Arcane Background: Syker (Noir)

Sykers

Most of the world’s governments have started psychic training programs. They are in their infancy throughout the early period of Noir and are kept extremely secretive through the end of the century. Trainees are highly regulated, watched, and controlled. There are also a few individuals who have quietly developed talents on their own, but they are hunted by their governments’ covert forces (the Agency in the USA and the Rangers in the CSA) to study and control their abilities. You may choose whether your character was trained or is a gifted amateur—see Wanted, below.

Arcane Background (Syker)

Requirements: Wild Card, Novice, Psionics d4+, Smarts d8+

Arcane Skill: Psionics (Smarts)

Power Points: 10

Starting Powers: 2

Backlash: When a syker rolls a 1 on his Psionics die, he suffers brainburn that causes 2d6 damage. If he’s a trained syker, he adds half the Power Points he was trying to spend (round up) to the damage. If he’s untrained, he adds the full Power Point cost to the damage. If the ability required 5 Power Points, for example, brainburn would cause 2d6+3 damage to a trained syker and 2d6+5 to an untrained one.

Available Powers: Armor, barrier, beast friend, blind, boost/lower Trait, confusion, deflection, detect/conceal arcana, disguise, drain Power Points, farsight, fear, havoc, healing (self only), invisibility, mind reading (Requires Heroic Rank in the Noir period), puppet, quickness, slow, slumber, speak language, speed, stun, succor, telekinesis.

Special Rules

• Baldness: The mental release of their energy causes all sykers to go bald, however, be they men or women.

• Psionics: Sykers may use Edges that require Arcane Background (Psionics).

• Wanted: Decide when you create your syker if she was trained by authories or a wild talent. If she was trained, she’s technically a deserter in the country that trained her, and considered a spy in those that didn’t. She has the Wanted (Major) Hindrance. If the character is a wild talent, the Agency and Rangers want to recruit or use her, and she has the Wanted (Minor) Hindrance. Either way, the Hindrance is in addition to all others and provides no character creation points to spend.

Trappings

Sykers manipulate invisible psychokinetic energy so there are no visible Trappings to their powers.