Psionic travelling

[PsiTraveller]

Reading through the Psion book about Folding Space and Drive Augmentation I was wondering about the impact it would have on the game. I was also wondering about how the powers would work in some instances.

Suppose you have a Psionic person attached to the ship. The ship has Jump 1 computer system and a Jump 1 Drive. Assume the Psion puts 6 Psi points into Augmentation. This will allow a Jump 4.
Who calculates the Jump? The Jump 1 capable computer?

The other option is Folding space. No Jump Drive is needed, hence the ship would not have a Jump Computer. I would force the Psion to have Astrogation in order to calculate the folding aspect of the Power.

The impact for Trading is huge. A Far trader could swap out the Jump drive to pay for Psionic upgrades. A few extra tonnes of cargo might fit.

Fuel usage drops to M drive usage. This would allow for long trade routes across empty space since little to no fuelling is needed. (Assuming you are using the Fold Space option.)

The Drive Augmentation option also offers huge fuel savings though. Use J1 ships boosted to Jump 5 or 6 if you have the points (and Psionic batteries offer the points) and you can have a cargo service that moves as fast as X boats.

Smuggling, war, trade. A lot of change is possible with the use of Psionics.

Anyone have any games that delved into this area? I am writing up an adventure for my group but have not played it yet. They will run into a Family owned Free trader that can always seem to get what they want in a very short time.

 

[Timerover51]

It would have a huge effect on space geography, as you would no longer have what I call "Jump Drive Choke Points", where you have a limited number of systems to use to get from one area to another. A trade route like the Spinward Main becomes much less critical of your Free Trader can go from J-1 to J-4 with no modifications.

Handling area defenses would change as well, as with limitations on Jump, a government can rule out attacks from a given direction, and have a good idea of where attacks might come from. If you suddenly have J-6 widely available, that all changes.

Lastly, given the cost of a Jump Drive, being able to avoid that cost in terms of cash and volume radically changes your starship economics. You do not have the cost of the drive, and you gain additional cargo or passenger volume from not having to provide for Jump Fuel and no having the volume occupied by the Jump Drive. Lower upfront cost, plus lower maintenance cost, and more revenue-earning volume make for a much more efficient ship, with a lower break-even point. Depending on how you handle the time factor of a ship making a J-6 jump in one week verses 6 Jump-1 in terms of premium shipping charges, it could make for a much lower break-even point.

 

[Tikon]

The premise though is that type of drive is extremely rare. Costly & hard to find psions to direct it. At least in OTU. Where this kind of ship would give the players the cool edge. Untill the Zhodani start getting curious. Which the Imperium wouldn't find amusing.
Or it is the norm in YTU. Ala Dune or such. Now was there a question as to whether it was instantaneous jump or 1 week. 1 week seems to be standard, but instantaneous feels a better fit.

 

[dilettante]

Suppose you have a Psionic person attached to the ship. The ship has Jump 1 computer system and a Jump 1 Drive. Assume the Psion puts 6 Psi points into Augmentation. This will allow a Jump 4.
Who calculates the Jump? The Jump 1 capable computer?

As an additional use of the Far Seeing power, you could allow the Psion to augment the computer for the purposes of jump calculation at a rate of 1 Psi point for every Jump 1 equivalent. Added to the cost of Drive Augmentation, Psions would require 3 Psi points for every Jump 1 equivalent, limiting your Psi 6 character to Jump-3. Alternatively, he could just upgrade his computer.

Handling area defenses would change as well, as with limitations on Jump, a government can rule out attacks from a given direction, and have a good idea of where attacks might come from. If you suddenly have J-6 widely available, that all changes.

The limiting factor is Psionic Strength. A Psion can move only 100 tons of hull per per point of Psionic Strength when folding space. Similarly, Psions suffer a –1 DM to the Ship Integration roll for every 200 tons of hull when using the Drive Augmentation power. These factors preclude its use on the more capable military ships and the megafreighters used to haul the bulk of the Imperium's cargo; capital ships would still rely solely on their jump drives.

The major changes in OTU would be a consequence of changing the speed of communication. The Imperium's power is largely delegated to the local dukes as communications can take months or years to reach some systems. Travel by folding space would have the effect of significantly centralizing decision-making and undermining the power (and relevance) of nobles not close to the court. As children, these nobles were taught that they were born to rule. A large body of disenfranchised nobles could destabilize the Imperium if they attempt to carve off their own personal power bases not beholden to the demands of the Sylean bureaucracy.

The premise though is that type of drive is extremely rare. Costly & hard to find psions to direct it. At least in OTU. Where this kind of ship would give the players the cool edge. Untill the Zhodani start getting curious. Which the Imperium wouldn't find amusing.

The Zho have even less cause to be enthusiastic about Ship Integration. The Zhodani noble class is defined by its psionic abilities. Ship Integration reduces Psions to the role of machine part. The question is: who gets to live in the palace and who gets hooked up to a dirty, old freighter. As these two differently desirable fates hinge on the same attribute -- psionic ability -- Zhodani nobles may want to keep knowledge of folding space out of the public domain; one fate increases personal power, the other increases Consulate power. Because space folding increases the power (economic and military) and cohesiveness (through better communications) of the Zhodani Consulate, pressure may bear on nobles to learn Ship Integration and forgo the privileges of their non-integrated peers. This pressure may destabilize the Consulate.

Drive Augmentation isn't an OTU breaker, but Fold Space should be introduced with care. If it does exist, it is probably HIGHLY secret whose knowledge is possessed by very few people in intelligence organizations. If others are found to have this ability, they would be assimilated or eliminated in a borg-like manner. :frankie:

 

[PsiTraveller]

I agree it all depends on how you want the tech to work (or be available) in your universe.

If you want the Psion book to be operational and allow the players to have the tech then you have to decide how it will work. The different options will each have their own impact on how the game plays.

If the travel is instant then trade will change for the Psion capable merchant. Imagine the profit possible if you can shift a parsec a week and load out each day. Two or three trips a week might be possible. You could pay off your ship in a couple of years.

Deducting the points spent from the 1 week standard still allows more trips per month.

Removing the need for Jump fuel saves fuel obviously, and changes the Jump lanes, no more Mains needed if the ship has enough fuel for a month of travel. Pick your destination and Jump into empty space as needed and keep moving. Straight lines are your new trade route.

The tonnage limit reduces the military impact, no massive war fleets crossing empty space, the psions lack the tonnage capacity. Small units and black ops are perfect users of the tech however.

It depends on how prevalent you want things to get.

 

[Timerover51]

I run a small-ship universe, so no one-half million ton dreadnoughts floating around, but a cap at 5,000 Traveller dTons. As for power plant fuel, if using a fusion plant, then 1% of displacement in fuel will last a whole year for powering ship services without power to maneuver drive. I have no really sat down to lay it out, but that should make a 1,000 Traveller dTon ship with a Psi for interstellar travel equal to a Jump-dirve ship of twice the size

It would also depend on how common the Psi ability is to begin with. If very common, why would anyone use a Jump-drive? If very rare, for the Psi merchant ship and figure that Psi ships are going to be quite rare, but also indistinguishable from conventional system ships. And very likely to be under very heavy government control.

 

[robject]

The premise though is that type of drive is extremely rare. Costly & hard to find psions to direct it. At least in OTU. Where this kind of ship would give the players the cool edge. Untill the Zhodani start getting curious. Which the Imperium wouldn't find amusing.

...

Now was there a question as to whether it was instantaneous jump or 1 week. 1 week seems to be standard, but instantaneous feels a better fit.

Psionics tend to be instantaneous; however, if this is an actual interaction with jumpspace, you could argue 1 week. If this were simply long-range teleportation, then make it instant.


"Costly" and "hard to find" always loses to a clear tactical and strategic superiority. Which means the Zhodani, K'Kree, Aslan, and Solomani are forced to join the arms race. Which means things change.

 

[Shonner]

Don't assume:
Your player would want to be a one-trick pony character.
You're still in the 3rd Imperium setting.
Miss-jumps are not possible.

 

[Pagan priest]

What changes in the considerations if the psion is NOT required to be surgically made a permanent part of the ship? What if the psion merely has to have brain jacks installed for direct mind linkage to the ship? I don't have the book next to me right now, but I seem to recall that the need be permanently integrated was presented as one option, but the referee was free to use other possibilities as well. Allowing the psion the ability to freely move about when he ship is in port makes for a playable character.

As far as changes to the way things are done by the powers that be, it really comes down to a question of just how common are psionic abilities in general, and this ability in specific. Are one in a thousand psionic? One in a million? One in ten? Yes, the rules allow psionic abilities to be quite common if the players want that for the characters, but that would not be the case for the population at large - even among the Zhodani, psionics are so rare that merely possessing them is enough to allow entry into the ruling nobility. Of course, if you are talking about Droyne, maybe that is the standard design for their ships... o:

 

[PsiTraveller]

Well if the Psion is able to just connect to the system via a neural jack and does not have to be wired into the ship permanently it may make psionic upgrades more palatable.

A Psionic family may go into the trading business and everyone takes a turn providing the edge to the business.

Zhodani may be more willing to explore the technology if it is not so permanent and invasive.

Implementation is of course a personal decision as to how prevalent or important to make Psionics. If the GM wants a Psion heavy campaign then he may push for easy upgrades and the ability to train in the desired Talent.

If you want to use the ability as a Deus ex machine to provide needed transport or trade then keep the tech in the hands of NPC's and have them provide a service.

You could have Zhodanii agents trying to get rid of the scientists developing the tech and spreading the use of Psionics across the spacelanes. Maybe the Zhodani want to keep the tech for themselves to give them mercantile and military advantages.

It all depends on what the GM wants in his sandbox.

 

[McPerth]

I have only had the opportunity to have a quick look to the Psion book, so I may well be wrong, but the impression I had is that, interesting as it might be, it's quite incompatible with OTU (even for the Zhodani).

 

[Shonner]

I have only had the opportunity to have a quick look to the Psion book, so I may well be wrong, but the impression I had is that, interesting as it might be, it's quite incompatible with OTU (even for the Zhodani).

Which part?

 

[McPerth]

Which part?

The general impression.

As said I could not read it in detail, but seeing psionically working ships, and psionic Navy carree gave me this impression.

Not even the Zhodani have this, his ships working on the same principles than others' and there being not a dedicated psion navy among them, just psionic officers and intendants in their Navy (as in all their society).

Off course, even if this impression of mine is correct, the book may be quite useful in other settings, and I've read for Mongoose OTU (3I) is only one more posible setting (albeit probably the most known to Traveller players).

 

[Spinward Scout]

...interesting as it might be, it's quite incompatible with OTU (even for the Zhodani).

Yeah, the 'Advanced Talents' don't work with previous versions of Traveller. If you treat them as 'Special' it's a lot closer, but there's still stuff that would really break the OTU.

 

[Shonner]

The general impression.

As said I could not read it in detail, but seeing psionically working ships, and psionic Navy carree gave me this impression.

Not even the Zhodani have this, his ships working on the same principles than others' and there being not a dedicated psion navy among them, just psionic officers and intendants in their Navy (as in all their society).

Off course, even if this impression of mine is correct, the book may be quite useful in other settings, and I've read for Mongoose OTU (3I) is only one more posible setting (algeit probably the most known to Traveller players).

The book mentioned that some of the rules were optional and of course for use with generic sci-fi settings. And Mongoose is a reboot of Classic Traveller to begin with. I never compare the two games, and keep them separate.

 

[Pagan priest]

Which part?

The part between the covers. :rofl:

Don't get me wrong, I love the book, but it is a major shift to what was canon. Some of the careers can work for the Zhodani or the Droyne, but others are definitely meant to be for a very different game based on the MgT rules.

 

[Pagan priest]

Well if the Psion is able to just connect to the system via a neural jack and does not have to be wired into the ship permanently it may make psionic upgrades more palatable.

A Psionic family may go into the trading business and everyone takes a turn providing the edge to the business.

Zhodani may be more willing to explore the technology if it is not so permanent and invasive.

Implementation is of course a personal decision as to how prevalent or important to make Psionics. If the GM wants a Psion heavy campaign then he may push for easy upgrades and the ability to train in the desired Talent.

If you want to use the ability as a Deus ex machine to provide needed transport or trade then keep the tech in the hands of NPC's and have them provide a service.

You could have Zhodanii agents trying to get rid of the scientists developing the tech and spreading the use of Psionics across the spacelanes. Maybe the Zhodani want to keep the tech for themselves to give them mercantile and military advantages.

It all depends on what the GM wants in his sandbox.

Oh, I suspect the Zhos would want to see word spread across the entire Imperium. After all, what better way to get the Imps to see the error of their mind-deaf ways and finally embrace psionics?

 

[salochin999]

A common scifi trope has the characters find a hitech alien ship that is much better than anything else available (Blake's 7, Lexx, Farscape etc). This psion ship idea sounds like a good candidate for something like that.

 

[Shonner]

I ignore anything from Classic Traveller. Mongoose is the way of things now.