Psionic Characters

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Since I haven't seen this yet and it was an area of interest to Gar..

I present my just rolled up Psionic Character using the Psionic Class in V3.2

Adolph
UPP: 969978-A (psi strength is shown after the dash).
Homeworld: Hi Pop, Hi TL (why not)
Background skills: 3
Streetwise-0
Computer-0
Medical-0

Career: Psi Warrior (sure why not)
Basic Training:
Teleathy-0
Awareness-0
Teleportation-0
Gun Combat-0 (E Rifle)
BattleDress-0
Recon-0

TERM 1:
Survival (End 6+): 9+1 Yes
Advancement (End 6+): 6+1 Yes (Rank 1, Gun Combat-1 (Picked ERifle)
Event: 10 (Useful info, +1 on a Benefit roll)
2 Skills:
Service Skill: (3) Telekinesis
Specialist Skill: (1) Telepathy

TERM 2
Survival: 7+1 Yes
Promotion: 12+1 Yes (has to stay in) (Rank 2 Leadership)
Event: 8 (Psi +1)
2 Skills:
Personal Development (4) Dex +1
Specialist (4) Gun Combat (EPistol)

TERM 3
Survival: 9+1 Yes
Promotion: 6+1 Yes (Rank 3, no extra skill)
Event: 9 [Advanced Training Edu roll (9) selected Gunnery(Turret)-1]
2 Skills:
Service (4) Awareness
Specialist (4) Gun Combat (Selected EPistol again)
QUIT

Benefits: 5 rolls (3 terms +2 for Rank 3)
Cash (3) 4000 CR
Cash (5) 8000 CR
Other (6+1) 10 Ship Shares
Other (4) TAS Membership
Other (1) GUn (E Pistol)

FINAL DETAILS

Captain Adolph Age 30
UPP: 979978-B
Skills:
Gun Cbt (EPistol)-2, Gun Cbt (ERfl)-1, Leadership-1, Gunnery(Turret)-1, Telepathy-1, Awareness-1, Telekinesis-1, Teleporation-0, Battledress-0, Recon-0, Streetwise-0, Medical-0, Computer-0

Stuff: 12,000 Cr
10 Ship Shares, Laser Pistol, TAS Membership

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Second Character: Lets only look at his PSI side assuming he found an institute during Char Gen (Life Event Roll of 12 then 1)

Contact Psi Institute in his 3rd term... (DM -2 to PSI roll).

PSI Strength: 6-2 for a Strength of 4 (DM -1) (well it's better than a 0!)

Abilities (in order rolled for):
Telepathy: (6+4-1) YES
Awareness: (7+1-1-1) NO
Clairvoyance: (3+3-2-1) NO
Telekinesis: (10+2-3-1) YES
Teleporation: (11+0-4-1) YES (for what it's worth)

So:
His PSI strength is now 4
Skills:
Telepathy-0
Telekinesis-0
Teleporation-0

I had REALLY good rolls for his abilities, but with a PSI strength of 4 he can't really do much. Pray for PSI boosters I guess.

He also has a Debt of 105,000 CR for the testing and training. Can this be treated as Medical Debt????

Since his PSI is less than 6, he cannot become a Psioncist character (if I read it right), otherwise, he would have to roll 6+ with a DM of -2 (1 career and 1 for ability of 4). WHICH IS RIGHT HERE?

 

[gabonator]

Thank you for posting this, I too have been a bit confused. However it's on different stuff, so perhaps all of this can get addressed before it goes to final printing.

When rolling for psi-abilities how do you know what a passing score is? The rules seem muddy to me here. (I'm glad your second character got all those abilities but what's the number to roll higher?)

Also, it doesn't seem to make sense to have a positive DM and a negative DM, or am I missing something? I understand that your psi-strength is a modifier, that seems reasonable. Are the positive DMs for each ability because the ability is easy/common to have? The negative DM is because you just don't see a lot of folks with multiple abilities?

I got used to the CT and MT systems and it was a straight negative DM as you checked for abilities, which meant that if you really wanted (insert favorite ability here) you rolled for it first or second. I don't mind a +DM I just don't understand the game designer logic for it.

When rolling up a Psi-Warrior would you not have to also role for the psionic abilities that the person has, or is part of being a psionicist that if you role the ability on the skill table you get the ability no matter what?

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

Sorry for the confusion on the DMs, I was trying to show them all rather than just giving a DM number.

Here is one example explained:

Telekinesis: Rolled a 10 on 2D
DMs:
+2 for the DM for Telekinesis (each ability has a different DM here)
-3 since this was the 4th ability rolled for (same as CT)
-1 for his PSI Score DM. (Score 6 is a -1 Characteristic DM)

The base number is 8+ on 2D like all other MGT throws, modified per above.

In his case, 10+2-3-1= 8 so he succeeded.

The cumulative negative DM is something from CT, you can pick what order you want to roll for abilities, but they become successively harder as you go through the list, so pick what you want first.

Regarding the PSI warrior, I triple checked that and could not find anything that said I should roll for abilities, so I didn't. I think it is now just skill levels you are rolling for.

I THINK that means that every person has potentially every ability and every discipline. The ability rolls only determine what you have Skill-0 in from basic training.

So, even though the second guy doesn't have skill in Awareness, he could still try to use awareness, but with the DM for no skill, which pretty much means he will fail every time.

I would not want to teleport without skill and probably a lot more than Skill-0.

IF this is the correct interpretation of the rules, then I think that is a departure from past versions of Traveller where you only had certain abilities, not all abilities at different skill levels.

Since Psionics wasn't ever big in any of my games, I don't know how this would affect overall play.

 

[Jame Rowe]

I am of the opinion that this character really needs to have several of those skills at level-1 instead of -0.