CT Only: A revised version of Teleportation for CT

[atpollard]

Just a general heads up, we are exploring Psionics in my PbP game:
[CT Only] atpollard's PbP Traveller (Chapter 0)
[atpollard's PbP] Recruitment of Jozu Goro
[CT Only] atpollard's PbP Traveller (Out Of Character)
So far we have slowed Psi Skill progression down to 1 skill level per term, so having more skill levels will make things better.

We already tackled expanding Telepathy, and I wanted to post some ideas on expanding the options for Teleportation.

So check it out, comment on it or, or just ignore it ... whatever makes you happy.

REVISED TELEPORTATION TALENT
The Problem I have with the Rules as written:

• I don't really want naked people telporting around IMTU ... It is a stupid idea.
• Since teleporting naked is a stupid idea, the Teleport ability isn't really any use below skill 7 ... where a minimum Teleportation Psi can instantly teleport anywhere within 50,000 km.
• This leaves out a lot of interesting posibilities for lower skill level Teleporters, and makes the entire Talent useless for most Psions.

I think that we can do better.

Guidelines from the rules ... new range by point cost to use as a guide.
(1) 5 meters
(2) 50 meters
(3) 500 meters
(4) 5 km
(5) 50 km
(6) 500 km
(7) 5,000 km
(8) 50,000 km
(9) 500,000 km
(10) 5,000,000 km
(11) 50,000,000 km (0.3 AU)
(12) 3 AU
(13) 30 AU [neptune]
(14) 300 AU
(15) 3000 au
(16) 30,000 au
(17) 300,000 au (1.5 parsecs = jump 1.5)
(18) 15 parsecs
(19) 150 parsecs
(20) 1,500 parsecs

Guidelines from the rules ... movement (25 meter range bands, 15 second rounds)
Walk 25 meters in 15 seconds.
Run 50 meters in 15 seconds

REVISED TELEPORTATION LEVELS OF ABILITY:
Striding (Level 1): The most basic teleportation ability involves a series of short, rapid micro-teleports in which the 'Strider' appears to blur for an instant as he takes 2 meter steps walking or 4 meter steps while running. Each 15 seconds of Striding requires 1 Psi point and Striding can be maintained for as long as the individual has Psi Strength Points left. Striding allows a character to move at double his normal rate (walk 50 meters in 15 seconds or run 100 meters in 15 seconds). Striding does not allow the individual to pass through a wall, but he may 'stride' through a curtain or glass door.

Improved Striding (Level 2): Like the level 1 ability 'Striding' except that the individual takes 4 meter steps walking or 8 meter steps while running. Each 15 seconds of Improved Striding requires 2 Psi point allows a character to move at four times his normal rate (walk 100 meters in 15 seconds or run 200 meters in 15 seconds). Improved Striding does not allow the individual to pass through a wall, but he may 'stride' through a normal door.
Phase Door (Level 2): For a cost of 2 Psionic Strength Points, the character and up to 50 kg if clothing and equipment can shift out of phase with matter enough to allow him to pass through up to 5 meters of material. The character can literally walk through walls at 1.5 meters per second. For each additional 2 Psi Points expended, either 1 additional person or 150 kg of equipment may be brought along.

Advanced Striding (Level 3): Like the level 1 ability 'Striding' except that the individual takes 8 meter steps walking or 16 meter steps while running. Each 15 seconds of Advanced Striding requires 3 Psi point allows a character to move at eight times his normal rate (walk 200 meters in 15 seconds or run 400 meters in 15 seconds). Advanced Striding does not allow the individual to pass through a structural wall, but he may 'stride' through a light partition.
Improved Phase Door (Level 3): For a cost of 3 Psionic Strength Points, the character and up to 50 kg of clothing and equipment can shift out of phase with matter enough to allow him to pass through up to 50 meters of material. The character can pass through walls and entire rooms at 1.5 meters per second. For each additional 3 Psi Points expended, either 1 additional person or 150 kg of equipment may be brought along.

Ultimate Striding (Level 4): Like the level 1 ability 'Striding' except that the individual takes 16 meter steps walking or 32 meter steps while running. Each 15 seconds of Ultimate Striding requires 4 Psi point allows a character to move at sixteen times his normal rate (walk 400 meters in 15 seconds or run 800 meters in 15 seconds). Ultimate Striding allows the individual to pass through a structural wall up to 1 meter thick.
Advanced Phase Door (Level 4): For a cost of 4 Psionic Strength Points, the character and up to 50 kg of clothing and equipment can shift out of phase with matter enough to allow him to pass through up to 500 meters of material. The character can pass through walls and entire rooms at 3 meters per second. For each additional 4 Psi Points expended, either 1 additional person or 150 kg of equipment may be brought along.

Teleportation (Level 5): For a cost of 5 Psionic Strength Points, the character and up to 2 kg of clothing and equipment can be instantly transported up to 50 km. For each additional 5 Psi Points expended, either 1 additional person or 100 kg of equipment may be brought along.
Bi-location (Level 5): For a cost of 10 Psionic Strength Points, the character and up to 2 kg of clothing and equipment can appear to exist in 2 locations up to 50 m apart at the same time for 30 seconds (2 combat rounds). The character rapidly teleports hundreds of times per second between the two locations and may only perform the normal number of actions but may perform them at either or both locations. Any atacks against the character will only inflict half damage.

Regional Teleportation (Level 6): For a cost of 6 Psionic Strength Points, the character and up to 5 kg of clothing and equipment can be instantly transported up to 500 km. For each additional 6 Psi Points expended, either 1 additional person or 100 kg of equipment may be brought along.
Tri-location (Level 6): For a cost of 12 Psionic Strength Points, the character and up to 2 kg of clothing and equipment can appear to exist in 3 locations up to 500 m apart at the same time for 10 minutes. The character rapidly teleports hundreds of times per second between the locations and may only perform the normal number of actions but may perform them at any/all locations. Any atacks against the character will only inflict one third damage.

Continental Teleportation (Level 7): For a cost of 7 Psionic Strength Points, the character and up to 10 kg of clothing and equipment can be instantly transported up to 5,000 km. For each additional 7 Psi Points expended, either 1 additional person or 100 kg of equipment may be brought along.
Quad-location (Level 7): For a cost of 14 Psionic Strength Points, the character and up to 2 kg of clothing and equipment can appear to exist in 4 locations up to 5000 m apart at the same time for 30 minutes. The character rapidly teleports hundreds of times per second between the locations and may only perform the normal number of actions but may perform them at any/all locations. Any atacks against the character will only inflict one quarter damage.

Planetary Teleportation (Level 8): For a cost of 8 Psionic Strength Points, the character and up to 20 kg of clothing and equipment can be instantly transported up to 50,000 km. For each additional 8 Psi Points expended, either 1 additional person or 100 kg of equipment may be brought along.
Teleportation Trap (Level 8): For a cost of 8 Psionic Strength Points, either 1 person or 100 kg of equipment is instantly telepoted to nowhere, trapped 'between' locations, and reappears at the spot where they left 10 minutes later.

Far Orbit Teleportation (Level 9): For a cost of 9 Psionic Strength Points, the character and up to 50 kg of clothing and equipment can be instantly transported up to 500,000 km. For each additional 9 Psi Points expended, either 1 additional person or 100 kg of equipment may be brought along.

Quantum Projection (Level 12): For a cost of 24 Psionic Strength Points, the character is able to teleport at the speed of light to another world (up to 3 AU away - roughly anywhere inside Mars orbit of the sun), arriving in about 30 minutes.

Interstellar Quantum Projection (Level 17): Like the Level 12 Quantum Projection, except that for cost of 34 Psionic Strength Points, the character is able to teleport at the speed of light to another star system (roughly Jump-1), arriving in about 6.5 years. It is not expected to replace Starship Travel.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Excellent!

 

[atpollard]

That is an outstanding re-write. I only see one issue: Some of the 'theory' of Teleportation in Traveller was that it went through Jump Space. If so, then the last four ranges could be:

(17) 1 parsec
(18) 6 parsecs (or maybe 9 parsecs)
(19) 18 parsecs
(20) 36 parsecs

36 is supposed to be the highest level of JumpSpace. You could make the Teleport be instantaneous, or it could last for a week (168 hours) requiring food and air for the Teleporter (or the Psion could use Suspended Animation from Awareness).

I went back to the D&D Teleport spell as the starting point for what else might be possible and tried to map D&D abilities/spell levels to the revised range vs psi points based on the original CT Teleportation Psi Talent.

I tried to think of a Sci-Fi equivalence to the D&D Astral Projection and came up with Interstellar Travel. The idea started out with the statement in D&D that the Astral Projector could cast the spell again to bring his old body, through astral space to his new plane. A couple of simplifications later, I came up with double Psi point cost and speed of light travel.

One goal at that power level, was to make it remotely possible, but not particularly desirable. What I didn't want was for a Psionic to tell his friends "I'll meet you there" and teleport instantly to the next world and relax in the spa until the other's arrive.

That said, the idea of 186 hours opens some interesting possibilities ... Now you need a half-stateroom to keep you alive ... which means spending even more psi points (or using another Psi talent to stay alive) ... and more points mean you will need better booster drugs and/or devices. It opens up RPG possibilities as you research to solve formidable technical problems.

Is there a specific reason to peak at level 20?
Why not some other progression ...

• (17=Jump-1, 18=Jump-2, ... 52=Jump 36) making most of this a theoretical thought exercise.
• (17=jump-1, 18=jump-6, 19=Jump-12, 20=jump-18, 21=Jump-24, 22=Jump-30, 23=Jump-36)
• (12=Jump-0, 15=jump-6, 18=jump-12, 21=Jump-18, 24=jump-24, 27=Jump-30, 30=Jump-36)

I was just wondering if you had a specific reason for picking level 20?

 

[Spinward Scout]

What I didn't want was for a Psionic to tell his friends "I'll meet you there" and teleport instantly to the next world and relax in the spa until the other's arrive.

But that's exactly how it works in some sci-fi stories. And isn't that what we want to emulate?

Spoiler:

Marc Remillard even goes extra-galactic in Julian May's The Adversary.

I was thinking to fit it in with the Traveller setting, too.

Is there a specific reason to peak at level 20?
I was just wondering if you had a specific reason for picking level 20?

It was double what the maximum was in The Traveller Book and I didn't want to get more detailed than that, really. It's arbitrary, yes, but I didn't want to get into the problem that I have with old school D&D (what I was trying to avoid) to where there's no end and somebody goes: "I've got a 79th level Fighter!" or "I've got a 158th level Cleric" or whatever. I was trying for a limited progression, getting stronger/more powerful/more useful powers with each level, but trying not to duplicate previous powers. Like I wouldn't have something like Stride, Improved Stride, Advanced Stride, etc... I'd have it all under one power (Stride) and just show a progression within the power. It just seems it could get overwhelming when you have to remember "well do I use Improved Stride or Advanced Stride?". Maybe 'overwhelming' isn't the right word.

And it seemed to me that part of the idea of that Psionic skill progression (at least in The Traveller Book) was to get brand new/unique skills at each level. Not a rehash of a skill just learned at last level. Unfortunately, I couldn't figure out how to do that with Telekinesis.

Plus people already complain about Psionics being too powerful for their game. And I figured nobody could ever get to level 20 without help from the Referee.

 

[atpollard]

I thought over your comments and some of them seem dead on the money.
I think that I will collapse the list down into fewer powers with an explanation of how they improve with skill levels and points.
I think that the high end should probably top out at 15. In the original Psionics rules, 12 is as high as you can roll and 15 is as high as the drugs can push you. I was a little unhappy with the sudden jumps above level 9 skills.

Since teleportation already focused on the odd skill levels (5, 7, 9) I figured that I might as well roll with it and aim for new skills at levels 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15.

Time for sleep, then church, then work, then think about it more, then a revision.

 

[Quint]

I like it!

D.

 

[FreeTrav]

Some issues to think about:

* Passing through material above a certain density - or rigidity - should be either instantaneous or deadly. If it isn't, you're allowing two objects to "overlap" in space, and there's that which bothers me about the idea. That limits the thickness of a wall to his range, and no, if his rage is 5m, he can't pass through 10m of anything other than air or maybe water in ANY length of time without likely killing himself.

* Consider at low skill levels the possibility that the teleporter needs to either be able to SEE the destination, or know it intimately - so that he can't teleport through walls into a room that he's never seen and can't see now, but if he's within his limited range, he can teleport into his bedroom at home. A teleporter who is also a clairvoyant can "see" his destination that way, provided it's within his teleport range.

* Carrying material: Both mass and range should be a factor. Consider possibly: For simplicity, take the teleport range in meters, and declare that he can carry that number of kg of mass (including clothing), provided that it's within the same number of cm of his body. That way, you avoid nekkid teleporters all over the place (except for the occasional pervert who does it deliberately), but you still don't end up with the guy with teleport-1 being able to zap in with 50kg of battle-armor - he might be able to zap in wearing basic cold-weather gear for a human-habitable planet, maybe carrying a pistol, but not much more.

(I dig that psionics is the "magic" of the Traveller universe. I like it better if it makes sense in a "realistic" manner.)

 

[Carlobrand]

It seems overpowered. A lot. Short, rapid microteleports, multilocation by teleporting back and forth between two locations hundreds of times per second ... sounds like a player's dream but a gamemaster's nightmare. I'd need to adjust the tech to explain why someone isn't assassinating the Emperor every two weeks - or adjust society to explain how society manages to hold together despite the fact that a handful of people can go pretty much wherever they want, bringing fusion bombs along for the ride.

How does teleporting back and forth between locations hundreds of times a second make a bullet do less damage?

How are you handling conservation of energy and momentum? What happens when one jumps from orbit to ground? Do they heat up or cool down, or does the energy disappear into (or get drawn from) the Aether? What happens when one jumps from one side of a planet to the opposite side? Do they find themselves upside down and moving a thousand miles an hour, or is there some unexplained corrective action that negates physics without the user's conscious effort?

My take on psionics is that, whatever is going on, science and technology will eventually figure out how it works and find a way to replicate it. That means if we have a person who can do something that violates conservation of energy and momentum, we will eventually have a machine (or perhaps a biomachine) that can do the same thing to generate free energy. Perpetual motion machines in a sci-fi setting give me the heebie-jeebies.

 

[atpollard]

My take on psionics is that, whatever is going on, science and technology will eventually figure out how it works and find a way to replicate it. That means if we have a person who can do something that violates conservation of energy and momentum, we will eventually have a machine (or perhaps a biomachine) that can do the same thing to generate free energy. Perpetual motion machines in a sci-fi setting give me the heebie-jeebies.

Are you sure you play Traveller? [tongue-in-cheek joke]

The game already hand-waves Conservation of Momentum and Thermodynamics right out the airlock.

I actually found myself asking exactly the opposite question ...
... if every air-raft violates conservation of momentum and every power plant violates thermodynamics, then why is the quasi-magical 'Psionics' subjected to so much higher of a standard?

You want realism ... your ship magically jumps 1 parsec in 1 week and then spends 25 years accelerating at 1 G to match velocity with the star (and how much did it heat up raising its potential energy relative to the center of the galaxy?)

It seems overpowered. A lot. Short, rapid microteleports, multilocation by teleporting back and forth between two locations hundreds of times per second ... sounds like a player's dream but a gamemaster's nightmare. I'd need to adjust the tech to explain why someone isn't assassinating the Emperor every two weeks - or adjust society to explain how society manages to hold together despite the fact that a handful of people can go pretty much wherever they want, bringing fusion bombs along for the ride.

On the issue of too powerful Teleportation ... 'mea culpa'.
In my defense, the entry level for not teleporting naked in the 'rules as written' is up to 50,000 km.

The Emperor was already in trouble.

How does teleporting back and forth between locations hundreds of times a second make a bullet do less damage?

The bullet I viewed as a Schrödinger's Cat type of problem.
From a quantum perspective, the character is at point A and Point B, Not at Point A and Not at Point B (all at the same time) ... until he stops, the paradox collapses and he is either at point A or Point B.

So for the specific case of a bullet passing through Point A in 0.01 seconds, you are only at Point A for 0.005 seconds and at Point B for 0.005 seconds ... half of the time, the bullet missed you.

I am not a Physicist (nor do I play one on TV) ... so that's an Architects best guess on quantum physics. [which should not be relied upon for anything related to 'Life and Safety' issues.]

 

[Carlobrand]

... if every air-raft violates conservation of momentum ...

They did what now?

...and every power plant violates thermodynamics, ...

I appear to have missed that memo too.

...You want realism ... your ship magically jumps 1 parsec in 1 week and then spends 25 years accelerating at 1 G to match velocity with the star ...

25 years at 1G, assuming an infinite fuel supply, is up in the near C range. Where do we have stars a parsec apart traveling with that kind of difference in velocity? I had understood the differences at that range were usually manageable.

...(and how much did it heat up raising its potential energy relative to the center of the galaxy?)...

Les'see, one parsec, that's 3.26 light years, out of a circumference of 250 thousand to 3000 thousand light years ... wait, I can figure this.

...The Emperor was already in trouble. ...

Yeah, pretty much. I can't remember if canon ever dealt with the issue of an orbit to ground or one side to the other jump, or if that was just something we discussed among ourselves some time back.

...The bullet I viewed as a Schrödinger's Cat type of problem.
From a quantum perspective, the character is at point A and Point B, Not at Point A and Not at Point B (all at the same time) ... until he stops, the paradox collapses and he is either at point A or Point B.

So for the specific case of a bullet passing through Point A in 0.01 seconds, you are only at Point A for 0.005 seconds and at Point B for 0.005 seconds ... half of the time, the bullet missed you. ...

Yeah, but from a medical standpoint, you are teleporting into a solid mass - the bullet, which has moved ever so slightly since the last time you were there. I was given to understand that was not a healthy state of affairs for the tissue that happens to be co-located with the mass at that time. And the bullet will still transmit its energy to the neighboring tissue whether it's doing so because it's shoving the tissue ahead out of the way or is doing so because it is now interwoven with that bit of tissue and is still moving forward. One way or another, you end up with a bullet hole and damage to the tissue around the hole.

 

[atpollard]

I appear to have missed that memo too.

Try discussing STEALTH in space and someone will beat you to death with the memo.

 

[Carlobrand]

Try discussing STEALTH in space and someone will beat you to death with the memo.

Oh, no, not me! I remember the riot the last time someone mentioned it.