On Saturday 15th August 1992, Pierre-Louis Constantin wrote:
> Metempsychosys:
> ---------------
>
> I thought of making this a psi power, it's pretty powerful so take
> it or leave it. :)
>
> "When a living thing dies, its 'soul' or psyche takes up a new residence
> in some other body, which it thereby vivifies; for the psyche, bodily
> death means emigration, bodily birth immigration. That is the ancient
> doctrine of 'metempsychosis' or the transmigration of the soul."
> "...To some Greeks, at least, it appeared to be an empirical theory;
> and its empirical basis lay in memory"
> -- The Oxford Companion to the Mind
>
> How should metempsychosis work in Megatraveller?...
A friend of mine has written a new psi system for traveller, and
it will be available within the next six months or so... and in it,
Metempsychosis as you call it, would be covered by Projection. Projection
is the out-of-body excursions the mind can perform as psychic phenomenon.
It is possible for the projectionist to at the point of death, should (s)he
be powerful enough, to break the "silver-cord" that attaches the mind to
the body, and go in search of a new host body. This body need not be
vacant, as (s)he could quite easily overcome or kill a sap (aka. non-psi).
And this host need not be human either. For instance a character that I
run disconnected her mind from her old Imperial body, and inhabited an
alien (a race that my GM came up with). Please note though, that if a
humanoid inhabits a creature with a smaller brain volume, then the mind
will adjust to fit. So if you want to inhabit a mouse, then expect to
possibly become a sap, and definately lose 80% of your intelligence and
education. This stops humanoid characters from inhabiting birds and
things, as this would become a little bit powerful.
Also, should the character wish to inhabit a machine (ie. a robot
mind), then they should have abilities needed above, and also teleptech
(the equivalent of telepathy with computer minds). Then the mind could
incorperate itself with a computer mind, and even take over it. I'm not
very familiar with the rules on teleptech, but I hear that they are very
interesting...
Transition is usually ok for a seasoned projectionist, as they are
used to extreme changes in bodily condition (ever thought what a body does
when it's mind it a couple of parsecs away? not much, it's usually in a
coma like state). But the body the projectionist leaves suffers huge brain
damage after the character leaves.
Also, for all those who are not level 12 projectionists, psi drugs
can temporarily make metempsychosis possible, but the body you leave takes
huge amounts of damage when the drugs ware off, as does your mind in the
new body, when you arrive. For full rules on this, wait until the rules
come out, either from GDW or as Public Domain material should they be
stupid and not publish it.
It is possible for the character to inhabit an alive and well host,
and hide in the depths of the brain. This is called possession, but is
usually performed by ghosts. (minds that did not find their way to where
ever minds go when beings die) This could end up in a person that is
played by two characters. (eg. a player-character and a
non-player-character) Usually a wandering mind will have a hard time
inhabiting the body of an active-psi, as defence will be possible for the
host mind.
As metempsychosis is a level 12 projection ability, it will be very
rare. And some GM's will want to limit it so that after each
metempsychosis, the projection drops one level perminantly.
Regards,
Mike.
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Internet: [email removed]
"I have a cunning plan..." - Baldrick (Black Adder)
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Michael Glew - School of Math Phys Comp & Elec - Macquarie University
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