Revamping the Rituals in Presence

My favorite Delta Green rules for psychic powers are probably the ones that mellonbread wrote for ESPER, an Australian anti-mythos agency born from an easily missed paragraph in Delta Green: Countdown's PISCES chapter.

For those of you who haven't read the document, I'll summarize: psychics start with a modified version of the Things Man Was Not Meant to Know damaged veteran package, only instead of Unnatural, they learn two rituals. They can activate them at will, but are particularly vulnerable to psychic intrusions and other phenomena. I really like these rules because they differentiate psychic powers from 'ordinary' spells in an interesting way. Activation rolls don't really make sense for something this innate, and it also reinforces their role as a character. Plus it makes players more likely to use them. They even manage to incorporate the throwaway line in the Handler's Guide about how psychics often have high INT scores by using INT as the range of the Talents' powers.

But you're probably here for stuff about Presence. Suffice to say, I don't really like the rules for psychic powers. I know the unnatural is supposed to be horrific and mind-bending, but this seems a bit over the top. The fun of the sanity death spiral is getting to watch things tumble out of control. But the SAN losses in this scenario are so high and the powers so costly that the Agents are liable to die or go insane before anything fun or interesting happens. The pacing is all off. They're also weak, most of them requiring an unbroken line of sight, which feels too reminiscent of D&D spell limitations.

Apportation

I think the operator should be able to teleport up to INT meters away if their INT is higher than 10. Operators with 17 POW or higher should also be able to teleport to unseen locations, albeit with a -20% penalty to the activation roll and an increased cost of 1D4 SAN.

Critical Success: The operator smoothly phases in and out of our simplistic four-dimensional spacetime; the ritual only costs 1 WP, 1 HP, and 1 SAN.

Fumble: The operator is stricken with horrible vertigo, losing 1D6 WP and taking a -20% penalty to all tests involving hand-eye coordination for that many hours.

I liked the precedent set with Psychic Assault where more POWerful operators can achieve greater effect.

 

Divination

This ritual is actually fine, though I might extend the 'temporal range' a bit and I wouldn't make you roll SAN twice for the same event, especially since you're already losing SAN from activating the ritual. Maybe you note down how much SAN your premonition cost, and when the event actually happens, you can subtract that from the new SAN loss.

Critical Success: The operator can't be surprised for the next INT minus 2 hours.

Fumble: The operator briefly witnesses their own death before their mind shuts it out. This costs 1/1D8 SAN from violence or helplessness, 1/1D6 if the operator is adapted to one source of SAN loss, and 0/1D4 from unnatural if they are adapted to both violence and helplessness.

Levitation

Cost: variable WP, HP, and SAN

Having to pay the full activation cost every round is way too much for a minor effect like floating 1 meter into the air. Each round of movement should be a 0/1 SAN test, though succeeding costs 1 WP and 1 HP as your mind and brain work overtime to reject the reality of the situation. Hovering in place is free except for the first round

Critical Success: The operator can move 1D4 meters each round.

Fumble: The operator is frozen in place, suffering the Submit temporary insanity response.

Zero SAN NPCs and monsters roll INTx5 each round instead. Failure costs willpower and hit points, but hovering is free.

 

Psychic Assault

Cost: 2D4 WP, 1 HP, 1 SAN

Witnesses lose 0/1D4 SAN from unnatural, unless the operator is trying to cause death. That costs 1/1D6 SAN from unnatural, and 1/1D8 SAN for the target. Causing death with 17+ POW works as written.

Critical Success: The victim takes a -20% to all actions from the pain after the stun wears off. If trying to cause death, the operator can attempt to transpose some of the damage the ritual incurs onto the target, only losing 2D4 HP while inflicting 2D12 damage. If they opt to take the full 2D6 damage, the target is subject to a 15% Lethality attack.

Fumble: The operator loses 1 HP and is stunned. If they were trying to kill, they also lose 2D10 WP, with any excess inflicted as hit point damage. This replaces the usual reduced cost of a failed Ritual Activation Roll: 1D4 WP and 1 HP, or 1D6 WP and 1D6 HP if trying to kill.

The ritual is fine, it just feels dumb that the operator is more hurt by it than their target. The costs for 'causing death' are perfect, it's just Withering with more predictable damage but less predictable costs. I also think operators should be able to spend permanent POW to cover the WP and HP costs of the ritual, but they should have to pay separately. For example: with the average cost of 7 WP and 7 HP, they couldn't spend 1 POW (to partially pay the total cost of 14) and make up the difference with a combination of HP and WP that sums to 4. Instead, they could spend 1 POW instead of 7 WP or HP, or 2 POW and lose no WP or HP.

 

Psychic Intrusion

This ritual costs way too much for its very minor effect and I don't even think it's that interesting, so I'm just going to leave it alone.

Pyrokinesis

This ritual is fine. I would rule that the ritual costs 1D6 SAN when used to set someone's clothes on fire if the operator isn't adapted to violence. I'd also rule that they automatically fail the DEX test to not catch on fire and that the fire does 1D6 damage. Operators with 17 POW or more can start fires the size of a regular campfire (2D6) at the cost of 1D4 SAN.

Critical Success: The operator can control the flames by spending 1 WP for each round they choose to exert their influence. The higher their INT, the more precise their control.

Fumble: The operator sets something else on fire. This can include themselves.

I think it's dumb that the operator can't improve their POW past 18. That's the limit for normal humans; the operator is not normal. A horrific confluence of Azathoth, Shub-Niggurath, and Yog-Sothoth is filling their body with tumors and ...

Here's my proposal

After critically succeeding on a Ritual Activation roll, the operator develops an unusually persistent form of cancer. This costs 1/1D6 SAN from helplessness and 0/1 for any of their fellow Agents if they learn about it (1/1D4 if they have a Bond with the operator). Anyone with at least 1% in Unnatural who studies the tumors loses 1/1D6 SAN but gains that much in Unnatural if their Medicine and Unnatural scores sum to 70% or higher.

Every few months, such as during a personal pursuit, the operator rolls a D6 to see what stat (STR, CON, DEX, INT, or CHA) is lowered by 1 point, increasing their POW by 1 point. If a 6 is rolled, nothing happens. This can reduce stats below 3, and the operator dies if one of their stats hits zero. Every point of POW they gain over 18 costs 0/1 SAN from unnatural. 

Each additional critically successful activation roll adds an additional D6. For example:

Agent SAM learned the psychic ritual Levitation and has tried to use it twice. Once to float up to the second floor of the Valdez house, and a second time to break his fall when he jumped out one of the windows. Both times, he rolled a critical success. In his Home scene, he rolls two D6s for stat loss: one for the cancer, and the second for the extra crit. Unless he critically succeeds at another activation roll, he will just roll 1D6 during his next personal pursuit.