Psion Preview

[captainjack23]

A paralysed location is unable to move and remains locked in position for the duration of the paralysis.
(...)
The paralysis does not prevent breathing or blood flow but if the head or neck are targeted, vocal chords, jaws, lips and mouth will be paralysed,
vastly restricting communication.

Well, I would not recommend to keep the vocal chords of someone locked
in position, there would be a rather high probability to kill the person in
Darth Vader's style unless the paralysis would be timed very well ... :shock:

Or leaving them looking like an Edward Munch painting......

 

[EDG]

Because you don't have the neural switchflicking power (ESP/Telepathy) and you need to paralyze someone ?

Sure, you could use TK (or whatever you have) to paralyse them, but if one is going to have to come up with a load of alternative ways to do the same thing then we may as well just switch to a (WW) Mage-like system where one just makes up spontaneous effects on the fly, rather than having specific power lists.

 

[EDG]

My position is that realistic psionics is inherently an oxymoron*.

I guess you missed the quote marks around "realistic". I meant that in the sense that people have at least done experiments IRL involving telepathy and remote viewing (and depending on who you believe, the military supposedly did a lot of research into remote viewing). I'm more inclined to keep an open mind about human ability with that kind of thing than about TK and teleportation. And I don't recall any experimentation into seeing if someone could ignite someone with will alone, or purely mental teleportation (and I'm sure if anyone tried the results would be distinctly negative, as opposed to being at best somewhat ambiguous like the "internal" stuff).

 

[Kilgs]

Arrgh. I'm just irritating myself now.

Yeah, you are..

:lol: I just vented to my SO about this and the look in her eyes was... hilarious. She said I sounded like that "comic book guy from the simpsons" which then prompted us to find the quote on the internet.

Last night's 'Itchy and Scratchy Show' was, without a doubt, the worst episode ever. Rest assured, I was on the internet within minutes, registering my disgust throughout the world.

I'm such a dork. Someone... bring me a hammer

I think Mongoose should declare a new rule: After a forum poster venomously states their position, they must then state and justify that argument to their husband/wife/SO/GF/BF/cat. And await a response...

 

[captainjack23]

Because you don't have the neural switchflicking power (ESP/Telepathy) and you need to paralyze someone ?

Sure, you could use TK (or whatever you have) to paralyse them, but if one is going to have to come up with a load of alternative ways to do the same thing then we may as well just switch to a (WW) Mage-like system where one just makes up spontaneous effects on the fly, rather than having specific power lists.

Well, it's quite possible to have one power and not the other in traveller, and players are always going to find new ways to do odd things with what they have. You asked why they would do it, not if traveller should allow it. They'll do it becuause they are players, and players minds twist and turn like a ....twisty...turn-ey thing.

 

[captainjack23]

I'm such a dork. Someone... bring me a hammer

Not until I'm done with it.

 

[captainjack23]

My position is that realistic psionics is inherently an oxymoron*.

I guess you missed the quote marks around "realistic". I meant that in the sense that people have at least done experiments IRL involving telepathy and remote viewing (and depending on who you believe, the military supposedly did a lot of research into remote viewing). I'm more inclined to keep an open mind about human ability with that kind of thing than about TK and teleportation. And I don't recall any experimentation into seeing if someone could ignite someone with will alone, or purely mental teleportation (and I'm sure if anyone tried the results would be distinctly negative, as opposed to being at best somewhat ambiguous like the "internal" stuff).

yes I did, sorry ! So:

My position is that "realistic" psionics is inherently an oxymoron. :wink:

 

[alex_greene]

Much like "realistic" gravitics, meson beams, Black Globes, universe - pinching Ancients, stasis fields, ringworlds, Kemplerer rosettes, laser weaponry, human genetic transplantation halfway across the Galaxy, cold sleep, AI, reliable robotics and FTL drives.

You accept those ideas without a second thought, as well as the concept of alien life forms growing up under suns other than Sol.

And yet the idea of human telepathy, precognition and non-local anthropogenic phenomena ... disturbs you.

 

[captainjack23]

Much like "reaqlistic" gravitics, meson beams, Black Globes, universe - pinching Ancients, stasis fields, ringworlds, Kemplerer rosettes, laser weaponry, human genetic transplantation halfway across the Galaxy, cold sleep, AI, reliable robotics and FTL drives.

You accept those ideas without a second thought, as well as the concept of alien life forms growing up under suns other than Sol.

And yet the idea of human telepathy, precognition and non-local anthropogenic phenomena ... disturbs you.

Not even close. :wink: I'm just not willing to worry about the relative realism of two highly unrealistic concepts. I'll use them and rationalize them in the game just fine, to the extent that they work within the context of the game.

 

[rust]

You accept those ideas without a second thought, as well as the concept of alien life forms growing up under suns other than Sol.

No, of course not - I do not use most of these ideas, and almost all of
the ones I do use have been changed with the aim to make them mo-
re plausible (e.g. cold sleep has been replaced by an artificial coma, a
method used in today's hospitals).

 

[EDG]

There's also a difference between "unrealistic" and "impossible". Gravitics may be currently impossible, as are FTL drives... but it's not inconceivable that future scientific development would make them possible (probably not in the Traveller sense though). Reliable robotics and AI are certainly possible - heck, the rovers on Mars are already pretty smart, and there was recently a robot technician in the news that could analyse its own results and create its own experiments to get new data. And alien life certainly isn't impossible either.

Psionics is all up in the air of course, but I think there is some evidence to suggest that something is going on that we don't yet understand in terms of remote viewing and telepathic transfer of information - so I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest that maybe those forms of psionics may become understood in a realistic scifi context. But there's no evidence at all to suggest that psionic telekenesis, pyro/cryokinesis and teleportation are possible, which makes me think that those are unreasonable in a realistic scifi context.

 

[captainjack23]

My own thought is that info transfer and remote sensing are probably of a class with TK and Teleportation with regards to impossibility; the difference is, I personally don't think it is a big issue as to whether psionics fits the setting or flavor of a genre ; or at least not big enough for me to imagine a hard and fast exclusionary rule . YMMV, obviously.

However, the thread topic isn't "Psionics: real or reasonable ?", so perhaps discussion should move to a new thread ?

 

[captainjack23]

Is now up on the web site, at;

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=1627

Quick clarification requested from Matt or Author if possible.

For the Psionic Blast, is the damage

(3d +2*effect ) * points ,

or

3d + (2*effect*points)

The latter seems a bit less over the top, and I know that this clarification has been needed before. Of course, I don't know yet how likely having the skill is, or how hard it is to have 15 PsiPoints, so it may not be as big a deal as it seems. (ie only Grandfather ever had 15 PsiSt)

 

[EDG]

However, the thread topic isn't "Psionics: real or reasonable ?", so perhaps discussion should move to a new thread ?

There's already another thread discussion the Psion preview (with almost the same name as this one), and the question came up on this thread of why it was reasonable that paralysing one human body required almost double the psi points of a telekinetic explosion - given that, I don't see any reason not to discuss the realism or reasonability of psi here.

 

[captainjack23]

However, the thread topic isn't "Psionics: real or reasonable ?", so perhaps discussion should move to a new thread ?

There's already another thread discussion the Psion preview (with almost the same name as this one), and the question came up on this thread of why it was reasonable that paralysing one human body required almost double the psi points of a telekinetic explosion - given that, I don't see any reason not to discuss the realism or reasonability of psi here.

Excellent points, but such a tangent will potentially bury actual questions or comments about the preview, which is the OT, and hide the discussion of psionics, somewhat; and besides, new topics are easy to start....there. Done.

 

[captainjack23]

One of the issues I've read about is people seem to be ambivilent about the psionic drifter career, especially the Barbarian. Why is that ? It seems that feral populations might be a great source of psions, as they may not have the same imperial biases -or at least be a good place to hide, as they have more roles that a psion can use to blend in: at TL, a fortune teller is pretty much part of the scenery; at TL 14, not so much (I'd llike to think).

 

[EDG]

Excellent points, but such a tangent will potentially bury actual questions or comments about the preview, which is the OT, and hide the discussion of psionics, somewhat; and besides, new topics are easy to start....there. Done.

Not interested (and I just knew you'd just go ahead and clog up the board with another thread). Just because you declare something to be off topic doesn't mean it actually is, or that it's worth starting another thread.

 

[qstor]

I can see more of the book being for B5 then the OTU. I'm going to get it but in my game limit some of the stuff that I saw in particular the psi powered ships. That jumped out Shadow Tech to me And Bester's lover.

Mike

 

[captainjack23]

I can see more of the book being for B5 then the OTU. I'm going to get it but in my game limit some of the stuff that I saw in particular the psi powered ships. That jumped out Shadow Tech to me And Bester's lover.

Mike

Me, I'm looking forward to the zhodani having some nasty surprises for the Impies come the FFW...... :twisted:

 

[Loz]

Is now up on the web site, at;

http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=1627

Quick clarification requested from Matt or Author if possible.

For the Psionic Blast, is the damage

(3d +2*effect ) * points ,

or

3d + (2*effect*points)

The latter seems a bit less over the top, and I know that this clarification has been needed before. Of course, I don't know yet how likely having the skill is, or how hard it is to have 15 PsiPoints, so it may not be as big a deal as it seems. (ie only Grandfather ever had 15 PsiSt)

It should be 3d+2+Effect. No multipliers in there.