The discipline of Precognition relates to sensing the cascade of future events and reading the achronal chaos of the metadimensional energy that ripples in the psychic’s brain. Readings provided by Precognition tend to be focused on the psychic and what they find interesting or important. Matters irrelevant to the seer are unlikely to be noticed, even if they are of critical importance to those involved. More advanced techniques of Precognition can even influence the future, adjusting probabilities by changing or pruning certain metadimensional currents.
The future is not carved in stone. Oracles can be falsified by present action or sheer random chance. When a reading is ambiguous or the future seems un-certain, the GM should simply give the most probable reading for the power as their own judgment recom-mends.
Precognition is strictly future-oriented. For assorted complex reasons, the past is vastly more difficult to observe with psionic powers, and postcognition is generally considered impossible.
Precogs are generally viewed with considerable unease by the general population. They’re not as widely feared as telepaths, but the uncanny powers of foresight they possess can make them difficult company. They can earn very substantial sums of money from those desperate to learn of some future outcome, but the specificity of their visions makes it difficult for them to perceive large-scale future events.
A precog can see a city in flames or a stock market board showing a crash, but even the most powerful can’t tell if the conflagration is just a limited local disaster or a planet-consuming catastrophe, nor can they tell if the crash is a temporary pullback in the market or a harbinger of global depression. Many precogs have difficulty dealing with this ambiguity, and some become fixed on personal interpretations of their visions that may or may not play out as they have seen.
Bending the Future
Everything a precog sees is provisional. Some outcomes may be so likely as to be nigh-certain, but nothing is truly, absolutely destined. Vigorous activity or simple unexpected chance can skew future outcomes.
This effect is one reason why choirs of precogs have not been more widely exploited by planetary governments. The clearer and more detailed a future outcome becomes, the simpler it is to find the crucial events that can be changed to derail it. The more in-tense the precognitive focus toward a future event, the more fluid it becomes as fresh readings take into account the countermoves that others have made. Rumors persist of ancient pretech augmentation hardware that can “fix” future outcomes, but most governments lack the resources to even consider such extravagance.
Oracle Core
Technique
The precog gains a progressively-greater intuitive understanding of their own future. Each invocation of the Oracle technique requires a Main Action and that the user Commit Effort for the day. Once triggered, the adept gets a single brief vision related to the question about the future that they’re asking. This vision is always from their own personal vantage point and never reveals more than a minute of insight, though the psychic processes it almost instantly as part of the power’s use.
The GM should answer the question as if the PC were about to perform the act or engage in the investigation pertinent to the question. Thus, if the adept wanted to know what pressing a button would do and the GM knows that it’s connected to a bomb, the psychic might get a vision of sudden death. If the bomb were on a time delay that extended past the time horizon of the oracle, however, the psychic might just see a vision of herself waiting patiently, with nothing happening.
Visions should relate to actions and events, not abstract facts. Oracle couldn’t tell a psychic who the crime boss of a slum neighborhood is, for example, but it could give a vision of the psychic caught in the next bloody riot and the gang boss who’s directing the myriad thugs. It couldn’t reveal the name of a security guard, but it could show the seer the impending moment that the next guard patrol will enter the area the psychic plans to infiltrate. Only the most important or signifi-cant information is conveyed by the technique, even if multiple events of interest might transpire during the time horizon.
Oracle can only be used on a given question or topic once until the situation changes substantially or a week goes by. The maximum time horizon of the Oracle in-creases as the adept’s Precognition skill improves.
Level-0: One minute into the future.
Level-1: One day into the future.
Level-2: One week into the future.
Level-3: Three months into the future.
Level-4: One year into the future.
Intuitive Response
Level-1
As an Instant action, the precog can Commit Effort for the scene just before they roll initiative. Their initiative score is treated as one better than anyone else’s involved in the scene. If another participant has this power or some other ability that grants automatic initiative success, roll initiative normally to determine which of them goes first, and then the rest of the combatants act. This ability cannot be used if the precog has been surprised.
Sense the Need
Level-1
At some point in the recent past, the psychic had a vague but intense premonition that a particular object would be needed. By triggering this power as an Instant action and Committing Effort for the day, the psychic can retroactively declare that they brought along any one object that they could have reasonably acquired and carried to this point. This object must be plausible given recent events; if the psychic has just been strip-searched, very few objects could reasonably have been kept, while a psychic who’s just passed through a weapons check couldn’t still have a loaded laser pistol.
Terminal Reflection
Level-1
The psychic’s Oracle power automatically triggers as an Instant action moments before some unexpected danger or ambush, giving the precog a brief vision of the impending hazard. This warning comes just in time to avoid springing a trap or to negate combat surprise for the precog and their companions. If the psychic does not immediately Commit Effort for the day, this sense goes numb and this technique cannot be used for the rest of the day.
Alternate Outcome
Level-2
The precog can sense impending failure and attempt to salvage the action. As an Instant action, the precog can target a visible ally or their own self and Commit Effort for the day to allow the target to reroll a failed hit roll, saving throw, or skill check, taking the better of the two rolls. This power disrupts delicate lines of probability, however, and cannot be used on any given target more than once a day.
Destiny’s Shield
Level-2
The precog observes an incoming injury and tries to find an alternate future in which the attack misses. As an Instant action, the precog can Commit Effort for the day to force an attacker to reroll a successful hit roll. This technique only works on attacks against the psychic’s person, not against attacks aimed at a vehicle they’re occupying or harm that doesn’t involve an at-tack roll. If the rerolled attack still hits, however, the damage done is maximized. This technique can be used only once per incoming attack.
Anguished Vision
Level-3
The adept’s precognition is sophisticated enough to clearly foresee several seconds into the future. As an Instant action, the psychic may Commit Effort for the day and declare that what they have just done or seen is a vision of the immediate future. Time rolls back to the start of the initiative count in a combat turn, or six seconds earlier if out of combat. Nothing that happened during that round has really come to pass yet.
This ability is tremendously draining, and can be used only once per day.
Cursed Luck
Level-3
Negative probabilities are woven tightly around a visible animate target, including robots and animals but not including vehicles. Triggering this technique requires a Main Action and Committing Effort for the scene. The target must roll any attack rolls, damage rolls, skill checks, and saving throws twice and take the worst result each time. Any attempts to hit the target or damage dice rolled against it may be rolled twice and the better result taken. Intelligent targets can make a Mental saving throw at the end of each round to throw off the effect; this save is not penalized by the power.
Forced Outcome
Level-3
Through careful manipulation of probability, the adept can influence random physical events in their vicinity.
Triggering this technique requires a Main Action and Committing Effort for the scene. Any simple, random mechanical outcome can be completely controlled for the scene, such as a roulette wheel or the order of a deck of shuffled cards. Any other physical event in the area that seems not-entirely-implausible may be made to occur by this technique, provided it doesn’t involve more than a few objects and doesn’t require human involvement. The GM decides what random events are and are not adequately possible. Anything more than one unusual coincidence or chance per scene is likely impossible to produce.
Not My Time
Level-4
The precog instinctively wrenches the lines of probability away from futures in which they are about to die. This technique triggers automatically when the precog is about to die, provided they can Commit Effort for the day. On triggering, random events somehow conspire to leave the precog alive, even if outrageous coincidences and ridiculous luck are required. Provided the precog doesn’t intentionally thrust herself back into danger, their life is secured for the next few minutes at least, though there’s no guarantee the psychic will survive intact in mind or body. This technique can trigger no more often than once per week.
Prophecy
Level-4
The power of the precog extends to dictating future events that directly involve them. As a Main Action, the precognitive PC may make one prediction involving their personal future or future condition within the next year. Provided they take reasonable measures to enable this prediction, that no direct resistance is mounted by an enemy, and that the prediction doesn’t seem highly improbable to the GM, it will come to pass.
The adept must Commit Effort when this power is used, and the Effort remains Committed until the prophecy comes to pass or is abandoned. This ability cannot be used more than once per month and only one prophecy may be active at a time.