Psychic, Cyberware, and Pharmaceutical Options and Changes for Stars Without Number

This now Part 7 of my series on things I made for my now-completed Stars Without Number campaign. If you want to see everything from all the posts at once, there’s a large google doc with it all.

This is kind of like the miscellaneous post of all the extra PC options I added that didn’t have enough to make its own category. You’ll also see a lot here that references Cities Without Number. If you have some PCs that want to pilot mechs and other PCs that don’t, I highly recommend using cyberware to even the playing field (and credit spending) between them.

Psychic Techniques

Telekinetic Arsenal

(Telekinesis-2, requires Telekinetic Armory)

When you manifest your Telekinetic Armory, you can spend effort 1-for-1 to add any of the following effects to what you manifest.  You can only have up to your Telekinesis skill in effects active at a time. When you manifest your Telekinetic Armory this way, it costs an Action instead of an on-turn action.

Ranged Weapons:

• Increase range
• Burst
• Change damage to 3d4, but reduce range
• Silent (costs 2 effort)

Melee Weapons:

• Stun Damage
• Suit Ripper
• Increase Shock Damage
• Increase weapon size (and associated damage)
• Increase Shock AC

Armor

• Immune to TL3 and Lower (counts as two effects)

Cyberware

Nothing new, but I added a large amount of Cyberware from Cities Without Number, at least those that didn’t already have similar or superior versions in Stars. It worked out very well.

I also added the Cyberware Maintenance rule and Skillplugs from CWN.

Drones

I brought the DroneAdded new drone types and mods from CWN and they worked quite well.

Drone Fitting – Target Painter 

100m range, 5k cost, Takes up 3 fitting slots. A heavy drone-fitted computer with aimed targeting laser. As a Main Action the drone can paint the target until the start of its next turn. Friendly mechs with the Fire Control Unit / Slave fitting who attack that target gain the benefit of the Fire Control Unit / Master being nearby. If the target is destroyed before all of a mech’s shots have been fired, they may not finish their shots off on another target. If another friendly Target Painter is used before the first one’s effect expires, the previous one ceases.

Pharmaceuticals

While some of the Cities Without Number drugs overlapped with Stars, those that didn’t were brought over.

• Boneshaker: From Cities Without Number.
• Chokeout: From Cities Without Number, with the clarification that immediate resuscitation can be attempted if the victim chokes to death.
• Control-Delete: From Cities Without Number.
• Hellbender: From Cities Without Number.
• Madeleine: From Cities Without Number.
• Medical Prescription: From Cities Without Number, but with a tweaked description. One of a thousand different medical drugs, a prescription like this is often necessary to treat some chronic condition or keep a medical problem from growing worse. The prices for these can vary wildly on different planets. Lucky users only need a dose a few times a week, but others must have a daily supply or suffer potentially lethal complications.
• Olympus: From Cities Without Number.
• Panacea: From Cities Without Number.
• Pillow: From Cities Without Number.
• Psycho: From Cities Without Number.
• Rose: This rare and usually illegal “perfume” contains an artificial fungus that makes those nearby more susceptible to suggestion. Users gain +1 to all skill checks involving influencing, inspiring, or convincing those within 10 meters for one hour after application. The perfume spay itself also contains a neutralizing agent that is quickly absorbed by the skin, making the user and anyone else who used a dose themselves immune to the effect. It should be noted this substance is detectable to advanced TL4 and most TL5 security measures.
• Sand: From Cities Without Number, but with a mechanical effect added. While under its influence, the user gains a +2 bonus to Morale checks and a -2 AC, hit, and melee damage penalty.
• Sharp: This drug sharpens a users senses including eyesight, hearing, movement, and balance, for about ten minutes. During this, they gain +1 to all skill checks that involve noticing, perceiving, or moving quickly or stealthily. After it wears off they get terrible head and muscle aches for roughly an hour, taking a -1 penalty to all rolls during it, as well as gaining 2 System Strain.
• Window: From Cities Without Number.