Psionics & Genetics

[FreeTrav]

(arrrg, pleeeease no midichlorian)

Would mp3chlorians be OK? Or would wmachlorians be better?

 

[Jame Rowe]

For them, the additional trouble is this: if one allows that everyone has a Psi rating (2d6) and all Nobles get training regardless of their psi, and that only proles with Psi 9+ become intendentrs, there are still vast numbers of proles that will have a higher Psi than many of the nobles...

Correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to remember that when you made a Zhodani character on a psi roll pf 10-11 it was an intendant, 12 it was a noble, and 2-9 was a prole. But this is all very uncertain, from waaaaay back.

Well, in Alien Book 4, the sequence for generating characters has ones Soc raised to A if Psi 9+ and Soc<A; and training is only available to those with Soc A+. presumably this is the cut for becoming an intendednt -one can have a Psi of less than 9, but will not recieve training, IF Soc is not A+. All nobles (B+) get trained (by this sytem) if they have any Psi -which since in CHARGEN, everyone has a Psi rating, means all nobles.

So:
Psi < 9 and Soc <A, no training, Prole status.
Psi 9+ , Soc <B, Soc raised to A ; trained & intendent.
Soc B+, trained, Noble Status.


Sound right ? remember, this is the generation system for Zhodani characters, not necc (and likely not) representative of the whole NPC population.

No, it was if Soc 9+ (that is to say, if you were an intendant or noble), then roll your psionic strength. At least, that's how I understood it.

 

[captainjack23]

Correct me if I am wrong, but I seem to remember that when you made a Zhodani character on a psi roll pf 10-11 it was an intendant, 12 it was a noble, and 2-9 was a prole. But this is all very uncertain, from waaaaay back.

Well, in Alien Book 4, the sequence for generating characters has ones Soc raised to A if Psi 9+ and Soc<A; and training is only available to those with Soc A+. presumably this is the cut for becoming an intendednt -one can have a Psi of less than 9, but will not recieve training, IF Soc is not A+. All nobles (B+) get trained (by this sytem) if they have any Psi -which since in CHARGEN, everyone has a Psi rating, means all nobles.

So:
Psi < 9 and Soc <A, no training, Prole status.
Psi 9+ , Soc <B, Soc raised to A ; trained & intendent.
Soc B+, trained, Noble Status.


Sound right ? remember, this is the generation system for Zhodani characters, not necc (and likely not) representative of the whole NPC population.

No, it was if Soc 9+ (that is to say, if you were an intendant or noble), then roll your psionic strength. At least, that's how I understood it.

Hmmm. That's from CT Aliens 4: Zhodani. I'll check again, but I'm pretty sure thats how I read it.

 

[klingsor]

If it is not genetics explanations become more difficult. The best idea, stolen form a novel in the great tradition of all great ideas in RPGs, is from Lawrence Watt-Evans' novel The Cyborg and the Sorcerers in which a cyborg travelling in an STL spaceship still fighting a war forgotten centuries ago encounters an enemy planet with wizards. Don't laugh it is a good book.

The original magician was a mutant (the planet had worked over with nuclear weapons) who could replicate his ability in other people by tweaking, to some extent rewiring their brain, though their power would vary. If this is what psionic testing really involved then this works very nicely as an explanation and also accounts why the survival of the psionics institutes is required to keep psionics going. It works for me.

 

[captainjack23]

Sound right ? remember, this is the generation system for Zhodani characters, not necc (and likely not) representative of the whole NPC population.

No, it was if Soc 9+ (that is to say, if you were an intendant or noble), then roll your psionic strength. At least, that's how I understood it.

Hmmm. That's from CT Aliens 4: Zhodani. I'll check again, but I'm pretty sure thats how I read it.

Okay, I checked directly, and it specifies that characters do have their Psi rolled as normal, regardless of Soc.

Where Soc does matter is for training: training is only available to characters with a Soc A+; this includes intendants, as any character with a psi of 9+ and soc 9- is elevated to soc A (Intendant status).

The confusion in memory may be due to the two alternate options given for generating characters who are Nobles or Intendants; or, from the following line:

"Psionic Training is only given to nobles and Intendents. Proles do not recieve any training, and should ignore the psionic strength attribute entirely"

In any case, for characters, that's the basics of generating attributes. Also, note that it does mention that the chance of rolling psionic status of 9+ is 28%.

This fits with the idea that there must be a different distribution of psi in non-characters to fit the observed ratios of Proles:Intendants. (85:15)

If, of course, that's how the referee decides to do it that way....

Note that the above quote and references are all from CT AM4 (Zhodani), pg 23, Initial character generation section.