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1 TM

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Table o’ Contents
No Man's Land ... 85 The Marshal's
Handbook 95

Chapter Four:
Syker Tech 87 Chapter Five:
Sykertropic Drugs 87 Syker
Hardware .... 91
Chapter One: Secrets 97
Veterans o' the The Jericho Academy 99
Powers 101
Syker Wars 5 Syker Tech 101
Way Back When .. 5 Brainburn 103
The Academies 8
Syker Squads 24 Chapter Six:
Earth Sykers 29
Jericho 29 Red
Tale of an Earth Syker .... 30 Reckoning Ill
The End 32

Chapter Two:
Makin'
Sykers 35
Starting Powers 37
Hindrances 38
New Hindrances 38
New Edges 39
How Sykers Get
Their Groove On 41
Earth Sykers 42
The Uses of
Syker Powers 44
Tactics for Sykers .. 45
Affecting Undead .... 47
Syker Slang 47

Chapter Three:
Syker Powers 53
New Powers 53
Creating New Powers .... 81
$ Syker Powers
More Syker Powers
83
84
84
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Chapter One:
Veterans o’ the Syfrer Wars
.3: 3 . ,,*06
m

Hey, you .
Yeah , you . Baldie. C' mere a minute.
You ' re a syker, aren ' t you ?
Way Bad When
Sure, sure, a lot of guys have lost their hair- They don 't teach you kids much these days.
some naturally, some 'cause of radiation . But not Hell , there are hardly any schools where they
many as young as you . Or with such a clean could teach you . So I'll begin with a few basics.
scalp. Brainers with the glows lose their hair in Over 200 years ago, on July 3, 1863, there was
patches. Your head 's shiny as a waxed baby 's this little thing called " the Reckoning." It was
butt. touched off by a bitter, old bastard named Raven .
I ve been around a long time, kid . 1 recognize a
' He was a 1} irnmortal Indian shaman who never
ver act .tbat; wblte men had killed his
greenie syker when I see one. And a newbie like
you-Hell , I can practically see the water dripping
§ ot
family °
, so
tbe
he^decided to take it out on them by
off your earlobes unleashing a group of evil spirits called
manitous . At least that 's the Indian name for 'em .
How do I know? I m one myself . Name s Jack
' '
Mather, but most folks just call me "Sarge." These demons served greater masters the
1.
See this clasp holding my shirt together ? Reckoners-feeding them with human fear. The
That 's a Screaming Eagle. It shows I was on Reckoners turned around and planted more
Banshee. The sykers who stayed on Earth don ’ t fear by releasing all sorts ot monsters into the
% have clasps and symbols like these. They didn ' t world — many ot which are still running around
i do anything to earn them out tbere even as we speak , so watch yourself .
Som folks soon realized they could
t
No , I didn 't find you by accident . Some of us
make a point of seeking out greenies" like you
" manipulate
me ^ this new magic too. Some called
l and teaching them what they need to know. The
old academies are gone forever, but a few of us
; be
J ,
^ !f
OC they used to harness magic
hexes, and they cast spells like wizards
ta es - Well , okay, not exactly
have started a new one. Why ? 'Cause sykers are
brothers. And sisters. If you don t learn how to
'
handle your powers you re not going to live long
, '
[figured
lke
,
^ at '
out ^but
a
y u §el: my point . They
°
way to tap into the land of
enough to appreciate 'em . Or you ' ll give the rest J?
c Reckoners-what the Indians call the
of us a bad name by blowing your fool head off . .aS.unl:in§ Groun < aab draw arcane power
or siding with the wrong elements out there in
"

^f
from it by literally dueling a demon, or
the wastes mamtou , for it . Sometimes that worked
So sit , and let me tell you about your family. like a charm' but sometimes it backfired , >
 and the "huckster," or spellcaster, got zapped by martial artists were able to tap into the Hunting
the manitou. All in all, not the best of situations, Grounds directly and, because of their intense
really. The same goes for the "mad scientists" mental training, use its power with little fear of
who unwittingly used the power of the manitous harm.
to create fabulous inventions-but who were Needless to say, the governments of the world
almost inevitably driven insane by the process. were veeeery interested in these folks.
But there were some other folks who could Starting with the USA and later the CSA, the
reach into the Hunting Grounds and grab a Agency and the Texas Rangers began rounding
fistful of power for themselves without suffering up hucksters and their brethren so they could
any kind of backlash. The most prominent of study and test them. Some of them came
these were the martial artists of China, Japan, willingly and offered to help their countries, but
and other parts eastward ( no, not back on the far more were simply shanghaied, kidnapped, or
Atlantic seaboard-the Far East ). blackmailed into participating.
Somehow these fighters were able to draw on They were poked, prodded, run through mazes,
the power of the Hunting Grounds to perform all monitored, examined, analyzed, psychoanalyzed,
sorts of amazing feats. They could jump and subjected to countless tests. Sometimes they
dozens of feet, cause terrible injuries with a were even dissected-and not always after they

0. ^
seemingly insignificant punch, even snatch had bothered to stop breathing, if you catch my
bullets out of the very air! They could do all drift. This was just the first in a long line of
sorts of stuff . episodes of exploitation of people like us by the
Even better, they never seemed to suffer so-called "authorities."
dar any problems from using these powers. m Don't get me wrong. Me and all the other
There were lots of old-sometimes very old kers were all gung-ho when it came to saving

m
.
martial , artists Very few hucksters or rndW
- Peountry. Maybe even the world. They just
’

" if - ^
sctenti s survived long enough to get gray
QlpIfeTijtheiT;: beds. Somehow the
never told us we'd have to destroy it first.
Blood under the bridge, I suppose.
Let's get back to the lesson.
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l The Huc&ster-Soldiers
It took the Agency and the Rangers a while, The governments who studied the ^ Si*
but eventually they started to get a glimmer of martial artists decided the time had C0‘
the truth. They figured out how hucksters and to develop training programs of their o&ijtfSI
[j martial artists accessed the Hunting Grounds. At first these programs were fairly smalf ?| §f j
I More importantly, they learned what sort of The masters were still learning how to m
t people have the talent to do so, and how to find build and use their tools. The first projects .
\ them. Both the CSA and USA, not to mention took as long as 20 years to produce a usable
I other countries around the world , began to "psychic warrior," or "syker" as they
1

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l? "recruit volunteers" from among the "potentials," eventually came to be called . About 80% of the
t as they called them, with an eye toward people who entered the programs died or went
i developing a corps of arcane- powered soldiers
I insane . Only a few survived to use their powers
\ for use in their military forces . in combat .
The sykers got their first trial by fire during a
Trying to use the hucksters in armies
ultimately proved disastrous. Their powers were big dust-up called World War 1. It began when a
too unreliable for proper military use, and the German dictator decided he needed a bigger
chance of a backlash causing harm to other backyard and tried to take over the rest of
| members of a huckster 's unit was too great . Just Europe. The whole conflict soon drew in all the
I to use one famous example, during the later European nations, plus the American ones as
f years of the War Between the States, both sides well . The USA weighed into the fight on the side
I began including hucksters small specialized
in , of the "Allies"-those who opposed the Germans
| field units. While on a raid in Kentucky , a and their comrades-in the year 1917. The CSA
I Southern huckster named Luke McCray lost his came in at about the same time, or maybe a
duel with a manitou while attempting to destroy little earlier. ( I'm not sure.) The few sykers who
; an enemy unit with arcane energy. made it over there proved to be invaluable. The
I The resulting blast blew McCray 's head to Germans had a psychic development program of
{ smithereens, annihilated about four-fifths of the their own, but it lagged far behind the American
j rest of his unit , and left the survivors to be versions.
[ slaughtered by the Northern troops-who
I recovered a valuable military intelligence report Sergeant Yor!r
i from one of their bodies. As a result , the The American governments usually hushed up
I Northern army was able to ambush the Southern syker involvement anyway. They preferred to
I army two days later and achieve a major victory. inspire theandtroops
| So, huckster-soldiers proved to be a pretty hide
with stories of "ordinary"
the extent of their psychic
victories
| stupid idea, overall. The martial artists worked warriors' awesome powers. For example, one of
t out better. What I mean is that the martial the best - known stories from that war was about
l artists' methods worked better than those of the this tough old Reb named Sergeant York. He
f. hucksters. Of course, neither nation was going single- handedly killed 25 Germans and captured
l to allow a lot of foreigners into their army back 132 more in a daring attack on a machine-gun
$ then, but they did learn from them. nest. What the newspapers didn’t tell the
; Eventually, the Northern and Southern cheering public was that York was no ordinary
i governments figured out what made the martial soldier. He was a syker.
| artists tick, how they were able to draw power He used a power we now call one- man army
| from the Hunting Grounds with such relative to make it look like there were dozens of him.
F ease. I don’t know exactly what it was, myself , The Germans, thinking themselves
| though I've been told it 's a combination of outmatched , surrendered to him. I heard
I certain latent genetic anomalies which are tell that when he learned the truth, the
i
s
brought out through intensive training regimens
Supposedly this genetic trait is a little bit
, German captain in charge of the men
who were captured killed himself in
i X

I more common among folks hailing from China aame. The government didn ' t tell anyone
s and other parts of Asia , which is why they
^
fork was a syker 'cause they were afraid
developed such powers long before the rest of ;#ii§igular soldiers would just dig i n a n d w a i t
us. But there are plenty of other people around for someone else to do all the dirty work IlffP
the world who can do it too , given the right for them , A
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 The Academies
World War I convinced all the world's
governments to ramp up their syker programs.
Before long, the training programs were
formalized into special academies.
The first of these academies was the United
States Psionic Academy, or USPA , located in a
secret facility said to be somewhere in Idaho or
Iowa . Some "I" state. There was a scientist there
named Bertram Killingham who did more to
advance the study of syker powers than anyone.
Even today, eggheads use the term "Killinghams”
to represent "units of psionic energy.” Real
sykers just call it " juice.”
The Confederate equivalent , where I went, was
the Mental Proving Ground. It was in western
Louisiana , so it ’s under water now. We were a bit
more brutal in our discipline and training, but
our way worked . The Rebs got just about as
many sykers out of the Proving Ground as the
Northerners did out of the USPA.
Naturally, many other governments had their
own programs, like the British Wembley Yards
school or the Chinese Wuxi-Chang course. All
were similar in one way or another to the two
main American programs. By the time the
Second World War broke out, the training
programs had been decreased to a 10- to 15-year
period , and several hundred sykers had been
churned out .

Kinetics
Killingham and other scientists who studied
sykers before the Last War divided syker powers
up into five categories: biokinesis, psionics,
sykokinesis, pyrokinesis, and telekinesis. Some
weirdos have other categories, but these are the
main groupings which just about everyone
agrees on.
BioJrinesis
Biokinetic powers manipulate body functions
in humans, animals, and-as we found out later -
even aliens.
Brainburners accomplish this nifty trick by
probing the victim 's mind with psionic energy,
then getting in sync with its electrical and
neurological impulses. The body being a
Complicated thing, biokinetic powers require
total concentration . They 're a little easier to pull
off on your own body than someone else's, but
even that's still tough. That’s why sykers don ' t
make great healers.

Posse:8
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bionics The funny thing is that no

Psionic powers are things like mental why sykers can manipulate fifePWJp?
communication, mind control, and emotional water ? Or cold ? Who knows? That wipff ®
t
influence. Typically, these abilities involve the one of the mysteries scientists had been
syker channeling energy toward the target's trying to solve when the Last War broke - jfl§§
'

! - mind and then controlling some part of the id, out . m

1 ego, or superego. Or sometimes they just poke Pyrokinetic powers were not especially
5 the host's mind in the cerebral kiester with a widespread or popular during the Cold War
1 sharp stick. years, when sykers mainly worked as spies
Psionic powers also allow sykers to do things and commandos. They really came into their
like detect other minds (or mental powers), scan own during the Faraway War and the Last War.
i a large area for a particular mind, perceive When the sykers finally had to stand up and
through another person 's senses, or turn some begin blasting things, nothing worked better
i loser into his personal servant . Handy stuff . than powers like arson , pyro, or slow burn. And
The hard part is that people don 't like having pyrokinetic abilities haven ' t lost any popularity
their minds invaded. Go figure, huh? How 'd you in the Wasted West . Nothing 's better for roasting
like for someone to peek into your head and muties.
examine every dirty thought you ' ve ever had? Or
E every sick notion that crossed your mind , even SySroSrinesis
¥
? for an instant? Then they give you that look like Sykokinesis was originally "psychokinesis,"
you 're filth ? That 's why no one likes "mind but everyone misspelled it so often , sykers made
: freaks." Of course the worst part is some folks it official.
think we're all like that . Get around someone Regardless of how you spell it, sykokinesis is
who doesn 't know better, and they'll think you the manipulation of supernatural energy. How it
can read their every thought . If you can , kid , works is more mysterious than even pyrokinesis.
V It is also damned unpredictable and has the
keep it to yourself . Nobody likes to have
strangers going through their dirty laundry. most chance of backfiring. Many of the powers
in this category can be just as dangerous to the
Minesis syker as folks he's working against .
Telekinetic powers is a broad category, it Sykokinetic powers let you steal another
covers everything that involves mental syker 's juice, zap another loser's power, and all
manipulation of matter. This includes not only kinds of funky stuff . We were really just getting
* telekinesis itself but many other specialized a handle on sykokinesis when the world blew
applications of TK , such as boneripping or itsy- up.
t bitsy spider.
i
Telekinetic powers were very popular with
Banshee sykers because of their versatility and
The “Sixth” Category
:
capability for carnage. ( A few successful Aztec A lot of brainers think sykers can interface
i with machines, and the term "cyberkinesis" has
i surprises put fear into the local anouks.)
Telekinetic powers are also useful for creating appeared in newspapers like the old Epitaph and
? minor but impressive effects-things like drinking other rags. It just ain ' t true, kid . Mostly.
a mug of beer without holding it in your hands, See, there is this device called "machine head "
or making someone dance in midair. These developed by Hellstromme Industries. It
translates brain waves into electronic signals to
\ "parlor tricks" can be good for impressing the
let you sync up with a computer or other
yokels. Sometimes that 's more important than
blowing some jerk's head off if you 're in need of gizmo with a CPU (Central Processing Unit, 1
food and shelter for the night . junior ), but no syker I know has ever been J
able to do that without the machine head .
tyroifinesis I guess folks think sykers can do all
! those things because they've seen sykers
Pyrokinetic powers involve the mental imnews vids jacked into warwalkers and
manipulation and creation of fire, flame, and
L heat. A skilled pyrokinetic can detonate rJgjjpther assault craft , or breaking into
[
targets to burst into flame, or even take out
^
.v safemputers and stealing secrets. It 's only
explosives at range with but a thought , cause his logical to
figure we can do it on our own.
But we can't, not without a little
t entire platoons with tremendous bursts of flame.
technological wizardry.
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e Syirer Wars
After the war ended , with the Americans and
s Beautiful their Allies victorious, the world settled down
apess
;;
into a so-called "Cold War " pitting the two

Utoiagh ’oSSis
work. It causes a lot of stress and
American nations ( now generally allied with
each other ) against the power of the Soviet
|/strain on the system . One of the ways this Union-what eventually became the Russian
:'T Isstress manifests is that your hair falls out. I Federation . Looking back on that era , one might
i used to have a big, full head of hair, but wonder whether entire military budgets weren 't
S; blasting anouks burnt it right off . Some of the really devoted to spying. When you can 't fight
old martial artists went through the same with guns and bombs, you fight with
thing, but most didn ' t push their powers like we information-a spy’s stock in trade.
did. Hucksters got off the hook , even though As a result , the number of syker training
they pushed their powers to the limit, because academies soared , as did the amount of research
manitous helped them out . We pushed our into syker powers and their applications. As
powers and did it on our own. Our hair paid the techniques improved and understanding of
price. psychic powers increased , the amount of time
The scientists used to talk about "dermal ” needed to train a syker shrank to five years. As
stress factors and "follicle fatigue," but I don ' t of the Last War, no one had succeeded in
think they had a clue about it. There hasn’ t been reducing this training time further-and at this
a working syker who wasn't stark bald since we point I doubt anyone ever will, since there aren ' t
started . Even the lady sykers are like that. any formal training programs anymore.
Personally, I think it 's damn sexy. As the "fighting" became more vicious, more
attention was paid to using syker powers not
Syfrers in the Night just to gather intelligence, but to eliminate
enemy agents and officials. Assassination joined
Anyway, the world's powers quickly discovered spying and sabotage in the syker 's portfolio. The
sykers were best at black ops: commando and graduates of the Soviet Union 's elite Schola
spy stuff . Their powers gave them an unmatched prevlenie in particular developed a reputation for
ability to impersonate, infiltrate, assassinate, ruthless use of their powers to kill ,

gather intelligence, and perform all the other However, despite their increasing power, sykers
tasks that keep governments and armies going. gradually became more and more outmoded .
They could be used for pure military missions Though unmatched as spies, they weren' t nearly
too-fighting on the battlefield and all that-but as effective on the battlefield as many of the
generally they weren 't as good at that, and weapons developed in the early- to- mid -21st
frankly they were too valuable to risk on such century.
dangerous activities. It took little or no training for ordinary
So, covert ops is what the sykers did during soldiers to use guns which virtually aimed
the Second World War, which started in , if my themselves and fired explosive armor -piercing
memory serves me, 1939 and lasted until 1948 or ammunition , to aim accurately emplaced guns
so. Unlike World War I, which was basically capable of firing across oceans, to target objects
confined to Europe, in World War II they pulled as sman as a human hand with space- based
out all the stops. There was fighting across the iasers, or t 0 gain a precise picture of the
globe: Europe, Africa , Asia , and even a few battlefield using linked radar and satellite
generally unsuccessful strikes here and there imagery and computer mapping ,

against the Americas. Sykers, by contrast , had limited uses and were
Espionage and sabotage were very, very outrageously expensive to train. They could even
important. There's nothing like knowing become liabilities if they went loco due to
about your enemy 's troop movements or brainburn or, worse, became double agents
h V] technological developments to give you that serving their former enemies. Generals enamored
upper hand , after all. And sykers, spies, and Qf the toys Df War became less and less willing
<• commandos were invaluable to both sides.
| o fund psychic warrior programs instead of
A spy who can change his appearance w
read minds, and manipulate locks and
development projects. However, they
<l!te$ma.intain elite troops of "black ops" sykers
fiovertank
A machines with just a thought is virtually for use in the inevitable, low -intensity conflict
-
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I The Sandusfry Incident Beredslry
: The most famous syker incident concerns the Another good example of syker power in
. . United States President Everett Sandusky, who
. action is the Beredsky case of 2031. The United
ran the country from 2012 until his death in 2016. States' Agency uncovered evidence that
s His fondness for the ladies was well known , and Beredsky, a Washington, DC, bookseller, was a
. the Russian (formerly Soviet ) spymasters decided spy for the Russian Federation and a point of
to take advantage of this fact. They sent one of contact for many other Russian spies in the
their most highly trained sykers, Akilina region.
Svetlova, to eliminate the President, allowing his Without attracting any attention whatsoever,
[ more pacifistic Vice President to replace him. they had some of their sykers "bring him in ” for
; Svetlova used the skinwalker power to "questioning." When it was all over, Beredsky's
I impersonate one of the President's many personality had been completely broken down
I mistresses and gained access to his bedroom and remade. He kept on spying-but for the
I while the First Lady was away on a goodwill United States. Every report he filed for nearly 20
I tour of some God-forsaken place in Af rica. Once years contained only information the Agency
I they were alone, she dropped the disguise and, wished him to transmit. The resulting
I before he could scream for help, gutted him like disinformation campaign, coupled with
I a fish. knowledge gained from Beredsky's
I His aides found his corpse sprawled on his contacts back home, proved invaluable to
I blood-soaked bed the next morning. Svetlova the Americans during the Last War. One
I was never seen again, but you can bet her former Northern Alliance officer who
I masters paid her a pretty penny to vanish into «>:g;;,„gs ’•A
;y
aftwived the war said Beredsky was the
'

; the woodwork for the rest of her life. The whole one who alerted the Northern Alliance to
operation went so well that the United States
[ only found out what happened when a spy dug
through the Russian archives a few years later.
\ ;
i&e Russian landing in Alaska. That-iittie
tidbit got an entire Russkie battalion
wiped out on the beach.
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 sSrej

The RocJr Rush

The Tunnel The anouks didn ' t seem to mind contact with
V Hellstromme's discovery of the Tunnel Earth . At first, the only people who really
ep^ •
- back in '44 was destined to change the sykers wanted to go there were scientists and the like.
L forever. Now, I 'm not up on all the fancy They began studying, exploring , and analyzing 1
f science behind the thing, but 1 know what it everything they could get their hands on. It was
I- did. a lab weasel’s dream come true: a whole new
It opened a pathway to another world . planet and people to learn about!
Sure, the Americans, Russians, and All that changed in 2052 when a scientific i
Europeans had established bases in near space expedition sponsored by the European
and on the Moon a decade or so before, and the Confederation discovered ghost rock on Banshee.
Americans would have one on Mars before too News of the Eurcon team 's discovery soon
much longer. But as advanced as their space reached just about everyone on Earth , and the
programs were, they could never hope to travel race was on. Suddenly tens of thousands of %
to other stars (or their planets) in a person's people were coming to Banshee, hoping to strike
lifetime . it rich . The newsguys called it the "Rock Rush."
The Tunnel changed all that . Think of it as a The anouks were none too pleased . Having
shortcut across the galaxy , junior . And the some scientists on their world was one thing,
probes that Hellstrom me Industries sent through but having huge, human colonies of greedy rock -
soon found an inhabitable planet! It was in a diggers was another thing entirely. They
star system Hellstromme himself called protested strongly to whatever human officials
"Faraway because of
" its location far across the they could find and tried to set limits and
galaxy Hellstrom
. me immediat ely sent a ship and boundaries on human settlements and activities.
a squad of his "corporate security force" ( read: As you can imagine, this worked about as well
private army ) through the Tunnel to the planet. as it did when the Indians tried to do the same
thing on Earth 200 years ago. In short , humans
Banshee and the ftnoufo kept doing what they wanted . The anouks,
When they got there , these soldiers ( marines , despite occasional raids on human settlements
really ) found a planet full of people! All right , and minor " brush wars" with settlers, kept
maybe I should be more clear. They were aliens. getting pushed back from any areas with ghost
That s right : little green
' , men - except they weren ' t rock . Any treaties which were made were soon
little green
, , or men . In fact , they had dark purple broken by one or both sides.
skins, were taller than humans, and seem to You see, most of the folks who went to
have descended from some type of Banshee were, well, let 's just say they were
warmblooded lizard . Hellstrom me 's marines unscrupulous. Only the most greedy or desperate
called em grapes
' " ." sort travel millions of light -years from their
After the marines misinterpreted the aliens' homes to chip at rocks on another planet .
attempted greeting as an attack , they opened Whether they wore dirty, tattered leathers or
fire. About 200 or so of the aliens were tailored survival gear, a lot of the Banshee
slaughtered before the marines realized what "colonists" were pretty much the worst humanity
was going on. After that stellar ( pardon the pun ) had to offer.
introduction , you can imagine what human -alien The colonists came from all over the Earth.
relations have been like since then . You name it , every country had people there.
Eventually we , learned the aliens called More overcrowded places like China and India
themselv es "anouks ” and were a peaceful , even voiced the idea that maybe conditions in
mainly agricultural people. Like humans , their countries could be eased by mass
they were the only intelligent race on their emigration to Banshee. In the end, colonists

I
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climate - extremely windy
, they
, and
found its
usually quite
came like a plague of locusts. Within five years
of the discovery of ghost rock , there were
dry-very comfortable. Humans seemed something like 300,000 humans on Banshee.
better adapted to the warmer equatoria l g/Vithin 20 years, that number had increased by a
regions but the rest
, of the planet was also jj. jacjjor of at least 10. No one got around to taking
habitable . With the constant wind screaTb # ! ®*
!
cHfeftsus, so 1 really don' t know for sure, but
W 4 over the blasted plains, the name Banshee " " there were more colonists than you could shake
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The Faraway War ft Hew Treat: : ,,

It took about 20 years for the whole vicious

stew to bubble over into outright war. The
Finally the anouks got the message T ajWB .^
Instead of talking, they tried a more
people at the UN apparently didn 't know any
American history, or they might have handled
approach. They raided some farms, beat- : >
the farmers silly, duckwalked them back 4/ ffS
the whole situation better. A quick read of the to the treaty boundary, and tossed them P0

old Sand Creek Massacre, Little Big Florn , the back onto UN land . The humans were
Trail of Tears, or the Ghost Dance might have outraged . There was talk of "wiping all those ;A
clued them in . purple scumbags out .” Fortunately the UN
It all started so innocently. The humans renegotiated the treaty, allowing the humans
arrived and at first asked only for living room more land . In exchange, the UN created a force
and the right to mine. The anouks are herders, of "Rangers" to patrol the reservation and keep
so they didn't care if humans dug around in the the humans in line and off anouk lands
mountains, as long as their grazing land wasn't But even that wasn 't enough. Thousands of
harmed . colonists began mining just about anywhere they
The humans stayed true to their word for all wanted , regardless of what the treaties said . The
of about 20 years, but eventually they needed Rangers performed their job admirably, but the
grassland to grow crops and feed the still - UN never raised enough of them to handle all
growing masses. those sneaky colonists. Even the few they did
The anouks put their four - toed feet down . recruit weren ' t given enough money or
They refused to give up any grazing land . But we equipment to do their job properly. The anouks
humans are nothing if not persistent. The got understandably frustrated . Worse, after
colonists negotiated and cut a deal: grassland in seeing the Rangers use violence to enforce the
exchange for certain items of human technology law, they decided it was okay for them to do the
the anouks thought were pretty nifty. A treaty same. They began attacking isolated miners and
was prepared and signed , granting the humans settlers wherever they could find them .
the right to live in a specific area and nowhere
else.

Broken Promises /
It was only a couple weeks later when the 7
treaty was broken for the first time. Some
colonists decided they needed a little more room.
They also needed some of the "barkas” the
anouks herd . So they just put up huge electro-
fences around vast areas of grazing land, some
of which extended outside the treaty boundaries.
When the anouks found out ( by getting
zapped on the electro-fences, I ' m told ), they
raised holy Hell to the only organized body on
planet-the United Nations. The UN made the
folks who violated the treaty dismantle their
fences and move back inside the boundary. That
was it.
No punishment , no fine, no nothing. Just
c'mon back inside and play nice.
It didn 't take long for other humans to begin
trying the same trick. They didn ' t stand to lose
anything but time. Soon there were a bunch of
ranches and farms outside the boundaries. The
anouks kept screaming bloody murder, but tlLeu%g
UN didn't do much of anything about it besides
make a few settlers move back inside the colony
once they'd been caught .
 Two days later, after no apology was
Third Times The Charm / forthcoming from anyone in Crosstown , nor
: The colonists pitched a fit . it was one anyone arrested for the crime by the overworked
thing to be shot by a duly -appointed Ranger, Rangers, a miner named Harry Loftis blew up
SR* but another thing entirely to have some the town 's water tower, threw open the gates to
gr backwater aliens killing humans. Tons of folks the local stockade where the settlers kept their
W- considered the UN treaty null and void and weapons , and then gunned down the mayor
began walking around armed to the teeth. before being shot to death . Before the town could
!y Things turned ugly soon enough , and the recover, a wave of anouks swarmed over the
\ Banshee cemeteries started to fill . town , killing everyone they could find before a
In late 2072, there was a major skirmish near defense could be raised . Today we know it must
one of the illegal settlements, a farming have been one of the mind -controlling skinnies
community called Stockade after the big wall who made Loftis do what he did , but back then ,
the townsfolk had built to protect themselves. no one could figure it out .
Five anouks and two humans were killed in the The Crosstown attack got the whole planet
fighting , and dozens more were injured . Several riled up. Anouks everywhere went on the
homes and farms were burned to the ground . warpath while humans armed themselves. A few
The UN stepped in and tried one last time to anouks and humans urged restraint and peace ,
defuse the situation . They offered the anouks but no one listened . More towns were attacked
brand - new tech in exchange for nearly by anouks , and humans began to go on the
unrestricted access to farmland . The anouks said offensive and attack anouk settlements outright ,

they'd have to think about it . The whole world By late 2074, the situation had evolved from
waited for over a month while the anouk leaders scattered clashes and skirmishes into a full
met . No one knows where they met or what was fledged war.
said . When they finally got back in touch with
the UN and asked for a meeting , the few sensible
humans on the planet breathed a sigh of relief
Coltrane
and hoped the whole situation would soon be The odd element in this whole situation was a
resolved . fellow named Jesse Coltrane. This guy spoke out
They were disappointed . The anouks delivered on behalf of the anouks and even encouraged
a long , rambling message to the UN detailing all them to murder and raid the humans! He
the things humans had been doing to them and claimed they had a right to make the humans
their planet , which they didn ' t much care for. pay for their constant lies.
To this day, no one 's quite sure why he did it .
They wrapped it all up by insisting that the
Some think he was a puppet of the skinnies
original treaty 's terms be obeyed , since they ( which I ' ll tell you about in a minute ) , but if
hadn ' t done anything to break them.
Of course, they were asking to put the genie you ' ve ever fought one, you know that ain ' t right .
back in the bottle, and that never works. So They can ' t get hold of someone for longer than
a ew hours. Some people say Coltrane was just
instead of a peaceful resolution , the humans just ^
a genuinely noble person standing up for
got more of the same: more skirmishes, more
raids, the whole horrible scene. Everyone knew something he believed in . Maybe he was. Me , I
things couldn ' t continue as they were. Something think he had an angle. I don ' t know what it was
was going to give. but I suspect he hoped to get special mining
concessions from the anouks by showing
himself to be "acting in their interest ."
CrosstPwn I never met Coltrane, but everyone I talked to
The camel 's back broke in 2073 when four
who did agreed on one thing : The man could
anouks were found butchered near a human talk . And I don ' t mean jabber, 1 mean
mining settlement called Crosstown . War inspirational , like an old - fashioned preacher or a
was one thing to the anouks, but this was slick politician -or maybe both all rolled into
kidnapping , torture, and murder. The local one. When he spoke, people listened . The result
anouks, naturally enough , blamed the was a growing group of human " rebels" who
humans, and they were probably right . helping the anouks.
Doesn ' t matter, 'cause whatever the One of the reasons I think Coltrane had
explanation , the end result was the same: something going on the side was the sort of
four dead anouks and thousands of pissed people who joined up with him . Some of these
off live ones.

Posse: 14
 -.
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folks were genuine sympathizers who wanted to
help the anouks protect their planet from
human depredation. (Eco-babble from bleeding-
^
themselves by. No, this pieee^ fHH
had a completely different philo£ojp|
Before he left Earth in early 2075, h Ti^
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rf
heart whiners, if you ask me.) But most were sure all his men were equipped with the IHM
latest and best equipment Earth 's arsenalS'S B
disgruntled, low-end miners and troublemakers.
That kind never gets involved unless there's
something in it for them. Whatever it was, it
brought them in like flies to cow patties. Most of
could offer: man - portable guided missiles,
hover tanks, milspec combat armor, long-
range cryptocom, battle analysis
^
the anouks cast a pretty dim eye on these computers, biochem grenades, C-27 plastic
human "allies," but another gun is another gun, and liquid explosives, and hundreds of other
so they didn 't worry about it too much. tools of destruction and death. He didn 't believe
in traveling light.
Reinforcements ; What Reinforcements / When the United Nations Expeditionary Force
I gotta tell you, at first it looked pretty bad for ( UNEF or, more casually, EXFOR ) emerged in
the humans. The anouks were primitive, sure, but Faraway space and landed on Banshee, it got the
they outnumbered humans by about a hundred chance to use its toys. Carpet -bombing, self -
to one, at least, and they were bigger, stronger, perpetuating incendiary bomb strafing runs,
and tougher to boot. Anouk spears and throwing intercontinental artillery, and heavy hover tanks
clubs aren't nearly as good as bullets and turned the tide of the conflict in a little over a
lasers-but if one hits you , it kills you just as week.
dead. Tens of thousands of anouks were killed by
You 'd expect the folks back on Earth to send Warfield in just a few days. I had a friend on
some help, but it wasn ' t as simple as that. Banshee who'd been there since day one. He told
Remember how I told you the colonists came me the smell of burned anouk was everywhere
from all over Earth? Well, that left the question on the planet, so strong that his armor's filters
of who was responsible for them. It wasn 't as if never could completely clean it out of his
all the French colonists lived together in one breathing air.
little area, and all the Mexican colonists in
another. They'd mixed , mingled, even
intermarried . The end result was that no one
was sure just who was responsible for them.
While politicians argued about it back home,
anouks and colonists continued to slaughter
each other.

Warfield
Finally, the people back on Earth figured out
that maybe the United Nations should get up off
its fat ass and do something, since no single
nation could or would . The UN responded by
calling for troops from all of its members, most
of which actually sent a battalion or two.
Appointed to lead this "expeditionary force"
was General Paul Warfield , more aptly known by
his nickname "Overkill ," or the shorter version:
"OK." He was a US Marine General , and since the
Rebs didn't know the USA was already secretly
plotting against them , they agreed to let him
command the Banshee forces. That led to some
serious problems on Banshee among the
conventional forces, but that's a story for
another day. *> * •

OK Warfield was not a man who believed in

the "minimum force needed to achieve the
objective" rule which most generals guide

fosse:15
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—
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 The Skinnies
Warfield thought he had the whole thing
It® wrapped up in a neat little package. Then the
anouks took the opportunity to turn the tables
on him: They brought out the skinnies.
We called them "skinnies" because we never
learned the proper anouk name for 'em . They
were obviously anouks, but they looked like they
were suffering from malnutrition or something.
They were always much skinnier than the usual
anouk-sort of wizened and wasted . Since we
never managed to capture one alive ( Hell ,
capturing one intact was usually a major effort ),
we never learned why this was. They weren 't
malnourished . Our autopsies showed that.
But whatever they lacked in brawn, the
skinnies more than made up for in brainpower.
They had strange mental abilities unlike any
which most of the human soldiers and brass on
Faraway had ever seen. All anouks have some
strange powers, but most are pretty low- key.
Skinnies are different . They can blast better than
the best of us sykers.
Shortly after the first skinnies were
encountered , there was a wave of soldier
suicides, accidents and sabotage, colonist riots,
and attacks on UNEF installations. The skinnies
powers caused soldiers to attack their
commanders, destroy equipment , and lay down
their rifles and wait meekly like lambs while the
anouks hacked them down. Warfield 's gains
evaporated in the face of this new threat .
If you ask me, the skinnies are pretty much
just anouk versions of sykers like us. However,
their powers are a Helluva lot stronger than
ours, and they seem to work at greater range
with greater effect . It 's a damn good thing there
were so few of them , or we’d never have won
that blasted war.

The legion
When Overkill saw what the skinnies were
doing to his troops, he knew he needed help.
Even his kill-'em - by - the- thousands tactics
weren't enough to take out the skinnies. The
sheer fact that they'd never been seen before
proved they were able to hide and protect
themselves damn well . So he called for the one
. weapon he knew could work against the
fekinnies: sykers.
ftgbifce United Nations put out the word , and its
members, surprisingly, responded once again ,

i Nearly 1,000 sykers were " volunteered " for a

new unit of the EXFOR called the United
Nations Psychic Legion ( UNPL). That's a more powers could reach us all the as 44'
than a mouthful though. It didn ’t take long for that rock . The second was a space sta
folks to start calling us what we always called out in one of the asteroid - mining collies?:
ourselves: "the Legion." There were only a few sykers out there .
God knows what happened to them.
Squads I was mainly stationed at Fort Antiilia
I'll never forget what it was like on
The Legion was broken down into squads, Banshee. It was an accurate name. The
typically with 20 soldiers each , for a total of 50 howling of those winds is like nothing else
squads at first. More came later. They were all I' ve ever heard , before or since . Most weeks it
given official designations, First through Fiftieth seemed like there weren't more than a few hours
and so on, but before too long the sykers started when the air was still . And it had a distinct sort
choosing their own informal unit names and of smell . It wasn ' t that burnt anouk smell I
mascots. That's where we get names like the mentioned earlier, but the overall odor of the
Screaming Eagles, the Brain Dogs, the Voodoo place, sort of a "musty rock ” odor, as if the
Gurus, and the Fightin ' 43rd. planet itself were somehow unbelievably old ,
Me, I was with the Screaming Eagles-the best even by planetary standards. The odd greenish -
of the best , kid , and don ' t you forget it. We were tinted light caused by the frequent cloud cover
the toughest , most experienced bunch of sykers didn 't improve the place at all . In short , no one
on the planet. We could fry a skinny like bacon would ever mistake this place for Earth.
in a pan , and we never left a man behind .
We were sent to Banshee with several
missions in mind . First and foremost was to First Encounters
protect the human colonists from the anouks, I'll admit the anouks surprised us at first .
especially skinnies. Ordinary anouks could be Despite the briefings, the first encounter with an
fought off with ordinary weapons, but not enemy is always something of a shock. Just
skinnies. They were our job. being around aliens feels, well , alien. I can 't put
Warfield made sure it was drilled into us that it any other way.
our top priority was to protect his troops, The problem was, the anouks didn 't fight
despite the fact they were nothing but cannon right-not by human standards anyway. Our job
fodder for his war machine. He treated them-and was to get at the skinnies. Like any other smart
us-almost as if we were toys to throw away guys, the anouks put their main weapons at the
when he was done with us. Bastard. rear. But then they protected them with wave
Our second , but almost as important , task after wave after wave of anouk troops. They'd
was to uncover human spies, conspirators, and virtually throw themselves at our guns to keep
anouk sympathizers. There were plenty of us from getting a close shot at a skinny, much
humans on Banshee who felt the anouks were in less actually get anywhere near one. They just
the right-that they deserved to be left alone to didn 't care about their own lives. For all I know,
do what they wanted with their homeworld . the skinnies might have been forcing them to do
I dunno, maybe that 's true. But for better or it , but they were so busy throwing rocks at us
worse, one of my jobs was to find and, if with telekinetic power and brain blasting us that
necessary, eliminate those people. They put our I doubt they had the energy for it .
troops in serious danger time and again by Energy-that 's one thing the skinnies had in
passing information to the anouks. I can’t even abundance. They didn 't tire out quickly like we
begin to estimate how many human lives they do . They could stand there and use their
cost. They betrayed their own people for a bunch powers for hours at a time sometimes. No one |
of lizards. of us could ever match a skinny, so we
We were based all around the planet-they didn't. We faced 'em by the dozens and
sent us where they needed us, after all-though still lost half the time ,

we did have a few bases. The first two were huge 1 sure as Hell wish I knew what their
fortresses on the planet: Fort Reagan, built near - secret was. My best guess is that they
Reagan 's Bluff shortly after Warfield 's victory at ] ~ )&fr\ow how to use things like Banshee
that battle, and Fort Antiilia . The others were . ''g5:3ffa3nes and red better than we do. Both
^
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. .i .

off -planet. One was on Banshee’s only moon. We these things increase your juice, but the
called it Moonbase Tranquillity, because up there skinnies still kicked our ass even after we f -
nothing could hurt us. Not even the skinnies' figured out how to use them too.
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sykers coming up even UNEF spent over a year trying to dig those
A ,
- Was wMn my own squad , the Screaming rats out of their holes. It was an almost
f. - , ,,
mEagles, Caught one crossing the plains all by impossible job. There weren ' t nearly enough
sykers to go around-over half of us had been
•
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killed or injured badly enough to leave the
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good veterans before the rest of us put it down
in a barrage of brain blasts and bullets like
fighting-and wherever we weren't , the skinnies
seemed to be. With their mind control ,
A
you ain ' t never seen . telekinesis, and other assorted powers, they
could usually make mincemeat out of ordinary
human troops. And they did , again and again .
Learning by Attrition But one by one, we sykers would track them
OK Warfield eventually got tired of fighting a down and eliminate them .
defensive war. He wanted results and progress, Usually that meant killing them and everyone
casualties be damned Heaven help us, we went with them , because by this point no anouk or
along with him. rebel would surrender to us. Warfield 's orders
At Warfield 's orders, we began a methodical had seen to it that we were so feared and
assault against the anouks. We'd find an anouk distrusted that they 'd fight to the death rather
village, town, or stronghold and go at it until the than Let us capture them. We couldn't really
place was rubble and they were all dead . Men , afford to capture them anyway. The skinnies had
women , and children, Warfield didn't care. He some way of making their own troops heads
wanted them all six feet under. explode once we'd taken them to be interrogated .
This wasn't as effortless as it sounds. We took You wouldn’t believe how much chaos that
some heavy hits during those first months. caused . Of course, that just pissed us off even
Those anouks are tough warriors themselves, more. I can 't tell you some of the things we-1-
even without the skinnies. They 'd ambush us did to them , but I ' ll never forget it .
every chance they got , and they didn't have any The last major EXFOR offensive of the
problem with a stand -up attrition battle either- Faraway War came at a place called Red River
especially since there were a Helluva lot more of Canyon . Reminded me in some ways of the
them than us. And all along, the skinnies Grand Canyon here on Earth , though it isn ' t
attacked us and our men. I lost count of the nearly as big. It 's a fairly large region where the
number of times I had to kill one of the EXFOR water has cut down through red -tinted rock for
soldiers when a skinny took hold of his mind centuries to form a steep- walled canyon. The
and made him start shooting at us. It still river itself emerges from the rock cliffs and into
sickens me to this day, but Warfield refused to a wide delta at the very end. The canyon's big
let us slow down enough to develop defenses enough to have several small jungles and plenty
against those sorts of assaults. Bastard . of other places for anouks to hide.
By 2076, though , we'd learned a lot more Red River Canyon was the territory of a
about how to fight the lizards and protect particularly devious female anouk warrior
ourselves. We were actually making progress. We known to us as Kreech. I never saw her, but they
butchered thousands upon thousands of anouks, Say she was damned pretty-for an anouk -and
and still they kept coming. By now the sykers twice as smart. Kinda like a purple Joan of Arc.
who had survived , like me, were battle-hardened She was certainly the best tactician and fighter I
warriors, capable of killing a lizard with fists, ever heard of . Ordinary ground troops never got
bullets, or brainpower. Even the skinnies near her. She'd use her skinnies' powers to make
began to retreat. them suicide, detonate their explosives, and turn
1 But that doesn ' t mean they were giving their vehicles into so much scrap metal. The few
| up. You see, many parts of Banshee are soldiers who survived were inevitably driven
ideal for fighting a guerrilla war. Once mad .
,» you ' re off the plains, there are more jungles , Finally Warfield sent in sykers. The first squad
y
forests, canyons, hills, and mountains than tackle Red River was the Hammerheads,
you can shake a stick at . In places, the. JIM they didn 't come back , the Black Falcons
terrain was so bad even the hover tanks had went in after them. According to their last radio
I
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 hanging upside down from jungle trees. Then nothing to us. They were bugs ;
=5.. without
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their transmission was cut off in mid -sentence
so much as a scream. The Tetsukaminari
squashed. And now some of th
had skinned a group of our guys aliV6
l
were sent in next, and they never even had a mind-fried some others.
chance to report back. Have you ever been so angry everything|
Humiliated (and, if you ask me, a bit terrified ), you see is tinged blood - red ? That's what it
Warfield assembled the rest of the Legion and was like for us when we found out what
hurled us into Red River Canyon. I was with the the lizards had done. It was the last straw,

group that found the Falcons and the Whatever shreds of our self - control and
I Tetsukaminari. Something had staked the humanity we'd been holding onto just
I Falcons 'to the ground and peeled them apart snapped .
I like you d peel a fruit, as if the anouks wanted We formed up and plowed through the jungle .
| to see what made humans tick. We kept running into camps and villages of
I The Tetsukaminari had never even gotten grapes-totally peaceful ones, not soldiers, just
I close to them. Somehow they'd been ambushed innocents trying to escape the war. But we didn ' t
I and tied up with jungle vines. Then someone set care. We knew fighters and sympathizers were
| to work on their minds. When the docs cracked hiding among them, so we burned them down
I their skulls open later during the autopsy, their and blew them up. It was cold and methodical .
brains were nothing but blackened goo. From the We didn't let any of them escape. We tracked
looks of horror and agony on their faces, I can them down one by one and massacred them all .
assure you whatever was done to them wasn't No quarter given; none asked . They did the same.
pleasant. Sometimes a small anouk or rebel force would
I can't really explain what happened next. We attack us, usually trapping some of these
were all sick and tired of fighting. We'd been at innocents in between. That didn 't bother us,
it a long time, doing things that none of us were either. We just used them as shields. We
proud of . It killed something inside of us. We competed to see who could kill the most
were cold and hard and ugly. Anouk lives meant anouks, then proved it by cutting out patches of
 a
mm as IX VWSW
skin on their heads and stringing them together
Q on necklaces. Those patches might as well have
been the last of our consciences. It was just the
sort of thing Warfield liked .
V Bastard .
. vl
o I wish to God I could go back and change
9$ #. what happened or make up for it somehow.
But I never can.
s
i*'
The Final Assault
Finally we came to the last bastion : Castle
Rock . It was the biggest anouk fort any of us
had ever seen , built right into the side of the
canyon near where the river emerged . It was
made of huge stones and Banshee wood . Only
the anouks' weird powers could have built such
a strange place. And it was absolutely
impregnable. Even hover tanks couldn't blast
fi through those rocks-something about latent
f energy inside the stone. Or at least that 's what
the Voodoo Gurus said —one of our squads who
specialized in weird stuff like that .
Me, I don ' t think it mattered . Warfield wanted
to see us level the place on foot . One last brutal,
bloody battle to show the anouks there was no
hope of resistance. Ever.
In case I didn ' t say it before: bastard.
The assault took the better part of a week.
The anouks and rebels refused to surrender.
They knew they were going to die and they sold
their lives dearly, damn them. One by one, we
burned them down. Regiments of regulars threw
themselves at those walls while the Legion did
its best to defend them against the skinnies. And
that wasn ' t much, kid .
Finally all that was left was Kreech , a few
skinnies, and maybe a couple hundred anouks
and human rebels. The final push came from the
Legion . Several hundred sykers fought their way
through and started blasting with every power in
the book . We tore the damn place apart-and
everything in it . Finally, the whole damn fortress
started breaking free from the cliffs. Not all of
us made it out, and not all the anouks were
dead when it finally crumbled down off the
mountain . Made the biggest crash I've ever heard.
And worse, there was another sound just below
the cracking stone and falling rocks-like the
voices of a thousand screaming souls flying
away into the night .
& Warfield just looked at it until the dust
sjsettled. All he had to say was "Burn it to the
^
^^ ftfond." We touched off everything flammable
with our minds and walked away. We left the
bodies to burn .

#!
 I

The Cast War Starts Homeward Bound

We spent the rest of our time mopping up. Finally, on August 13, 2082, the ordefllfgSS
The back of the anouk / rebel resistance had came for the sykers to return home
| pretty much been broken at Castle Rock, but well. At that point , as much as most of us ift
F there were still pockets of opposition , raiders, wanted to go home, we really couldn 't * ti K- >
| and similar threats to deal with. Morale was low. believe it. It was tantamount to iic
[
We figured we'd done our job and should be abandoning the colonists to the tender
| allowed to go home. mercies of the remaining anouks and rebels.
| Unfortunately, we didn 't have very long to rest. We didn 't want to stay, but we felt it was our
[ As even you should already know, kid, the Last duty. Still , we followed orders one last time.
I War started in 2078. At first we just heard about Heaven help me, I'm still not sure we made the
| it through TunnelCom, but after a couple months right decision . And that was a cakewalk
I of fighting, the nations which had contributed to compared to what was to come.
r EXFOR began calling their forces home. Slowly I don 't have any idea what happened to the
j over the years, as the number of troops on colonists. We left them almost all of our
| Banshee shrank , the anouks' boldness grew. weapons, artillery, vehicles, and other equipment
[ They had more targets with no defenders, so the but I don 't know if that 's enough to save them . I
I number of raids increased . We were hard -pressed hope they've managed to keep themselves safe,
[ to protect the other humans. Warfield 's ranting maybe even come to a truce with the anouks
I about wanting to wipe the anouks out to the and rebels. But somehow I doubt it .
I last lizard didn 't really help matters much.
I Most sykers didn 't get to go home yet. I The Unity
I suspect no one back on Earth really pushed it
I because we'd been so mixed up with sykers We bugged out of there on the Unity, a big
I from other countries. They knew we wouldn’t ship that showed up outta nowhere one day.
I want to come home and start killing each other Some of my friends said it had been some other
( after what we'd been through on Banshee. I place, doing some sort of top-secret research
I guess mingling with the "enemy" also tainted us that none of us ever heard about . We didn ' t care
I in their eyes, and they had more than enough about that then, but we should have. I 'll tell you
I sykers back home anyhow-until the end. why soon enough .
I For his part , Warfield insisted he needed us. After the Legion boarded , we crowded as
I But 1 think that was just a lot of hot air. He many civilians on as we could. It was cramped,
I wanted to keep us there to kill skinnies. It was but it still felt great to be on a ship instead of
I his damn hatred that kept us there. sweating in some jungle or freezing your bald
| He covered his ass by telling the UN he had no head on some God -forsaken orange and purple
I way to send us home. That was true. Rides back desert. I got to take a long , hot shower and eat
I through the tunnel were more scarce than real food for the first time in what was probably
I friendly anouks. All the big ships had been used months but felt like years. Maybe some part of
I to recall the conventional troops and their me felt like I was washing the blood off -off of
I precious equipment . That left us stranded and my body, anyway. I don ' t think I'll ever get it out
I more than a little pissed off . After a few months of my mind .
I had passed, the Legion and the colonial
1 Rangers-what was left of 'em-were just about The Oaths
I the only organized defenders left . , ,, , , , . ,

If
In some ways, that was the worst time of all .
t
betot (; ab ut how ea h
°
I
I
We couldn 't even begin to think about showing
any mercy to the enemy. We had to be “ nits had name 1
Hammerheads ;T
of
Screa nS Eagles, the
he Voodoo Gurus, hat
S- e}1 kld; you probably don t
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I
absolutely ruthless. Any anouk or rebel we
found , we killed. Armed or not , warrior or not ,
sorj Jthl"
understand just how close the men and
I J men in those units were. We d fought
1I
we killed them as a warning to all other anouks
and rebels to stay away from human r
:
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4Sfs ^ strained and loved and risked our
for each oth more lmes an
/—
settlements. We barelyJ held the line, but hold it
we did . We took heavy casualties though. I lost a
lot of friends then. ^
of us could possibly count over the ,last
several years-and on an alien planet, to
boot .
Its
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Eagles were more ig power some syker had developed on his own.
:W:
b: my WMmW*
mom and dad a Voodoo Guru. Those guys are weird.)
( Probably
since, like most The apostates would just wake
up and have this big "A" on their
Wk) sykeqrsr-
S ^ ^^
WCi ert my parents since .they'd
| serit. ine:#tthe academy when I was 13
why we were
pIK lsack on it, I think that's family
forehead. Some of 'em got nasty
about it . That didn't last long. An
^ ^
!•

so close. We were really the only

us ever had . That
end of the world ,
was a
junior.
syker
In
'
some
s lot before
ways ,
any of
you
the
' re
apostate who attacked an oathtaker
found out just how serious the rest
of us were real quick. You ever meet
up afterward one of these bastards, kid , don ' t mess with 'em.
i almost lucky you grew
.
We all got to talking as we were headed back, They're damaged goods.
about how we'd worked together and what we'd
meant to each other. Sometimes these talks got Abandon Ship!
pretty emotional. It might sound silly coming Going from one "side" of the Tunnel only
outta someone my age, but you just had to be takes a few hours-usually but getting to the —
there. We were sick , we were tired , and we were thing from Banshee or Earth's orbit takes a few
guilty of things I ' ll never speak of . But we were weeks. We arrived in Earth orbit on November 23, \
2082. Instead of the greetings we’d expected, we 1
going home. ]
That 's when we made the oath, formally, the were met with only silence. No one radioed' us or
Oath of Unity, named after the ship that was responded to our radio signals. We couldn t see
any of the great cities below us. j
taking us to what we thought would be "home" ]
and a well-deserved rest. Before we could figure out what had
Most of us decided we never wanted to fight happened , the alarm klaxon sounded and we j
heard screaming. Apparently some "things" were j
each other. We were friends, comrades, and even
lovers. Rather than risk ever coming to blows, we on board the ship! Somehow, some sort of
decided to vow never to harm each other. creatures had latched onto the ship as we
Sometimes units swore similar oaths to other passed through the Tunnel, and had even found
units they 'd fought beside as well. a way inside! A couple of units moved forward
Even more importantly, by taking the oaths, to take the creatures out, but their powers had
we expressed our determination never to rely on little effect . We don't know what happened to
or wholly trust any kind of authority again. We'd them, because the rest of us were ordered to the
take orders, of course, but no more wholesale escape pods. We thought everyone else was, too.
slaughter of innocents. We'd spent the past We didn 't realize the civilians had been cut off
several years, not to mention our time on Earth and couldn't get away. Only after we had
before that, being used, betrayed , and sacrificed launched did we find out how few of them
by our leaders, and we were sick of it. They’d escaped along with us.
made us do things we couldn ' t even begin to Some of us did stay though . We figured it out
explain or justify, and we didn't ever want to after we'd landed and some of the stories
have to be in the position of being a human tool started to circulate. They all must be dead by
for such petty men again . Kill an enemy leader now, and there aren't many of us who don't wish
for your country? Sure. Wipe out an enemy we'd died there with them . We call them the
village? No. Unforgotten Fifteen. They serve us as examples
The Captain of the Unity found out how of all that we can be, but how far we have to go
serious we were when he threatened us with to get there.
court-martial if we didn't stop congregating Sometimes at night, when the sky is
together. We carried him to his cabin and particularly clear, I can look up and pretend I
locked him in for the rest of the flight. I can see the ruined hulk of the Unity floating
wonder what happened to him ? across the sky as she orbits the Earth, derelict.
Anyway, I bet all this sounds pretty corny The only thing manning her now are the souls
to you, kid , but believe me, it was as of the damned .
if l
_
f serious to us as any marriage.
Those who didn't take the oath are the .
apostates. Somehow, one of . the. oathtakte
ii ;
What were those things? And
how did they kill or trap hundreds
of colonists and more than likely
fifteen of our best sykers? We'll
i SX
crjtow.
that ft tws just some sort of mental
oui XhZ probably never know.

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formed a little syker commuitfei
I
[
Houston
Our escape pods touched down in Houston-
or, if you really want to be accurate about it ,
protecting the local villages m
|
^
for food and other necessities. A feWili
sykers even heard about Pestilence and li£, j
what was left of Houston. 1 think a lot of us had out after him. They didn 't stay healthy
1 been hoping that what the Unitys sensors had very long. :
; been reading was somehow not true-that Earth
had survived all right despite what our The tong Walif ill
instruments said . But the ship's computers hadn 't I don 't imagine 1 need to tell you how M
lied to us. *
devastated we were to find our homeland j
Houston, at least, was in ruins, and we didn't destroyed. There wasn 't one of us who didn ’t
have any reason to believe it was alone. Even lose their family or friends in the Last Wars.
I after years of butchering anouks and skinnies, After we landed at the Houston spaceport , we
we were dazed by all the destruction we saw. It's drifted apart to seek out homes and loved ones
one thing to trash somebody else's home, who might have managed to survive, or to seek
particularly when they’re threatening you . It's our fortunes with only our brainpower and guts
another to come back and find out your own to get us by. We call this the Long Walk .
| home's been trashed too. Since then, most of us just wandered the
The Last War was already over. While we were Wasted West , selling our services for food and a
in transit , the nations of the Earth ghost- rock roof over our heads and trying to come to terms
: bombed themselves back into the Stone Age. It with everything that's happened. Some of my
was the most heartbreaking thing you could comrades snapped and went on horrible
imagine, kid . All those years on Banshee, rampages that left dozens dead before some
wishing every day you could go home, just to other syker or hero managed to put the poor
find it was blown to Hell by the same politicians loser down. Few of us, frankly, have done what
, who’d exiled us to Faraway in the first place. we should to try to make the world a better
’ Most of us stayed near Houston for a few place-to make a difference.
days. If everything had been as expected, each of
[ us could have booked passage on semiballistics
\ and maglev trains to get home in less than a
day. Sure, some nations probably would have
’ attempted some monkey business, but Houston
i being a treaty city, we supposedly had "safe
\
;
conduct" 'til we got home.
Obviously, that wasn 't an option anymore. We
were all stuck . We tried to talk with some of the
people-if you can use that term for muties-but
| all they were interested in was shoving a spit up
'
our asses and roasting us for Sunday dinner.
I After we blasted a couple dozen of them, they
I . backed off .
j We finally located some friendly survivors on
I the outskirts of town in a walled village. They
clued us in to what had happened , at least as far
t as they knew, and told us that trucks and
i caravans which we could buy rides on came
j through periodically. Most of us didn't have
s much currency which was acceptable on Earth
I anymore though , so we either had to hoof it or
: work our way to wherever we wanted to go.
i Fortunately for us, sykers make good caravan
f guards.
! Eventually most of us got the Hell out of
I there, and we never went back. However, I'm told
f that a couple dozen of us stayed behind and

fftsse: 23
* r

.
 Banshee Blasters
The Banshee
Blasters were a
-
C Let me tell you about some of the Banshee
Pj’ssquads. This ain’t all of them . Most were just
frontline combat unit .
They were one of the
I names to me, and I don’t know a whole lot first on - planet when
; about them . Originally there were 50 squads, the Legion arrived , and
but many were completely destroyed on
Banshee. Others were decimated by anouk or they did more than
their fair share of
skinny attacks, and the surviving members killing-something they
were absorbed into some other squad . In the sometimes resented
end , when they bugged out from Banshee, there
the rest of us for.
were about two dozen surviving squads, none of
them at full complement (originally 20 sykers).
They suffered hard during the Red River
Each squad adopted its own moniker and campaign but got replacements from the
survivors of worse-off squads. During the post -
symbol . This symbol is usually incorporated into Red River period , the Blasters mainly patrolled
the uniform clasp. You might also see it featured
on shoulder patches or tattoos as well. Many of the region around Fort Reagan to prevent anouk
and rebel incursions into Legion territory.
the names and symbols incorporate lightning or The leader of the Banshee Blasters was
thunderbolts, which in syker symbology
Captain Tariz Nafsanjani, one of the Unforgotten
represents blasting or syker powers. Banshee Fifteen. When the attack on the Unity began ,
sykers are proud of their units, so you often see Nafsanjani ordered his men to board the escape
us wearing our unit designations even if we pods so they could make it back to Earth and
don ’t like to talk about the military itself .
We’ re also very loyal . Anyone who insults your
figure out what had happened down there. He
squad had best be prepared for a splitting
stayed behind to cover his squad 's escape and to
headache-literally. try to help the civilians get to escape pods
( which they never did ). By all accounts, he was
Squad Specialties one of the good guys.
The Blasters took the oath with the members
Most of the squads on Banshee were of Black Lightning , the Dragons, Loki 's
assembled based around a particular type of Thunderbolts, and-surprisingly-the Wendigos.
power which the members possessed . Pyros in
one place, lifters in another, and so on. Blacfr lightning
The specializations tended to break down as The members of
the war dragged on and so many of us bought Black Lightning have a
the farm , but it still held true in many cases. In well -deserved
fact , because they mixed us up by the type of
reputation for ferocity.
powers we specialized in , they were forced to They were often the
mix nationalities as well . That 's the main reason a fight and the
first into
the nations of Earth had a difficult time retreat . The
last to
recalling us. We had been consorting with the whole unit had a sort
enemy for the last two to five years! And after of "macho warrior ”
Beredsky and other double-agents, that was ethic that made it strive
something most governments were rightfully to be better than any
terrified about . other unit . Even the women acted this way. Most
What follows are a few brief notes on the
of them possessed biokinetic powers. Brain
most well - known , surviving syker squads bomb was a specialty, but they had plenty of
and their members. If I know for sure, I 'll tell up their sleeves.
other tricks
| you which squads swore oaths with other The sykers in Black Lightning also partied
squads as well . This usually happened as well . Just like in a fight , they were
because the squads fought together in a !
pretty hard
?
t particular region or campaign on Banshee| . Always the first to arrive and the last to leave ,

j njl those guys and gals could sure hold their

Others swore their oaths during the bloopjyffi sSpoftk
Red River Campaign, when we made fast you turn
juice .
some
I guess
brainer
you ^
need a good binge after
's head into mush-at least
friends under the intense assaults of the they seemed to think so.
skinnies. w-i#
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Even today in the Wasted West , the survivors Dragons

jOf Black Lightning are known for being The Dragons chose
extremely tough and tenacious fighters and wild their name because
carousers. It 's not uncommon for a Black their initial assignment m
Lighting syker to breeze into town , throw away was as part of General
all his money buying drinks and dances for
everyone at the local bar, and then beat the red -
Warfield 's air cavalry. 5
%
4«!

m
Before the conventional
hot stuffing out of anyone who takes offense at forces pulled out , the
him. Dragons rode in flying
They fought beside the Banshee Blasters, the assault craft and
i Fightin' 43rd, and my own squad , the Screaming parachuted in on the
I Eagles, in the Red River campaign, and they anouks and rebels to fry 'em up with their
B swore the Oath of Unity to each. close- range pyrokinetics. That’s how they got
B All but one apostate named Killian , that is. their name.
This black-hearted bastard was the worst of When the skinnies got involved , many of the
I them-and their lieutenant as well. That's Dragon 's pilots and other brainers in the air cav
B probably how he got the top-spot: Warfield were too susceptible to mind control , so the
B spotted a natural and relentless killer. Dragons began piloting the assault craft
B Killian made it back to Earth, so he’s still out themselves. Most used machine- head devices to
K there somewhere. Last I heard he was running help them out as well.
I some gang out in Kansas. These guys proved really handy during Red
River. They could get the rest of us in close, then
I train Dogs after our ride was trashed by the skinnies,
I Some of the more they'd bale out and defend us from the warriors
I combat-oriented units, with arson and similar "in your face”
I like Black Lightning or pyrokinetics. A lot of those guys and gals gave
i the Screaming Eagles, their lives holding off the grapes while the rest
I often looked down on of us crawled out of the wreckage.
I the Brain Dogs ' Three of the Unforgotten Fifteen were
I because they weren t members of the Dragons. Their squad was close
I on the front lines. enough to the civilians to realize what was
1 Their duties often going on, but they bailed anyway. Some thought
I kept them back near the civvies were on the way to their own pods,
| the forts, base camps, but others knew better. All of 'em are deeply
I and headquarters. ashamed they were unwilling to make the
I Their specialty was interrogation, and they sacrifice three of their comrades made, and
[ were mighty good at it . Even the most strong- they 've vowed never to abandon the helpless and
f willed lizard or humie sympathizer wasn't able innocent again , even if it costs them their lives.
fto resist these mind freaks for long. They were Many Dragons have teamed up with Templars
| also good at long-range mental communication or Law Dogs to try to bring a measure of peace
fwith outlying units, and they performed a lot of and security to the Wasted West . They seem
research on various psychic phenomena , driven to take on impossible tasks and use their
f These days, the survivors of the Brain Dogs
i often find themselves employed by towns,
powers to right wrongs. Folks in many
communities have to come see the symbol of
f warlords, or gangs for their special talents. the lightning- breathing dragon as a sign of ,
[ Having a mental interrogation /communication
i specialist on your side can make a big difference
hope and protection , so Dragons rarely lack J
for a place to spend the night or a bit of trs*
\ in a large fight. food for their supper.
: Despite their reputation as mind freaks, I Dragons are still skilled at using their 4
t think most of 'em are honorable folks who try cyberkinesis on vehicles. You often see
I to choose employers who are worthy of their - -tferfem finding work leading or guarding
$Bftade caravans.
t assistance. A few, however, have wound up
\ leading gangs of bandits or raiders.
s5f

*
|= The Dragons swore the oath to most •

The Brain Dogs are loners. They didn 't swear frontline units, like the Banshee Blasters,
oaths to any other unit besides themselves. the Fightin' 43rd, and the Screaming Eagles.

Posse: 25
 can do it. Need to get your campfire started or
cigar lighted ? They can do that , too. Need a
village toasted ? Unfortunately, they were all too
good at that.
The surviving Firewalkers feel a special
burden of shame for the things they did on
Banshee. Their powers made them the sykers to
call on when General Warfield wanted to burn
I imagination when it out a village, send anouk crops up in smoke, or
came to unit burn down entire forests and jungles. They were
nicknames. However, particularly effective in the Red River Canyon
with their fierce fighting and brilliant , campaign, where they immolated any anouks or
unorthodox, battle tactics, they lived up to the rebels who popped up. It was the Firewalkers
one name she did manage to think up. The other who obeyed Warfield 's final order to burn Castle
sykers on Banshee used to say that if you were Rock to the ground. Their memories-and
in trouble, the Fightin' 43rd would be the ones to nightmares-are heavy with images of charred
figure a way out of it-or to come get you if you bodies and smoking craters. Sometimes they
were trapped. Needless to say, this particular have a hard time living with that.
talent made them a lot of friends. Many Firewalkers have a nervous habit of
Many members of the Fightin' 43rd tended to playing with fire. They light fires, then call up
specialize in destructive powers like brain bomb fireproof so they can handle the flame without
fear f being burned . They 'll juggle burning
and boneripping, but they usually sprinkled their
arsenals with liberal helpings of general-use
°
sticks, burn pools of kerosene in their hands,
powers like brain blast and juice. They also stuff like that . It can be a pretty cool show to
tended to study anouk psychology and anatomy, watch-but don't make them angry, or they'll
military strategy, and other subjects which made turn the fire on you.
them better fighters. They swore the oath to the Screaming Eagles
'cause we were with 'em when they incinerated
Captain Mazzuchelli may not have
had much imagination, but she was the remains of Castle Rock , and those flakes in
unsurpassed in her ability to inspire the Voodoo Gurus, though God knows why.
her troops to be the best warriors
{.oSrik Thunderbolts
they could be. Sadly, she was killed
by a marauding biker gang shortly Most of the original
after she returned to Earth. members of Loki's
The members of the Fightin' 43rd have found Thunderbolts came
plenty of uses for their powers in the Weird West from Scandinavia and
( beyond trying to find the biker gang that Northern Europe, so
murdered Captain Mazzuchelli, something they'd they chose a name
dearly love to do). Tactical experts with mental that reflected their
powers are just about worth their weight in heritage. It was a good
ghost rock-and they know it. choice. The Norse
The 43rd swore the oath to the Black Lighting trickster god was a
squad, the Dragons, the Screaming Eagles, and perfect patron for a
the Star Swans. unit which quickly earned a reputation for
flouting authority, disobeying orders, carousing,
FirewalSrers and playing practical jokes on each other.
As you might They probably acted that way because they
m* guess from their were infiltrators and saboteurs. It takes balls to
name, the trick your way into an enemy settlement .
Firewalkers are If was their job to work their way into human
masters of jrebel bases and blow them apart . It 's fun to
pyrokinetic jknpck a building down. It 's not so great to see
V powers:- You want . "Wtefe were hundreds of fellow humans, including
P something burned whole families-and innocent children-crushed
'
or melted? They
Tfi in the rubble.

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Loki's Thunderbolts came away from the Screaming Eagles i m

Unity disaster with a special kind of shame. Of The Screaming
the dozen or so largest surviving syker squads, Eagles was the best
only their squad had no members among the squad on Banshee. We
Unforgotten Fifteen. Since then, they' ve tried to were the toughest
make up for it by taking on missions designed bunch of stone-cold
to repair ruined communities or build new ones. bastards you ever saw. %
Others believe their souls are already damned, We were the syker
and they sell their deadly powers to whoever 's elite, the best of the
paying. Several of the latter are oathbreakers. best-all the news vids mm
'

The Thunderbolts swore oaths to the Banshee agreed. That's great,

Blasters and the Voodoo Gurus. but it also meant we were who Warfield turned
to when no one else could get the job done.
The Phantom Brigade The average Screaming Eagle was not only a
s.
Named by an officer better fighter than other sykers when it came to
with a flair for the fists and weapons, but we typically had more
r melodramatic, the and stronger powers as well. We trained all the
I Phantom Brigade was time. Our lieutenant , a cold bitch named Cathy
i made up of sykers Griffin , worked us like dogs. But it paid off on
who had received the battlefield.
advanced espionage We lost Cathy-1 mean , Lieutenant Griffin-on
and infiltration the Unity. Shut up, kid . She stayed behind to try
training. Unlike most to save civilians, and she ordered the rest of us
is- other Banshee sykers, into the escape pods.
who had to learn to A lot of us carry on the old tradition of honor
i use their powers for direct battlefield assaults / and service because of her. It was Lieutenant
the Phantoms usually retained the traditional Griffin 's last order that we get down here, find
syker role of assassins and spies. They used out what was wrong, and make in right . Those
skinwalker, predator, and other powers to sneak of us who are still alive are obeying that order,
into enemy territory and spy on the lizards and, no matter what the cost.
more often, the rebels. In fact , it was a Phantom Our buddies were usually squads we’d saved .
who almost got Calloway, the humie traitor that We swore the oath to the Black Lightning , the
stirred up the anouk 's human allies. Way I hear Dragons, the Fightin ' 43rd, and the Firewalkers.
l
it, one of them had Calloway all but dead when
,
a skinny showed up outta nowhere and blew the Star StfaflS
Phantom to bits. The Star Swans
The Phantom Brigade developed a reputation unit is unique among
on Banshee for being haughty and selfish. They Banshee syker squads
attributed many major victories solely to their as the only all -female
intelligence-gathering efforts, completely outfit. The Swans'
overlooking the contributions of the soldiers and commander, Captain
‘ sykers who did the actual fighting. This attitude Alexa Taranova, was a
i extended to things like equipment , quarters, and well - known and
; food. The Brigade felt itself entitled to the best influential syker who
f which was available and took it . This did little to pulled a bunch of
I endear them to other sykers. strings to get the female sykers she wanted
; Phantoms in the Wasted West haven’t really into her unit. 9
\L done much to improve their reputation. They
always ask exorbitant fees for their services,
The truth is, the brass didn' t mind
having an all -girl squad . They were used
S

I demand the best quarters and foods in > against the human traitors-who were
t settlements they help, and so forth. Most other g jagtnost always men-to great effect. Ever

*
j sykers want little to do with these prima
donnas.
The Phantoms swore the oath only to
^
Jeffry to say no to a beautiful woman?
hard enough. If she's using :-y
manipulator on you , it's damn near
§ —
themselves. Selfish creeps. impossible : p : , i<

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 hey got in, the Swans used their If they had a speciality, it was sykokinesis.
ifi<3 spy, assassinate, or They were always trying to figure out more
$abota: §
! §ebete. They really had a mix of about our powers.
fioWers, grouped by sex instead of by One mission they gave themselves, and which
lalent, so they could do just about anything. they successfully completed I hear, was to see
'

^ 1 Even after Captain Taranova died during the Captain Grissom buried in his old hometown
m'.
p assault on Castle Rock, the unit kept on as a cemetery-or, rather, what was left of it after the
f girls' club. The Swans were proud of their ghost - rock bombs. They all stuck together long
I them
accomplishments and didn 't intend to sully
by going against the Captain ’s wishes. In
enough to do that . I 'm sure some have scattered
across the Wasted West by now, but there are
fact, they never actually had another Captain still a few reportedly living in the Mississippi
appointed to lead them . Captain Taranova 's Delta .
second in command , Lieutenant Janice Fremont , The Voodoo Gurus swore an oath to Loki 's
took over without an official promotion. Thunderbolts. I think those practical jokers
The Wasted West , unfortunately, hasn ' t been amused them more than anything else.
very kind to the Star Swans. Two of them died
within a month of landing , one fighting Wendigos
Pestilence’s minions, the other apparently at the The Wendigos, like
claws of some other abomination . But they're the Voodoo Gurus,
still as strong and beautiful as ever, and always were masters of
willing to help out someone in need . Just watch sykokinesis and
out if they start coming on to you . It means powers of
they 're after something, kid, and they' ll probably investigation. That
get it. was unfortunate,
The Swans swore oaths to their boyfriends in because Warfield
the Dragons and the Fightin ' 43rd . assigned them to
unveil the secret of
Voodoo Gurus the skinnies.
The Voodoo Gurus Talk about bad jobs. The Wendigos stayed on
ain ' t some kind of standby in a hypersonic transport just waiting to
religious cult . Their hear about an encounter with a skinny. When
first leader, Captain one was reported , they streaked out to the site
Robert "Bobby" and fought their way to the front. At first, most
Grissom , grew up in of us were happy to see them . We knew what
the swamps of they were about and thought the cavalry had
Louisiana and couldn't arrived . Imagine our surprise when they just sat
resist throwing a touch there and watched the rest of us get torn limb
of home into his unit 's from limb by the skinnies' incredible powers.
name. It didn 't take long for us to hate these guys.
His men got into it and rewarded him by We just knew they were in league with the
setting up a little "voodoo doll" shaped like him brass, trying to get us to battle the skinnies so
against the squad 's dartboard back at they could study the carnage. It was true, we
headquarters. That came back to haunt them later found out . It even caused a minor war in
later on. He was killed by a volley of skinny - the Legion for a while after a bunch of civilians,
charged anouk javelins at Castle Rock . No one Rangers, and a squad called the Ravengers was
could ignore the fact that he looked just like wiped out by a skinny near Fort Reagan .

t
V^ that damned voodoo doll .
The Voodoo Gurus were a mixed lot of
talents
J weird . and abilities, most of which were
Near the end , the Wendigos paid
the price for their years of watching.
They took out the first batch of
Some of these guys were "wild skinnies at Castle Rock . I don ' t
* talents" who became sykers late in their know how they won , but they did .
careers. Many of their talents have never And lost half their number doing it .
rm
pb-
.seen.- print in an academy instruction boW * *

Whoever singed the "A” on the apostates'

V":
^* The Wendigos swore no oaths, to
other squads. Maybe they know the rest of us
heads was very likely a Guru . don 't like 'em.
.. ., .

ki ~
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 ’ f,

Veterans o’ the Syker mm

IffffiffS
istWi i

Earth Sykers Jericho t-

" t?-

The nations of Earth certainly didn ' t

send all One syker who’s taken it M . *

of their sykers off to Banshee. When we got

back home-or, I should say, to the barren,
upon himself to do someth'
good for others is Daniel , ^
W 5
* >5 I,
w
wasted wreckage that used to be home-we
found out some of them were still around .
ll Lliafe* I Marin. Marin served on
Banshee and was — is-a
m
TMJfk
r% j
m •
'
-
Earth sykers for the most part stuck to more member of the Black Lightning I#
99 j
traditional roles-, espionage, sabotage, squad. He realized greenies like 'M
w-
—
assassination at least until the end. Then most
everyone got involved in the sort of battlefield
you were likely to do more harm than good if
left to learn syker powers on their own . He
| blasting we'd gotten used to on Banshee. Most of figured a new academy was needed , one run not
j them are older, having been judged too old and by a government to use up and throw away its
experienced to "waste” on Banshee in the first brainburners as it pleased , but by sykers, for
i place, but a few are young Turks who graduated sykers. So he set out to create one.
I from the academies after we left. Marin set up shop in the little town of Jericho,
I I don't really know what all happened in the Nevada. He was always a smooth talker, so it
I Last War. Find a Librarian if you want to know didn 't take him long to make a deal with the
I
more. It seems like every time I ask about it I get locals: food and other necessities in exchange for
| a different answer, so I've given up asking. But the school 's protection from wandering
I from my encounters with Earth sykers I have abominations, biker gangs, packs of savages, and
I learned that at least some of them went through the 3,001 other threats that stalk the Wasted
I some of the same things we did. They had to West.
I learn more about how to use their powers for That was, oh , six or seven years ago at least .
I sheer destruction than for subtle manipulation Since then , the Academy, as Daniel calls it, has
I and infiltration. grown pretty big. He's usually got upward of two
I Anyway, most Earthers were slaughtered by dozen students there at any given time, and
I
tanks and mindless warbots and the other toys several other sykers-both from Banshee and
I the generals like to play with, but a few Earth-have joined his "faculty" to help him
I managed to survive. Those who did are some teach.
I tough hombres. Then there's me. I'm the recruiter. It 's my job
I What chafes my ass is that these guys think to find greenies like you and help you deal with
I we had an easy time with it. They think your powers. Left alone, you ' re likely to blow
B "fighting a bunch of savages," as they put it , your own head off -or worse, turn bad . Then
B couldn 't have been all that hard. There's been we'll have to blow your head off for you . And
1 more than one time 1 wanted to slam one of 1

none of us want that , junior.

1 these oldsters against a wall and shove several Don't look so scared . The courses aren' t as
§ years' worth of Banshee memories into his brain intensive or detailed as the ones at the old
I so he could understand how easy he had it , but I government academies-there aren' t the time or
can't do that to a fellow syker. resources for that-but Marin's instilling things
I And to tell you the truth , I'm not sure I could . even more important in his students than a head
I The older ones, the vets are bad. I've seen plenty full of powers: morality, decency, honor, heroism .
of Banshee sykers use brain blasts, but Earth Daniel wants his students to go out and help the
sykers with the same power sometimes cause world , not exploit it , and he tries to make
Btwice as much destruction. Why is that ? I' ve no them see the importance of that .
|idea. It's almost like fighting on the battlefield Frankly, kid , I think that 's just what you
B during the Last War gave them more raw need . Without some training and some 0
1 destructive power than the rest of us. Go figure. smarts, you're wormling food . Yeah , yeah, ir
I They're also a little older than the rest of us, you know it all. I did too at your age. But
B
so they've got a leg up as far as experience goes. tajte it from me, there's a thing or two
I These guys were vets when we got sent to m ore you really need to learn, and Daniel
1 Banshee. If you meet one, treat him with respeek
I if you want him to leave your mind in one
I piece-at least until you toughen up a little
I yourself , kid.
^ n teach them to you.
You 've been paying attention, arid 1
appreciate that. So let's get you to the
Academy and make a syker out of you, kid Iff
••
1

.-it’.**-
Posse: 29 •• -
y-
:
M

U
 £

e Syirer Wars
bones, and send them running home to their
hSjrSrer mums. US sykers, however, were a tricky lot. My
Confederate allies and I could usually best them
S P81
|
| | ipi6. Now listen up, new kid. in an open fight , but the sneaky bastards never
leant Mather's been filling your fought like that-at least not 'til the end .
about how great Banshee Knowing these things helped me blast LatAms
» are and how us old farts just sat on our and outmaneuver Yanks. That's why I 'm going to
Last War. tell you everything I know about the different
Well, that just ain't so. I 'm Sergeant Kristina nations' sykers, how they fought, and why they
Dupry, late of His Majesty's Royal Syker failed or succeeded at their most-famous
Battalion , and I'm going to tell you how things missions. Know your enemies, child, and when
really were down here in Hell. you meet them, you'll have the advantage.
I teach bio- and telekinesis here at Marin's
new school, so you 're going to be seeing a lot of
me. Listen up, and you 'll do well. Ignore my Organization
advice, and I'll be mopping your brains off the Both American and Confederate sykers were
floor. Got it ? Good. organized into 10-man squads. They rarely acted
I came to your bloody continent in December that way at first, however. Instead , they were sent
of '80. Landed on the beach at Corpus Christi individually to perform covert operations. When
and went straight into action fighting Mexicans they were together, it was often to conduct a
in Texas and the Maze. The first thing I noticed raid or rescue operation, or to infiltrate the
was that your country was damnable hot, even enemy rear and destroy or confuse their
at Christmas. I was raised in London, and I can command and control.
tell you heat like that just isn’t proper. Later on, when we sykers were pushed onto
The second thing I noticed was that the Latin the battlefield, the squads operated together.
American Alliance sykers were pushovers. It Casualties quickly reduced the 10-person teams
didn't take much to fry their brains, break their —
to groups of 5 or 6 if they were lucky.

’
'
" .
I

Veterans o' the Sy&er P

s-w
E
f
Brits, Canadians, and most Europeans did it consciousness ever stacCiHawSgai
the same way. LatAms, Russians, and African underestimate the effect your jpgipl
|r nations usually grouped sykers into 100- member on those who have never seen them ,

companies but broke out individuals for specific The Germans fought the same way.| : s lSi
1 |
; missions just like everybody else. I only know of They used powerful sykers as "tlber
‘ one occasion when a whole company of sykers troopers" to bust a hole in enemy lines.
fought together. I 'll get to that later. Then their luftpanzers exploited the gap
Here's how we got numbered. The USA and and struck the fleeing enemy as they ran. •
-m.
CSA numbered their squads starting at 101. That They made good use of a little device called *
means the 101st Syker Squad was the first , junior.
a "machine head" as well. Developed by that
The highest unit numbers I've heard were 230- Hellstromme bloke, it allows sykers to interface
something for the Yanks and 198 for the with machines. German sykers used them to
Confederates. Europeans did the same, but pilot giant tanks, warwalkers, and assault
started our numbering at 001. I suppose you striders. They made those things damned deadly.
E Americans needed larger numbers to feel better Imagine a five-ton walking weapons platform
about yourselves. running across the battlefield , firing machine-
Most African coalitions and the LatAms guns one way and plasma cannons another. By
grouped themselves by where their home base the King , I hated fighting those things. Some of
was. The Tulancingo Company was based — guess these maniacs are still here in your country,
where-in Tulancingo, Mexico. When there were mate, using their machine heads on hover bikes,
multiple companies from the same base, such as cars, or the few remaining military vehicles. You
. stay away from anything like that, even after we
Mexico City, they 'd call themselves the 1st Mexico
City Company, the 2nd Mexico City company, and get you trained, right? Right .
I so on. The Americans, the French, and — to some
The Russians were even more difficult to keep extent-my own government used their sykers in
I track of . They used the alphabet to divide their more traditional ways. They would parachute or
\ syker legions. Aa Company was the first , Beh infiltrate behind the lines and disrupt command
| Company the second , and so on. If you don't and control . Yes, everyone played that game, but
j know their alphabet, it can sound downright the Yanks and Frogs were damned annoying
silly. Somehow, the "Eecracknaya Company ” just about it . When we first landed on your shore, for
doesn't strike dread into one's heart, does it, instance, a syker spy garbled our orders and had
chap? us land four miles east of our assigned zone-
through a mined harbor. Several landing craft
full of irreplaceable British brainburners
How They Fought drowned in that fetid water you call a bay.
Remember that what I'm about to tell you is The LatAms never could figure out what to do
what I noticed about the way sykers from with their sykers. They had moments of
j different nations behaved. Some of it might not brilliance, such as disabling the Confederate
I be right. Even if I 'm as perceptive as I usually early warning and anti-air systems at the very
[ am, not every individual enlisted in a syker unit beginning of the war, but then they allowed
I is the same. The Yanks were devilishly tricky at them to sit unused in a base camp for months
I times, but they also had their fair share of afterward. I suppose they were afraid to waste
I blasters striding the battlefields blowing up them. Their academies weren 't very good , and
I. assault striders. those they used to start the war were their top
I That was the Confederacy's forte: destruction.
I Many were saboteurs and demolitionists. More
graduates. Still, use them, or lose them , I
always say. And they lost them. By accident
I than any other nation, the CSA used them as a 60- pound Confederate artillery shell
I shock troops, throwing scores of veteran sykers dropped right into their barracks one
I at young conventional troops in order to panic night and killed them all .
I them without firing a shot. I am something of a Some said the disaster wasn't caused
j historian, and I can tell you that this tactic very ta? a shell at all. There was a rumor it
I likely developed from their early successes in j fglvas the work of one of those giant
_ _
your First Civil War, at the Battle of WashingtoruSaAttlers you blokes have over here, buL
[ Confederate agents using then - unheard -of that's nonsense. Even such a creature
devices overran the capital in 1870, and the could not destroy an entire company of
t memory has stuck in their collective veteran sykers.

J:.
: • • ••• • •• . .viT::.
V
 m
mm
mp I '

HI
Veterans o' the SySrer Wars
Nartfo £frican allies were similarly
The End
•

used their sykers as

r? ' rore
« mostly civilian targets,
Universities, and research Now, just because old Mather has filled your

-
$ V.

labs in an attempt to lower morale and force head full of the glories his mates won fighting a
i bunch of spearchuckers in outer space, let me
I theif targets out of the war. Hitler did the tell you about some of the real fighting that
# same thing with "buzz bombs" in World War II,
went on down here. Pay attention, child, because
#r and just like way back then, killing civilians
the tales I’m going to tell you are about your
I: Q made the public angrier and more resolved. family.
V Southern Africans were more clever. They
used their sykers in the usual ways, but they Things turned really nasty near the end of the
J war. Casualties for both the Northern and
also insinuated a few battlefield blasters into
companies of regulars as "artillery support ." I Southern Alliance had reached nearly 50%. New
watched a battalion of light infantry assault a recruits were as green as snot. They fought
river bank one night , and having that one, poorly against other green troops. Against
hidden syker mixed into their ranks, taking over veterans, they just cost their government a
gunners and other key opponents, helped them fortune in body bags and death benefits.
overrun the enemy in an hour. Equipment losses were even heavier. The
The Russians, damn their eyes, were masters destruction of civilian factories by conventional
of assassination. Every day brought a report of shelling and (later ) tactical nukes, wiped out
some post commander, politician, or military most every nation's manufacturing capabilities-
leader dying by their minds. Russian assassins especially here in the Americas, where the worst
who got captured did not meet pleasant ends. of the fighting took place. Guns were scarce, and
The other nations I haven't mentioned used ammo had to be looted from the dead. Armor
their sykers in the standard variety of ways. commanders had to scavenge parts for their
You 'll gain no useful information by me remaining tanks and other assault craft. There
nattering on about them. just wasn’t any place to make them back home.
That left most armies with two major
weapons: nukes and sykers. Of course, we were
the first to be sacrificed. When the armies began
to fall apart, we sykers were thrown into the
thick of it. Most of us had fared pretty well up
until Christmas of 2080. That 's when President
Tremane negotiated a cease-fire that stuck for a
few days. Then she got assassinated ( probably by
a syker ), and the war machined started up again.
But we were all the allies had to fight it with.
They began by copying the South African style-
inserting a “fire team" of sykers into
conventional battalions of 500-1,000 regulars. A
few bald heads rolled into the mass graves
following any major action.
Things got even worse as the casualties rose,
and the generals gave the go-ahead to tactical
nukes. Any time a spy satellite spotted a large
concentration of troops in the field, a missile
would streak from a sub or silo and blast them
to atoms.
The Confederates started the "syker war" in
earnest. They put together a hundred
brainburners and sent them straight into the
attle.
lylgjatively small groups like this had to be
ignored. There were just too many scattered
companies of each side to attract attention. A
hundred regulars was nothing. A hundred sykers,
i
f

| now that’s a threat . But as long as we kept our That 's where I saw my first z s ’ , ”

l helmets on, spy sats and aerial recon couldn't see by your expression you've seen sue
/ •/
i

[ tell the difference. Regular spies and enemy creatures yourself .

: sykers could , but you can imagine how difficult We were incredulous. Many of us had -
l it was to infiltrate a company of mind readers, been briefed on such things. Some had
f even for one of our own. even seen them-and worse-before. But
r So the last year of the war saw hundreds of these were covered in sores and pustules.
l
sykers fighting over some miserable pieces of
| soil. I cannot describe to you the strange beauty
Anyone they scratched contracted the
same disease, and often became a "plague
1 of those battlefields. zombie” herself .
> Thousands of incendiary tracer rounds Slowly, our numbers dwindled. Some soldiers
l crisscrossed the night . Warwalkers and assault wandered off to find their units. Most went to
striders stalked over the blasted earth , blazing find out if their families had survived . A few of
| away with brilliant plasma beams and us sykers tried to use our powers against the
| thundering cannon shells. Hover tanks and growing horde of undead, but we were pissing in
J assault craft maneuvered through this maze of the wind .
ji fire, lined by the telltale glow of slow burn , Eventually, a few of us foreigners decided to
\ moments before they would explode and crash explore Houston and find out if a transport had
\ like thunder into the chaos below. survived . It was likely our only way home. Of
| And beneath it all, exposed by parachute course, they hadn 't. What we did see, however,
|flares, cowered thousands of soldiers, scrambling was Pestilence himself .
I
for hiding places on a blasted battlefield devoid At first we thought he was just another of the
|of plants or cover other than muddy, bloody weird muties we’d encountered in the ruins.
I craters full of the corpses of those who had Then we saw the scores of plague zombies
| gone before. following reverently in his wake. One of my best
| I see that look, child. Perhaps this sounds like friends, Gus-we’d survived the whole damn war
I theater to you. But I was there. I saw the heads
I explode, the flesh melt, and sykers die by the
—
together took a shot at Pestilence with a brain
blast . He put everything he had into it, using a
I hundreds in those final, useless, cataclysmic technique we call overkill.
6 battles. But it only angered the horrid fiend. Pestilence
whipped its head around in anger and locked its
i The Reckoning hate-filled eyes with my Gus'. In moments, his
body began to tremble. Giant boils erupted on
i I don't know what you Americans did to have his skin , then burst into bloody fungus.
\ the Reckoners appear in your backyards, but I In moments, this man who had saved my life a
j hope whatever it was, you all rot in Hell for it. dozen times, who had made love to me during
I I was in Texas, recovering from the wound the Sack of Amarillo, and who would have
| that took this leg off , when Pestilence showed married me some day, was a grisly mass of flesh
I up. At first we didn’t believe these wild tales. We and pus.
| couldn't even believe that the ghost -rock bombs The rest of us fired our TSARs or whatever
| had truly been dropped. We thought the swirling, we had on us at Pestilence, but it just ignored
I black maelstrom around Houston was a
j firestorm caused by incendiary bombs. That
us. The small army behind him didn't. They
rushed us, and only myself and one other
I happened all the time. managed to escape.
f Slowly, when the hospital couldn’t contact I'll never forget that day, the way Gus died,
I anyone, we realized something worse had or the awful face of a Horseman of the I
I happened . Then a trickle of refugees wandered bloody Apocalypse. Pray they never come
I by, begging for help for themselves or their loved back here, kid. 'Cause if an Earth syker 0
I ones. They told us what had happened , that can't take them down , no one can.
Houston had been hit by a nuke and then All right . I reckon that 's all for today. I
[ covered in a storm full of the screaming souls of jjped a swig of spook juice ,

| those who'd died. ijr Daniel Marin will start your real
[ But we still couldn't believe it. I saw the tomorrow, . !

t doctors do what they could for a while, but then to measure you up.
I the trickle turned into a flood, and they had to Don ’t disappoint him, son. We sykers are
•t

. ..
I turn the wounded away. all this old world has left. , . * *5 *

’
, '

fosse: 33 m . Mi
* :

. *
•

•
U-

to;rr

p> .

Chapter Two:
7
MaSriJi SySrers
*!
<

\ We hope you know by now what a syker is: a

[ bald-headed, brain- blasting maniac with more Strain
power than he knows what to do with. If you Sykers channel energy from the Hunting
t think you've got what it takes to play one, more Grounds through their psyches to create
power to you. ( No pun intended.) Here's how. incredible effects. This is very taxing on their
First, of course, your hero must have the minds and bodies, so they can only do so much
\ arcane background: syker Edge. This costs him 3 before they must rest a while. The amount of
\ points . After that, you need to purchase blastin’, power a character can handle is called his
I[ figure out your brainburner's Strain, and choose "Strain." In the game, sykers themselves call it
" juice.” In the old days, eggheaded scientists tried
his powers.
| Once we go over how to do all that, we reveal to measure Strain in a unit called Kellinghams,
| some new Edges and Hindrances, how tp raise and if your syker ever talks about it, that 's
your hero's control , and learn new powers. Then probably the term he uses.
we wrap up the chapter with a short discussion A syker 's Strain is equal to his Vigor die type.
on how your chrome-domed blaster should use If he has a 3dl2 Vigor, for example, his Strain is
j all those nifty abilities. 12.
Every power has a Strain cost listed with it .
Blastin' When successfully used, it drains this amount of
Strain. An easy way to keep track of your
Sykers call using their abilities "blasting." syker's current Strain is by sliding a paper clip
Individual powers are learned through hard work , up ar[d down the Strain scale we so
practice, and watching other sykers with thoughtfully printed on the side of your
different abilities. character sheet .
Blastin’ is a Knowledge- based Aptitude. Unless When a syker's Strain reaches its 0
your syker is a greenie (see New Edges on page "breaking point," ( the syker 's maximum ), >-
•

ii*.
39 for more about these rookies), your hero must he can no longer use his powers, unless
have blastin’ at level 3 or better. -
he finds a temporary or artificial source.
1
To use a power, the syker declares which one
he’s trying to use and makes a blastin' roll yeasing Strain
against the TN listed in the power's description There are several ways for a syker to 11
» ' *v
*

Raises on this roll usually produce additional increase the amount of Strain he can
i -

effects. withstand, thus increasing the amount of

S&LJ if
'

.
::
fosse: 35 zt
: tV\ .

S:
&
*
•V

-.-y m-- . .

'“
T r
 e cafcuse or project. The first is The second way some sykers recover Strain is
thing that would get you to through a new Aptitude called meditation. Read
all lif it still existed anymore): all about it below, compadre.
practice, practice. This method of
« -
Kjr. Joining one 's self and building up the Meditation
^
Ijlfe t pff yehiC muscles," so to speak, is represented
^ Sykers are products of two masters: curious
•

sm, ,i / ». JW by the Edges fortitude and steel -trap mind ( see

•
hucksters and patient , Far Eastern warriors and
w .

, ft pages 39 and 40). monks. They gained their versatility from the
nj The second way to increase Strain is to use former. From the latter, they gained discipline,
V certain rare and exotic drugs. This is finesse, and the art of meditation.
dangerous, since these drugs are not exactly the When a syker really needs to let his troubles
healthiest thing to put in the body. See Chapter drift away, he can meditate. Usually it’s easier to
Four for more details on them. make troubles go away by shooting them, but
The third way is to use certain types of hey, any port in a storm, right? Meditation is
technology. Both before and during the Last War, simply a way for a syker to more quickly and
scientists on Earth researched ways to increase efficiently get his body to calm down and relax.
and improve sykers' powers, and some of them Meditation is a new Aptitude based on Spirit.
succeeded . None of these successes became It allows a character to enter a sort of trancelikf
mass- market technology — they tend to be one- state which heightens his ability to relax and
of -a - kind objects, more precious to a syker than recuperate. Its main effect is that it can double
gold-but there are still a few salvageable relics the speed at which Strain is recovered .
out there. Details about such devices can be To use meditation, the syker must merely
found in Chapter Four. make a Fair (5) roll to enter a trancelike state.
A few sykers have an almost supernatural This takes five minutes. If he fails, he can simpl)
ability to handle more Strain than usual . This is try again. If he goes bust , all his remaining
reflected by a new Edge called steel will (see Strain is drained , and he must wait at least 1
page 40). hour before trying again. That 's what you get for
trying too hard , friend.
Recovering Strain If the brainburner's roll is successful, each
Equally as important as increasing Strain is half hour spent meditating allows the syker to
improving the syker 's ability to recover it . regain 1 point of Strain . Each raise reduces the
. The basic way to recover Strain is simple rest time increment another five minutes, up to a
and relaxation-not always the easiest thing to minimum of 1 Strain recovered every 15 minutes.
find in the Wasted West . For every hour of rest, If the syker's trance is interrupted by a threat,
the syker regains 1 point of Strain. or if he chooses to end it by speaking or
During this time, he can 't do anything more answering one of his less -enlightened
strenuous than sit, take a nap, ride in a car, or companions, he loses all benefits for that hour.
carry out other activities which require no real Make sure your companions shut up while you
effort or concentration. That means a blaster commune with your inner child . Ooohhhmmm.
recovering juice can 't drive a car ( but he could
ride in one if the road isn't too bumpy ), ride a
horse, read a book , or even engage in a lengthy . Artificial Enhancements
conversation. If your syker has just run out of Besides practice, a syker can temporarily
juice, make someone else drive while he sleeps improve his blastin' effectiveness with drugs
in the back seat . such as axor and, more commonly, spook juice.
One point of Strain for a whole hour is a Yup. We mean getting toasted . (That's drunk ,
mighty slim gain-particularly if a friends, not set on fire and smothered in butter
brainburner is fighting for his life. So there an <3 jelly.) No one’s quite sure why spook juice
1 are plenty of sykers out there who have works and other liquors don ' t , but it does, even
tried to find a way to "boost the gain ," as if the syker isn' t resting.

_
k .
f some of them say.
There are only three known ways to do
f
If you 're willing to put up with the hangover
off *61 risks of drinking liquefied ghost rock ,
this One is by ingesting the strangely **"**! IpuLit a "shot .” The details are in Chapter Four,
. '

but that's in No Man's Land, so be sure to get

"

? named "green bird of Heaven." Check out

l Chapter Four for more information. your Marshal's okay before heading that way.
;- Viji
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Brainburn {.earning Hew H

"Brainburn ” is the syker term for Once your syker has survived a s
what happens when you go bust on or two ( congratulations, bunkiel), he
a blastin' roll or your hero uses an
ability like fortitude, overkill, or a
greenie's ability to spend extra juice
for extra effect .
want to learn a few new tricks. Here's {p
he does it.

Powers Within the Speciality

^
B|
I
In most cases, brainburn results Sykers have an intuitive grasp of the
in massive mental feedback that causes severe things they can do with the type of energy
pain and injury to the syker. There's more than they specialize in. Your syker can learn any
; one recorded case of a syker being killed this power within his specialty simply by paying 5 %
l way, and believe us, it ain 't pretty when some Bounty Points.
• poor bastard 's head explodes near you. It usually takes a brainburner ld 6 days to
Fortunately, there's some relief in sight . The develop a new power-half that if he has a
Marshal has a new Brainburn Table which mentor syker with that power to teach him. You
: provides far more options than just getting hurt . shouldn 't normally keep strict track of this time.
Of course, after you experience some of them, Just assume your hero was working on it when
you may beg for simple pain .
.
nothing else was going on , such as between
game sessions, during a long trip, or when
:
Starting Powers camping for the night. Sykers should not be
allowed to buy a new power in the middle of
Your syker starts with one power for every combat or any other tense situation.
level he has in blastin'. A syker doesn 't get more
powers by raising his blastin' once the game Powers Outside the Specialty
starts. All he gets is more dice to use when Powers outside the syker 's speciality cannot
blastin'. be developed without a teacher, book , or
A syker may start with any power listed in learning machine ( see Chapter Four ). This is the
on Y waY sykers can develop powers outside
the Deadlands: Hell on Earth rulebook-those are
considered the basic powers available to all '
tbeir specialty.
: sykers. After that, he can learn new powers A syker can teach another brainburner a
either from a teacher, or on his own if the power power in ld 6 hours. Learning a new power from
is from his primary category (often known as a book takes a like amount of time. Learning
his specialty ). machines are discussed in Chapter Four, but
typically get the job done in only a few minutes.
-T* .
I Specialty
i
Every syker is predisposed to one particular
category of powers. Some brainburners are best
Fast learners /
It looks like it would be easy for a syker from
with pyrokinesis; others are natural telekinetics.
an academy to graduate with scores of powers,
Researchers think it’s genetic-a lot of (former )
right ? All he has to do is spend 5 Bounty Points
redheads are pyros-but it also seems linked to a
each , so what 's the big deal?
person 's personality. Pyros are "hot tempered ,”
while mind freaks are cool and calculating. The reason is that a syker in the relatively
Your syker's specialty determines which safe environment of an academy learns through
powers he can develop on his own and which long hours of study and practice. He's not
ones he must learn from some other source. learning "under fire” in a harsh world full of \
You must choose one of these specialties
death and danger. In game terms, this
tri
when you make your syker: means he’s simply not earning Bounty
Biokinesis: Body functions. Points as fast as a counterpart battling 4
muties and walkin ' dead .
Psionics: The mind and psyche, including , Also, it might just be it's a little easier
- emotions. ir m ^ tap into the power of the Hunting
Pyrokinesis: Fire and heat. T-iflSi'Qunds now that the Reckoners are on
Sykokinesis: Supernatural energy.
Earth and there are so many Deadlands K
Telekinesis: Manipulation and movement of
matter. and other supernatural areas on the planet. 30
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 The Oath of Unity
Among brainers, sykers are perhaps best
-1
,-
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eMottgh ways to screw your known for the Oath of Unity. It's commonly
believed among outsiders that no syker will ever ]
^
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xcMrAjCt We're here with some helpful
tidvtee oft which Hindrances to pick for your harm another syker. That's nonsense, of course. ]
ip;::.'
.jt’r syker, plus a passel of brand new ones to Sykers get into fights with each other all the I
?
mess with his already overloaded mind. time. But it is true that Banshee sykers from the \
same squad are bound by an oath to each other i
M if - Common Hindrances
Bloodthirsty mean as a rattler, night terrors,
and , in many cases, with other squads they
formed close relationships with .
What does the oath mean? It means the syker
and pacifist are often taken by Banshee sykers. refuses to hurt or harm other sykers to whom
The horrors they saw on Banshee, and which he swore his oath, either directly or indirectly i

General "Overkill" Warfield forced them to even if it causes him problems, injury, or loss of 1
commit , affected the Legionnaires in different life. If the syker unwittingly harms someone I
ways-most of them bad . who is protected by the oath , he must do 1
Some become ruthless killers. Others refuse to everything in his power to correct or heal the 1
ever kill again , or they have nightmares about harm . What that means depends on the I
what they saw and did . You can use these situation . The Marshal has to make the call here| ,
Hindrances to reflect these problems. but, your hero should do everything he can to |
Geezer is common among Earth sykers, many make things right . 1
of whom are getting along in years ( which is It can be especially interesting to see how a 1
often why they weren’t sent to Banshee). character with the oath deals with conflicting 1
Obviously it's not appropriate for a greenie. obligations. Suppose the character takes a job ]
Finally, some sykers use drugs to boost their which eventually brings him into conflict with a 1
powers. Some of them might have picked up a brother syker . If he follows his oath, he betrays
hankerin'. See Chapter Four for a list of drugs his employer. If he does the job, he becomes an
used by sykers, and their possible side-effects. oathbreaker.
Finally, don' t forget that if a syker took an
oath to another squad , the two brainburners
New Hindrances might know each other. They may have been
friends, and might have even saved each other's
Apostate -3 lives on distant Banshee.
Apostates are Banshee sykers Oathbreairer - I / -2
who refused to take the Oath of
Unity as it returned to Earth. Most Banshee sykers took the Oath of Unity .
Mysteriously, all of the apostates While most have kept those oaths faithfully, a
had a black "A" singed onto their few have broken faith with their fellow sykers.
forehead shortly afterward . No one These folks are known as oathbreakers. Of
97 knows how this happened , but course , to get the Hindrance the syker has to be
many suspect it was done by the Voodoo Gurus. known as one who broke his oath. If he breaks
Apostates are regarded as the lowest of the his oath but no one knows, he doesn't become
low by other sykers. Most sykers give these folks known as an oathbreaker.
a wide berth , but a few simply wait for a good Breaking the oath for a good and well-known
excuse (or even a bad excuse) to light out reason is a -1 point Hindrance. Other sykers i
typically give the hero a chance to explain
^ after one and grind him into the dirt. Yup.
That means most every Banshee syker is
your hero's enemy.
If your character swore, the oath and
himself before they start blasting.

one
If the reason isn 't known or isn ' t a very good
, it 's a -2 point Hindrance. Other oathtakers
;

, .
* later broke it , hes. an oathbreaker instead .
, , , blast .
your hero on sight , and it might even be
a
poss le for him t 0
^
up one day with a big wSake
^^^
Apostates; are often bad guys, but maybelUl
ypur ker had a good reason for refusu #
j d on his forehead . stm on fIt happens
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oathbZker
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the Oathof^ Unity. Maybe he knows about
By. some dark, otftd hissquad did an Banshee
and now hates the bald - headed3 brotherhood.
) If that h his
Hindrance becomes the -3 point apostate
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amount of Strain ' he':

New Edges over his normal limitiiPil
We've screwed your hero, now let's help him
out a little.
makes the roll, nothing
lB
happens. If the roll is failedyklm
^^
Additional Powers
Good sykers have a diverse bag of tricks. This
0
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the poor schmuck has to rolt
on the new Brainburn Table ?
Good luck , partner.
.
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is the only way your character can start the “Greenie” Special
game with more than five powers, since sykers Learning powers is relatively easy. Learning
( who aren't greenies) start the game with one
to control the "burn" is much harder. Greenies
power for every level they have in blastin’, and are young or inexperienced sykers who haven’t
the maximum starting blastin’ is 5. been taught how to handle their incredible
With this Edge, you can also purchase abilities.
additional abilities for 2 points each. There's a Your hero is learning his talents on his own,
limit though. Your syker can only buy an and has likely only experienced his "first sign ” in
additional number of powers equal to half his the last year or so. Greenie is a very special
Knowledge die type. A typical syker with 5 Hindrance. It doesn 't actually give your hero any
points in blastin' and a Knowledge die type of points-it just negates the cost of buying arcane
dl2, for instance, could start with up to 11 total background ( which he now gets for "free"). In
powers. essence, your syker is just developing his arcane
Adept background.
3 The greenie cannot start the game with a
Some sykers are really good at one type of blastin' higher than 1, and he can only raise it
power, but not others. We call them adepts. once per game session (as usual ). He can choose
i.
:
An adept adds + 2 to his blastin' rolls a single power to start with, and new powers
i whenever he uses a power within his specialty, cost 5 Bounty Points as usual .
i but he must subtract -1 from blastin' rolls in all
;

other categories.
A syker may only take adept once. He cannot
i
be both a pyrokinetic adept and a sykokinetic
;

adept. Being an adept is, according to the

! research, a genetic thing. Either a brainburner 's
got it or he doesn't, and those who have it can
only have one type of it .
c
fortitude i
Fortitude is an Edge learned by most Banshee
sykers after fighting the mysterious "skinnies."
? Neither Earth sykers nor greenies can learn
i fortitude. Some say this proves a syker had to
'
have contact with a skinny's mind to develop the
f power. Here's how it works.
(Note: We've changed this a bit from the
Deadlands: Hell on Earth rulebook , so pay
attention , waster! The biggest change is that
l there's no longer any Wind loss. Instead , we now
[ have room for the nifty Brainburn Table we
wanted to put in the main rulebook but just n
couldn't fit! We hope you like the changes, but if
you don’t, just keep using the old rules.)
A syker can continue to use powers up to
double his normal Strain. When a syker uses ISagg
I Strain beyond that ( he goes negative), he must '
J
make a simultaneous Vigor check with each - .vp "- .
blastin' roll. The TN is equal to 5 plus the
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 Greenies can 't buy the following Edges: Overkill 3
additional powers, fortitude, or overkill. Near the end of the Last War, many Earth
\ Most greenies are kids, but your hero sykers found themselves on the battlefield
M doesn't have to be. Maybe he trained at instead of sneaking around behind enemy lines.
|Jericho or with a mentor after the war, had Standing mind - to - barrel with hover tanks,
f his first sign late, or simply hasn' t tried to assault platforms , and hordes of gun- toting
develop his power until now. All that matters is infantrymen made the best Earthers the toughest
that the greenie developed his power after the bastards around. Some even learned to trade a
Reckoning (September 23rd , 2081). little piece of their soul for more power.
Here's what ’s so special about these brain - How, you ask ? Easy. Earth sykers with this
blasters. Greenies' brains grew and developed Edge can spend chips to increase the damage
after the Reckoning, in a world supercharged done by syker powers which directly cause
with supernatural energy. Because of that , they damage. A white chip adds one extra die of
can channel more power through their minds damage; a red chip adds 2 dice, a blue chip adds
and bodies. Such feats are not without risks, 3, and a Legend chip adds 4 . Use whatever die
however. type the character is already rolling, and add
When a greenie chooses , he can these bonus dice to the total. Even if the regular
spend extra Strain for effect . Every dice are rolled like a skill roll ( reading only the
point of Strain spent allows him to highest die), these dice are added separately and
add + 2 to his Wastin ' roll. The then added to the total .
maximum Strain that can be spent Only one chip may be used per blastin' roll,
on a roll is 5 ( which has a +10 but the bonus dice count toward everyone
effect!). affected by the power.
The downside is that the greenie must Along with the blastin' roll , an
simultaneously make a Spirit roll versus a TN of Earther using overkill must make a
5, plus +1 for each point of extra Strain spent . Fair (5) Spirit roll. Add +1 to the TN if
Failure means he suffers brainburn. a white chips was spent , + 2 for a
red , and so on. If this roll is failed ,
the syker suffers brainburn as he
uses his power.
This Edge is only available to Earth sykers
who fought in the Last War. Perhaps the
Reckoners awarded Earth sykers this advantage
before they manifested to increase the carnage
on Earth. If so, they are strangely selfish now
that they walk our world in the flesh.

Steel-Wap Mind | c
1-u
Some sykers can go on blasting while others
are gasping and twisting for mercy.
Every level of steel -trap mind adds +1 to a
syker 's Strain, up to a maximum of + 5. Banshee
sykers count this bonus when using fortitude.

Steel Will l -c«1

*
For whatever reason , some survivors are
naturally resistant to syker powers, whether
they 've got the mind talent or not.
. This Edge is available to sykers and non -

sykers alike. It represents someone whose

gwillpower is particularly strong , allowing him to
|
jjgs st syker powers better For every point of
>
steel will, a character adds +1 to opposed rolls
he makes to resist or decrease the effects of
syker powers.

Posse:.40
 M-: W m

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narrator ) wanders the wastes Iodic!

How SySrers Get Their Groove On potential students. Those he or his
don 't find must either have their oWiiSpL
Syker powers typically begin to develop $
:
: around puberty. Sometimes they come a little
private mentor or learn to develop th | | lg ft
j later, which is fine. Sometimes they're a little
powers on their own.
Regardless of where new sykers learn
'

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STflfl
\ earlier, and this requires some extra work on the their powers, they are all referred to as
l part of whoever s looking after the syker child. It "greenies" by prewar sykers. It’s more than
- N Vv. §i
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'
l takes a certain maturity to be able to handle just a label. Greenies actually have an
i syker powers, so young children who develop entirely different way of handling arcane
I them have to be turned over to a competent energy than veterans of Earth or Banshee.
| teacher to prevent them from dying of brainburn. They learn their trade in one of three ways: at
[ Sykers call the very first manifestation of their the Jericho Academy, through a mentor, or on
j powers "first sign." Most experience first sign their own ( vets call them "orphans").
I when they're 12 to 15 years old .
| In the prewar days, once the child's parents The Jericho Academy
I figured out why their pots and pans were Theoretically, the Jericho Academy should be a
| floating around the room , they'd usually send poor substitute for the well -funded, high-tech,
f their young prodigy to a government-run and better-organized academies of old. But the
f academy. Not a lot of fun. simple truth is the prewar academies took about
five years to produce a competent syker, and so
Prewar SyJrers does Jericho.
Government -run academies featured What 's Marin 's secret ? Life . His young sykers
; exhaustive and intensive instruction combined are frequently sent out to explore the wastes,
; with the strictest discipline. Sykers were taught protect the local townsfolk, and deal with
j not only to use their powers but to obey the frequent Doombringer and mutie attacks.
r often sinister commands of their leaders. Before Characters who learned their trade at Jericho
I the war, most sykers were fanatically loyal to have spent a year there for every point of blastin'
they ' ve got.
l their military. Afterward , the vast majority were
disillusioned and disaffected by what some
psychologists suggested the military had Mentors
become-their surrogate parents. Some greenies learned their powers by finding
[ To create these mental super -soldiers, an older, more experienced syker and taking him
| academies used both human teachers and, at the as a mentor.
| end, cutting-edge "mental teaching machines.” This can mean anything from a gentle period
j These were used to cram the proto-sykers' heads of tutelage and self -discovery to an extended
full of the information they needed to term of near -slavery in which the syker does
understand and use their powers. hard work and chores in exchange for learning
The academies emphasized their students' what he can about being a syker from his
specialities, but taught them powers within other "teacher." This being the Wasted West, you can
categories as well . A brilliant pyrokinetic guess which is more common.
saboteur, for instance, is useless without a few If this is how your character got his powers,
powers to help him sneak in and out of his he's been with his master for two years for every
objective. level he has in blastin'.
Training at an academy usually included the
use of basic weapons and took an average Orphans 2
student five years to complete. The last way a person becomes a syker
is on his own. Most are mere children who /
Postwar Sykers are literally orphans. In some cases, 4- * - r.
>

orphans are mistaken for mutants and

After the War, more specifically, after the jtfled from their community. Life is hard
Reckoning, sykers had to rely on other methods
of instruction. There is only one academy,
[ Jericho, and few wastelanders even know it
; exists. That's why Sergeant Mather (our first
? r these kids, and they have a hard time
Earning new powers without a teacher
around. Sometimes they take more than
three years to learn a blastin' level.
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 MaSrin Svfrers
T he Edge of Experience
Earth sykers tend to be more experienced
"
P l a y i n g a n Earther is a little bit different than Banshee sykers. First off , they're older.
• from playing a Banshee syker Sure, they ve
'
That 's the whole reason they stayed behind .
I got the same powers and Aptitudes and what Their governments kept the veterans and sent
f not, but what we’re talking about here is more the newbies off to Banshee when the UN first
, a matter of attitude and approach to life in the called for a syker legion . To the then -snot - nosed
Wasted West. 20-somethings who made up the Banshee syker
Banshee sykers tend to be intolerant of corps, the Earthers are old .
authority ( because of all the horrible things Even though most of these grim Banshee vets
they were ordered to do during the Faraway War ) are themselves 30+ years old these days, Earth
and sort of angry at the world for leaving them sykers are usually 10 to 15 years more
out in the cold. Earth sykers are kind of like experienced . A few Earthers graduated after the
that , but it would be better to describe their Faraway War began , but these young Turks were
attitude as guilty. thrown headlong into the meatgrinder of the
It 's one thing to go to war and come back to Last War. Few Earth sykers remain. Fewer still
find out your home has changed. It 's another to are young.
actually see the changes taking place right in Second , Earthers fought a war in which they
front of your own eyes. What 's worse is to watch had to turn their awesome mental powers on
the cities go up in ghost rock mushroom clouds their fellow humans, not purple, alien savages.
and realize you may very well have had a hand Many worked as commandos and spies, but
in the whole process. It often makes a guy bitter some, just like Banshee sykers, were tossed into
and cynical . It also gives him a good reason to the crucible and had to learn how to use their
be searching for something better to do with his powers on the battlefield . And while the anouks
life, like helping innocents and fighting the were tough , especially when backed by skinnies,
creatures of the Reckoning. You know, hero stuff . they just didn ' t compare to a modern enemy
 armed with cluster munitions, hover tanks, and Whereas most Bansh
laser-guided bombs. Today, Earth 's battlefields more or less the same exper '
'1 f»

Banshee, Earthers filled a variety of iSSP

are littered with the bones of Earth sykers who
didn ' t learn to cope with such threats fast
enough. The ones who made it through are
Some stuck to their traditional pursui&E
spying, infiltrating, assassinating, and "-HM
^
tough sons of bitches who are more than
capable of holding their own against
abominations, walkin' dead, and Banshee
conducting commando operations. Others
as mentioned above, became full -fledged m
combat blasters. The character's
^
blasters. background should give you some idea of m
Third, Earth sykers watched the world turn what kind of powers he should start the
weird while their brothers and sisters on game with. mm
'Wm
Banshee were fighting aliens. Many of them Second , don't forget Earthers can have the
worked hand -in -hand with the Agency or the overkill Edge instead of fortitude. Truthfully, this
Texas Rangers and learned just how bizarre ability creeps them out a bit . Some have likened
things could get when the terror and violence of overkill to a gift from a dark God . There just may
a world war mingled with the supernatural be some truth to that.
power of the Reckoners. Another important difference is that almost
Fourth , the sykers on Banshee had TunnelCom none of them are addicted to red or own a
to keep them up to date on the Last War, but Banshee stone. They also haven't sworn any
they were busy fighting anouks and missed out oaths not to attack any other sykers. That's why
on a lot of practical information. Earthers know Banshee vets don ' t consider Earthers their
more mundane information , like where major brothers and sisters. They 're more like distant
battles were fought , where caches of weapons cousins.
might be found , and other useful tidbits the Because of their age and experience, Earth
Banshee sykers have to piece together from sykers should be veterans o' the wasted west.
survivor 's stories.
Fifth, many Earth sykers worked very closely Sole Survivor
with their intelligence agencies. In the North ,
I this role was fulfilled by the Agency. In the Very few Earth sykers survived the Last War.
: South, it was the Texas Rangers who tracked Think about it. These guys and gals are
! down the weird stuff and put an end to it . awesome weapons for the military behind them ,
Working so closely with these agencies gave the so they didn 't just sit around in the rear and
I . sykers a leg up on the nature of the Reckoning, goof off while their side was losing.
certain abominations, and how to kill them. To That brings us to one important question:
f reflect this, most Earth sykers have academia: How did your syker survive the Apocalypse? Was
F occult at level 3 or higher, he behind enemy lines, infiltrating some secret
Finally, Earth sykers watched their homes base unknown to those who dropped the
i
I blow up. If that doesn't harden a soul , nothing bombs? If so, how did he escape? Was he
| will. Sure, everyone lost family and friends that perhaps away from his barracks or base, visiting
I dismal day in September, but Earthers were family or friends on a short leave? If so, his
I there, and many of them wonder why they were family likely survived too. Where are they now?
| chosen to survive. Not many did. Maybe your syker was in a field camp
I The rest have "survivor 's syndrome." A few somewhere when the bombs fell, one the enemy
I make the best of it. They figure they should do hadn't yet spotted with satellite surveillance. If
i something worthwhile with their second chance that 's the case, what happened to the rest of
I at life. Others let the guilt eat them up inside, his unit? And why did they let him just walk ]

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I drifting aimlessly or worse, using their powers off and leave? Or maybe your syker was in
I for selfish or even evil reasons. a field hospital when things went to Hell .
He and all the others rose from their beds,
lobked around at the destruction, and just
Making an Earth Syker walked off .
Creating an Earth syker character is not W It may sound like a simple question ,
significantly different from creating a Banshee,; : ;#'" *pt exactly how your syker lived through a
syker, but there are a few things to take into war that killed over 90% of his comrades
account. First , figure out exactly what the might determine many things about your
character was doing during the Last War. hero. T • '
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The Uses of SySrer Powers
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Wp > powers . That 's why it 's important for you, the
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player, to figure out what you want your syker Sabotage
M to do with them . One of the best ways is to
it Saboteurs sneak their way into heavily
determine what your hero did before. This guarded objectives and plant bombs, destroy
should help you develop a theme for your sensitive equipment , or set fires. Pyrokinesis is
% * ;- T brainburner and choose the powers that serve their main weapon , but they need powers to help
* him best in that role. Here are a few them reach their objective quietly as well .
v descriptions of the most common types of Silence, chameleon, and predator can all come in
prewar sykers. handy here.
The problem with saboteurs is they were
Assassin often called on to destroy buildings that
Most syker assassins use bio- or telekinesis contained not only valuable military objectives,
to kill their victims. Those who want to make a but innocent bystanders as well. These days,
point use messy powers like Aztec surprise or there are many syker saboteurs who have a
boneripping. If subtlety is more important , guilty conscience about what they did in the
heartstopper is a better choice, as are creative Last War or on Banshee.
uses of purge, chameleon, and skin walker.
Make sure your killer has a good sneak as spy
well, and don ' t forget the value of a silent - Many of the sykers' more indirect powers,
weapon skill , such as fightin': knife. such as mindrider, are ideal for uncovering
hidden or secret information. Similarly, they can
Master Blaster easily transmit that information from mind to
Pure destruction is impressive and fun at mind via psychic link-a virtually foolproof
parties. Whether it 's frying someone's brain, courier system. Often , the only thing they have
blowing a building to smithereens, or burning a to worry about is enemy sykers.
hole through a hover tank , sykers wield some Spies also make good use of sensory abilities
pretty impressive power. This is a common path like mind scan. They can 't see through walls like
for Earth sykers, especially when combined with so many brainers think , but they can see
their awesome overkill ability. Pyrokinesis is a through someone else's eyes ( mindrider ) or
natural specialization , as is sykokinesis for the detect many things which normal humans can't.
force field power, which can protect the blaster Psionics is their speciality of choice.
when he's striding the battlefield like War
himself . Subversive
Considered the ultimate form of power by
Interrogator some sykers, the ability to take control of
What information spies can ' t get, interrogators someone's mind or play around with her
often do. ( This happened often during the Last personality is a dangerous one indeed . With the
War, in which prisoners were common . ) They right powers, a syker can literally break down
specialize in psionics and use powers such as someone's memories and personality and rebuild
tattletale and mind reader to gain information her to taste. A loyal follower can be turned into
from their victims. a bomb- toting , suicidal killer, for example-just
the sort of assassin who can get close to a
Provocateur target and kill him.
Provocateurs are masters at tricking Subversives must be masters of psionics, and
4} people with illusions , whether they’re should have a decent persuasion as well.
limited ones like skinwalker, which changes While many don ' t trust sykers, even other
$ their appearance , or ones with broader sykers don't trust "mind freaks” who specialize
effects like hallucination. Judiciously used , % ikJ;;% mental domination . They often tend to be
these powers can send enemies off on vfti afrogant, aloof , and have a self -righteous, know -
mWm goose chases or prevent pursuers from ever it -all attitude that makes folks around them
getting close to catching the syker. in a somewhat wary of their true intentions.
somewhat less heroic vein, they can also be
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Sykers are powerful, no doubt about it.
Anyone with sense thinks twice about taking on
someone who can tear people to shreds with
little more than a thought. But their power isn 't
limitless. Indeed, to hear them talk about it , their
abilities are often severely hampered by the
Strain their powers cause them. But the more
clever or tactically minded sykers have
developed some ways to maximize their
effectiveness.

Line of Sight
Most syker powers work on what's called "line
of sight." That means the syker has to be able to
see his target to affect him. This provides a
i whole passel of tactical options a clever syker
[ can take advantage of , but it also has some
: limitations to account for.
The Bad Stuff
[ Bad news first . "Line of sight" doesn't literally
I mean that a syker can brain blast any little
j speck on the horizon which might be a target.
I It’s not that good. To establish a useful line of
I sight to a target, the syker has to be close
I enough to recognize the target for what it is (a up a big rock with telekinesis and throw it at
I man, zombie, mutie, wormling, and so forth ). The where he thinks you 're hiding, but at least he
I Marshal can change this to take special can't get hold of you with meat puppet and
I situations into account if something unusual make you start clucking like a chicken.
I comes up during the game. Most folks can If necessary, the Marshal may require the
recognize and distinguish a human -sized figure syker to make a Cognition roll to establish line
standing in the open at around 300 yards. The of sight against a target which is difficult to see
eagle eyes Edge extends the range to arottnd 500 or far away.
yards. Fourth , line of sight has to be established
Second, line of sight or not, most syker directly, with the syker's own eyes. He can't hold
powers have definite ranges. These ranges are up a periscope or mirror and spot the target that
usually defined by a syker's level of skill. An way, or find a target with closed-circuit
experienced syker can use his powers at a television , mindrider, or something like that .
} greater range than a newbie. But even if a syker
There has to be a direct line between the syker
; has line of sight on a target , he can’t affect that
and his target . Sight enhancers, such as
I target ' with a power if the target's beyond the binoculars or a telescope work just fine
[ power s maximum range. However (and here's a because there's still a direct line from the
[ bit of good news), with a few notable exceptions, syker to his target.
f syker powers don’t have Range Increments. It 's Finally, line of sight means line of sight.
i just as easy to hit a target at the maximum It doesn 't matter if a syker has big ears or
I range as when the target 's standing right next to a nose like a basset hound , he's got to be
I the syker. at>le to see his target to affect him with
I Third, the line-of -sight requirement often idlvker powers. And if he goes blind for
I makes it easy to hide from sykers. Drop a smoke
I grenade, duck behind a rock, or hunker down
r inside a car. If a syker can't see you, he often
^ cm e reason, you guessed it, he can only
use powers that affect him personally; All
other powers are useless. No lookee, no
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well. The main one is the ability to use cover
ability to cause damage-and given that they can
rip peoples' bones out of their bodies or burst
blood vessels, that fear is well - placed. Still, it's
^ extensively. Savvy sykers can hide behind
rubble and peek over the top just enough to
see their target. Or stick their head out around
%.
not something that should be relied on too
much.
Far too many sykers fall into the trap of
|a corner just a bit to rip some scavs to shreds ,
simply blasting away at the enemy, taking
i A really clever syker might even scrounge up
an old piece of bulletproof glass and use it to advantage of these powers to reduce them to
protect his head while he looks for targets. bloody heaps of flesh , without exploring other
But don 't forget the other big advantage to alternatives. There are plenty of other ways to
line of sight: distance! Sykers don't have to get affect targets indirectly, which may serve the
up close and personal with their enemies. They syker better in the long run.
can stand 100 yards off and turn their foes' Take hallucination , for example. Why waste
minds to mush. Between cover and range, the several rounds dismantling foes one at a time
odds of any victims being able to mount an when a clever syker can distract all of them at
effective counterattack are slim. On the other once with one well-conceived illusion? With a
hand, if any of them do get to the syker, he touch of chameleon or skin walker, a syker may
might be stuck out there all by himself . Smart be able to sneak in among his targets and wreak
sykers avoid this by picking a spot their friends a lot of havoc.
can reach quickly enough to help out . The Similarly, meat puppet is an incredibly effective
sneakiest sykers climb trees or buildings to tool in combat. Dominate one enemy's mind, and
reduce the possibility of some abomination get him to shoot his buddies! That's every bit as
creeping up and ripping their innards out. effective as brain blasting each of them one at a
time, and it costs a lot less Strain to boot.

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The military-whichever one your syker was

once a part of -trained him in military skills for
a reason. Sometimes there just isn 't enough
Strain to get done everything he's supposed to
accomplish. It's often a good idea for a m if
brainburner to save his energy for things that isykerl o di£i
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memory maker telekinesis and fleshknit. When
the hero just want to blast somebody into his
component atoms, his trusty assault rifle or a
the 'pfeth of Unity." ThMhave aMlck fJ
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Brainer: Most folks mean "dumb ass," 5
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suitable skills to go with his powers. Remember syker powers." „ 4
also that tools can often make up for a power , Brainburn: Damage or other ill effecyLf - j
? you just can ' t afford to buy at first. A sniper, for from a failed use of a syker power. W
instance, might want itsy-bitsy spider to help Junkie : A syker who overuses ‘ 5
if
him gain the high ground. But if you can't swing s or relies on them too much.
it, maybe you can just buy him a grappling hook f Earther: A syker who remained On I
or other climbing tools instead. In other words, Earth instead of going to Faraway. ;
don't limit your character because you can't Grape: Anouk ( because of their purple
afford every power you think he should have. skin ).
Find other ways to make up for any weaknesses Greenie: A new syker, one who’s
in your hero's career. ;i
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formal training.
\•t
Affecting Undead Juice: Strain, the psychic energy that
fuels syker powers.
Syker powers, by and large, work on the Juice Junkie: A syker who specializes
undead as well as the living. There are some * in sykokinetic powers.
( ) ,
exceptions check out agonizer but sykers can Lifter : A syker who specializes in : "

generally blast zombies and the Harrowed as telekinetic powers.

well as muties and scavs. Lightning: §yker powers. Used
Why is that? Because walkin dead , Harrowed ,
' graphically more than verbally.
and the like actually use magic to activate” a
" Lizards : Another name for anouks.
portion of the brain ( usually-some use other Mind Freak: A syker who specializes
; organs as their focus, but that 's rare). Tin psionic powers. Some use it as an 4

Powers or damage that directly affect insult , saying mind freaks get off on ;
functioning organs such as eyes and ears work playing "peeping Tom" with other
just fine. Don't rely on poison to kill a zombie ( it people's thoughts and memories.
doesn 't work ), but use blindside on its eyes and Pyro: A syker who specializes in
it's blinded . In short, if an organ is functioning, pyrokinetics .
even if by magic it can be affected by syker
, Skinnies : Mysterious and powerful
powers. --creatures on Banshee. There is some
I - -m
Mind -control powers are a little different . If the debate over whether or not they are
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creature is simply an animated corpse, such as a t factually anouks.
walkin dead zombie skeleton, or other Syko: A syker whose brain’s ilSIl
k been burned one too many times. IIWliB
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on them. Harrowed , vampires, liches, and other - Usually violent. Very |ii
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creatures with a remnant of a human soul inside violent .
are susceptible to mind control. That s revealing|
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Traits & Aptitudes Personality
Deftness 4dlO I' ve been called an assassin before. Yes, I 've
*i ’ .
Shootin ': pistol, rifle 4 killed more than a few people in my time. But I
V
Nimbleness ld8 prefer to think of myself the way the military
Climbin’ 1 did: as a hunter, someone who searches for a
Fightin': brawlin' 2 target, finds him, and eliminates him .
Sneak 4 Whether it 's a Black Hat commander, a
Quickness 3d8 Doombringer, or some Hell -spawned horror
Strength ld6 you 're after, I can take him down for
Vigor 2dl0 you. I've got the guts, the weapons,
Cognition 4d6 and-most importantly-the brains
Search 3 to do the job right .
Knowledge 2dl 2 I only have two conditions: no
Academia: occult 2 kids, and half payment in advance.
Area knowledge: Wasted
West 2 Quote: "Total absence of brain
Blastin ' 5 functions confirmed . Mission
Mien 2d6 accomplished ."
Smarts 3d6
Spirit 3d6
Guts 3
Wind: 16
Pace: 8
Strain: 10
Edges:
Additional powers 2
Arcane background:
syker 3
Dinero 2.
There’s jJk
always
somebody V
who needs *
killing.
Fortitude 1
Steel - trap mind 3
Hindrances:
Intolerance -1: Can't
stand authority.
Grim servant o' Death -5
Oath of Unity -1
Vengeful -3
f Specialty: Biokinesis

^ Powers: Boneripping ,
J brain blast, brain bomb,
hallucination , heartstopper,
a1* predator
Gear: SA Officer 's sidearm
with silencer, three full
f clips, black clothes ( +1
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Earth Sy&er Personality

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Traits & Aptitudes 3!.

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Deftness ld8 Old ain 't dead , kid . I know I look like
1 Shootin ': rifle 4 some old fossil to you , but I’ve been 4 j v.

Nimbleness ld6 blasting since you were just a gleam in your

I Climbin ' 1 daddy 's eye.
Drivin ': cars 3 While you and the rest of the kids were
Fightin': brawlin' 3 away fighting lizards on Banshee, I was down
Sneak 3 here dealing with humans. That 's right:
Quickness 4dl0 humans-devious, sneaky, powerful, armed -
B Strength 2d6 to-the- teeth -with - the-latest - military -
B Vigor 2dlO technology humans. Take it from me, it
B Cognition 2d6 ain' t the cakewalk you Banshee blasters had
B Scrutinize 3 in outer space. I 've got the scars to prove it.
Search 2 Ever gone brain - to- muzzle with a
Knowledge 2dl 2 hover tank ? Or stood your ground
I Academia: occult 3 against an assault chopper while
I Area knowledge.- Wasted regiments of grunts are streaming
B West 2 away behind you ? Then maybe you ' ve
| Blastin' 5 infiltrated an entire base full of
Mien 3d8 commandos to take out their leader
I Overawe 3 without a sound. No? Didn ' t think so.
I Smarts 3d6 So leave me alone. If I see any
I Scroungin ' 3 purple savages from outer space,
K Spirit 4d6 I’ll be sure to call you .
I Guts 4
I Wind: 16 Quote: "Get outta my way."
1 Pace: 6
I Strain: 15
I Edges:
I Additional
[ powers 2
| Arcane background:
| syker 3
[ Overkill 3
[ Steel - trap mind 5
I Veteran o' the Wasted
West ( Tell the Marshal
to draw a card for this
Edge.)
[: Hindrances:
Cautious -3
r Heroic -5
I Stubborn -2
I Specialty: Pyrokinesis
Powers: Arson, brain blast ,
chameleon , detonate, force
field , pyro, telekinesis, slow
burn
Gear: SA assault rifle, 30
rounds of ammo, and $20.
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Trails & Aptitudes Personality
r Deftness ld8 Back off me, man , or I'll pick up a car with
’ >!
Filchin ' 2 my mind and squash you like a bug! Huh? Oh ,
f Shootin ': SMG 3 you ' re a syker. Well, okay, maybe I can 't pick up
Nimbleness 3d8 a car yet, but watch me move that rock over
Climbin ' 1 there!
Dodge 3 Pretty good , huh? Oh, crap!
Fightin ': brawlin ' 2 * * *
Sneak 3 Ow,that hurt . What was it? "Brainburn ?" Never
Quickness 4dl 0 heard of it . But I have hurt myself real hard
Quick draw 2 sometimes using my, um, gift. I think it's because
Strength 2d6 I ' m really powerful. Maybe the most powerful
Vigor 2dl2 syker there’s ever been! I just haven ' t learned
Cognition ld6 how to control it yet .
Search 3 You know any quick tips to get me over this
Knowledge 2dl 0 hump? Huh ? No, I don 't
Academia: occult 2 wanna go to some school.
Area knowledge: Wasted West 2 What a drag, man. I 'm
Blastin ' 1 sure all I need is a quick
Mien 2d6 trick or two, and I ' ll be a
Smarts 3d6 master of telekinesis.
Bluff 3 Jericho? I said , no! No
Streetwise 2 . school! That's the only
Spirit 4d6 good thing about the end
Guts 3 of the world . You don’t
Wind: 22 have to go to school any
Pace: 10 more. Besides, I think I 've
Strain: 17 just about got it . Watch
Edges: me lift your gun out of
Arcane background: syker 3 its holster.
Greenie
Steel - trap mind 5 Quote: "Aaiiieee!”
Hindrances:
Bad luck -5
Big britches -3
Kid -2
Specialty: Telekinesis
Powers: Telekinesis
Gear: NA Commando SMG ,
20 rounds of ammo, and a
full spare clip

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Deftness 4d6 The mind can triumph over anything. At |

Shootin ': pistol 3 * ‘
least, my mind can. Yours is a piece of *
Nimbleness ld6 clay for me to mold . The brain is but a V- .
Climbin' 1 chaotic mass of memories and * ^ f.

Sneak 1 emotions, and I am the master

Quickness 3d8 sculptor. I can read your mind ,
Strength 3d6 rearrange your memories, and
Vigor 4dl 0 make you think or do anything 1
Cognition 3d6 r want .
Search 1 You think you're my
Scrutinize 3 companion. Are you sure about
Knowledge 2dl 2 that ? Or is it just a memory 1
Academia: occult 2 implanted in your head? Maybe
Area knowledge: u were a bandit who tried to
Wasted West 2 rob me. Or a total stranger 1
Blastin' 5 decided would fight my
Mien 3dl0 t battles for me. There's no
Overawe 3 way you can be sure.
Persuasion 3 I can manipulate your
Smarts ld8 body too. Try me, and I 'll make
Spirit 2d6 you dance the lambada .
Guts 3 I know what you 're thinking , that
Wind: 16 you could reach that gun faster than I
Pace: 10 can take control of you. You 're wrong.
Strain: 15 The speed of thought is far faster than
Edges: your pitiful flesh.

i
Adept 3
Arcane
background:
^ You 're still thinking about it . I
k know every thought that 's crossing
W your mind. Maybe even better than
syker 3 you. That angers you doesn ' t it ? Yes,
Fortitude 1 d of course it does. It does most
Steel-trap L everyone. I find that amusing .
mind 5 w
Hindrances: Quote: "Are you thinking what I ' m
Curious -3 telling you to think ?"
Intolerance -1: You hate authority.
Oath of Unity -1
Habit -3: You love to read people's
minds.
Speciality: Psionics
Powers: Meat puppet , memory
maker, mind reader, mind scan,
psychic link
Gear: Police pistol, 9 rounds, 1 full
spare clip, handcuffs, holster,
knife, and $52.

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 Chapter Three:
SySrer Powers

when the power was first activated or used in

New Powers the previous round . "Concentration" means the
power stays in effect as long as the syker does
Here's what you 've been waiting for: new syker nothing but take simple actions. A "# / time"
powers, and a bunch of 'em. This chapter also means the syker must spend that much Strain
includes all of the powers from the Deadlands: on his first action each the defined time period
Hell on Earth rulebook for easy reference, but to keep the power in effect. For example, for "1/
read them anyway. We've rewritten or expanded round" the syker pays 1 Strain each round . ( If the
a few. syker has no action in a combat round , he pays
Just in case you don’t have Deadlands: Hell on the Strain cost at the beginning of the round ).
Earth handy, here's what the information in each Range is the maximum distance at which the
power's description means: power can take effect. Unless a power says
Type is the type of power-pyrokinetic, otherwise, the target of a blast must be in sight
psionic, and so on. of the syker.
TN is the Target Number the syker needs to There are additional notes about some of the
make the power work . If it says "opposed ," the syker powers in the Marshal 's section. No
syker compares his roll to a roll made by his peeking!
opponent. The Trait in parentheses is the one
used by the opponent . The syker always uses Rgo /iizcr
his blastin'. Remember that in an opposed roll , Type: Biokinetic
the minimum TN is still a 5. If the syker 's blastin' TN: Opposed ( Vigor)
roll is less than 5, he fails regardless of what his Strain: 1
opponent rolls. A bust for the opponent, by the Speed: 1
way, is considered a 0. Duration: Concentration or 1/ round
Strain is the amount of Strain the syker must Range: 10 yards / blastin' level
use to initiate the power. A syker does not lose Talk about your splittin' headaches.
Strain if he fails his blastin' roll. Agonizer allows a syker to induce
Speed is the number of actions or time it
takes to complete the power. silntense headaches and general agony in
'

/Safe-other person by mentally stimulatingjhis f

Duration is how long the power stays in effect . nerves-in a bad way. It's especially
If the Duration is "1 round ," the power lasts until effective if a victim is already suffering
the beginning of the next round, regardless of v;
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 To use itr syker makes an opposed Arson is one of the sykers’ most potent
roll against the target's Vigor. For each pyrokinetic powers. It's great for cooking hot
success, the victirh suffers -1 to all skill and dogs, s'mores, and all those angry muties who
Trait checks, just as if he was wounded . think you should share.
1
, j This is cumulative with any real wound When used, arson creates a fiery burst with a
modifiers, making it possible for someone to diameter equal to the syker's Spirit die type in
suffer more than usual maximum -5 pain yards. (In fact, some sykers like to call this
F modifier. Thick -skinned characters or those power fireball because of its effects.) Targets
: S
with other ways to ignore pain can reduce within this diameter take 2dl0 damage, plus ldlO
i their penalties a like amount. per raise. Use the massive damage rules on
Agonizer doesn 't work on creatures which important characters. Goons just take damage.
feel no pain, such as undead . ( Remember that Victims catch fire if they take a single wound,
though undead do suffer from some wound continuing to take 2d6 damage at the beginning
modifiers, it is because it’s assumed their bodies of each round thereafter. The Marshal may raise
are being blown to pieces, not because they or lower this amount if the bad guys are
actually experience pain.) particularly dry, wet , or resistant or susceptible
to fire.
ftrson If a victim of arson is carrying anything
Type: Pyrokinetic explosive or flammable, like spook juice, it 's
TN: 7 likely to catch fire or explode and cause further
Strain: 3 damage. The Marshal should make an Onerous
Speed: 1 ( 7) roll with a dlO for each explosive item when
Duration: Instant the character is first attacked with arson and
Range: 10 yards/ blastin' level each round the character is on fire.
"Burn it to the ground." See Deadlands: Hell on Earth for information
-General Warfield, Castle Rock , 2078 on fire and ways for burning victims to put
themselves out.
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Aztec Surprise Backwash m

Type: Sykokinetic
Type: Telekinetic
TN: Opposed ( V/gor) TN: Opposed { blastin' versus blasting • em
Strain: 3 Strain : 1 *
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Speed: 2 Speed : 1
Duration: Instant Duration: Instant i
Range: 10 yards / blastin' level Range: 10 yards / blastin ' level (of the host ) m um. m
Don t it just tear your heart out ?
' The sykers on Banshee developed this tM
As a matter of fact , that 's exactly what it does. power to counteract the skinnies ' potent <f i

am
Maybe you've heard of the Aztecs. They were a
big tribe of Indians who used to live down
mind-control powers. Backwash allows a syker
to follow a mental link from a source ( human or
M§ .

Mexico way. A couple times over the past five or otherwise ) under the active control or effect of
six hundred years they managed to get their another syker and strike back at the enemy
religion into full swing. brainburner "at the other end ."
Unfortunately for their neighbors, their religion The backwash takes the form of a mental
involved lots of elaborate human sacrifices to attack that surges along the psionic link
the gods. The most common form of sacrifice between the syker, the target, and the enemy
was to cut a victim 's chest open and rip his syker. This is an opposed blastin' roll, with the
beating heart out . attacking syker getting a + 4 bonus if the enemy
Aztec surprise brings a taste of that syker didn 't see it coming. The loser suffers 3d 6
extracurricular activity to the Wasted West . A damage to the head , plus an additional ld 6
very specialized form of telekinesis, it allows a damage per raise. Note that we said "the loser ”-
syker to reach into a victim 's chest with brain which could be the syker who initiated the
power and rip his heart straight out through his backwash.
ribcage. The person being controlled ( the host ) suffers
Such feats of carnage are tough , hence the no harm from the battle raging in his head. He
opposed roll of the syker 's blastin' against the just acts as a "mental launching platform ." Also,
target s Vigor. If the blaster succeeds the victim
' , the syker using backwash need not have line of
takes 3dl 0 damage to the gizzards , plus an sight on his ultimate target , only on the host .
additional die per raise. Only supernatural armor Range doesn 't matter either, since the controlling
protects against this insidious attack . syker must be within range of the host for his
If the syker manages to maim the target 's power to work anyway.
guts the victim s heart
, ' is torn clean out of his
chest, and he dies. The syker is left with a Band- Aid
bloody trophy of his victory to boot . If the Type: Biokinetic
damage is not enough to kill the victim this way, TN: 5
the victim simply takes the damage. His heart Strain: 1
hurts but remains attached to all the slimy, veiny speed: Equal to amount of Wind bled per round
things inside. Duration: Permanent
Of course, Aztec surprise only works on Range: 20 yards / blastin' level
victims with hearts and working circulatory Sykers make terrible medics. Most of them
systems. A syker can use it on a Harrowed or were just raised too mean to care anyway. Still ,
walkin' dead if he wants, but such a target only while they may not be able to actually heal
takes ldlO damage because of the ripping and another 's wounds, they can at least use
tearing of tissue. Removing a Harrowed 's heart biokinesis to stop some poor loser's bleeding.
doesn't cause him any extra damage. Show it to This power can stop the bleeding of a
him, and he’ll laugh at you like Old Scratch one or more wounded areas. The syker
himself before he blows a terminal hole in your first spends a number of actions equal to
head. the amount of Wind being bled per round 4 iL
Yes, Aztec surprise can be used to remove from the wounded areas to be affected ,

other critical organs, but it works the same and fSien he makes his blastin' roll ,

causes the exact same damage. Use the effects The healer can choose to let one
covered here. If a syker wants to remove a less "wounded area bleed while stopping or ~d if!
critical organ , he could do so, causing only ldlO even merely reducing the bleeding to
damage per success. another area as he chooses. ;#KW
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ftliwMe Agility: The syker boosts his Nimbleness rolls
Type: Biokinetic by + 2 per success.
jJ " TN: Opposed ( Vigor) Breath Control: The syker's air requirements
W Strain: 1/ target are reduced to one quarter of normal . Most folks
can hold their breath an average of 45 seconds,
I f Speed: 1
l Duration: 1 minute / blastin’ level assuming they were able to get a lungful of air
beforehand , so this power would make that gulp
! Range: 20 yards / blastin’ level
None are so blind as those who will not of air last somewhere around three full minutes
see-or those who have been affected by this (180 seconds).
power. Heightened Awareness: The syker 's senses
Blindside allows the syker to reach into the become ultra -acute, granting + 2 to search and
victim 's brain and shut down his optical nerve- scrutinize rolls per success. On the flip side of
in short , to cut off his sight. For the duration of this, anything which affects the brainburner
the power, the victim is completely blind . While through his senses, like a flash grenade or stink
blinded, the victim is at -6 to any Trait or bomb, gets + 2 per success to its effect roll , due
Aptitude roll which , in the Marshal’s opinion , to his heightened sensitivity. This does not
requires sight (such as scrutinize ) . Additionally, include optical interference or deaf and dumb,
any ranged attacks (such as shootin’ or throwin ) which affect senses through the brain.
the victim makes are at another -4, for a total of Endurance: The syker increases his Vigor rolls
-10. by + 2 per success.
Each raise on the roll increases the duration Eye -Hand Coordination: The brainburner adds
by five minutes before the syker has to start +2 to his Deftness rolls for each success.
paying Strain to maintain it. Fear Suppression: The syker can override his
If a syker is blinded , he can only use powers fear response. He gains + 2 per success to all guts
with a range of “ touch" or “self ." This is a great rolls he has to make (or gets guts 1 if he doesn't
way to render one helpless for a while. have that Aptitude already ).
Lightning Reflexes: The syker boosts his
Body Control Quickness rolls, gaining + 2 per success.
Type: Biokinetic Pain Reduction: The syker is able to withstand
TN: 5 pain. Success reduces the character 's wound
Strain: 1 modifiers by 1, +1 for each raise achieved .
Speed: 1 Strength: The syker boosts his Strength ,
Duration: Concentration or 1/ round gaining + 2 per success to all Strength rolls.
Range: Self
The human body is capable of amazing feats- Bogus!
if the brain will let it . And a syker's brain is Type: Psionic
capable of some pretty amazing things itself . TN: Opposed ( Smarts)
Together they 're a damned potent combination. Strain: 1
Body control represents a syker's ultimate Speed: 1
control over his own flesh and blood . He can Duration: 5 minutes/ Wastin ' level
make it do things ordinary people only dream of , Range: 10 yards / blastin’ level
L* ar' ar’ m nd 's on fire!
simply by force of will. Some examples of things
which can be accomplished with body control Bogus! is a simple mental trick that makes ^ '
are described here. others believe the syker 's little white lies. It 's
If a syker has an idea for a body control- handy when a mind freak doesn' t want to waste
like ability not listed in the table, it 's up to the strain to make a meat puppet , but needs to
^
J the Marshal to decide whether or not he can convince someone that these are not the droids
do it with this power. Body control wouldn ' t he's looking for. Each raise makes the lie that
/.

let someone get bigger increase his Size ,

( ) much more convincing.
for instance, but it might let him regurgitate Bogus! isn ' t very powerful. If the lie is
, the loser gets to make a Fair (5) Smarts
w on command , pass gas, burp, or command k iPbviousrealize il- Tellin8 someone il’s ni§ht when
some other mastery over their body
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# matter what; though, this power never
I affects mental Traits.
^ ^^
iJii fe standing under a blazing sun is doomed to
failure. Telling someone it's night when he's
inside a room without any windows should work
fine.
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 Boneripping rendered useless. The bones in that area have
been broken and ripped out of the target 's body,
Type: Telekinetic leaving flabby masses of bleeding flesh. ( Yuckl )
j TN: Opposed ( Vigor ) Add an additional + 2 to the TN of anyone
i Strain: 5 attempting to heal the slab of meat for the
Speed: 3 excruciating and disgusting mess. ( Young or
Duration: Instant inexperienced characters who witness
[ Range: 10 yards/ blastin' level boneripping are probably up for a Fair (5) guts
[ Got a bone to pick with someone? This is the roll, by the way.)
| best way in the Deadlands to do it , partner ,
A syker can use boneripper repeatedly oii the
i Boneripping is a limited form of telekinesis same target. If a location which has already
I which sykers use to cause horrific damage to been maimed is hit again (and the target is
I targets with skeletal structures ( including important enough for the Marshal to keep track
I Harrowed and walkin' dead ). of individual wounds), the attack causes ld6
I To start the carnage, the syker makes an Wind per wound, but no additional wounds.
I opposed roll with his blastin' against the target's Armor does not protect the poor schmuck
I Vigor. If he succeeds, he inflicts 5dl0 damage, unless it 's supernatural in origin.
I plus an additional +ldl0 per raise. How does this Boneripping is one of those powers that
I happen? By literally ripping bones out of the really give sykers a bad name. It's really
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I poor schmuck's body. powerful, really deadly, and really, really
I Against grunts, the Marshal should just roll gross. Should a blaster use it on someone
I the damage and put the sucker down. If the tho doesn't really deserve such a horrible g
1 attack is against an important character and the feath, he should expect trouble from the
1 Marshal is keeping track of individual wounds, iHcals. That 's okay, because there are
I use the massive damage rules to figure out easier ways to kill. Sykers usually use
K which areas of the body are affected. Any area something like this only when they want
which becomes critically wounded or maimed is to make a point .
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The exploding melon causes 5d 4 damage in a
five -yard radius around the victim. Anyone
TN: 5 standing nearby is going to be picking little bits j
^ Strain: 1 of brain and skull out of his clothes. Young or j
| Speed: l inexperienced brainers should probably make a j
F Duration: Instant Fair (5) guts check . j
Range: 20 yards/ blastin' level This power works by actually "cooking" the |
Most every syker learned to rely on brain brain with the body 's own electricity and psychic
blast in the Faraway War or Last War. The energy. It is channeled and stored via billions of j
surge of energy it produces can destroy flesh, tiny neurons-of which the undead only use a j
,
break bricks, and rend meat with but a thought. few thousand or so ( reconnected by magic). That j
Brain blast is a tremendous beam of energy means undead and Harrowed are unaffected by j
that streams from the syker's head to the target brain bomb-with one important exception. ]
like a laser. The blast does not home in on the Harrowed sykers have rebuilt their neurological j
target. The syker must actually hit the poor sod pathways. Such characters are once again !
to inflict damage. susceptible to this awful ability.
The attack roll is equal to the blastin' roll .
Simply compare it to the TN needed to hit the Brain Slammer
target. Brain blast is a purely physical attack, so Type: Sykokinetic
figure in cover and any other negative modifiers TN: Opposed ( Spirit )
due to range, wounds, running, and so on. Strain: 1 per target
Brain blast has a Range Increment of 10 and a Speed: Special
ROF of 1. It affects both animate and inanimate Duration: Instant
targets. Raises allow the syker to modify the hit Range: 20 yards/ blastin' level
location as normal. Sykers who mastered chain brain learned
Once a target has been hit, the syker should another nifty trick. With practice, they could
roll his Spirit as damage. ( Add the dice together actually bounce their powers off several minds
just like a firearm, and reroll Aces.) Add bonuses and pick up a little extra juice in the process.
due to supernatural levels of Spirit to the total . The last loser in the chain gets the collective
Thus, a Spirit of 4dl2+2 would add + 2 to the energy in one massive, brain - bursting flash.
final damage total, not to each die rolled . To use brain slammer, the syker attacks a
target with an opposed blastin’ versus Spirit. If
Brain Bomb he’s successful , he causes ld6 damage. Without a
Type: Biokinetic raise, the power ends here.
TN: Opposed ( Vigor ) With a raise, the brain blaster makes another
Strain: Special attack against a second target in range. If this is
Speed: Special also successful , he does 2d6 damage. With a
Duration: Instant raise, he gets to make another attack against a
Range: 20 yards / blastin' level third target, and so on. Each target in the chain
Ever wanted to bust someone's head like an keeps taking damage until the syker fails the
overripe melon? Well, now you can. contested blastin' roll . Additional raises on any
Brain bomb is pretty much just what it sounds given target add another +ld 6 to that target's
like: a way to get someone's head to explode. damage ( but not later ones ).
Here's the recipe. Each new target costs the syker 1 Strain. Of
The syker makes an opposed roll against course, he never has to attack another target if
his opponent's Vigor on each of his actions. he doesn't want to.
This costs 1 Strain per attempt . He can keep Since the damage from the first couple of
trying as many actions as he wants ( and the attacks is fairly small, some unscrupulous
a target stays in range and in sight ). If and sYkers use their friends to build up a really good
when he gets three total raises on the attack . Dirty pool with a bank shot, as Sergeant
i target, whether on separate tries or on one,
massive roll , the foe's head explodes. Don't ,-
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Mat. her calls it.
: rain booster does not function with animal
5 roll damage; he's just dead . And no, there's
ds or the minds of the walkin ' dead . It does
is ^
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f back Harrowed . has Dominion.

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Type: Psionic Type: Psionic f
TN: Opposed ( Spirit ) TN: 9
Strain: 1 Strain: 1
Speed: 1 Speed: 1
Duration: Instant Duration: Concentration
Range: 20 yards/ blastin' level Range: Self
Chain brain strings a bunch of minds together If you can't beat 'em, hide and blast 'em
and slaps them silly. It's not particularly from behind. So say the sykers who use this *
dangerous, but don’t tell the victims that. Sykers power.
use it to stun guards or race through a room of Chameleon manipulates the syker 's image. It’s
•
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losers they don’t have time to kill. a very difficult power to use, since the syker
The syker picks a single target in range and must contact his opponents' minds, blur out his
rolls his blastin' roll versus the target's Spirit. If own image in all of them at once, and then
the syker wins, the victim is stunned and must make sure the shadows in his mental illusion
j make a Fair (5) Spirit roll to recover. If the victim are just right, the colors match, and so on. This
'
is already stunned due to a wound, he rolls requires absolute concentration, so the syker
| against that TN instead , can 't move, use another power, or even whisper
s With a raise on the opposed roll, the syker without ending chameleon's effect .
i can immediately make a second strike against Characters who aren't actively looking for a
j another target within line of sight and the syker don't even get a chance to see him. Those
: power's range. This time, the power's range is who are can make a search roll, though the
measured from the first target-not the syker. If syker adds +6 to his sneak roll. Once someone
the syker gets a raise on the second target, the spots the syker, he can see him normally. Others
| power jumps again ( the range is measured from can see the syker only when they win their own
[ the second target now ), and so on. opposed search versus sneak roll.

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*'JetrtiU Concealed explosives, such those in a grenade,

m, Type: Pyrokinetic a bullet , or even the self -destruct charge inside
V
i TN: 5/11 a: an automaton, have a TN of 11. Even then, the
§!? : : f Strain: 2 syker must be able to see the container and
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fe
Duration: Instant located . Use common sense. Dynamite in a bag
ll Range: 20 yards / blastin' level the syker can clearly see? Sure. Dynamite behind
"Nice rocket launcher." a wall or somewhere inside a school? No way.
If
-"Chrome Dome" Kinkaid, Bullets can be detonated even when inside a
5: moments before a duel gun ( assuming the syker can see the gun and is
with Hymie "Overkill " Tycoon vaguely familiar with its design ). The TN is 11 (as
usual with an unseen explosive). Without a raise
Detonate is a syker 's answer to the ever - on the blastin’ check versus a bullet, the bullet is
present question, "How can I possibly carry all the one in the chamber. It fires at whoever or
the explosives I need ?" And the answer is: Let whatever the gun is pointed at .
your enemies carry them for you. Then use brain Use the innocent bystander rules to see if
power to blow them up before those enemies anyone was hit . With a raise, the syker gets a
ever get to use them! bullet in the magazine (assuming there is one).
To use detonate, a syker must have line of This ruins the gun and causes half the gun 's
sight to some explosive or its container. usual damage to the user's hand ( arm location ).
. Anything from a bullet to a stick of dynamite or Roll all the weapon 's normal damage dice, and
grenade will do. He makes his blastin' roll and , if halve the total .
successful, causes the explosive to detonate. Detonate only affects one device at a time,
If the syker can see the actual explosive ( not though triggering one explosive may detonate
its container ), the TN is 5. It 's very easy for him others as well . Grenades typically do not
to excite the molecules, cause a little heat or detonate other grenades, nor do bullets, rockets,
electricity, and set the charge off . plastic explosives, nukes, or similar high - tech
warheads, because they are set off by directed
charges or even electrical currents. Dropping a
grenade on a nuke, for instance, can’t set it off
( even in the real world ).

Fireproof
Type: Pyrokinetic
TN: 5
Strain: 1
Speed: 1
Duration: Concentration or 1/ minute
Range: Self
Nothing can ruin a pyrokinetic's day faster
than accidentally getting caught up in one of his
own flame blasts. This little power keeps that
from being a problem .
Fireproof provides a syker with virtual
immunity to fire damage. Once activated, it
provides the syker with light armor -25 against
fire damage. A syker protected by fireproof can
walk right through a burning building without
any ill effects. Fireproof doesn 't protect the syker
against damage from smoke inhalation or other
side-effects, however.
^
4 Wreproof covers any inanimate objects the
^ rMracter holds or carries ( personal objects).
Other beings, even if they 're riding on his back ,
are not protected .

-
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 FleshJrnit protects against energy attacks,'"-
Type: Biokinetic including lasers, electricity, and evert
TN: Special blasts or Doomsayer’s atomic blasts. SS1B
Strain: Special Basically, if the attack directly affects
Speed: Special target ( powers with opposed rolls), the | §| S
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Duration: Permanent force field does not work . If it creates a |
Range: Self projectile or force that is then released at
A syker with this power can take a lickin ' and the target, the field does its stuff . It has no
keep on tickin '. Fleshknit allows a syker to heal effect on telekinetic attacks such as Aztec
even the most heinous wounds-even ones that surprise or mental assaults like brain bomb.
would cause most sawbones to start cutting him To use force field , the syker makes a blastin'
up for parts. roll against a TN of 5. If he succeeds, he creates
Fleshknit is mind over matter to the extreme. a shield of pure sykokinetic force that acts as
The syker "listens" to the pain coming from one light armor -5 against any sort of physical
particular part of his body. Then he speeds up attack as described above. For each raise
his metabolism , hastening clotting, producing achieved on the blastin' roll , the protection
white blood cells, killing infection , and knitting increases by an additional 5 points .
the flesh itself back together. This requires The field surrounds the syker only. It cannot
complete synchronization of mind and body, so be formed into a wall or made to protect friends
a syker cannot heal anyone other than himself and companions.
with fleshknit.
The TN , Strain , and time required to knit Gift
wounds back together again is shown on the Type: Sykokinetic
table below. Each success reduces the wound TN: 9
level of a single affected area (guts, noggin , each Strain: 5
arm and leg ) by -1. Roll and pay the Strain cost Speed: 1 minute
for each area knitted. Duration: 1 hour / blastin' level
Note that unlike most healers, sykers cannot Range: Touch
heal Wind with this power. Back in the old academy days, before the
wars, some of the philosophically minded types
who taught the classes speculated that everyone
had the potential to become a syker if only
certain latent genetic anomalies were properly
Wound Strain Time activated. Usually this required intense training
Light 1 1 minute and rigorous discipline, but researchers thought
Heavy 2 5 minutes there might be an easier way.
Serious 3 15 minutes This is the power they came up with .
Critical 4 30 minutes Gift allows a syker to give one of his syker
Maimed 5 1 hour powers to another for a short period of time, in
effect storing the power in the receiver's own
Force Field brain until it's used .
Type: Sykokinetic To give the gift , the syker touches the person
TN: 5 to receive the power, pays 5 Strain , and makes a
Strain: 1 blastin' roll against a TN of 9.
Speed: 1 Unless the recipient has blastin' himself ,
Duration: 1/ round she gets a blastin' Aptitude equal to I, +1 for
Range: Self every raise the syker gets on his roll . Fie r, <~
Sykers have long sought an impenetrable has Strain equal to his Vigor die type r
force field to protect them from all harm. Force ( unless he's a syker, Doomsayer, or other
character with his own Strain rating, in
4 4 jy

field is a force field , but it 's far from 1

impenetrable. Fortunately, it is pretty tough, and which case he uses his own Strain , 3
it does protect from most harm.
Force field reduces damage from normal
physical projectiles like hand -to- hand attacks,
bullets, grenades, or sharpened hubcaps. It also
^ -
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^ that happens to be ).
sS 4- The user can use the power for -the
•

duration of the gift. The syker cannot

decide to take it back or negate it once
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: negative effects from the Smarts roll to figure out what he's seeing is an
#Ccl081ng brainburn from busted illusion. The TN is set by the Marshal , and just
m
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depends on the loser’s experience with such

a certain amount of stress on things and the degree to which the hallucination
j/ih& ecipieht Typically veins on his forehead went out of line.
^
Ipulle, and he sweats profusely He doesn't go
bald ( unless he does it often ), but some hair
In any case, whether the target realizes he's
dealing with a mirage or not, the illusion lasts
does fall out . After the duration of the gift until the syker stops concentrating. Even if a
expires, non -sykers are left with a splitting character knows an image is a hallucination, it
headache which clears up after a while (-1 on doesn ' t disappear. This can be very distracting,
all mental Trait rolls for an hour ). Sykers, but even if the victim knows the image isn 't real.
not other kinds of spellcasters, do not get these Just imagine a blue monkey jumping up and
headaches. They 're used to that special tingly down on your back. Sure, you know it 's an
feeling. illusion, but the damn thing's telling dirty jokes
and slinging caa -caa at your friends. The
Hallucination Marshal should apply a small modifier to the
Type: Psionic sufferer 's actions until the syker gives the poor
TN: Opposed ( Smarts ) schmuck a break.
Strain: 1/ target
Speed: 1 Heartstopper
Duration : Concentration Type: Biokinetic
Range: 20 yards / blastin' level TN: Opposed ( Vigor )
Hallucination is one of the most versatile and , Strain: 3 j
potentially most powerful abilities syker , a can Speed: 3 ]
possess gives
. It him the power to fill another Duration: Instant ]
person's mind with a detailed , realistic, Range: 10 yards / blastin' level 3
believable illusion. Other people can t perceive ' Heartstopper isn ' t as messy (or as fun ) as 3
mind but- the target
—
the illusion at all it s entirely within
'
can perceive it
the
with
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all of
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accordingly. their handiwork. j
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To use hallucination the syker must make an It takes three actions for a syker to sync with j
opposed roll pitting his blastin ' against the the target 's body rhythms. Once he does, he ;
makes an opposed roll against the poor sucker's j
target 's Smarts. If he succeeds, he declares the
illusion he wants the target to perceive. The Vigor. If the syker wins, the victim suffers a
illusion can be of anything from a , radical heart attack . i
change in the landscape , to mistaking a The victim must make a Hard (9) Vigor roll ;
slavering mutant for a beautiful girl . Of course, immediately. Add +1 to the TN for every raise the j
the more fantastic the illusion , the more likely it syker got on his blastin' roll . If the roll is made, j
is the target can disbelieve it . the victim suffers 3d 6 Wind. j
In any case , hallucination can 't cause damage If the first Vigor roll is failed, the victim j
to the target. That's right, not so much as a suffers 3d 6 Wind , his Vigor is permanently <

single point of Wind . Of course, the target may reduced by -1 step, and he must make a second j
spend his own Strain Wind or other , , energy Hard ( 9) Vigor roll . If this one is failed, the poor j
trying to attack or escape from the illusion , schmuck keels over dead as a doornail unless ]
but if an illusory bloodwolf takes a swipe at someone else makes an Incredible (11) medicine \
him with its claws, it does no damage. At or supernatural healing roll within 2d 6 rounds. If j
that point the jig is pretty much
, up unless the victim's Vigor ever falls below ld 4, he dies j
the victim is really clueless . automatically .
-r The same goes for an illusion which . & Heartstopper doesn't just cause heart attacks, j
does something extremely inappropriate or IjlJihcuigh that 's definitely the most common use. It
incorreqiUike . .a spouse who doesn't
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Type: Psionic
TN: Opposed ( Smarts)
Strain: See below
Speed: 1
Duration: 5 minutes / blastin' level
Range: 20 yards/ blastin' level
What meat puppet does for people, here,
doggie! does for animals-not just dogs, but all
sorts of animals.
Like meat puppet, the animal does whatever
it 's told , including attacking its master, throwing
itself off a cliff , or even leaping into a fire.
The syker doesn ' t have a mental link ( unless
he establishes one with a separate power ), so he
must give commands verbally.
Here, doggie! doesn 't work on human /animal
crossbreeds (such as bloodwolves and shraks),
on ancient races now awakened (such as
croakers ), on any creature which has human or
near - human intelligence ( this determination is
left to the Marshal ), or on abominations. We're
talking fuzzy bunnies, chipmunks, and the
occasional mutated Kodiak here friends.

Strain Animals
1 Up to six vermin ( rats, squirrels)
2 Up to four cats or small dogs Type: Sykokinetic
3 Up to two large dogs TN: 7
4 Anaconda , grizzly, tiger Strain: Special
5 Great white, whale Speed: 1
Duration: Permanent
Itsy- Bitsy Spicier Range: Touch
Type: Telekinesis "Juice" is syker slang for Strain the energy
that fuels their powers. A syker with juice can
—
TN: 5
Strain: 1 lend energy to another syker or even a
Speed 1 : Doomsayer or other character who uses Strain.
Duration: 1/10 minutes The syker must declare how many points of
Range: Self Strain he wants to give, then he touches the
You can climb more than a waterspout with recipient and makes a blastin’ roll. If successful ,
this nifty trick . he spends 1 Strain to use the power and then
Itsy-bitsy spider uses telekinesis to press the loses the declared amount of Strain-which
syker 's hands, feet , or other body parts to a wall the recipient gains.
or ceiling. It does so with such force that it Only "real" Strain (Strain derived from ur
allows the brainburner to climb vertical or even the Vigor die type plus any steel will) can
inverted surfaces, as long as there is some sort
of solid surface to stick to.
be donated this way. Strain from fortitude,
drugs, or Banshee stones cannot .
i
| The syker climbs at his normal rate ( 2 plus ,
~ f / The syker who donated the Strain can
[ his climbin' Aptitude level ), plus one additional 5 ji®*£c?Yer n e usua fashion. The
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* the feared object. The syker himself may be the
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TN: Opposed (Smarts) subject of the phobia if he's given the bad guy
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nr Speed: 1 minute Foolproof (5) guts check, modified by the minor
If Duration: Permanent or major phobia penalty and circumstances. If
f Range: 10 yards/ blastin' level
Want to see something really scary? Get hit
they fail , they run. Major villains don’t usually
turn tail and run, but they do look for ways to
I with this power and you will! Lunacy inflicts a quickly eliminate or avoid the source of their
i phobia, neurosis, or other form of madness fear.
onto the syker’s unfortunate target. Psychotic: The target goes blood simple. He
To get the ball rolling down the slippery slope flies into a homicidal rage and attacks everyone
of madness the syker makes an opposed roll
, around him, starting with the enemy and then
against the victim's Smarts. If he is successful, working his bloody way through his friends.
the target suffers an insanity of some sort . With Neurosis: The victim picks up a new and
each raise, the insanity gets that much closer to terrible facet to his personality. The syker
the intended effect the syker is looking for, and chooses a Hindrance to inflict on his victim. A
the victim goes further off the deep end. success inflicts a 1- to 2-point Hindrance, a raise
Lunacy isn 't really a combat power. It's more is worth a 3- point Hindrance, and two raises
useful in roleplaying situations. The syker needs nets a 4- t o 5- point Hindrance.
to be clever about how he uses it. He should
also save it for major villains. It 's rarely Manipulator
worthwhile to waste the effort on goons. Type: Psionic
Lunacy only works on humans and the TN: Opposed ( Spirit )
Harrowed . It has no effect on monsters. Strain :2
Here are some common insanities: Speed : 2
Delusion: The victim believes the next Duration: 10 minutes / blastin' level
preposterous statement he hears is totally true. Range: 10 yards/ blastin' level
Bloodwolves are our friends? Absolutely. If you’re the kind of person who likes to toy
Assuming the delusion doesn't get the schmuck with the emotions of others, this power is just
killed , most folks quickly disassociate the thing for you.
themselves from the weirdo. Manipulator allows a syker to enhance or
Depression: A dark mood overcomes the alter another character's emotions. This isn 't like
victim. If he was already deeply troubled , he may meat puppet or other forms of mental
look for the easy way out . Most people aren 't so domination , though in some cases it is just as
cowardly. In a tense situation, they throw useful. With manipulator, a raging mutant can
themselves into the fight with fatalistic fury. become a calm, happy mutant, or that beautiful
Outside a tense situation the target becomes
, girl at the end of the bar can be "persuaded" to
gloomy and full of despair. He gives up most think your syker’s bald head is a real turn-on.
everything and becomes a virtual recluse. The syker’s blastin' roll is modified depending
Paranoia: The victim suddenly feels like on the situation. Feeling lust or sadness in the
everyone is out to get him. Most thugs run away. middle of a firefight is easily ignored by even
Major villains won't trust other major villains, the most brain-dead moron. If the syker is trying
and distance themselves from their minions, —
to enhance an existing emotion say, to push a
whom they suddenly deem as so incompetent person who's already pissed off into a
that they're going to get him killed. murderous rage. He suffers no modifiers. If the
Phobia: The victim suffers a phobia of syker is trying a reversal of emotions, such as
some sort. The Marshal must choose what turning a sad or angry person into a happy one
this is, based on the victim's personality. or making a character hate someone he loves, he
With a single success, it is a minor phobia. should subtract -4 from his roll (or more, if the
A major phobia is inflicted with one or t
arshal deems it appropriate).
more raises. When the object of his fear is Z11 . fty the syker succeeds, the degree of success
nearby, the victim suffers a penalty to afhrcr fleets the intensity of the emotions evoked.
Pill? Trait and Aptitude rolls (-2 for a minor Basic success means the emotion is aroused to a
phobia and -4 for a major ). Unless he has a low or average level . One raise indicates strong

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emotions-rage or depression. Two or more

raises indicates extreme emotion-murderous
rage or ravenous lust, for example.
The syker does not actually have any control
over what the victim does in such an emotional
state. That 's up to the Marshal . For example, a
character afflicted with fear may run screaming
in terror-or he may lash out blindly at the syker.
It all depends upon the circumstances.

Meat Puppet
Type: Psionic
TN: Opposed ( Spirit )
Strain: 5
Speed: 2
Duration: Concentration or 1/ round
Range: Touch, but see below
A mind is a terrible thing to waste-but it’s a
wonderful thing to take control of .
Meat puppet is one of the most feared syker
powers: the ability to take control of another
person's own body. It allows the syker to contest
the victim for control of his very mind . The
syker rolls his blastin' versus the target's Spirit.
If he wins with no raises, the two continue to
struggle. Both characters roll again on their next
action , although the syker spends no Strain.
When he finally gets a raise, the victim becomes
the brainburner 's plaything.
Once established , the syker 's control is If the syker takes over someone with such
absolute and lasts as long as he keeps supernatural powers ( like another syker ), he can
concentrating. He can make the victim do also use them , though at a -4 penalty. Smart
anything he wants, up to and including mind freaks waste their enemy 's juice before
committing suicide and other truly repulsive they can fight back.
acts. The victim does not get to make any more Regardless of whether it is used at range or
rolls to oppose the control . by touch , meat puppet is so stressful that both
The only catch is the syker must have some the syker and the victim develop extremely odd -
way of communicating orders to his flunky. Meat looking bloodshot eyes-a dead giveaway to
means anyone who 's familiar with syker powers. A Fair
puppet does not provide any telepathic of
delivering orders. A psychic link can be used to ( 5 scrutinize tells someone there's something
)
give instructions, but it must be established first, weird going on. Whether or not he knows what
i since otherwise it would require the syker to it means depends on his experience.
! break concentration . There's a small downside to Abuse of meat puppet is one of the highest
this, however. Establishing the link gives the crimes a mind freak can commit. It 's gotten
victim a warning that something weird is plenty of sykers lynched by angry townsfolk
coining, so he gets to add + 2 to his roll when or beaten to a pulp. Some honorable sykers
resisting the meat puppet. even make a point of seeking out those &
Meat puppet doesn ' t control a victim 's who misuse this ( and other ) powers and ST F
'

thoughts, just his actions ( which can include teaching them a lesson .
activating powers . The victim is fully aware he s
) ' Oh , and in case this ever comes up
being controlled and can try to think of ways tQ jwhich , knowing you players, it just might ),
escape his predicament . Sykers and other two or more sykers try to meat puppet
spellcasters who use only their minds can use iwsliie. same victim at the same time,The on£..
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their powers at a -4 penalty. Whether or not this who gets the highest result on his blastin'
helps just depends on the situation. roll succeeds. The others are out of luck.

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5 TN: By wound level
W Strain: By wound level
Memory maker allows a syker to create new
memories in a target. The main use of this
I Speed: Special power is to change an existing memory. This is
f Duration : Permanent done to change someone's opinion about
* Range: Touch something , hide complicity in a crime, set the
ki irff: -;
: :! 1

It's far easier for a syker to harm than to victim up for fake blackmail or any number of
schemes . This is one reason why people are
: ? '
heal . Want a heart stopped? No problem. There
f are a thousand ways to do it. Want one healed ? often so very suspicious of syker “ mind freaks."
That's much harder. The syker has to insinuate They can't be sure if what they think, feel, and
his powers into the patient's system and speed remember is true.
up the work of various healing processes-a far The difficulty and Strain of changing a
more complex undertaking. memory depends on how long-lasting or
Medic uses the syker's mental power to important the memory is, as indicated in the
stimulate and enhance a person 's natural healing Memory Maker Table. Subtract these modifiers
—
power tough to do when it's not the syker 's own from the syker's opposed b/ashn ' roll ,
body. The effect is to use the syker's blastin’ roll Note that newer memories are easier to
just like medicine: surgery. Check out the rules replace than older ones. That's because if an old
for Healin' in the Hell on Earth rulebook . memory is even present , it 's important.
The TN for treating a wound is the same as it Remembering you just left the fridge open five
is for a regular sawbones. The Strain is equal to seconds ago isn 't so critical ( unless it gives you

the wound penalty of the wound being treated. skunky beer . )

And no, it doesn't matter if the patient is thick - The Marshal has to gauge the modifier by
skinned or under medication and technically comparing the new memory to the table. Is it the
suffers no wound penalties. Sheesh! sort of thing a character is likely to remember
Note that this isn't instant healing like for years? If so, it 's modifier is -8. If it 's
fleshknit, a Templar's lay on hands, or even a something that would be forgotten after a few
Doomsayer s touch. It s simply a way for a syker
' ' days , then the modifier is -2.
to act as a normal physician. At best it can cure
, To use the power, the syker must keep
—
one wound if administered within the "golden touching his target for the amount of time
—
hour " and increase a brainer's natural chances
of healing over time. Again , check out the main
indicated in the table under "Speed." In the old
days , this was a great power for female
rulebook if you need to bone up on your
" " seductresses , if you catch our drift.
healing rules. The length of the memory to be changed or
The advantages of medic over the medicine: implanted also affects the syker's roll . This
surgery Aptitude are few, but occasionally means a syker trying to zap the fact that he was
critical . First medic takes half the time it takes a
, in a room for a few minutes shouldn 't have
surgeon to treat the same wound . Second, the much trouble. If he tries to convince some
character doesn ' t actually have to have the waster that the poor sod 's an entirely different
medicine Aptitude to treat a wounded hero. person with a lifetime of false memories, that 's a
A syker can use this power on herself and , much tougher trick to pull off . i

-
1

she actually gets a +4 to her roll to do so The victim of memory maker occasionally
because it's easier to get in tune with her own experiences visions of the truth when important \
body than someone else's. Of course, fleshknit items or PeoPle trigger such reactions. When i

is a much more powerful way for her to heal that happens, he can make an Incredible (11)
her own wounds. Knowledge roll to remember one detail of the
true past. 4

Memory Mafrer Every raise the syker got on his original roll
Type: Psionic however , increases the TN of this roll by + 2.
(Eventually, such "glimpses" might allow a y
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Strain: Special i »; (Character to recover his lost memories. This is
up to the Marshal. Other than that, only
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0 2 Minutes
-2 10 seconds Hours
-4 1 minute Days
-6 10 minutes Months
-8 ld 4 hours Years
-10 ld6 hours Decades, or important
memories ( details
about the victim's love
or children, the facts
of a traumatic event
he witnessed )

Mental ftrmor
Type: Psionic
TN: 5
Strain: 1
Speed: 1
Duration: 1/ minute
Range: Self
All your mental armor drags me down.
-Bush (a prewar band )
As much as sykers enjoy blasting other folks,
they don't like to be on the receiving end of the
same treatment. So they developed this power to
protect themselves from each other (and, on This is what you 've been waiting for, friends:
Banshee, from the mysterious skinnies). plain , old mind reading.
Mental shield provides a syker with protection With this power, the syker knows everything
against supernatural powers that directly affect his target is thinking at that moment . Each raise
the host . It doesn't affect brain blasts since those he gets on his opposed blastin' versus
create energy and then hurl it at the target. It Knowledge roll gets him deeper into the gray
works against powers like Aztec surprise or matter. A single success means the syker just
heartstopper, since they directly affect the syker. gets surface thoughts. A raise nets him the
This is the equivalent of light armor -5, plus feelings behind those thoughts as well . With two
an additional 5 points for every raise on the or more raises, the syker can dig way down into
blastin' roll. A syker who gets two raises has the the victim's psyche and glean information about
equivalent of light armor -15. subjects the target isn 't currently thinking about .
When applied to non-damaging powers, such Non -sykers get a single Incredible (11) Smarts
as meat puppet , mental shield adds +2 to the roll to realize something strange is going on.
syker 's resistance roll per success. Sykers get to roll every round someone is in
Against supernatural powers that are resisted their head .
and cause damage, mental armor works both
with the resistance roll and as armor. Mind Scan
Type: Psionic
Mind Reader TN: 5/9
Type: Psionic Strain: 1
TN: Opposed ( Knowledge ) peed: 2
Strain: 1 uration: Concentration or 1/ round
Speed: 1 6* 1 mile / hmstm «1e el «
Duration: 1/ round
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Why use your eyes when,all you need

Range: 10 yards / blastin’ level to find someone is your mind ?

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by -4.
Seeking an Acquaintance: The syker is trying
fi - to find the mind of someone he has met only
'
i briefly. No modifier.
Seeking a Friend: The syker is trying to find
the mind of a friend or someone with whom
he's had mental contact on one or two
occasions. Add + 2 to the syker 's roll .
Seeking a Close Friend: The syker is trying to
find the mind of a close friend or someone with
whom he's had extensive mental contact . Add + 4
to his roll.
Seeking a Relative: The syker is trying to find
a blood relative ( not his wife — unless he's from
Arkansas ). Add +6 to the blastin' roll .
Seeking a Syker: Add + 2 to the syker 's roll.
These guys stand out like beacons ( unless
they 're using mental armor to hide.)

Mind Transference
Type: Psionic
TN: Opposed ( Spirit )
Strain: 5
Speed: Special
Duration: 1 hour / blastin' level
Range: Touch
Mind scan is one of a syker 's chief sensory Don't like your body? Take someone else's for
abilities. It allows him to "scan ” an area for a a test drive. And you don 't even need one of
particular mind . The TN is 5 for a specific those mad-science "bzzt " things.
location , and 9 if he's scanning an area for any It sounds like something out of one of those
minds (a great way to detect hidden foes). Mind old late- night horror shows, but it's true. Sykers
scan works on any being or creature with a can transfer their minds into another person 's
thinking brain ( it works by detecting brainwaves ). body! This arcane process, one of the most
If searching for nonspecific brainwaves, the complex and rarest of syker powers, is known as
syker detects the number of living beings within mind transference.
an area of effect five yards in diameter, To use mind transference, the syker must
anywhere within range. This is a good way to make physical , flesh -to-flesh contact with the
feel out a room before entering. With a raise, the victim and make an opposed roll pitting his
syker instantly recognizes any known minds blastin' against his victim's Spirit. The process
within that area . takes two minutes per the victim 's Spirit die type
If the syker is successful and searching for a ( four minutes for d 4s, six minutes for d 6s, and so
specific target, he locates the mind within a on ).
few yards. A raise tells him exactly where If the roll fails or the victim wins the contest ,
» the target is. Even so, mind scan cannot be the power fails, and the syker suffers brainburn ,
V used to substitute for line of sight or to even if he didn't go bust. That's the risk of
j attack the target with other syker powers. It pushing the syker's mind outside his body. If the
* could be used to direct other types of syker truly goes bust , the Marshal should add +4
*
/ attacks, such as brain blast, through a wall
or other cover, however. | v To the roll on the Brainburn Table
tv . .
.. Below .are several modifiers, based o; •i..
ill f: the syker succeeds, his mind and mental
ipgies switch places with the victim 's. The
> > familiarity, for when mind scan is used to syker still has his own mental Traits and related
locate a specific individual. Aptitudes, as well as all of his syker powers ( but
never Harrowed powers). He uses the victim 's

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and Aptitudes, but he’s stuck with the syker 's a blastin' roll versus the victim's ^
corporeal abilities.
Since the syker 's powers go with his mind , he
he’s successful, he gets in the target 's I'
mind and can see and hear everything she
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snap back to their original locations. When this cranium can make a Hard ( 9) Smarts roll on
happens, both characters must make an contact and every 10 minutes to notice
immediate Incredible (11) stun check. something's wrong .
Naturally, because the syker doesn ' t want his Once the target makes the detection roll , she
victim damaging his ( the syker 's ) body, he gets the feeling she's being watched and
typically has a friend restrain him before using subconsciously ( or consciously, if she's familiar
this power. Thus, the victim is really trapped with sykers) tries to eject the rider from her
until the power wears off or the syker turns it mind. This requires a raise on an opposed
off . Obviously, it's not a good idea to use mind Smarts roll ( not Smarts versus blastin ). This roll
transference on a syker or other rascal with may be attempted every 10 minutes.
supernatural powers who can ignore ordinary
bonds. Mindwipe
When the duration of the power passes, the Type: Psionic
syker shuts it off , or either of the bodies die, the TN: Opposed ( Smarts)
syker 's and victim's minds instantly snap back Strain: 1
into their own bodies, regardless of how far Speed: 2
apart they may be. Cruel sykers may arrange to Duration: Permanent
turn the power off just after they pitch Range: 5 yards / blast level
themselves off a cliff or put the victim 's body in
some equally dangerous situation.
Mind transference only works on living
humans and the Harrowed . It doesn ' t work on
inanimate objects such as machines, even those
with artificial intelligence. Nor does it work on
the walkin' dead or even "humanoid ” monsters.
Like meat puppet , mind transference leaves
signs around the eyes of the victim and syker.
1

Blood vessels within the eye burst , coloring the

eye a dark , reddish - black which unmistakably
indicates that all is not as it should be. Your
hero had better find a pair of sunglasses if he
doesn 't want folks to know what 's going on.

Mindrider
Type: Psionic
TN: Opposed ( Smarts)
Strain: 1
Speed: 2
Duration: 1/10 minutes
Range: Touch , then 100 yards / blastin' level
Sykers were used primarily as spies until their
mentors realized how great they were at
assassination , sabotage, and pure mayhem. That
espionage background is where mindrider came
from. It 's a lot like clairaudience and
clairvoyance all rolled up into one. v

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 never get embarrassed . Why? Nightmare
Because# they do something stupid, they Type: Psionic
i just scramble -your memories and make you j

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# forget it ^ if they don't just kill you , brainer.
( Note: We've changed this one quite a bit
f since the last time you saw it, so pay
TN: Opposed ( Spirit)
Strain: 1
Speed: 1
j

S Duration: Concentration j
attention!)
Range: 10 yards / blastin’ level
.

b Mindwipe causes a target to forget the last j

¥ There are all sorts of terrifying monsters
few minutes. It can 't make new memories-that
If requires memory maker-only create
a
creeping around the Wasted West , but none of I
" blackout " in which the target remembers
them are as frightening as the terrors locked j
within a survivor 's own mind . ]
nothing.
To use this power, a syker makes an opposed
Nightmare allows a syker to inflict an illusion J
of a sleeping victim's greatest fear. If the target
roll with his blastin' versus his opponent 's
Smarts. With a success, the target forgets the
is a posse member or other character with a 3
character sheet that describes his worst
last five minutes. Every raise extends the
nightmare, that's what nightmare makes him j
blackout another five minutes. experience. Otherwise, the Marshal can simply ]
Most victims don ' t seem to notice the
blackout . They don't even know something's
make something up or just gloss over the details , j
In either case, the syker doesn’t experience the
missing . If the Marshal feels the victim would be dream , but he knows what it 's about . That can j
suspicious (like all his buddies are suddenly
dead , or his beer 's now warm ), he gets a Smarts
give a syker a decent insight into the loser 's j
psyche should he later choose to exploit it. j
roll to realize something's up. The TN depends
To use nightmare, the syker makes an j
on how obvious the memory loss is. Of course, opposed roll against the victim 's Spirit. If the
only someone who knows the ways of sykers j
victim suffers from night terrors, he actually gets j
might figure out exactly what happened. a + 4 bonus to his roll and can ignore any current
Negator modifiers for lack of sleep. These tortured souls j
have suffered nightmares at the hands of
Type: Sykokinetic manitous. There's little more a syker can show
TN: Opposed ( blastin', faith, etc.) them. j
Strain: 1 At any rate, if the syker succeeds, the victim
Speed: Special
Duration: Instant
begins living out his greatest nightmare. If the j
.
syker merely succeeded in the opposed roll
Range: 20 yards/ blastin' level contest , the victim acts out the illusion in his
Negator is a handy power. It interrupts and head. With a raise, the dream seems so real, the |
negates another character's supernatural effect. dreamer actually acts out certain aspects of his
It works on sykers, Doomsayers, and other dream. This may cause him to do something
characters who cast their powers like spells. dangerous, such as skinning his pistol and firing
That means it works on a bolt o' doom , but does wildly all around him-which could have definite
nothing to counteract a radrat's radioactive bite
‘
negative consequences for the syker and his
or a toxic zombie's goo- bomb. Sorry, Charlie. friends.
Negator is considered a "vamoose" action . It With two or more raises, the nightmare is so
can be used at any time by discarding your terrifying the victim suffers a 4d6 roll on the
highest card , a card up the sleeve, or a Red Joker. Scart Table ( just as if he'd failed a guts check ).
Once that 's done, the opponent gets his In any case, characters do not rest well the
casting total as usual and spends any chips night they are affected by nightmare. They suffer
he cares to. ( Yes, the character should know a -1 penalty to everything they do the next day.
he's about to be opposed . This means he This is cumulative over several nights, up to a
can spend chips to raise his total .) The maximum of -5, just like night
syker merely makes a blastin' roll against terrors.
that total, and if successful he negates the vs
mm
fi JLA Nightmare only works on sleeping
.

power. If this happens, both casters lose % HE <Cr& ,

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o n l y a single point of Strain. If used agator
7
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Harrowed when they' ve gone
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One- Man Army
Type: Sykokinesis
TN: 5
Strain: 3
Speed: 1
Duration: 1/ round
Range: Special
Remember the story of Sergeant York ? This is
the power that earned him nearly two centuries
of fame and renown. This nifty trick turns one
syker into a whole army of make- believe
brainburners.
One-man army allows a syker to create
illusionary duplicates of himself . The number of
duplicates ( dupes ) is equal to 2d6, plus ld6 for
every raise achieved on the blastin' roll. The
dupes appear within 20 yards of the syker, but
can be in front of him , behind , to the side, and
so forth. Fortunately, the illusion is "smart"
enough to adjust to the terrain. The dupes won 't
appear half inside a tree, hovering over a nearby
gully, and so forth . They can also maneuver
around such obstacles as long as the course is
relatively simple.
One -man army works by taking a sykokinetic
snapshot of the light energy around the syker,
then reproducing it over and over around the
brainburner. These kinds of powers are very
tough to manage, illusions that push the limits
of what sykokinesis can do. That 's why the “The Paralyzer ”
duplicates created by the power mimic the syker Type : Biokinetic
TN : Opposed ( Vigor )
exactly. The syker s brain just
' can ' t handle much
more. Shoot one, and you don't see any blood . Strain : 2
Shoot the real syker, and the rest bleed just like Speed: 2
him. It is obviously an illusion to anyone who Duration: 5 minutes / blastin' level
can see several duplicates at once, though that Range: 5 yards / blastin' level
doesn 't help opponents figure out which figure's Freeze, and I 'll shoot you when I feel like it .
real and which one s not-especially if the
' “ The Paralyzer." Sound like a wrestler ?
illusion is presented at night or similar Actually , it was. Back in the late 1990s, a
circumstances. professional wrestler in the Confederacy won
Unless an observer gets clever somehow, the some oversized belt or another by supposedly
Marshal should randomly determine where putting his opponents in a secret move. He called
himself "the Paralyzer ' -actually killed a few
attacks are directed. Roll the die closest to the
number of dupes. If the result is a 1, the syker people too . Eventually, an undercover Texas
was hit . If there are seven duplicates, for Ranger exposed the wrestler as a syker. That
example, the Marshal should roll a d8. On a was a big deal at the time because it was
result of 1, the real syker is the target. illegal for a syker not to register with the rr
The dupes are purely visual and auditory . authorities . JT

They cannot be felt or affect the real world in But enough background . The power i
any way, and the syker can’t see things from works by simply pinching off vital nerves.
their point of view. If the syker talks or makes . • Poor brainer then lays on the floor -
ffnable to move except for an occasional
noise sound emanates from all
, the
Animals or characters with some sort of
supernatural smelling ability can tell which
(
clones

)
syker is the real thing with a Fair 5 search roll.
. f
^ -
?&§ fwitch-at the syker 's less- than - tender....-
*
mercies. Each raise on the syker’s. roll
extends the duration an additional five
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 Mental Hindrances: Mental Hindrances include
i Type: Psionic
’ phobias the character started the game with, but
* TN: Opposed ( Knowledge) not those induced by the Scart Table ( which are
- Strain: 5 covered below ). These are long-term phobias,
neuroses, or personality quirks long ingrained
J Speed: ld6 hours
? Duration: Permanent into the patient's psyche. To cure someone of a
; " Range: Touch mental Hindrance, the syker must simply beat
: *;
i
' "There is no one more terrible than the the victim's opposed roll. The syker must
•

1 desperate." subtract the Hindrance's value from his own

Suvorov, 1799 (often quoted blastin' roll . If the patient is a player character,
by syker commandos) he must immediately buy off the Hindrance at a
cost of double the original value in Bounty
There’s a great truth to this ancient quote. Points. Note that most characters shouldn't buy
During the Faraway War, many sykers were off their Hindrances. After all, that 's who they
'

afflicted with madness. Some suffered from are. A character who loses all the quirks that
brainburn. Others bore the taint of contact with make him who he is might just wind up an
the mysterious skinnies. In either case, the few empty shell.
sykers with this power were asked to step in Phobias: For phobias induced by horrific
and rescue their comrades' minds from the brink situations ( the Scart Table), the syker's blastin'
of insanity. Those who couldn ' t be saved were roll is modified by -4 for a minor phobia and -8
ordered hunted down and executed by OK for a major phobia. The syker cures the victim
Warfield for the danger they could cause the rest by mentally projecting images of the fear into
of his troops. his mind-not a lot of fun for the victim. In fact ,
This power gives a syker the ability to heal or the experience is so horrible it inflicts 3d 6
correct mental disorders suffered from brainburn , damage to the victim's head for a minor phobia
insanity induced by syker powers, and the harsh and 4d 6 for a major phobia . Each raise the syker
realities of the Wasted West. It's also handy for gets on his roll reduces the damage dice by ld6.
negating syker abilities like as memory maker. Supernatural Effects: The last condition peace
A syker can never use this ability on himself . of mind can cure is of the supernatural variety.
To use peace of mind , the syker must touch This power can undo the effects of such powers
the target on his temples while he probes his as meat puppet, memory maker, mind
mind for ld 4 hours, not -so-gently correcting and transference, and similar abilities stemming from
repairing the imbalances and damage that led to black magic, Doomsayer powers, and even weird
his condition. He then makes an opposed roll technology ( though, in the latter case, the device
against the target's Knowledge. needs to be disabled or removed first ). In these
Even "friendly ” lunatics must attempt to resist. cases, the roll is resisted by whoever implanted
The brain just doesn't like visitors. If the syker the effect . Obliterating a false memory implanted
doesn 't even get a Fair (5) success, nothing via memory maker, for instance, would pit the
happens. healer's blastin' against the enemy syker's
If he gets a Fair (5) success but does not beat blastin'. The enemy syker or other opponent
the target's roll , the victim's condition is too doesn ' t usually know this is happening ( unless
ingrained to ever be cured by supernatural he can sense such things ). The opposed roll just
means ( unless the condition is caused by a represents how well the ability has taken hold
supernatural power-in which case the syker can of the host 's mind. The Marshal should roll the
try again; it just takes another ld6 hours ). enemy Aptitude normally, spending his own
If the syker is successful over the basic chips if he wants. If the enemy syker can sense

^ TN and the patient's opposed roll, what

happens next depends on what kind of
condition the syker is trying to heal .
what's going on ( through mindrider or a similar
power ), he must spend any chips for the
resistance roll himself .
The Harrowed: Sykers like to live At any rate, assuming the syker 's successful,
dangerously. Messing with a the enemy's control, presence, or influence is
manitou is the most dangerous j|
s cicked out and negated. A meat puppet with a
trick of all . We can 't tell you. m 1tefidrider inside, for example, regains control of
but if your Harrowed friend is his own body, and the enemy syker 's mindrider
acting weird and your hero's feeling comes to an abrupt end.
brave, give it a try.

-
 '

J ' -
Predator
Type: Sykokinetic
TN: 5
Strain: 1
Speed: 2
Duration: 1/ round
Range: Self
Sykers worked a long time to find a power
that would render them invisible. Chameleon
was the best they could do for a long time. The
problem with that power is that the syker can't
move, or more importantly, make an attack
without giving up the ghost-so to speak.
Eventually, sykers gave up on rendering
themselves invisible psionically, and turned to
the more chaotic but powerful sykokinesis.
Predator, named after an old vid series, bathes
the syker in sykokinetic energy that literally
bends light around him, rendering him
practically invisible. "Practically" because there's
a faint outline around the brainburner 's figure
that can be detected if someone is looking for it .
This is a very powerful ability, though the
juice used to control it gets expensive quickly: 1
per round (or every five seconds if not in
combat ).
Characters not looking for the syker shouldn't
even get a chance to notice him. Those who
know someone’s about can spot the syker with _
tV .
A syker„ ,USeS thlS - fV,
an nnnnsed search versus sneak but the
1 C? 0
Power t0 Stay in touch Wlth
, . PJ5
brainburner
. , , , .' „ Dont,,
gets to add +6 tto his roll. n
his posse over a long distance. Before he and his
romnanions their separate wavs
sT X
the svker

^^ ^
PO
forget to add in any additional modifiers for “Tonly a (ng Fair ( toHn
"
svker's roll if he's standing in water or is touch each comPanlon ' and Pay 1 straln each -

with

i
a missile

Of, course predator

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or
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melee attack while hes

, „ t •render the
doesn'
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user
friends ) voluntarily shuts the link off . The link
continues to function regardless of the distance
or obstacles between the characters. If one of
SrieTectThe syke arhaff th" usual moSrs
J .
the ( not the syker ) is knocked out or
goes to sleep the link is still maintained.
Only consci us thoughts are transmitted
J *4
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. °
Everyone included in the syker 's link hears
what is transmitted by the others. There is no J
TN:
QN I : 1/ target
*

Strain
"whispering" to select individuals. The
fry*1
syker can drop individuals from his link,
SPeef ;1
Duration.. 1 nour
however.
. .. , .. .. . . . ,
Range: Touch to initiate, then 1 mile / blast n , One last drawback. Should a character
while psychically linked , everyone else
Psychic link is better than radio headsets. Its
more reliable and you don t have to worry about
interference from background radiation-unless
its enough to kill you , that is.
^
£ ke an Incredible (11) stun check . If the
controlling5 syker himself djes, the
characters suffer 3d6 Wind and must still
make the stun checL
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 To use psynergy, the syker makes a blastin'
Type: Psionic roll against a TN equal to 5 plus the number of
¥
sykers he is linking up with . For example, if

ss
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^'
TN: Special
fi, ; Strain: 1
•

Speed: 2
Duration: 2/ round
there are six sykers in a psynergy link ( the syker
running the link , and five others ), the TN is
(5+5= ) 10. If successful , he manages to create the
Range: Touch link. The linked sykers may now all combine a
The sykers on Banshee developed this power particular power and launch it at a target with
to fight fire with fire. The skinnies had ways greater effect.
r/.+ to pool their powers and use them to greater Every syker in the link must possess the
effect, making it difficult to counteract them or power ( thus, the power most commonly used
to match their attacks with corresponding with psynergy is brain blast , which almost every
strength. Psynergy allowed the Banshee blasters syker knows). Only the lead syker needs to
to respond to the skinnies in kind . know the psynergy power.
( By the way, it 's pronounced "sin -er -gee ," bub. The lead syker directs the power. If it requires
Like "synergy." See, it’s a pun. Oh, never mind . an opposed roll or a roll to hit, he is the one
Scavenge a dictionary if you 've never heard the who makes it . He receives + 2 to such rolls for
term, friend.) every syker linked by psynergy, thus potentially
Psynergy allows a syker to link one or more adding raises and greater damage, control , or
other sykers together to increase the power of whatever to the result .
their attack . In order to do this, the sykers hold The Strain cost for the power is the same as
hands, then turn the chain to face the target . usual (and establishing the psynergetic link costs
Every syker in the chain must touch flesh with 1 as well ). The sykers share the burden of the
another. If the chain is broken, those cut off combined power, dispersing the cost from the
from the leader do not contribute to the overall controlling syker outward . That means the
effect. controller pays 1 point , then the person to his
left and right pay a point , then the next
brainburners to his left and right pay a point ,
and so on . Odd points of Strain can go to the
left or right as the controller chooses.
A psynergetic link can be maintained for more
than one round , provided the controlling syker
( and him only ) pays the Strain cost for
maintaining it . The syker running the link had
best have plenty of Strain , because psynergy
eats it faster than a shrak eats swimmers.

•urge
Type: Biokinetic
TN: Special
Strain: 3
Speed: 10 minutes
Duration: Permanent
Range: Self
Only a syker would use a healing power to
kill. An old syker assassin 's trick is to poison a
drink , then pour both himself and his
unsuspecting victim a glass from the same
bottle, canteen, or other container. The syker
then uses purge to flush the poison out of his
|gystem while his victim lies gurgling in the dirt.
I
That was the old days. In 2094, sykers don' t
ftele'too many folks to assassinate. There are
still plenty of people who need killing , but real
assassinations are few and far between . The real

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use for purge these days is to remove diseases, concentrated in one smaller but '**
poisons, radiation, and other nastiness before intense flame, causing more datiil
they set in and make carve themselves out a anyone who contacts it.
home. The syker can move the fire anyw ,
A syker can purge most toxins within 12 within range and line of sight, up to
hours of the time they get into his system, blastin' level in yards each action. It flares
: S<
without harm. After that, or in less time if the up on each of the controller 's actions, v i
"

syker's blood has been pumping faster than causing 3d6 damage to its current target, d

usual ( the Marshal's call ), the toxin has set in, whatever that might be.
and the poor fellow's out of luck. If the target is a thug ( the Marshal is not V

Purge only works if the syker is still alive. It keeping track of individual wounds), just treat \Wv.
doesn’t do much good against very fast-acting this damage normally. If the Marshal is keeping
poisons unless the syker applies it immediately track of a target's wound areas ( he's a hero or
( within a few seconds) after the poison enters important villain ), the damage is centered on one
the system. In that case it postpones the effects body area of the controller’s choosing.
long enough to purge it . Flammable materials in contact with the
The TN to purge poisons, diseases, radiation, flame have a one in six chance each action of
and other toxins is shown on the table below. In catching fire. Highly flammable materials (like
the case of radiation, a successful purge returns ghost rock or gasoline) light automatically. See
all Wind lost due to radiation poisoning (see the Deadlands: Hell on Earth for information on fires
Headlands: Hell on Earth rulebook ). Of course, if and ways to put them out.
the syker is still exposed to radiation once
purged, it just starts building up again. Still!
Type: Biokinetic
TN: 5
Strain: 2
Speed: 1
TN Toxin Duration: 1/10 minutes
Colds; most nonfatal poisons. Range: 10 yards / blastin' level
Common viruses. Every now and then , despite a syker's best
Most natural poisons such as snake efforts, someone spies him going about his dirty
venom; infections. business and decides to be a tattletale. Shh!
Radiation; chronic infections; potentially shuts the blabbermouth up real quick.
lethal viruses (ebola, lassa, Marburg ). Unlike silence, which actually creates a field
Supernatural diseases such as Tummy which dampens sound , shh! locks up a target 's
Twisters, the touch of a faminite, or mouth and vocal cords by sending neural
any plague or illness started by impulses from the brain to the victim's jaws and
Pestilence, Famine, or their minions. throat . All the victim can do is make odd
grunting, moaning, or barking sounds. It 's
frustrating and quite deadly when some flunky
Type: Pyrokinetic can't tell his commanding officer what he wants
TN: 5 to know-not to mention the fact that he sounds
Strain: 2 like a wounded seal .
Speed: 1 Of course, someone afflicted by shh! can still
Duration: 2/ round write, point, draw pictures, or play charades
Range: 10 yards / blastin' level to get his point across, but by the time such
"Cook! Cook!" a message is conveyed, the syker
-Beavis commando is usually long gone-or r‘-
standing behind the recipient of the
Pyro is pure pyrokinesis: the ability to create message with a loaded TSAR rifle.
„ . ,
fire and flame , ,
^vFor
every raise on the syker's blastin'

^^
With it, the syker creates a dancing flame
about the size of an average campfire. He can :
fegjg /
she c n affect one other person
thm ran Roll that vigoj: persprfs
Panother ? ^
h
then move the fire about at will , causing it to usual If thsg ker ts
F?
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roast anything and everything in its path
of it as all the heat from an arson blast
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 opponent relying solely on sound to detect him
has no chance of doing so. If the opponent does
have a chance to perceive the syker through
means other than sound (seeing him or smelling
him , for example), silence simply adds + 4 to the
syker's sneak rolls.
It's important for a syker to keep this power's
limitations in mind , however. While it makes
firing a gun absolutely silent , it doesn ' t stop the
crack of a bullet as it breaks the sound barrier
( it 's too far away from him to be affected by
silence ) , nor does it mask the noise of the bullet
hitting its target . If the syker uses silence to
sneak up close and stab someone, the victim's
scream of pain can be heard loud and clear. In
short , only the syker 's actions and noises made
by objects he can hold in his hands are silenced,
not the consequences of those actions.
If he suddenly needs to shout for help, the
syker cart turn off the power at any point .

Sfrinwalfrer
Type: Psionic
TN: Special
Strain: 3
Speed: 1
Duration: 1/ hour
Range: Self
Nearly 200 years ago, during the Great Rail
Silence Wars, a Rail Baron named Simone LaCroix
Type: Sykokinetic captured a number of hideous creatures called
TN: 5 skinwalkers and used them against his foes. The
Strain: 1 governments of both the North and the South
Speed: 1 studied the shapeshifting dopplegangers, but
Duration: 1/10 minutes never could figure out their secrets. When sykers
Range: Self created this power, their mentors named it after
Commandos, assassins, and saboteurs are the old horrors ( some of which might still sit ,
sneaky types for one simple reason: Every starving and immortal , in secret underground
nation on Earth executed special operatives labs, by the way).
when they were caught . Needless to say, the Skinwalker allows a syker to take on the
sykers quickly learned how to hide ( thus the form , image, and voice of someone else by
chameleon power ) and sneak. The problem , means of a potent illusion . To use the power, the
however, was that many of the things the sykers syker merely has to beat the TN and pay the
did once they got in position made loud bangs. cost in Strain. The TN depends on how much the
Hence the need for silence. syker knows about the person he's imitating , as
. Silence cloaks the syker in a field of shown on the table below.
absolute silence by creating a interfering The syker can only alter his appearance, not
field of sykokinetic energy around the syker create complex illusions. For example, if the
and whatever he's holding. This field person to be imitated is carrying a rifle, a syker
dampens sound waves emitted from the using skinwalker to imitate him does not have a
i Jt
blaster and anything he holds.
the brainburner can run , shout , fire a
/rifle unless he has something to disguise as a
* 'rifle ( such as a stick ). The Marshal must decide
!»] >

elements the syker can disguise and what

T5 weapon or otherwise perform any actiohr
, '
which would normally produce noise-but he cannot , but in general, physical features,
$> w he makes no noise at all . If he's sneakin', an clothes, hair, and the like are included in the

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looks, sounds, smells, and feels like his victim such as in very tense situations like
until the end of the power's duration, or he combat , sex, or running a marathon (and M
decides to drop it . you know how much that happens these 1
Skinwalker doesn ' t allow for extreme changes days).
in weight or height. Both features can be altered Here's how it works. Assuming the
by about ±10%. Skinwalker does not allow the victim is relatively calm, the syker enables
syker to appear to have wings, six arms, or the power by making a blastin' roll versus
other features not commonly found on humans, the target's Vigor. Subtract -2 from the
but it does allow the imitation of "cosmetic" victim's roll if he was already at rest . If the
effects, such as radiation burns, boils, tattoos, syker is successful, the victim falls into a deep
and the like. sleep.
Characters who are able to recognized the The sleeper can be awakened normally, '
imitated person don 't usually notice the disguise though he rolls at -2 to do so, with another -2
and have no chance to notice or see through it, per raise the syker got on his blastin' total. Most
unless the skin walking syker does something victims sleep ld 4 hours. Others remain in the
out of the ordinary for the imitated person. Land of Nod for much longer, particularly if they
Characters who know the imitated person well were very tired already. Guards on watch late at
get a chance to know something is wrong after night are almost always sleepy unless they have
any unusual or suspicious action. The Marshal a good reason not to be. Solitary guards in quiet
can modify this roll , based on the situation. outposts are also good targets.
This is an opposed scrutinize roll versus the Boredom is a syker 's friend .
syker's performin', since the syker must try to Sleepy-bye has no effect on most
act like his victim and convince the doubter he undead, automatons, and creatures
is who he says he is. Even if someone catches that do not sleep. It can affect the
on to the disguise, it does not disappear, so it Harrowed , however, since they do
might be hard for him to convince others of the sleep.
lie.

TN Familiarity
3 Intimate
5 Close friend; studied in -depth
7 Friend
9 Acquaintance; studied casually
11 Someone the syker's met once or twice

Sleepy-Bye
Type: Biokinetic
TN: Opposed ( Vigor )
Strain: 2
Speed: 1
Duration: See below
Range: 20 yards / blastin' level
—
You are getting sleepy very, very sleepy.
Sleepy-bye is the pacifist's way to get by
guards most brainburners would kill. It allows
the syker to cause a victim to fall quickly and
cleanly asleep. Essentially, the syker reaches into
the victim 's mind and shuts off the parts that if
keep him awake.
Since this power uses a victim 's natural sleep
endorphins against him, it has no effect when a

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 Slow Burn The target must have at least 1 level of Armor
Type: Pyrokinetic ( not light armor ) to be affected. The power 's
TN: 7 Speed is equal to the Armor Value of the target.
Strain: 1/ AV On the last action of concentration , the syker
Speed: 1/ AV makes his blastin' roll against the power 's TN
Duration: Concentration and the TN to hit the target with a Range
Range: 20 yards/ blastin' level Increment of 20. The syker adds +1 to the attack
Sykers were rarely expected to duke it out roll ( not the blastin' roll ) for each action spent
with a tank , but their teachers wanted them to probing, up to the target's Armor Value.
have a big can of whup-ass if they did, so this is If both totals are successful, a blast of
the power they came up with. superheated energy bursts from the syker 's
( Note: We've made slow burn a whole Hell of head . This blast has an AP value equal to the
a lot more powerful. Make sure you notice that it target's Armor, and it causes xdlO damage, where
now does xdlO damage instead of the xd 6 listed x is the target 's Armor Value.
in the Deadlands: Hell on Earth rulebook.) This counts as "real" damage against vehicles.
Don 't divide it as is done with small arms. Check
Slow burn allows a syker to take out even
the most heavily armored targets, though it out the vehicle rules in the Deadlands: Hell on
Cf requires a little time and risk. To do so, the with Earth rulebook. A syker can make a called shot
syker "probes" the target with a visible this power by applying the modifier to her
beam of crackling energy, determining the attack roll ( but not the blastin' result ).
strength of its armor , and then releases an It can be used against personnel, as long as
.
armor-piercing ( AP) bolt of psychic energy t they are wearing some sort of body armor, but
to take it out. i >rain blast , boneripping, and many other powers
cover before t Hrfusually more effective, especially since the
m P blast is released , the power ends, but the target can always just dive into cover to escape
I syker does not pay any Strain. the inevitable blast .
 SySrer powers
Sturm unit Drang Telekinetic Storm
Type: Sykokinetic Type: Telekinetic
TN: Opposed ( blastin', faith, etc.) TN: 5
Strain: 0 Strain: 2
Speed: 2 Speed: 1
Duration: Instant Duration: 1/ round
Range: 5 yards / blastin' level Range: 20 yards/ blastin' level
Sturm und drang ("storm and stress," named The Wasted West is filled with junk
by the German syker who developed it ) steals rubble, trash , and the wrecked remains of a
Strain from another syker, Doomsayer, or other civilization stupid enough to bomb itself back
Strain -using spellcaster. to the Stone Age. In the hands of the right
Here's how it works. The syker makes an people, such as junkers, these scraps can
opposed roll against another syker 's blastin' , a become weapons. Sykers have a more direct way
Doomsayer's faith , and so on. The winner steals of using the crumbling fragments of the old
ld 4 Strain from the victim , + ld 4 Strain per raise. world .
Unlike damage and Aptitude checks , this is not To use telekinetic storm, the syker need only
an open -ended roll. make a blastin’ roll against a TN of 5. If he
Only real Strain is stolen-not potential Strain succeeds, it creates a maelstrom of swirling
gained should the target have fortitude, drugs, or debris a number of yards in diameter equal to
Banshee stones. Once the target 's Strain hits 0, the syker 's Spirit die type. The syker can center
no more can be taken. the storm anywhere up to the range of the
Drained Strain is recovered by the victim in power. Everything within the storm suffers 2d 6
the usual manner. The Strain remains with the damage as it is bashed by flying debris , plus an
juice - thief until it is used ( it 's taken away first ) additional ld 6 damage per raise on the blastin’
or the duration of the power expires, at which roll . Treat this as massive damage if the Marshal
point it vanishes instantly. Once used , the extra is using wound locations for those inside .
Strain cannot be recovered by the syker. It 's a Obviously, this doesn ' t work in an area
one-shot deal . without substantial rubble or other dangerous
Sykers like to call other sykers with this debris. If the debris is particularly sharp, hard , or
power "vampires." otherwise deadly, the Marshal should add
damage or other effects as well . Throwing a box
Tattletale of nails into a telekinetic storm might make the
Type: Psionic damage 2 d 6 + 2 per round . If there are radrats in
TN: Opposed ( Spirit ) the storm , they probably bite anyone they slam
Strain: 2 into as well . The Marshal should use common
Speed: 5 minutes sense and reward creative uses of this chaotic
Duration: 5 minutes power.
Range: 5 yards
Commandos rarely have time to stage Telekinesis
elaborate interrogations . Tattletale allows a syker Type: Telekinetic
to drag information from a foe 's mind without TN: 5
the poor schmuck realizing he's been violated . Strain: Special
A syker who engages his opponent in Speed: 5
conversation and uses this power can get the Duration: 1/ round
target to talk about things he ordinarily would Range: 20 yards / blastin' level
not. Even better, the target remembers the Ever need an extra pair of hands ? This
conversation, but forgets he revealed anything he nifty power might do it for you .
wasn't supposed to. Unless the syker botches his Telekinesis is possibly the most
blastin' roll , the victim never has a clue this versatile and useful power in a syker 's • f

power was used on him. arsenal . It allows a brainburner to

Each use of tattletale is an opposed blastin' manipulate physical objects at range with
roll versus the target 's Spirit. The syker gets
some amount of information with each success.
Rental
" power. It doesn ' t create an
invisible block , hand, or wall of force. It -
The Marshal must determine exactly how much simply manipulates existing matter, such
based on the situation. as a boulder or a person. . .v:r; v.:
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uses that skill with his Knowledge die type. If he
u wants to drive a car by remote, for instance, he
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have the concentration or Aptitude, he subtracts
r
the appropriate Aptitude as usual . These
> attempts do count as "actions," though a syker
A may perform an action with his mind and a
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modifier to each.
:
1 Finally, a syker can use telekinesis to lift
himself into the air or catch himself while
falling. In both cases, the syker can move
himself or slow himself down by his telekinetic
Pace (as described above).
If falling, don 't try to do the math. Use this
"cheat " instead. For every point of telekinetic
Pace the syker has, knock ld6+5 off the damage
he'd take from the fall. If the damage is reduced
to 0 or less, the syker catches himself before he
hits the ground .
One last thing: Telekinesis is not a "force
field." It cannot block attacks that a pair of
hands couldn ' t block, it can't hold liquids or
gases, and it can ' t reach inside someone and
squeeze a vein or plug an artery. ( For the latter,
the character must learn a more narrow and
specialized power such as boneripper or Aztec
surprise.) It can only pick up and manipulate
To use telekinesis, the syker makes a blastin' tangible matter. Got it ? Good .
roll against a TN of 5 and spends his Strain . If
successful , he gets a hold on the target object . A Third Eye
syker 's Strength with telekinesis is equal to his Type: Sykokinetic
Spirit , plus +1 step for every raise achieved on TN: 5
the blastin’ roll . Strain: 1
The power works at a range of 20 yards per Speed: 1
blastin' level . If a syker tries to move an object Duration: Concentration
beyond that range, he drops it at once. Once he Range: 20 yards / blastin' level
has a hold on the object , he must also maintain There are more things in this world than can
line of sight to it to maintain the power. be seen with the naked eye. Fortunately, some
An object being held with telekinesis can be sykers have a third one that can see some of the
moved at a Pace equal to the syker 's Spirit die things lurking out there.
type, as modified by the weight being lifted . ( If it Third eye causes a large, luminous eye, which
becomes an issue, see the main rulebook for looks much like a pale searchlight , to open in
more information on carrying loads.) The syker the middle of the syker 's forehead . This eye is
can move the object away from himself , able to detect all supernatural powers, energies,

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toward himself , to the side, up, down , you
l name it. He can also let go of the object at
any time-such as when he's lifted it a
couple hundred feet off the ground . Can you
emanations, or effects by bathing it in
sykokinetic energy. Harrowed , undead , or
characters under the effect of someone else's
power all show up under the syker 's probing
|, f fly, mutie?
f
§.hird eye.
Sykers can also perform manual skills M
with telekinesis For example, a syker - cc
* lid dditionally, the syker can identify the type of
er being used if he makes an academia:
throw a grenade, steer a car, or shoot a * occult roll based on the table below. For
pistol. When a brainburner wants to use example, third eye can see that someone is being

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an area with mental scan, a psychic link is in
existence between people, and so on. gape
Third eye can also detect trace energies left Maybe you ’ve got an idea for a cool
on a victim 's brain or body by damaging syker new syker power or a better way to blast :S§ g
muties into tiny pieces. Syker powers are MilW
powers. A syker can use third eye to look at a §m1
corpse and determine that it was killed with by nature mysterious and unfathomable,
brain bomb, for example ( like he couldn' t tell on and new ones are being developed all the
his own!). time. There's no problem with creating new
powers if you want to.
The list of powers described above certainly
isn 't exclusive or exhaustive. We bet a lot of you ,
having gotten this far, have come up with ideas
TN Type of Power
for syker powers of your own that fit your
3 Syker power the syker knows particular character. That 's great, and we
5 Unknown syker power encourage it! So here's how to create them.
5 Doomsayer or Templar power
9 Archaic powers ( huckster or witch ) Theme and Nature
11 Evil magic ( Marshal -only powers) As you've seen in the descriptions above,
there's a certain nature to syker powers. For the
Tfance most part , they aren 't the usual psionic fodder
Type: Biokinetic you find in other games. They’re harsher, more
TN: 5 lethal , more brutal . Remember that most powers
Strain: 1 were created by the military or by syker
Speed: 1 minute commandos in military service.
Duration: Special The power must also make sense within a
Range: Self particular category. Telekinesis can ' t make a
Trance allows a syker to put himself in a character fly at the speed of light. It just takes
virtual coma for a defined period of time. During too much mental energy. It can make him fly at
this time, the syker appears to be dead . He a reasonable Pace, however, as shown in the
breathes less than once a minute and so telekinesis power. Think about how the power
shallowly that it requires a Hard (9) medicine roll works and what some of the limits are based on
to detect the fact that the syker is still alive. those we've listed in this book .
During the time the syker is in a trance, When you 're coming up with new syker
weapons which try to affect him through his powers, stick to this sort of feel . There are
breathing ( such as some gases and biowarfare definitely some types of powers sykers should
agents) do not , he does not have to eat , and he have and some they shouldn ' t. Think The Road
is immune to extremes of temperature until they Warrior meets Scanners. Although the powers
reach the point where they physically damage which fit into this framework are often
his flesh. Of course he has no other immunity extremely powerful-as deadly as the best
from damage. Any mutie can run him through weapons available-there are some things which
with a rusty shiv. a syker just shouldn't be able to do. Syker
The syker must define the length of time he powers are not a substitute for magic or comic-
remains in a trance before he activates the book psionics. Be creative, be clever, be lethal,
power. This can be a set time period , such as but don 't go beyond the boundaries set by
" three weeks," or the occurrence of a specific
other powers.
event , such as "at the third sunrise," "the next Here are some guidelines for turning JE 4V

time rain falls on me," or "when Bob says ' Wake your idea into a working syker power.
up!"' The condition must be objective, however,
not subjective. The syker can 't say, "when Type
something bad is about to happen." The power ./ The type of
.. power should be fairly easy
has no judgment . figure out . Moving things around has to
When the condition or event occurs, the syker be a telekinetic power. Shutting down ±> ody il
wakes up. If he's been in a trance for a day or functions is biokinetic. Messing with a Si
more, he is ravenously hungry and must eat victim 's mind is certainly psionic. How do
soon or suffer the consequences.
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Strain
The more powerful and effective a power is,
Jilt) you can't. Neither fits within the categories the more Strain it costs. The maximum Strain
mid we've established. cost for a power is normally 5. If a power calls
for greater Strain , it 's probably too powerful
if - Wget Number ' <

*
The target numbers for syker powers are Speed
based on blastin'. The typical TN is 5, but this
• •
ip*;.: Syker powers intended for use in combat are
may increase to 7 for difficult or particularly usually Speed 1, occasionally Speed 2 or more for
effective powers, or even 9 for powers which,
like chameleon, have to affect a lot of minds at particularly effective powers. Powers which aren't
usually used in combat are often listed in
once. minutes or even hours.
Most syker powers that directly affect another
person or that person 's mind are opposed rolls.
Flere are the different types of categories and the
Duration
skills or Traits they ' re normally opposed with . Combat powers are usually "instant ," or have
effects which are "permanent." In some cases,
the duration is based upon the syker 's blastin '.
Increments such as one minute, five minutes, or
one hour per level of blastin ' are often
Category Skill or Trait appropriate for such powers-but be careful
Biokinesis Vigor when using such durations, since they tend to
Psionics Knowledge, Smarts, or Spirit give sykers a lot of long- term effect while
Pyrokinesis Spirit freeing them up to do other things. Consider
Sykokinesis Blastin' or Spirit using “concentration" or a set Strain cost per
Telekinesis Spirit or Vigor round instead for highly effective powers.
Range
Except for powers which are "self " only or
which require the syker to "touch" his victim
(and there are plenty of those
; many syker
powers simply don 't work over a distance), a
power 's range is usually based on the syker 's
blastin'. For the average power, 20 yards per level
of blastin' is a good range. For more powerful
abilities, 10 or even 5 yards per level of blastin' is
more balanced .

Marshal Law
The last , and most important , thing to get is
the Marshal 's official approval for your new
syker power. His word , as always, is final. He
checks for powers which are likely to unbalance
the game, make the syker too effective, or don't
fit the syker feel.
Do everyone a favor, and don 't come up with
powers you know aren 't up to snuff . Think about
it. You can easily design a power that kills, with
a rationale that makes it nearly impossible to
defeat , but where's the fun in that ? Tell you
?,What
:
. When you get the urge to do something
|k that , just say you did , and your character
/ih'S every battle he ever fights in. Fun ,
huh?
Okay. Now let 's reboot and start over in a game
with some challenge. Okay, brainer ?

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Here, doggie! Psionic Smarts Special 1 5 minutes/ 20 yards/level Controls animals.

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Lunacy Psionic Smarts : 5 I minute Permanent 10 yards /level induces ujadness. |

Manipulator Psionic Spirit 2§
:§ 2 10 minutes/ 10 yards/level Manipulates J •

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Medic Biokinetic Special Special Special Permanent Touch Heals others' wounds,

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- 2

Chapter Four:
Syfrer Tech

Sykers are typically graduates of military

training academies and veterans of the
battlefields of the Faraway War or Last War
( take your pick ). And if there's one thing the Sykers and their masters discovered early on
military loves, it’s toys: military hardware. From that certain kinds of drugs enhance syker
guns to armor to hover tanks to killer satellites , functions . Indeed, in the earliest days of syker
development , some proto-sykers often required
the military of late 21st century Earth had it all .
And some of it was specifically designed for use drugs to be able to use their powers. Without
them , the powers were so weak or so debilitating
by sykers or in support of syker - dominated
operations. that blasting wasn 't feasible.
Most of the syker tech used by Earth sykers Sykers soon freed themselves from those
was destroyed or used up during the I ast War, particular chains, but they never forgot that
^
but there are still a few goodies lying around or drugs could be used to enhance what a syker
in the hands of scavvies. And who knows what could already do as well as spark it to life. Some
wonders may be hidden in government facilities researchers at the syker academies experimented
so secret the bombs never fell on them ? in this field almost exclusively, striving to
Banshee sykers were, if anything, even better develop the perfect syker pill . The drugs they
created were eventually given the name of
equipped , since they d been fighting since long
'
"sykertropic” drugs.
before the Last War began. Their battles with the
mysterious skinnies became a gold mine for Unfortunately for the surviving sykers, all of
military hardware corporations (such as those researchers are nothing but radioactive
dust now -at least as far as anyone knows.
)
Hellstromme Industries looking to sell the UN
forces some new piece of experimental hardware But the knowledge of how the drugs work ,
that would help the Legion turn the tide. Most of and sometimes even how to make them , > / '

their hardware got left behind , of course, but a still resides in the pulsating craniums of
few unique items managed to find their way sykers themselves.
back to Earth or were found in stockpiles that Sykertropic drugs do nothing for
never made it off - planet to Banshee in the first gainers. Even Doomsayers cannot use
place. .V Igrkertropic drugs to boost or recover their
So let s go salvaging, friend , and find out what own Strain though if they re foolish
, '
'
to try the drugs they can certainly P
c-.
kinds of toys are out there for your syker to play enough
,
with! become addicted to them.

••
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Amanitrol Once the ingredients are gathered , the syker

Amanitrol was one of the very first has to cook it into a liquid or powder. This takes
sykertropic drugs. Initially developed by a Fair (5) academia: chemistry roll and four hours
QJ of time. This produces one dose. Up to four
German chemists in the 1890s, and further
W refined during World War I and later on in the doses can be cooked up in a gallon container.
W , Cold War period , amanitrol is derived from Effects: Amanitrol makes it easier for sykers
certain types of mushrooms and fungus. These to concentrate. When using the drug , the syker
f : plants are common in pretty much all parts of can take normal actions while concentrating on
u Europe, eastern North America , and the Pacific a single power. Alternatively, he could
» Coast, and are easily grown in greenhouses or concentrate on two powers and take only simple
similar facilities elsewhere . actions.
Thus, the main virtue to amanitrol is this: It 's Average-quality amanitrol is any amanitrol
easy to cultivate and make. Even in the Wasted produced in a lab by someone who knows what
West , there are lots of folks with access to the he’s doing. One dose takes ld6 rounds to kick in
necessary equipment . Heck , any syker with the once ingested , and it lasts 2d 6 minutes after.
medicine Aptitude or an appropriate academia Low -quality amanitrol is crudely cooked up
Aptitude can make a dose of it with as little as (as described above ), made in a lab by someone
four of the right mushrooms or fungi, a bit of who's not aware of the correct procedures, or
flour, potable water, a frying pan , and a source was made before or during the Last War and has
of heat . It won ' t be the best amanitrol ever lost some of its potency over time. It lasts only
created , but it will suffice. 2d 6 rounds.
Here's how to make it . A syker makes an There is no such thing as high -quality
Incredible (11) scroungin' roll to find the amanitrol .
ingredients in the parts of the world named Side - Effects: Amanitrol makes it easier to
above. This takes 2d 6 hours. Each raise reduces concentrate by dulling the senses. Reduce the
the time by one hour. character 's Cognition and Quickness by -1 step
each when under its influence.

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Axor Government stores in that

world were raided by bandits durin "
part of
_ 1

Axor is sometimes called " brain food " by Last War, and it 's easily found on thefpf | | f
veteran brainburners because it temporarily black markets of Asia.
increases their mental powers. It was developed To make it requires both an Incredible
in the mid -20th century by a Mexican chemist, (11) scroungin' and an Incredible (11)
Reynaldo Borrero de Pedroza. For the first academia: chemistry roll, as well as a
couple of decades after its development , axor complete lab with burners, mortar and
was a well - kept secret of the Mexican pestle, and so forth . The scroungin' part
government . It gave the Mexicans a significant takes 2d6 hours, minus one hour per raise on
edge in the syker spy wars, and they didn' t want the roll , and must be done in dry, mountainous
to blow the advantage. areas. ( That 's where the weeds are found .)
But all good things must come to an end, and Cooking it takes three hours per dose to bake it
in 1988, a Confederate syker named John onto a stick ( to then be burned as incense).
Morrison clashed with a Mexican syker along As mentioned above, green bird must be used
the border and killed him. On his adversary were in an enclosed , still space or the effect is lost . It
several doses of axor. The CSA quickly learned gives off a distinctive odor when burned which
the secret, and eventually, so did everyone else. most sykers recognize with a Foolproof (3)
Axor, being cheap, easy to make, and easy to Cognition roll .
store, was stockpiled in vast quantities by Effects: Green bird of Heaven
nations who used sykers. Since it's virtually doubles the rate at which Strain is
impossible to make in the Wasted West ( it regained . It is cumulative with
requires some manufactured chemicals which no meditation.
one's set up to make anymore), sykers are still Side - Effects: Many users of
working off of these stockpiles, some of which green bird report that they often
were destroyed in the Last War. Most were, 101 suffer headaches after they finish
however, looted long before the bombs fell . A few inhaling it . It is not known to be
may remain to be discovered . Fortunately for addictive, either physically or psychologically.
sykers, it stores well for a long , long time
without becoming spoiled ( the Hostess TwinkieTM Red
of sykertropicsl ).
Effects: Axor increases a syker 's Unlike most other sykertropic drugs, this one
blastin' by + 2 for 2d 6 minutes. originated on Banshee and was discovered by a
Side - Effects: There are no syker in the field rather than some researcher in
records of any syker ever becoming the lab. Seeking a native substitute for his
addicted to axor in any way. It’s beloved pipe tobacco, a member of the
completely safe, so you shouldn 't Hammerhead squad , Corporal Fred Vickers, tried
worry about that badge. Really. drying and grinding up the leaves of a reddish -
brown Banshee plant . It didn' t smoke much like
tobacco, but Vickers was amazed to discover
Green Bird Heaven
of that he felt much more vital and energetic after
This drug , which is actually purplish - blue and using it. What 's more, he was a lot less tired out
not green at all , was developed by Chinese when he used his syker powers. Without
scientists ( hence its flowery name) in the year meaning to, he'd stumbled on what he claimed
2020. It has the effect of soothing a resting syker was the secret of how the skinnies were able
and increasing the rate at which he regains to use their powers so strongly and so often . ]
spent Strain. The few field researchers available on I
Green bird comes in the form of sticks of Banshee began researching the properties r~ -
incense. The syker must light the incense while of this plant as soon as Vickers took his 1
in an enclosed , still space and breathe the fumes findings to his superiors. They soon
while he rests or meditates. discovered that the sykoactive chemicals ^
Green bird is fairly common on the Pacific | „ ¥iside it were able to stimulate the

it's rare anywhere else in the Wasted West . If a

-*
coast ( particularly in the ruins of Shan Fan ), but ., ..- aenters of the brain which channel
psychic energy from the Hunting Grounds. 1 mfip :

syker could manage to get over to the Far East While these chemicals weren’t reproducible
somehow, he could obtain it there too. in a lab for some reason, they could easily LSI
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Low -quality red is picked right out of the

r 7 i>: a powdered or liquid form and then ground , or is made from average- or high-quality
I ingested Some sample plants were also sent red which has been diluted ("cut ” ), or which has
d back to Earth and were able to grow in Earth
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deteriorated over time. Sykers sometimes refer to
it as "pink."
HIPs |Because of the dark reddish color of the -
YC'
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• powder and liquid derived from the plant , the
m drug quickly became known as "red ” to sykers
ji in the field. Soon "Give me some red!” was the
Red is usually eaten or ingested as a dry
powder, though it can also be distilled into a
liquid as well . It can be smoked , but it only
imparts 1 Strain for ld 6 minutes in this form
: .
;. b
cry heard among syker squads before they because so little of it gets into the syker 's
went into battle, because red increased- bloodstream .
sometimes dramatically-a syker's Strain
capacity. ai
When the sykers bugged off of Banshee, many
took large supplies of red, or even the actual
plants, with them. While a lot of this stuff got Quality Strain Duration
left behind on the Unity, a good bit of it made it High 2d6 ld 4 hours
to Earth in the hands of the sykers. Today, red Average ld 6 1-2 hours
plants are being cultivated at the Jericho Low 1-3 30-60 minutes
academy and probably some other places as
well , but it will be a long, long time before the Side-Effects: It was quickly established by
supply is self -sustaining. the military on Banshee that red is not
Meantime sykers have to make do with what physically addictive. That 's the good news. The
they’ve already got in drug form . This has led to bad news is that it is psychologically addictive.
more than a few fights, raids, and other disputes Sykers often come to depend on it to boost their
over the drug, since sykers covet it , and many Strain so much that they feel they cannot
are addicted to it. No one has yet found any of function properly-or at all-without it. If your
the secret government farms where the nations syker 's like this, he can take a hankerin'. He
of Earth grew their own red plants from the suffers an additional -1 to all blastin' rolls
samples sent back by Banshee botanists. It 's whenever hankerin' penalties would come into
feared that all the plantations were ghost -rock play.
bombed out of existence, but some sykers keep Fortunately, it 's fairly difficult to
searching, hoping to find that mother lode of develop a hankerin' for red . Provided
this powerful drug. a syker uses it no more than once a
Effects: Red stimulates the psychic centers of week , he generally does not become
a syker's brain, increasing his capacity to addicted to it at all. If he uses it
channel psychic energy without causing undue once a day or more, the chances are
stress or harm to himself . much higher. The Marshal has rules
In game terms, red provides a temporary for determining whether a syker
increase in a syker's Strain . The extra Strain can becomes addicted to the stuff .
be used to fuel syker powers until it's all used
up or the drug's effects wear off . Zebra
'

The amount of Strain increase, and how long Zebra was cooked up in a lab somewhere in
it lasts, depends upon the quality of the drug , as the Confederacy in the late 1960s, but it
indicated in the Red Effects Table. eventually found its way into the hands of
High -quality red is a highly refined form sykers everywhere.
of the drug which was produced in Earth Like amanitrol , it dulls the senses, making it a
government labs before and during the Last little harder to blast, but drastically reducing the
J
) War. Making it is beyond the capacity of
most folks in the Wasted West . Most of the
effects of brainburn . Earthers ate the stuff like
candy before using their overkill abilities in the
,£ red available on Earth is of average quality. ; Last War.
^ This includes the red currently being fji- '

ffects: Zebra comes in a pill that lasts for

producecLat the Jericho academy. ( The hours. During that time, rolls on the
r. school lacks the advanced lab facilities Brainburn Table are made at -4.
needed to produce high -quality red .) Side -Effects: Reduce the hero's Cognition and
Quickness by -2 steps for this time.
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Sykers don’t rely on their powers alone. In

—
fact, the older ones which is usually to say, the
occasions, they are traded or given a I am
gifts, but most sykers who have them
onto them with a death grip.
* ,
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smarter and more clever ones-often learn to Effect: Banshee stones are like little
rely on their powers only secondarily. Their first Strain batteries. They hold Strain that, i
line of attack is always a normal weapon, once used, returns very slowly. And while
typically a firearm of some sort. sykers can' t quite figure it out , using one
However, when it comes to sykers, "normal" makes them feel just a little-well-dirty. They
isn’t an entirely accurate term for their weapons. can’t explain why, and most don't let it stop
Some fire bullets and so forth, just like the them from doing so, but there's definitely a
typical soldier 's weapons, but are enhanced by feeling that using a Banshee stone is just a little
the sykers' own powers to make them deadlier wrong somehow.
and more accurate. A lot of syker weapons Banshee stones contain 2d6 points of Strain.
technology was lost during the Last War, but It takes a whole day for a single point of Strain
every now and then you run into a syker who to return. If the stone's Strain is reduced to 0, it
—
still has some of it and maybe one day
someone might come across a hidden bunker or
loses 1 Strain permanently.
Banshee stones are about the size of golf
arsenal or two which escaped the ghost -rock balls and are dark , speckled gray in color. When
bombs. used , they exude a puff of dust and a moan like
wind through a hollow tree.
Banshee Stones Banshee sykers have legends
When the sykers on Banshee first about larger Banshee stones-ones
encountered skinnies, they were amazed at the so large they could not be easily
mysterious aliens' raw power. It wasn't until moved . According to a few wild
after the Red River campaign that they found rumors by fleeing colonists, the
out one of the secrets behind their abilities. skinnies used these in massive
All the skinnies had these greenish-purplish assaults on colonial fortifications.
crystals on thongs around their necks or Such a Banshee stone would be an
mounted in headbands, tiaras, or other such asset beyond price to any syker who maintained
jewelry. The sykers took samples of them and a base of operations ( the Jericho school, for
tested them and found out that this particular example). However, so far as is widely known, no
mineral-one the colonial geologists didn't even Legion syker ever actually saw such a stone,
recognize-enhanced syker powers. much less brought one back to Earth.
The geologists christened it "sykolite," but the
sykers took to calling it "Banshee stone.” They BOQifS
couldn 't ever find any naturally occurring stones, There were a number of books written about
but they took them off dead skinnies whenever sykers before the Last War. Most were top-secret ,
they could . Some skinnies even wore necklaces used only in government academies. A few,
with several Banshee stones, though there was however, were written by hacks, sykers who
no proof that carrying more than one offered managed to avoid former schooling and develop
any additional benefit. Incredibly, even with their powers on their own.
Banshee stones and red, the sykers of the Below are a few examples of the books a
Legion were never able to truly match the syker might run across and what kind of
skinnies power for power. Only with the aid of information she might find inside. All of
thousands of heavily armed conventional troops the official government books listed below
and high- tech war machines were they able to contain all the powers listed in the Hell on
drive them back into their hiding places in the Earth rulebook. Other powers (such as the
mountains and jungles of Banshee. new ones in this book ) have a percent
Many Banshee sykers took their stones home phance of being listed in a particular
with them. After all, most weren’t too big, and Ispok. When a syker wants to learn a new
• their owners rarely took them off anyway. With ** power, simply roll 2dl0 and read themas
'

Banshee effectively cut off from Earth for the percentiles. (One is the 'tens" die and V ,
foreseeable future, Banshee stones have become the other is the "oiies" dieRead 00 as lOO.) I
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of a dark cult dedicated to killing with the mind .

It has a 25% chance of describing any biokinetic
power that causes damage. At the Marshal’s
whim , particularly messy damage-causing
powers have a 30% chance of being found within
the pages of this gruesome tome. ($2,000)
FireU A young girl set fire to a number of
homes in New England sometime in the early
1980s. Fifty years later, a psychologist realized
the girl was a very talented but undiagnosed
pyrokinetic. His book contains the girl's raw
testimony at her hearing (and later execution ) by
the US Agency. A syker has a 25% chance of
learning any pyrokinetic power from this book.
($1,000 )

Learning Machines
Just before the Last War ended , academies in
both the Noclh and the South successfully
implemented a new machine that could teach a
syker a specific power in minutes.
To use the arcade-sized machine, a syker
inserts a dataslug coded with information and
instructions for a particular power. Then he
inserts a metal prong directly into his temple
( taking 1 Wind ) and waits. In just a few seconds,
the power is downloaded into his brain , and he
can begin using it. The best part is these powers
Keep track of which powers are not in a cost only 1 Bounty Point! Consider it a perk for
particular book as the syker tries to learn a new finding such a valuable piece of salvage, amigo.
one. Don 't try to come up with the list of powers There's only one catch. Learning machines are
when the book is found . cutting-edge, prewar technology, and they
The price a syker would pay for each is given weren't entirely perfected before the war began.
at the end of the book 's description . When a character uses one, he must make an
A book can only be read once by a syker. opposed Spirit roll versus the strength of the
Learning a power found in the book takes 2d 6 machine (determined by drawing a card ). If the
hours and 5 Bounty Points as usual . syker loses, read the difference as damage.
CSA Psychic Warrior Operations Manual: This Yowch!
book was used by the CSA Proving Ground in
Texas. It 's very thorough , and it has a 50%
chance of having any desired power. ($5,000) Machine-Head
Psychic Warrior Handbook , US Army: The US A few decades back , researchers found ways
Army handbook deals less with powers than t 0 translate syker 's mental commands into
with Strain . It has a 25% chance of describing recognizable electronic signals. After a few
any particular power, but once read , it accidental electrocutions and subsequent
increases a syker 's Strain by +1 permanently. improvements, a device called the "machine-
($5,000) head "-manufactured exclusively by Hellstromme
The Book of Five Rings: Curiously, a syker —
Industries, of course went into production ,
This srna box features a cerebral needle that
who reads this ancient book learns to
/- better coordinate his mind and spirit .
^ ^
. syber s temple and makes contact
e
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Increase his blastin' by +1 immediately and %

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^ ’
A^ Uh the brain . It then funnels the syker 's
for free. ($3,500) out throu§h the datacord and into the
m I Think , Therefore You Die: This strangely machine- head unit. , usually worn on the belt . A
named book came out in the mid-1990s. Its standard datajack runs from the box to any
author was later discovered to be the leader machine that accepts dataslugs.
9
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 The syker can then control the machine as if Every point of Strain he cares to
he were its CPU, giving him almost instant commit , up to the maximum available to '

access to its memory, data , and-most him , is channeled through the gun
importantly-f unctions. A syker can , for instance, causing ldlO damage per Strain point. Put -
'

plug into the computer of a car to steer it like a

race-car driver at top speed . More importantly,
in 12 points of Strain, and welcome to
12dl 0 damage, bucko.
^
he can maneuver a military vehicle like a pro, all Of course, the blast still has to hit . For
while operating its sensors and firing its this, the syker uses shootin': cannon. Do
weapons. He can also hijack a computer and not use artillery with the PAW, as it is a
steal secrets, disable the alarms in a building, or direct -fire weapon ,

even fly a fighter even though he’s never taken a The PAW is a field gun . It must be towed by a
flying lesson in his life. vehicle, as it weighs just over 400 pounds.
In essence, the syker can control any function
of a device that has a central processing unit SpooSr juice
and a dataport . That means it doesn ' t do him
any good in a car with no electronics, or with a Spook juice makes it easier to conduct energy
keypad lock that uses passcards instead of from the Hunting Grounds. What a surprise,
dataslugs. Assume the syker can produce any right ? The Wasted West sourcebook has more
internal function automatically. If he needs to detail on getting drunk off spook juice, but here
make a roll (such as drivin', flyin', and so forth ), are the basics.
he uses his blastin' skill instead ( which is When someone drinks spook juice ( or any
usually much better for a syker ). other alcoholic drink mixed with some form of
The syker can also enable several functions ghost rock ), he makes a Fair (5) Vigor roll . Each
each action at only a small penalty. If he wants shot after the first adds +1 to the TN . If the roll
to fire an automated gun and drive , he can . If a is made, the character just keeps getting toasted
function requires a blastin' roll to operate, roll (and quickly ). After a number of shots equal to
separately for each. Also, for each function half the character's Vigor die type, his Strength
enabled on the same action , the syker subtracts and Vigor go up +1 step. Congratulations, your
-1 from all his rolls that turn. A syker who takes hero is now "buzzed"-hard!
control of an old military base's master If and when the roll is failed , he really gets
computer, for example, could fire three different toasted . The lush immediately takes 4d6 Wind
automated guns at -3 to each of his three and his Nimbleness, Deftness, and Cognition drop
blastin' rolls ( used in place of shootin ). a step. This Wind is recovered at the rate of 1 per
Taking control of most electronic devices hour instead of one per minute. A character can
requires a Fair (5) blastin' roll , then 1 Strain for double his recovery by drinking strong coffee or
every 10 minutes of use. If the devic& has an AI, other sobering agents.
this is an opposed roll against its Knowledge. Don ' t make additional Vigor checks after the
first one is failed . If the character keeps
drinking, each shot now automatically causes
ld 6 Wind but doesn't lower his Traits any further.
The Psionic Amplification Weapon is basically Anyone who drinks a decent amount of spook
a huge cannon that fires psionic energy at its juice gains a limited ability to peer into the
target . The energy is collected via wires inserted Hunting Grounds. Up to one hour after getting
into the syker 's skull where it makes contact buzzed , the character sees a dim , glowing aura
i with the brain. From there the energy travels around anything supernatural , including
into a huge coil forged from Banshee stones-the Harrowed , sykers, or characters under the
only mineral known to have this capability. influence of something supernatural. Once,
When enough energy is built up, the syker this fades, so do any other benefits. 9
presses the trigger and fires the burst at a target .
The PAW 's blast is entirely dependent on the SySrers and SpooSr Juice 4
syker 's mental reserves. The more juice he puts .When a syker is buzzed , it’s easier to
into it , the more damage it does. jebntact the Hunting Grounds. He adds + 2
In order to use the PAW, a syker merely jacks j igfijfe. his blastin' rolls for the next hour. It
in and points it at the target . Jacking in costs 1 doesn 't matter if he keeps drinking. He's
Wind . A syker cannot recover Wind or Strain already as open to the influences of the
while hooked up to the machine. Hunting Grounds as he can get.
"
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No Mao’s land: 93 • f

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 To fire the gyrojet , the syker only has to point
the gun at a chosen target for two actions
often show them (allowing the weapon 's system to get a lock ),
-
W carrying odd looking assault rifles ,

i Superficially, these devices of destruction

make a Fair (5) blastin' roll , and-if successful-
spend 1 Strain . The round then streaks to the
f don't really look all that different from target and automatically hits it in the head for
| | i i hary assault rifles. Inside the high -tech
p
|
|
^
i casing, however, that firearm is actually a
TSAR: Telepathically Sensitive Assault Rifle.
The top part of the rifle is completely
7dl 0 damage. (This includes the bonus dice for
the head shot.)
The only chance a character has to avoid the
shot is to play a dangerous game of chicken
ordinary. It fires standard 5.56mm ammo from a with the incoming round . ( This, of course,
30-round magazine. See the table below for its assumes that the target knows he's being fired
statistics. upon.) To do so, the character must make an
Below the weapon's standard barrel sits a Incredible (11) dodge roll (spending his highest
gyrojet launcher. This is the real meat of the card as usual with a vamoose).
TSAR. The gyrojet works on Harrowed, but not other
Manufactured exclusively by Hellstromme types of undead .
Industries , the TSAR uses the syker 's incredible A syker must be plugged into the TSAR via a
powers and the weapon 's electronics to lock in sharp prong attached to a retractable cord . The
on a target 's brainwaves, and then fire a gyrojet prong goes 4n through temple and actually
round at it . The gyrojet heads directly for the makes contact with the brain . This hurts like
target it was locked onto, zipping around Hell and causes 1 Wind . The syker cannot
corners or through even heavy cover to strike recover Wind or Strain while jacked in .
home. As you might imagine, this was a great Both Earth and Banshee sykers used TSARs,
weapon to use against skinnies, so almost every but they were far more common in Faraway than
syker in the Legion was issued one. they were on Earth.

Syfrer Tech
Item Price Effect
Amanitrol $100/ dose Allows syker to perform actions while concentrating.
Axor $100/ dose Adds +2 to syker's blastin' rolls.
Green bird of Heaven $50/ dose Doubles Strain recovery.
Red
High -quality $200 / dose Adds + 2d6 Strain for ld 4 hours.
Average-quality $100 / dose Adds + ld 6 Strain for ld6 hours.
Low-quality $50/ dose Adds +ld3 Strain for 1 hour.
Zebra $50/ dose Gives -4 on Brainburn Table rolls for 2d 6 hours.
Banshee stone $1,000/ Strain point Functions as a recharging Strain battery. Very rare.
Spook juice $10/gallon Adds + 2 to blastin' rolls once the user's buzzed .
Learning machines $250,000+ Teaches new powers to sykers.
Dataslug for machine $5,000 Each slug contains one power.
PAW $100,000 Syker cannon . See stats below.
Books See text Teach sykers new skills and powers.
Machine- head $4,000 Allows syker to interface with machines.
TSAR $3,000 Syker assault rifle. See stats below.

A Weapon
^ -;:lb
Ammo Shots Range Damage
+ / SSM
50 XdlO 4000
10/ 20 3d8 $l / round
50 yards/ level 7dl 0 $100/gyro
 Chapter Five:
5

Syirer Secrets

If you 've gotten this far, pard, you 'd better be a are unwilling to promise never to do it to any
Marshal. As usual , this is where you find out the given person. They feel nothing of the loyalty
truth about the earlier sections of this book . Sit they once might have felt to other sykers. They
back , read on, and learn about all the deviltry answer only to themselves.
you 'll soon be inflicting on your posse. To a man , the apostates (of whom at least a
dozen made it back to Earth alive) are powerful
individuals. Their powers are honed by years of
Banshee combat on Banshee and fueled by their unholy
You have to wait for Deadlands: Lost Colony to lust for destruction and chaos. Even other
find out more about Banshee, the strange events powerful sykers have difficulty coping with
going on there, and how the skinnies get such them. Here's what a typical apostate looks like:
awesome powers. We hope we've given the syker
players in your posse enough informatioa for Profile
now to get the feel of a brainburner who's Corporeal: D:3dl0, N:3d 8, S:3d 6, Q.- 4d8, V:2dl0
supposedly fought in this alien environment . If Climbin ' 2d 8, dodge 3d 8, fightin’: knife 2d8,
they ever forget , just remind them that they drivin': car 4d8, shootin': pistol 4dl0, shootin':
probably hate authority, hate the skinnies more, rifle 4dl0, sneak 3d 8
and hate the apostates even more. They also feel Mental: C:3dl0, K:3dl2, M:3d8, Sm.-3d 8, Sp:3d8
a brotherhood with their fellow sykers, both Academia : occult 3dl 2, area knowledge: Weird
because of the things that happened to them on West 2dl 2, blastin ' 6dl 2, language: English 2dl 2,
Banshee, and the fact that most never had any guts 3d 8, overawe 3d8, search 3dl 0, survival:
other family. desert 3d 8
Wind: 18
**
The Apostates Strain: 14 1,

The apostates are the bad seeds of the

4
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I The Unity Disaster Captain tydia Mazruchelii

n The Unity was attacked by some very The reports of Captain Mazzuchelli's death are
strange creatures. None of the civilians, and exaggerated . Well , okay, a little exaggerated . She
5b only one of the Unforgotten Fifteen, made it did , in fact , die. The biker gang mentioned in the
gp off the ship. What later happened to that one main text caught her by surprise, beat her to a
survivor, and the secret of the creatures pulp, dragged her back to their hideout , and
themselves, is something we' re holding onto abused her until she died. But she didn 't stay
for another day. dead . She was too eaten up with rage to do that .
But trust us, it’s worth it. We haven 't let you Two days later, she came back Harrowed ,
down so far have we? waking up by the side of the road where the
gang had tossed her body.
The Unforgotten Fifteen Since then, she's been stalking the bikers,
Not all of the sykers who stayed behind on learning about her newfound powers, and
the Unity did so for altruistic reasons. See, there planning gruesome revenge. Anyone who gets in
were many treasures on board that ship: her way or tries to protect the gang is likely to
personal possessions, cash , and perhaps even suffer the same fate.
priceless-and powerful-alien artifacts. Any one
of these things might have been reason enough Profile
for a greedy syker to risk her life, but now they Corporeal: D:3d8, N:3d6, S:2d 6, Q:3dl0, V:4 d8
were all there together and unprotected . Climbin’ 12T6, dodge 4d 6, shootin ': pistol, SMG , MG,
Several of the Fifteen , of course, were true rifle 4 d8, sneak 5d 6
heroes making the ultimate sacrifice to save Mental: C:2dl0, K :3dl2, M:3dl0, Sm:3d 8, Sp:4 dl0
ungracious civilians, but a few were just greedy Academia: occult 3dl 2, academia: military science
bastards looking to escape with some loot . 3dl 2, area knowledge 2dl 2, blastin ' 6dl 2,
Again, the full story will be revealed as the leadership 5dl 0, scrutinize 2dl0, search 3dl0,
tale of Deadlands: Hell on Earth rolls on. survival: desert 3d8
Wind: 16
Strain: 13
Edges: Arcane background: syker 3, fortitude 1,
steel - trap mind 5, tough as nails 1, "the voice”
( commanding ) 1
Hindrances: Night terrors -5, oath of Unity -1,
pacifist -3, vengeful -3
Specialty: Telekinesis
Powers: Aztec surprise, brain blast, chameleon,
detonate, fleshknit , hallucination , itsy - bitsy
spider, psynergy, slow burn , telekinesis
Harrowed Powers: Spook 1, marked for death 1
Gear: SA Officer 's Sidearm , 25 rounds of
ammunition , and a Kevlar vest . (She's still
looking for her TSAR rifle.)

The Wendigos
The Wendigos didn 't know as much about the
skinnies as Sergeant Mather and others thought .
But that didn 't stop OK Warfield from throwing
them at Castle Rock anyway. That 's why they
took such high casualties. In fact , there would
only be three Wendigos today if Warfield hadn' t
-
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"
**

«$iths with survivors of other decimated

squads.
Wendigos also know something about red.
Check out Red Zombies on page 102.

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The Jericho Academy guns were placed on the walls

with the school 's defense. Some threat ,j
Daniel Marin was a member of the Black can 't be brain blasted away, after all,
Lightning squad back on Banshee. A devoted At present , the academy has about two • •

family man , he was devastated when he returned

to Earth to discover that his wife, children , and
dozen students. The course of study is a ! v
minimum of a year, but it can often last TV,

other relatives had been slain by the ghost - rock longer. Marin hopes to extend and expand
fireball that reduced New York City to a big pile the curriculum as the school becomes more
of rubble. Grief -stricken and without purpose in established and attracts more students.
life, he drifted aimlessly across the Wasted West ,
not really sure if he wanted to live. Daniel Marin
Then, one day, as he was passing through a Corporeal : D:3d 8, N:2d 8, S:2d 8, Q:3d 8, V:4 d 8
small town, he found a group of "upstanding Climbin ld8, dodge 3d8, shootin': rifle 4d8, sneak
'
citizens" about to beat , rob, and kill a young bald 5d 8
man. Recognizing the young man as a syker, Mental: C:2d8, K:4dl0, M:3d6, Sm:3dl2, Sp:3d8
Marin rescued him and spirited him away from Academia: occult 3dl 0, academia: military science
his attackers. He soon found out from the boy 3dl0, area knowledge: Wasted West 2dl 0,
that while he had some psionic ability, it was blastin ' 6dl 0, language: English 2dl0,
raw and untrained . He didn 't know as much as persuasion 5d 6, scrutinize 2d 8, search 2d 8
he really should to survive as a syker. Wind: 18
Marin took the boy under his wing and began Strain: 11
training him. Before the wars, greenies had been Edges: Arcane background: syker 3, fortitude 1,
identified quickly — often through genetic tests steel-trap mind 3, tough as nails 1, "the voice"
before they ever manifested powers-and sent to (soothing ) 1
an academy. But the academies had gone up in Hindrances: Night terrors -5, oath of Unity -1,
ghost -rock mushroom clouds years ago. Marin pacifist -3
realized there were plenty of other "greenies" out Specialty: Psionics
there who weren 't as lucky as this kid . They 'd be Powers: Brain blast , chameleon , fleshknit ,
hounded , left to twist in the wind, or simply get hallucination, memory maker, manipulator,
themselves killed because of their own meat puppet , psynergy, telekinesis
ignorance. Gear: SA Officer 's Sidearm , 25 rounds of
Suddenly he had a new purpose in life: the ammunition, and a Kevlar vest .
training of young new sykers. He and the kid
wandered for a bit, looking for other new sykers Compound
and offering them a place in their group. Before The
too long Marin had five followers and was giving There are four large buildings in the
serious thought to trying to found an actual compound ( in addition to the crude guard towers
school. spaced irregularly around the wall ): the
When the group came over a hill in Nevada dormitory ( one of the Quonset huts ), the
one day and saw the ruins of a couple of old classroom building ( the other Quonset hut ), a
military barracks, Marin knew he'd found a place mess hall and kitchen, and a garage / workshop /
to establish his school . Marin and the students storage shed for the academy 's few vehicles and
constructed a crude defensive palisade around other equipment. In addition , there are a couple
the compound with old cement posts and smaller buildings, such as the outhouse and
chunks of ruined buildings. It wasn't pretty, but Marin 's private quarters.
it was enough to keep the mutants out . What Marin doesn 't know is that he's
Since then the Jericho
, Academy , as Marin sitting on top of a treasure trove. The
calls it , has grown . He put the word out to other barracks he found were just the last
Banshee vets, and they began sending new surviving structures of an old United
students his way. A couple of older sykers even states top-secret military base. Buried
came to help teach . |. jSjmderneath a few tons of rubble are labs
As the school 's compound has expanded (andfj

students), the wall has been expanded and

improved . Thanks to some judicious salvaging
^ here military experiments were
a couple of new buildings have been built by the conducted and advanced and new
weapons developed. If he ever finds this
out , he should have no trouble developing mm
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and defending his academy. On the other
£ x hand, if someone else-say, General Jericho
This small town is roughly five miles east of
f/ t ,
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Throcknrorton-finds out about it , that the school proper. There are about 400 souls
li * <
person might descend on the school with the there. The people like having such powerful
I intent to slaughter everyone there and recover
K i ;. the miltech.
sykers nearby, and they treat them and their
students well . In return , the sykers have adopted
the town, and all the raiders in the area know
Marins Staff that the place is under their guard .
Daniel currently has five veteran sykers on
1 V his staff . You met both Sergeant Kristina Dupry
and Sergeant Mather in Chapter One of this
The Garden
book . One of the students' primary duties is to take
care of the garden . There Marin and his crew
Dupry teaches bio- and telekinesis. Mather grow red , as well as the ingredients for amanitrol
specializes in brute foree- brain blasts and the
and green bird. He doesn ' t really advertise the
like-but he rarely teaches. His powers allow him fact (
to travel the deadly wastes and seek out it might draw too much unwanted trouble ),
but anyone who makes an Onerous (7)
greenies for the school . Though he doesn' t tell streetwise roll might find out that the academy
Daniel about it , he also goes out of his way to sells the stuff .
hunt down any apostates he hears about.
Major Dundee was a Canadian intelligence The Learning Machine
officer. He " majored " in powers like wind reader
and tattletale, which he used to great effect as Recently, Sergeant Mather came across a
an Earther in the Last War. He's a sneaky sort scavenger hauling a Gruntex 3000 learning
who always seems like he’s up to something, machine with three dataslugs containing one
keeps the door to his room locked , and is very power each . Mather traded for them , and now
private about his role in the war. All this bugs they’re locked up tight at the school . We'll leave
the curious Lieutenant Ivanova to no end. it to you to decide what the three powers are.
Lieutenant Ivanova is Russian, and she served If your posse's syker earns Daniel’s trust , he
with the Star Swans on Banshee. Her speciality lets her use it for only $500. He might even rent
was seduction and assassination, something she it out for free if the syker performs some
doesn 't talk much about . She concentrates on valuable task for the school , such as recovering
teaching powers like predator and skin walking a lost student , picking up a suspected greenie, or
these days. She s in her early 40s, but still as
'
recovering another dataslug or syker textbook .
beautiful as the Volga in summer.
Corporal McKenzie is a Canadian pyro who How Green Is My Brain
'
served with the Firewalkers. He's the smartass of some of you Marshals may be asking why
the group. He uses toilet humor and jokes about there were no sykers in the Weird West . Good
violence to cover up his grief over the things he question. The truth is there were-sorta .
did on Banshee. When he gets drunk , he Greenies were what 's known as tempests in
frequently tells whoever he's with the morbid the Weird West (see Hucksters & Hexes ). Their
details. The students never see this side of him. powers were shaped by the perceptions of the
They know him as a wisecracking, savvy time. The brain can only be made to channel
veteran , so he's more like a brother to them than energy from the Hunting Grounds in ways it can
any of the others. comprehend . Folks back in the Weird West had
The students are mostly orphans from all never heard of psychic powers, so tempests'
over. These kids have as many different powers resembled magical spells instead of
backgrounds and personalities as you 'd "traditional " psychic powers. Once these abilities
expect , though most of them are "troubled ," were researched and scientific theories were
to put it lightly. applied to them , they gradually mutated into
Many of the students were recruited after "true” psychic abilities: syker powers.
.$ they were thrown out of their communities g Syker powers are now shaped by common
,

’ when one of their powers went awry. (It 's ^ 'comprehension of and belief in these psychic
-
I ,., the easiest way to spot a budding syke#* *
* itsv so they don 't look anything like hexes-
They're all looking for family, and Marin and and never will, unless the way of thinking about
them changes.
i . For now, all your syker needs to know is
Powers that the stone stores Strain like a battefy
and even regenerates it.
Using a Banshee stone feels a little
Nightmare "dirty " because the sykers are draining life
When successfully used on a Harrowed , force from something else. They might
nightmare causes the hero to make a Dominion suspect this by the way it issues a very
test . The Harrowed 's roll is at -4 due to how this faint groan and a wisp of dust (actually life
power amplifies his usual nightmares. energy ). Don 't worry-the syker isn’t doing
anything evil-but you can let him worry
Peace of Mind about it from time to time by emphasizing the
If used on a Harrowed , the manitou fights way the stone reacts when it 's used .
back . Roll its Spirit to resist the syker 's blastin'. Ordinary use of a Banshee stone doesn ' t kill
If the syker is merely successful , nothing it, but a syker who drains it to 0 actually
happens. If he gets a raise, he cures whatever reduces its total maximum Strain. When this
ailment he was trying to — or he can restore 1 happens, the stone shudders and groans louder
point of Dominion to his undead friend . than usual ( though it 's still barely above a
Should the manitou win , it inflicts its Spirit on whisper ). This actually does kill some small
the syker as damage. Roll all the thing's Spirit portion of the stone’s life force, hence the
dice together and add them , just like a firearm permanent reduction in Strain .
( not like a normal Trait or Aptitude check ). If the If the stone is ever reduced to 0 permanent
manitou wants to take control, this is a good Strain , it lets out one last, audible scream and
time for it to do so. It has to spend a chip as goes inert forever. Nice paperweight.
usual, but it gets + 4 to its roll. There are ways to increase a Banshee stone's
reserves too. But we can ' t tell you about that just
'
Sleepy-Bye yet . None of the sykers who returned from
When successfully used on a Harrowed , Banshee know either.
sleepy-bye causes an instant Dominion test . This
is in addition to making the dirt - napper nod off . pq

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Green Bird of Heaven 5
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Users of green bird must make a Fair (5)

Vigor
roll immediately after they stop using it . Failure
means they develop a headache that ranges
from annoying to severe. Roll ld 4. That 's the
penalty the migraine inflicts to all the hero's
Trait and Aptitude rolls for the next ld 6 hours.

Banshee Stones
Unknown to sykers, Banshee stones aren 't
entirely mineral in nature. Sykolite is actually
alive. How ? That 's one of our Lost Colony secrets
(and a big key to the mystery of the skinnies!).

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Eventually, a syker who uses too much red
Red consumes his soul in its entirety. At that point
It 's a lot easier to become addicted to red he dies and returns from the grave as a red
£} than sykers think. Every time a syker uses it ,
K the Marshal secretly makes a Foolproof (3)
zombie. Red zombies look more or less like
normal walkin' dead, but their skin has a very
t Vigor roll for him. Failure equals psychological distinctive reddish tinge-and they 've got syker
l addition . Furthermore, any time the syker goes powers. Not the sort of things you want to run
Si | bust on a blastin' roll while under the effects into out in the wastelands.
j of red , the Marshal makes a Fair (5) Vigor roll . How long it takes for a red-using syker to
Again, failure leads to a red jones. become a red zombie is up to you , Marshal . It 's
In either case, this is equivalent to a 3- point not really important for extras ( unless the posse
hankerin’. Once a syker’s got this monkey on his finds out the truth and has to rush to save a
back , he's in trouble. The addiction can be friend ), but it may be extremely crucial for
bought off with Bounty Points or corrected with sykers in the posse. Either way, you shouldn't
the peace of mind power. As much fun as that 's arbitrarily turn posse sykers into red zombies
not , it 's not even the real problem . without giving the players a chance to find out
what the Hell (literally) is going on and how to
Red Zombies reverse this insidious drug 's effects.
Red is actually an insidious spiritual poison .
Every time a syker uses it , he kills a tiny piece The Wendigfls
of his soul! What red really does is tap into his The Wendigos knew all about red , but were
very soul and leech psychic energy from it , sworn to secrecy. Warfield didn ' t want the
destroying some small part of it in the process. Legion to give the stuff up until the skinnies
Those who are addicted to red eat away at were defeated. The Wendigos kept their secret,
their own souls even faster. As they die, their and hunted down anyone reportedly addicted
skin turns slowly red-a dead giveaway to other before anyone else could see the horrible end .
sykers who have experienced red themselves. Most still keep the secret, since red is hard to
come by these days anyway. A few, however, have
finally decided to speak up and warn their
fellow sykers of the drug's dangers.

Red Zombie
Corporeal: D:3d8, N:3dl0, S:3d8, Q:2dl0, V:3dl0
Climbin ' ldlO, dodge ldlO, fightin ': brawlin ' 4dl 0,
shootin ': rifle 4d8, sneak 3dl 0
Mental: C:3d 8, K:2dl 0, M:4dl 0, Sm :3d6, Sp:3d8
Academia: occult 2d8, blastin ' 4dl0, overawe 4dl0
Wind: 18
Strain: 10
Size: 6
Powers: Brain blast , brainwash , chameleon,
empathic manipulation, juice, psychokinesis,
skinwalker.
Terror: 9
Special Abilities:
Undead.
Syker Powers: Red zombies have whatever
powers the Marshal needs them to. Since
"combat " sykers need red most , their
powers tend toward destruction and
violence.
tear: Red zombies can use gear just like
living humans. However, they cannot use
V. rf .

TSAR rifles or similar syker tech , including

sykertropic drugs-except red , which eerily
enough still works just fine.
 Brainburn Manitous can increase the damage,
Syker powers are strange and mysterious Wind , or Strain loss-those things are
things. Not only do they involve the already reflected in the more severe
unfathomable power of the human brain , they results on the Brainburn Table-but their
mingle with that power the arcane energies of favorite trick is to taint a power with an
the Hunting Grounds! additional , unintended effect . These are
And here's a secret only a few brainburners called "flaws."
suspect: Their powers are not science-fiction Flaws for each and every power included in
psionics. They ' re actually manifestations of the this book are detailed on the following pages. If
same powers used by hucksters, mad scientists, the Brainburn Table refers you to a power 's
witches, monsters, and any other being that particular flaw, check this section . Of course,
channels arcane energy from the Hunting you can always make up a new flaw if ours
Grounds. doesn 't make sense in a particular situation , or
All those different spellcasters use their if you just have a particularly devilish idea for
incredible abilities in ways that are familiar or one of your own. Just remember to think like a
make sense to them . Sykers came from a mix of manitou . Be as devious as you want .
huckster abilities and Far Eastern meditation .
Thus they manifested " psychic powers." They The Hasty Part
think the power is channeled through their Flaws assume the power goes off and has
brains, so it is. They also think in terms of some unintended effect . That 's okay if the flaw
biokinesis, psionics, pyrokinesis, sykokinesis, occurred because the syker used overkill or the
and telekinesis, so that's how their powers are greenie special ability and succeeded , but what
formed . And if a desired ability doesn ' t fit into
if he failed his blastin' roll too, or got brainburn
the frame years of training and thousands of because he went bust on a regular Wastin ' roll?
case-studies have constructed , they just can ' t do That 's why we included the entry "Juice Pig"
them-at least until there's some unique, on the Brainburn Table. Tell your player that 's
phenomenal , well - known breakthrough that the result he got and let him make a new
changes the way they " think" ( pun intended ). Wastin ' roll . He can even spend chips on the roll
Sykers draw their power by opening a channel if he wants.
to the Hunting Grounds and focusing it through If the syker character 's new roll fails , whether
their minds. Sometimes they screw up and draw because he goes bust or the new target
too much or too little energy, can 't release it successfully resists, the power simply fails. Tell
properly, or can 't open the channel in the firstthe player what almost happened and watch him
place. This is what happens when a syker goes sweat .
bust . The Brainburn Table gives you the game If the roll succeeds, it works against the
effects of these deadly slipups. hapless hero by applying his new Wastin ' total to
Another way to suffer brainburn is for a syker the flaw effect . Very often , the flaw turns the
to "redline" his abilities. The harder he pushes, power against the syker or his friends. If it is a
and the more power he tries to draw, the greater resisted power, have the new target make his roll
the chance to suffer brainburn. That 's what after the brainburner-that way you might trick
happens when characters fail their Vigor or the syker character into burning some chips on
Spirit rolls when using fortitude, overkill or a the roll .
greenie's ability to pump more juice into a power That 's why it 's important to get the player
for effect . to make the second roll . The power has to
succeed , or it 's not going to be able to
The Manitous’ Revenge have any effect on the new target.
The manitous are jealous their role in granting It 's especially funny to watch a syker
magical powers to greedy humans has all but work real hard at a massive brain bomb
vanished in the last 200 years. Many of these only to have his buddy 's head explode
creatures lurk in the Hunting Grounds, waiting to
see the lightning flash of a syker power in use.
And if a manitou happens to see a syker screw
^
stead Gf the villain he thought he was
dueling with .
Well , funny for you anyway-if your
up, it jumps in and make things much, much sense of humor runs to the sick side.
worse.

Marshal: 103 .
•
... .
 targeted bad guy. The ally can make a Fair (5)
Individual Power Flaws Smarts roll to figure out that his bald friend
straining like he's passing a stone and his own
sudden headache are related (or the player might
If the syker goes bust on his blastin' roll simply realize it on his own ). If he communicates
the fireball explodes at ground zero-right that , the syker must make one more roll before
where he is, in other words. He and anyone stopping. Hopefully, that 's enough to keep him
f ? near him take the damage. Substitute this from detonating his friend's head .
ll result for the standard Brainburn Table roll.
Brain Slammer
Aztec Surprise The attack races around the area , affecting
Roll a die. On an odd result , the syker every single human brain in range, including the
misdirects his attack and uses the power on a syker and his companions, for 2d 6 damage each!
friend (if one's in range). On an even result (or if
there are no other targets), he uses the power on Chain Brain
himself . The more people there are in the chain, the
greater the feedback the syker suffers when he
Backwash screws up. If the syker ever goes bust on any
The syker takes damage as usual for losing blastin' roll involved in chain brain , the Marshal
the contest , and so does the host . should roll once on the Brainburn Table for each
victim in the chain at that point .
Blindside
The syker goes blind instead . Chameleon
The syker only thinks he's hiding. This can be
Body Control a painful mistake to make, and the people he’s
The syker pushes his body too far. Treat hiding from are sure to alert him to his error.
whatever bonus he was shooting for as a
penalty. For breath control , the syker suffers a Detonate
shortness of breath and loses ld 6 Wind . If the syker is carrying anything highly
explosive ( more than bullets), one of the items
Bogus explodes.
For the next ld 6 hours, every important thing If not, roll a die. On an odd result , one of his
the syker says sounds like a preposterous lie. bullets explodes just as described under
detonate. On an even roll , the syker detonates
Boneripping the biggest bullet ( or missile, or rocket, etc.) in
Roll a die. On an odd result , the syker range and creates a sykokinetic funnel that
misdirects his attack and uses the power on a directs the bullet right to him! It hits the poor
friend ( if one's in range). On an even result ( or if brainburner automatically.
there are no other targets ), he uses the power on
himself . Fireproof
The syker thinks he's immune to fire damage,
Brain Blast but in fact he's just made himself extra
The syker flinches just before releasing the flammable. When he touches or is hit with
blast, targeting a random friend instead . If there flame, he takes double damage from it . This
are no friends, it hits something effect lasts as long as the power would if it
combustible. ( Yee- haa!) Failing that , it hits worked normally-five minutes per blastin' level-
any other random target in range. and cannot be shut off until then . Hope you like
your sykers extra crispy!
Brain Bomb
Secretly choose a random ally ( or bad Fleshirnit
i,# guy if there are no friends in range). The % 1
.
A flawed fleshknit roll worsens the injury by 1
Level and prevents it from being healed
syker misdirects his attack and uses
if power on that character. The syker doesn't with fleshknit at all. Better break out some
% ;
know this, however, so make the ally's Vigor
rolls for him while pretending it 's for the
bandages, partner. The poor scav's got to heal
the old -fashioned way.
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The hallucination actually becomes real! The

Force Field first thing the syker describes manifests in the
Ooh. This one's nasty. The field actually adds flesh, then the power instantly ceases, meaning
energy to incoming attacks. Whenever the hero the syker has no control over the hallucination
is hit , the damage is increased by the amount of after the initial creation. The illusion itself is
the field 's " protection ." real forever! If the syker made an illusion of a
bloodwolf , it 's real. If he made himself look like
Gift a girl, he'd better scavenge some bras.
Gift is fraught with peril for the recipient of
the syker power. The theories about latent syker Heartstopper
potential are not entirely correct. While it 's true Roll a die. On an odd result , the syker
that something of the sort exists, only in those misdirects his attack and uses the power on a
who can actually become full - blown sykers is friend ( if one's in range). On an even result ( or if
the genetic potential strong enough for the brain there are no other targets ), he uses the power on
to be able to handle the strain of using syker himself .
powers with relative safety. In short-if the
character being given the gift doesn ' t have the Here, Doggie!
arcane background Edge (of any kind ), he suffers The animal(s ) turn feral and attack .
the effects listed below. They don ' t stop until they’ re dead ( or their
The recipient can ' t know this, but when he new chew toy stops fighting back ).
uses the power, he automatically suffers
brainburn. Itsy- Bitsy Spider
The power works for only ld 4 minutes,
Hallucination fhen cuts out automatically. (The syker
If you ever needed a reminder that manitous cannot maintain it .) Hope he wasn 't too
sometimes jump into the syker's energy stream, high.
this is it .

Marshal: 105
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Medic
The syker takes that much Strain from Of course it actually causes an additional
W the recipient and promptly loses it to the wound per success on the new roll .
m Tfcp void . It's gone, but the recipient can recover it
i
normally. Mental Armor
The armor acts as a psychic intensifier
lunacy instead . Attacks the power normally would block
The syker suffers the lunacy Roll randomly have their damage increased by the amount of
( they' re numbered
on the Brainburn Table ) or armor the power should have provided . The
choose the character’s poison . syker also subtracts his usual bonus from his
resistance rolls.
Manipulator
The target swings wildly in the opposite Mindrider
direction . If the syker was trying to calm The target gets to see and hear through the
someone, for instance, it sends her into a blind syker's eyes.
rage.
Mindwipe
Meat Puppet The syker accidentally wipes some portion of
The syker actually becomes the target's meat someone else's mind . Roll a die. On an odd
puppet for 2d 6 minutes. The target knows this result , one of the syker 's friends is affected ( if
fact instantly. ( Perhaps a little manitou one's in range ). On an even result (or if there are
whispered it in his ear.) no other targets), the syker is affected.
The target loses -1 level in whatever Aptitude
Memory MaSrer he used last (or a random one if the Marshal
The syker paints the memory in his own isn ' t sure what that would be ). For the syker, this
mind . Worse, he also forgets he just did it. is his blastin'.
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The target reads every thought in the syker's As
head for the duration of the power. thinks he 's invisible.

Mind Scan Psychic tinfr

The syker beams out a telepathic message The power works normally for ldlO
telling his targets exactly where he is. minutes. Then the manitou gets involved .
For best effect , separate any players whose
Mind Transference characters are using this power. Then let
This power is more dangerous than its them tell you , the Marshal , what they're saying
description leads sykers to believe. Roll a die. On to the others. The manitou can then twist those
an odd roll, the syker 's brain becomes words however it wants. It can say whatever it
s
discorporeal . This means the syker's mind has wants, when it wants, as well as twisting real
i
been temporarily shunted out of his head and mental messages.
\
i into the Hunting Grounds. It takes him 4 d 4 days
( reroll Aces) to find his way back. Psynergy
On an even roll, the swap is permanent . Every syker in the chain suffers a tremendous
buildup of raw, supernatural energy The
i
Negator outermost sykers take 2d6 damage to the head .
i
The syker amplifies the enemy power instead . The next two sykers inward ( toward the
controller ) take 2d 6+ l damage, the next two take
5

Roll a Fair (5) blastin' roll for the syker, and if he

)

gets any raises, they are applied to the enemy 's 2d 6+ 2, and so on .
effect. Purge
Nightmare The syker actually hastens the conditions.
The victim suffers his nightmare as usual-the Halve the effect time of the pathogen .
manitous don't want to pass that up-but they're
also waiting for the syker the next time he beds Pyro
down. He's affected by the power the next time The fire goes wildly out of control . Roll
he goes to sleep. deviation as if for a grenade 2d 6 times. That
many fires erupt. They don ' t move after that
One - Man Army unless they spread normally. The syker cannot
The syker 's brain can't properly process the control them without a second use of pyro, in
dupes. They look like bad graphics on a slow which case he extinguish one per action .
computer. He looks normal . Guess who gets shot
at ? Shh!
The target becomes twice as loud .
“The Paralyzer”
Roll a die. On an odd result , the syker Silence
misdirects his attack and uses the power on a One minute after he enables the power, the
friend ( if one's in range ). On an even result (or if syker becomes twice as loud .
there are no other targets), he uses the power on
himself . Sirinwaifrer
The syker only thinks he looks like
Peace of Mind someone else. Even if he looks in a mirror,
Roll a die. On an odd result, the patient 's he sees himself as his target. To others, r/
insanity is made far worse than it already is. The however, he looks completely normal . f

Marshal must figure out exactly what this

means, but we're talking rubber rooms and Sleepy - Bye
straitjackets, friend. Roll a die. On an odd result, the syker
On an even result , the syker picks up the jgffiisdirects his attack and uses the power
victim 's disorder ( whatever he was trying to safc-a friend (if one's in range). On an. even
)
. ,

result ( or if there are no other targets , he

heal ). If the victim was Harrowed, the brainer
becomes psychotic ( the personality of the uses the power on himself . •iw m
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 Slow Burn Telekinesis
The blast builds up as usual, but just as the Whatever the syker was lifting, he draws
syker is about to release it, it goes astray. It hits directly to him at great speed-so fast in fact,
something or someone else with its full that it hits him in the head. The damage of the
intensity. Randomly determine a target for the attack is the power 's strength ( the syker 's Spirit
attack. Friends are first priority. If there are no plus any raises). Most objects act as clubs, but if
friends in range, the syker fries a bystander. the syker was whipping a lawn mower around
like pinwheel, he's in for a whole new world of
Sturm und Drang hurt.
The syker gives all his remaining "real" Strain
to the opponent . The recipient keeps the Strain Third Eye
until he uses it. The syker goes blind for the duration of the
power. While blind, he can only use powers with
Tattletale a range of "self " or "touch."
The opponent isn't going to say a thing. In
fact, he can't . Consider him under the shh ! Trance
power for the duration of the tattletale The Marshal has two options if a syker goes
ability. Of course, the syker may not know
bust on his blastin' roll for this power. The easy
why his subject won' t talk, meaning he's
way out is just to say he doesn't enter a trance
beating up the poor schmuck for nothing.
for some reason. He's not able to focus his mind
properly or what have you.
Telekinetic Storm & The far more wicked ( and thus appealing)
The storm erupts around the syker, ar|d ifcr Jqption is for the syker not to wake up when he
*
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duration! It moves at Pace 6, meaning he even years beyond when he expected to come
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 ld 20 Effect the Traits and Coordinations
1- 4 Brain Strain: The syker can ' t seem Table from the Deadlands: Hell
to make contact with the Hunting on Earth rulebook to determine
Grounds. The effort tires him the damage to the syker 's head
tremendously however. He suffers area . ( Do not add " bonus dice" for
3d 6 Wind . the head , by the way.)
5-6 Juice Pig: Most unexpected . The 17-19 Insanity: The syker opens the
syker makes the power work , but channels to the Hunting Grounds
for whatever reason , he discovers and , by accident, stares into the
he needs more juice. He gets to very depths of Hell . Part of the
try to use the power again (and in syker 's very soul is forever
fact , he must ). If it is a resisted changed by the weird effects, and
roll , the target rolls again as well . he goes just a little insane. The
If the syker fails at this second Marshal can make something up
Wastin ' roll , nothing happens or simply roll on the subtable
( even on a bust ). below. The descriptions of these
If he succeeds, the power mental maladies can be found on
works, but it requires 50% more page 64.
Strain ( round up ). If the syker Id 6 Insanity
doesn ' t have the Strain to spend , 1 Delusion
the power works anyway, but he 2 Depression
takes ld 4 damage to the head for 3 Paranoia
every point of Strain over what 4 Phobia
was available. The brainburner 5 Psychosis
can use any special abilities (such 6 Neurosis
as fortitude ) to provide the juice if 20+ Melonhead: This is the mother of
he needs to ( though that may all brainburn . Supernatural
send him to the Brainburn Table energy from the Hunting Grounds
once again ). flows into the syker 's head , but
7-8 Reverse Polarity: The syker loses the brainburner screws up the
concentration and somehow release. Bad .
reverses the flow of energy to the The syker makes an opposed
Hunting Grounds. He loses 2d 6 roll against a "skill" determined
Wind and ld6 Strain . If his Strain by a draw of the cards (as in
total is reduced below 0 by this Brainburn ) . Keep the total secret ,
roll , the syker takes ld 4 damage Marshal , and let the syker spend
to his head for every point of any chips he wants to before you
Strain he comes up short . reveal the total . If the hero wins,
9-12 Flaw: The power works, but not he releases the power as if it had
quite as the syker intended . Every 5 raises over the opponent or TN
syker power has a specific flaw ( whichever is higher ).
described on pages 103-107. The If he loses, the power races
Marshal can use this flaw or around inside his noggin for 1
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situation . a grenade in a melon. The
13-14 Brainburn: The syker 's mind feels syker is dead forever, and the
like it's on fire as an overload of shrapnel from his obliterated
energy from the Hunting Grounds cranium causes 5d 4 damageJo
is trapped in his head and cannot
channel out . Draw one card . Use
everyone within a 5-yard Burst
Radius.
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