Imperial Psionics IMTU

[ottarrus]

So I'm rolling up a character who enters the Military Academy and his pre-career event turns out to be Psionics.
That got me thinking about Mongoose's take on psions in Imperial service. Looking at the Core Rules, I thought the Psionicist profession was kinda silly for someone who'd been to the Imperial Marine Academy. So what to do?
Alright, we know from canon sources that there are at least two Psionic Institutes in the Imperium, one at Earth and one at Regina.
It's not unreasonable that an Imperial military academy is gonna have have somebody trolling for likely candidates. I mean, both the FBI and the CIA have people at the US military academies looking for potential recruits, and I'm told that happens in the UK too.
Assuming this is the case, my Marine goes through Background skills, Academy entry, and Basic Training. He graduates, so that nets him three Basic Training skills raised to 1. He graduates with Honors which automatically promotes to O1 in the IMF with a skill point in Leadership to go with it.
I then do the Psionic Testing and test for his Talents

Now obviously the Imperium isn't gonna train someone to be a psionicist and then just feed him into the annual herd of Second Lieutenants. They're obviously gonna use the talents they trained, right? But I'll be honest here... the most appropriate Psionicist service would be 'Psi-Warrior'. But those tables just seem too 'jedi knight' for my tastes. The most likely assignment would be as an intelligence asset of some sort. So I decide that working for Naval Intelligence means Agent in the Intelligence branch.
This leads me to a couple questions:
- Psionic Jarhead isn't changing services, but it's clear he'll need a little more training in the basics of intel work. Should he get a 0-level skill?
- How to handle the psionic aspect of it? One thought was that if Psionic Jarhead survives his term, he should just get a psionic skill at lvl 1.

How would you guys handle this rather quirky situation?

 

[Sigtrygg]

The Imperium does maintain a couple of psi institutes for research and military purposes.

Any character from that background would be monitored by Imperial spy agancies rather closely.

It would be possible for a character to have trained in an underground psi institute, but they run a great risk of, when discovered, being treated as criminals and subject to rather harsh punishment.

 

[NOLATrav]

You could treat it like a term event - roll against a skill/characteristic to see if you get a bonus skill or a transfer to Naval Intelligence/Psi-Ops.

Or stay the course as an Imp Jarhead but every second or third skill roll can be taken on the Psi-Warrior tables.

The cool thing is you’ll be world building a whole new secret arm of the Imperial Services And one of those contacts, allies, etc is definitely going to be an intelligence agency keeping tabs on you!

 

[ottarrus]

Oh yeah. The 3-I is not about to let a psion they trained 'run loose', so to speak. He'll probably end up kind of like a Detached Duty Scout -- every time he stops at a Naval Base he'll have to debrief with the local intel wonks... I don't think there's a psion at every naval base, but every base has a intelligence section. And, of course, if he's ever implicated in a crime he's gonna be 'detained' long enough for a psionic officer to come and, um, FULLY interview him.

 

[Midnightplat]

I think if a Psion is discovered within an Imperium Service Academy, the Psion's conventional military career is derailed. Allowing a Psion to exist within the conventional military chain of command would be deemed too great an insider threat to function. Too much fear of potential psionic meddling higher up the chain or subversion of conduct lower on the chain (in the military and intelligence community there is no main character syndrome, there is a mission and "special" people distract or jeopardize that mission). The most plausible thing, if the Psion is allowed to live, is the Psion is treated as an asset, and a tightly controlled asset. Good bye any semblance of a normal traveller life, instead the Imperium military branch or intelligence or internal security service would use the character in psionic support of the branch or agencies' mission, dependent on what talents the Psion develops. Yeah, Awareness could make a Jedi Warrior, but all the other talents also have military and intelligence value, some would say greater strategic value than a "Jedi warrior". Some sort of spook or bag agent is more likely than psi-warrior. Another possibility In regular war and intelligence you chiefly have HUMINT and SIGINT, a Psion adds PSIINT. When not assigned to apply their Psi to a specific mission task, expect a compulsory regimen of blockers.
But how could a character like this be integrated in a campaign with other characters? Option one, it's a military or Agent campaign and the other characters work in conjunction with the Psion. Option two, when discovered or somehow during their service (which is more like servitude) the Psion ran. Maybe there's a handful of program managers in the military or intelligence community aware of this character. Problem someone has a desk to keep an eye on folks like the character and the ones who still seem loyal or believers in the Imperium can be tapped for Traveller work and otherwise given free reign. Those who are at cross purposes with the Imperium, there are ways of handling those characters, mostly sicking the Psion who didn't run on them.
At least that's my crack at a nutshell for this.

 

[Sigtrygg]

The psionic suppressions and the animosity felt within the Imperium towards psionics is a real thing.

Imperials hate psionic users, they distrust them, they are criminals, they mind rape children.

The Imperial military doesn't privately just ignore all that as it is ingrained into them as well.

An actively psionic person discovered within a marine barracks is likely to be killed rather than handed over to the spooks.

If you are psionic within the Imperium you are either
a Zhodani spy
Imperial agent very tightly controlled
a criminal being hunted by the whole of society.

 

[ottarrus]

@Midnightplat @Sigtrygg
I see the point you both make, and I don't necessarily disagree with it. But GDW canon sources specifically say that the Institutes at both Regina and Earth are run by Imperial Naval Intelligence.
I know Sigg thinks that the Imperium is supposed to have softened up to the 'white-hat yanks' coming to save the day. My view differs quite a bit from that. I see the Imperium as a far more gray entity and many of its officials are not shy about getting their hands dirty if that's what it takes to keep the 11000 worlds together. It might be all fine, well, and good to have lofty ideals in the Moot or the hallowed halls of the AAB, but 'out here where the mesons burn the meat' things are a lot less cut and dry. As always, YTUMV, but I can't see organizations as jaded as INI or IMoJ casually casting aside psionic abilities for the sake of something as trivial and ephemeral as public opinion.
The 'realpolitik' of the situation is that, yes, psionics are illegal, but they are also a potent capability and one that should not be cast aside. This is especially important in the Spinward Marches, where the principle opponents all embrace psionic powers to one degree or another. The Imperium, therefore, embraces controlled psionics... where psions are identified and trained but are also indoctrinated to be loyal to the Iridium Throne and whose loyalty is confirmed by telepathy. And yes, it's likely far more clumsy and invasive than anything a Zhodani Prole goes through with the Tavrchedle'.

 

[Midnightplat]

@Midnightplat @Sigtrygg
I see the point you both make, and I don't necessarily disagree with it. But GDW canon sources specifically say that the Institutes at both Regina and Earth are run by Imperial Naval Intelligence.
I know Sigg thinks that the Imperium is supposed to have softened up to the 'white-hat yanks' coming to save the day. My view differs quite a bit from that. I see the Imperium as a far more gray entity and many of its officials are not shy about getting their hands dirty if that's what it takes to keep the 11000 worlds together. It might be all fine, well, and good to have lofty ideals in the Moot or the hallowed halls of the AAB, but 'out here where the mesons burn the meat' things are a lot less cut and dry. As always, YTUMV, but I can't see organizations as jaded as INI or IMoJ casually casting aside psionic abilities for the sake of something as trivial and ephemeral as public opinion.
The 'realpolitik' of the situation is that, yes, psionics are illegal, but they are also a potent capability and one that should not be cast aside. This is especially important in the Spinward Marches, where the principle opponents all embrace psionic powers to one degree or another. The Imperium, therefore, embraces controlled psionics... where psions are identified and trained but are also indoctrinated to be loyal to the Iridium Throne and whose loyalty is confirmed by telepathy. And yes, it's likely far more clumsy and invasive than anything a Zhodani Prole goes through with the Tavrchedle'.

I guess then we're sort of in agreement re: your resolution to a character creation dilemma. As far going in line with GDW canon, the wiki mentions institutes (there were more than two during The Long Night for practical reasons) lose their sanction during the Psionic Suppression period which leads to the Traveller Universe we have today in Third Imperium. That's not saying you can't have some remnant of the Earth or Regina institute, or the entire facility left intact by Imperial Naval Intelligence. But again this is all saying a Psion in the Imperium if left alive to be cultivate will be a highly controlled asset. Institutes probably less Xavier's School for the Gifted and more like the Psychic Institutes you see in Stephen King novels like Firestarter or the New Mutants movie from a few years back. Or play in a prior era if canon stuff really matters to your game.

How does this Psion mesh with a Traveller group? Assuming the group likely won't want to be the support team for a main character Psi campaign, or you don't want to play a Psion working in support of more liberated Travellers, the rogue thing is an option.

Naval Intelligence, historically across actual IRL Navies, tend to compartmentalize themselves away from the larger working Navy. They provide insight to advise strategic or tactical decision making, but literally do adhere to "loose lips sink ships" so keep a lot of their sources and methods away from the regular working Navy. Discovering a Psion I still feel would lead to Navy Intelligence interrupting the Psion's regular Navy career ... so maybe Agent as a path if you don't want to stay in the Psion profession. I don't think a Psion would be commissioned a traditional rank, given concerns about a Psion's risk to chain of command. That said, if you rolled cool promotion gains, you could create a sort of Warrant Officer Rank that would be comprable in benefits to the lower tier regular officer commissions.

What would most likely happen is hard to gauge since there isn't really anything like psionic potential to compare it to. The tradition of the Oxbridge letters of interest that MI-5/6 still occasionally do aren't letters from Hogwarts. It's a testiment that someone on faculty who likely either a.) has advised gov't on security and/or served in the security establishment that the letter recipient does have a grasp of geopolitical affairs in line with the govt, and is that odd mix of straight arrow and good liar (and ideally has some useful language skills). CIA still has some old boy network reach into the Ivy Leagues, but you apply to Clandestine services these days through a web portal; and military folks sliding into IC work, the IC wants to see you deliver goods in the contract you signed with your branch first, and probably a few degrees more than that before you start applying for some of the most competitive jobs in the gun toter world. Basically I don't see a PSI in the Imperium given much human agency, but becomes something more like a living special access program, not an Auror.

 

[Condottiere]

Implanted cortex bombs, that go off if too far from handler, or the handler is dead.

 

[Midnightplat]

Implanted cortex bombs, that go off if too far from handler, or the handler is dead.

Man I hope the link between the Psi and Handler's devices is stronger than my cell phone, or a new spin on dead zones. "So yeah, Imperium GSA just replaced the interview room windows with this new material" <BOOM>. "Dang, I guess time to test the Naval academy cohorts again."

Reminds me, Joan Vinge in the 80s or 90s had this series of lets call them "intersteller cyberpunk" or psipunk novels with a protagonist Cat. I read the 2nd novel Catspaw, and think while not the best novel, it may give an inclination as to how a Psion may navigate an interstellar setting where their powers are a rare and coveted commodity.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[ottarrus]

A simpler solution would be to have a cortical implant that would lobotomize the psion if the timer isn't reset. The timer could be reset at ONE Naval Base per subsector and must be reset every year. The implant might have an anti-tampering trap to foil attempts to 'slip the leash'.

Another aspect that I think would increase the psion's loyalty is that every psion is a volunteer and every candidate is warned about the implant. Every candidate would choose between training in psionics, getting the implant and serving the Imperium for 20 years -or- having a lobotomy to remove the psionic centers in their brain. The lobotomy would be nearly foolproof in that there would be no reduction of the patient's INT or EDU scores unless there's a mishap on the procedure's skill roll. But the patient would be rendered forever 'non-psionic'.

 

[Midnightplat]

A simpler solution would be to have a cortical implant that would lobotomize the psion if the timer isn't reset. The timer could be reset at ONE Naval Base per subsector and must be reset every year. The implant might have an anti-tampering trap to foil attempts to 'slip the leash'.

Another aspect that I think would increase the psion's loyalty is that every psion is a volunteer and every candidate is warned about the implant. Every candidate would choose between training in psionics, getting the implant and serving the Imperium for 20 years -or- having a lobotomy to remove the psionic centers in their brain. The lobotomy would be nearly foolproof in that there would be no reduction of the patient's INT or EDU scores unless there's a mishap on the procedure's skill roll. But the patient would be rendered forever 'non-psionic'.

So I do think, given the existence of Psi Blockers, this is probably a "cleaner" way of dealing with a rogue Psi than an actual explosive, a triggered blocker "overdose" that wrecks the Psi regions of the brain of whatever instead. Condottiere's leash is arguably shorter (we haven't discussed range, though if their vid is indicative it looks like its a "by the handler's side" sort of thing). I do think a yearly check in is a very generous leash given the innate control and paranoia issues within a security agency, especially one in a society that is "anti-psi". While the short leash allows for or burdens the character with a constant NPC drama, and that's cool if that's what you want in your game, real life handlers don't piggyback on their assets (in intelligence the asset can access what the handler or the handler's agency can't on its own) but they do maintain regular contact protocols. A yearly checkin would be something used for a very "meh" resource. I could see the device set on a variable timer calibrated to the scope of a mission (to include Jump times and actual operational time). Perhaps the Handler has discretion, or there's a level of oversight over the Handler that keeps the settings of the device outside of the Handler's control (which would be good compartmentalization). For a "kinda free" agent, they're likely to be subject to checkins but also levels of surveillance constantly by the intelligence arm's counterintelligence section. Think Eric Snowden as he is now rather than Jason Bourne.

But this is all one playstyle informed by IRL intelligence and sources and methods handling. It's certainly more narratively convenient to do the Bourne thing, especially if he's travelling with other travellers.

 

[Garran]

There's no reason that you can't use the "Psion/Institute" career path to cover someone who works for Intel, especially if their role isn't purely cloak-and-dagger but extends into other areas (lab research, counter-psi tactics, etc). That's how one of my characters was handled, though granted they came from a psionic community outside of the Imperium and were recruited for the purpose, making them more of an intelligence asset than an intelligence agent.

There was nothing in the way of crazy control-freak implants, and anything of the sort would've meant "no hire" in their case, so none of that was an issue. Aside from which, I don't really care for that idea in general because there are too many ways for it to go wrong or (worse) to be subverted, especially given the limited communications/transport in the setting - not to mention that something that that isn't exactly going to encourage genuine loyalty in a group of people who you really want to be loyal. Careful monitoring and security protocols, sure - those are expected, but they can also be spun as giving the psionic character a degree of safety from the very unfriendly general public, so it feels like it works to their advantage too.

 

[ottarrus]

@Midnightplat
Well, assuming that the character isn't a prisoner and honorably serves the rest of his career [aka no mishaps], the one year timer allows the character to make a living. This limits the character's wandering as a merchant, mercenary or troubleshooter to a reasonable area and doesn't leash the character too very much. An additional proviso might include a 'Mission Impossible' clause stating that if he's caught by civilian authorities using his psionic powers for criminal activity that the IN will not reset the timer.... he'll be lobotomized at the end of the current time period.

@Garan
The Psionic Jarhead will most likely be functioning as a Naval Intelligence officer as written in 'The Third Imperium' pg 43. Very few serving military officers are the actual assets that gather the intelligence, most serve as analysts, agent handlers, or professional military intelligence officers on the staff of units. How that would play out for a psionic really depends on the psionic talents and ability of each individual agent.

As an aside, it would have REALLY been helpful if Mongoose had repeated the bit about the Naval Intelligence career path in 'The Imperial Navy' book.....

 

[Saladman]

...
How would you guys handle this rather quirky situation?

Given your premises, and skipping the rest of the thread discussion, I would handle that with a custom career specialty within Marines. Then they can still lean on Service Skills, Officer, and Personal Development for the Marine side of skill development. For the sake of discussion, something like:

Special Talent

1. Recon
2. Deception
3. Gun Combat
4. Telepathy
5. Clairvoyance
6. Telekinesis

Obviously everything is on the table depending on your vision. #6 is particularly up for grabs though. I thought of Tactics first, but other Marine tables have that well covered. Could be Awareness, but as you said that's a little Jedi. I'd stay away from Teleportation, to not feel too Zhodani. Could be Investigation if you want to lean into the Agent side of things.

 

[ottarrus]

That's not a bad list... Not bad at all.
I might alter it just a hair, though.

1. Recon
2. Deception
3. Gun Combat
4. Investigate
5. Talent
6. Talent
Where 'Talent' is defined as a] +1 to any psionic skill you already possess or b] attempt to learn a new psionic skill at Skill Level 0 with all the talent roll mods you have accumulated thus far.

 

[ottarrus]

I should also probably mention that Psionic Jarhead currently has the Awareness, Telekinesis, and Teleportation Talents at Skill Level 0

 

[Geir]

I know Sigg thinks that the Imperium is supposed to have softened up to the 'white-hat yanks' coming to save the day. My view differs quite a bit from that. I see the Imperium as a far more gray entity and many of its officials are not shy about getting their hands dirty if that's what it takes to keep the 11000 worlds together.

If you've read Agent of the Imperium, then you know how true that is. The Imperium took that utilitarian principle of 'the greater good' to heart. Of course, the Imperium also defines what it considers to be 'good'.

 

[ottarrus]

If you've read Agent of the Imperium, then you know how true that is. The Imperium took that utilitarian principle of 'the greater good' to heart. Of course, the Imperium also defines what it considers to be 'good'.

That's where I get my take on the Imperium and its sense of 'realpolitik'.
The Imperium serves its peoples best through four major benefits: Peace, Policing of the Spacelanes, Technological Uplift, and Free[-ish] Trade. And the biggest benefit by far is 'peace'. Peace allows economies to grow and technologies to develop. Peace allows art to flourish and culture to advance. Peace allows policing of the spacelanes to occur.
But peace is bought at a high price:
- Fielding the largest and most effective Navy in Charted Space costs men, material and money in quantities that stagger the mind;
- Defending the Imperium on SIX fronts [Zhodani Core-Spinward, Vargr Coreward, K'kree Core-Trailing, Aslan Rim-Spinward, Solomani Rimward, and Hivers Rim-Trailing];
- And ignoring its own ideals in order to 'get the job done'.
As Orwell said, "People sleep undisturbed in their beds but for sake of rough men willing to do violence on their behalf."