mavikfelna
Emperor Mongoose
Ok, we have been discussing new rules in the Rules Clarifications: Psionic Initial Training Talent Checks thread and it has started me on a quest to write up new psionic rules. In order to not disrupt the other thread further for my alternate rules, I'm starting a new thread.
My rules change the base talents from the 5 in the core rulebook, 1 from Aliens of Charted Space 1 and 3 from Core Adventure 3, to 11 total. Each of the base talents then has sub-talents and the sub-talents have the powers that are used, treated and learned/improved as skills.
First thing I'd like to look at is testing and training.
## Testing for PSI
A character wishing to develop psionic abilities will need to be tested. Normally this entails finding a teacher who has the time and ability to spend a couple of weeks working with the character while they discover their potential or to find a psionic teaching institute that does testing. Testing traditionally costs 5,000 Cr and consumes most of the available time for two weeks. The character may not perform other activities or training during these two weeks.
In settings where psionics is allowed it is usually a simple matter, routine, Admin (INT or SOC) (6+) check to find an institute or instructor. In settings where psionics are illegal, such as the Third Imperium in Charted Space, finding a teacher or institute is a difficult task, Streetwise (EDU or SOC) (10+). Characters or groups that succeed at this task may obtain testing and training with the instructors they discover. A slim margin of failure or success (-1 to 0 effect), may indicate discovery of a trainer or institute but they must be convinced in some manner or require some service beyond the normal 5,000 Cr amount to do the testing.
A group seeking testing that finds a single instructor rather than an institute pays the 5,000 Cr for each character tested and the tester cannot test more than 1D3 students at a time. If the stats for the tester are generated they may test or teach a number of students at a time equal to their INT mod +PSI mod +Leadership skill level, with a minimum of one.
Often times, even in societies where psionics is illegal, the government itself runs a training institution and will recruit those that test well. This choice is left to the GM if they wish to pursue a campaign of this type.
If the Psionic Institute pre-career or Psionic Community background options are available, then testing and training is considered to be part of the career and is conducted when the career starts. See Careers section below.
## Psionic Training
Initial training takes four months and costs 100,000 Cr unless there are unusual circumstances, such as being recruited by the government. Subsequent training periods cost 25,000 Cr per talent and 10,000 Cr per sub-talent being learned, but no more than 1 + positive INT Mod may be trained at a time in subsequent training. During training, the character rolls for potential in the psionic talents they are interested in, difficult, PSI (10+). They may make up to 3+INT modifier attempts in total per training period for the same or different talents and sub-talents. Each attempt is modified by the PSI modifier as a DM and by the listed DM for the talent being attempted from the table below. Additional DMs may be applied at the GM's digression. If initial training is interrupted for any reason, the training is a failure and must be restarted. If subsequent training is interrupted for more than a week, the learner suffers a DM+2 for difficulty to learning.
If allowed by the GM, the training students may attempt to reduce or increase the time increment of training. Training may be reduced to 8 weeks at a cost of increasing the learning difficulty by DM+2 to Very Difficult. Unlike the standard training period, during intensive training the Traveller is not able to do anything besides training for the talents they are pursuing. If this training period is interrupted, the training automatically fails. Conversely, the Travellers may attempt to take twice as long as normal, 8 months, to carefully study and practice the talents they are learning and gain a DM-2 difficulty, to Average. If training is interrupted during this time, the students lose the DM-2 bonus but may still attempt learning talents so long as they are not disrupted for more than one month.
Some talents may not be available due to total modifiers making a roll of greater than 12 needed. These talents are not available to the character unless unusual circumstances or modifiers become available at the GM’s digression. (Note: talents with a negative penalty are usually particularly disruptive to campaigns and GMs are free to exclude them from player acquisition.)
All new trainees will automatically learn the Universal talent, the General sub talent and the Mind Shield skill at level 1, and any species specific sub-talents and skills, at level 0, that are appropriate for their species. If a species sub-talent is listed as being part of another talent tree, it is not gained in initial training but only when the appropriate talent is learned.
If a trainee chooses to take Telepathy as their first talent, they will automatically succeed to learn the talent, the Basic Telepathy sub-talent and gain skill level 1 in the Send/Read Thoughts skill.
The initial training in any talent also grants a single basic sub-talent of the learner's choice without a learning roll for that sub-talent and they learn the appropriate skills of that sub-talent at level 0.
When learning sub-talents, they generally use the same values as their parent talent for the learning DM but exceptions will be noted in the sub-talent description. Generally, Advanced sub-talents are at DM-2 when rolling to learn them.
Rolls to acquire talents are made at the end of the training period, but payment for training is made at the start of training. Any failure to learn talents is not reimbursed, the credits are simply lost.
#### Psionic Training
| **Talent** | **Learning DM** |
| -------------- | -------------------------- |
| Healing | +3 |
| Kinesis | +0 |
| Meta-psionics | +1 |
| Remote Sensing | +2 |
| Self-Awareness | +2 |
| Symbiosis | -1 |
| Telepathy | +4 |
| Teleportation | +0 |
| Transmutation | -1 |
| Species | As per species description |
| Special | Per GM |
Sub-talents
Universal: General, Species
Healing: Basic, Advanced, Mass
Kinesis: Radiation, Thermal, Energy, Mass/Gravitic, Advanced for each
Meta-Psionic: Basic Self, Basic Manipulation, Advanced for each
Remote Sensing: Basic, Advanced, Temporal
Self-Awareness: Basic, Advanced
Symbiosis: Flora, Fauna, Machine, Advanced for each
Telepathy: Basic, Advanced
Teleport: Basic, Advanced, Group
Transmutation: Basic Matter, Basic Energy, Basic Bio (changeling), Advance for each
Special: per GM
I would love to hear your comments and suggestions on this.
Training Powers/Skills:
Psionic Skills are trained as if they were standard skills and follow those rules but use PSI instead of EDU for learning checks. Psionic skills and regular skills may not be trained at the same time unless there is some situation in effect that allows learning of multiple skills at one time in effect.
My rules change the base talents from the 5 in the core rulebook, 1 from Aliens of Charted Space 1 and 3 from Core Adventure 3, to 11 total. Each of the base talents then has sub-talents and the sub-talents have the powers that are used, treated and learned/improved as skills.
First thing I'd like to look at is testing and training.
## Testing for PSI
A character wishing to develop psionic abilities will need to be tested. Normally this entails finding a teacher who has the time and ability to spend a couple of weeks working with the character while they discover their potential or to find a psionic teaching institute that does testing. Testing traditionally costs 5,000 Cr and consumes most of the available time for two weeks. The character may not perform other activities or training during these two weeks.
In settings where psionics is allowed it is usually a simple matter, routine, Admin (INT or SOC) (6+) check to find an institute or instructor. In settings where psionics are illegal, such as the Third Imperium in Charted Space, finding a teacher or institute is a difficult task, Streetwise (EDU or SOC) (10+). Characters or groups that succeed at this task may obtain testing and training with the instructors they discover. A slim margin of failure or success (-1 to 0 effect), may indicate discovery of a trainer or institute but they must be convinced in some manner or require some service beyond the normal 5,000 Cr amount to do the testing.
A group seeking testing that finds a single instructor rather than an institute pays the 5,000 Cr for each character tested and the tester cannot test more than 1D3 students at a time. If the stats for the tester are generated they may test or teach a number of students at a time equal to their INT mod +PSI mod +Leadership skill level, with a minimum of one.
Often times, even in societies where psionics is illegal, the government itself runs a training institution and will recruit those that test well. This choice is left to the GM if they wish to pursue a campaign of this type.
If the Psionic Institute pre-career or Psionic Community background options are available, then testing and training is considered to be part of the career and is conducted when the career starts. See Careers section below.
## Psionic Training
Initial training takes four months and costs 100,000 Cr unless there are unusual circumstances, such as being recruited by the government. Subsequent training periods cost 25,000 Cr per talent and 10,000 Cr per sub-talent being learned, but no more than 1 + positive INT Mod may be trained at a time in subsequent training. During training, the character rolls for potential in the psionic talents they are interested in, difficult, PSI (10+). They may make up to 3+INT modifier attempts in total per training period for the same or different talents and sub-talents. Each attempt is modified by the PSI modifier as a DM and by the listed DM for the talent being attempted from the table below. Additional DMs may be applied at the GM's digression. If initial training is interrupted for any reason, the training is a failure and must be restarted. If subsequent training is interrupted for more than a week, the learner suffers a DM+2 for difficulty to learning.
If allowed by the GM, the training students may attempt to reduce or increase the time increment of training. Training may be reduced to 8 weeks at a cost of increasing the learning difficulty by DM+2 to Very Difficult. Unlike the standard training period, during intensive training the Traveller is not able to do anything besides training for the talents they are pursuing. If this training period is interrupted, the training automatically fails. Conversely, the Travellers may attempt to take twice as long as normal, 8 months, to carefully study and practice the talents they are learning and gain a DM-2 difficulty, to Average. If training is interrupted during this time, the students lose the DM-2 bonus but may still attempt learning talents so long as they are not disrupted for more than one month.
Some talents may not be available due to total modifiers making a roll of greater than 12 needed. These talents are not available to the character unless unusual circumstances or modifiers become available at the GM’s digression. (Note: talents with a negative penalty are usually particularly disruptive to campaigns and GMs are free to exclude them from player acquisition.)
All new trainees will automatically learn the Universal talent, the General sub talent and the Mind Shield skill at level 1, and any species specific sub-talents and skills, at level 0, that are appropriate for their species. If a species sub-talent is listed as being part of another talent tree, it is not gained in initial training but only when the appropriate talent is learned.
If a trainee chooses to take Telepathy as their first talent, they will automatically succeed to learn the talent, the Basic Telepathy sub-talent and gain skill level 1 in the Send/Read Thoughts skill.
The initial training in any talent also grants a single basic sub-talent of the learner's choice without a learning roll for that sub-talent and they learn the appropriate skills of that sub-talent at level 0.
When learning sub-talents, they generally use the same values as their parent talent for the learning DM but exceptions will be noted in the sub-talent description. Generally, Advanced sub-talents are at DM-2 when rolling to learn them.
Rolls to acquire talents are made at the end of the training period, but payment for training is made at the start of training. Any failure to learn talents is not reimbursed, the credits are simply lost.
#### Psionic Training
| **Talent** | **Learning DM** |
| -------------- | -------------------------- |
| Healing | +3 |
| Kinesis | +0 |
| Meta-psionics | +1 |
| Remote Sensing | +2 |
| Self-Awareness | +2 |
| Symbiosis | -1 |
| Telepathy | +4 |
| Teleportation | +0 |
| Transmutation | -1 |
| Species | As per species description |
| Special | Per GM |
Sub-talents
Universal: General, Species
Healing: Basic, Advanced, Mass
Kinesis: Radiation, Thermal, Energy, Mass/Gravitic, Advanced for each
Meta-Psionic: Basic Self, Basic Manipulation, Advanced for each
Remote Sensing: Basic, Advanced, Temporal
Self-Awareness: Basic, Advanced
Symbiosis: Flora, Fauna, Machine, Advanced for each
Telepathy: Basic, Advanced
Teleport: Basic, Advanced, Group
Transmutation: Basic Matter, Basic Energy, Basic Bio (changeling), Advance for each
Special: per GM
I would love to hear your comments and suggestions on this.
Training Powers/Skills:
Psionic Skills are trained as if they were standard skills and follow those rules but use PSI instead of EDU for learning checks. Psionic skills and regular skills may not be trained at the same time unless there is some situation in effect that allows learning of multiple skills at one time in effect.
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But, the bioships are really outside the scope of what I'm doing so no worries about copying them. 
