Hamster Special Skills and Psi

• Telepathic Link:
  • By meditating, a hamster may easily contact another hamster for voice communications. A PSI roll may be required by the GM if distractions are taking place while the hamster is attempting to establish communications. There are no distance limits.
• Access Hamstuur net:
  • Hamstuur net is the noetic reality comprised of otherdimensional fungus and hamster intellect. By meditating, a hamster may contact this reality and depart his/her physical form temporarily. The body is defenseless during this time, and if slain, the hamster may not return. All hamsters enter Hamstuur net upon death. The old dead often appear as mummies or skeletons as they begin to forget what their physical forms looked like. The extremely ancient appear as clouds or objects as they are no longer tied to a single body image. These beings are referred to as liches. Liches command the respect of all hamsters for their great knowledge and power.

Psi Powers

Psi powers are learned and treated as skills. Like skills, they can be quite broad in effect. There are two distinct classifications: individually developed skills and professional skills.

Individually Developed Skills

This type of psi skill is concerned with a single effect. The skill is compared with the opponent's resistance skill, which is usually willpower or some form of physical dodge. The relative degree is then added or subtracted from the hamster's PSI rating to determine the level of success. In this way, hamsters with high skills can overcome the disadvantage of a low PSI stat.

A failure is a failure and has no effect.

Example: Oach the Mathematician adventurer has two individual psi skills: Psi Squeak and Communicate.

Psi Squeak: A cone-shaped stunning effect. The GM decides that it affects the will of two to three targets at once. Therefore it requires a contested roll of Psi Squeak skill vs. MIND (or willpower).

Effect: The GM rules that is difficult to dodge (-1 to Dodge roll). Effect total is equal to PSI + relative degree. The GM then decides the effect on the targets.

Thus a Good effect may stun a target for a couple of combat rounds, whereas a Good effect against several targets may stun all of them for only one round.

A Superb effect may render targets unconscious.

Communicate: This will establish a mental link to another being and allow two-way communications as though through speech.

The difficulty should be set by the GM based on the biological separation of the involved parties.

Thus: hamster to intelligent salamander = Good difficulty; hamster to house plant = Superb difficulty.

Note that while communication may be feasible, it is likely some beings simply won't have much to say. Plants, for instance, would be mostly concerned about fires and insects, and since their primary communications are via airborne particles, their conversations are necessarily short and to the point.

Relative degree for communications measures the level of nuance and inflection gained. This can be very valuable since 90% of communications involves subtleties beyond the spoken word.

A GM should feel free to award bonuses to negotiations and other communications skills based on the psi level achieved by the effect.

Example: Oach rolls Superb on his skill with Communicate. This gives him a psi level of Legendary after the relative degree is added to his PSI attribute. Oach now understands his target as only a master communicator can, and receives bonuses to all interactions involving communications.

There is no time limit to this skill. It is terminated when the user desires.

An incandescent sphere acts as a paralysis grenade.

The effect value is resisted by MIND or willpower skill. Failure indicates -1 per degree of failure; e.g. Great attack is resisted with a Fair willpower. This is a failure and results in a -2 to all physical actions for the next round, -1 for the round after that, etc. until returned to normal.

A violent telepathic squeak. Intended to stun several opponents at close range. Does stun only.

The victim must then roll their willpower skill or MIND vs. the stun effect. If the stun effect is greater, the target is rendered unconscious. If the stun effect is less, the target loses an attack for that round, but may still dodge.

Phantasm creates a realistic illusion in the mind of the target.

Each additional target reduces the effect value by 1.

The target may resist when it has realized it is observing something that is not right or out of place; e.g., a hawk inside a house is worth an immediate roll, but a large web or house spider would be believed.

The illusion is completely realistic. The damage seems real, so damage is tracked as normal. However, once unconscious, incapacitated or dead, the target loses the damage.

For combat, the effect is equal to the fighting/action/strength of the illusion; e.g., say an illusory warrior was created with a Superb effect. The warrior thus attacks with a Superb skill or dodges with a Superb skill and appears to have a Superb strength.

Violet lances of pain. Damage is made real by burning out nerves in the affected areas. Range is long.

Does no damage to inanimate objects.

Damage heals like a burn.

Profession Psi Skills

The professions represent a refinement in psi skills. Each organization teaches its particular skill to its members. This skill is a trademark and the technique is closely guarded. This is generally unnecessary as the profession skill requires such a large time commitment that the process of learning a new one could easily consume the entire lifespan of a hamster.

All profession skills start at Poor and are raised as Very Hard skills (per FUDGE core rules).

Every level is worth one point of temporary strength. Thus: Poor = 2 points, Superb = 7 points.

These points are a pool of strength the hamster may tap into when needed. They are regained at the rate of 1 point per minute.

The points may be spent all at once or a few at a time. They last for five seconds or one combat action per usage.

Example: Raphaella has Power Bite at Good, which gives her five points to spend. Her natural Strength is Good. The GM rules that she needs a Strength of Superb to move a large book. She spends two points to give herself a Superb Strength and pushes the book out of the way.

However, to lift the book she would need to spend two points per round, and thus she could only sustain the required strength for two combat rounds (around ten seconds).

The Burrower has the ability to puncture normal 3-D space, creating a pathway between two points which allows near-instantaneous travel. This skill includes navigation of Burrow space and the piloting of a Burrow vessel.

The Burrower does not require a vessel. These things are for the comfort of non-Burrower travel companions.

Roll skill vs. Burrow rating of the area. The Burrow rating of an area is set by the GM and represents the area's Burrow space "weather" and the penetrability of 3-D space at this location. Generally it is assumed to be Fair +/- 4df roll (see below).

A resisted roll of Burrow skill vs. Fair + 4df results in a Burrow score. The Burrow score in this case represents the time required to wait before the Burrow way opens: Superb = instant, Fair = one or two minutes, Terrible = ten to fifteen minutes (if this was a success).

A Burrower is always aware of the general "difficulty" or weather in Burrow space for his or her particular location.

The Warriors have learned to focus and control their anger. This skill allows a hamster to take several additional actions, as with the Nutcracker skill Power Bite. Each level equals one point. Thus Poor = 2 points and Superb = 7 points. These points represent a pool of additional actions a Warrior may pack into a single combat round. They are regained at a rate of one point per twenty minutes of rest.

The points may be spent all at once or a few at a time.

There is a small elite subgroup of Warriors known as the hamaestar (Old Hamster: "ones who knock down") whose primary function is to defend hamster territory in Burrow space. (example character)

The Companion or Storyteller has learned to affect the minds and emotions of others. The Enthrall skill allows a hamster to instill a new emotion or enhance an existing one. This ability can be extremely subtle in application.

The hamster may choose to affect more than one creature by incurring a -1 penalty for each additional being.

The roll is Empathy vs. target's MIND. The relative degree is applied to the hamster's psi rating to determine effect; i.e., relative degree + PSI = Effect.

If attempting to affect more than one being, a roll must be made for each target with the appropriate modifier.

Note: a particularly moving oration may at GM's discretion add a bonus modifier (assuming the hamster speaks the appropriate language).

A bonus of +1 is given if the target is touched.

Duration is until the next emotion is felt; e.g., someone will feel good until something happens to cause them to feel bad.

Unethical Companions sell good feelings like drugs.

The Scouts have learned to blend into their surroundings. This skill gives them a level of practical invisibility.

It functions to protect the hamster from discovery as long as the hamster does nothing to call attention to itself. Thus, they can be seen if attacking or moving when someone is looking in their direction.

The Hedge Wizards have learned the secrets of life and living. They can teach others quicker. They can train animals better. The Hedge Wizard knows things that enhance whatever he/she is doing. However, a Hedge Wizard must have the skill in question before using the Lore skill.

Thus: by rolling Lore vs. Great (or some GM-determined difficulty) the hamster will get the benefits of a critical success on his/her following successful skill roll. (Optional: the GM may allow supernatural effects rather than critical successes; e.g., the Chemistry skill. If used successfully following the Lore skill, a hypnotic drug could become a mind control potion.)

The limitation is that the hamster must "set up" to use the skill. Ancient books in hidden libraries must be consulted, special herbs prepared, etc. This preparation time is determined by the GM.

The hamster gets only the numeric bonus he/she rolled. So a Good roll gives a +1 (+ special critical success effect).

Thus natural herbal remedies of magical effectiveness can be made, or a beetle trained more quickly/easily. Healing can take less time, weather can be predicted, songs which affect the listener can be sung, powerful hypnosis can be used, the future can be predicted, etc.

The Mathematician uses a higher level of mathematics to enhance/modify his or her surroundings.

Roll Math vs. Fair: the relative degree is equal to a bonus, which can then be added to some target roll.

For example, if a hamster wished to do more damage, a calculation can be made and the relative degree of success added to the damage of an attack to that "weak" spot.

The bonus may be used to boost an item to its maximum ability. Thus a carefully crafted sword could be made with damage factor enhanced to a maximum level (GM-determined).

The task must be one that can reasonably be calculated; i.e., it must be objective.