Restrict 'telepathic' races

[Doshii Jun]

Personally speaking, it seems much easier and more plausible ICly to just keep it how it is. Once you open the door to anyone being able to use telepathy for any more than harmless transfer of information, you raise the possibility for a problem. And we have few GMs enough as it is without giving them the added responsibility of watching out for metagamers using telepathy.

 

[Fred]

Like Doshii said? It's no longer really worth the bother.

When I first came in, the SARP was in the process of toning down psionics. I liked psionics and being able to say my character could do it, but I was no longer in a period in which it was easily accepted. I encountered two sort of situations in that regard:

- Usage in PvP was mishandled. I remember wanting to write a complete paragraph with closure and all instead of leaving it open ended because that would suck from a reader's point of view, so, I asked my GM if I could resolve the attack. He told me to go for it, so I did, which upset the other player and had him rant. Then, the GM had complained he wanted me to ask the other player, which in turn upset me because I felt I had screwed up, despite my attempt to ask first to the person I considered in charge of adjuciating psionics (above a player).

- Practical usage in the setting itself was also rather lame. I tried once to forcefully probe around the ship I was on to find the mind of a suspected intruder and ended up with nothing even though it turned up there was an intruder around whom ran around butt naked and using skinstealth. Another time was usage of brute psionics to try to knock out some non-power armored nekos... which ended up with no visible, appreciable effect.

I concluded that the GMs simply did not want to adjuciate psionics and would make it fail or be of limited effectiveness about everytime it was put in use... except when used for plot reasons by NPC characters.

Therefore, I return to my stance: it's not worth it.

 

[Xerena]

Two comments:

What about a flagging system? Those that don't like their characters to be manipulated could opt for optional sensitivity training or they can choose to carry around a sort of device. Those that don't mind being manipulated could choose to skip this optional training or not carry around said device.

And why, given the option, would anybody choose to allow their character to be mentally manipulated? If you "don't mind being manipulated" (in which case, please feell free to come visit me carrying a large amount of money, IC or in real life, someday), what else is there to say (other than that you'd have to be a masochist, an idiot, or both, or at best easily manipulated or weak-minded, and resigned to that fate)?

It also means that a powerful mind could produce an EM field or manipulate objects. In the SARP setting, that is a no-no. So the question is, how to explain telepathic abilities without leaving a gaping hole of "Why can't I -Insert telekenetic ability here-?"

That hole could be filled by assuming that the answer to such questions is "In theory, nothing. In practice, attempting to perform -Insert telekinetic ability here-, no matter how powerful you are, would have the same effect on your brain as shooting yourself in the head at point-blank range with a scalar cannon. Useful if you need to commit suicide (IE to avoid capture, interrogation or brainwashing), but not otherwise," or something to that effect. Telekinesis could probably be more easily be accomplished, to a limited degree, with a cybernetic wrist-mounted mini-tractor beam projector.