Psionics help

[Normally I'd say ":r usr/trav/complain" to complain about sending to
the wrong address, but Greg thoughtfully followed up with an apology.
- -- James :-)]

Subject: Psionics help

>      I'll explain my reason for asking. I rolled up a
>character, got a good psionics rating and a *SPECIAL* ability.
>The GM came up with material psychogenesis, the creation of
>matter/antimatter via psi. To make a long story short I'm
>*retiring* the character as she unbalances the game.

Let me prefece this by saying that I have played psionics in Traveller
in about half of my characters. I have only had one that was lucky
enough to have a SPECIAL ability and my GM gave me Pyrokenesis, the
ability to start small fires. A good way to make distractions.

Anyway the problem that you had was not your fault, from the examples that
you gave you did not abuse the power given you. The problem that I see is that
your GM gave you a power that was to powerful. Also you don't mention any
repercusions that might have occurred when you used you powers. As an example,
I had a character that was born on a Zhodani controlled world, he showed
promise and was trained by the Zhodani for service in the consulate, later
he was expelled from the Consulate for wrong thinking. So as a result, he
became a staunch Immperialist, even working for the Imperial Secret Service
at one time, spying on his former contrymen. Anyway he found himself in a
firefight allied with a party of Imperial, against some renegade belters.
He was severely wounded and was dying. I asked the GM running the game,
does my character feel that he can live letting the mdeic that was working
on me at the time continue her crude work. When you are in an ATV in the
middle of a firefight you can't do a heck of a lot of good medical work.
He said that I felt that if I didn't heal myself, that was one of
my abilities, I would die. I healed myself, you should have seen the look
on the girls face that was working on me when my internal organs just stopped
bleeding and my chest sealed itself back up. Once she realized what had
happened, she pulled a ACR on me and threatened to kill me right then and there
Your GM seems to have neglected the first rule in psionics, Everybody HATES
them, they think that you will sit there and read their minds all the time.
Yet, you as a Psionic know that that is the last thing that you will do.
Someones mind is their most private posession and you would never violate
the trust of a friend. Besides if you friends know about you then they should
wnat to kill you becuase we all know that you can't be trusted.

In the above example, I had to do some quick talking to keep from being killed
it worked, but her trust was never totally there again, and that hurt
my character more than the pulse laser that had laid my chest open in the
first place.

>      The GM agrees with my decision to retire my character. So
>I'm trying to find information on psionics and their uses. Any
>one out there have any??

The GM did you an injustice, he or she didn't think of the consequences
whe he gave you the power. Don't blame yourself for what happened, it
was the GM's fault. I am glad though that you had the wherewithall to
realize that by destroying game balance you would have enventually
destroyed the fun for everyone playing, especially the GM. It is
important that everyone have fun, or there is no reason to game.
After all it is still a game and I was always taught that games should
be fun.

>      Thanks in advance for info, pointers, or hints.

Hope this helps.

>            Stephen D Smith   USENET: [email removed]

Greg

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Givler                        | Q-Link: GregGivler
Analyst - Systems Evaluation Group | CompuServe: Greg Givler 76702,647
Commodore Product Assurance        | GEnie: [email removed]ivler
[phone removed]                    | The NET: [email removed]
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Wild Whores couldn't keep me away!" -- George Francisco
"That's Horses, George" -- Matt Sikes -- Alien Nation --  Fox Broadcasting --
===============================================================================


All opinions and material above is the responsibility of the originator.
Submissions: [email removed], or [email removed]
Administrator: [email removed] (James Perkins)
The TML is made possible by facilities provided by Tektronix, Inc.

A couple of points no one has mentioned about the psionic character and
his attack on that pirate ship.

1. 1 milligram of antimatter is roughly equivalent to 10 kilos of TNT.
   That ain't gonna bother the pirate much. (approximately .01% of the
   mass in a fission bomb is converted to energy, a 20 kT bomb has about
   10 kilo's of fissionables. The rest is simple calculations)

2. This happened in *space*. Therefore, the hydrogen fuel is no big deal.
   Hydrogen is *NOT* explosive. Hydrogen mixed with an oxidizer is. Blow
   a hole in a fuel tank, and you'll cause a small side thrust due to the
   escaping fuel. You'll also make them worry about their fuel reserves.

All opinions and material above is the responsibility of the originator.
Submissions: [email removed], or [email removed]
Administrator: [email removed] (James Perkins)
The TML is made possible by facilities provided by Tektronix, Inc.

I had one campaign where *the whole party* was highly psionic.  They
got into some truly interesting mischief.  One character had a
special that allowed her/it (a feline race - not aslan) to  use or
channel energy from outside her, to her advantage.  She decided
to use a level 7 teleport.  She wanted to go a long way in a big
hurry.  (With good reason I might add :-).)

In short order, she had indeed escaped, but was naked and totally
exhausted.  She rested a few minutes to gain apoint or two back, and
then *plugged her tail into a power outlet* in order to "recharge
herself".

She forgot that it also took psi strength to hold/convert the
electrical energy.  It took about 3 seconds, then she was
catapulted (couldn't resist :-), smoking, accross the room.
That was one cat that remembered from then on - EVERYTHING HAS A
PRICE.

Richard Johnson


All opinions and material above is the responsibility of the originator.
Submissions: [email removed], or [email removed]
Administrator: [email removed] (James Perkins)
The TML is made possible by facilities provided by Tektronix, Inc.