Psion Preview?

[AndrewW]

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.

Depends if you consider the Babylon 5 ones or not.

 

[kafka]

yeah, it is not a rip off a CT product but a T4 product - Psionic Institutes. It seems like MGT will have a pendant for stealing Traveller titles...not that I am complaining...as I would be less inclined to buy books with titles like: "TRAVELLER: Freaky Powers of the Mind" or "TRAVELLER: Even More Stuff"

 

[captainjack23]

yeah, it is not a rip off a CT product but a T4 product - Psionic Institutes. It seems like MGT will have a pendant for stealing Traveller titles...not that I am complaining...as I would be less inclined to buy books with titles like: "TRAVELLER: Freaky Powers of the Mind" or "TRAVELLER: Even More Stuff"

"Traveller: with extra charty goodness !"

"Traveller: a bunch of dudes you met at this place."

 

[rust]

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.

Only a short while ago I wrote an adventure that included psionics for my
setting, but when asked about their opinion on the introduction of psionics
into the setting the players reacted with a very clear "No Way - this is sci-
ence fiction, not fantasy !"

 

[Emperor Herdan]

I find their lack of faith... disturbing... (cue music)

(smile)

Take care

E. Herdan

 

[Sangrolu]

Only a short while ago I wrote an adventure that included psionics for my
setting, but when asked about their opinion on the introduction of psionics
into the setting the players reacted with a very clear "No Way - this is sci-
ence fiction, not fantasy !"

Oh, irony. In other parts of the intarweb, some fools argue vociferously that psionics is SF, not fantasy. :roll:

When I ran Traveller for my old group with the intent of running a straight up SF game with no psionics, there was one player used to more standard magical RPG fare could not seek out the psionics fast enough. I had to disuade her.

 

[Loz]

To me, psionics is SF. I remember getting the 1st ed AD&D DMs' Guide, reading the bit on psionics and thinking WTF? Surely this is a fantasy game! So I never used 'em.

Yet when Larry Niven had psionics as a living, breathing part of Known Space (Gil Hamilton's Arm... Teela's Luck Gene (kindof) and the whole idea of a Mass Detector being psychic) it all fit nicely and neatly.

One thing you can't glean from the preview about the Psion book is that its designed to let you tailor psionics to your campaign type and level. There are daft 'zap his head off' powers in there; weird 'fold space' powers; and Jedi Mindtricks. Thing is, if you're running a hard SF campaign where the best you can get is remote viewing or limited telepathy, then you can easily limit things to that. The rules are flexible; powers within talents always at the ref's discretion. This book has been designed to support most SF styles, from Anime through Star Wars to Hard SF to Dredd and beyond. Its a toolkit....

 

[captainjack23]

To me, psionics is SF. I remember getting the 1st ed AD&D DMs' Guide, reading the bit on psionics and thinking WTF? Surely this is a fantasy game! So I never used 'em.

Heh. me too. And now, "a wicked and perverse younger generation has, in the fullness of time, come full circle".....


The OD&D suppliment that introduced it was even more scifiesque -of course, if you used all the rules for psionics, they didn't unbalance the game one bit from the refs point of view -'cause psionicists died. Horribly. All the time. From horrid psi monsters and other hideous consequences and side effects, AND they generally took the party with them. ESP using Mages, too. Those were the days.

Player 1: "hey, should I roll for psionics ?

All the Rest: "NO WAY DON'T YOU DARE WE'LL KILL YOU IF YOU TRY PUT THOSE DICE DOWN RIGHT FREAKING NOW YOU IDIOT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

 

[BP]

To me, psionics is SF...

Well, I doubt anyone would say Star Wars wasn't SF - and call it what you will - the Force is basically psionics...

Of course it has a 'scientific' explanation...

Whether it is Fantasy or SciFi really depends on its basis - magical or via some RW derived mechanism (i.e. fundamental force). Hard Sci-Fi advocates would tend to disavow psionics (it's hard to find a place for it in the Standard Model ).

Personally, I see it as all fiction (Fantasy or Science). If its balanced then I can play it. If its unbalanced then I can chunk it.