Psionics in Traveller 2e?

[Hopeless]

Can someone explain to me why the Psionics section has largely remained unchanged?

The LLB Psion supplement always struck me as the better use for that career by allowing a psion character to use a normal career but have the added option of improving an existing psionic power rather than a regular skill.

Was this ever addressed in the playtest and if so what was your reaction to this?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

Can someone explain to me why the Psionics section has largely remained unchanged?

The LLB Psion supplement always struck me as the better use for that career by allowing a psion character to use a normal career but have the added option of improving an existing psionic power rather than a regular skill.

Was this ever addressed in the playtest and if so what was your reaction to this?

Pretty much all the careers were left unchanged. The psionic skills had some tweaks done to their costs, and some different characteristics tied to some of them compared to 1st edition. I wanted the psionic section to be put into the career section, rather than being its own separate thing as usual.

There is the life event where Referees can tell players to visit the institute to see if their character is psionic or not. I'd have the players still keep their day jobs, but roll on the psionic skills table that best matches their current career.

I'm always making my own career templates if one in the book isn't a right fit for a player.

 

[Hopeless]

I've been wondering if it would be better if this comes up in a life event they get to select one psionic power and from that power select one ability and that ability they have at +1 but rather than use the Psion career use one of the others noting they can use one skill roll to increase this if they want.

What are the odds of that Psion life event turning up more than once in a character's career?

I ran a (very) brief game where one character ran an Adept and had a variety of powers but all at low level as you would expect.

This got me wondering what if you had characters with a single specialty or a unique ability rather than say a Jedi order, more they possess remarkable talents that doesn't necessarily mean Prof X mental powers but something that otherwise fits in as a useful ability for example if they ever get far enough with 2e to release the Psion LBB version of electrokinesis being able to unlock electronic locks via their mind, longevity due to Body Control or able to pick up impressions from an object ala Psychometry.

I believe there was a tv series called Alphas along these lines and I'm wondering if this is more my preference showing up than the game systems intent?

What's your view on Psionics in Traveller?

 

[ShawnDriscoll]

I have no issues with psionics in Traveller. I just treat them as skills like any other that a character would have. It's about a 1 in 60 chance of a character turning out to be psionic through random generation. And psionic characters are not super mutant powered in Traveller, which I like.

 

[-Daniel-]

I have no issues with psionics in Traveller. I just treat them as skills like any other that a character would have. It's about a 1 in 60 chance of a character turning out to be psionic through random generation. And psionic characters are not super mutant powered in Traveller, which I like.

I realize this thread is a few months old, but I wanted to bring this topic back up.

It is the very fact that Psionics in Traveller are not major super powers that I allow them in and do not even have an issue helping a character play a psionic. So far I have had two characters played. One a 2 term Psionic, 1 term Drifter and the other a 3 term psionic, 1 term drafted into Navy. Oddly both failed their attempts to move to a new career. But to be honest, both were fun characters.

If played right, Psionic characters can add an interesting spice to a game.

 

[alex_greene]

If played right, Psionic characters can add an interesting spice to a game.

I'd like to draw your attention to George Ardodet, the Third Laird of Bonitvar, in Cosmopolite, as an example of a psion played right.

The chargen options I make available to players who want psion Travellers are:-

1. Minimum PSi is 7 for Travellers. Just roll 1D+6 instead of 2D.
2. Pre-career Psion School (you get tested and trained at age 18. If you graduate, choose between +1 PSI or increase one Talent to 2. If you graduate with honours, choose between another +1 PSI or another Talent gets a +1 increase - theoretically, you could have one Talent at 3);
3. You can choose Telepathy as your first Talent, in which case you get it automatically, but even if you choose to roll randomly and fail every single Talent acquisition roll, you'll still emerge with basic Telepathy.
4. Each term, pick one of the regular career's Survival, Advancement, Commission or Benefit rolls and add your PSI DM to that roll if it is positive;
5. Each term, you can either pick a skills table from your regular career or its psion equivalent (Personal Development, Service Skills or Advanced Education if Edu is 8+);
6. Instead of choosing from those tables, you can pick from the Advanced Psi table (Psi 8+):

1D	Advanced Psi (PSI 8+)
1	Advocate
2	Diplomat
3	Investigate
4	Language
5	Leadership
6	Medic

7. You may choose between the psion events table and the regular career's events table, and between the psion mishap table and the regular career's mishaps table.
8. Instead of rolling on the Benefits table for your regular career, substitute your psion Benefit Table instead (the only DM allowable on that table is +1 for Gambler 1 or greater).
There is, optionally, a risk if you choose options 4-6: each time you pick any option from options 4-6 during the course of an otherwise normal career, roll PSI 8+ to avoid getting caught and outed, forcing you to leave that regular career and forfeit that term's advancement and benefit rolls (bypass the Mishap Table and just go straight out the door). Add Deception to the PSI roll, if you have it. Even if you are forced out of that career, you will still be able to use all the psion options during the course of a regular career.

 

[PsiTraveller]

My only caution about 2nd edition Psionics is that it has the Suggestion power in it. This can be a very dangerous power if the GM is not prepared. Look at the power and decide what the limits will be.

An example of the power of a Suggestion would be in the Pirates of Drinax campaign and Marine Salvesdes on the Imperial Treasure Ship. He was captured and psionic conditioning put into his brain. He is willing to put on battle armour and take out anyone in his way. The conditioning lasted months, perhaps years. This may be an example of artistic license, but the Suggestion power is the best example of how to create such a person.

Let's Take Alex_Greene's example. A Psion focuses on Telepathy and gets to Telepathy 3. Assume a +1 Strength bonus and you are getting+4 on all checks when you use your first power of the day. This may last longer if the Psionic battery comes back in 2nd edition. (Don't spend your personal points until the battery is empty, it keeps your Psi Power higher to get bonuses on all your rolls.)

This makes Telempathy and the placement of a beneficial emotion on the target pretty easy given the Routine Difficulty of the check.

Getting information from a target during questioning using Read Thoughts at 8+ Difficulty will give good results.

Probe would give more detailed, deeper information and is a tougher role, but an advanced Psion has a reasonable chance of pulling it off.

Suggestion can be used to create your basic Manchurian Candidate/sleeper agent. They may even be unaware of the treachery they will be committing. The simply copy the information and leave the data module on a bench somewhere. Or the victim kills a boss or loved one and does not even know why.


I am also looking forward to any Advanced Talents that may be coming out in a Psion book. The 1st edition book offered some really interesting options for campaign use.

 

[-Daniel-]

- There is, optionally, a risk if you choose any of the psion career options: roll PSI 8+ to avoid getting caught and outed, forcing you to leave the career and forfeit that term's advancement and benefit rolls (bypass the Mishap Table and just go straight out the door). Add Deception to the PSI roll, if you have it.

If you choose a Psion career option, aren't you already "outed"? Aren't I already living a psion life?

In any case, it might be interesting to have some sort of path where a Psion can become a registered psion in the imperium and have options and restrictions placed on them. If registered, can only select particular fields for their career options for example. Just a half-baked idea.

 

[alex_greene]

- There is, optionally, a risk if you choose any of the psion career options: roll PSI 8+ to avoid getting caught and outed, forcing you to leave the career and forfeit that term's advancement and benefit rolls (bypass the Mishap Table and just go straight out the door). Add Deception to the PSI roll, if you have it.

If you choose a Psion career option, aren't you already "outed"? Aren't I already living a psion life?

In any case, it might be interesting to have some sort of path where a Psion can become a registered psion in the imperium and have options and restrictions placed on them. If registered, can only select particular fields for their career options for example. Just a half-baked idea.

I really should work on my phrasing.

 

[-Daniel-]

I really should work on my phrasing.

Oh I like the change you made. Makes more sense now. :mrgreen:

I do like where you are going with this.

 

[alex_greene]

My only caution about 2nd edition Psionics is that it has the Suggestion power in it. This can be a very dangerous power if the GM is not prepared. Look at the power.

Just about every single player on this board wants limits on powers like that, and for one reason only - they wouldn't want those kinds of powers to be used against their characters.

Let's Take Alex_Greene's example. A Psion focuses on Telepathy and gets to Telepathy 3. Assume a +1 Strength bonus and you are getting+4 on all checks when you use your first power of the day. This may last longer if the Psionic battery comes back in 2nd edition. (Don't spend your personal points until the battery is empty, it keeps your Psi Power higher to get bonuses on all your rolls.)

This makes Telempathy and the placement of a beneficial emotion on the target pretty easy given the Routine Difficulty of the check.

Getting information from a target during questioning using Read Thoughts at 8+ Difficulty will give good results.

Probe would give more detailed, deeper information and is a tougher role, but an advanced Psion has a reasonable chance of pulling it off.

Suggestion can be used to create your basic Manchurian Candidate/sleeper agent. They may even be unaware of the treachery they will be committing. The simply copy the information and leave the data module on a bench somewhere. Or the victim kills a boss or loved one and does not even know why.

I can't see a downside in any of this.

I am also looking forward to any Advanced Talents that may be coming out in a Psion book. The 1st edition book offered some really interesting options for campaign use.

You were looking at some of the material I have already written up, should Matthew commission a Psion 2e.

 

[alex_greene]

As for the question of resisting psionic powers, I would grant the Travellers and major NPCs the ability to resist with, say, Int or Edu rolls to counteract Telepathy, and perhaps Str or End to counteract Telekinesis. Only occasionally, as a Ref, I would throw a psion Traveller a googly and present them with an interrogation subject who is psi-conditioned to resist Telepathy - and give them a fun challenge to break through their defences.

Think of that episode towards the end of Babylon 5, "Objects In Motion," IIRC, when Lyta had to probe the mind of the man who'd been sent to assassinate Mr Garibaldi.

Oh, also: no PvP abuses of psionic abilities. You can rule that any time a non-psion Traveller gets hit by something like Suggestion, they automatically detect it and somehow block it.

 

[PsiTraveller]

The Suggestion vs other players is a danger to group unity. It may be funny to have a Psion have someone decorate their TL 14 Battle Armour as a bunny outfit, but the other risk is to have a Psion player order players to leave all their goods behind and go for a long walk and let the Psion steal everything, or implant suicide commands if the players get too mad at the Psion.

The fear of the loss of privacy is a trope for all psionics in television and movies. The detection and blocking of powers in PvP as you mentioned is the magic defense shield to prevent the invasion and control of one player by another. (I read his thoughts and get his password and login and bank information).

If you have mature players this may not be a problem, but the theft of information might be made too easy. The Psion Rogue: Mindstealer is a great example of this.

Having a player able to just order someone to betray their boss can short circuit a lot of adventures.

 

[alex_greene]

Suggestion vs other players is a danger to group unity.

If the player is attempting to use it on the other players, they can outright refuse - and the referee can back them up.

the other risk is to have a Psion player order players to leave all their goods behind and go for a long walk and let the Psion steal everything, or implant suicide commands if the players get too mad at the Psion.

A player could have his character spike their drinks with a suggestibility drug, or he could sneak into Engineering while the ship is in Jump, tamper with life support, kill everyone else and flush them all out the airlock. Or he could just poison their food and drinks or take a knife and slit their throats in their beds. Any player could disrupt the flow of the game - they don't need to have a psion Traveller use Suggestion for that.

The fear of the loss of privacy is a trope for all psionics in television and movies.

You don't need psionics to induce paranoia. Surveillance states bristling with CCTVs are plenty paranoid enough with just electronic snooping technology, not to mention the presence of spies on every street corner.

The detection and blocking of powers in PvP as you mentioned is the magic defense shield to prevent the invasion and control of one player by another. (I read his thoughts and get his password and login and bank information).

Or use Investigate skill or Electronics (Computers) to hack that data.

If you have mature players this may not be a problem, but the theft of information might be made too easy. The Psion Rogue: Mindstealer is a great example of this.

Mundane Rogues with a speciality in identity theft and hacking can be an even greater threat.

Having a player able to just order someone to betray their boss can short circuit a lot of adventures.

Very true. And imagine how many bullets it could save the players? Not to mention avoiding the hassle of getting caught wielding the smoking gun?
But in Star Trek, Spock used psionic suggestion once to break out of a jail cell, and used it again to force a bystander to obtain a communicator.
And where would The Master in Doctor Who be without his - now her - hypnotic telepathy?
Suggestion has its uses.

 

[Condottiere]

 

[-Daniel-]

the other risk is to have a Psion player order players to leave all their goods behind and go for a long walk and let the Psion steal everything, or implant suicide commands if the players get too mad at the Psion.

A player could have his character spike their drinks with a suggestibility drug, or he could sneak into Engineering while the ship is in Jump, tamper with life support, kill everyone else and flush them all out the airlock. Or he could just poison their food and drinks or take a knife and slit their throats in their beds. Any player could disrupt the flow of the game - they don't need to have a psion Traveller use Suggestion for that.

Good Point Alex, When it comes down to stuff like this, it often comes down to how much the players want to screw each other over and how much the GM will allow at their table. No matter how much the game tries to control this kind of behavior, it can't. Only the GM and Players can.

 

[legozhodani]

I know this is digging the thread up from it's restful slumber, but I shall do it any way. Is there any chance of 2e Psi book on the horizon? Thought I'd put a vote for it out there in the hope to bump it along.

Also in regards to resisting PSI attacks such as suggestion, I've never been a fan of using INT or EDU. Just 'cos your not the sharpest tool in the box doesn't always mean your not strong in will.

 

[alex_greene]

I know this is digging the thread up from it's restful slumber, but I shall do it any way. Is there any chance of 2e Psi book on the horizon? Thought I'd put a vote for it out there in the hope to bump it along.

Also in regards to resisting PSI attacks such as suggestion, I've never been a fan of using INT or EDU. Just 'cos you're not the sharpest tool in the box doesn't always mean you're not strong in will.

That's why I love the Persistence and Perseverance rules from that game next door, renamed as Endurance and Willpower in that other d100 game they're all talking about in ... other forums.

 

[alex_greene]

I know this is digging the thread up from it's restful slumber, but I shall do it any way. Is there any chance of 2e Psi book on the horizon? Thought I'd put a vote for it out there in the hope to bump it along.

Also in regards to resisting PSI attacks such as suggestion, I've never been a fan of using INT or EDU. Just 'cos you're not the sharpest tool in the box doesn't always mean you're not strong in will.

That's why I love the Persistence skill from that game next door, renamed as Willpower in that other d100 game they're all talking about in ... other forums.