Third Eye Borg
THE MIND IS A BEAUTIFUL THING TO BLOW
HOW TO RUN THIS
1. Psychic violence is automatic. A psion does not roll to touch a weak mind. Ever. The horror is the point. A mundane person in a room with a psion is livestock trapped with a wolf having a migraine.
2. Resistance is texture, not balance. Null collars, static, drugs, trauma, distance, a genuinely tough mind — these aren't modifiers to optimize. They're the moments the table nods and says yeah, this is where it gets ugly.
3. Death is awakening. The mind is not unlocked by training, discipline, or merit. It is unlocked by catastrophic malfunction. Every power on the list is a symptom.
PSYCHIC VIOLENCE
Psi attacks hit automatically, without testing Presence. You do not roll to touch a weak mind. You just squeeze it.
That shot is only tough (Presence test, DR set by the GM) when the fiction says so:
- The target — psi-trained, dying, praying hard enough to matter, or wearing a null collar.
- The range — a stone’s throw. Past that, you're screaming into static.
- The psion — concussed, dosed on dampeners, grieving, or already two nosebleeds deep.
- Two powers back to back — always tough. Go cry about it (telepathically).
- Psion vs. psion — always tough. An open mind knows when another one is reaching in.
The more unlikely the feat, the higher the DR of the Presence test. And higher the DR of your Toughness test to shake an enemy psion out of your skull.
Mundane witnesses to psi use roll Reaction at −4. Other psions know better.
AWAKENING
Powers are not learned. They are survived.
- The honest way: When you are Broken (0 HP) and live, you awaken one random power (d8; on an 8, the GM invents something worse). The malfunction chooses you.
- The expensive way: Pay a back-alley inductor the listed price to stop your heart professionally. Test Toughness DR10 to get revived or roll on the Broken table anyway. You get the power either way. Probably.
- The complete way: Die. Actually die, for d2 rounds — drowning, the chair, a sloppy inductor — and come back. Don’t ask us how; that’s your job. Awaken all seven powers and immediately roll on HEAD POP. Once per lifetime, obviously.
Any PC may begin play having already died once: start with one random power and one permanent nosebleed.
POWERS
✱ PSI EXPLODES — when you roll maximum, add another die AND gain a nosebleed. Keep going. See what happens.
After every use, roll a d6. On a 1, you’re locked out of your powers for an hour.
NOSEBLEEDS
If you roll a 1 on any of your psi dice, gain a NOSEBLEED.
- Each nosebleed adds +2 DR to everything psychic you attempt.
- At your third nosebleed, roll on HEAD POP. Then wipe your face and clear them all.
- A night's sleep clears every nosebleed. A street dampener dose (15s) clears one, but no powers for an hour.
- NPC psions get nosebleeds when the GM says they do.
HEAD POP (d4)
- Blackout for d4 rounds. Wake with d4 HP and one memory that isn't yours.
- Something bursts behind the eye. Roll d6: 1–5 lose the eye. 6 = lose all powers for a day.
- Psychic haemorrhage: dead in d2 hours unless another psion clamps it (Presence DR16). All your tests are DR16 the first hour, DR18 the last.
- Head pops. Everyone nearby takes d6 damage and sees every memory you ever had. No coming back from that. Roll up a new psion.
GEAR
THIRD EYE BORG is an independent production by The Grey Ledger Society and is not affiliated with Ockult Örtmästare Games or Stockholm Kartell. It is published under the MÖRK BORG Third Party License.
MÖRK BORG is copyright Ockult Örtmästare Games and Stockholm Kartell.