Psykers being psykic

I have been hard at work this week adjusting the Dark Heresy Careers to my new idea of how to structure the port. Mostly it has given met yet another new idea for how to structure the port that I will eventually have to adjust the entire rule set to, but… let’s leave that for the future, I think.

Anyway, the part I’m most proud of is the modified rules for psychic powers. As with most things DH, I keep struggling to keep it simple and elegant, but end up having to settle for making it simpler than the original rules (which is, let’s be honest, not a very high bar to clear). In this case, I had to give psychic powers a slightly different structure than most special moves, by incorporating the Fettered/Unfettered/Push scale from Deathwatch and onward. The goal being to make something that’s relatively straightforward to use but still captures the randomness of Warhammer 40,000 psychic shenanigans.

Thus, I present to you, my new and improved rules! The progression in psychic strength depends on four Talents, like so:

TALENT: PSY RATING 1

When you draw on the power of the Warp and get a result of 10+, you achieve a Minor Success on if you used the power on Unfettered strength and a Basic Success if you used the power on Push strength.

TALENT: PSY RATING 2

When you draw on the power of the Warp and get a result of 10+, you achieve a Minor Success on if you used the power on Fettered Strength, a Basic Success if you use it on Unfettered strength, and a Major Success if you used the power on Push strength.

TALENT: PSY RATING 3

Choose one Psychic Discipline. You may now learn Psychic Powers from it.

TALENT: PSY RATING 4

When you draw on the power of the Warp and get a result of 10+, you achieve a Basic Success on if you used the power on Fettered Strength, a Major Success if you use it on Unfettered strength, and an Absolute Success if you used the power on Push strength.

And all of those refer to the actual move draw on the power of the Warp, which looks like this. Brace yourself now, this gets long:

SPECIAL MOVE: DRAW ON THE POWER OF THE WARP

When you draw on the power of the Warp, decide which strength to use: Fettered, Unfettered, or Push. Then roll +Willpower. 10+, you succeed at a level depending on the strength you used and the Talent that gave you access to the move.

• Minor Success: you activate a Minor Psychic Power that you possess, but you exhaust your will; take -1 ongoing to draw on the power of the Warp until you’ve had a chance to rest and meditate.
• Basic Success: you activate a Minor Psychic Power that you possess.
• Major Success: choose one of:
  • You activate a Psychic Power that you possess.
  • You activate a Minor Psychic Power that you possess, and also hold 1 that can be spent on activating a Minor Psychic Power that you possess at a later time without the need to roll.
• Absolute Success: choose one of:
  • You activate a Psychic Power that you possess, and also hold 1 that can be spent on activating a Psychic Power that you possess at a later time without the need to roll.
  • You activate a Minor Psychic Power that you possess, and also hold 2 that can be spent on activating a Minor Psychic Power that you possess at a later time without the need to roll.

In addition, if both your dice showed the same number, you manifest a Psychic Phenomenon depending on the strength you used and the number rolled.

• Fettered: your disciplined caution keeps most of the energies you wield in check, only allowing them to hint at their undying malice.

1. For a few seconds, voices echo oddly around you, as if you were standing in a vast cavern.
2. A loathsome stench spreads around you.
3. A fine coating of frost grows on every surface in your immediate surroundings.
4. All animals in your immediate surroundings become spooked and restless.
5. All food and drink in your immediate surroundings instantly spoil.
6. All mirrors within your immediate surroundings crack.
7. All plants within your immediate surroundings wither and die.
8. Blood pours from stone and wood around you. Any carven idols or statues appear to be weeping blood.
9. You and everyone within short range of you become short of breath for a few seconds, unable to run or exert themselves until the feeling passes.
10. For a few seconds, utter darkness descends on an area within reach of you.

• Unfettered: you trifled with forces beyond your understanding, and some of their destructive potential slipped your grasp. You still contain the worst of it, but all the same you’ve just demonstrated why psykers are not safe to be around.

1. Everyone currently looking at you are forced to recoil in fear as they see you with a horrifying visage for a split instant. You also gain 1 Corruption Point.
2. All mechanical devices around you temporarily seize to work. All ranged weapons drop to 0 Ammo.
3. Ghostly apparitions appear around you for a few seconds. You and every player within short range of you gain 1 Insanity Point.
4. Everyone within short range of you are knocked off their feet by a sudden earthquake.
5. A piercing wail causes everyone within short range of you to be deafened for a few hours. Anything made of glass shatters.
6. Uncontrollable Warp energies courses through your unprotected mind. You gain 1d5 Insanity Points.
7. You and every player within short range of you gain 1d5l Insanity Points from glimpsing the heart of the Warp.
8. A psychic shockwave emanates from you. Roll to refuse to fall, and everyone within reach of you becomes stunned for a long moment.
9. Everyone within reach of you suffers a momentary rage and must attack whoever is closest to them. Players also each gain 1 Corruption Point.
10. You and everyone within reach of you are flung about as high into the air as a second-story window. Anyone who can’t stop their fall somehow suffers injury as normal when hitting the ground again.

• Push: foolishly, you opened the gates of the Immaterium wide, and what now comes pouring through them is beyond anyone’s control. The cost of your hubris may be steep.

1. You wink out of existence and appear again, without knowledge of the intervening time, about half a minute later.
2. Blood rains from the sky, and for the next short while you can only draw on the power of the Warp with Push strength.
3. You switch bodies with another person near you for a few seconds. You gain 1d10 Insanity Points from the experience, and if the other person is a player, they do as well.
4. Dark energies course through your body. You gain 1d10 Corruption Points and cannot attempt to draw on the power of the Warp again for an hour.
5. The Warp touches everyone around you. You and every player within long range of you must roll to shield yourself with disgust.
6. A Lesser Daemon materialises. It will eventually be forced to return to the Warp, but before then it’s free to work its malice.
7. You become the epicentre for an explosion of psychic energy. You and everyone within reach of you take a hit for 1d10h damage, and all your carried equipment is instantly destroyed, including your clothes.
8. Gravity reverses itself within long range of you, causing everything to fall upward for about half a minute.
9. A daemon possesses you. It offers you your body back in return for you performing a heinous act that will irrevocably doom your soul. If you accept, the daemon remains in the back of your mind for as long as you work towards your sinister goal, ready to take back control permanently if it thinks you show insufficient enthusiasm, only leaving once you have held up your end. If you refuse, or if the daemon declares you in breach of the agreement at a later date, you permanently become a Daemonhost; make a new character.
10. A rift in reality is torn opens and you’re sucked through, never to be seen again. Make a new character.