Note: The only dice used in Psi Morphs are ten-sided dice. The abbreviation d10 means one ten-sided die. The abbreviation 2d10 means 2 ten-sided dice.
Note: Whenever opposed checks between a player and a robot or other NPC come up a tie, the player wins the opposed roll.
Making Skill Checks
Making a skill check
The GM sets a difficulty rating for the task you are trying to perform. The GM also decides which skill group is most relevant to the task, and which attribute is most useful for the task. Roll 2d10, add your level of experience, add your number of ranks in the skill group the GM chose, and add half (round up) of your ranks in the whichever attribute the GM chose. If the roll equals or exceeds the difficulty rating of the check, you succeed. If one of the d10s comes up a 10, you not only get 10 points on your skill check, but also get to reroll that die for even more points. You could potentially get many points from a single die if you are lucky enough to keep rolling 10s. If you roll 10s on both d10s, you get 20 points toward the success of the skill check and can reroll both dice for more points. Each master rank you have in a skill group reduces the number needed for a reroll in corresponding skill checks by 1, but the number needed for a reroll goes up by 1 with each consecutive roll in a chain (to a maximum of 10.) So, if you have 2 master ranks in Negotiating, you only need to roll an 8 or higher to get a reroll on a negotiating check, but you need a 9 or higher to get a second reroll on that same check, and a 10 to get a 3rd reroll on the same check. Example: Joe wants to have his character convince the Mayor of a city to have the police carry radios which can be used to contact the HQ of the local Psi Morphs division immediately in an emergency. The GM decides that the difficulty will be 25, the relevant skill group will be Negotiating, and the most useful attribute will be intelligence. Joe's character is level 2, has 4 ranks in Negotiating (one of which is a master rank,) and 6 ranks in intelligence. Joe rolls 2d10. One d10 comes up a 2, the other comes up a 9. So far, Joe's total check result is a 20 (a roll of 11 + level 2 + 4 ranks in negotiating + 1/2 of 6 ranks in intelligence.) However, since Joe has one master rank in Negotiating, he can reroll the die that came up a 9 to get additional points. He rolls again, and gets another result of 9. This isn't enough to get a third reroll since it's the second roll in a chain, but it is enough to bring the result up to 29. Since this is higher than the target number of 25, Joe has succeeded and the Mayor is convinced.
Making an opposed skill check
Both sides make a skill check. Whoever gets the higher result wins the opposed skill check.
Combat
Deciding combat order
First the players go, then the enemies of the players go, then finally NPC allies of the players go. An exception occurs if at least one enemy has the Lightning Quickness ability, in which case the players do not get to act during the first round of combat, except for players who have the Lightning Reflexes combat discipline.
Making an attack roll
The attacker makes a combat skill check using dexterity as the relevant attribute. The person being attacked opposes the attack's combat skill check with a combat skill check using agility as the relevant attribute. If the attacker wins the opposed roll, the defender takes damage equal to the attacker's strength plus 5. Thus, if the attacker has a strength of 4, the defender would take 9 damage. Subtract the damage taken from the defender's hp. If a character's hp reaches 0 or less, he/she is knocked unconscious until his/her hp is healed back to a positive number. If a character's hp becomes lower than his/her maximum hp multiplied by -1, he/she dies. For example, if a character has 20 hp, he/she falls unconscious if his/her hp drops to 0 or less, and dies if his/her hp drops below -20. If a character with hp of 0 or less who is still alive regains enough hp to raise his/her hp back above 0, he/she regains consciousness but can not take any actions during that round or the following round. If the attacker's combat skill check result is at least twice as high as the defender's combat skill check result, a critical hit is scored and the attacker does double damage. A player being attacked may choose to oppose the attacker's Combat skill check with a Misc Physical check instead of a Combat skill check. The relevant attribute is agility.
At times, a player might want to aim an attack at a very specific target, such as the weak spot of a structure. This is known as a called attack. There also might be times when a player needs to aim carefully to avoid hitting something, such as an innocent bystander. This is called a careful attack. When a player makes a called attack or a careful attack, The GM should assign the attack a penalty based on the circumstances.
The person using the psionic force must have enough PA FP avaialble to use the force if it is a Psi Atom force, or enough PE FP available if it is a Psi Energy force. The user makes either a Psi Atom skill check (if using a psi atom force) or a Psi Energy skill check (if using a Psi Energy force.) The relevant attribute is either intelligence or willpower (whichever is higher.) If the result of the check is equal to or greater than the difficulty of that force, then the force succeeds. Whether the force succeeds or not, the appropriate number of PA FPs or PE FPs are subtracted from the user's total. Whenever a psionic force is used, that character can not use that same psionic force again until he/she goes 3 consecutive rounds without using any psionic forces. Thus, if a character uses Energy Blast I, then uses Healing Surge I on the following round, then uses Energy Blast II on the round after that, he/she can not use any of those forces again until after not using any psionic forces for 3 consecutive rounds (the character can still attack or do other things during those 3 rounds.) Once the character has gone 3 consecutive rounds without using a psionic force, all 3 of those forces immediately become available to him/her again.
Using a psionic force on an unwilling target
Works like using a psionic force on a willing target, except that if the user succeeds on the check to use the force, then the target can make an opposed skill check of the same type (either Psi Energy or Psi Atom) to resist. The relevant attribute for the resistance roll can be resilience, intelligence, or willpower, whichever is highest. If the defender wins the opposed check, then he/she is unaffected by that use of the psionic force. A player being targeted by a hostile psionic force can choose to oppose the foe's Psi Atom or Psi Energy skill check with a Misc Mental check instead of a Psi Atom (or Psi Energy) skill check. The relevant atttribute is either intelligence or willpower (whichever is higher.)
Maintaining a psionic force
If a psionic force is maintainable, then it's effects only last as long as it is maintained (except for damage dealt, hp restored, poison cured, disease cured, and FP gained or lost.) A psi morph can maintain a psionic force effortlessly, but there is a limit on how many forces he/she can maintain at once. To get the limit on the number of psi atom forces that can be maintained at once, add the character's intelligence, willpower, and ranks in the Psi Atom skill group, the divide the result by 5 (round up.) Thus, a psi morph with an intelligence of 6, a willpower of 2, and 3 ranks in the Psi Atom skill group can maintain 3 psi atom forces at once. To get the maximum number of psi energy forces a character can maintain at once, add the character's intelligence, willpower and ranks in the Psi Energy skill group, then divide the result by 5 (round up.) If a psionic force has been maintained on a character for 10 or more rounds already, then that character can choose to break free of that psionic force. A character can not gain more than one bonus of the same type from two different psionic forces. If multiple bonuses of the same type are being provided by psionic forces, only the best one applies. For example, if two different characters are each both maintaining a psionic force on the same character, and both forces provide a bonus to strength, only the higher strength bonus applies. The lower one is ignored.
If a character goes to sleep or is rendered unconscious in any way, all psionic forces he/she is maintaining instantly end.
Note: If you use a psionic force, you may not make a normal attack or use a negotiating trick during that same round. However, you may use a combat style during the same round.
Whenever you may a skill check, you may choose to gain a bonus using the corresponding type of ISPs. Each ISP you spend gives you a +1 bonus on the check. Every full 5 points you spend in this way also reduces the number needed for a reroll by one, as though you had an extra master rank. So, if you make an attack roll and spend 5 of your Combat ISPs, you get a +5 bonus on the attack and the number you need for a reroll is reduced by 1. You can also redo a skill check by spending 3 ISPs of the appropriate type. General ISPs can be used to improve or redo any type of skill check.
