Psion Communities

[alex_greene]

A NOTE ON GENDER AND RACE
Nowhere in these rules is a specific requirement established that any character (player or non-player) be of a specific gender or race. Any character is potentially of any race or of either sex.

But psion characters are legally allowed to be dumped on by their fellow players and the referee, because the RAW state that psions are supposed to be discriminated against.
Like I said, even within the 3I, there are psion communities, and an increasing number in the 1100s are open and vocal, right in Strephon's back yard. So maybe the anti-psions are wrong, yeah?

Besides, as everybody knows, it isn't a telepath who ends up killing Strephon. It's one of his closest friends, with a gun.

 

[Condottiere]

As I recall, the Vargr have psionicists.

Discovered psionists in thge Imperium have three choices: beg for Imperium protection, go underground, or make a break for the border.

In the badlands, there would be no organized search nor surveillance for psionicists.

No idea what Confederation policy is on them, especially refugees, though if you have pure Terran genetics, you'll probably breeze through.

 

[alex_greene]

Discovered psionists in thge Imperium have three choices: beg for Imperium protection, go underground, or make a break for the border.

Yeah, that's gonna end.

Ten years from now, there's going to be a whole new bunch of kids getting into gaming. They'll want to play Traveller, in the 3I. A lot of them will want to be psions. Human psions.

I'm not going to sit here and think of some kid in their first game being told by their fellow players and the ref that they are not welcome in the game, or in the room. Sorry, but I'm thinking of the game's future after I'm gone.

Like I said, the RAW in the core rulebook have got to change. Discrimination has got to be shown to be the mistake it is, and this chapter in Trav history will have to come to an end.

Even if it ends up with Space Noble Psions in charge - it's all canon, in every game room. Your canons do not erase anybody else's.

 

[Sigtrygg]

If you remove the stigma in setting then what do you do to stop everyone being psionic?

If you want a setting with no prejudice then generate Zhodani characters and have them adventure in the Imperium, they can go home when they have had their fill of the unfettered cesspool that is the Third Imperium.

Or stay in Zhodani space and have adventures dealing with the core expeditions, defeating the wave etc.

 

[alex_greene]

If you remove the institutionalised prejudice, what's stopping everybody from becoming your favourite hated minority?

Your Travellers might balk against some loon politician ranting on about culling redheads or cutting off the hands of left-handers, but when somebody comes along with an anti-psion ticket, everybody jumps on the bandwagon with a song and a smile, and the player of that one little telepath on the table feels the hate.

Maybe this whole thing in the 3I exists to show a mirror to the faces of players who claim to be non-prejudicial, until somebody gently points out to them that they are happy to have characters who support the prejudice and discrimination. Even Travellers who profit from discrimination.

 

[Vormaerin]

Yeah, that's gonna end.

Ten years from now, there's going to be a whole new bunch of kids getting into gaming. They'll want to play Traveller, in the 3I. A lot of them will want to be psions. Human psions.

I'm not going to sit here and think of some kid in their first game being told by their fellow players and the ref that they are not welcome in the game, or in the room. Sorry, but I'm thinking of the game's future after I'm gone.

Like I said, the RAW in the core rulebook have got to change. Discrimination has got to be shown to be the mistake it is, and this chapter in Trav history will have to come to an end.

Even if it ends up with Space Noble Psions in charge - it's all canon, in every game room. Your canons do not erase anybody else's.

You are right that future updates to the Core Rules should further separate the Charted Space setting from the generic rules.

But I completely disagree with this constant barrage of "we should change the Charted Space setting". What is published and what I do at my table are not related. But what is published should be consistent and make sense.

YOU can put hop drives in your setting. Or widespread psionics. Or whatever else YOU like. I make a lot of changes so it better reflects what I like. But those are not minor tweaks. Lots of Charted Space would be different if that was true. You can't just say "hey, Psionics are normative" and not make the associated changes that would come from law enforcement having psychics, Imperial Marines having psychic troops, and all that.

As an aside, I have never seen anyone pick on a player for playing a half orc or a psion or a girl or whatever the "disfavored in the setting" character type is. If you have players doing that at your table, they are the problem, not the rules.

 

[alex_greene]

At least this is something for Travellers to fight against and to oppose. Between this and the Ine Givar, it's good to see that the OTU setting has flaws, and that Travellers have agency to look upon those evils and right the injustices. I'm all for anyone who sets up a 3I game where they are psions who refuse to run, refuse to hide, and savagely destroy everything that prejudiced humans can throw at them, and fight back to change things for the better. People fought against racism, against slavery - maybe in the 3I, we can see some of that.

And I think I've seen some of that action in Errant Lightning, and Whispers on The Abyss, and I like it.

But I'm tempted to create a new setting for Traveller and get it published, one without the 3I's influences. No B5 Psi Corps, no 3I Psionic Suppressions, but something else. Exploration, maybe, like Trek, rather than like Stargate.

 

[alex_greene]

And with that, I think I'll have my last word and lock this thread down. It's been getting me worked up, and I'm sorry it's been contentious and so many friends here have been supportive, and I'm going to wrap up the thread with a final thought.
If this were a fantasy game, there'd be an expectation that every adventuring party should have a magic user on the team. Your adventuring party would not survive without them. There are science fiction settings where psionics are welcomed, and the main protagonist is a telepath, say hello Doctor Who. Star Trek would not have been the same without Spock and his mind melds. And the Third Imperium setting contains an important allegory about all manner of real world persecution and oppression of political, religious, and other minorities.
There is an opportunity in Traveller to understand what it feels like to belong to a people who are hunted and even marked for extermination. You have people living in enclaves in the 3I being bombed and chased down, put in camps, stuck in The Gash orbiting Pixie for their political views.

What is wrong is having players at the gaming table accepting this as normal, and having characters who support the institutionalised oppression, and players even trying to tell other players that they can't create characters with an agenda of wanting to bring the hatred to an end, within the story.

I created this thread to talk about the psion communities within the 3I. There's been a lot of the old "yeah, but you're gonna be hunted down, so you can either leave the 3I or run another game," and even "what would we do if we weren't allowed to be prejudiced any more?" which put me off Traveller, for one almighty hour.

Few people have come back, agreeing with the idea that something should be done with the core rules, to point out that it's only the 3I that is blind to this hate (and the Travellers can do something about it), but that your non-3I setting doesn't have to have this at its core like the 3I.

So this thread ends, now. I'm going to write something. Think I'll do something for Mythras.

 

[Vormaerin]

That is good idea. And one that is supposed to be an available option in the upcoming Mongoose license, according to Matt.

As far as Charted Space goes, the story has generally been that the Psionic Suppressions were intended to be targeted and got out of hand.

The rationale for the anti psi prejudice is to make it common enough that players can reasonably be psions if they want, but society still acts like society as we understand it.

From CT:
To The Referee: If everyone in society had psionics, there would be an ever present chance of player characters having their minds read, of non-player characters knowing what player characters thought or intended, and of such conveniences as walls, locks, and doors having little practical use. A little thought will show that society would be vastly different if everyone could use the psionic abilities described here however they wished.

It is important to keep psionics under control and out of the hands of most people. It is certainly permissible for players to seek out the Psionics Institute and to try to learn of their own psionic potential. But society as a whole will not allow individuals to openly advertise that they have
psionic powers, nor will it allow individuals to use them publicly. These points, if kept in mind, can help to maintain the fabric of the society in which the players are enmeshed.

Player characters are generally criminals anyway, so being a psion is not particularly more of a risk. In CT, the most common punishments for being caught as a psion were deportation, imprisonment, and tarring & feathering. Which is not really any worse than most of the crimes PCs get up to.