Grandfather, Psi & Supers

[YunusWesley]

After reading about Grandfather and his war, some ideas came together about the place of supers in a version of the TU. Not four-color costumed supers but supers more in line with the kind of high tech & psionics already in place.

Has Grandfather been statted anywhere?

Has anyone played in a Traveller campaign with a supers streak?

Some campaign ideas:

A short jump off the Vilani Main lies an obscure M2 sun. With no inhabitable world, no tempting belt resources and no scientific curiosities, it has remained ignored for centuries. This is as its inhabitants wish it: for orbiting the star's sole gas giant is a large and powerful station, the home of the NOVA LEAGUE.

The Moth leads the League, the oldest being in the group. It was created as a warbot in Grandfather's era and saw (& caused) great destruction, but experienced a mysterious evolution of consciousness. The Moth --it chose this name to reflect the Promethean urges in sentient beings everywhere, a drive coupled with utter frailty in the larger frame of reference -- has pursued many projects over the millenia and maintains a small automated TL16 (G:T TL13) industrial base with some devices up to TL20 (TL15). For some centuries, NOVA League has been its priority, gathering individuals of remarkable abilities together, seeking out unusual threats and protecting the innocent from them. "You, sophont! You, breathing here! Do you only exist to procreate & amuse yourselves? No!"

Giian Siipakht III is the grand-daughter of Commodore Giian, who commanded Research Station 8Green in the last days of the First Imperium. Her team had gathered psions, mutants and esoteric scholars from a hundred worlds and refined a body of practical psionic techniques based on connections between telekinesis and the maneuver drive. These included nearly stimulating psi in nearly any sophont; unlimited healing leading to practical immortality; superior senses through micro-scale telekinesis; and technology for enhancing telekinetic force. The Ziru Sirka attempted to suppress 8Green, but the Commodore and a few score of her people escaped. They eventually met the Moth and its nascent League. The team's descedents presently form the core of NOVA; only three of the originals have remained alive, the others having met their deaths in action or by choosing not to continue regeneration. Giian III is approaching her 700th birthday, which she intends to celebrate by completing an 'op' against a corrupt noble in Dagudashaag Sector.

Fong Laszlo, a belter who stumbled across a cache of mysterious pre-Anceint artefacts, was transformed when one of them entered his tissues. Once normal Solomani flesh became honeycombed with a durable, superconductive lattice. Laszlo can absorb, transform and redirect tremendous quantities of energy across much of the EM spectrum. After a mishap leading to a fire in a highport, NOVA agents bailed Laszlo out of the pokey & offered him a place in the League. He has learned teleportation through 8Green methods and, with his cellular lattice, is able to contain the gravitational potential of jumps across many thousands of kilometers. "Zap me up, boys, I'm gonna need a big charge to blast into this asteroid."

Armasey Jones was Laszlo's partner. Already a cyborg with interface jacks and a rapport for most kinds of machines, Armasey examined their finds and incorporated several devices into his gestalt, most of which he understood intuitively but incompletely. Armasey can easily project his awareness through most electrical and cybernetic systems; on one op, he had a fleet of starships slaved into one meta-ship. At present he works closely with the Moth, probing with the very nature of mind as it interacts with the space-time continuum.

 

[Father Fletch]

Has Grandfather been statted anywhere?

There are undoubtedly versions of Grandfather that are statted for either CT or MT. My chief concern with statting a character like grandfather is that you risk running a game out of the AD&D Deities and Demi-Gods book. “I killed Thor, eat my lightning!” Grandfather is a plot element, like the Emperor, and only another plot element, like Dulinor, should have the ‘power’ to eliminate him.

If I were to run a Grandfather campaign, the PCs would never actually meet him. Or they would meet a pseudo-biological robot which claimed to be him. Just because Secret of the Ancient's says G’father is in a pocket universe in the Spinward Marches, doesn’t mean it has to be so. Maybe your Moth IS Grandfather, and has forgotten that? Maybe G’father is a Transhuman AI (TransDryone?) running a satellite somewhere, insane after millennia alone. Maybe there is no G’father and the Dryone aren’t the ancients, and this is all ImpSec propaganda.

The point of all of this is that IMTU, things are what you want them to be, so long as you are having fun. If you want to adhere close to the OTU, then I would strongly recommend that you NOT stat out G’father. Certainly, the ability to have a “Supers” campaign just using PSI and Technology with a few remnant pieces of Ancient Tech does fall within previous adventures in Traveller. The bigger question is how does the manifestation of blatant ‘superpowers’ go down in the Traveller universe you would run? Does the IISS want to sample and examine the PCs who are so obviously outside the Human or Aslan or Vargr norm? Does the IN want to put them in a hole somewhere? Does the local nobility see them as a threat to the Psionic Suppression edicts? Do they fight other ‘super-villains’? If so, the MOJ or IN or IISS might want to co-opt them to do their bidding. If they are adamantly independent (see X-Men) then how do they deal with the 3rd Imperium trying to reign them in? If they are moving in the dark (Conspiracy X or D20M Shadow Chasers) then how do they explain the weird stuff that happens every time they make planet fall?

Has anyone played in a Traveller campaign with a supers streak?

I have not, and frankly, barely even use PSI IMTU. This should not preclude you from starting one. I think that it could be fun, and frankly has only been done with WW’s Aberrant previously. Usually Sci-Fi and Supers have diverged in the past 3 decades or so, but they certainly do share the same parentage.

The other recommendation I would make is consider carefully which game system you use. The issue of ‘screen time’ and play balance are even more important in a Supers game than your usual Traveller game. Beware of what I call ‘piss-off-the-GM’ or ‘break-the-plot’ powers which can short circuit a carefully crafted adventure 15 minutes in. Always have a back up bad guy and think out the repercussions of superpowers on Traveller tech and society and the reverse. A Marine in grav-belted battle dress with an FGMP-14 is really close in capability and lethality to your typical flying brick with heat vision (or at least Golden age flying boy scouts). Psyker PCs and cyber-characters in a scrappy-little-run-about Scout/Courier still turn to paste when a flight of Rampart heavy fighters decide to cancel their flight plan early.

Hey have fun and if you do end up running this campaign, please drop a line and let the board know how it went. Remember, having fun is the reason we play this game!
CFK

 

[YunusWesley]

Originally posted by Father Fletch:
[QB] Maybe your Moth IS Grandfather, and has forgotten that? Maybe G’father is a Transhuman AI (TransDryone?) running a satellite somewhere, insane after millennia alone. Maybe there is no G’father and the Dryone aren’t the ancients, and this is all ImpSec propaganda.

Right! The thing about that war for me is that it establishes very, very high powered shenanigans have gone down in the TU.

When and if something else breaks out, it will mean big adjustments for the status quo preserving cultures of the galaxy. Otherwise, super stuff has to go on very much behind the scenes or in places outside mainstream Galactic civilization (what ARE the Zhodani up to in the core, anyway?).

I imagine the folks I described as being very, very secretive. Their successful actions are those nobody knows about (the J-space krakens intercepted before they enter the star system) or everybody believes the wrong thing (it's been nigh on four years since that "freak antimatter meteor" took out the fueling station).

Other manifestations of supers might include:

"Sorceror in a tower," remote planetoid outpost home to a researcher, be he 'mad scientist,' psionist onto serious weirdness, etc. A character like this could make an interesting long-term contact; PCs might have relations for a long time ("Hey Bart, Marlon Brando's ordered 5,000 Big Macs, wanna courier them?") before they realize he's building a black hole, uplifting tennis-playing space-weasels or growing a brain in a jar... a brain three meteres in diameter...

The "Apollonium," a small, inwardly directed society of supers (mutants, geneered types, etc.) interested only in their research, hobbies or aesthetic pursuits. Don't touch their stuff.

Space nomads. Most people think the Hrinali people are just another breed of humaniti. They run Mom & Pop far trader circuits. Sure, they've got bulgy foreheads and never touch down on a planet, but they're just mutants with weird superstitions, right?

"They said it was a weather balloon, but I know the truth." The Zhodani are up to serious weirdness, and the psionic institutes never fully disappeared. Certainly the Naval Psionica Office never stopped, public prejudice be damned. Just keep your boys out of sight & clean up any mess they make. The NPO stays on the lookout for promising young people, treats them like princes, raises them to be Imperial fanatics, and keeps them active and well-equiped. A few supers (like the Hrinali?) stay on their own by leading very, very quiet lives.

Usually Sci-Fi and Supers have diverged in the past 3 decades or so, but they certainly do share the same parentage.

Right. I think about Lensmen as well as movies like Star Wars and Akira. I like the idea of a realistic setting where 'powers' material is played out following some science fictional rationale; not just "mutants can create magnetic fields; no, heck, they can just move any metal. And they must wear fabulous maroon capes." Ugh.

A Marine in grav-belted battle dress with an FGMP-14 is really close in capability and lethality to your typical flying brick with heat vision (or at least Golden age flying boy scouts). Psyker PCs and cyber-characters in a scrappy-little-run-about Scout/Courier still turn to paste when a flight of Rampart heavy fighters decide to cancel their flight plan early.

Yes, wouldn't want to plop a high-powered fellow into a normal adventure... unless, for example, you want to play with the consequences of one or more 'ordinary' PCs developing unusual powers, getting into trouble, getting out of trouble, holing up somewhere, meeting with sympathetic supers who can hide them, or just staying on the run: "man against world" stories.

I'm remembering Captain Flandry's ship in the latter "Flandry of Terra" stories: it had much better maneuvering and acceleration than anything the Navy had. Flandry, as a sci-fi James Bond type, is a differnt sort of 'super' --no powers per se, just great ability, superb timing, uncanny luck, etc.

I'll keep this forum updated if and when I do anything with this.

Also, I'd love to hear more ideas for powers, plots and backgrounds from people more familiar with the TU. I'm a real newcomer to it.

 

[Black Globe Generator]

I need some time to re-read this and digest it a bit, but in the meantime, welcome to the forum!

 

[Sifu Blackirish]

Welcome, YunusWesley!

I remember a novel where a galactic federation had a fleet of long range scout ships that were used as police vessels. They had a crew full of psionic talents, but they all had serious psycholigical problems...In the ship featured, the FTL commo was a female who had a mental age of about seven. She required delicate handling to keep from getting into temper tantrums, etc.

IMTU psionics were generally ignored until the Dominion era (2240+), when psi talents were searched out and incorporated into the Scouts. Still, they all seemed to have personality problems. At least, the ones we know about. Hmmm...

Using psionics requires careful balancing. Munchkin players can easily upset your carefully planned campaign, so tread carefully. The MT rules on uncertain tasks should be used to full effect, and keep careful notes so you can keep players on their toes...

 

[aramis]

T4 psionics rules can be pushed to do a "street-level" supers kind of game. Nice thing is that they are easily integrated into other traveller rulesets.

 

[YunusWesley]

Originally posted by Black Globe Generator:
I need some time to re-read this and digest it a bit, but in the meantime, welcome to the forum!

Thanks. It's pleasant to find what looks like a well-mannered forum.

Were I to run a game like this, I would probably use GURPS because of the existing (super)power mechanics, rather than grafting a system of my own devising on to another rules set, or amping up its power levels (beyond, say, T4 'street-level' potential --the folks I sketched above go well beyond that range).

 

[epicenter00]

I did run a game vaguely like this, though it never quite went into the 'superhero' thing. It was essentially more like psionic experimentation by a division of the INI who essentially were getting tired of getting manhandled by the Zhodani after five Interstellar Wars.

The entire campaign was deliberately given an X-Files / pulp sci-fi feel. Rogue INI faction that was nevertheless patriotic to the Imperium? Check. Mad scientists? Check.

There was the requisite Zhodani mad scientist who was co-opted by the INI faction. Of course, he was an outcast on Zhodane because the "cowards" in the Consulate couldn't see his brilliance and his plan (the Zhodani would say that they banned research like his because of the adverse effects on the subjects). Regardless, he wanted to go on with his research that involved introduction of various psi-enhancers to the developing fetuses while still in the womb and the use of psionic surgery to enhance psionic potential.

They were all raised in an "idealized" home setting, which was actually a highly advanced psuedo-reality simulation. Their house of cards really collapsed when Racheleans managed to download a personality simulation of Zid Rachele into their VR childhood to try and turn the kids into Racheleans. Zid did such a terrible job that the entire VR sim fell apart.

The players were the kids who were experimented on and they had pretty high, but quirky powers and restrictions from their dysfunctional childhoods keeping them from using their powers to the full (or reliably).

I had plans for the players' powers to eventually start messing with Grandfather's plans and for Grandfather to assign some of his "monitor" robots (essentially super-realistic human robots with psionic powers) to bring the kids into line, but the game never got that far - holidays put the game on hold, and when everyone came back we decided to play something else instead.

 

[YunusWesley]

X-Files feeling sounds very playable. These are great notes & i'll add them to my running tab of supers/conspiracy/pulp material.

A fun campaign or at least series of games can involve learning what your character can do. Amnesia, blackouts, N-rays, weird implants, etc.

 

[Plankowner]

I once used First Level D&D spells as psionic powers.

Cure Light Wounds becomes pretty powerful in a Traveller setting (1d8 healing). I kept the 1 per day "casting" ability to really tone it down for the players.

I think they liked it, although they never really figured out the extent/limitations of their "special" PSI abilities.

 

[Darkhstarr]

I came up with a few exotic psi powers slightly based off the Traveller ones. One is, of course is a straight rip of the Droyne's psionic invisibility. Nice in theory but it won't effect computerized security systems or sentients viewing monitors outside the psi's range. Another I liked was machine interface (or just interface). Basically telepathy, but just with computers. One of my favorite NPC's was a telekinetic engineer. With his knowledge of engineering, computers, robotics, he could mess with (or fix) machines, computers, robots.
An idea a had for the creation of psi's I posted a long time ago on the TML was the effect of unshielded jump drives & their time/space/mind bending effects on creating psi. To put a limit, adults couldn't be affected (other than insanity, maybe?) it had to developing, unborn babies. To further limit it, you had to roll 1D6 (roll of 1) to see if psionic powers develop AND 1D6 to see how many generations it took to develop it ( 1: child currently in womd, 2 generations, etc.). Knowing players, I had to put limitations on players or they be stripping down shielding & exposing themselves.

 

[selunatic2397]

Right after all the first X Men movie my pack of gamers all wanted super powers too...

I offered the Wild card virus from the novel series and the gurps supplements...

Basically, out of 100 victims...90 die horribly...9 get deformed to some extent, but get a minor power...and the last person got a genuine bona fide super power.

They suddenly had second thoughts...but I did like that idea [the wildcard virus] as a somewhat believable basis for the existence of superpowers.

I'm now testing it out with shadowrun rules and my test player is reasonably happy with his hero.

Just throwing in my 2 cents worth...use it if you want...

type at ya later...selunatic2397

 

[Darkhstarr]

I make players roll for Psionics, a roll of 12 of 2D6. For awhile I experimented with a roll of 18 on 3D6, but that proved really difficult to roll in testing. Then you rolled for what ability. For the exotic table I did make it another roll of 12 on 2D6 to roll on that table.

But not every character will run a psi character. My wife's navy/corsair character rolled psi abilities. She choose not to use them or even know what psi powers she has. Her justification is that experience with Zhodani, it seemed to her that psi powers made many of the Zhodani she ran into slightly lazy & at a loss when dealing with a problem they normally handle psionically. So she's just a latent psi.