CT Only: searching for Psionics Institute -- how many times per "term"?

[nightlamp]

Getting ready to run CT for the first time(!) this weekend for some friends, and have a feeling that at least one will be interested in pursuing psionic training. I'm not sure how this works in terms of timing and character aging (using the LBB3 rules only.)

Searching for a local branch of an Institute takes one week. If the search is unsuccessful, and the player is obsessed with finding one (instead of pursuing a regular Career), how many such searches would you, as Referee, allow per game year? Per 4-year term?

Thanks!

 

[McPerth]

IMHO: indefinite, until they:

• find it (if it's there, remember they would not know if they fail or if there is not)
• they tire of searching, assuming there is not
• they get into trouble while looking for it (remember, it is illegal)

 

[Whipsnade]

Searching for a local branch of an Institute takes one week. If the search is unsuccessful, and the player is obsessed with finding one (instead of pursuing a regular Career), how many such searches would you, as Referee, allow per game year? Per 4-year term?

Okay, part of the problem here is the old school "rulings not rules" mindset behind Traveller. You as the referee are supposed to take the few rules and then expand on them to meet your group's needs. That means the answer to your questions are "Whatever is best for your group"

Let's begin by looking at the search procedure on page 38 of LBB:3.

First, you as the referee determine whether an institute exists or not. Only worlds with pop codes of 9+ are candidates. You need to roll an 11+ and you get a +1 DM for for every level of population above 9.

Second, the player must spend a week searching, succeeds on a 9+ with DMs for Streetwise and/or Admin skills. Most importantly, if the player's roll fails, they "the character becomes convinced that no branch exists on this world, and gives up the search there."

That's it. Short, simple, concise, and - most importantly - easily modified for your group's specific needs.

After examining the procedure, the first thing you should notice is that most of the worlds being searched won't even have an institute for the player to find. There's only an 8% chance of an institute on world with a pop code of 9, a 16% chance on a pop code 10 world, and so forth. A player could search once a week, 52 times a year, and still not find an institute because there isn't one to be found.

The second thing you should notice is the result of a failed search; "...the character becomes convinced that no branch exists on this world..." Blow the search roll and, even if an institute does exist, the PC is convinced it does not.

How often can a player search during a year or a term? As often as they visit a high pop world they haven't previously searched.

Can a player search more than once on a given world? Not according to RAW, but you as the referee could allow it.

The "one chance only" rule is there to prevent players from simply squatting on a likely world and rolling once a week until they succeed but you can balance your player's desire to conduct multiple searches on one world by imposing penalties. You could require the player pass a willpower roll before searching again or raise the possibility that the player's continued search has interested the police.

TL, DR: Trust yourself. Do what you think is best for your group.

 

[atpollard]

Someone correct me if I am misremembering, but doesn't Psi Training happen AFTER you muster out of a career and not before you enter a career?

Hey, I house rule anything if it will make the game more fun. If the character were in my game, I'd incorporate it into the regular play ... Career, muster out, cash in hand, start looking for a Psi Institute. One check per world per week, but remember that there is only a small chance that a Psi Institute even exists on any given world. So let him/her decide to just burn through his cash, or get a job on a crew and search at every world you stop at. Now you have some built in adventure. Perhaps he doesn't find an institute, but somebody knows somebody in another system that might know something. Now you have a rumor to chase down. In the mean time, the crew can be having all sorts of adventures as the one character looks for testing. He will need money when he finds it anyway.

Personally, I would allow any world to have someone who can test him on a roll of exactly 12. This gives a POP 5 world a chance that there is an 'Old Ben', that crazy old hermit, that could teach you a thing or two if you can locate him.

The goal is to have fun and make it the game that YOUR group wants to play.

 

[Supplement Four]

Someone correct me if I am misremembering, but doesn't Psi Training happen AFTER you muster out of a career and not before you enter a career?

Bingo.

I believe it should be hard to find. I wouldn't allow it in chargen.

Finding the Psionics Institute is a reward--a character reward. It should be the prize at the end of a long quest.

The quest rules are in the RAW, and they're meant to be used after chargen.

I would let a player know--the one really interested in checking PSI--that the older the character gets, the lower he's apt to test for PSI. That way, he can make a decision about the number of terms he wants his character to achieve.

It's kind of a balancing effect. If a character goes one term, he's young when he gets out and starts adventuring, but he doesn't have many skills or any skill of a high level. But, he's the most likely to test high for PSI, if an institute is ever found.

When he finds an institute, which he will do at some point, he'll have few and low skills, but he'll balance that out with the higher PSI rating.

OTOH, those characters who go through many terms will have more and higher skills but lower PSI ratings due to their age.




I'd put a character through chargen, then I'd turn his quest for the Institute into the adventure. That's your PULL. Finding the institute. You can work in other adventures as he moves along his quest.



As for searching for an Institute, remember that it's impossible to check week after week. You can't roll 52 times, once per week, in one year. The reason is because there's travel time between worlds.

With all other factors resolved, the best a character can hope for is 26 checks per year, one per planet per week (with a week to jump to the next world).

But, that's a pipe dream. If the character owns his own ship, he's got to fuel it and pay for other expenses. He's not always going to have a full hold, and his contracts are not likely to take him t the next most likely world to have an Institute.

If the character doesn't own a ship, then he's paying A LOT of cash, jumping from world to world, looking for the Institute. Even traveling Mid-Passage, that's 8,000 credits a pop, when not every trip will get you to a candidate world where the rules allow you to check for an institute.

I think that finding a PSI Institute is too important to skimp on the rules and allow a character to find one during chargen.

When does a character have time? He needs leave if he's in a military force, and that leave has to be on a qualified world. He's got to have an entire week to himself. Even if the character owns his own ship, he's got crew to pay, a ship payment, fuel and consumables, berthing fees. And, when he's on a world, he's not making money. Usually, a ship spends a week in jump and a week on the world, but the crew is working when they're on the world. They've got to unload cargo, load new cargo, meet and work with passengers, locate new business and work with the broker. Sure, the guy may have off a few hours here and there--maybe even a couple of days--but he doesn't have an entire week to search for an Institute.

I strongly urge you to not allow this in chargen and make it part of your game.

I bet it will be a lot more fun for you and your group to do it that way, anyway.

 

[Whipsnade]

Someone correct me if I am misremembering, but doesn't Psi Training happen AFTER you muster out of a career and not before you enter a career?

Don't worry, you're not mis-remembering.

I can only assume that Nightlamp's player wants psi training in lieu of a career. The resulting PC will be a rather limited one, but that's what they want.

The 2D6 psi strength roll has a -1 DM per 4 year age block. That means you face a -1 DM even at ages 18 to 21. Because your unenhanced psi strength determines what level of activity you can achieve in each of the six possible talent fields, I can only assume again that Nightlamp's player is eschewing any career and the chance of any skills at all in return for only risking that -1 DM.

If I were the referee in this situation, I'd strongly suggest that the player spend at least one term in a normal career before pinning all their hopes on psionic training. The Scout career, for example, would result in an automatic Pilot-1 plus the two initial term skills assuming the PC survives. Careers with commissions and promotions can do even better.

Assuming successful die rolls, a Marine career can provide as much as Cutlass-1 and Revolver-1 automatically, two initial term skills, and two more skills for being commissioned and promoted. The Army version of the same results in Rifle-1, SMG-1, and four skill rolls. (Automatic skills in the Navy and Merchants are at too high a rank to reach in one term.)

 

[Supplement Four]

I know that T4 had a Psionists career. I've got it around here somewhere. And, T4 chargen is easy to convert to CT. Just limit the skills per term to CT standards, and turn the rolls to a higher-is-better roll.

 

[nightlamp]

Thanks everyone, this is helpful all very helpful advice. I'll plan to frame psionics as something to be discovered/earned, and see if anyone is determined enough to take the bait!

 

[aramis]

Someone correct me if I am misremembering, but doesn't Psi Training happen AFTER you muster out of a career and not before you enter a career?

Not for Zhodani, nor Droyne.

 

[atpollard]

Not for Zhodani, nor Droyne.

but ... but ... those are the MONSTERS!

 

[Supplement Four]

Not for Zhodani, nor Droyne.

Good point, Wil.

But, if a new group, or a new Traveller Ref, I'd hold off on introducing aliens to a game. As you know, Traveller aliens are so much more than humans with funny foreheads. And, everybody doesn't know them as they do Klingons or Wookiees.

I think Traveller aliens should be brought into a game slowly, one at a time, allowing players to get used to them.

And, giving the Ref time to brush up on how to run the alien.

 

[kilemall]

I wouldn't read the term rule that way Whip, rather -1 DM per term 'served'. So yes Term1 guy gets -1, but 18 year old moisture farmer does not.

Pretty amazing the psionics rules came out with the 'too old for the training' trope years before TESB. But if I recall, Asimov had a Foundation character that missed out on being a psi and comments were made about youthful training being key.

 

[Spartan159]

In MgT some of the events during char gen have the character finding/being found by an institute. As far as it goes there is also Ref fiat. Your parents were both Psions, and gosh darn look at you! Too bad your parents were brutally killed at age (insert here), I wonder who did it.

On a tangent, can someone with a skill Science (Psionicology) Test/train people on a limited basis? (Institute, hah, I was trained by Old Ben. he's just a wizard. Now I'ma work on these vaporators before noon.)

 

[Brandon C]

In MgT some of the events during char gen have the character finding/being found by an institute.

Even more useful, MgT has psi as a career, which is available to starting characters, and in most respects is treated as the more common careers.

 

[nightlamp]

I can only assume that Nightlamp's player wants psi training in lieu of a career. The resulting PC will be a rather limited one, but that's what they want.

None of the players have made their characters yet, but I'm just preparing for possible requests -- since the Firefly TV show has the easiest point of reference when pitching the game to this group, I'm bracing for someone to want to play a "River Tam" character.

 

[mike wightman]

Or you could do what happens in The Traveller Adventure...

the search for the psionic institute becomes an adventure rather than dice throw.

 

[Whipsnade]

I wouldn't read the term rule that way Whip, rather -1 DM per term 'served'. So yes Term1 guy gets -1, but 18 year old moisture farmer does not.

While the verbiage can be construed as vague, but the example that follows is rather clear. If you're in your first term block, you apply a -1 DM. Age 18 is in the first term block.

You assess a -1 DM for "each block of 4 years above 18". Does "above 18" mean 19 years old or does it mean 18 years and 1 second old?

You can decide either way and that choice would still be good one IMHO.

I still think, however, that a "career-less/skill-free" 18yo who has only gone through psionic training is going to be a challenging PC for any player. I'd strongly encourage a player to think at least a one term career and then fold their subsequent search for a psionic institute into the group's table top play.

I also believe that psionic training being roleplay based rather than chargen based GDW's intention. The psionic rules are not presented as part of chargen and the search, examination, and training required to gain psionic skills takes less than 6 months, a period no where near basic chargen's 4 year blocks or advanced's 1 year blocks.

Psionic training was intended to occur after chargen and thus act as a hook or draw.

 

[mike wightman]

Another thought - belter an barbarian start at 14, so you could serve a term and then go looking

And for a really munchkin stab at it opt for belter or barbarian but don't enlist and so start your search for an institute as a 14 year old and thus avoid the penalty :CoW:

 

[Whipsnade]

None of the players have made their characters yet, but I'm just preparing for possible requests --

Very wise. In your shoes, I'd be proactive and tell anyone interested in psionics that whatever talents they're able to roll for will not be enough. They will need at least a few skills and a single term in certain careers can easily provide those skills.

If anyone still isn't convinced, go over the relevant sections of LBB:3 with them. First, remind them that they won't get every psionic talent and most likely won't be able to use each skill in the talent(s) they do possess thanks to strength limits.

Next, go over the costs to use each talent, the duration of the each use, and - most importantly - the recovery time associated with each use. For example, simply reading the surface thoughts of someone next to you for 60 seconds requires psi points which take two hours to recover.

Hopefully they'll get the point after reviewing LBB:3. Psionics in Traveller are fun, but they're not all powerful. Your players won't be teleporting around reading minds and juggling knives 24/7.

...I'm bracing for someone to want to play a "River Tam" character.

I'm very certain you have the most sincere condolences of everyone on this forum.

 

[kilemall]

A River Tam character should come with psychosis and behavioral trigger points a-plenty. Everything has a price.