[Pirates of Drinax] Powerful psions or errata?

[Nog]

A PC from the Floating palace rolls on the Life Events table on her first term. She rolls a 6 (unusual event) followed by a 2:
"You are psionic! Roll to test your Psionic Strength immediately, and gain DM+4 to the roll."

Her age is 18: it is her first term, and following the career flowchart she rolls for the Life Event before increasing her age to 22. So her psionic strength is rolled as 2d6+4. Does that mean that if those 2d6 come up as 12, her psionic strength will be 16?!?

I'd be strongly tempted to add (here, and in the similar entry for Vespexers) "to a maximum of 12".

 

[paltrysum]

Wow. Never stumbled across that one. Yeah, that's a little overpowered even if it is highly unlikely they'll run into it. I think your 12 maximum house rule is warranted. An instant level-15 psionic will throw you campaign right out of whack before it even gets started.

 

[AnotherDilbert]

Congratulations, she hit the jack-pot!

I would allow it. She hit an extremely unlikely event that will probably never come up again. Seize the opportunity to explore what this means!


P.S. She still have a DM-1 on the PSI roll for age:

The Examination: Each character has a basic potential defined by a two-dice throw. Age constantly lessens this potential, however, unless training is undertaken to use it. A DM of -1 is applied for each block of 4 years age above 18. These blocks correspond to the aging cycles. For example, a character who takes the examination at age 23 is in his second 4-year block, and has a DM of -2.

You get a negative DM after your 18th birthday and later. To avoid the DM you have to start training as a child.

 

[Nog]

Congratulations, she hit the jack-pot!
I would allow it. She hit an extremely unlikely event that will probably never come up again.

It depends. If you use the optional "iron man" rule that allows your characters to die if they fail a survival roll, it's actually quite easy - albeit time consuming to ensure that you roll a 7 in the first term Events (granting a Life Event), followed by a 6 (granting an unusual event) and either a 1 or a 2 (granting psionics) followed by a 12 for psi strength, for a psi strength of 12+4.
On average, you'll have to go through "only" 3888 characters

It is true, however, that characteristics for unaugmented humans are limited to 15... so a roll of 12 for psi strength on the first term would produce a 15, rather than a 16, the same as if you had rolled a 12 on the second term, or an 11 on the first term. This makes the probability of getting a 15-psi strength character from just a Life Event about 1/972 or so. Only 972 characters!

P.S. She still have a DM-1 on the PSI roll for age:

The Examination: Each character has a basic potential defined by a two-dice throw. Age constantly lessens this potential, however, unless training is undertaken to use it. A DM of -1 is applied for each block of 4 years age above 18. These blocks correspond to the aging cycles. For example, a character who takes the examination at age 23 is in his second 4-year block, and has a DM of -2.

You get a negative DM after your 18th birthday and later. To avoid the DM you have to start training as a child.

No. Classic Traveller is not Mongoose Traveller (or Mongoose Traveller 2nd edition). Mongoose Traveller explicitly tells you that if you are 38 when you test, you get -5 to your rolls, so if you are 18 when you test, you get no penalty. And (at the cost of repeating myself) the age increase in a term comes after you roll for your life events. So when you roll for a life event in your first term, you are "ruleswise" 18, and take no penalty.

 

[steve98052]

Note that the 15-power psionic still has to train for skills, and might end up with hardly any skills with which to use that exceptional power, unless they take up the psionic career path, which (if I remember correctly) allows acquisition of additional skills.

With that hypothetical 16 power, I might even grant the one extra psionic fatigue point, though not a 16 power rating.

 

[WingedCat]

A PC from the Floating palace rolls on the Life Events table on her first term. She rolls a 6 (unusual event) followed by a 2:
"You are psionic! Roll to test your Psionic Strength immediately, and gain DM+4 to the roll."

Her age is 18: it is her first term, and following the career flowchart she rolls for the Life Event before increasing her age to 22. So her psionic strength is rolled as 2d6+4. Does that mean that if those 2d6 come up as 12, her psionic strength will be 16?!?

Yes. Perhaps her ancestors included some Zhodani nobles, trapped on Drinax when the bombardment came, who decided to just stay on the Floating Palace and help out. It happens, and it's definitely player character material.