A Certain Role-playing Game

This article is about a homebrew that has been abandoned by its creators. Prepare for broken rulesets, links, and promises.

pdf cover

Started out as just an idea, then /tg/ picked it up. It's a game set in the To Aru universe complete with psychic powers and magic. (the word complete is used very loosely) It's not a dice-pool system, it's a d10 roll-under system. Skip down to the #Links section for sauce material for the setting.

Changelog

• IRC channel: #acertainroleplayinggame @ xen.thisisnotatrueending.com (sup/tg/)
• Current .pdf, WIP 16: http://www.mediafire.com/?17vwunicdlfkjjy
• New cover - still has "Scientific", sorry. It makes sense. When this is done we'll release "A Certain Magical Game Addendum" anyway with magic rules...
• Clarified esper powers out of combat, added stages of power that are used for contested rolls using esper powers.
• Added example status effects (mechanical modifications to attacks) and how to handle them with dice.
• Each power now has a corresponding stat or two (used for contested esper rolls).
• Some of the powers have had example modifications added.
• Replaced transmutation with wood control since the former was impossible to properly stat.
• Added more fluff, including schools. Added a random school generation chart in character gen if you don't want to play a canon school or one of our non-canon schools.
• Cosmetic changes - powers chart and traits chart now use the tables from the wiki.
• Copypasted mental combat stuff from posts on /tg/ because we still haven't figured out a more precise and usable way to handle them. More help here is appreciated!
• Some campaign seeds were added in GM Aids to give examples of types of adventures PCs can have.

To Do List

The system is almost ready for playtesting. It's probably playable to an extent now, but work still needs to be done.

There is one major barrier to having a playable system and a few other issues that will help flesh out the pdf a lot.

Powers that need their own unique system for combat use: This the major issue. There are powers that don't fit the original system for powers in combat. All the mental abilities - they should do some form of "mental damage" or otherwise impair the foe. There is a preliminary (horrible) system for that in the pdf. Very few of these should be able to inflict physical damage. Anomaly abilities such as psychometry and precognition probably don't have much of a combat application. Either note that or come up with something they could do (precognition could add to dodge rolls?). Abilities such as shapeshifting, physical enhancement, etc need mechanics that add stats or abilities to the esper without doing damage to an enemy directly.

For each power, they need one example each of a small, medium and large effect for both mechanical adjustments to an attack and for deviations from the power. This one is probably a fuck-huge project but would do a lot to make this system more accessible and more fun to just pick up since a lot of cool ideas will be available to the players from the start. This process has been started below.

Schools and Organizations. This is tied in with fluff. Each major school needs to have a description made. Organizations like Skill-Out and Judgement that the PCs can be part of also need descriptions as well as anything that affects gameplay (some organizations make it easier to get weapons, etc). We could also use maps.

Sample characters and campaign ideas.

Maybe start work on A Certain Magical Game Addendum. Preliminary ideas are near the bottom of the page.

Base Stats

There are four base stats:

Physical - Covers everything physical strength and constitution.

Mental - Not only sheer intelligence, it's also the speed of thought and everything that's based in your head.

Social - How much of a people person you are.

Coordination - Agility, speed, and dexterity.

Generate stats by rolling 5 sets of 1d10+5 and assigning the best four to one stat each.

The player is then given 30 points to allocate to Level and skills.

One ESPer level costs 5 points

A skill costs as many points as its bonus. (Running 4 costs 4 points)(There's no skill list, skills are completely freeform)

OR you can roll on the Level table, coming up!

HP: Number of hit points is your Physical stat multiplied by 5. At 0 hit points or below, roll against your physical each turn. On a failure you collapse and are unconscious. At -100% of your maximum hit points, make the same check but a failure means death.

Base Mechanics

Skill Rolls

A skill gives a bonus to your base stat (Running 4 gives a +4 bonus to Physical, Knowledge (Trees) 8 gives +8 to Mental if Trees come into play on a theoretical level.), which you then roll 2d10 and try to roll under the resulting number. If for example a character has Physical 13, then you'll need to roll a number equal/below 13 to succeed. 19 and 20 are critical failures, 2 and 3 are Spectacular Successes.

Powers

Powers are determined by rolling on the tables found below. Every combat round, an ESPer rolls a number of dice equal to their level to determine the amount of power points they can spend that turn. Power points are pretty abstract, but the more the more powerful the effect is. The ESPer can also choose to save half of those power points for the next round, thus "charging" their power.

Powers in Combat

Each turn in combat, an esper can choose to spend the points they rolled for the turn or save up to half of the unused points. If an esper is ever holding more than the maximum number of points they could roll in a single turn (so 10 for level 1s, 20 for level 2s, 30 for level 3s, etc), then they lose all points over the maximum and take that much damage. The number of points you have is the base damage you can do with an attack. This assumes a short range attack against one target. These points of damage can either be used for the attack or be spent to modify the attack to have a longer range, to cover a larger area of effect or to buy additional effects on the attack such as an electrical attack that stuns foes.

Mental Combat

Mental against Mental roll. Some inflict statuses. Three ways of attacking.

Attack

This one forces the opponent to do specific actions, such as halt an attack or run or attack someone else. It is really inefficient but has the great bonus of being hard to resist. Also, really complicated things cannot be brutally commanded, so you can't force someone to pick a lock or use esper powers with this, unless they are passive. "These aren't the droids you're looking for."

Control

This would represent 'charm' effects, that make the user seem like a really great person who should be obeyed. These are probably the most powerful, but take the longest: they only work over a long period of time and take some time to establish. Once established, it's capable of everything Attack can do, only better. Similar to, say, the hypnotic ability many fictional vampires have.

Suggestion

This one is the middle ground between Attack and Control, basically. It's easy to resist, if you know it's coming or the suggestion is really moronically over the top. But subtle suggestions, baby steps, are much harder to resist and more powerful, not to mention harder to notice or detect.

Attack Effects

Rather than have a list of power effects, there will be guidelines for how much effects cost. GMs have the last word on how much a particular effect will cost. Small effects will cost 1 point. Medium effects will cost 3. Large effects cost 5. Each effect beyond the first costs an additional point. (ex: 3 small effects will cost 1+2+2 points = 5 points. 2 large effects would cost 5+6=11 points)

There are two cases for when effects need to be applied to attacks:

The first case is when the attack gives a mechanical benefit beyond simply doing damage.

Examples

• Small: plants coming up from the ground and making grabs at your feet to try to trip you
• Medium: A stunning effect to a shock, temporarily dropping you
• Large: Plants wrap around someone and squeeze tightly, immobilizing them

The second case is when the attack does something that deviates from what the power originally does. Small effects push the original power a little. Medium would be effects and addendums of the first power. Large would be huge changes and weird stuff.

Examples

• Small: manipulating gravity to directly hit someone with force
• Medium: Using electromagnetism to create a blade out of iron particles from the ground
• Large: Using gravity to bend light

Obviously, powers like teleportation that don't have direct combat application wouldn't be able to do damage in these steps without use of added effects. They might also need different distance/range charts for balance.

Preliminary Range/AOE info

Each point of damage that is instead put into AOE or range increases the effect of the attack by 10 square yards of area or 10 yards of distance, with a maximum of 100 yards (10 points) for range and no maximum limit for area of effect of the attack.

Accuracy and Dodging

Upon declaring an attack using esper powers, the attacker makes an accuracy roll. For attacks doing physical damage, roll 2d10 against your coordination For this roll, add your ESPer level and the number of points spent on increasing the AOE of the attack to your coordination. Subtract 1 from your coordination for each point above 3 spent on increasing the range of the attack. The defender rolls coordination. Whoever succeeds with a higher margin of success wins (hits with or dodges the attack). For mental attacks, use the mental stat in place of coordination for both attacker and defender.

Defensive Abilities

If you have stored up esper powers when someone successfully attacks you, you can spend those points to negate some of the damage at the rate of 4 stored points per 1 point of damage negated. Describe how you do this with your power. Ex: bringing up a sheet of ice to block a launched rock, cutting through some of the vines of an attacking plant using a blade of vibrating iron particles, etc.

Critical Failures

When rolling dice each turn to determine power points, an esper can lose control of their power and suffer backlash from it. A level one cannot have a critical failure. A level 2 that rolls 2 or lower on both dice has a critical failure. A level 3 that rolls 2 or lower on 2 of their 3 dice has a critical failure. A level 4 that rolls 3 or lower on 3 of their 4 dice has a critical failure. A level 5 that rolls 3 or lower on 3 of their 5 dice has a critical failure. On a critical failure, the esper gains no points this round and instead loses all stored points and takes damage equal to the points they would have gained plus the stored points they lost.

Weapons

Guns, Germs and Steel

Sometimes esper powers aren’t the best tool for the job when it comes to combat. An esper could be gifted with an ability such as psychometry that leaves very little room for combat applications. The Level 0 in the party also needs a way to defend themselves. That’s where weapons come into play. They are tools to help you convince other people to do what you want, especially if what you want is for them to be unconscious or bleeding.

As the party will likely be playing students given the setting, most of these weapons will be of the improvised variety or weapons that are easy for teenagers to acquire. Firearms and more lethal weapons will still be available but will probably require association with the proper organizations (legal or criminal) to be obtained.

Weapon Descriptions

Each weapon has three traits: stat, accuracy and damage.

• Stat is the base character stat that governs its use. Most bashing weapons such as batons, bats and clubs use the Physical stat, as do large swords, axes, etc. Some melee weapons, such as rapiers and daggers, rely more on finesse than brute strength and thus are based on the Coordination stat. Most ranged weapons like bows and firearms need a steady hand to be used effectively and are also based on Coordination.
• Accuracy is added or subtracted from the target number when making a skill check to use the weapon.
• Damage is one or more dice. On a successful hit with the weapon, roll the damage dice, add a combat modifier, and deal that much damage to the target.

Weapon Types

(These are more guidelines than they are hard and fast rules.)

• Simple Clubs: These weapons could include a broken off chair leg, a police baton, a particularly thick tree branch, or a cane. No matter what the player has chosen to name their skill, they can wield similar weapons that fit this list.

Stat: Physical

Accuracy: +1

Damage Dice: 1d10

• Big Stick: Baseball bats, long wooden staffs, etc - these larger blunt weapons can really hurt if they connect, even breaking bones or causing serious internal injuries.

Stat: Physical

Accuracy: +0

Damage Dice: 1d10 + 4

• Small Blades: Pocket-knives, daggers, anything that makes your hand into something sharp or pointy and dangerous.

Stat: Coordination

Accuracy: +2

Damage Dice: 2d10 -4

• Big Blades: Axes, swords, anything that makes your arm into something longer than a normal arm, sharp or pointy, and deadly.

Stat: Physical

Accuracy: -1

Damage Dice 2d10.

• Small Guns: Revolvers, pistols, handguns, SMG's, anything you could fire with one hand.

Stat: Coordination

Accuracy: +1

Damage Dice 2d10 -1

• Explosives: Grenades, dynamite, molotov cocktail, weapons that do AOE damage.

Stat: Coordination

Accuracy: -1

Damage Dice 1d10

• Big Guns: Chain gun, Minigun, RPG's, anything that would serious damage.

Stat: Coordination

Accuracy: -1

Damage Dice 2d10 +4

Could use more stuff here.

Powers

The current tables:

POWERS	Elemental (1-2)	Forces (3-4)	Mental (5-6)	Biological (7-8)	Anomaly (9-0)
1	Air	Gravity	Memory Manip	Plant Control	Barrier Manip
2	Fire	Friction	Telepathy	Phys. Enhancement	Teleport
3	Water	Pressure	Confusion	Sensory Enhance	Precognition
4	Earth	Light	Hallucination	Regeneration	Psychometry
5	Metal	Telekinesis	Sensory Manip	Shapeshifting	Portals
6	Electricity	Mass control	Emotion Manip	Animal Control	Technokinetics
7	Synthetics	Temperature	Dream Manip	Animation	Duplication
8	Magma/Lava	Torque	Power Null	Photoreflex Memory	Probability
9	Ele/Mag waves	Time Manip.	Power Absorb	Disease	Projection
0	Wood	Momentum	Mental Enhance	Chameleon	Phase Walk

Esper abilities are categorized as either Active or Passive abilities. Active refers to an esper knowingly having to use his power to create an effect on reality, whilst passive has the esper subconsciously effect reality with their abilities. However, both can be present at the same time in an esper, such as Accelerator's subconscious reflection ability.

Power Descriptions

Please note that these are guidelines, rather than restrictive definitions of the powers.

Elemental Powers

Air Control [Mental/Coordination]

You control the flow of air, you can create mighty winds or snuff out the greatest flame with the power of your mind.

Small mechanical effect: Create space by blowing your opponent yards away.

Medium mechanical effect: Disarm a threat by whipping an opponent's weapon away with a concentrated gale.

Large mechanical effect: Create a cyclone to whip helpless victims into the air.

Small deviation effect: Push yourself with a current of air to move at great speed.

Medium deviation effect: Use your command over air to take to the skies within a cushion of air.

Large deviation effect: Seize all the air from within an area, making breathing impossible, but remember to maintain the effect or air will flow back.

Fire Control [Mental]

Mighty flames obey your every command, by rising to your full potential as an ESPer you can create infernos with a snap of your fingers.

Small mechanical effect: The flames you summon burn your foes where they make contact.

Medium mechanical effect: Your clever control over the power of fire allows for the shaping of your conflagration to scorch a large area without harming your allies.

Large mechanical effect: The all consuming blaze you summon's searing heat reaches the height necessary to melt matter down. Your opponent's cover means little.

Small deviation effect: Smoke is a result of fire, and your power over fire extends to control that result by manipulating smoke.

Medium deviation effect: The fire you create need not travel between you and your target. You may attempt to force combustion of your target.

Large deviation effect: You're like a god of fire; demonstrate your mastery by walking through the hottest flames unharmed.

Water Control [Mental/Coordination]

Water forms itself according to the ground it flows on, the exception is you. You have the power to control and form water, with the right training tsunamis are within your reach.

Small mechanical effect: Shoot a high pressure stream of water that can push your foes into each other or knock them down.

Medium mechanical effect: Create a sheet of ice under your foes that makes it difficult for them to move and remain standing.

Large mechanical effect: Encase your foes in a prison of ice or trap them in a sphere of water.

Small deviation effect: Disperse water vapor as mist.

Medium deviation effect: Turn the water you're manipulating into ice and shape it at will.

Large deviation effect: Suck the water from an area, dehydrate the target of your attack.

Earth Control [Mental/Physical]

The earth itself obeys you, it cracks open at your word and forms itself with a wave of your hand.

Small mechanical effect: Trip your foe by shifting the earth beneath them.

Medium mechanical effect: Call the ground to rise before you, creating instant cover.

Large mechanical effect: Rip open the earth and create an abyssal fissure beneath your foe

Small deviation effect: Rocks, gravel, and pebbles fly from the ground towards your target.

Medium deviation effect: Form a suit of armor or sword from the stone beneath you.

Large deviation effect: Stomp the ground and generate earth quaking shock-waves.

Metal Control [Mental/Physical]

Metals bend to your will, cars quiver like jelly on a washing machine and U-beams bow before you. You ARE the Iron Man.

Small mechanical effect: Bend a gun in on itself.

Medium mechanical effect: Crumple the engine block of a car.

Large mechanical effect: Warp the structures of buildings.

Small deviation effect: Fix pieces of metal.

Medium deviation effect: Fire pieces of metal like a gun.

Large deviation effect: Manipulate the iron in one's blood to cause iron poisoning.

Electricity Control [Mental]

The current within your body is at your command, you can shoot arcs of lightning from your fingertips and start appliances by looking strictly at them.

Small deviation effect: Magnetize an object.

Medium deviation effect: Create a vibrating blade out of iron particles from the ground or fire a railgun attack

Large deviation effect: Manipulate or detonate electronic devices using your powers

Small mechanical effect: Awaken someone with a light zap.

Medium mechanical effect: Stun a foe with an electric shock.

Large mechanical effect: Paralyze your target with currents coursing through their body.

Synthetic Material Control [Mental]

Man made materials like plastic, glass and ceramics are like putty, ready to be formed by your hands.

Small mechanical effect: Sharpen paper to knife-like levels.

Medium mechanical effect: At your word, a broken window springs back into place

Large mechanical effect: The very clothes your enemy wears turn against them and constrict.

Small deviation effect: Change the design on a tee shirt.

Medium deviation effect: Fling shards of glass at high speed.

Large deviation effect: Break items down to raw materials.

Magma Control [Mental/Physical]

Earth melts under your stare, asphalt bubbles as you walk by and the guys in the skyscraper better hope the foundation isn't concrete.

Small mechanical effect: Convert the ground into extremely hot lava.

Medium mechanical effect: Cause your lava to spray towards a target, possibly burning.

Large mechanical effect: Magma from deep within the earth gushes upwards towards your target.

Small deviation effect: Solidify lava.

Medium deviation effect: Create a protective ring of lava around yourself.

Large deviation effect: Safely surf lava.

Electromagnetic Wave Control [Mental]

There is plenty of stuff all around us that we can't even perceive, but still affect us. You have power over them. Radiation, UV Rays, X-Rays, Microwaves and Gamma Rays are all under your control.

Small mechanical effect: Harass others with wave attacks intended to daze.

Medium mechanical effect: Poison your target with heavy radiation

Large mechanical effect: Cause blindness by burning eyes with concentrated waves.

Small deviation effect: See through barriers with X Rays.

Medium deviation effect: Overload wireless devices.

Large deviation effect: Completely deceive scans.

Wood Control [Mental/Physical]

Turn chairs into spears, turn tables into shields, make the walls of a log cabin strike your foe with spikes. You can manipulate wood, but only once it’s dead.

Small mechanical effect: Deliver a dazing blow with a wooden strike.

Medium mechanical effect: Shape wood into a desired form, such as a club or bench.

Large mechanical effect: Create a wooden prison to trap your prey.

Small deviation effect: Mend broken wood.

Medium deviation effect: Send splinters from a wooden weapon into someone's bloodstream.

Large deviation effect: Kill living trees, bringing them under your power.

Forces Powers

Gravity [Mental]

You have control over gravity itself. Pin your foes with a crushing force or leap from rooftop to rooftop as if you were lighter than air.

Small deviation effect: Hit someone directly with force rather than manipulating the gravity around them.

Medium deviation effect: Align two objects to gravitate towards each other.

Large deviation effect: Bend light with gravity.

Small mechanical effect: Increased gravity around your enemy reduces their ability to move and to dodge other attacks.

Medium mechanical effect: Decreased gravity around your enemy leaves them floating helplessly through the air, unable to control their trajectory.

Large mechanical effect: Your enemy is pinned to the ground by an immense gravitational force.

Friction [Mental/Physical]

Walk on ice with the greatest ease or watch your opponents slip and fall no matter how sturdy their footing is. Friction is under your control.

Small mechanical effect: Alter the viscosity of an object that fits in someone's hand. Make a critical key too sticky to drop or your foes' gun too slippery to hold.

Medium mechanical effect: Mess with your opponents' balance by making the ground as slippery as ice.

Large mechanical effect: Make the wind scrape your target's face off.

Small deviation effect: Walk on ice as if it were concrete.

Medium deviation effect: Prevent your foes from restraining you by slipping out of their grasp.

Large deviation effect:

Pressure [Mental]

You can manipulate pressure. Lazily pop balloons by increasing internal air pressure or crush your enemy’s bones with your power.

Small mechanical effect: Pressurize a small volume of air to create a gust of wind.

Medium mechanical effect: Crush objects to half of their normal size.

Large mechanical effect: Increase or decrease lung capacity - hold your breath through poison gas, dive deeper, fly higher.

Small deviation effect: Lighten your load by creating low-pressure pockets of air in your backpack/handbag/purse/etc.

Medium deviation effect: Decrease pressure on the ground under your enemies, trapping them in a sinkhole.

Large deviation effect: Alter local weather conditions by increasing or decreasing barometric pressure.

Light [Mental]

Light bows to your command. You can switch a room between pitch black darkness and a blinding brightness with but a thought.

Small mechanical effect: Create strobe and flash effects.

Medium mechanical effect: Cast a blazing spotlight to light up the dark, or put out enough variety to cover as theatrical lighting.

Large mechanical effect: Your light dazes and stuns with the power of a stun-gun or rubber bullet at long ranges.

Small deviation effect: Focus light like a magnifying glass to burn flammable objects.

Medium deviation effect: Bend existing light to darken a room, or filter out/block/focus aspects of the light spectrum.

Large deviation effect: Meld beams of light a la the Death Star laser, creating a physically destructive force.

Telekinesis [Mental/Coordination]

Spooky action at a distance. Your ability to manipulate the world doesn’t stop at your fingertips. Lift and throw objects from afar.

Small mechanical effect: Move small objects short distances within your field of view.

Medium mechanical effect: Lift, move, and throw objects up to twice what you can physically lift.

Large mechanical effect: Hurl cars, drop steamrollers, fire bullets of inanimate objects.

Small deviation effect: Pick a pocket of someone within line of sight.

Medium deviation effect: Memorize an area and you can remotely move things around, even if you can't see it.

Large deviation effect: Use cameras to move objects that are even miles away.

Mass Control [Mental/Physical]

Glass bends like rubber. Paper becomes a stiff cutting edge. Your thoughts can mold the rigidity and hardness of objects, twisting them to your will.

Small mechanical effect: Soften the ground, causing people’s feet to sink down and slowing speed.

Medium mechanical effect: Make a shield as brittle as glass.

Large mechanical effect: Harden your body to protect yourself.

Small deviation effect: Make a club out of cloth.

Medium deviation effect: Tear through glass without causing a shatter.

Large deviation effect: Trans-state matter explosion. You cause sublimation, turning a solid into a gas in an explosion.

Temperature [Mental]

You are Laplace’s Demon’s worst nightmare. Transfer heat between objects in ways that seem impossible. Never suffer through the scorching heat of a summer day again.

Small mechanical effect: Make your weapons burn the skin of those they strike.

Medium mechanical effect: Send a foe’s body into shock by suddenly dropping the temperature around them.

Large mechanical effect: Turn metal to molten liquid.

Small deviation effect: Turn heat to energy.

Medium deviation effect: Manipulate air pressure.

Large deviation effect: Survive nearly any temperature.

Torque [Mental/Coordination]

Many things give when you just give them a twist. Break open a bank safe with a huge shearing force, or just open a jar of pickles.

Small mechanical effect: Turn an opponent’s ankle.

Medium mechanical effect: Spin an opponent round, dizzying them.

Large mechanical effect: Cripple a foe with a mighty wrench of their back.

Small deviation effect: Halt rotation.

Medium deviation effect: Generate cyclones and whirlpools.

Large deviation effect: Twist energy.

Time Manipulation [Mental]

You can never have too much time. Slow down time and wow your foes as your pistol shoots faster than a machine gun. Hit your enemies before they can even see you coming.

Small mechanical effect: Slow down others’ timelines.

Medium mechanical effect: Speed up your personal time.

Large mechanical effect: Freeze a target in time.

Small deviation effect: Retro-cognition.

Medium deviation effect: Reset the last few seconds of reality.

Large deviation effect: Hop a short distance in time.

Momentum [Mental]

The trajectories of moving objects obey your whim. Redirect bullets Neo-style. You are The One.

Small mechanical effect: Deflect a thrown rock.

Medium mechanical effect: Shift a bullet’s trajectory away from you.

Large mechanical effect: Alter a car’s path.

Small deviation effect: Halt momentum.

Medium deviation effect: Reflect momentum.

Large deviation effect: Recognize paths of all moving objects detected.

Mental Powers

Memory Manipulation [Mental/Social]

Revisionist history at its best. Memories are our past, they define our personalities and experiences. So what happens when someone is able to control them? It's up to you to find out!

Small mechanical effect: Change the details of a remembered scene.

Medium mechanical effect: Erase a portion of the victim’s memories.

Large mechanical effect: Rewrites memories of your target.

Small deviation effect: Share your memories.

Medium deviation effect: Combine memories viewed to create a memory more representative of the events.

Large deviation effect: Trap someone within a memory.

Telepathy [Mental/Social]

Skip those pesky human communication methods and plunge directly into the brains of others, even uninvited! Talk with them, see what they're thinking, you can even manipulate them! All of this and more in the wonderful field of telepathy.

Small mechanical effect: Send a message.

Medium mechanical effect: Perfectly predict the target’s next move.

Large mechanical effect: Gain insight into another’s thoughts.

Small deviation effect: Broadcast thoughts to a full area.

Medium deviation effect: Stun your foe by performing a “DOS” on your opponent, flooding them with information.

Large deviation effect: Project a thought into another’s mind covertly.

Confusion [Mental/Social]

Blur the senses, change perception, warp the sanity of your foes. People won't even know what's going on, because, well, that is just the thing you do.

Small mechanical effect: Fog the senses of another.

Medium mechanical effect: Swap two senses.

Large mechanical effect: Blend all the senses into one.

Small deviation effect: Share a sense with another individual.

Medium deviation effect: Overlay information from another person’s senses.

Large deviation effect: Completely black out a sense.

Hallucination [Mental/Social]

We humans are sensitive folk. We know our world because of that sensitivity. Touch, taste, smell, sight, hear; the senses are yours to play with. Have fun!

Small mechanical effect: Daze a foe with outrageous imagery.

Medium mechanical effect: Create a subtle hallucination more difficult to realize for what it is.

Large mechanical effect: Major hallucination, fool several senses at once.

Small deviation effect: Give several targets the same hallucination simultaneously.

Medium deviation effect: Make someone hallucinate that someone or thing is not, in fact, there.

Large deviation effect: Create a dangerous phantasm capable of harming the foe. Effects disappear if the target can overcome the hallucination.

Sensory Agonism/Antagonism [Mental/Social]

The nervous system is your domain. Pain and pleasure are your toys. Care to test Pavlov's conditioning to the limit?

Small mechanical effect: Send a foe into a daze of pleasure.

Medium mechanical effect: Stun a foe with sudden shock pain.

Large mechanical effect: Paralyze a foe with an unbearable blend of pleasure and pain.

Small deviation effect: Feel someone else’s senses.

Medium deviation effect: Reverse senses, such as making hot seem cold.

Large deviation effect: Issue one single, one word command performable in one round.

Emotion Agonism/Antagonism [Mental/Social]

Lovers and madmen have such seething brains, such shaping fantasies, that apprehend. More than cool reason ever comprehends... It comprehends some bringer of that joy; or, in the night, imagining some fear, how easy is a bush supposed a bear.

Small mechanical effect: Create conflicting emotions in the target.

Medium mechanical effect: Cause infatuation with something within your target’s vision, mesmerizing them.

Large mechanical effect: Subtly manipulate your victim’s emotions to influence them into making the decisions you desire.

Small deviation effect: Relay another’s emotions into your target.

Medium deviation effect: Create an aura of a certain emotion in an area.

Large deviation effect: Release an intense emotional wave.

Dream Manipulation (and Astral Projection) [Mental/Social]

Leave the confines of your body and enter the wondrous field of dreams. Strolling through other people's subconscious, you can irrupt into them when they are most vulnerable. Just be careful, not every dream is a good dream.

Small mechanical effect: Tweak the surroundings of a target’s dream.

Medium mechanical effect: Boost another’s morale the next day by ensuring they had great dreams.

Large mechanical effect: End the dream, awakening the dreamer.

Small deviation effect: Recreate a dream you’ve experienced.

Medium deviation effect: Create a dream within a dream.

Large deviation effect: Astrally project your consciousness,allowing for stealthy observation, but a psychic might notice you, and you’re especially vulnerable with no body.

Power Nullification [Mental/Physical]

Strip the gifted abilities of the people around you, take them out of their comfort zone. What is a psychic without his powers? Test them, bring them down from their high levels.

Small mechanical effect: Imbue part of your body with power nullifying properties temporarily.

Medium mechanical effect: Short range nullification.

Large mechanical effect: Shut down a power hard enough to cause backlash.

Small deviation effect: Dispel an affiction.

Medium deviation effect: Create a small, shortlived nullifying field.

Large deviation effect: Power amplification.

Power Absorption [Mental/Physical]

You are hungry for other people's powers, there's just no food finer than the abilities from others. Use it against their own masters. Just be careful, gluttony has never been good...

Small mechanical effect: Drain stored points.

Medium mechanical effect: Absorb power through a melee weapon.

Large mechanical effect: Absorb power from a distance.

Small deviation effect: Convert stolen power points for another power into points for power absorption

Medium deviation effect: Create an absorbing shield.

Large deviation effect: Transfer stolen power to another.

Mental Enhancement [Mental]

You need a little push, a little extra on your performance? That's cool, that's cool. You've got what you need. Go beyond your own limits. Reach for the sky.

Small mechanical effect: Push your brain’s raw power to higher levels.

Medium mechanical effect: Increase your speed of thought to multiple times normal.

Large mechanical effect: Calculate trajectories and velocitities to determine what happens where when.

Small deviation effect: Release a mental blast.

Medium deviation effect: Sense others’ presences.

Large deviation effect: Clairvoyance.

Biological Powers

Plant Control [Mental]

Some people have a green thumb, and can seemingly make any plant grow. You can do far more than that. Through sheer will, you can command plants into taking action, as well as conduce growth or withering.

Small mechanical effect: Trip someone with a vine.

Medium mechanical effect: A lattice of plants makes a sturdy barrier in front of you.

Large mechanical effect: Immobilize and crush someone with vines.

Small deviation effect: Manipulate a plant to produce more of its irritating powders and acids.

Medium deviation effect: Cause a plant to start to wither and die.

Large deviation effect: Temporarily grow a large plant out of your body that can be weaponized. It feeds on your nutrients.

Physical Enhancement [Mental/Physical]

You understand the link between mind and body. Through your mind's psychic power, you can amplify the capabilities of your body to reach incredible heights.

Small mechanical effect: Your next punch is unnaturally strong, causing your opponent to be winded for a turn.

Medium mechanical effect: You punch the ground and cause a shockwave to stun all around you.

Large mechanical effect: Your unarmed attacks inflict crippling injuries.

Small deviation effect: Your body becomes unnaturally resistant to injury.

Medium deviation effect: You slam your weapon into the ground in front of you, launching a wave of kinetic energy in a line.

Large deviation effect: You move with supernatural speed, seeming like an illusion.

Sensory Enhancement [Mental]

You might not know anything, but with senses like yours, it's easy to find anything out. Tough test? Just read the answers off that guy in the far corner of the room, they might as well be written on the board, with eyes like yours.

Small mechanical effect: Your eyesight is amazing. Take no penalty to shooting targets at long range.

Medium mechanical effect: Your enhanced hearing is like echolocation, giving you a 3D map of the area around you.

Large mechanical effect: You have no blind spots, being able to see around you in all directions and to far distances.

Small deviation effect: See outside of the visible spectrum of light.

Medium deviation effect: Blend and modify senses, using synaesthesia and mental tricks to better process sensory information.

Large deviation effect: You can see AIM fields and understand someone’s ability by seeing it used.

Regeneration [Mental/Physical]

Injuries fatal to the average person mean little to you, as you heal at supernatural speed. At a high enough level, you might even recover lost limbs.

Small mechanical effect: Instantly recover from most physical status effects.

Medium mechanical effect: Regain a lost sense caused by injury.

Large mechanical effect: Regenerate a limb or other significant part of the body.

Small deviation effect: Detect poison in food you are eating and neutralize it.

Medium deviation effect: Heal someone else’s injury.

Large deviation effect: Cause someone’s cells to replicate out of control, creating a painful growth.

Shapeshifting [Mental/Physical]

Quick adaptation and adjustment to your body allows you to change your form to suit circumstances, be it with claws or another person's visage.

Small mechanical effect: Your arms are long and stretchy, able to trip foes from a distance.

Medium mechanical effect: Grow a shield made of bone from your arm.

Large mechanical effect: You shapeshift extra limbs that are able to pin a foe in place while you pummel them.

Small deviation effect: You have eyes on the back of your head. Literally.

Medium deviation effect: You grow claws coated with a corrosive acid.

Large deviation effect: Grow a system of organs inside you that let you breathe fire for a short distance.

Animal Control [Mental/Social]

You're king of the jungle, and you have the power to make any animal obey your orders.

Small mechanical effect: Make animals reluctant to come close to the area around you without having to manually control them.

Medium mechanical effect: Control an animal that is normally very wild and untamable.

Large mechanical effect: Turn a very faithful animal against its owner.

Small deviation effect: Knock out an animal.

Medium deviation effect: The animal under your control is stronger than it normally is (+ stats).

Large deviation effect: Under your influence, an animal temporarily manifests body parts such as wings or claws that it normally does not possess.

Animation [Mental/Coordination]

The power of life is in your hands, and you can share it with inanimate objects to make temporary golem servants.

Small mechanical effect: The stuff you’re cobbling together for a golem doesn’t quite fit together right, but a spark of your power makes it move very naturally.

Medium mechanical effect: Animate a gelatinous object.

Large mechanical effect: Animate many small objects as a single flying swarm entity.

Small deviation effect: Your animation includes electrical parts that continue to function despite a lack of power supply.

Medium deviation effect: Your golem somehow is blessed with senses despite lacking components that would enable it to take in information about its outside environment.

Large deviation effect: Your golem creation is able to act on its own without your input.

Photoreflexive Memory [Mental]

"Don't worry, I saw someone try this in a movie, once!" If you've seen it done, you can repeat it, from a parkour roll to a karate kick.

Small mechanical effect: See through someone’s actions, gaining a bonus to hit and dodge.

Medium mechanical effect: If someone successfully took a movement action that required a skill check such as climbing or jumping within the last set of combat rounds, you may replicate that action and succeed automatically.

Large mechanical effect: Mirror someone’s actions perfectly as they do them.

Small deviation effect: You can exceed someone’s skill when you copy it.

Medium deviation effect: Remember someone’s actions so well that you can watch them write a letter and then replicate the letter later by copying their motions. Only works for small actions without a skill check.

Large deviation effect: Replicate a low level version of an esper power you’ve seen used before by a level 3 or higher.

Disease [Mental]

Colds, viruses, plagues, they're pawns to you. While only an elite few may generate a disease, you can manipulate them to infect your target, protect yourselves, or cure their victim.

Small mechanical effect: Your target goes into a fit of coughing for a turn, taking a penalty to dodge and accuracy.

Medium mechanical effect: Your target vomits up blood from the sickness you inflict, remaining stunned for a while.

Large mechanical effect: A painful disease sends the target’s body into spasms and they are unable to act.

Small deviation effect: Diagnose a disease.

Medium deviation effect: Cure a minor illness.

Large deviation effect: *requires level 4 or above. Generate a new disease with your chosen characteristics.

Chameleon [Mental/]

Your body adapts to your surroundings to conceal yourself. Why run for cover when you can become all but invisible?

Small mechanical effect: Seamlessly blend into your surroundings, even while moving.

Medium mechanical effect: Even your clothing starts to blend into your surroundings somewhat.

Large mechanical effect: You are completely unnoticeable.

Small deviation effect: You change colors rapidly in a way that disorients a foe.

Medium deviation effect: Become someone’s lookalike.

Large deviation effect: Temporarily change the appearance of an object you can touch while you are touching it.

Anomalous Powers

Barrier-Field Manipulation [Mental]

The best offense is a good defense. Well, your mind provides you with the greatest defense. Create impenetrable walls with your psychic abilities and ward off any harm.

Small mechanical effect: Cover an ally in a protective barrier.

Medium mechanical effect: Create a barrier in the same space as a foe, stunning them.

Large mechanical effect: Lock up a foe within a tight barrier.

Small deviation effect: Trip a foe with a small barrier by their feet.

Medium deviation effect: Hurl a barrier at a foe like a bowling ball.

Large deviation effect: Lift yourself through the air within a spherical barrier.

Teleport [Mental/Coordination]

No more travelling, no more hurrying up, no more stuck in traffic. Move from one place to another in the blink of an eye. Just be careful not to teleport into something nasty.

Small mechanical effect: Teleport something small into your hands.

Medium mechanical effect: Teleport with especially high weight or for unusual distance.

Large mechanical effect: Teleport something into the same space as another object.

Small deviation effect: Teleport without changing momentum.

Medium deviation effect: Blink in and out of existence in the same spot.

Large deviation effect: Teleport energies.

Precognition [Mental]

Use your psychic third eye to reach into the future, acknowledge and defy fate. Why wait till things happen, when you can know it right now?

Small mechanical effect: Forwarn yourself of danger.

Medium mechanical effect: Forsee the next combat round.

Large mechanical effect: Attempt to see a specific moment of the future in the distance.

Small deviation effect: See the past.

Medium deviation effect: Detect interferences within the time-space continuum.

Large deviation effect: View a possible alternative future.

Psychometry [Mental]

Everything is imprinted in reality, and your ability lets you see that. Take information from every object you see. If walls could talk... Well, they can. To you.

Small mechanical effect: Locate the object’s origin.

Medium mechanical effect: Identify former owners of the object.

Large mechanical effect: View the past from the object’s perspective.

Small deviation effect: Allow an object to verbalize in your mind.

Medium deviation effect: Observe a former state of an object or area.

Large deviation effect: Ask an object a favor, such as the sidewalk telling you if someone’s following you.

Portals [Mental]

Want to teleport, but you want to actually see where you are going? Not instantaneous, but more practical. Portals: for the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead.

Small mechanical effect: Open a portal from a short distance away.

Medium mechanical effect: Create an especially large portal.

Large mechanical effect: Open a portal within an object. *High level

Small deviation effect: Create a one-way portal.

Medium deviation effect: Create an explosion by making a portal within a portal.

Large deviation effect: Create a portal in front of you to absorb an attack and behind the enemy to deliver it right back.

Technokineticism [Mental/Coordination]

Not just for hikkikomoris, now your computer can really be your best friend. Your control over machines can turn cars and toasters into deadly weapons.

Small mechanical effect: Set off alarms.

Medium mechanical effect: Shut down robots or machinery.

Large mechanical effect: Force a self destruct.

Small deviation effect: Identify a system’s priorities.

Medium deviation effect: Hack through security systems.

Large deviation effect: Reconfigure a machine for a new purpose.

Duplication [Mental]

Ever wish to yourself that you had a lighter? Well, if you know how works, you can always have one. Your mind can create objects that it has encountered before and understands on a fundamental level.

Small mechanical effect: detect the number of espers in the area.

Medium mechanical effect: Gain insight as to the general level of the espers nearby.

Large mechanical effect: Identify an ESPer’s power and level without needing to see it used.

Small deviation effect: Exert limited influence over your AIM field.

Medium deviation effect: Suppress an AIM field.

Large deviation effect: Turn an AIM field against an esper.

Probability [Mental]

You can twist Lady Luck's arm - but she'll get you back. Win the lottery but then find everything else in your life starts going wrong to pay back the luck debt and restore balance.

Small mechanical effect: Make a person suffer the misfortune of tripping.

Medium mechanical effect: Give yourself the extra luck needed to make a tough shot.

Large mechanical effect: Cause the unbelievably unlikely event of a hit and run to befall your victim.

Small deviation effect: Shift the odds away from one specific outcome.

Medium deviation effect: Transfer your luck to another.

Large deviation effect: Steal someone’s luck.

Projection [Mental/Physical]

A simple thought can temporarily project an object into existence. You'll always have the right tool for the job.

Small mechanical effect: Project a knife into reality.

Medium mechanical effect: Generate a sharp sword.

Large mechanical effect: Create a large wall.

Small deviation effect: Use simple moving parts in an object.

Medium deviation effect: Project dexterous hands.

Large deviation effect: Constrict someone with bands of projected energy.

Phase Walk [Mental/Coordination]

You are like a ghost - you walk through walls and other solid objects. Great for espionage and spying - or just peaking your head into the locker room.

Small mechanical effect: Daze a target by phasing through them.

Medium mechanical effect: Dodge an attack by phasing just in time.

Large mechanical effect: Materialize inside of a target, dealing crippling damage to their body.

Small deviation effect: Allow other matter in contact with you to phase with you.

Medium deviation effect: Move freely from gravity

Large deviation effect: Phase through energy.

Statuses

Stunned

Your head is spinning and your body is not responding, your mental status could be penalized.

Dazed

The world is blurred and just won't stay still, it is very hard to keep you balance, your coordination could be penalized..

Poisoned

Some sort of deadly substance has made its way into your body. Side effects vary.

Paralyzed

Your body cramps up, you are still aware but you simply can't move.

Crippled

A particularly nasty injury, typically along the lines of broken bones jutting out of the flesh.

Slowed

Something hinders your movement, whether by flailing roots grappling your feet, or a cast of ice encasing your leg.

Mind Controlled

You're but a pawn of another esper's will.

Influenced

Not in direct control of others, but you're still being used. You may not see anything wrong, you may even think that this is really what you want to do. But it's not.

Lost a Sense

A blind light, a loud noise, or maybe even an esper, there are several things that can leave you without one of your senses.

Constricted

You are immobilized. Suffocating, getting crushed, if you don't struggle to escape, it could be your final hour.

Mesmerized

Something is affecting you. Illusions, charms, they will try to gain your complete attention.

Other

Schools

A Certain High School

The school Kamijou Touma attends in the series, this school is a fairly typical mid level Esper school that functions similarly to any normal Japanese high school. It uses fairly typical methods like bending spoons with one’s mind mixed with the occasional harsher techniques reserved for troublemakers. The grounds are fairly expansive and well tended to however and include a fields of grass with a set of windmills and a small pond making for rather picturesque picnic locations once lunch period starts.

Nagatenjouki Academy

Thought to be the top school in Academy City where anyone with an innate talent can be invited to attend, Esper or not. It runs similarly to Tokidawai and is an active sports school.

Sakugawa Middle School

A fairly typical school modeled on the schools outside of Academy City. The staff and students have a unique dress code and manner of teaching that lends well to the aesthetics.

Zassou Academy

Geared towards a more technical focus the school is located in Academy City but is truly meant for those aiming to hone a skill quite unrelated to Esper powers. Its main focus is teaching students the skills to become computer programmers and game designers.

Tokidawai Middle School

A prestigious school and one of the top ranked schools in both the country and the Outside. Its grounds are part school part mock Victorian mansion with all students living on the campus itself. The rest of the grounds are made up of gardens and a small sports facility. It has a high bar of admittance and maintains a strict level of discipline and training amongst its students even during non-school hours.

Ryouran Kasei Girl's School

The Ryouran Maid school has their maids specially trained to assist their masters. From cleaning up chewing gum on the streets to having a meeting with the leaders of the world, nothing can stump them.

Kirigaoka Girl’s Academy

This school is fairly typical in architecture, appearance, and other such aesthetics. Its student life is fairly similar to most other typical schools as well. However, its reputation as a top ranked school comes from a mindset of different is better rather than stronger is better unlike other similar schools. The Power Curriculum appears here in a form that caters to those with more unusual and outlandish abilities.

Misawa Cram School

A rather unusual school even just from looks alone, this towering double office building presides over the urban landscape in an imposing manner. The students that attend this school are there mostly for extra lessons or preparation for exams. They come from any number of schools in the area to study or “cram.” However, recently the school has been the nexus of a number of ill rumors about science cults and brain washing.

Oyafune Athlethic Academy

A co-educational independent high school for physically capable Espers located in the twentieth district of Academy City. Here students are taught a version of the Curriculum that focuses heavily on achieving results in tests of physical endurance and sports skills. It has a tremendous reputation for creating highly athletic Espers and is well known for those results.

Platinumberg International School

A very harsh school where even minor infractions are punished. Due to this, the number of students attending the school is very small (only 230), but the ones who do are very proper and, most often than not, skilled ESPers. The school has 29 Level 4's, 111 Level 3's and 90 Level 2's.

Yamabuki Art Academy

Yamabuki Art Academy, with its 894 students, is the single largest art college in Academy City. In order to attend the school, the student has to pass a so-called Creative Test where not only the students ESPer potential is measured, but also her creative talents. Once accepted, the school curriculum is very relaxed and students come and go as they please. The school features 26 Level 4's, 68 Level 3's, 156 Level 2's, 286 Level 1's and 358 Level 0's.

School Events

Daihasei Sports Festival

Summer Festival

Other Organizations

Judgement

Anti-Skill

Big Spider

Skill-Out

Student Background Table (1d10)
1	Experimental Subject/Child Error
2-3	Delinquent (Skill-Out)
4-7	Regular Student
8-9	Honor Student
0	Agency Connections (Judgement, Anti-Skill)

Level table (d100 + Mental stat)
01-15	Level 0
16-30	Level 1
31-50	Level 2
51-80	Level 3
81-100	Level 4
100+	Level 5

Student Trait Table (d100)
d100	00	10	20	30	40	50	60	70	80	90
0	Phobia	Inferiority Complex	Hero Worship	Firefighter	Connected	Independent	Farmer	Anemia	First-born of a huge family	Animal Reflexes
1	Always on the move	Local hero	Animal Lover	Main Character	Emotionally scarred	Butler/Maid	Cook	Can't stand the Sun	Motorcycle Rider	Drug Addict
2	Judgement	Unlucky	Superstitious	Nervous	Engaged to be married	Tsundere	Journalist	Occult Fan	Memories of a past life	Food Connoisseur
3	Attacked by animal	Fist-fighter	Overachiever	Anarchist	Foreigner	Stalker	Genius	Coward	Hippie	Heterochromia (different color eyes)
4	Celebrity	Computer whiz	Charitable	Pyromaniac	In a relationship	Positive	Religious	Book Author	Crybaby	Night Owl
5	Orphan	Undeserved reputation	Olympian	Fanbase	Airhead	Rebel	Rock Star	Multilingual (Knows more than one lenguage)	Survivor	Morning Person
6	Hobbyist	Overconfident	Teamworker	Part-time Job	Attractive/Good Looking	Class President	Vertigo	Hermit	Melancholic	Bird Watcher
7	Bookworm	Gluttony	Off the Grid (Higher level than one would think)	Perfectionist	Famous Parent	Royal Blooded	Skilled with Weapons	Pariah	Sharp Sight	Gambler
8	Hooligan	Gemstone	Musician	Family in the city	New in Town	19 year old ESPer	Sympathetic	Only Child	Fast Learner	Perfect Childhood
9	Shut-in	Didn't want this!	Wealthy	Still living at home	Childlike	Karaoke Addict	Fisherman	Last Child	Natural Leader	Short Sight

Plans for A Certain Magical Game Addendum

Since the mechanics for A Certain Scientific Roleplaying Game are nearing a level where they can be play-tested, we could probably spare a bit of effort into thinking of how to handle Magic in this game.

Preliminary ideas:

Mages spend character points at character generation to buy proficiency in magic in a similar fashion to espers

Mages can also spend character points to buy a magical artifact that their character has - this should be something the GM doesn't take away from them during the course of a campaign without very, very, very, very good reason

Magic should be less freeform than psychic abilities - more with specific spell lists than something that can be used creatively

Mages require the use of rituals, chants, runes, talismans, etc in order to use magic - maybe the process even takes multiple combat rounds of concentration for more powerful effects

The most powerful magic spells should exceed the power of any lone esper - however, it may take thousands of mages cooperating over a period of time to cast such a spell.

On that note, mages should be able to link their powers together to cast more powerful spells than either could alone or than the two together would seem to be able to - the "whole is greater than the sum of the parts" kinda thing

Threads on /tg/

• First Thread: http://archive.foolz.us/tg/thread/11754164/
• Second Thread: http://archive.foolz.us/tg/thread/11765694/
• Third Thread: http://archive.foolz.us/tg/thread/11779215/ (Complete with "baaaaaaaw! animu shit")

Links

• Toaru Majutsu no Index at wikipedia - Reference to the universe. We can create our own expansion and fluff to the available materials eventually, once the system is in place.

• Toaru Majutsu no Index at Wikia - another good reference

• IMAGES FOR THE .PDF - http://www.mediafire.com/?94ssrs2ooypdj26