Mystic

A galactic wanderer in touch with the Way

While your powers make you a force to be reckoned with in Procyon, far more important is your ability to understand and deal with The Way and all things tied to it. From handling Ur artifacts to calming strange creatures in the dead of space, a Mystic makes life on the rim substantially safer.
When you play a Mystic, you thrive when you address challenges with wisdom or the Way. This will naturally push you towards the unknown and inexplicable. When things get weird, that’s your moment to find answers.

PLAYING A MYSTIC

Many kinds of Mystics wander the sector. Since there are numerous conflicting theories about the Way, mystic orders spring up around strong opinions about how the universe works. Think about how you access and perceive the Way and the forces you control. Do you connect to Way lines that crisscross the galaxy? Or use a focus of ancient symbols and embedded Ur artifacts?
How did you learn the techniques and secrets that have unlocked your access to the Way? Some Mystics are changed by exposure to Ur artifacts or Way creatures. Others train for years in secluded monasteries, or in Hegemony-sponsored Cults.
Your crew will rely on you to be their interpreter of the Way. When your crew comes across strange disturbances, filter your explanations through your theories about the Way. Look for experiences that challenge your beliefs of how the Way acts, and grapple with your new understandings. These obstacles bring life to the unusual. Remember that while there might be wild and fantastical things in Precursor ruins, the Hegemony also uses Ur artifacts in some everyday things (like Urbots and jump drives).
For Actions, if you intend to be a Mystic fighter, you’ll want to pick up scrap, or sway and consort for those looking to go the more mental route.

STARTING ABILITY

THE WAY
You can spend a gambit instead of paying any stress cost.
Any time you need to spend stress, you may spend a gambit instead. This includes resistances and push costs. For abilities that have a variable cost, such as Sundering, those additional costs are all part of the same activation, so the push and all additional features together only costs one gambit.

SPECIAL ABILITIES (PICK ONE)

KINETICS
You can push yourself to do one of the following: use the Way to throw a table-sized object with dangerous force—propel yourself briefly with superhuman speed.
Dangerous force means fast enough to severely injure a normal person. Superhuman speed means fast enough that you’re barely more than a blur. Your reach is about the size of a large room. Yes, people can count as objects.
PSY-BLADE
You can focus Way energy into your melee weapon. While charged, the weapon can cut through non-shielded materials with ease, and you gain potency on your melee attacks.
Heavy metal plates are non-shielded, so you can cut through most doors without trouble. Shielded constructs are rare, but they offer enough protection that this attack would lose its potency. You cannot infuse your fists with Way energy (or gloves, brass knuckles, etc.).
CENTER
You gain Meditation as a vice. When you indulge this vice, clear +1 stress and add Dark Visions as a possible overindulgence.
Contemplation of the universe is not without its perils. When you choose Dark Visions as an overindulgence, the Way shows you a loved one, contact, or friend in great danger.
WAY SHIELD
You can block blaster bolts with the Way (resist with resolve ). If you resist a blaster attack, you may spend 1 stress to redirect fire and make an attack of your own with it.
Resisting blasters in this way usually reduces the harm to zero.
WARDED
You may expend your special armor to resist the consequences of a Way attack or artifact use, or push yourself when using mystic powers.
When you use this ability, tick the special armor box on your playbook sheet. If you use this ability to push yourself, you get one of the benefits (+1d, +1 effect, act despite severe harm) but you don’t take 2 stress. Your special armor is restored when you select your load at the start of a job.
PSY-DANCING
You may push yourself to cloud a target’s mind and sway them in the face of contradictory evidence. “You must do as I say. I am the ambassador.” Spend 1 stress for each additional feature: they have only vague memories of the event—it works on a small group.
Such confusions do not persist indefinitely, though those with vague memories will often fill in the missing details with assumptions. “I must’ve checked her badge. I always do.”
VISIONS
Spend 1 stress to remotely view a distant place or person tied to you in some intimate way. Spend 1 stress for each extra feature: it lasts for a minute rather than a moment—your target can also see and hear you—you may see something only familiar to you, not intimate.
Spending a gambit with your starting ability (“the Way”) covers all costs. When your target can also see and hear you, you are both within the same “area,” for the purposes of other abilities.
SUNDERING
You may push yourself to attune to the Way and twist it, causing psychic harm to anyone in the area vulnerable to your assault. You may spend 1 stress for each additional feature: it damages instead of stuns—you and anyone you choose get +2d to resist the effects.
You warp the Way within you, and by extension warp the Way in others—a risky proposition at best. Sundering cannot harm inanimate objects. When causing harm, the symptoms can include short-term seizures and ruptured blood vessels. Those specially trained to resist psychic attacks or are somehow shielded may reduce your effect.

STARTING ACTIONS

2 Attune 1 Scramble

WEIRD FRIENDS

• Horux, a former teacher. Do you go to them for advice even now? Or do they feel you’ve misused their teachings?
• Hicks, a mystic goods supplier. A reliable supplier of Vosian crystals, or a callous opportunist preying on your faith?
• Laxx, a xeno. Unusual friend or a dangerous foe? Way sensitive, or your “normal” friend?
• Rye, an unrequited love. Was it your training and customs that got between you?
• Blish, a fellow mystic. Walking the same path or with wildly different beliefs about the Way?

MYSTIC ITEMS

Mystics often have complex rituals and customs concerning the Way, and hence tend to carry more gear tied more to their practices. Many of their belongings are tied to their training or the price they pay for their dedication to it.

• Fine melee weapon. Antiquated weapon that acts as an extension of your body. In the age of blasters, swords and polearms are quaint remnants of culture and custom for the most part. But Way powers seem to interact stubbornly with advanced technology. Each mystic order keeps anachronistic items, and uses them in different ways. Do you have such a weapon? If so, what training have you had with it, and how do you use it? [2 load]
• Offerings. A candle, oil lamp, flowers, food, water, incense, pebbles from your journey. Were they gifts, left at a shrine for any mystic to take as they wander, or given in return for a job? [0 load]
• Trappings of religion. Scrolls, texts, icons, cups and bowls, bells. What sacred objects does your particular order of mystics bear? How easily recognizable would this be? [1 load]
• Outdated religious outfit. Robes, worn cloaks, sandals, etc. Participants and practitioners of popular and sanctioned Hegemonic Cults often bear well-known insignia of modern manufacture. Was yours passed down? Never replaced? Hand crafted? [1 load]
• Memento of your travels. A small statue, outdated currency, a lock of hair, a picture. Who gave this to you, and why do you cherish it? Is it a reminder of a good or bad memory? [0 load]
• Precursor artifact. A small object made of ancient materials. Precursor tech. Was this given to you by the mystics that trained you, found as a child, or something you’ve picked up on your travels? What does it do? Discuss its powers, costs, and side effects with your table. [1 load]