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With this skill, an empath can open a "portal"
between our own world and a protodimension in which distances are
greatly diminished. Empaths with this skill use it to appear and
disappear from the Earth, and for rapid travel between terran
locations that are geographically far apart.
Empaths with this skill can create portals of
varying duration, depending upon the quality of their skill rolls.
In every case, the protal is centered upon the empath that opens it.
Basic success brings into existence a portal just large enough for
the creator, who is instantanously drawn through. A Stage Two
success allows the portal to be held open for one full turn after
the initiator passes through; a Stage Three holds it open for an
additional turn. A Stage Four allows the creator to hold the portal
open for a number of turns equal to his skill rating; a Stage Five
doubles that time. A Stage Six success allows the creation (or
destruction) of a permanent portal. While a portal remains open,
anyone who can move to its location can pass through.
Opening a dimensional portal requires
concentration. If the initiating character is surprised, or if he
takes any damage during the turn in which he seeks to open the
portal, he must make a successful Willpower roll before rolling to
open the portal.
The most common use for dimension walking is to
speed up transit from one place on Earth to another. There are many
undeveloped proto-dimensions where time and distance are different
from Earth, but can connect with Earth. These places allow swift
travel, some as much as a 10-1 speed (one hour's travel takes you 10
times as much distance at the exit point). There is usually no other
use for these time-enhancing voids.
The second use for Dimension Walk is to travel to
fully-developed proto-dimensions for the purpose of accomplishing
something other than just travelling through them.
An empath can open a visual portal, a virtual
peephole, and scan the nearby proto-dimensions. This allows the
empath to see what's in the proto-dimensional neighborhood, in order
to go to the right place.
When hopping between developed
proto-dimension, the empath must wait for as many minutes equal to
20 minus his Dimension Walk skill between hops, empathically
recalculating his next jump.
During Dimension Walk operations, a Catastrophic
Failure means the empath has tapped into the wrong dimension,
usually totally at random, and stable for 1D10 minutes — that means
the portal will be there for 30 seconds to 10 minutes, and things
can pass through it, both ways. The exception to this is during the
"peephole" Dimension Walk, where it means the "peephole" expands to
a full-sized portal on the other side for 1D10 minutes, so things
can come through to the empath, but he can't go through to the
dimension and still sees a "peephole."
Note: No user of Dimension Walk
or any of its cascades can enter, look into, or otherwise observe or
manipulate a proto-dimension unless the user is familiar with that
proto-dimension. This means the user must either have been taken to
that proto-dimension by someone or something else, or a complete
enough pyschic impression must have been transferred to the user by
means of Project Thought or a similar empathic means. One visit is
enough, and the visit can be voluntary (during Empathic training) or
involuntary (kidnapping by empaths). The user must remain at least
five seconds in the proto-dimension in order to gain a sufficient
psychic impression to be able to return.
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