Communication

You can communicate over a distance using a medium other than your normal voice. Choose a sense type as your Communication medium (see the list of examples). You may also use a special sense type (like neutrinos, gravitons, magical sendings, and so forth) noticeable only to an appropriate form of the Detect effect (see Senses), at the GM's discretion.

• Visual: laser or fiber optic link
• Auditory: ultrasonic or infrasonic beam, "ventriloquism"
• Olfactory: pheromones or chemical markers
• Tactile: vibratory carrier wave
• Radio: AM, FM, and short-wave radio bands, micro-waves
• Mental: telepathic transmission, psychic link, mystical sending

Range

Your rank determines you maximum Communication range:

Table: Communication Range

Communication is instantaneous with any subject within your range.

The recipient of your communication must be within range and have a means of receiving your transmission (super-sense, or a receiver of some sort; conscious awareness is all that's needed to "receive" Mental Communication). You can receive Communication of the same medium as your own. Receivers can choose to ignore your Communication, if they wish. Communication is language-dependent; you and the subject must share a common language (see Comprehend to communicate across language barriers). Your Communication is point-to-point (sent to a single receiver within your range).

Activating your Communication effect is a free action. Communicating, however, takes the normal amount of time. You can apply the Rapid modifier to speed things up, provided your recipient is capable of receiving communication at that speed.

Others with an acute sense able to detect your Communication medium can "tap into" your transmissions with a Perception check (DC equal to your Communication rank). The eavesdropper must be within normal sensory range of you or the receiver. With two degrees of success on the check, the eavesdropped can also understand your transmissions. Effects like Concealment and Dazzle that target your Communication medium can "jam" or block your transmissions.

Extras

Area: You can broadcast omni-directionally to every receiver within your maximum Communication range at once. Note this extra is only strictly necessary to communicate with everyone over a wide area all at once; since using and maintaining Communication are free actions, the GM may allow a communicator to establish and maintain contact with multiple discrete receivers--such as the members of the same team--all in the same round. +1 cost per rank.

Dimensional: Communication with this modifier can bridge dimensional barriers, reaching into other dimensions and planes of existence. The Communication effect still has its proximate range, and the GM may rule certain subjects "out of range" of the effect, depending on their relative positions in the other dimension. Flat +1 point.

Rapid: Your communication occurs 10 times faster than normal speech. Each additional rank increases communication speed by a factor of 10. This is useful for high-speed computer links, "deep sharing" psychic rapports, and so forth. Flat +1 point.

Selective: If you have the Area extra, you can choose which receiver(s) within range get your Communication, excluding everyone else. This allows you to go from a single receiver (point-to-point) to all potential receivers in range (omni-directional) or anywhere in between. +1 cost per rank.

Subtle: Your Communication cannot be "overheard" (it is encrypted, scrambled, or otherwise protected). With 2 ranks, your Communication cannot even be detected (that is, no one can even tell you are transmitting, much less what you're saying). Flat +1 or 2 points.

Flaws

Limited: Communication may be limited to only members of a particular group, such as a species, family, members of an organization, and so forth. This is in addition to limitations imposed by medium (that is, requiring subjects to have a means of picking up on the Communication). -1 cost per rank.

Sense-Dependent: Communication itself is already sense-dependent (in that the subject(s) must be able to sense your communication medium to pick up your transmissions) and so cannot have this flaw. However, other perception range effects can be Communication-Dependent, meaning you must be in communication with your subject for them to work (using your Communication medium as a "carrier" for the other effect). If your Communication is blocked in any way, the other effect doesn't work. -1 cost per rank.