GURPS: Psionic Impersonation

This post contains a disguise ability for the Ergokinesis and Telepathy powers. The base ability is obvious, but hopefully some of the details will prove useful.

Impersonation 12/16 points for levels 1-2.

You can alter the minds around you to perceive you differently. You can alter your skin and facial features to appear similar to another of yours or a very similar race. Visualizing your new appearance takes 10 seconds and requires an Impersonation roll to duplicate a particular individual. Whenever you are perceived, roll a Quick Contest of Impersonation vs Will. If you win, the viewer perceives the appearance you visualized, and you gain +4 to disguise rolls against that individual. Your GM rolls each viewer separately but may roll for groups if desired. Returning to your original form takes three seconds.

At level 1. The ability affects only your physical appearance. At level 2, you are able to modify how your voice is perceived to mimic another’s voice. This requires at least 10 seconds of listening to the target and making an Impersonation roll.

Statistics: Elastic Skin (Only against living, sapient beings, -20%; Requires Impersonation vs Will Roll, -10%; Telepathy, -10%) [12] for level 1. Level 2 adds Mimicry (Only against living, sapient beings, -20%; Speech only, -20%; Requires Impersonation vs Will Roll, -10%; Telepathy, -10%) [4].

Bulk Compensation

Hard

Default: Impersonation varies; cannot exceed impersonation.

If you succeed in using this technique, you can alter the appearance of objects you hold or wear in addition to your own appearance. You gain a +4 bonus to holdout checks to conceal hidden items with this technique. No Encumbrance defaults to Impersonation-1. The defaults for other encumbrance levels are as for the Mind Clouding technique at an additional -1.

Exclusion

Hard

As the Mind Clouding technique.

Gray Man

Hard

Default: Impersonation-4; cannot exceed impersonation.

Instead of disguising yourself as a specific individual, you blend into a crowd as a “generic person.” Make a Quick Contest against anyone who observes you. If you win, you gain +4 to avoid standing out in a crowd as long as you refrain from acting in any way out of the ordinary. This bonus increases to +6 at level 2. Half the bonus if you are in only a small crowd. Reduce the bonus by 2 (or 3 at level 2) if you wear any logo on your clothing, have an unusual hair color or style, etc. You gain no bonus if there are few people around you, you look significantly different from the others around you, cause a scene, etc. You are still entirely visible. People can see you, but they tend not to pay attention and won’t remember you.

Gray Man Alternate

Hard

Default: Impersonation-4; cannot exceed impersonation

Instead of disguising yourself as a specific individual, you blend into a crowd as a “generic person.” Make a Quick Contest against anyone who observes you. If you win, the person viewing does not remember you after the fact but does have a clear sense that his memory was manipulated somehow. You are still entirely visible. People can see you in the moment, but they do not to remember you.

Rapid Adaptation

Hard

Default: Impersonation-2; cannot exceed Impersonation.

If you succeed with this technique, reduce the activation time by half. For each 2 points by which you succeed, reduce the the time by half again: 5 seconds for success, 3 seconds for success by 2, 2 seconds for success by 4, 1 second for success by 6, instantaneous for success by 8.

Buy this technique separately the visual and auditory effects.

Electronic Impersonation 12/16 points for levels 1-2.

As for Impersonation but replace Telepathy with Ergokinesis and Only against living, sapients with Only against electronic machines.

Roll at a penalty equal to the target’s complexity for most machines instead of a Quick Contest. Make a Quick Contest against AI’s Will.

Gray Man

The Gray Man technique applies to algorithmic searches to notice you. Gray Man Alternate removes you from the “memory” of computers but leaves clear traces of tampering.

Designer Notes

I could have used the Glamour limitation to represent the mind manipulating nature of the abilities, but I decided to use Quick Contest mechanics instead of a penalized Will check. Swapping the limitation is a simple task left as an exercise to the reader.

For Bulk Compensation, I substituted the Disguise bonus with Holdout for items.

Gray Man is a variant of Chameleon using behaving like the crowd as blending into the environment. Gray Man Alternate is based on Obscure(Memory). They fulfill similar roles, but they are different. The Obscure based variant makes it difficult for people to remember you while the Chameleon based variant is more useful for blending into a crowd. There is no reason that the techniques can’t coexist since they are both useful, but they would need to have distinct names.

The material presented here is my original creation, intended for use with the GURPS system from Steve Jackson Games. This material is not official and is not endorsed by Steve Jackson Games.