PsiRun Second Edition

What would you do if you woke up, just now, with the smell of melting plastic and the sound of straining metal and blank spots in your memory of what came before? 

What would you do if you knew you had super-natural powers, but couldn't seem to quite remember how they worked??

What would you do if the only thing you knew for certain was that someone dangerous was after you, determined to capture you?

You'd run.

This is how Psi*Run, the one-shot tabletop roleplaying game of people with psionic powers and amnesia, always begins: with a crash and a chance to run. 

Then for the next 4 to 6 hours, you and your....fellow superheros? Fellow escapees? Random people you may or may not remember knowing, but they are with you, so that's at least something? 

Anyway. The other Runners. 

You and the other Runners try to stay one step ahead of whatever is chasing you long enough to patch the holes in your memory, figure out what's going on, and maybe answer those questions. It's a great one-shot between other longer games, or at a convention, or for a new group just figuring out what games they like.

The game is designed for a GM and 3 to 5 players, ages 10 and up, to play out in one long 4-5 hour session or in 2 or 3 shorter sessions. I did a ton of the original development in teen summer programs at local libraries, and it still fits that social footprint!  The Powered By the Apocalypse DNA that flows through most of my work shows up here in the tables with a range of outcomes for each roll, and in the agency each player has to shape their characters actions.

Your characters are Runners, people with psionic powers - super strength, incredible speed, a healing touch, the ability to communicate with animals or plants - who have, until the start of the game, been under the control of an oppressive, controlling entity. The crash gives you a chance to escape, but also leaves you with blank spots in your memory. Character creation includes making the questions these gaps leave, such as:

• How do my fire powers work?
• What does this key in my pocket open?
• How do I know that's a military-grade explosive?
• Who or what is Sean Forrest and why is their name repeating in my brain?
• Where the hell are my shoes?
• When did I learn to fly?

The controlling entity that wants you back is represented by the Chasers. There are always enough of them and they are only a few steps behind you at the start of the game. At the end of character creation, the GM makes a few quick decisions as guideposts about the nature of the Chasers' Look, Method, and Technology - "corporate underworld", "isolate them", and "industrial landscaping," for example. The details get revealed in play as the players take action, roll ice, and make choices!

Psi*Run uses our Otherkind dice pool system and a Risk Sheet. You roll a handful of dice: 

• One because you're exceptional, as a Runner. 
• One because you have Goal, 
• One because you might Reveal a memory, and 
• One because the Chasers who are after you might get closer. 
• Are you using your Psi powers? Take another die.
• Is anyone you care about risking Harm? Take  another die.

Roll your dice and make a bunch of hard choices using the tables on the Risk Sheet, till you are as happy with the outcome as you can be. 

Every time you roll dice is a risky opportunity for success or disaster. Once one of the Runners has an answer to each of their questions, a patch for each hole in their memory, you're at the end of the game! 

It plays out like an issue of a comic book or an episode of a supers TV show, packed with action and twists and turns, not every question gets tied up neatly at the end, and you're left wanting to play again.

Over the last 15 years of play, I've run a lot of games and observed a lot of games! Lots of comments and questions, so it's time for some answers in the text!  I'm expanding the rules in places, bringing in a few new things, and tightening some loose nuts and bolts. There's some interesting additions, but not a lot stripped away from the original game. I'll talk more about this as the campaign unfolds! 

I've commissioned all new art by Jabari Weathers, a city map by Tony Dowler, and Corey LeMoine is on deck for another map if we hit the first stretch goal. All the writing is mine. 

Here's a sketch of Jabari's Runners one step ahead of the Chasers. The Runner at the front has a Goal of "See what's going on," they might Reveal a memory based on something that happens, they are using their Psi power of becoming invisible, the Chasers could close in, and someone could definitely be Harmed! The player gets to roll 6 dice!

PsiRun started in 2005 as an unfinished "ashcan" hack that Chris Moore and his friend Mike Lingner made of Vincent's and my game Otherkind, and when Chris decided he wasn't going to finish it, I asked if I could take it over. He said yes, with his blessing and thanks. So when you see them listed at the back of the book, that's what's going on there!

I'm partnering with Grumpy Bear Stuff to do the EU/UK fulfillment, to keep shipping costs as low as I can for folks outside the US.
 

Stretch goals for this one are straightforward: bonuses for my artists and a formal write-up for my adaptation for playing Psi*Run on-line.

20K - More art! Another map by map-maker Corey LeMoine, on top of the map by Tony Dowler and all the illustrations by Jabari Weathers!

24K - More money for artists! If we hit this, I get to send all three artists a bonus!

28K - More ways to play! If we hit this last goal,  I'll write up my rules for playing on Bluesky or similar social media platform. It's weird and experimental: you play the Runner, random people on-line play everything else!  

Great! Pick your level on the side, and let's get started!