Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
I am not a fan of psionics, except on a very limited basis, as I am not sure if most people have considered the full implications of such abilities.
The following comes from John Berryman's story, Card Trick, which is available, along with several other Psi stories, on Project Gutenberg.
Lefty, the psi in the story, is a trained telekinetic of no mean ability. However, he would also make a very deadly assassin, with no way of determining if a heart attack was natural or artificially caused. Someone with telekinetic ability would also make a very effective saboteur
In James Schmitz's story, Glory Day, one of the Telzey Amberdon series, a psi with the expertise of teleportation teleports the hearts of two persons from their bodies onto a sacrificial stone. While Traveller rules that teleportation can only be used on oneself, I am not sure why, if you can teleport yourself, why you cannot teleport something else, like a bomb into a star ship just about to take off, or a gas bubble into a person's heart. However, consider what a teleporting individual could do to current air port security, or to star port security.
In the article on Psionics in JTAS No. 5, there is also the pyretic ability to generate heat at a distance. That also has a wide range of possible nastiness to exploit. Again, how do you detect this?
The following comes from John Berryman's story, Card Trick, which is available, along with several other Psi stories, on Project Gutenberg.
"How'd that feel?" Lefty asked, apparently not expecting an answer. "I clamped your coronary artery shut for a few seconds. A post-mortem would never be able to tell it from the real thing if I held down tight."
Lefty, the psi in the story, is a trained telekinetic of no mean ability. However, he would also make a very deadly assassin, with no way of determining if a heart attack was natural or artificially caused. Someone with telekinetic ability would also make a very effective saboteur
In James Schmitz's story, Glory Day, one of the Telzey Amberdon series, a psi with the expertise of teleportation teleports the hearts of two persons from their bodies onto a sacrificial stone. While Traveller rules that teleportation can only be used on oneself, I am not sure why, if you can teleport yourself, why you cannot teleport something else, like a bomb into a star ship just about to take off, or a gas bubble into a person's heart. However, consider what a teleporting individual could do to current air port security, or to star port security.
In the article on Psionics in JTAS No. 5, there is also the pyretic ability to generate heat at a distance. That also has a wide range of possible nastiness to exploit. Again, how do you detect this?