Research Station Gamma, did I just screw my TU over?

[Murphy]

A Zhodani agent just stole the research for interstellar tepelathy method. And my adventurers aren't going to even try to chase him because they don't have a ship, three PCs are maimed and the fourth dead, and they lost the trail anyway.

Of course, the Professor only got results up to interplanetary scale. Oh, btw, they have the prof as a contact, cause they saved him from the Zho.

It's 060-1107. Ha ha ha.

 

[atpollard]

Unless the Zho just stole the PSI equivalent of the prototype Dean Drive ... lots of great theory and publicity hype and personal testimonials ... if only it really worked?

Remember the breakthrough in Cold Fusion from 1989.
Where's my Mr Fusion to power my flying electric car?

 

[Highorbit_drifter]

You flip the story. Now the Zho is hunting the party.

Maybe there are side effects to the telepathy that only show up in trained psions. Like 'always on' so they get no sleep and eventually go mad and die, unless they are millions of miles away from other minds. Something that didn't show up in the initial testing.

The Zho is now trying to get the prof back for any insights into the problem. That is, before the Zho goes mad and/or dies from lack of sleep.

 

[robject]

You flip the story. Now the Zho is hunting the party.

Maybe there are side effects to the telepathy that only show up in trained psions. Like 'always on' so they get no sleep and eventually go mad and die, unless they are millions of miles away from other minds. Something that didn't show up in the initial testing.

The Zho is now trying to get the prof back for any insights into the problem. That is, before the Zho goes mad and/or dies from lack of sleep.

As the above. The Zho are going to want the professor. Badly. Roll 1D:

1. The Zho singlemindedly tries to capture the professor, with no thought to guile or stealth.
2. The Zho aligns several competing goals up in order to capture the professor as well as get some other important things done (?).
3. The Zho sends for help to retrieve the professor.
4. The Zho first seeks out (medical?) help before going after the party.
5. The Zho has gone insane, and merely seeks to kill the professor.
6. As #5, but he also seeks to kill the players.



A PC died? Is the player disappointed? Because there are ways to bring them back. Ways that can introduce their own plot complications. A "life insurance" policy that activates when the character's death is received by the holding institute. The most recent "backup" of the character is decanted and sent to replace the expired one. Roll 1D:

1. All goes according to plan, and the character basically comes back into the game as-is.
2. As #1, except the character is 1 term younger and loses skill levels (player's choice).
3. As #1, except the character's skillset is lightly scrambled, with one skill (choose) swapped for a different skill (choose).
4. As #1, except (REFEREE ONLY) the character has been implanted with psychological suggestions by enemies (who?) to "report periodically" to an anonymous xmail account.
5. As #1, except the character has one point moved from one characteristic to another (choose from Str, Dex, End, Int).
6. As #1, except the character's SOC is reduced by two due to being "just another clone". If SOC is less than 5, the character is referred to as "just another stinking clone".

 

[Timerover51]

A Zhodani agent just stole the research for interstellar tepelathy method. And my adventurers aren't going to even try to chase him because they don't have a ship, three PCs are maimed and the fourth dead, and they lost the trail anyway.

Of course, the Professor only got results up to interplanetary scale. Oh, btw, they have the prof as a contact, cause they saved him from the Zho.

It's 060-1107. Ha ha ha.

You might want to take a look at the discussion on Psionics going on in the T5 thread, where the assumption is that telepathy is restricted to the speed of light, in which case, basically no interstellar telepathy.

As for side effects, if the above is correct, the telepath is essentially in a coma during the telepathy effort, or the greater the distance, the greater the energy drain on the telepath, resulting in death at a distance of several Astronomical Units.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

I Agree

You might want to take a look at the discussion on Psionics going on in the T5 thread, where the assumption is that telepathy is restricted to the speed of light, in which case, basically no interstellar telepathy.

As for side effects, if the above is correct, the telepath is essentially in a coma during the telepathy effort, or the greater the distance, the greater the energy drain on the telepath, resulting in death at a distance of several Astronomical Units.

Also since you said "The research" was taken, the results of the research may be inconclusive (or even negative and demonstrate the harmful side effects of trying to read minds at a distance greater than solar system).

Even planetary distances have complications and side effects to be considered.

 

[Murphy]

Nah, the player whose character died isn't disappointed. It's not easy to die with my rules anyway so occasions like this are valuable to remind the players about everything there is to violence

 

[aramis]

Unless the Zho just stole the PSI equivalent of the prototype Dean Drive ... lots of great theory and publicity hype and personal testimonials ... if only it really worked?

Remember the breakthrough in Cold Fusion from 1989.
Where's my Mr Fusion to power my flying electric car?

The last data I saw out of the Japanese and Australian researchers had an operational cost per kilowatt-hour of something like $20. And it required precisely doped purified water. Output was in single digit single digit watts per kiloliter.

In other words, replication of Pons & Fleischman's initial claim of surplus power, but so low a return that your laptop would need a backpack, and that backpack would be more than a new car.

Between the US DOE smear of researchers pursuing replication*, the lack of credibility of certain US researchers publishing, the difficulty in replication (2 teams had successfully replicated positive results in the 90's, and a handful by 2002), the expense of the apparatus, the commercial non-viability of the working aparati, and the potential to ridicule, it's become a science pariah.

*Noting that Dept. of Energy has been the primary point of both grants and claims that it's never worked; DoE spokesmen have literally claimed any replications are falsified. (late 1990's.)