Zhodani nightmares?

[archhealer]

Are there any cannon beasties, perhaps co-evolved alongside the Zhodani or something, which exhibit psionic abilities w/o being intelligent?

I imagine such a critter would be the stuff of Zhodani nightmares, but even worse if it were let loose in non-Zhodani space... Preying on all the poor psionically defenseless sophonts...

 

[kafka47]

Not on Zhdant, per se, as the humans are not native but I should imagine that either on worlds with extensive Final War damage in the same sector could have lots of such critters, as bioweapons for both the Droyne and Zhodani couriers.

This problem is something that would have followed them throughout their travels. At best, a pest, at worst, true monsters of the Id. Inadvertly, brought on by Prole merchants going from system to system.

Animals have been severally underpowered in Traveller but if you want an example of a dangerous psionic predator check out the action that will be commencing on the CofI adventure...

Also, check out somewhere there is also a thread dealing with the introduction of Mind Flayers and Aboleth into Traveller.

Simply raiding D&D is not satisfactory, as Traveller requires an ecology rather than a Monster Manual approach which can resemble Knights of the Dinner Table approach but as a one time deal, it can be fun.

 

[archhealer]

Yeah, I was definately thinking something small, like a worm or else a medium sized predator that psionically 'stuns' it's prey... I mean, if humans have psionic abilities, it could easily have evolved in something else as well.

 

[kafka47]

Naturally, something small could grow into something big. Just watch the original Alien for that. But, I agree with you, something small is much more entertaining just like the early explorers of South America could not counter all the tropical diseases, although they did bring syphilis to the Native population to return their gratitude.

Similarly, a bug or something like a tapeworm reminds of a D&D creature that I cannot remember right now. The alternative is make something nice furry and cuddly that promotes empathy until the prey comes close enough.

I always like to introduce psionic animals that also produce avatars of themselves.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Yes:
Look at the niche in their ecology that they will be filling.
what do they prey upon?
What preys on them?

 

[KenHR]

AD&D did have the Brain Mole...it's a rodent that's attracted by psionic activity and feeds upon the psychic energies of its victims.

Sort of cute and cuddly, if your mole looks like something from Wind and the Willows.

 

[Liam Devlin]

Lifting from ADnD, (the Planescape campaign shtuff), there are the gestalt minded rodentia, iirc, called "cranium-rats" (for lack of better name).

Individually, weak, but like all pack-minded scavengers, preyed upon by those predators with a taste for rodentia (felines, avian raptors, & carnivorous lizard/ snake type reptiles).

A swarm is treated like a single creature.

Now, IIRC also, the Best of the TML under "Starship pests" had "dream-mice" which also were gestalt minded, and could affect passngers/ crew alke if infestation took place.

Sound familiar? Could they fit the bill, or would you prefer another middle level animal psion that fed off these gestalts, and gave the Zhodani a run for their money/ & their minds?

 

[kafka47]

Ecology is more than who eats who. It is also about how animals have adapted to a particular habitat and how they interact in mutual ways to connect up with other animals in the web of life. So it would have to deal with why psionics important to this creature other than the stunning ability. How did it evolve and why?

Those are the great attributes of the Traveller game, it allows one to see an entire world through a microcosom and the universe in an entire world.

 

[archhealer]

Hmm... what about a planet where psionics developed early on in the evolutionary chain, creating a system where a good portion of animals had psionic abilities? Perhaps like a lot of Terran animals have poison? Or even better, one where most animals communicate psionically in stead of with sound. Mental "Growls" and such.

 

[Chaos]

Could we then also have creatures that have developed anti-psionic traits as a defense against psionic predators? Or as a way of "stealth" for stalking psionic prey?

For example, take a carnivore/pouncer that is perfectly psionically shielded i.e. cannot be detected by psionics, so it can stalk psionic creatures without being detected.

Or a herbivore of some kind whose psionic "signature" feels like that of something big and deadly, so that smaller carnivores avoid it.

 

[Liam Devlin]

On the empathy scale, there is also (defensively) exuding the "I-don't taste-good' feeling; offensively in the gestalt minded aforementioned rodentia, the apperance of being a 'larger more fearsome creature' on that baseline of ability.

The Zhodani's experiences with the Droyne & Chirpers are already well documented, but the other end of the chain, non sentient lifeforms with 1-2 abilities apiece on Zhdant gives us a rich fertile field to examine.

Kafka47:
Don't you mean "The Ecology & Evolution" of said creatures (how they came to be & how they fit into the Zhdant pyramid of Life)? Yes, agreed, its more than "who eats who" & why.

Archhealer & Chaos:
Good ideas there--perhaps life on Zhdant was already suitable for such a wrinkle in the fauna there before the Ancient's transplanted the Humans there..

Perhaps this is something we should as CoTI TU fans and writers mayhap should do, and help "fill-in" these "missing links"

..

My apologies to Darwin

Game On!

 

[SanDragon]

Originally posted by Chaos:
Could we then also have creatures that have developed anti-psionic traits as a defense against psionic predators? Or as a way of "stealth" for stalking psionic prey?

For example, take a carnivore/pouncer that is perfectly psionically shielded i.e. cannot be detected by psionics, so it can stalk psionic creatures without being detected.

Or a herbivore of some kind whose psionic "signature" feels like that of something big and deadly, so that smaller carnivores avoid it.

By a perfect psionic shield, I hope you mean they blend in with the 'background noise.' Too good a shield might make a void in the noise and alert the prey.

 

[SanDragon]

Apologies for the double...

I was always a little bummed at the lack of psionics in the Traveller universe.

For something that turned up in many of the books I like to read, it seemed to be missing in Traveller.

 

[Valarian]

Originally posted by Archhealer:
Yeah, I was definately thinking something small, like a worm or else a medium sized predator that psionically 'stuns' it's prey... I mean, if humans have psionic abilities, it could easily have evolved in something else as well.

Heinlein - The Puppeteers. Worm-like parasites that hook in to the nervous system at the brain stem. I think there are stats in the D20 Psionic Handbook. There may even be something in the D20 SRD for psionics. D20 SRD

Timothy Zahn - Star Wars - Vornskyrs. Dog-like predators that hunt through the force. Very attracted to Jedi - put this in to Traveller and you have a hunter of psionicists, possibly geneered. West End Games' d6 Star Wars had stats in their sourcebooks to go with the Timothy Zahn novels.

 

[Blue Ghost]

SanDrago; psionics were a big part or our Traveller setting (episodically that is). Psionics are mentioned for Zhos, Vilani, some Solomani, Droyne and, of course, the Ancients.

How is it you did you not happen across psionics in Traveller?

 

[kafka47]

I think the lack refers to the fact that other than in Droyne & Zhodani societies, it does not play a major role in the Golden Era right up to TNE. Psionics seems to be relegated to an appendix just like in AD&D.

 

[SanDragon]

Originally posted by Blue Ghost:
SanDrago; psionics were a big part or our Traveller setting (episodically that is). Psionics are mentioned for Zhos, Vilani, some Solomani, Droyne and, of course, the Ancients.

How is it you did you not happen across psionics in Traveller?

I saw them, knew they are there, but it's hard to have an 18-year old with 100,000 credits to pay for training. (Or was that 1MC?)

 

[Darkhstarr]

In my Beyond campaign I have firstly, the Mumiishir of Kilogren, a puma-sized telepathic felinoid native to Kilogren/Mapepire that uses its telepathy to panic prey. In the wild it is Int. 1, but it has been domesticated by the psis that colonized Kilogren as a guardian/companion beast with an Int. 2. Besides being very protective of the human it bonds with, it responds very negative to the thought of hostile or violently insane individuals. Secondly, there is the Mures of Salus/Storm subsector, an ameoboid psionic animal popular with spacers for its ability to alert its owner of danger. Then there is the hive mentality Lorcvih of Hichimakani/I-Glathriel, a telepathic metal eating bacteria.

 

[Laryssa]

Zhodani nightmares? Hmm, this gets me to thinking. What if their was a psionic creature that existed only in the mind of a psion, it was basically born as a figment of his imagination literally a nightmare that he had one night, but that nightmare takes on a life of its own, kind of like a mind virus, it uses the psions telepathic ability to jump from mind to mind, bringing along the same nightmare that the psion originally had and thus bestowing temporaty telepathic ability to its most recent victim so it can jump to the next mind. What if this nightmare has a name, Freddy Kruger!?

 

[archhealer]

I've wondered about this. I'm actually writing up an adventure for my players where they come across a partially disabled research vessel, top-secret stuff. The subjects were a bunch of psionic children in large low-berth like chambers, hooked up to all kinds of computers and studied.

Something went wrong. The crew apparently all either killed themselves, or killed each other, and the one or two survivors are so gibberingly insane that nothing can be gotten out of them.

After a short time, the party discover the ship is "haunted"... Turns out those kids have some pretty active imaginations, and aren't too happy with their lot in life. Of course, the party won't know the kids are there until they find them, which will take a while.

I'm thinking ghosts, zombies, monsters, things going bump... Most of it will be "all in their heads" of course.