TEXT:  
   
   
   
   
  
  This mini-supplement adds psionic 
  weirdness to the world of Mothership. 
  Below, you’ll find rules for psionic skills, 
  psionic combat, and a new class: the 
  Psion. Any Mothership character can 
  learn the basic skills, and you should 
  feel free to simply steal the skills and 
  ditch the class (or vice versa, if you’d 
  rather limit psionics to those who take 
  the class). 
  Players and Wardens should work 
  together to decide what defines 
  psionics in their game. Some 
  suggestions are provided on the right, 
  but the details are left purposefully 
  vague. Make up (or pick) something fun 
  and explore it further in play. 
  Psions are powerful and dangerous, 
  especially when compared to the base 
  classes in Mothership. Wardens, don’t 
  be afraid to hit them with some truly 
  horrific weirdness on critical failures. 
  1 
  A thousand slavering mouths 
  crawl through a rip in space. 
  2 
  Nightmares manifest before the 
  crew, suddenly and cruelly real. 
  3 
  A wave of alien despair fills the 
  crew with keening dread.  
  4 
  Cold blood pours from the 
  Psion’s mouth, ears, nose, and 
  eyes. 
  5 
  You are blinded. Darkness 
  closes in, suffocating and silent. 
  6 
  The Psion sings a song in a 
  dead language, puppeteered by 
  an ancient interstellar 
  consciousness. 
  1 
  Space magic, an expression of 
  some inborn talent possessed 
  by a chosen few. 
  2 
  A form of dimensional 
  meditation, allowing 
  practitioners gain glimpses of 
  higher dimensions in a filtered 
  and reduced form. 
  3 
  The result of genetic 
  modification carried out by a 
  long-vanished alien empire. 
  4 
  A memetic virus which 
  convinces its carriers that they 
  are using “powers” to achieve 
  the impossible. 
  5 
  Superstring entities channeling 
  their energies through you 
  6 
  A way to rationalize the 
  phenomena of “supersensers,” 
  those who are born with 
  massively boosted perceptions. 
  7 
  A glitch in the simulated 
  universe’s code. Psychic 
  powers are nothing more than 
  an intuitive and unwitting 
  exploitation of a bug in the 
  program. 
  8 
  The experimentation of a 
  curious singularity-God. Psions 
  are quantum-entangled to a 
  black hole and fed power 
  through Planck-level 
  wormholes. 
  9 
  A sixth sense possessed by 
  every living being – just one 
  that requires focus and 
  attention to notice. 
  10 
  The byproduct of an alien 
  parasite, one which feeds on 
  emotion and excretes 
  information, a phenomenon 
  interpreted by our brain as the 
  inflow of additional sensory 
  data. 
  
  These three skills are linked linearly in 
  the order listed below (that is, you must 
  learn Initiate before you can learn 
  Adept, and Adept before Master). All 
  psionic skills have the unique benefit of 
  psionic replacement, which allows 
  you to use them in place of any other 
  skill on any roll. When using psionic 
  abilities, you must narrate how your 
  character uses their powers in place of 
  the skill that would usually be used. 
  Touching the Eternal Void takes a toll: 
  you must take 1 Stress every time you 
  use your psionic abilities. 
  Example: Kira, a psionic initiate, is 
  forced to take the helm of the crew’s 
  shuttle after a piece of debris takes out 
  the pilot. She describes closing her 
  eyes and reaching out with her mind, 
  feeling the flow of energy and gravity 
  playing over the shuttle’s hull. She 
  takes the throttle control in her hands 
  and rolls her Intellect, adding +10% 
  from her Psionic Initiate skill - allowing 
  her to effectively use Piloting despite 
  not having trained in that skill. She then 
  takes 1 Stress for making use of her 
  psionic abilities. 
  Psionic Initiate (Trained): Your inner 
  eye has opened. You dream of strange, 
  impossible places and hear the whisper 
  of the Eternal Void. Your powers are 
  feeble but mark you as someone 
  dangerous to those who can detect the 
  deeper mysteries. 
  Psionic Adept (Expert): You have 
  walked the Sevenfold Path. Your crew 
  can hear you dream and you, in turn, 
  can hear the static-whispers of their 
  minds. The Sublimated, those who 
  dwell within the Eternal Void, watch 
  your progress with increasing interest. 
  Psionic Master (Master): You crackle 
  with unseen power. You do not dream 
  – you transcend, your consciousness 
  wandering the Eternal Void with 
  assured steps. Your power rings like a 
  bell, clear, controlled, and utterly 
  impossible to ignore.  
  Psionic skills cost double the usual 
  number of skill points to learn (i.e. 2, 4, 
  and 6 instead of 1, 2, 3). 
  The mind of a psionic adept is a 
  weapon. You can use your psionic skill 
  with Intellect to make psychic attacks 
  against any creature whose eyes (or 
  closest equivalent sense-organ) you 
  can see. You must be physically 
  present to make a psychic attack and 
  making contact without any 
  intermediation – that is, no telescopes, 
  binoculars, or CCTV cameras can 
  stand between you and their fragile 
  mind. Defenders roll Instinct or Sanity 
  to resist psychic attacks.  
  Psychic Attack 
  Cost: 1 stress per use, requires two 
  actions in combat 
  Ranges: 10m / 20m / 30m 
  Damage: 1d10 
  Crit: Double damage and target is 
  incapacitated for a round (due to all the 
  screaming and weeping). 
  Special: If you know what the target 
  fears most, you gain advantage on 
  attack and damage rolls made with this 
  ability. 
   
  
  Psions are strange, dangerous, and 
  broken. They have focused from birth 
  on nurturing their impossible talents, 
  leaving aside petty human concerns, 
  like friends or sleep. Many places in the 
  Rim despise Psions, forcing them to 
  hide their talents or face the wrath of 
  the community. Corporations, of 
  course, have no moral compunctions 
  against using them, although Psions 
  are rarely trusted with actual authority. 
  Play a Psion if you want to be an 
  oddball, an outcast, or a mystic. 
  Roll stats as usual. Your highest 
  starting stat determines your psionic 
  subtype which grants you a unique 
  power. 
  Strength: Psycho-Kineticist 
  • 
  You can roll Strength with your 
  psionic skill (paying 1 Stress) to 
  manipulate physical reality. You 
  can move objects with your mind! 
   
  Speed: Thought-Dancer 
  • 
  You can roll Speed with your 
  psionic skill (paying 1 Stress) to 
  make use of your psychically-
  boosted reflexes.  
  • 
  At any time (even after failing a 
  Save), you can use this ability to 
  try and avoid incoming damage or 
  otherwise react impossibly quickly. 
   
  Intellect: Soul-Watcher 
  • 
  You can roll Intellect with your 
  psionic skill (paying 1 Stress) to 
  skim a few thoughts from the mind 
  of someone nearby – enough to 
  figure out a lie or see what they’re 
  planning to do in the next few 
  moments.  
   
   
  Combat: Mind-Warrior 
  • 
  Your battle-focus has granted you 
  mastery over psychic attacks: they 
  now require one action to use and 
  can be rolled with Combat instead 
  of Intellect.  
  • 
  When you kill an enemy with a 
  psychic attack, you can choose to 
  have their head explode, triggering 
  Fear checks among their allies 
  (and anyone on your team who 
  hasn’t seen this trick before).  
   
  After noting your subtype, add +5 to 
  Intellect. 
   
  Saves 
  • 
  Sanity: 20 – the distinction 
  between reality and madness is 
  entirely irrelevant to most Psions. 
  • 
  Fear: 60 – they have seen worse, 
  perhaps in your dreams. 
  • 
  Body: 25 – why maintain one’s 
  body when the mind is so much 
  more fascinating? 
  • 
  Armor: 35 – they can see you pull 
  the trigger before you’ve even 
  thought to do it. 
   
  Stress and Panic 
  • 
  Any time a nearby friendly 
  character would gain Stress, a 
  Psion may choose to take that 
  Stress in place of the friendly. 
  • 
  When a Psion panics, every 
  friendly character nearby gains 1 
  Stress. 
   
  Skills 
  • 
  Psions begin play with the Psionic 
  Initiate skill and 3 skill points. 
   
  
  UNHINGE YOUR SOUL was produced 
  by Quiet Static and written by Eric 
  Stewart (@binarydoubts).  
  Cover image: Crater Kepler and 
  Vicinity, NASA (1967). Found via The 
  Met Open Access. 
  Thanks to Sean McCoy and Tuesday 
  Knight Games for Mothership, as well 
  as to the Mothership Discord server for 
  their help and suggestions. 
  v1.2, March 3, 2019. Released under 
  Creative Commons Attribution-
  NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 
  International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). 
   
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Mothership [multi]/Supplemental/Unhinge_Your_Soul.pdf