Psi Overview
In Eclipse Phase, psi abilities are the result of an infection by the mutant Watts-MacLeod strain of the exsurgent virus. This plague physically modifies your async's brain architecture and functions. These alterations are copied when you upload, fork, and resleeve, meaning the infection and psi abilities stay with you when you switch from morph to morph.
Prerequisites
To be an async, you must purchase the psi trait during character creation. It is possible to become an async in game via infection by the Watts-MacLeod strain. To wield psi, you must purchase psi sleights with CP or Rez Points. To use psi-gamma sleights, you will also need the Psi skill, though you may default to WIL.
Morphs & Psi
Async abilities only function on a biological substrate -- meaning that you require a biological brain and nervous system. An async sleeved in a synthmorph, infomorph, or a biomorph with a cyberbrain may not use their sleights.
Mental Fragmentation
The process of infection has a permanent effect on your async's mind. Upon becoming infect, you either suffered a mental breakdown or underwent a long, slow process of mental subversion. Either way, you acquired either an Addiction or Mental Disorder negative trait according to your specific sub-strain
Sleights
Asyncs manipulate their egos and otherwise create effects that cannot be matched or mimicked by technological means. To use these abilities, they train their mental processes and practice cognitive algorithms called sleights, which they can subconsciously recall and use as necessary. Sleights fall into two categories: psi-chi (cognitive enhancement) and psi-gamma (brainwave reading and manipulation). Psi-chi sleights are passive, always-on abilities. Psi-gamma sleights must be activated, requiring an action and a Psi skill test.
You start with one free sleight, chosen from those available to your specific infection sub-strain. All other sleights must be bought with Customization Points (during character creation) or Rez Points (during gameplay).
Infection Rating
Your async has an Infection Rating that represents the exovirus's influence. This rating changes over time, depending on how frequently you use your abilities.
Your base Infection Rating
Every time you use psi-gamma sleights or push a sleight, your Infection Rating increases. Every time you recharge, it decreases.
Infection Rating Thresholds
As your infection takes a stronger hold, your sleights become more powerful:
- Infection Rating 33+: Apply the Increased Effect push effect to all of your psi-chi sleights. This lasts until your Infection Rating drops below 33.
- Infection Rating 66+: Apply one free push effect to all of your psi-gamma sleights. The same effect must be applied to each. This lasts until your Infection Rating drops below 66.
You may still push sleights when you are over a threshold, but you may not apply the same push effect that a threshold already provides, with the exception of the extra target effect.
Roleplaying Asyncs
As an async, you should keep the origin of your abilities in mind: Watts-MacLeod strain infection. You may or may not be aware of this source, but you undoubtedly know that you underwent some sort of transformation and have talents that no one else does. If unaware of the infection, you have likely learned to keep your abilities secret lest you be ridiculed, attacked, or whisked away to some secret testing program. Learning the truth about your nature could even be the starting point of a campaign and/or your introduction to Firewall. If you know the truth, however, you must live with the fact that you are the victim of a nonplague likely spread by the TITANs that may or may not lead to complications, side effects, or other unexpected revelations in your future.
You should make an effort to explore the nature of your infection and how your character perceives it. Asyncs are profoundly changed people. The invasive and alien aspect of your abilities should not be lost on you. For example, you might conceive of your psi talents as a sort of parasitic entity, living off your sleights, or you might feel that using these powers puts you in touch with some sort of fundamental substrate of the universe that is weird and terrifying. Alternatively, you could feel as if your personality was melded with something different, something that doesn't belong. Each async is likely to view their situation differently, and none of them pleasantly.
One key aspect to roleplaying an async is to treat the infection as a distinct, if mostly dormant or removed, entity. It is a constant presence below your async's consciousness. It may have its own unique aspirations, but these should remain mysterious. While many of the behavioral compulsions and motivational urges imply a level of sociopathy or destructiveness, think of it more as lacking a moral compass. The exovirus has none of the reference points for morality that transhumanity has. It is not evil so much as indifferent, callous, and alien.
Watts-Macleod Sub-Strains
As an async, you are affected by a specific sub-strain of the Watts-MacLeod virus. This sub-strain determines how the exovirus affects you personally. It influences what Mental Disorder trait you start with and provides you with a free bonus sleight. It also impacts the behavioral compulsions and spurred motivations that infection inflicts upon you (see influence effects). The sub-strain ischosen during character creation (or when your character is infected during gameplay).
The Architect
Your infection possesses a distinct curiosity and sense of intelligence. You often see things from a perspective that is different. It drives you to delve into the inner mechanics of things and examine how they work -- whether they be machines or biological entities. The urges push beyond exploration and learning -- you are often compelled to build and construct new things: architecture with inexplicable functions, strange devices, or even new forms of life. Though the virus's exact motivation and intent remains unclear, it leaves you with an unmistakable sense of purpose.
Negative Trait (Choose One):
- Bipolar Disorder
- Insomnia
- Paramnesia
Free Sleight (Choose One):
- Enhanced Creativity
- Grok
- Implant Skill
The Beast
Your infection is a ravenous, bloodthirsty monster, yearning to break free. You struggle to keep it in check, placated, or distracted, else the desire for carnage and mayhem overwhelms you.
Negative Trait (Choose One):
- ADHD
- Anxiety
- PTSD
Free Sleight (Choose One):
- High Pain Threshold
- Burst of Adrenaline
- Psychic Stab
The Haunter
The low-level dread of incomprehensible terror, flittering at the edge of perception, is your constant companion. Sometimes it is the crushing weight of the uncaring dark void that makes our extinction a near certainty, sometimes it is a more palpable, unnameable presence, an entity so beyond your ken that you are insignificant in comparison. You are plagued by unrest and unease, taunted by nightmares and a sense that reality is not always as grounded as you would like.
Negative Trait (Choose One):
- Addiction
- Cosmic Anxiety Disorder
- Paranoia
Free Sleight (Choose One):
- Heightened Awareness
- Infectious Mind
- Nightmare
The Stranger
Your infection is the shadow at your side, the whispering chant of its unusual desires echoing just below the limits of your perception. It is omnipresent but patient, waiting for moments of vulnerability to steer you towards its inscrutable ends. Though its motivations are hazy, it seems to enjoy testing your limits -- and those of trans-humanity at large.
Negative Trait (Choose One):
- Disassociative Personality Disorder
- Paramnesia
- Paranoia
Free Sleight (Choose One):
- Superior Kinesics
- Basilisk Stare
- Subliminal
The Xenomorph
An alien presence lives inside of you. Your instinctual responses are different form those of your original phenotype and you occasionally find yourself acting in ways more fitting to a physiology different from yours. You might feel a weird compulsion to burrow into sand, lay eggs, eat non-nutritious or dangerous substances, or clean phantom appendages that aren't part of your current anatomy. You may even seek out morphs that better accommodate these omnipresent urges. You sometimes express an outlook that other transhumans find strange, just as you are occasionally confused or mystified by transhuman culture practices. When the infection expresses itself strongly, these omnipresent urges seem quite normal, but the transhumans around you seem more and more bizarre and alien. While some asyncs report this sub-strain as adhering to a specific alien anatomy (e.g., they often feel insectoid or aquatic), others clearly feel that the alien presence within transforms and changes over time.
Negative Trait (Choose One):
- Alien Behavioral Disorder
- Atavism
- Body Dysmorphia
- Conversion Disorder
Free Sleight (Choose One):
- Somatic Control
- Eco-Empathy
- Xeno-Empathy