A little thing I started playing with, influenced by a conversation on the FB group page. Gimmicks are meant to be psionic abilities comparable to magical cantrips.
Psionic Gimmicks
Psionic Gimmicks are, generally, a set of simple tricks of mind over matter practiced by beginner psions while developing their abilities. Limited in use but with many practical applications, Gimmicks can be employed by any character with at least 1 rank in a related psionic skill.
Characters without a PSI score have limitations on the use of Gimmicks; they may only use Gimmicks a number of times per day equal to their WIL score (a small change for those that saw the original post on FB.) Characters with at least 1 rank in PSI don't suffer that limitation. They build a pool of Psionic Power Points per the rules in N.E.W. and pay 1 PP for each use of a Gimmick.
Sample Gimmicks:
Psionic Gimmicks
Psionic Gimmicks are, generally, a set of simple tricks of mind over matter practiced by beginner psions while developing their abilities. Limited in use but with many practical applications, Gimmicks can be employed by any character with at least 1 rank in a related psionic skill.
Characters without a PSI score have limitations on the use of Gimmicks; they may only use Gimmicks a number of times per day equal to their WIL score (a small change for those that saw the original post on FB.) Characters with at least 1 rank in PSI don't suffer that limitation. They build a pool of Psionic Power Points per the rules in N.E.W. and pay 1 PP for each use of a Gimmick.
Sample Gimmicks:
- Aura Reading. The psion can sense the disposition of people they meet (malicious, impersonal, apathetic, agreeable, charitable.)
- Thermokinesis. The psion can raise or lower the ambient temperature in a room to a comfortable range (approximately 70 °F (21 °C).)
- Convey. The psion can telekinetically move objects of less than 15 pounds within a 30' distance. Convey can't do damage directly but it can be used to make disarm or trip attempts with PSI attribute check versus VITAL DEFENSE.
- Stasis. The psion has the ability to slow the body's natural processes - metabolism, heart beat, breath, brain functions - to nearly non-existence for a number of hours equal to END score. This feigned death can fool the common layperson but skilled physicians will likely see past the ruse (Challenging [13] medicine.)