Psion Preview?
- Thread starter MrUkpyr
- Start date
I must admit this is the first Traveller book by Mongoose I am not in a hurry to see. I have never used or seen psionics used in a Traveller game - and in precious few other games for that matter. I wonder if my antipathy still stems from A. D. & D?
I am sure I will find something useful in it though, particularly as I am starting to think of introducing some Zhodani to the campaign.
I am sure I will find something useful in it though, particularly as I am starting to think of introducing some Zhodani to the campaign.
kafka
Mongoose
I never really cared for psionics and never really quite found a way to use them in a campaign other than the obligatory "hunt for the psionic institute" subadventure. But, on the hand, I fully endorse their use in SF but never in fantasy. For I draw upon the long lineage of those long foreheads that aliens have and communicate silently. Psionics is there as the ulitmate unknown.
alex_greene
Guest
I suspect the antipathy towards Psionics stems from some people's belief that FTL travel, gravitics and meson weapons may one day become possible, but telepathy never will.
It's okay if a machine can produce some inexplicable effect, such as hanging unsupported in the air, but not a human mind. Because humans who can generate the strange phenomena of clairvoyance / telekinesis / teleportation without a machine are, in fact, cheating somehow. Or, if not cheating, they're somehow "humans with powers," and you can't have humans with powers in hard SF, because again, it's cheating. Or it's fantasy.
And yet ostensibly hard SF books, movies and TV series have had people with telepathic or other psionic powers, from telekinetic phantom arms and Plateau eyes to mind melds, and nobody so much as blinks in those stories when they occur. Because what with the other strange wonders of their universes, from ringworlds to Kemplerer rosettes to double stars, to singing clouds and flying cities, a telepath is often the least freakish thing the universe can create.
And in universes where everything seems increasingly to focus on dehumanisation and mechanisation, the mass movement of (miniatures of) troops and machines, the clash of high end strategies and dirty tactics, and the boom and thump of HE rounds and the lightning crash of energy weapon discharges, Psion kind of brings it all back to the individual, and to the individual scale.
It's okay if a machine can produce some inexplicable effect, such as hanging unsupported in the air, but not a human mind. Because humans who can generate the strange phenomena of clairvoyance / telekinesis / teleportation without a machine are, in fact, cheating somehow. Or, if not cheating, they're somehow "humans with powers," and you can't have humans with powers in hard SF, because again, it's cheating. Or it's fantasy.
And yet ostensibly hard SF books, movies and TV series have had people with telepathic or other psionic powers, from telekinetic phantom arms and Plateau eyes to mind melds, and nobody so much as blinks in those stories when they occur. Because what with the other strange wonders of their universes, from ringworlds to Kemplerer rosettes to double stars, to singing clouds and flying cities, a telepath is often the least freakish thing the universe can create.
And in universes where everything seems increasingly to focus on dehumanisation and mechanisation, the mass movement of (miniatures of) troops and machines, the clash of high end strategies and dirty tactics, and the boom and thump of HE rounds and the lightning crash of energy weapon discharges, Psion kind of brings it all back to the individual, and to the individual scale.
alex_greene
Guest
Now from those little glimpses, I imagine that's just made Zhodani battleships a lot more dangerous.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
alex_greene said:
My thoughts exactly! I plan on designing a Zho Patrol Ship in the 400-600 ton range and a Destroyer (2000 tons) using some of those ideas. The PIC in particular looks interesting, but without the rest of the text, we don't know exactly how much we can augment the drives etc.
A lot of interesting comments there. Typically inconsistent despite my antipathy towards psionics I have a soft spot for the Zhodani - a really interesting alien culture despite being human. I was thinking of having the PCs encounter a Zhodani merchant in District 268 in a peaceful, even helpful encounter to play with stereotypes.
More imminently though there will be Chirpers - so blast, I need this Psionic book!
More imminently though there will be Chirpers - so blast, I need this Psionic book!
My thing about it is that they used the Drifter table for the Psionic Drifter career. I don't mind a Psi. Drift. being a wanderer, but I do not like one being a barbarian or a scavenger. If they would be outcasts, then what barbarian tribe or scavenger group would take them (NONE.)? And besides, it shows a certain lack of creativity in not making up a new type of career path for Psi. Drifters.
kafka
Mongoose
No, I think that is where you are wrong...telepathy and other psionic talents has a basis of in Science is that as we progress in time, we find that we are using more and more of our brains but it is still only at 15% and the 1950s science that Traveller is premised upon believe that to be the root of "psychic powers".
No, my apathy comes more from that first illustration. Rather, than becoming balanced but flawed characters...psionics allows Traveller characters to become more uber which goes against the spirit of the game. Also, unlike it as a plot device, it is hard to run games around the fact of these uber powers.
No, my apathy comes more from that first illustration. Rather, than becoming balanced but flawed characters...psionics allows Traveller characters to become more uber which goes against the spirit of the game. Also, unlike it as a plot device, it is hard to run games around the fact of these uber powers.
Rikki Tikki Traveller
Cosmic Mongoose
Well, I can see your point of view, but if I want to run a more space opera version of the game, or have ALIENS with Psionic powers that dwarf what puny humans can do. This book will give me a way to put them in game terms.
Think about some of the aliens on Star Trek, sure it was Space Opera, but the humans did not have Psionics, but other races did. This book may not be for people that only play in the OTU (except maybe for adding SOME of the stuff for their Zhodani).
Personally, I have a Methane breathing species that is at TL17 that blasts human ships any time they get near one of their planets, making them psionic is something I have been thinking about. They are NPCs only and are my Uncomprehensible Aliens of Incredible Power (UAIC). This book will help with that if I want to put the PCs in direct contact with these UAICs.
SOME of the stuff might be usable for Zhodani NPCs as well.
Will I let PCs have this stuff, probably not, but they might encounter it.
Besides, this is the FIRST original Traveller book as far as I can tell. All of the others have been updates to previous CT books. Not that I am complaining, but this IS new material folks. Thats always a good thing.
Think about some of the aliens on Star Trek, sure it was Space Opera, but the humans did not have Psionics, but other races did. This book may not be for people that only play in the OTU (except maybe for adding SOME of the stuff for their Zhodani).
Personally, I have a Methane breathing species that is at TL17 that blasts human ships any time they get near one of their planets, making them psionic is something I have been thinking about. They are NPCs only and are my Uncomprehensible Aliens of Incredible Power (UAIC). This book will help with that if I want to put the PCs in direct contact with these UAICs.
SOME of the stuff might be usable for Zhodani NPCs as well.
Will I let PCs have this stuff, probably not, but they might encounter it.
Besides, this is the FIRST original Traveller book as far as I can tell. All of the others have been updates to previous CT books. Not that I am complaining, but this IS new material folks. Thats always a good thing.
captainjack23
Cosmic Mongoose
kafka said:
Geeky nitpick - the oft quoted statistic that we only use 15% (or 10% or 1/6) of our brain is misleading -we use about 15% at any one time, and that only applies to the higher functions. All of it gets used eventually -and the lower functions better be used all the time - otherwise it's called 'death'.
But, I remember a very cool Heinlein story based on the then current belief that the right brain was largely unknown territory,; and it turned out to be the seat of latent Psi powers. They discovered it when a famously lucky card player lost his luck after an otherwise minor head injury. Cool stuff.
alex_greene
Guest
They could have done the Psionic Entertainer career option, including the Psionic Journalist - where the "sources" for his scoops aren't so much from third sources, but from the very minds of the guilty parties he's exposing ...
To quote:-
"Key. The minds behind every diplomatic, military and covert operation in the Galaxy. And you put them ... in a room ... with a psychic."
To quote:-
"Key. The minds behind every diplomatic, military and covert operation in the Galaxy. And you put them ... in a room ... with a psychic."
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