Psionics in your campaign

[Hopeless]

Thought I better set this up as a new thread to avoid confusion well more confusion!

Been looking at this as one of the characters being designed is going to be an Adept and was looking for some personal experiences in handling the background for such characters.

So far the campaign includes the Consulate which is viewed by the Empire as being run or rather ruled by Psionicists ala the Zhodani.

My view on this is that it simply isn't the case as the number of psions compared to the normal populace simply cannot match the requirements for such a government to persist even as a dictatorship which the Consulate simply isn't.

I picture using most of the Zhodani traits of simple honesty and a government that has progressed along a somewhat Communist leaning without faltering so that its government is simply what they're good at rather than their psionic abilities.

The Empire on the other hand I see as somewhat reminiscent of Starcraft and their Ghost operatives where suitable candidates are recruited from their families and mind wiped so they serve the Empire without any emotional attachments to families who were told their children had died in unfortunate accidents with none aware of the duplicity involved.

The Sword Worlds tend to be leery about psionicists since any that did manifest amoung them were either quickly apprehended or killed by the Empire although some do filter through the cracks but these have learned that revealing themselves is a sure way to get them and those closest to them killed.

The Consulate are aware of the Empire's use of psionicists which they tend to fight against or even try to "recruit" if only to help free them from the Empire's grip but this is a very rare event since Consulate Psions tend to keep even deeper udnercover whilst travelling outside Consulate space which has become more a case of trying to find a way back since the destruction of the Gates 14 years previously.

Don't have the psion supplement so the character choices are limited to the pocket handbook namely the Wild Talent (trained themselves), Adept (Either Consulate or Imperial "Ghost" operative although it is possible for them to have gone rogue) and Psi-Warrior (This is the truly scary adversary think Darth Vader in Star Wars or River in Firefly as the Imperial version and Obi-Wan as the Consulate version).

 

[Captain Jonah]

Well it doesn't take many psions to have an effect on a population. In the consulate highly trained psion mental health and right thinking supervisors interview people who are seen to be having problems to "help them adjust" to consulate life. Doesn't take many of them. Inteligence agents who are telepaths, keep the id's secret and any goverment clerk could be reading your thoughts.
As a ruling elite the psions would have a great many non psion staff in power with them, since the non psions get interview more often than the proles there shouldn't be any problems there.
In terms of your dreaded psi warriors and such like. Numbers are not important. The goverments them selves use overt or covert means to boost reputations. Tri-vid "movies" about the killer warriors no one sees who can get you inside a locked room spread the infamy far and wide. Also any unexplained events can be added to them. Enemy of the goverment dies of natural causes while being heavily guarded. Spread a rumour it wasn't so natural and even in a fortress under guards the ninjas got him.
Plus your Darth Vader types in public may play this up to the hilt. On a mission no one sees them but if one of them turns up and beheads the fool who just lost half his fleet in a minor action so fast no one sees him move the stories are spread far and wide.
Then if someone is getting out of line the mere rumour that he is being placed on a ninja kill list may be enough to bring him back in line.
Quality not quantity works here, make it well enough known how powerfull they are and conceal how few there are. That way people who try to find them fail which just supports the rumours about how secret they are. :twisted:

 

[Hopeless]

So would it be better to leave the Imperium's distrust of psionics as a way of them keeping their control over their recruits since everyone thinks the Consulate are the only psion run government?

Therefore any psionic manifestations has to be the work of the enemy rather than a seriously sinister empire known for skullduggery and treachery since they're openly against the use of psionics in society with its claims of their openly evil nature?

Hmm needs more work.

 

[alex_greene]

I take the works of James H Schmitz as my inspiration here. He wrote a story, Agents of Vega, which posited a telepathic agency whose job was to keep law & order in the universe.

He also wrote stories set in The Hub, a nebulous human culture spread throughout the galaxy and run by an even more nebulous Overgovernment whose Psychology Service routinely tagged and bagged telepaths to make them work for the Service to keep the Hub safe.

In Larry Niven's A World of Ptavvs. one Thrintun could wreak plenty of damage across a planet: with a telepathic amplifier he could wreak havoc across an entire Solar System. And Schmitz' signature character Telzey Amberdon could easily enslave an entire planet and turn them all psychotic at a frighteningly young age.[/i]

 

[Hopeless]

Has anyone been tempted to rename "Awareness" as Body Control or Self -Metabolism?

 

[alex_greene]

Has anyone been tempted to rename "Awareness" as Body Control or Self -Metabolism?

Not really. However, through my many campaigns I have created and run a number of remote monasteries set on high mountains on low population planets, filled with monks of various Terran religions, most notably Buddhism, who taught its precepts.

I've also, in one campaign, used Awareness as the basis for an order of Companions a la Firefly - because Awareness is far more useful than just some psionic weapon. Though that order of Companions took, as its faith, the teachings of Tantra rather than Buddhism or Taoism.

 

[Hopeless]

Has anyone been tempted to rename "Awareness" as Body Control or Self -Metabolism?

Not really. However, through my many campaigns I have created and run a number of remote monasteries set on high mountains on low population planets, filled with monks of various Terran religions, most notably Buddhism, who taught its precepts.

I haven't thought about the religious implications

I've also, in one campaign, used Awareness as the basis for an order of Companions a la Firefly - because Awareness is far more useful than just some psionic weapon. Though that order of Companions took, as its faith, the teachings of Tantra rather than Buddhism or Taoism.

Now thats an interesting idea, have the Empire become the Alliance but a new civil war is raging as a result of the Gates exploding...

Still would you consider Awareness the one psionic discipline that might escape detction as such?

Literally the result of years of meditation and study and so forth?

Hmm the companions would make an interesting subplot though...

 

[alex_greene]

Has anyone been tempted to rename "Awareness" as Body Control or Self -Metabolism?

Not really. However, through my many campaigns I have created and run a number of remote monasteries set on high mountains on low population planets, filled with monks of various Terran religions, most notably Buddhism, who taught its precepts.

I haven't thought about the religious implications

I've also, in one campaign, used Awareness as the basis for an order of Companions a la Firefly - because Awareness is far more useful than just some psionic weapon. Though that order of Companions took, as its faith, the teachings of Tantra rather than Buddhism or Taoism.

Now thats an interesting idea, have the Empire become the Alliance but a new civil war is raging as a result of the Gates exploding...

Still would you consider Awareness the one psionic discipline that might escape detction as such?

Literally the result of years of meditation and study and so forth?

Hmm the companions would make an interesting subplot though...

Awareness is magnificently underused, yet probably the most personally important psionic ability. Its use can't be detected by the sensors looking for telepathic signals, and powers such as Enhanced Awareness and Psionically Enhanced Endurance can allow a character to get away with seeming miracles, while still operating below the radar so to speak. The character just looks like someone who gets "into the zone" a lot.

Think of the Sixties TV series The Champions as a superlative example of what high-Awareness agents can get away with.

As for Companions, the deleted scene in the movie Serenity explained how control was the first thing Companions learn. Awareness could be one thing all Companions develop, very early in their careers - their Psionically Enhanced Endurance could come in very handy.

Perhaps Companion could be a sub career path of Entertainer IYTU ...

 

[Jame Rowe]

Has anyone been tempted to rename "Awareness" as Body Control or Self -Metabolism?

I have, sorely. I would call it either "body" or "self."

 

[Hopeless]

Has anyone been tempted to rename "Awareness" as Body Control or Self -Metabolism?

I have, sorely. I would call it either "body" or "self."

The one psionic character so far which is being generated by her husband might be better served by renaming it one or the other since that would be better than explaining why Clairsentience covers the senses whilst Awareness covers the jedi ability to run really fast!

 

[alex_greene]

It's a shorthand term. We're familiar in the real world with Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Telekinesis and Teleportation, but this term is probably just a label for something that doesn't have a name.

It's essentially the unnamed "gumption" ability of the Master marital artist who can wade through a hail of arrows and not get stuck by any of them, the Zen monk who sits in zazen for days at a time without needing food, water, sleep or toilet breaks, and the Bruce Lee type who can just pull off some feat of acrobatics or a massive Kung Fu leap and look utterly cool about it. In short, it adds a mythic air to a character, so if it should be renamed anything in your universe, the only thing I could call it is "Mojo."