Okay, so it's time to provide an idea again while I'm still enthusiastic about it.
Canned Freedom: An RTD of Psionics and ImmobilityOnly twenty or so years ago, the entire scientific world was thrown into disarray by the shocking discovery that humans did, in fact, have psychic powers, or psionics, as people who didn't believe that 'psychic powers' sounded good enough called them. The scientific world rebounded very nicely, however, when it soon turned out that they were pretty much useless, and largely impossible to train. And you had better believe that they tried very hard to prove the opposite true over the following decade. Instead, psionics was basically just either a little bit of accidental luck coming your way, or, in especially powerful cases, kind of like a weaker version of NLP if it actually sort of worked. Though it was certainly a great day for pseudoscience, the enthusiasm for psionics soon died down in any serious scientific circles after a whole lot of completely fruitless research and wasted research money that people began to insist, as they often do, to be appropriated for something like curing cancer forever.
Fortunately, it is not these serious scientific circles we are talking about today. Who we are talking about instead are a cadre of North Korean researchers that nobody calls by any particular name aside from maybe 'Those People', mostly due to the fact that most forgot they existed about ten or so years ago, including the government. Using the very finest in kidnapped subjects, the most stolen Japanese technology and the most amazing in North Korean intellects, Those People have engaged in dutiful experimentation for quite a while, and, just when nobody in the world could have possibly suspected such a thing, they came to a spectacular breakthrough - the thing holding most people back from fulfilling their true potential was the fact that they had bodies, needed food and were constantly distracted by things that were not useful. Having had this epiphany, they acted upon it immediately, and got to work upon their newest crop of subjects.
You are, of course, these subjects. Or, rather, you were these subjects. Right now, you are the brains of these subjects. In jars. Fed by the very finest in North Korean nutrients and hormones. Fortunately for you, Those People knew what they were doing! With the right mix of drugs and sensory deprivation, a power hardly ever seen before has been awakened! The power of the mind, in all its glory and limitless potential, in the hands of people who most certainly can be trusted with that kind of thing. And also Those People. Play your cards right, and you could be a god. Play your cards wrong, and your nutrient and oxygen intake gets cut. They literally have a button for that. As well as other things. So, under the wise guidance of Mission Control, who is now very much like you (the only KPA officer Those People had on hand, actually - they couldn't get any others), you must put your abilities to work in what will assuredly be a safe and responsible manner.
First things first - you are brains in jars, and your only means of movement and communication are your psychic powers. A glorious existence, truly.
...
Right, the psychic powers. Here are the main ones.
Projection: this is what you use to project your avatars (which can be of any sort, obviously) as well as other things. Focus in this power results in you being able to project solids, liquids and gases more efficiently and reliably, while lack of such a focus will mostly relegate your avatar to intangible observer status, as well as severely limit your object projection powers.
Sensation: though you can sense things through your main avatar if you project one, focusing in this branch will grant you greater perception of things outside of conventional range. Possibly even some premonition skills! Ooh! If you don't choose this branch, you'll basically have to deal with whatever limited senses your avatar might possess.
Mentalism: normally, you shouldn't be able to invade minds and bend them to your will, or divulge information from them, or wipe them clean and do something else of that sort. But if you're a master of Mentalism, you can do lots of things that normal people only wish they could.
Manipulation: focus in this, and you can move objects without an avatar, set things on fire, reverse gravity in a room if you're especially good, basically all that stuff you'd totally do if you were one of those cool ghosts that you see in movies. Don't focus in this, and you can't do any such thing. Well, at least not quite as awesomely, you know.
In the very beginning, you get to allocate two pluses to these four categories - these are your basic talents. One plus means decent ability, two pluses are better, going up to four pluses meaning total mastery. With each successful mission, you get another (or maybe two if the mission's really long and important to the DPRK or to Those People) plus, and possibly a medal as well. They are likely to pin it on the tin can you find yourself inside of.
As for the rolls themselves, well... probably a d6, with an additional d6 rolled to determine severity in case of a 6 or a 1, same as Prophets of the New God, pretty much.
Also, mastery of a particular type of psionics bestows bonuses! Once you add another plus, not only do you gain a host of new abilities (say, two or three for each level from 0 to 4), you also gain a +1 to using abilities of the previous level. So, at level 4 you'd get +4 to level 0 abilities, +3 to level 1 abilities, +2 to level 2 abilities, +1 to level 3 abilities and no bonus to level 4 abilities, because those are really complicated.
In addition, unless they piss off Those People or get seriously out of line to the point where Mission Control has to step in, players can't really die. Instead, their avatars can be disrupted (if solid, lots of things work, if not, mostly , which just requires the players to project them again. Mission Control mostly acts as an aide, being very well-versed in Mentalism and Sensation, and helps the subjects find their required locations and project there to operate in the name of the DPRK.
Of course, it doesn't necessarily have to be the DPRK they're working for. It's just more amusing that way, and paves the way for less serious missions alongside more professional ones.
Name: you can be of any nationality - the DPRK is not very selective in its kidnapping policies.
What You Were Doing At The Time Of Your Kidnapping: for fun and to give you a space to do some preliminary fleshing out of your characters.
Talents: add two pluses to whichever of the four categories you wish however you please, two pluses in one category being entirely acceptable.
The Color Of Your Mind: for color coding.
Your Power Animal: mostly irrelevant. Mostly.
So, thoughts? Suggestions? I can't run this right now, of course, but I do wish I could. What I left out were the specific powers people would get at each level of mastery - obviously, there should be a list of those, and I might even make one if I'm struck in the face by a brick of inspiration wrapped in a generous slice of free time.
Also, I wonder how easy to guess the inspiration for this is.