“Only concentrating” involves standing still, with eyes closed, and taking the concentration manuver in combat. You are unable to take any defence, make perception checks, or otherwise notice the world beyond your own mind.

You are considered “distracted or stressed” in combat if you took any sort of attack or were forced to defend. You are worried about physically staying alive and unable to focus your mind completely.

All of these skills require a teacher (Skill 12+, Teaching 12+) to teach them the first level of the skill. After that, it can be improved with character points normally.

Mind Block (Will/Easy) Modified from Basic Set
Defaults: Will-3 or Meditation-2

The ability to establish a mental block against magical intrusion into your mind through some mundane thought or mental action. This might be repeated multiplication, resiting a piece of poetry, tracing your family tree, or any other entirely mental, meaningless task. This is a non magical skill, and anyone may learn it. In fact, many people practice it as a method of self defense against magic and wizards.

Modifiers: +2 if you do nothing but concentrate on maintaining the block, -2 if you are distracted or stressed, -3 if you are mentally or physically stunned, -2 or more to hide emotions. +2 or more if you are experiencing some sort of powerful emotion to use as a shield. -10 (and no emotion bonus) to completely blank your mind and appear invisible to the Open Mind skill. Any Mind Block roll on a round when you have used Open Mind takes a penalty equal to the range penalty you accepted. If you are not expecting someone to assault your mind, you are considered stunned (-3) until you notice them. -5 if you were in mental communication with the attacker.

Open Mind (Will/Hard)
Defaults: Will-5
Prerequisites: SE 1

The magical ability to open your mind and feel the presence of other minds. Using this skill to identify another mind is the first step in using other mind skills. This is a per-requisite for all of them, and they can not be advanced higher than your Open Mind skill. Magery beyond level 1 has no additional effect. Each attempt to use Open Mind takes one second.

A successful Open Mind roll lets you determine if there is another mind other than yours up to a distance who’s range penalty would turn your success into a failure. You can limit your maximum range, which can limit the danger of another mage invading your mind.

A success also lets you resolve minds you have previously found. Each success you can resolve a clump of minds into a number of groups equal to your success at that range. If a group lies across two or more categories, use the larger penalty. It also gives you a general distance and direction to the middle of the group. Once an individual mind has been identified, it does not require another action to find unless it goes out of range or you close your mind off from the contact. You have a penalty equal to the largest range penalty you were willing to accept, or the farthest individual mind you are keeping track of.

Once an individual has been located, a successful Open Mind roll lets you know if they are currently using the Open Mind skill as well. A critical failure tells you nothing, and informs them of your attempt.

For example, if you find there is a group of minds somewhere nearby and succeed on your Open Mind roll by 4, you can divide that group into 4 smaller groups. If there were only 4 people, you would be able to pick out their individual minds. If it was a group of 8, you would have divided it into four groups of two (closest people grouped together) and would have to further focus.

Modifiers: +2 if you do nothing but concentrate, +4 if you can see the mind you are trying to resolve, +1 to +4 if you have identified a particular mind before. -2 while in a stressful situation or distracted.

Engulf Mind (Will/Hard)
Defaults: Open Mind-5
Prerequisites: SE 1, Open Mind 12+

The ability to project your will and attack another mind. Once you have isolated a mind, roll vs the targets Mind Block. You may expend FP to increase your effective Engulf Mind skill. On a success, you deal FP damage equal to the swing damage of your Engulf Mind skill/2 (no bonus from fatigue spent). On a critical success, the damage is based on your full Engulf Mind. On a critical failure, your attack leaves you open to a counter attack: you suffer -5 to your Mind Block skill until your next turn and the target immediately isolates your mind (Without the usual minimum one second of Open Mind to find it). Each use of Engulf Mind takes one second.

Modifiers: +2 if you only concentrate, +1 to +4 if the mind is very familiar to you, -2 if you are distracted or stressed. Range penalties apply normally.

Control Mind (Will/Very Hard)
Defaults: None
Prerequisites: SE 1, Open Mind 12+, Engulf Mind 12+

The mental equivlent of a pin, this is the ability to reach into someones mind and take control. Roll vs Mind Block every second you attempt to take control. You may spend fatigue points 1 for 1 to improve your Control Mind roll (You are pouring energy into them to overcome their defenses) Each successful roll brings you closer to establishing control, add your margin of success onto previous successes. If this exceeds your targets Will, you take control of their mind. If you fail a roll, your current count is reduced by half (rounding the result down). A critical fail loses all progress, and leaves you open to a counter attack: your Mind Block is at -5 against your target until the next turn, and they immediately isolate your mind.

Once your total success exceed your tartgets will, you isolate their mind from their body. They are unable to move or speak, and their mental attacks are at a penalty (see below). They are in all ways incapacitated, and will not resist any movement or defend against any attack. You can choose to hold the target in their current pose, or let them collapse to the ground. You do NOT gain full control of their actions, for that, learn Doinate Mind. Any further attacks on them, including Mind Probe, are at +4.

If you are the victim of Control Mind, the only available option is to resist and try and gain control of your mind and body again. You can make a roll to resist your controller once every (20 – Will) seconds. Roll Mind Block vs Control Mind, if you succeed you set the Control Mind count equal to your will, and they will have to re-establish control on their turn.

Modifiers: +2 if you only concentrate, +1 to +4 if the mind is very familiar to you, -2 if you are distracted or stressed. Range penalties apply normally. -2 for every person you are using Control Mind on after the first.

Dominate Mind (Will/Very Hard)
Defaults: None
Prerequisites: SE 1, Open Mind 12+, Engulf Mind 12+, Control Mind 12+

This allows you to control the body of someone who’s mind you have already controlled. You must first use Control Mind and succeed on gaining control. Once this is done, roll against Dominate Mind to control the body of your target. On a failure, you are unable to move the body properly, and the time is wasted. On a success, the body obeys your commands and carries out the action. A critical failure allows the target to immediately try and break free of your Mind Control.

Roll once for every simple action (Open that door, attack that person, nod and wave). If you attempt to force the to act against their principles (Kill a dependent, commit suicide, ect) they get an automatic roll to break free of your Control Mind. Roll at the moment of truth, you can walk them to the edge, but they do not get a roll until you tell them to leap.

Modifiers: +2 if you only concentrate, +1 to +4 if the mind is very familiar to you, -4 if you are distracted or stressed (Controlling multiple bodies is difficult). Range penalties apply normally. -2 for every person you are using Control Mind on after the first.

Read Mind (Will/Hard)
Defaults: Open Mind-5
Prerequisites: SE 1, Open Mind 12+

The ability to enter a mind and read their surface thoughts. Once you have isolated a mind, roll vs the targets Mind Block. If your roll fails, you gain no useful information, on a critical failure they learn the feeling of your mind and will always know when you are trying to read their mind. If you succeed on your Read Mind roll and beat the targets Mind Block roll, you gain access to their surface thoughts for 10 * margin of success seconds. If you beat their Mind Block roll by 6 or more, they do not feel your presence and gain access for margin of success minutes and most likely still be at a penalty for being distracted (-3). If you fail to beat their roll, they notice you and you get no useful information. There is also a -2 cumulative penalty for each failed attempt in the last hour.

Surface thoughts come as a single stream of information at spoken word speed. If you do not speak the mother tongue of the target, you get no useful information from them.

Modifiers: +2 if you only concentrate, +1 to +4 if the mind is very familiar to you, -2 if you are distracted or stressed. Range penalties apply normally.

Mind Probe (Will/Very Hard)
Default: None
Prerequisites: SE 1, Open Mind 12+, Read Mind 12+

The ability to enter a mind and search it for the awnser to a single question. You must first identify the target mind using Open Mind, and then roll against the targets Mind Block. On a success, the target awnsers your question as truethfully as possible in a short sentence. On a failure you are unable to break past their defenses and learn only the focus of their Mind Block. If you are beaten by 5 or more your probe leaves you vulnurable to a mental counter attack, your own Mind Block is at -5 against the target until your next turn, and they immediately isolate your mind.

Each use of Mind Probe takes ten seconds, and leaves you vulnurable as discribed in Open Mind.

Modifiers: +2 if you only concentrate, +4 if the target is willing, +1 to +4 if the mind is familiar to you, -2 if you are distracted or stressed, normal range penalties. -2 or more if the question is vauge or hard to awnser. +4 if the target critically fails their Mind Block roll.

Touch Mind (Will/Average)
Default: Open Mind -4
Prerequisites: SE 1, Open Mind 12+

The ability to touch your mind to anothers and communicate directly with thought. For a simple mental conversation, information is passed at the speed of spoken word and can take place in any language. This requires the caster to succeed on a Touch Mind roll (including range modifiers) on a mind they have already isolated, but no roll is needed to maintain it as long as the parties stay with a range that would not turn the success into a failure. Additional people can join the mental conversation with a successful Touch Mind roll.

This skill also allows the rapid dump of information through images and experiences. This requires both parties to make an Open Mind roll, if either fail no useful information is passed that second. On a success, information is passed at a rate of normal speach * the margin of success. If no language is shared, this type of communication is still possible at a -4 penalty. Additional people can be included in the information dump with a successful Touch Mind roll, but information must be sent at the lowest persons speed. A critical fail overloads your mind and requires an immediate Will-4 roll. Success results in a stun for 1d seconds, failure for 1d minutes. Critical failure also causes 1d FP and 1HP damage as your mind shorts out.

Either use of this skill requires you to make contact with your targets mind and inform them of your presence. If they have been in contact with you before, they can make an immediate Open Mind roll to identify you (and instantly isolate your mind) with a +1 to +4 if they are very familiar with you. If they fail this roll, or have not encountered the mind before, they must decide to either allow the contact or immediatly put up a mental block. If you still wish to push your message past a block, roll Open Mind vs their Mind Block (No stun modifier). On a success you gain access for margin of success seconds. On a failure you cannot gain access for margin of failure minutes, and on a critical failure you cannot attempt to enter their mind for the next 24 hours.

Opening your mind to communicate leaves you exposed to mental attacks, especially with the person you are communicating with. Your Mind Block skill takes a penalty of -5 if the person you are communicating with attempts to use some other skill against you, however you immediately know that they are exploiting the bond and can end the communication on your turn. Normal Open Mind range penalties also apply (and usualy cancel out during the initial quick contest).

Modifiers: +2 if you do nothing other than maintain the link, Normal range penalties apply, +1 to +4 if you are very familiar with the target mind, -2 if you are distracted or stressed. -2 or more to hide powerful emotions, double for information dumps.