Anybody with ideas on expanding psionics. In other words what new powers and abilities would be added to the small amount of psionics already given from the ST:TNG book?
Melbourne, Australia. Winner of the First Trek Survivor Trivia Show, and Bearer of the Steve Long Pink Elephant Stamp of Learning. :)
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Also, the Way of Kolinahr (the Vulcan sourcebook) contains quite a few more - although these are geared to Vulcan characters, and would not be generally available to non-Vulcan PCs...
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"...and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes, and Who is this God Person Anyway?"
- The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (dec.)
Melbourne, Australia. Winner of the First Trek Survivor Trivia Show, and Bearer of the Steve Long Pink Elephant Stamp of Learning. :)
Posts
526
Interesting ideas there, Dan. I haven't really thought too much about it, but it's there to consider.
I guess you could start by looking at the old 2nd Ed AD&D Psionics handbook for ideas on offensive Psionic Powers, and some possible effects.
I guess the question you have to ask in this case is: How Trek is it for seriously offensive Psionic abilities? Most Trek characters wouldn't have much chance against them, notable exceptions being Vulcans and Betazoids and Cairn...
In the majority of cases, you could simply adapt existing powers to more offensive uses...that then becomes a "does the GM allow this" thing...
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"...and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters Where God went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes, and Who is this God Person Anyway?"
- The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams (dec.)
I am currently working on a way to develop the Psionic Paths from the Prime Directive game...but it will take some time. I will post it as soon as I am done. That said it may be a place to find new stuff.
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Aslan Collas
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Ferengi Rule Of Acquisition #76: Every once in a while, declare peace. It confuses the hell out of your enemies.
One thing I do with Psionics is try to linit them as much as is reasonable...
While certain Psi species have them as commonplace, there are established limits to most of those species (which I will cover later).
For non-Psi species, I dont preclude the availability of Psi skills, but the player must give a good back story. After all in the entire Star Trek History, there has been a single Human with natural Psi powers during TOS. So it is established that Psi powers are available but VERY rare.
For established Psi species, the best known are the Vulcans, Betazoids and Ocampa.
There are others, such as the Cairn and Lethians, but far less is known about them outsde of their respective episodes...
Vulcans are usually limited to touch telepathy, as a GM I tend not to allow mind melds over a distance, they also have a high degree of 'mind over matter', which is well represented in the abilitys offered in 'The Way of Kolinhar'.
Betazoids are highly empathic, so much so that the abilities are dominant in hybrids... But Betazoids are also powerful telepaths and the like.
(I would be interested in the additional powers that a prospective Betazoid Sourcebook might have offered... The novel 'Imzadi' offered a mind Bolt of negative Empathy that sounded reasonable...)
So far however, the most powerful Psi species we have seen are the Ocampa, we have seen them use the power of their mind to cause illusions, enhance a plants life force, heat coffee (and blood), among a great many things.
Outside of these established 'norms', the player would be required to explain why they wanted their Vulcan to learn Telekinesis, or their Ocampa to become experienced at performing a mind-meld...
That said, there are some skills anyone can use. For example a player of a Human character may develop meditation as a skill, or have a strong Willpower, and ask to develop 'Mind Shield' to protect his thoughts. In those cases, I have no particular qualms, its when the player turns around in a couple of weeks and asks for Pyrokinesis that I would check the details and reasons...
So to recap, my personal choice as GM is to watch the evelopment and use of Psi skills within established norms, but not cut their availability totally, simply make them rare and hard to come by...
Thoughts? Alternate perspectives? How do you handle Psi in your games?
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Dan.
"A couple of thoughts from a random mind!"
http://www.theventure.freeserve.co.uk
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