Psionics in MGT

[ThunderChilde]

I've been looking at the Psionic rules for a couple days now. Imho they seem more than a little nerfed.:nonono: The average psion has quite a few skill points tied up in a body of skills that are very easily unusable after a couple of rounds.o: Doesn't seem balanced at all. Maybe psions will address this in a month or two when it is published. Anyone else spent any time thinking about this?

This came up in gameplay, 5 term Psion ran out of psi points in 3 turns, just finding then following an agent across a dock area.

On another tangent, I have heard, more than a few times, that T4 had the best Psi rules and framework of any of the rule sets. If this is so, how does it differ from MGT? Does it have anything in common?

 

[fiat_knox]

All the more reason, I imagine, to keep all the really high uses of Psionic powers until needed.

Or perhaps the Psion can receive training in, I dunno, conservation of Psionic Strength points, or pick up Psi focus crystals that enhance the range of powers or cut down on their costs.

I've thought of a few ideas, and implemented them IMTU. They work, and they have the added benefit of weirding out the Psionists who witness my NPCs doing them. Things like meditation techniques, and things Psions do to themselves to prevent the loss of those precious Psionic Strength points.

A good Referee can think of any number of tools, techniques and similar little edges that any Psion worth their neuropeptides would likely kill to get a hold of ... or to keep from rival Psions.

 

[Original_Carl]

I wouldn't call any implementation of psionic powers nerfed. After all, they're extremely rare and if you're lucky enough to have them you have a huge advantage over a character that doesn't.

That said, start thinking of psionc devices (helmets, headbands, gloves, goggles, etc) that would accomplish what you want in terms of giving your psions more staying power. I'd make them technology-based and available on the black market of high tech level worlds, but in MTU psionics are very rare and for the most part illegal.

 

[Spinward Scout]

That sounds about right. Just looked through T4 and the Mongoose book. You'd burn through those points real quick. Only a couple of rounds and you'd be out of points. Don't forget that they have Psi booster drugs - and don't forget to use mundane ways to accomplish what you are trying to do and save the Psi for something that doesn't have a mundane solution. Psi at a distance is a big killer of points. Also, they regenerate one point per hour, but if your PsiStrength is low to begin with, maybe once per day is all you'll get out of it. High Psi Strength coupled with a high Endurance to offset the danger of Psi drugs is the only way you'd probably get good use out of a Psion. And those types would get recruited/abducted/killed off pretty quick, I'd think.

I'll have to write a Mongoose Psi up and try it out, tho.

EDIT: Don't forget that you can 'push' the Psi Strength. If you don't have enough points to accomplish what you want to do, but you have at least one Psi point, you can still activate the power and the rest of the point cost (after the 1 Psi point is subtracted and brings you to zero) is applied to your Endurance as damage. Not the best option, but might be useful as a last resort. But you can't activate a power if you are at zero.

The soldier has a body of skills that end up unusable after combat, too. Astrogation is only useful in space, etc...

 

[fiat_knox]

That would be the reason why Psions keep their abilities quiet, not just the threat of the lynchmob: the fact that their powers are, outside of the Psionic realm, pretty much useless.

If people discovered that someone they knew, who lived among them, was a Psion, they'd quickly end up coming to them looking for a Psionic solution to everything - talking to deceased relatives, tracking down missing kids, fixing a broken motor without opening the casing, picking a safe's lock with telekinesis, foretelling the future, predicting the weather, dowsing for water and crafting love charms for young girls to win the hearts of the boys they fancy.

Even the most accepting and open-minded people would end up giving the Psion no end of hassle. And it doesn't take much effort to turn such people into a lynch mob overnight. One broken leg, missing kid found dead or crooked village Patrician with something to hide can turn the kindest community into an ugly mob.

Also, the heavy expenditure of personal energies pretty much ensures that any Psion worth their weight in Vril would try for as mundane and ordinary a solution as possible, before calling upon their extraordinary gifts. If they must pick a lock, they use their Mechanic skill; if they are asked to cure someone, they use Medic skill and suitable drugs, and so on, just like everyone else has to do.

Psionics as they stand are based on the assumption that they are rare, and even when present they should be applied judiciously, and usually for a short term solution. In that regard, they're pretty much the same as combat skills like Melee: swing a heavy sword around, and you quickly get fatigued.

Also, since they take so much out of the Psion, it'd pretty much be for a damned good reason, and usually the Psion would strive to maximise the Effect for the best possible result every time. A Psion who uses his talents for entertainment or for trivial reasons quickly learns not to do so in future.

I'm looking forward to Mongoose Book 4.

 

[Original_Carl]

I think I would rather have seen a "Citizen of the Imperium" or "Merchant Prince" book before "Psion." Those two career paths are more interesting to me than Psionics. Also, I think the rulebook did a good job of producing a workable psionic system that leaves decent room for expansion and color added by the Referee and Players.

I used psionics to build an Alispinian minidragon-like creature (from Alan Dean Foster's Pip and Flinx series) as a pet for a player who has a veterinarian character in my game. That same character has a contact (adversarial) who is a Psion, but hides it because she's a police officer and psionics are illegal on her world. The pet is illegal, too, but she hides it and keeps it on the starship for the most part. Neither the player, nor the group has opted to pursue that contact yet.

During character creation (which someone does at least once a session -- Traveller is kind of harsh on characters) I keep hoping for a psionic event to take place so I can see a psion in action, but it hasn't happened yet.

 

[fiat_knox]

That's probably because genuine psionic incidents are rare. And likely because the Referee needs a prod, on occasion, to bring something psionic into the mix.

I mean, consider treating the Psionic Strength characteristic as just another characteristic, like Intelligence, and using it to, say, "get a strong hunch about this" when faced with a decision, or when searching for a clue; or using Psionic Strength for a characteristic check to pick up on an impression in the area, an intuition that the Psion may need to clarify by bringing in more active psionic powers or, at least, activating shields to ward off an incoming probe or Telepathic scan.