as throwing it. Also, the telekinetic can continue to manipulate the object for a number of turns equal to the greater of his Stamina or Resolve before needing to set the object down or spend another Willpower.


Throwing an Object
If the telekinetic wishes to hurl an object at a target, he must first lift it. An object can be lifted and thrown as part of the same instant action, provided the character’s total Telekinesis dots exceed those required to lift the item. A non-aerodynamic object (such as a clay pot or tire) can be thrown a distance in yards equal to Wits + Resolve + total Telekinesis dots, minus the object’s Size. This distance is considered short range. Medium range is double that, and long range is twice medium range. So, a character with 4 Wits, 3 Resolve and an unmodified 2 Telekinesis can throw a tire with 2 Size a short distance of 7 yards, a medium range of 14 yards and a long range of 28 yards. Aerodynamic objects can be thrown double those distances, but an object whose Size exceeds the psychic’s modified Telekinesis dots cannot be thrown no matter how aerodynamic it is.

Hitting a target requires you to roll Wits + Resolve, –2 for medium range and –4 for long range. The Damage of the object thrown (usually the lesser of its Size or Durability) is added to the dice pool, and the target’s Defense applies. A character can hurl an object up to twice long range, but is automatically reduced to a chance die.

Cost: None, although 1 Willpower is required to lift the object
Dice Pool: Wits + Resolve + Damage bonus of thrown object (– target’s Defense)
Action: Instant

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character loses control of the item. If it is large or heavy (Size 4+), he loses his telekinetic grip and drops it, possibly hurting himself or others. Smaller objects land wildly off the mark.

Failure:
The telekinetic attack misses its target.

Success:
The telekinetic hits his target, inflicting one point of damage per success.

Exceptional Success:
The telekinetic hits his target with great accuracy and force.

Suggested Equipment: See the Damage ratings of possible thrown objects on p. 150 of the World of Darkness Rulebook.


Grappling a Target (Telekinesis •••+)
Seizing a human-sized or larger target and attempting to hold him steady requires at least three Telekinesis dots. The player rolls Stamina + Resolve, minus the target’s Strength. If the roll is successful, the target is not only grappled, but he is automatically immobilized. If the target has any psychic or supernatural powers that can be brought to bear against the telekinetic, such powers suffer no penalty due to immobilization. As usual, an additional Willpower point must be spent after every [lesser of Stamina or Resolve] turns in order to keep a target immobilized, and no other actions are allowed except moving up to Speed in that time. A victim of this effect is allowed no Defense against attacks from others. A victim can try to break free each turn as a contested action. Strength + Resolve is rolled in an instant action, with the telekinetic’s Merit dots subtracted from the victim’s dice pool. In order to escape, a number of successes must be rolled for the victim in excess of those rolled for the telekinetic when the hold was achieved.

Cost: None, although one Willpower must be spent to initially activate the power
Action: Instant
Dice Pool: Stamina + Resolve (– the target’s Strength)

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The grappling attempt is unsuccessful, and the telekinetic suffers one point of bashing damage due to psychic feedback from the failed effort.

Failure:
The telekinesis attempt is unsuccessful.

Success:
The telekinetic successfully grapples the target, pinning her or lifting her off the ground. The telekinetic can keep the target immobilized for a number of turns equal to the lesser of his Stamina or Resolve, unless the subject escapes earlier. Spending Willpower extends the period in which a victim may be held.

Exceptional Success:
The telekinetic can restrain his target for a number of turns equal to the greater of his Stamina or Resolve.


Telekinetic Blow (Telekinesis •••••)
A psychic with five dots of Telekinesis can strike a target with a blast of pure kinetic force. Treat the blow as a ranged attack to which Defense does not apply. The blow inflicts bashing damage, and armor protects the target as normal. Short range equals Wits + Resolve + Telekinesis dots in yards. Medium range is double that, and long range is double medium range. Hitting a target requires you to roll Wits + Resolve, –2 for medium range and –4 for long range. A character can strike up to twice long range, but the player is automatically reduced to a chance die.

Cost: 1 Willpower per attack
Dice Pool: Wits + Resolve
Action: Instant

Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The attack is unsuccessful and the telekinetic suffers one point of bashing damage due to psychic feedback from the failed effort. Alternately, the telekinetic might inadvertently hit someone or something other than his intended target.

Failure:
The telekinesis attack is unsuccessful.

Success:
The telekinetic strikes his target with a blast of pure kinetic force, inflicting one point of bashing damage per success.

Exceptional Success:
In addition to bashing damage inflicted, the target must also roll to avoid knockdown.


Option [Emotional Telekinesis]: Whenever the telekinetic is in the grip of strong emotion, Resolve + Composure is rolled with a dice penalty equal to the level of the emotion as described by the Emotional Response table below. If the roll is unsuccessful, the telekinetic’s powers function randomly, flinging small objects around the room in what onlookers might mistakenly ascribe to the actions of a poltergeist. A dramatic failure means this activity might flare up at random intervals over the next several days. Such “poltergeist activity” does not require the expenditure of a Willpower point. If a telekinetic has this option, he gains +1 on all deliberate uses of telekinesis.

Option [Limited Telekinesis]: The telekinetic can manipulate only certain types of objects. At the Storyteller’s discretion, such limitations might include objects of Size 3 or less, only “soft” objects such as cloth or cardboard and nothing harder, only living material, or only earth. Depending on just how limited this telekinesis is, the Storyteller might permit the dice bonus accompanying the option to be +1, +2 or even +3.

Modifier Emotional response
0 No discernable signs of the emotional state.
-1 Noticeable signs of the emotional state.
-2 Obvious signs of the emotional state. A Resolve + Composure roll for the subject must succeed to avoid acting on the emotion in minor ways (snide comments toward someone he dislikes, flirting with the person for whom he now feels sexual attraction) every time he has an opportunity to do so.
-3 Unambiguous signs of the emotional state. As with the previous entry, except that the target must get at least as many successes on the Resolve + Composure as the empath does on the Psychic Empathy roll to avoid acting out on the emotion in a very obvious way (picking a fight with a person he now hates, acting in a subservient manner toward a person he now loves).
-4 Overwhelming signs of the emotional state. The emotional state approaches or even exceeds the level of a derangement (homicidal rage, suicidal depression, obsessive stalking). A Willpower point must be spent for the subject to even attempt a Resolve + Composure roll to contest the emotional compulsion, and he must still get as many successes as the empath does on the activation roll. The target seeks out opportunities to act on the emotion in obvious ways, and any attempt to conceal his state is automatically reduced to a chance die.
Telepathic Communication
••••
SS, p.63
initiate psychic communication

Having mastered both Mind Reading and Thought Projection, the telepath can now initiate two-way telepathic communication with another person. The contact must be within line of sight unless the psychic has a Telepathic Rapport with the other party. This power fails automatically if the other party does not wish to communicate. The psychic cannot perceive any thoughts other than those a subject wishes to send, unless the psychic also uses Mind Reading, even if the other party is willing. Each use of the Merit lasts no longer than one scene, even if both sides remain within sight of each other.


Cost: 1 Willpower to allow communication for the rest of the scene
Dice Pool: Presence + Empathy
Action: Instant


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character triggers psychic feedback in the subject, making her instinctively withdraw or distrust him. Also, the character might transmit his thoughts to a different party than he intends, or even send thoughts that he did not intend.

Failure:
The character fails to initiate communication, but can try again.

Success:
The character successfully initiates psychic communication with his target. He can freely send thoughts to the other party, and he can freely hear whatever thought messages the other party wishes to send back.

Exceptional Success:
The character gains a +2 bonus on any subsequent use of a telepathic Merit in regard to the other party for the remainder of the scene.


Dice Modifier Psychic Connection
The target of the telepathic communication is within line of sight. No connection is necessary.
-1 Intimate. The target is a longtime friend or close family member.
-3 Known. The target is a friend or co-worker about whom a great deal is known.
-5 Acquainted. The telepath has met the target several times. This is the weakest level of connection that allows long-range telepathic communication.
Telepathic Rapport
•• - •••
SS, p.63
permanent telepathic connection with the mind of another person

The telepath can establish a permanent telepathic connection with the mind of another person, allowing the character to form a psychic link with the subject from anywhere in the world with the expenditure of a Willpower dot. This Merit can be taken multiple times to reflect having more than one rapport, up to a maximum number at one time equal to the psychic’s Intelligence. If the other party to a rapport dies, the dot spent is lost. The other party may never sever the rapport once it’s formed, but the telepath may voluntarily end it, still losing the Willpower dot spent. Only the character who possesses this Merit can freely initiate telepathic communication, and the other party must develop this Merit himself in order to initiate a link on his own, assuming he is even someone capable of doing so. A telepathic rapport cannot be forged with an unwilling target, or with someone the psychic doesn’t know closely.

Any telepath who meets the prerequisites can forge a new rapport, but the telepath must successfully use Mind Reading and Thought Projection on the other party and spend a permanent Willpower dot. Once the link is achieved, the telepath can activate the rapport without a roll. Also, if anyone with whom a telepath has a rapport experiences intense emotion, such as being in great danger, the telepath may be able to sense the emotion at any distance with a reflexive Wits + Empathy roll. This roll should be made by the Storyteller.

This Merit allows a character to forge a new rapport whenever she wishes, and a significant number of other Merits are required as prerequisites. At the Storyteller’s discretion, a character can develop a single Telepathic Rapport as a two-dot Merit at character creation, without possessing the prerequisite Merits or indeed any other psychic Merits. This rapport must be with some other person close to the character, such as a parent or twin sibling, and represents a paranormal bond not dependent on the character’s facility with telepathy. The character is not able to create any new rapports unless she acquires the full, three-dot Telepathic Rapport Merit and all its prerequisites.

Regaining Willpower dots lost from broken rapports costs eight experience points each.


Cost: 1 Willpower point per scene to activate communication with a single subject
Dice Pool: None to activate, as once the rapport is purchased, it can be turned on and off at will. Wits + Empathy (rolled by the Storyteller) to know when the other party is in danger or undergoes intense emotion.
Action: Reflexive


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The telepath grossly misinterprets the emotions experienced by the other party.

Failure:
The telepath fails to sense the other party’s emotional state.

Success:
The telepath intuitively knows that the other party is experiencing pain, fear or some other intense emotion.

Exceptional Success:
The telepath gains limited insight into exactly what situation the other party faces, even if the subject is unable to communicate such information directly. For example, instead of simply knowing that the other experiences fear, the telepath knows he is afraid of a pack of guard dogs that pursues him. If the subject experiences pain, the telepath realizes he has just been stabbed. Also, the telepath has an intuitive idea of where the other party is.



Dice Modifier Psychic Connection
The target of the telepathic communication is within line of sight. No connection is necessary.
-1 Intimate. The target is a longtime friend or close family member.
-3 Known. The target is a friend or co-worker about whom a great deal is known.
-5 Acquainted. The telepath has met the target several times. This is the weakest level of connection that allows long-range telepathic communication.
Thermokinesis
• - •••••
A character’s dots in this Merit cannot exceed the lesser of her Resolve or Stamina.
SS, p.54
power to increase temperature

Thermokinesis permits a psychic to increase ambient temperature. The player must first spend one point of Willpower to activate the power and then roll Intelligence + Resolve. The effectiveness of the thermokinetic’s power is based on her dots in this Merit, with each success increasing the temperature according to the chart below.

Merit Dots Temperature Ranges
2 degrees per success
•• 5 degrees per success
••• 10 degrees per success
•••• 15 degrees per success
••••• 25 degrees per success

When Thermokinesis is used to attack a moving target, treat the power as a ranged attack. Defense does not apply, and the temperature shift bypasses armor unless it has some type of thermal protection aspect or is a supernatural armor capable of protecting against heat. The attack also ignores cover, since the character can potentially lower temperatures over an area big enough to encompass even someone behind full cover. Thermokinesis affects the temperature of everything within the affected area, so living targets caught in the hot spot suffer an increase in body temperature commensurate with successes rolled.

Short range is equal to a psychic’s Intelligence + Wits + Thermokinesis dots in yards. Medium range is twice that distance, and infl icts a –2 penalty on the psychic’s dice pool. Long range is twice medium range, and infl icts a –4 penalty on the psychic’s dice pool. The Size of the area affected is subtracted from the cryokinetic’s pool. Thus, an attempt to heat a human-sized target suffers a –5 penalty. However, if the psychic can touch the object to be heated, a +2 bonus to the roll is gained.

Once the psychic has successfully raised the temperature in a given location, he can do one of three things: (1) maintain the increased temperature as long as he concentrates, (2) release his concentration and let the temperature equalize normally or (3) use his Thermokinesis powers again to raise the temperature even further. Thus, with time and a prodigious amount of Willpower, a thermokinetic can raise ambient temperature to incredibly high levels, although the absolute highest temperature that any thermokinetic can achieve is roughly 2000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Thermokinesis is especially deadly against humans, as a normal mortal caught within the area of effect is physically heated up as if caught in a giant microwave. Normal human body temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit. When Thermokinesis is used, a victim suffers a –1 penalty to Dexterity, Strength and Wits (and consequently, a –1 penalty to Initiative and possibly Defense, and a –2 penalty to Speed) for every five degrees of temperature increase for the duration of the thermokinetic effect. If any of the victim’s Dexterity, Strength or Wits is reduced to zero by a thermokinetic attack, the victim is immobilized due to heat prostration. If a victim’s body temperature is increased by 15 degrees or more, he suffers a point of lethal damage per turn spent subjected to the thermokinetic attack.

At temperatures of 200+, all living things suffer one point of aggravated damage per turn. Most paper and cloth combusts at just over 400 degrees, and wood catches fire and lead begins to melt at around 600 degrees. Surprisingly, vampires and other undead creatures are immune to ambient temperatures below 1500 degrees. However, in most cases, an undead creature’s clothing ignites somewhere between 350 and 500 degrees, infl icting aggravated damage as normal.

Once a psychic ceases to focus her attention on a specific location, the site’s temperature equalizes normally. In the case of extreme temperature changes in excess of a 400-degree difference from the surrounding area, “equalize normally” may mean an explosive reaction, inflicting two dice of bashing damage on everyone within a radius equal to the Size of the area initially affected x5 in yards. The explosion also causes causes knockdown. If the temperature shift is less than 400 degrees, the affected area returns to normal temperature at a rate of 10 degrees per minute.

Thermokinetics also have an improved resistance to environmental temperature extremes. A psychic with this power is automatically immune to natural temperature extremes ranging from zero to 100 degrees, plus an additional temperature range equal to plus or minus [Merit dots x20] degrees. A thermokinetic is immune to high-temperature attacks unless the attacker’s Thermokinesis dots exceed his own.


Cost: 1 Willpower per roll to affect temperature. None to resist temperature.
Dice Pool: Intelligence + Resolve (– Size of the area to be affected) to increase temperature. No roll to resist temperature extremes.
Action: Instant


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The psychic fails to affect ambient temperature and suffers one point of bashing damage as his own internal body temperature goes haywire.

Failure:
The psychic fails to affect the ambient temperature.

Success:
Each success raises the ambient temperature as described above.

Exceptional Success:
Additional successes are their own reward.


Option [Emotional Thermokinesis]: Whenever the thermokinetic is in the grip of strong emotion, Resolve + Composure is rolled with a dice penalty equal to the level of the emotion as described by the Emotional Response table below. If the roll is unsuccessful, the thermokinetic’s powers function uncontrollably, raising ambient temperature in random ways. A dramatic failure means this activity flares up at wild intervals over the next several days whenever the psychic becomes agitated, possibly causing small fires. With powerful Thermokinesis, catastrophic effects may occur. These random phenomena do not require the expenditure of a Willpower point.

Modifier Emotional response
0 No discernable signs of the emotional state.
-1 Noticeable signs of the emotional state.
-2 Obvious signs of the emotional state. A Resolve + Composure roll for the subject must succeed to avoid acting on the emotion in minor ways (snide comments toward someone he dislikes, flirting with the person for whom he now feels sexual attraction) every time he has an opportunity to do so.
-3 Unambiguous signs of the emotional state. As with the previous entry, except that the target must get at least as many successes on the Resolve + Composure as the empath does on the Psychic Empathy roll to avoid acting out on the emotion in a very obvious way (picking a fight with a person he now hates, acting in a subservient manner toward a person he now loves).
-4 Overwhelming signs of the emotional state. The emotional state approaches or even exceeds the level of a derangement (homicidal rage, suicidal depression, obsessive stalking). A Willpower point must be spent for the subject to even attempt a Resolve + Composure roll to contest the emotional compulsion, and he must still get as many successes as the empath does on the activation roll. The target seeks out opportunities to act on the emotion in obvious ways, and any attempt to conceal his state is automatically reduced to a chance die.
Thought Projection
••• - ••••
SS, p.60
transmit thoughts to a target

The telepath can move beyond simple mind reading to actually projecting his thoughts into the mind of another. A telepath cannot usually transmit thoughts beyond his line of sight.

With the four-dot version, however, he can communicate with individuals outside his line of sight at a penalty determined by his degree of psychic connection to a target.

Even with the three-dot version, a telepath can communicate with someone in a distant location if he is able to perceive the subject through clairvoyance.

If the psychic also wishes to read the thoughts of the person to whom he sends, he must also activate his Mind Reading Merit, which normally requires the expenditure of a second Willpower point in a subsequent turn.


Cost: 1 Willpower to allow thought transmission to a single subject for the rest of the scene. If thoughts are to be sent to someone else in that time, the first connection must be broken. The new connection costs another Willpower point. If the fi rst connection is to be re-established, yet another Willpower must be spent.
Dice Pool: Presence + Empathy [versus Resolve + Supernatural Advantage if the subject is unwilling (resistance is reflexive)]
Action: Instant if the subject is willing; resisted is he’s unwilling


Roll Results
Dramatic Failure:
The character triggers psychic feedback in the subject, making her instinctively withdraw or distrust him. Also, the character might transmit his thoughts to a different party than he intended, or even send thoughts that he did not intend to send.

Failure:
The character fails to transmit his thoughts, but can try again.

Success:
The character successfully transmits his thoughts to his target. He can continue to send thoughts for the rest of the scene.

Exceptional Success:
The character gains a +2 bonus on any subsequent use of a telepathic Merit against the other party for the remainder of the scene.


Dice Modifier Psychic Connection
The target of the telepathic communication is within line of sight. No connection is necessary.
-1 Intimate. The target is a longtime friend or close family member.
-3 Known. The target is a friend or co-worker about whom a great deal is known.
-5 Acquainted. The telepath has met the target several times. This is the weakest level of connection that allows long-range telepathic communication.