Here’s a way the psychic powers of mind-reading and telekinesis could work. Mechanically it’s inspired by my experiences playing Dungeon Crawl Classics - I should finish this off with a list of Mental Mishaps, but I don’t feel like figuring out how it would work, and besides someone else probably already did it. Fictionally, I’m inspired by the works of David Cronenberg and Stephen King.

Psychic Powers

Sensitive characters may eventually find it trivial to read the minds of others. Most people can do it a little bit, but it takes power to find secrets. It also takes some time to reach the depths of another person’s mind. Even then, some minds will never open up to another that is too unlike them. Cold material objects are easier to manipulate than a sentient mind.

Psionic Power Levels

If a PC has 15+ in any non-physical attribute, they are Sensitive. Otherwise, they begin play as Regular. Further advancements require training, empowerment, or experience. Sensitivity is not a pre-requisite for advancement.

Mind Reading

When you try to read someone’s mind, roll your mind die. Add up to 10 if the PC and the target mind share a language, species, background, passion, home, bond, skill, class, age, gender, or name. Subtract up to 10 for major differences, poor circumstances, and countermeasures.

Your perception may encompass any results equal to or less than your roll.

1. For some reason, this person is utterly unreadable to you.
2. You can read obvious body language and directional intent, if any.
3. You can read the emotions they intend you to see.
4. Subtle physical cues tell you how they’re really feeling.
5. You know what they’re about to say before they say it.
6. You can shift their mood with a touch.
7. You can predict their next movement before they make it.
8. Your heartbeat syncs with theirs. You feel it when they tell a lie.
9. You hear a single word: the reason why they feel the way they do.
10. You may share their dreams when you’re both asleep.
11. You see their idle thoughts floating away as clouds. Daydreams, urges, grief.
12. You hear their inner monologue. Perceptions, secrets, anxiety.
13. You see everything they saw since they last slept.
14. You experience their memory of a major life event, feeling what they felt.
15. You make them see or hear something that isn’t real.
16. You implant a convincing belief in their mind. It fades after a day.
17. By meditating nearby, you hold them in a state of perpetual sleep.
18. Their overarching goals and network of dependencies become clear to you.
19. You perceive what they perceive, and understand their understanding of it.
20. You may review their entire life experience, including events they cannot consciously remember.

Telekinesis

When you try to make an object move, roll your mind die. Add up to 4 if you have spent significant time in physical contact with the object, or if the object holds great sentimental value. Subtract up to 4 for circumstantial factors that make the thing resist moving, such as size, weight, restraint, friction, gravity, or stubbornness. A living thing can be a kind of object.

You may affect the target object as any single result equal to or less than your roll.

1. The object is mysterious and unreachable to you.
2. You feel a familiarity for the object, as if you’ve met before.
3. You experience a phantom sensation, like holding the object in your hand.
4. You activate a feature of the object (press a button, flip a switch).
5. The object rolls or slides laterally across a surface, up to 10 feet.
6. When thrown, the object flies twice as fast or twice as far.
7. Your voice is amplified to a thunderous volume for 10 minutes.
8. The object hovers by your shoulder for up to one day.
9. The object moves slowly anywhere within range for up to an hour.
10. Rip their held or worn object away from them.
11. While standing or sitting on the object, fly for an hour.
12. Hold the object in your hands - pinpoint its location for the next day.
13. The object sticks to a surface, utterly immovable for up to one week.
14. The object is moldable like clay in your hands. It reverts to its original shape after one day.
15. All small objects of the same type within range move as you command.
16. Crush, rip, shatter, explode, or otherwise destroy the object.
17. Transmute a handful of tiny objects or materiel into any other element.
18. Sustain the intentional movement of a vehicle or structure for up to one year.
19. The object teleports instantly to your hand from anywhere within range.
20. Create an identical copy of the object. It exists for one month, then dissolves into goo.