New Telepath Feat

[scottmage]

Ivanova said that she was a P1 or P2. She was able to tell when someone was scanning her and she could sometimes feel others emotions. She was never able to communicate with anyone other than her mother (telepath to telepath) and she never had any incident of Accidently scanning someone else.

I think she said she wasn't even a P1, not that it matters for the discussion but I'm a stickler for detail. I coulb be wrong though. It's been a while, my early season DVDs are on loan to a friend right now.

As a stickler for detail then...she would be a P2 since she could use Communication with her mother, she could sense when someone was using a Telepathic ability on her (Sense Telepathy, P1) and she had some kind of Mind Shield that was strong enough to keep Lyta (P5 version) from sending the Telepathic code for the sleeper personality of "Control" (Mind Shield, P1).

She said that she could also sense emotion (Surface Scan, P3 limited version though) - maybe there should be a Sense Emotion P2 , since that is described in most of the books.

 

[Mongoose Gar]

Sensing emotion fits under Accidental Scan quite nicely.

 

[Barbara]

Scottmage- Go back to the main book, read the feat Latent Telepath.
P-Zero - Can sense when others use telepathic ability on them. May have a mindlink with a close person. May be able to use Communicate. ( and I think Warning. but I haven't got my book here to check.)
She is not a P1,2 or 3. She said that she was a Latent Telepath. The Coming of the Shadows. November. Episode where Lyta Alexander exposes Talia Winters as a Sleeper.

 

[scottmage]

Scottmage- Go back to the main book, read the feat Latent Telepath.
P-Zero - Can sense when others use telepathic ability on them. May have a mindlink with a close person. May be able to use Communicate. ( and I think Warning. but I haven't got my book here to check.)
She is not a P1,2 or 3. She said that she was a Latent Telepath. The Coming of the Shadows. November. Episode where Lyta Alexander exposes Talia Winters as a Sleeper.

I will not disagree that the rules do say that under Latent Telepath.

I will disagree with the rules though that Latent Telepath is NOT a P0 due to the statement by JMS when speaking about Ivanova:

Under JMS Speaks "She's a latent telepath. About a P1. As has been established on the show in the past."

http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/countries/us/guide/085.html

Latent
1. Present or potential but not evident or active: latent talent.
2. Pathology. In a dormant or hidden stage: a latent infection.
3. Biology. Undeveloped but capable of normal growth under the proper conditions: a latent bud.
4. Psychology. Present and accessible in the unconscious mind but not consciously expressed.

A latent telepath still has a Permanent Psi Level Rating, i.e. a P10 such as Alisa Beldon. They do not have any skill in Telepathy until they are Awakened. Until they awaken they have no Mind Shield (basic blocks) and if they awaken and no one can teach them how to set up even a basic block that prevents them from Scanning all the surface thoughts of the people around them, then they become Blips, unable to cope in normal society.

If you have seen the movie Scanners, there is a really good example of this. One by one people come into a room with a Telepath. The do not say a word. They are paid to read or sit and think. The more people come into the room, the more agitated the Telepath becomes since he cannot block out their thoughts. This is worse than being at a crowded sporting event, since the thoughts are inside the Telepath's head.

It has been stressed during the show (and in the game) numerous times that it rare for the P level to change more than 1 and that the Psi Corps tries to help the lower P level Telepaths to cope. A Latent Telepath does not go from P0 to P10 just because they Awaken :!:

Latent Telepath should not allow a character to use Telepathic Abilities that they do not have power for. This is the same as the starting Feats that a Telepath has. Accidental Scan should not be available until a telepath has sufficient power (P3+) to do a Surface Scan at least. Warning makes sense since it is only a word transmitted. I am not sure that Sense Telepathy should get all of the sub-abilities under it's description either. Sure a Telepath could tell if another Telepath is attempting to Surface Scan them (or something else that a Mundane would not detect), but the other options for a P1 seem way off the scale.

Example: A P5 uses Sense Telepathy on a person that Bester created an Action Block with a Memory Vault on it. The P5 only needs to roll a 14+ on Sense Telepathy and a 16+ on the Deep Scan in order to tell that Bester (if they met before) created a Vault with a DC of 41. Kind of defeats the purpose of creating a Vault. Granted the P5 will not know what is in the Vault, however they will know that the mind has been tampered with.