Core Rules book - wished it removed Psionics and added missing Pre-Career and Aliens

[King Midas]

I don't use psionics, I find the concept irritating. I never had any use for the "There are things that look like people, but aren't. Lets kill them!" plot. So if you're a Joe, you probably have psionic relatives, even if you aren't. Same if you are Darrian. Otherwise, humans being human, you have a chance of Joe or Elf ancestry, and otherwise I forget about it.

Also as a house rule, dolphin minds are so different that they are almost invisible, much less readable, to Joe telepaths.

 

[bookwyrm]

Catherine Coulter has a fictional F.B.I series with a character (Agent Dillon Savich) who has telepathic abilities. and a few side characters who also have some telepathic and/or some other psionic type powers. She's still writing books in that series.

 

[Quint]

Anything recent have psionics?

Well, if we look at just genral scifi and not just literature. Dune still has legs... (plus Star Wars and Star Trek or even the Stargate franchise). I'd argue that Arrival and Annihilation deal with psychic abilities presented in non-standard format, same with Chronicle and Lucy (or Minority Report). Any story exploring biological transhumanism is basically repackaged psychic content, nowadays purely "psychic power" written about the same way as it was in the 50's-80's has transitioned into more horror content rather than strict scifi because it tends to be set modern-day and not far-future.

Possessor (2020) is an excellent example of this.

D.

 

[McPerth]

One of the original crew, Cally, was a telepath

I didn't remember this...

 

[Dragoner]

Well, if we look at just genral scifi and not just literature. Dune still has legs... (plus Star Wars and Star Trek or even the Stargate franchise). I'd argue that Arrival and Annihilation deal with psychic abilities presented in non-standard format, same with Chronicle and Lucy (or Minority Report). Any story exploring biological transhumanism is basically repackaged psychic content, nowadays purely "psychic power" written about the same way as it was in the 50's-80's has transitioned into more horror content rather than strict scifi because it tends to be set modern-day and not far-future.

Possessor (2020) is an excellent example of this.

D.

A lot of that is 20+ years ago, still different from when Traveller was written in the mid-70's. It's weird, and not stuff I want to think about anymore. I have been playing since '79 I know all there is to know about it. Didn't much care for the idea of everyone becoming psionic.

 

[bookwyrm]

In the recent Godzilla vs. Kong, the latent telepathic ability of Ghidorah skull was used as a mechanism to pilot mecha-Godzilla, and then the latent telepathy somehow imbued itself into the mecha-Godzilla to control it directly. Fun to watch, but I started thinking that that was kind of weird. I'm also trying to not think about it too much, as it might affect my enjoyment of a few pre Disney Star Wars novels.

I know, I'm pulling idea rabbits out of my memory hat, but it's the best I can do at the moment.

I originally wasn't interested in using Psionics in Traveller, as I felt it was too much work, and a little too much power. But after discovering the Psionicist Class for T20 and some interesting psionic rules in Freelance Traveller, I'm thinking of adding psionics with a little darkness in it's history.

 

[atpollard]

A lot of that is 20+ years ago, still different from when Traveller was written in the mid-70's. It's weird, and not stuff I want to think about anymore. I have been playing since '79 I know all there is to know about it. Didn't much care for the idea of everyone becoming psionic.

There is the whole MUTANT/SUPERHERO genre (dominating film franchises) where "powers" are central to the plot. That is still going strong.

I was never interested in Psionics in a Traveller Game because they were fussy and unbalancing. Either it represented a "MarySue" benefit that caused one character to dwarf the rest of the group or it required massive efforts to create balance (or PSR was so low that the PSI was meaningless).

In my most recent PbP game, several players expressed an interest in Psionics, so I agreed and chose to make it CENTRAL to the game. All the PSIONICS rolls and skills were moved behind the REF screen so players only knew what they discovered. Locating training was an adventure all by itself. I adopted a "fear of psions" tone from the X-Men universe (use it too openly and a mob may attack you, or the Government may want to dissect you, etc).

Then I planted HINTS into the CHARGEN History of players that rolled a near-death survival roll in Chargen. A "MARINE" remembers taking a desperate shot that was going to miss and "willing" the shot to curve and hit the target ... saving his life just before he passed out. Now he wants to find someone that can teach him to control his ability.

So Psionics CAN be a very Traveller thing, they just seem to need to be a deliberate choice (and the bad guys get them, too).

 

[Dragoner]

When Don told me that the effect of the Empress Wave was everyone become psionic, I was kind of like ugh no. lol

 

[Dragoner]

There is the whole MUTANT/SUPERHERO genre (dominating film franchises) where "powers" are central to the plot. That is still going strong.

Though when you talk to young people interested in Traveller they are more looking towards the Expanse, or Alien as that is "hard sf" where the PC's don't have cool powers like Guardians of the Galaxy or something.

 

[Quint]

A lot of that is 20+ years ago, still different from when Traveller was written in the mid-70's. It's weird, and not stuff I want to think about anymore. I have been playing since '79 I know all there is to know about it. Didn't much care for the idea of everyone becoming psionic.

Well, thankfully nobody is forcing you to play a certain way. I think a cursory glance at the current status of fields of Scifi in specific and speculative media in general (in fiction, TV & film, RPGs, and Computer Games) makes it clear that your opinion is not the majority, but your table is still your table.

D.

 

[Dragoner]

Well, thankfully nobody is forcing you to play a certain way. I think a cursory glance at the current status of fields of Scifi in specific and speculative media in general (in fiction, TV & film, RPGs, and Computer Games) makes it clear that your opinion is not the majority, but your table is still your table.

D.

No, my opinion is the majority, I just don't care. I admin an sf group with over 5k, there are a lot of sfrpg's with psionics, though the toxicity of Traveller people is over the top.

 

[Diveguy]

There is the whole MUTANT/SUPERHERO genre (dominating film franchises) where "powers" are central to the plot. That is still going strong.

I was never interested in Psionics in a Traveller Game because they were fussy and unbalancing. Either it represented a "MarySue" benefit that caused one character to dwarf the rest of the group or it required massive efforts to create balance (or PSR was so low that the PSI was meaningless).

In my most recent PbP game, several players expressed an interest in Psionics, so I agreed and chose to make it CENTRAL to the game. All the PSIONICS rolls and skills were moved behind the REF screen so players only knew what they discovered. Locating training was an adventure all by itself. I adopted a "fear of psions" tone from the X-Men universe (use it too openly and a mob may attack you, or the Government may want to dissect you, etc).

Then I planted HINTS into the CHARGEN History of players that rolled a near-death survival roll in Chargen. A "MARINE" remembers taking a desperate shot that was going to miss and "willing" the shot to curve and hit the target ... saving his life just before he passed out. Now he wants to find someone that can teach him to control his ability.

So Psionics CAN be a very Traveller thing, they just seem to need to be a deliberate choice (and the bad guys get them, too).

Interesting way to incorporate those near-death rolls. Thanks for sharing!