We had a great weekend, unlocking our second stretch goal!
ACHIEVED! - At $5,000 in Funding - LAIR OF THE RAT KINGS MAP UPGRADE I
Map Upgrade 1 - Red Paw Gang's Burrows. The planned hand-drawn maps to help roughly orient Guides and players will be upgraded to a full detailed and gridded map to aid game play.
We're gonna continue the theme of providing more resources to the team to make Chapter 5 even better than initially planned! It's time for map upgrade #2!
At $6,500 in Funding - LAIR OF THE RAT KINGS MAP UPGRADE II
Map Upgrade 2 - Selected Areas of The Not. Maps for key areas of The Not in Chapter 5 will be added to the book.
As I've said, and thematically appropriate when dealing with the mice of Pugmire, this is a smaller project so any additional resources we can throw at the team to jazz it up even more than planned really have an impact.
But enough about that, let's get to a sneak peek of tomorrow's manuscript section.
Psychic Power Descriptions
Each psychic power is presented in a format designed to provide as much information as possible at a glance. In this section the parts of a psychic power description are broken down, so you know what you are dealing with when you get to your character sheet.
The first thing you’ll note is the psychic power’s name. This is provided as a header to help keep things organized. Beneath the power’s name is the power’s college (see below) and magnitude. Next up, the power has an activation time. This is how long it takes from the moment the psionicist starts using their powers to the moment the effect starts working. Once you get past that time frame, you’ll be dealing with the subject of the next entry: duration. Duration reflects how long a power’s effects persist. After that is a power description including what the power does and any systems associated with the power’s effects, such as damage dice, movement ranges, or conditions the power inflicts or ends.
Some powers require a location to be well known. It is up to the Guide to determine how much time a psionicist must spend in a location to consider it naturally well known.
Psionic Colleges
Rodents divide psychic powers into four distinct schools, or colleges. Scholars believe these colleges were founded in the earliest days after the Old Ones disappeared. The most scholarly among the rodents — some of which eventually formed the Cult of Labo Tor — are believed to have been the ones to codify the powers and the colleges to which they belong. Though the Cult of Labo Tor are a fringe cult that is largely despised by the rest of rodent society, most rodents agree the classifications of powers and colleges make sense.
Powers within the same college behave in a similar fashion and affect the same kinds of people, places, or things. A power’s college is determined by the power’s results and the methods by which the psionicist creates those results. Rodents generally accept four colleges of psionics, though there are always a handful of researchers trying to discover a new college. The colleges are:
Galvanism focuses on generating, rerouting, and manipulating energy.
Humorism focuses on sensing, healing, and harming living things.
Observationalism focuses on the psionicist’s perceptions of the world around them as well as the passage of time. Observationalism also teaches the psionicist methods of interfering with other people’s perceptions, as well as how to perceive and affect psychic and magical energies.
Parapsychology focuses on the mind. Through this college the psionicist can work to attain internal perfection, communicate with others, and even shatter an opponent’s mind.
Analysts study powers from the colleges of observationalism and parapsychology. Psykers focus their studies on the colleges of humorism and galvanism. Not all rodents require the framework of a calling to access Psychic Powers. Psionicists access their powers through the Mentalist Aptitude Trick rather than through a calling may learn powers from any college. The college a power belongs to is listed directly after the magnitude in the power description.
Concentration and Shapes
While many psychic powers persist for a finite duration, some are maintained, requiring the psionicist to concentrate on them. Psionics use the same rules as magic (Realms of Pugmire p. 95) when it comes to maintaining concentration on an effect and the number of shapes a power can take. Concentrating on a psychic power uses the psionicist’s supplemental action.
Modifiers, Difficulties, and Affinities
Upon attaining their first psychic power, a psionicist must assign an affinity attribute. This reflects the attribute connected most closely with their sense of self and their psionic core being. The affinity trait is ultimately up to the player, and once an affinity attribute is selected it may not be changed. At character creation select either Cunning, Intellect or Presence as their affinity attribute. This will be referred to throughout as the character’s affinity modifier.
Attacking a foe directly with psionics is considered a psychic attack. When making a psychic attack roll, the psionicist rolls 1d20 + the psionicist’s affinity modifier + the psionicist’s experience bonus.
Psychic powers that don’t require an attack roll are often resisted by a test. The difficulty for this test is 8 + the psionicist’s affinity modifier + the psionicist’s experience bonus.
Spider Climb
Magnitude 2 galvanism
Activation Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
By manipulating the pull of gravity on a target, you grant them the ability to move like a spider. One willing character you choose within range gains the ability to move across any solid surfaces and upside down along ceilings, using only their feet. The target also gains a climbing speed equal to their walking speed.
Alleviate Gravity
Magnitude 3 galvanism
Activation Time: 1 action
Range: 30 feet
Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
By manipulating the pull of gravity on an individual, you lift them into the air, effectively rendering them Immobile. Choose one character within range who you can see. They immediately gain the Immobile condition as they are lifted 1-2 feet off the ground. If the target has a fly speed, they may move normally; otherwise they hang in the air, unable to move. This makes attacking difficult and defending themselves challenging.
Test (Agility): The target suffers no effects. Affected characters can make an additional test at the end of their turns. On a successful test, the effect ends for them.
Flight
Magnitude 4 galvanism
Activation Time: 1 action
Range: Self
Duration: Concentration, up to 10 minutes
You may telekinetically move yourself through the air. This gives you a flying speed of 60 feet. If you are still airborne when the effect ends, you fall.
Tune in tomorrow for the entire draft version of Chapter 2, which is all about Psionics in the Realms of Pugmire!
