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Message no. 1
From: Chris Gottbrath <chrisg@****.EDU>
Subject: an idea for psionic
Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 15:44:27 MST
Greetings fellow rule-tweakers:

I have been listening in on your discussion of adding psions to the
shadowrun genre.. and overall i approve of the idea ...

I was just walking down the hall and thinking about what kind of
weaknesses (besides drain etc.. ) that might be appropriate to psionic
characters..

What about this :

since psionic characters have somehow expanded their conciousness, it
is concievable that this puts them in touch, at a suboncious level with the
minds of those around them, they would "hear" the minds surrounding them
even if they where not attempting telepathy or anything, somthing like hearing
the bacround noise in a room even if you are trying to listen to one person or
even listening to nobody. Well assuming that psionic characters have this kind
of low level awareness would possibly give them slight advantages... ie the
ability to "feel someone" approach when they where alone (this goes along well
with the varied literature on the subject and is a minor enough power that i
think every psionicist should have it.) however a person (or mind or being
whichever you prefer) in extream stress might give off much stronger psionic
noise (perhaps this is what vamp's feed off of, but that is another
question entirely) perhaps this would be a distraction, and certainly
someone dying should give off some kind of psychic scream probably stunning
any psionisits that happen to be nearby. On a greater level catastrophic
deaths of many individuals might have a greater effect (i am thinking of the
"tremmor in the force" scene where Obi Wan is visibly shaken/weakened by the
combined deaths of all the inhabitants of alderan) on all psionisists in the
area (perhaps worldwide).

This would tend to encourage psionically active characters to avoid
leathal combat, a much more playable and interesting reason than simply saying
that they are "wise" or somthing and hence avoid it. It goes along
(i think) with this worldmind concept that someone was mentioning .. a
fundimental connection between all minds (or mabe just all psionic minds)

It might be interesting to insert a class of characters who have a "real"
reason to avoid killing but have skills that are ultimatly suited to the
shadows....


What do ya'll think?
chris

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Christopher Gottbrath < chrisg@****.edu or chrisg@******.edu >
Summer REU Student KPNO/NOAO *don't blame them for what i say*
Don't Panic = the two most usefull words in the universe
Murphy's Law = G.U.T. with a few relativstic variables set to zero
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message no. 2
From: "Robert A. Hayden" <hayden@******.MANKATO.MSUS.EDU>
Subject: Re: an idea for psionic
Date: Mon, 1 Aug 1994 23:02:36 +0100
{stuff deleted to save space}

There are some good things in there, but also some not so good thing. I
am wary of giving PSIs the ability to listen in on people (to hear that
background babble). First it assumes that all PSIs are telepathic to
some extent, second, it has a tremendous potential for abuse. Instead, I
would devote that kind of stuff to low-drain powers.

As for the "you sense somebody" type stuff, that is easily a divination
or clairvoyance type of power. Again, you can make it low drain to
represent the ease (Sense Person?)

As for the "I feel a disturbance in the force", it makes sense IF we go
with the as-of-yet-unresolved WorldMind concept. The sudden loss of many
people (we're talking the sudden death of at least 10k) would be
feelable.

____ Robert A. Hayden <=> hayden@******.mankato.msus.edu
\ /__ -=-=-=-=- <=> -=-=-=-=-
\/ / Finger for Geek Code Info <=> I do not necessarily speak for the
\/ Finger for PGP Public Key <=> City of Mankato or anyone else, dammit
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Message no. 3
From: kyle kohler <kkohler@**.UCR.EDU>
Subject: Re: an idea for psionic
Date: Tue, 2 Aug 1994 00:39:56 -0700
On Mon, 1 Aug 1994, Chris Gottbrath wrote:

> Greetings fellow rule-tweakers:
>
> I have been listening in on your discussion of adding psions to the
> shadowrun genre.. and overall i approve of the idea ...
>
> I was just walking down the hall and thinking about what kind of
> weaknesses (besides drain etc.. ) that might be appropriate to psionic
> characters..
>
> What about this :
>
> since psionic characters have somehow expanded their conciousness, it
> is concievable that this puts them in touch, at a suboncious level with the
> minds of those around them, they would "hear" the minds surrounding them
> even if they where not attempting telepathy or anything, somthing like hearing
> the bacround noise in a room even if you are trying to listen to one person or
> even listening to nobody.

I don't like this. There's going to be "head-blind" psis and
there are going to be "mind-masters." Not all Psis will have Telepathic
abilities. Most will probably have some type of Telepathic ability, but
not all. Let the player decide if he wants Telepathic powers (of any type)

Well assuming that psionic characters have this kind
> of low level awareness would possibly give them slight advantages... ie the
> ability to "feel someone" approach when they where alone

Life Detection type power would do the same.
> think every psionicist should have it.) however a person (or mind or being
> whichever you prefer) in extream stress might give off much stronger psionic
> noise (perhaps this is what vamp's feed off of, but that is another
> question entirely) perhaps this would be a distraction, and certainly
> someone dying should give off some kind of psychic scream probably stunning
> any psionisits that happen to be nearby. On a greater level catastrophic
> deaths of many individuals might have a greater effect (i am thinking of the
> "tremmor in the force" scene where Obi Wan is visibly shaken/weakened by
the
> combined deaths of all the inhabitants of alderan) on all psionisists in the
> area (perhaps worldwide).
>

Well, Psionics and Force are two different things. But this is a
good idea. Perhaps some Telepathic powers would make the Psi susceptible
to powerful mental forces (such as the above examples)

> This would tend to encourage psionically active characters to avoid
> leathal combat, a much more playable and interesting reason than simply saying
> that they are "wise" or somthing and hence avoid it. It goes along
> (i think) with this worldmind concept that someone was mentioning .. a
> fundimental connection between all minds (or mabe just all psionic minds)

Like Rob said, I'm not sure how the World Mind thing is going
right now. And Psi's should be able to toast people with the rest of the
players.

>
> It might be interesting to insert a class of characters who have a "real"
> reason to avoid killing but have skills that are ultimatly suited to the
> shadows....
>

I thought Rockers did this.


Kyle Kohler
kkohler@*****.ucr.edu

Rockers Rule

Further Reading

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These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.