psionic variants

[BwapTED]

Variant 1
Psionics and Madness

Whatever it is that awakens or triggers psionic talents ("creatures from the Id", exposure to Jumpspace, experimental brain surgery and psi drugs, Ancient artifacts, etc.) is dangerous. A subject testing for psionics may suffer mental health and personality changes.

An unmodified throw of 12 means the character's personality alters in strange ways. He probably unlocks trainable potential, of course, subject the usual DMs.

An unmodified throw of 2 sends the poor SOB barking mad.



In this variant, the extreme social prejudice against psionics mentioned in Book 3 (and codified with the Psionic Heresy/Psionics Suppressions of the OTU) is not universal.


Roll 1d6 to determine how the authorities will treat psis on a given world.

1-5: hostile
As per Book 3. Roll as usual on the table there to determine the response of the authorities upon discovering a psionic character.

6: cautious
The authorities will monitor the character closely if his powers come to their attention, but won't persecute him without cause.


If a psionic character is arrested, he might be given a chance to work for the secret police, the military, or something along those lines. But his new masters will keep him on a short leash.

Thoughts?


Variant 2

Psionics is a recent, poorly understood development.

There are plenty of quack psychics, phony parapsychologists, fake gurus, etc. out there looking to rip people off.
There are also cults looking for new members and dangling the (almost certainly fraudulent) promise of psi-training as bait.

When rolling to find a Psi Institute branch, there's a fair chance of running into these sorts of crooks, phonies, and weirdos.


I'm not sure how I'd handle the mechanical aspect, but basically it's harder to get training.

And because psi has a shady reputation, keeping a low profile may still a good idea.
Open display of powers could attract a lot of attention.
Possibly the kind you don't want, coming from the police, intelligence services, secret corporate research programs, terrorist or criminal groups...


Variant 3

Combine 1 and 2

In this variant, I'd make 'cautious' worlds more common.

 

[kilemall]

I go variant 2, a lot of lies and gimmickry out there, some real stuff, a few actually good at hiding what they do.

Plus every major government and corps delving into or practicing it, without letting people know they are.

 

[BwapTED]

Variant 4

pharma-psionics

Psionic examination involves injecting the subject with mind-expanding drugs and running him through a battery of practical tests.
Unfortunately, the combination of drugs used is addictive and can have deleterious effects, and so is classed as a controlled/prohibited substance on most worlds.
The psi-test drug cocktail is made from an obsolete jumpspace navigational drug (improved navigational training and new software replaced the drug) mixed with psychoactive chemicals diluted and thongamonganol .
Whether psi has any other connection with hyperstatial reality remains very much up for debate.
Some dealers sell fakes, cocktails that may only make the subject hallucinate a psionic awakening.


Inspirations

Book 3, obviously. The thongamonganol.

Dune, the Spice

the War on Drugs

 

[BwapTED]

Variant 5


The Psionic Heresy versus Imperial Materialist Scientism

Psionics is referred to as a heresy in , I think, Library Data. Or was that the Spinward Marches supplement?


The use of the word heresy strongly suggests an Imperium with a state religion--or a secular political ideology that is effectively a state religion.

So let's say the Imperium is hardcore materialist , while psionics derives from an older religious tradition.

I'm thinking of Star Wars.
Things like that Imperial officer's contemptuous remarks to Darth Vader about ''sorcerer's ways'', and also Han Solo's ''hokey religions and ancient weapons'' quip to Luke.

But also France under the Jacobins, with campaigns against ''superstition'', and some other more recent historical examples (I'm keeping it all pre-1965, so I think this is kosher).


The Imperium is all about physical control, science, economics. The authority of the big guns and the control of a scientific-technical-managerial elite. This is why feudal technocracy is a pretty common government type.


Psionics challenges all that by going against official ideas as well as by empowering rebels.

In an effort to understand and control or counter psionics, the Imperium sponsors secret research programs. The kind that are so nasty even Imperial law makes them technically illegal.



This variant isn't really a big change, just an added layer of background that helps explain why anti-psi policies and attitudes are so commonplace.
Locals may or may not share Imperial prejudices, but the planetary authorities usually do, or else keep quiet about any sympathy for psionics.

I think this version fits well with the ''dark Imperium'' a lot of guys see implicit in early Traveller materials.

Adding an official state ideology gives more coherence to a diverse Imperium. Some may see this as a bad thing. Some may like it.

What do you guys think?

 

[mike wightman]

In TNE you had TED - technology elevated dictators, basically people who rose to power because they had access to relic 3I tech.

You could have PED - psionically elevated dictators, rulers who come to power because they have psionic powers the rest of the population lack.

There is potential in the 3I dark Imperium for nobles to have strong psionic powers they have kept hidden from the masses.

Then there is the setting variant where every child is tested and trained in infancy regardless of psionic strength but are then trained to increase psi and disciplines known.

 

[flykiller]

You could have PED - psionically elevated dictators, rulers who come to power because they have psionic powers the rest of the population lack.

There is potential in the £I dark Imperium for nobles to have strong psionic powers they have kept hidden from the masses.

Then there is the setting variant where every child is tested and trained in infancy regardless of psionic strength but are then trained to increase psi and disciplines known.

like the consulate ....

you know, the imperials having hidden psionics would explain a few things about official imperial history. though why the imperials would have to hide psionics is a bit difficult to rationalize.

 

[mike wightman]

like the consulate ....

Nope, nothing like the Consulate.
They have been psionic for a long time and foster the development and betterment of their whole society, unlike Imperial nobles...

you know, the imperials having hidden psionics would explain a few things about official imperial history. though why the imperials would have to hide psionics is a bit difficult to rationalize.

You can't have nobles with psionic powers after the psionic suppressions, at least not openly.

My favourite conspiracy theory is that the Zhodani lost the 1st Frontier War on purpose to get sleeper agents in Plankwell's fleet firmly established at Imperial court.

The Imperium eventually found out and launched the suppression experiment but it had the unseen consequence that Imperial psionics had to go underground or be hidden.

Which probably achieved the Zhodani long plan - last thing they would want would be a psionically empowered 3I...

 

[flykiller]

They have been psionic for a long time and foster the development and betterment of their whole society

and every last one of them will tell you so. anyone of them who says otherwise is reeducated until they say so.

 

[flykiller]

You can't have nobles with psionic powers after the psionic suppressions, at least not openly.

the suppressions were for the commoners. why would the nobility have to hide anything?

 

[BwapTED]

the suppressions were for the commoners. why would the nobility have to hide anything?

If they only knew the POWER of the Dark Side!

 

[BwapTED]

In TNE you had TED - technology elevated dictators, basically people who rose to power because they had access to relic 3I tech.

You could have PED - psionically elevated dictators, rulers who come to power because they have psionic powers the rest of the population lack.

There is potential in the £I dark Imperium for nobles to have strong psionic powers they have kept hidden from the masses.

Then there is the setting variant where every child is tested and trained in infancy regardless of psionic strength but are then trained to increase psi and disciplines known.

Cool.

Another spin on the PED concept is that the previous Imperium was just like that, but the current regime took power after a massive anti-psi rebellion swept the inhabited worlds.
The new regime has every reason to suppress psionics.
Nobles with powers hide them from the security services, which are controlled by the pious anti-psionic party.


But a rival state exists, a region of space where the PEDs still rule.
Bitter foes of the anti-psi Imperium, obviously.

This sets up something a lot like the Imperium versus Consulate conflict of the OTU, but with the two sides sharing a common history until fairly recently.

The feudal technocratic Imperium launches star crusades against the psionic state, and the psis send in their knife-wielding psi-assassins (thinking of something like Dune, again)?

 

[flykiller]

Nobles with powers hide them from the security services

why? all it would take is a few "I find your lack of faith disturbing" demonstrations and any resistance would be over.

which are controlled by the pious anti-psionic party.

who has more control of any individual, the psi's or the anti-psi's?

 

[mike wightman]

the suppressions were for the commoners. why would the nobility have to hide anything?

Tar, feathers, lynching, angry mob with pitchforks - the psionic suppressions were a bit more 'effective' than the Imperials who let it loose reckoned with.

 

[flykiller]

Tar, feathers, lynching, angry mob with pitchforks - the psionic suppressions were a bit more 'effective' than the Imperials who let it loose reckoned with.

heh. I'll betcha the "suppressions" were to divert attention away from the nobility. "yeah, we beat up that guy on the street, showed him! no psionics allowed around here!" and the local noble encourages them and nods and smiles.

 

[mike wightman]

I agree, I would put hard Cr on the wager that Imperial nobles get up to all sorts of mischief that the commoner would detest:
anagathics use in order to prolong life, possibly even rejuvenation treatment and some fiction of a younger family member inheriting after a freak accident
cyber and bio augmentation and enhancement
personality transfer via wafer tech into cloned bodies
personalities of dead nobles preserved via wafer tech.
and yes, psionics too.

 

[BwapTED]

why? all it would take is a few "I find your lack of faith disturbing" demonstrations and any resistance would be over.



who has more control of any individual, the psi's or the anti-psi's?

The anti-psis are much stronger in this Imperium, natch.


They have superior numbers and force to bring to bear. And they have ideology on their side, propaganda. Howling mobs of fanatical peasants, space marines with anti-psi helmets inside their battle-dress, all that. Anti-psi helmets are standard issue for top nobs, too.


That domineering psi-lord who likes to do the old ''Force choke'' move is going to look pretty silly when he gets shot in the back and strung up by his heels.


Probably, this Imperium's anti-psionic forces use robots to attack telepaths. No mind, no weakness.
None of that 31 anti-robot stuff here. Robots are good, solid, materialist tech.

And if there are any alien species with resistance or immunity to various psi powers, you can be the anti-psi faction will try to make use of such beings.

Also, blasters.

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster.



Unless, of course, you prefer to keep the PEDs in power, in which case the Rebellion failed and the anti-psis did not take over.
Then everybody cowers before the Force-choking evil lord.

 

[BwapTED]

heh. I'll betcha the "suppressions" were to divert attention away from the nobility. "yeah, we beat up that guy on the street, showed him! no psionics allowed around here!" and the local noble encourages them and nods and smiles.

That works, too!



There's no wrong answer here, just multiple ways of using psi in a Traveller campaign.

 

[Garyius2003]

Some portion of the 3I nobility or deeps state having psy powers is the only thing that makes sense for the Navy/Army/Marines not taking easy countermeasures.

Psy shields should built into each helmet, ships with dampers and jump webs in the hull could easily upgrade with psy shields.

They didn't and don't, so either the upgrades have been under study for 600 years, or there is a real reason the PCs can buy the shield hats in the starport supply store but they aren't standard builds into military gear.

 

[BwapTED]

Some portion of the 3I nobility or deeps state having psy powers is the only thing that makes sense for the Navy/Army/Marines not taking easy countermeasures.

Psy shields should built into each helmet, ships with dampers and jump webs in the hull could easily upgrade with psy shields.

They didn't and don't, so either the upgrades have been under study for 600 years, or there is a real reason the PCs can buy the shield hats in the starport supply store but they aren't standard builds into military gear.

That does seem odd, but you no doubt know the OTU much better than I know it.

I'm into variant and ATU territory with nearly all my posts, certainly the ones in this thread, of course.

In OTU canon lore, just how long has the Third Imperium actually had psi-shielding technology, as of early 12th Century Imperial Calendar(or whatever it is called)? Is it a recent, experimental technology?

 

[whulorigan]

In OTU canon lore, just how long has the Third Imperium actually had psi-shielding technology, as of early 12th Century Imperial Calendar(or whatever it is called)? Is it a recent, experimental technology?

According to JTAS #09, p.30, personal Psionic Shield Helmets are TL12. Which means they theoretically could have been around since the founding of the Third Imperium. They became a popular item of fashion during the Psionic Suppressions in the 800's, but something of an embarrassment afterward. During the 5th Frontier War, they once again saw a rise in popularity in the Spinward Marches.