Not so Nice Psi

[Timerover51]

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.

"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?

 

[Quint]

I think that where Traveller makes a real good job of creating a system where there is some interesting abilities but where there are often real limits. For example you have conservation of energy issues with Teleportation - as well as the "self-teleportation only" portion that you note. As to why that is, it's a setting specific decision. If you want to consider what the implications for security are for teleportation, you don't have to look any further than Zhodani Commandos which have much written on their doctrinal and tactical use.

Using the Telekinesis example, there is nothing in the rules to overtly suggest that any Telekinetic has that level of fine control or that they can "touch" anything that they can't see.

(That said, a telekinetic doing a blood choke on a target, the continuing the hold until the subject suffers brain death strikes me as totally fine - and I'm not sure it would really love much in the way of traces)

In CT there doesn't seem to be much way to detect Psionics explained out though it is certainly implied because Psionic Institutes (and arguably the Imperial Authorities) can test people for psionics.

In MegaTraveller (and later editions) this seems to be a function of Neural Activity Sensors which I seem to recall (unless this is a House Rule that I've forgotten is House Rule) can be tuned to detect active psionics in use. Similarly, I would imagine that an Artificial Mind Shield has an "alert" function when it gets "pinged" - though when I think about it that might be a way to look at a higher tech version vs. the basic "wall of static" model.

Personally I like psionics, so I have more powers, broader abilities, fewer restrictions, but I also have many countermeasures and detection methods.

D.

 

[whulorigan]

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.

I do not tend to be a fan of "powerful" psionics either. Things such as telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, etc, I don't have a problem with (in limited amounts), but the flashier they get, the harder it is for me to suspend disbelief. Telekinesis, Pyro/Cryokinesis, etc, I prefer to be very limited in power, and teleportation I prefer to be very rare.

One solution for an IMTU setting is to rule that some of the more powerful abilities like Teleportation actually require technological aid in order to implement. In other words, maybe "teleportation" is a latent talent, but perhaps it needs some type of "module" or suit that augments the psionic ability in order to effectively implement (even for someone who is trained and highly skilled).

 

[robject]

I think our group has had no problem with psionics, but psionic ability is also rare with us. And it's puzzling because we do have at least one self-avowed munchkin in the group, altho' he's mellowed over the years.

Maybe we just prefer to do things the 'Han Solo' way.

 

[Kilgs]

In "Rising Stars" a Stracynski<sp> comic, one of the heroes can manipulate just two molecules (or something like that). She finds work with the Mossad on aneurysm placement ;-)

 

[CosmicGamer]

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

It would be like saying if I can jump up and down why can't I make a desk or someone across the room jump up and down.

It is you and your body that has the ability to teleport and items on you can sometimes go along for the ride.

It would be telekinesis, like levitate, to move yourself and telekinesis to move other objects.

At least that's how I see it.

I am not sure if most people have considered the full implications of such abilities.

Absolutely.

Some of the "little" things I've come up with for telekinesis are switching the safety on an opponents weapon and pulling the pin from a grenade that an opponent is carrying. A rogue character can seemingly cause the "wind" to make a piece of trash happen to pass in front of a sensor at just the right moment.

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.

For the average Joe that nobody cares about maybe. But why would anyone be assassinating them?

For someone of importance one might check for the cause of the heart attack and even at our level of medicine technology an autopsy could determine that physical stress on the blood vessel and not a blockage caused it. Baring any other surrounding physical trauma and a knowledge that psionics and telekinesis are real...

 

[McPerth]

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?

ITTR a character (I guess a casual encounter, but not sue about that, nor about the source) that worked as assasin. He was psionic (clairvoyant and telekinetic, again IIRC) and medic, and used his skills to produce small aneurisms in his victim's brain, leading any post-mortem exam to dismiss the case as natural death (stroke).

This would be more effective than chocking the coronaries, as many people has those small aneurisms (that will give no trouble in the whole life), while a heart attack with coronaries in good shape would be (at least) suspicious...

About teleporting things inside an enemy body, I'm afraid teleport is not as precise as to allow for it, aside that being a personal thing, as you point, you can only teleport yourself, as you're the one with the teleporting "device" (your own mind).

And, about psionic saboteurs, that is exactly the role of Zhodani Scramblers (telekinetically removing grenade pins, unloading weapons, etc...), isn't it?

Yes, psionics may be quite nasty.

 

[mike wightman]

How does the telekinetic target something deep within the body?

It's like someone saying I will shoot you where the aorta meets the heart - neat trick but how do you target it?

Such a method would also require being able to "see" inside to target the organ/blood vessel.

I would only allow tele kinetics to affect what they can see. Combine it with clairvoyance and you may have a chance of doing it...

 

[McPerth]

How does the telekinetic target something deep within the body?

It's like someone saying I will shoot you where the aorta meets the heart - neat trick but how do you target it?

Such a method would also require being able to "see" inside to target the organ/blood vessel.

I would only allow tele kinetics to affect what they can see. Combine it with clairvoyance and you may have a chance of doing it...

He was psionic (clairvoyant and telekinetic, again IIRC) and medic

By using clairvoyance to see inside the body and the medic skills to recognize the target points. That's as shooting the aorta where it meets the heart when the victim is being done an angiography (but without the bulky machine disturbing ).

You can ask Darth Vader for more details :devil:.

 

[Carlobrand]

I remember dealing with such implications in other games. It requires a moment's thought and consideration. As Mike points out, clamping down on someone's aorta is a neat trick - you're reaching around blind, and I've not heard anyone say that telekinesis gives the psi any tactile feedback. I'd not permit it unless the person trying it was a cardiac surgeon or skilled coroner, someone with a very intimate knowledge of a person's anatomy, or unless the rules specifically included some skill or ability that let him get a grip on a specific something in a black hidden space.

Not sure if it's undetectable either. With all due respect to Lefty, an artery that's been pinched closed and then released is not going to look like an artery with a big chunk of plaque clogging it. The man's a skilled psi but not a medical examiner, or if he is then the author isn't. In a world where psi is a known ability, if the coroner finds a healthy heart has stopped with no evidence of disease or injury to account for it, the police are likely to start questioning psis - or hiring a mind-reader, or someone who can do psychometry, or some other talent that can help them bust the case. In such a world, the sudden death of any healthy person with no apparent disease or injury to account for it is at best suspicious and worthy of further investigation.

Doesn't mean psionics can't be nasty when cleverly used, but the gamemaster needs to think it through. I'm pretty sure a Star Wars coroner who comes across someone asphyxiated with no apparent cause on Darth Vader's ship is going to suspect the poor sap might have been force-choked. Of course, he may still put, "Natural Causes," on the death certificate, but that's another matter.

 

[Enoki]

I don't mind having psi in the game. But, I do want to keep it from making players omnipotent. So, there are subtitle limits imposed.
The teleporter suffers momentary confusion on arriving having to get his bearings. That means teleporting into something like combat is likely to get you killed.
The clairvoyant "sees" one of many possibilities (maybe the most likely) or can see but not hear so they misinterpret what they view.
An empath might need to touch the person they read rather than just read them at a distance depending or skill level.

"Flashy" ones that are hard to miss like teleportation will also get the attention of people that the psionic character probably doesn't want having their attention. The more obvious the power the more obvious the response from things like police, the government, etc.

That makes the powers useful but not overwhelming.

 

[flykiller]

However, he would also make a very deadly assassin, with no way of determining if a heart attack was natural or artificially caused.

it's very easy to determine if a heart attack has occurred. it includes all kinds of physical and chemical signs, easily observed.

a psi pinching an artery shut would 1) bruise the artery very visibly at that point and 2) swell and bruise the preceeding artery segment noticeably, and 3) leave the downstream segment untouched and drained. the coroner will say, "WHAT is THIS?" and the investigator will say, "got it covered."

sorry, no-go.

 

[aramis]

it's very easy to determine if a heart attack has occurred. it includes all kinds of physical and chemical signs, easily observed.

a psi pinching an artery shut would 1) bruise the artery very visibly at that point and 2) swell and bruise the preceeding artery segment noticeably, and 3) leave the downstream segment untouched and drained. the coroner will say, "WHAT is THIS?" and the investigator will say, "got it covered."

sorry, no-go.

A skilled clairvoyant/TK can can do MUCH better.

Simply pop the cholesterol plaque loose and let it do it's usual damage. It's not as assured a kill, but it's much less obvious, especially since not a few PE's and MIs are caused by such plaque breaking loose without apparent cause.

Likewise, a local poisonous plant, or a viral or bacterial strain can be used - an ankle poke is effective and looks pretty natural.

If there are toxic bugs, a TK might be able to grab one and force a sting. Think of the effects of, say, grabbing an africanized bee, then forcing it to be on the target, and stinging the neck... the pheromone will result in drawing more...

A TK with good enough range can even relocate a whole bloody hive of bugs, then "let them out" when the target's in range, and make the first attack happen.

 

[epicenter00]

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.

I think the greatest tinfoil hat "unlikely conspiracy theory" in Traveller is on the part of the GDW's writers -- that if psi existed and functioned in the ways described in the rules in various editions, that Traveller society could possibly exist in the way it is described to be various 3I lore, let alone it'd all be fine if it was somehow "suppressed."

Once the genie is out of the bottle on that one, there'd be no way anyone could put it back in. Psions are, in pretty much every way that matters, better than everyone else.

It's pretty much as described by many other posters - psions would pretty much be humans with built-in weapons that you can't really take away from them. They're visually identical to normal people; apparently even physically identical. Traveller psionics are not genetic, so even their genetic structures are the same. They just have these inexplicable powers. This wouldn't be some weird Victorian psuedoscience like mediums or phrenology. It'd be exhaustively studied, the more proof there was, the more intensely it'd be studied. And humanity would adapt; psionic criminals wouldn't get away with abuse of their powers - at least wouldn't after just a few decades of these powers "coming out" - society would adapt.

There's no witch-hunt or "psionic supression" which could stop this, really. It'd be studied, and it'd be the greatest revolution in human history after maybe the taming of fire, or the use of tools. Psionics have no genetic inheritance mechanism. The 3I would have to become increasingly draconic to "suppress" something that everyone has the potential to have; I think the 3I's power is too limited and very quickly, it wouldn't have the power to conceal psionics sufficiently - it would either collapse or adapt.

Either way, it'd also be one of those bandied-about "Singularity Events" I think - what'd happen to human society as it adapted to the use of psionics would create a society that would be so utterly different to any society we can imagine today that we can't really imagine it.

I'm pretty careful about including it in my games, but most games I avoid putting it in. It's basically D&D magic. It's pretty funny to think that Loren Wiseman was talking about in G:T's sidebar about how much nanotechnology would change Traveller ... yet he never mentions how psionics would really turn humanity inside out.

 

[Timerover51]

I would disagree with your assumption that psionics is

something that everyone has the potential to have.

That is like saying that everyone is equally capable in the arts, music, languages, mathematics, logical reasoning, technologically oriented, or mechanically inclined. That is most definitely not the case. The Psi rules in Traveller already make it clear that there are differing abilities and power levels in psionics, which are probably derived from the science fiction writings of those authors using Psi as a plot device. James Schmitz's short story Glory Day does a very good job illustrating that.

You may also have some people who are naturally resistant to psionic manipulation, or operate as anti-psi, negating the ability of psi in their immediate area. Imagine being a psi and trying to demonstrate your ability to levitate objects in a room where one person is totally convinced that such ability is a fraud, and projects a field to that effect. Suddenly, no levitation. Or a telepath or life sensor seeing a person near them, but when they close their eyes, the person vanishes as being psionically invisible.

 

[kilemall]

I have a very simple mechanism- different orgs have expertise in training up on one power, there is no one psionic institute able to train in all disciplines, so those orgs can ONLY do the one thing they know to do.

And for those powers that have multiple orgs (telepathy or clarivoyance being popular items), the 'competition' tends to cull ranks.

 

[Hyphen]

[Psionics would] be exhaustively studied, the more proof there was, the more intensely it'd be studied. And humanity would adapt; psionic criminals wouldn't get away with abuse of their powers - at least wouldn't after just a few decades of these powers "coming out" - society would adapt.

"To Ride Pegasus", Anne McCaffrey.

BTW, I believe the reason for psionics in Traveller is as a tip'o'the hat to a classic SF trope, as evidenced in books such as the Lensman series, Andre Norton's _Star Rangers_, The _The Tar-Aiym Krang_ (Pip and Flinx) series by Alan Dean Foster, and _The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton_ by Niven.

I have heard it argued on these forums that "magic" has no place in a science-fiction RPG setting; I suggest that the person who put this forward needs to read more classic science fiction.

And that's even apart from reviewing Clarke's Third Law. ;-)

 

[epicenter00]

That is like saying that everyone is equally capable in the arts, music, languages, mathematics, logical reasoning, technologically oriented, or mechanically inclined.

No, I wouldn't claim that. They're scores like anything else and in most editions (all?) if you don't train your psionic powers they lower with age.

People would have vastly different levels of psionics. They're so convenient that I think eventually society would become heavily dependent on them - the assumption you have psionics. People without key common powers or low psi strength would become disadvantaged, perhaps severely so.

Regardless, my point is that much more of Traveller's 3I would be devoted to psionics because it has vast (and imo, almost unimaginable) effects upon even the most basic inter-human relationships and these cascade have fallout in other areas; the end result is a society that would be beyond the so-called 'singularity' I think.

BTW, I believe the reason for psionics in Traveller is as a tip'o'the hat to a classic SF trope, as evidenced in books such as the Lensman series, Andre Norton's _Star Rangers_, The _The Tar-Aiym Krang_ (Pip and Flinx) series by Alan Dean Foster, and _The Long Arm of Gil Hamilton_ by Niven.

Yes, but in most of these stories, psionics aren't as common as set out in the Traveller rules. And it never really is explained why these people aren't using their powerful advantages to float to the top. In books, these characters may be pretty ethical in their own way and curb their excesses (Gil Hamilton) or might basically be leashed by a higher power (Lensman), or just sort of be slackers (Pip and Flinx), the issue that RPGs tend to make us face up to is "what would happen if these powers were given to normal people, who have normal desires, and used their powers towards those ends?"

It feels very much like a grafted on feature in Traveller, one whose implications have never really been well-explored. I think it's fine if you're just "playing" Traveller without really thinking about how this society would really work (and if it could), but once you start considering the implications even relatively superficially, it just doesn't float. It's a curse of growing older in my case - as I grow older I find these weird social situations to be increasingly prone to break my suspension of disbelief.

 

[Enoki]

It feels very much like a grafted on feature in Traveller, one whose implications have never really been well-explored. I think it's fine if you're just "playing" Traveller without really thinking about how this society would really work (and if it could), but once you start considering the implications even relatively superficially, it just doesn't float. It's a curse of growing older in my case - as I grow older I find these weird social situations to be increasingly prone to break my suspension of disbelief.

I would tend to agree here. I've always made psionics something most people view with a degree of trepidation and fear, even in societies where their use is allowed and known. Doing something flashy and obvious in front of others as a psionic is likely to generate a very negative response and may well bring the authorities looking for you.
I doubt that the Zhodani would tolerate "rogue" psionics running around, nor would any other government / society for the same reasons. Such people pose a potential threat to stability of that system.

So, being a clairvoyant wouldn't be a big risk unless you were say gambling and winning every time by knowing the outcome. A telepath reading thoughts would not be a high risk but sending them to someone would be. Teleporting in front of almost anyone would get you attention of the wrong sort. A telekinetic could use it subtly but doing something obvious would be a problem.

Since the game includes psionicly shielded helmets, I allow shielding of rooms, areas, vehicles, and such. It'd be helpful if there were more on how that worked and if it required power but...
If psionic assassins and such were a serious issue I'd say that there would be good reason to make such powers illegal and seriously controlled. I'd also think that any VIP would have measures in place to prevent their being targeted by such persons, sort of like riding in an armored limo or wearing body armor.

The same is true of people who are psionically resistant. If you have one, you can have the other.

The bottom line as I see it is the whole psionic power thing is really just about a player having another skill or two with the same sort of limitations other skills have.

 

[kilemall]

The bottom line as I see it is the whole psionic power thing is really just about a player having another skill or two with the same sort of limitations other skills have.

Hmmm, from a game design standpoint I look at it as a means for the 22 year old 1 term character to be able to stay level and fully contributing as the 5+ term guys.