Presci
Description:
Also known as "Peekers", this human-seeming race of D-Bees has an innate precognitive talent. Though the baseline ability only peers a heartbeat or so into the future, this gives them an astounding advantage in many scenarios, particularly combat.
The home dimension of the Presci is a strange one, even by the standards of the Mega-Verse. The flow of time there is not only inconstant (something found in many dimensions once Rifts open to allow comparison), but also localized--while the amount of drift between one locale and its adjacent territory is minimal, it can still be disorienting to discover you've entered a city five seconds after the gates closed, or an advancing army suddenly seeming to 'jump' sixty feet forward. The few Rogue Scientists who have visited there describe the effect as similar to being in a stream where the currents shift in narrow flows--immediately adjacent flows tend to be only marginally dissimilar, but across enough distance, you might have one area that is almost at a standstill, while another moves rapidly forward.
The world has varying technology levels--a place that has had a rapid time-flow compared to the average for a long time will be a century or three ahead of a backwater on the far side of the same continent. However, they have never developed electrical power outside of battery-operated devices, because running constant current across a wire system is impossible as you move from stream to stream. This, in turn, has led to a complete lack of computer technology and similar tech based on high electrical power usage.
In this environment, the Presci evolved. In their home dimension, their temporal perception is actually just natural acclimation to the variable time-stream; moving between marginally differential time-flows doesn't disturb them, permitting them to act normally--to them, the differential timestream is natural, just part of the air they breathe.
It was only once a group of Presci stumbled through a Rift to Rifts Earth that the effects of this adaptation in 'normal' time-flows became apparent. The awareness they have of the half-heartbeat immediately following the one everyone else exists in is just enough to give them a huge edge in rapidly changing scenarios like combat. However, the physiological changes to their own neurology make it impossible for them to harmonize with electronic circuits in any fashion.
- Racial Abilities and Complications
- Foresight: Seeing even a short distance into the future has its advantages. All Presci have the following Edges: Danger Sense, Level-Headed, Quick and Dodge. They also gain +2 Parry. (+10)
- Cheaters: Presci gain a +2 bonus to all Gambling rolls. (+2)
- ]Interface Issues: The unique neurophysiology of the Presci makes it impossible to synchronize with machines. As a result, they cannot use cyberware or similar systems, including both Juicer rigs and M.O.M. units. In addition, the rare Presci Cyberknight is unable to access the Cyberkinetic Combat ability, and cannot gain the Edges based on that power of the Iconic Framework. (-1)
- Fated: As precognitives, Presci are ironically less able to turn fortune their way, and thus have the Bad Luck Hindrance, leaving them with only two Bennies at the start of a session. (-2)
- Overconfident: The Presci tend to assume that their foresight will get them through dangers that others would balk at. (-2)
- Long gaze: Presci often look elsewhere when talking to people, reacting to things a moment before they actually happen. Treat this as the Quirk Hindrance. (-1)
- Rite Stuff: Prescis are almost off the Coalition States' radar, since they pass easily as humans. However, the Federation of Magic has learned that Presci sacrifices can grant phenomenal divinations, and thus have begun hunting them actively; captured Presci who do not have magical talent (or resist using that talent for the benefit of the Federation) are short-lived. This is considered a Major Wanted Hindrance (-2)
- Audio Overlap: While Presci vision functions normally, they often hear things out of sync with what they see, or get overlaid sound. This effectively gives them the Minor Hard of Hearing Hindrance--however, this does not provide them with resistance to Boom Guns, and in fact, requires them to make two Vigor rolls to resist the effects of one. Spells with similar Sonic trappings may get an additional effect against the Presci, at the GM's discretion. (-1)
- Tasty: While Psi-Stalkers cannot detect them automatically, they've found that they may feed on Prescis as if they have an Arcane Background (use the rules on page 123 for this, but raise the limit to the Prescis Spirit die). As a result, this has led to several predictably unpleasant incidents; the two races are now bitter enemies, with a -4 to Charisma when dealing with one another. (-1)