So, I'm Flying a Spaceship...
Christopher Kubasik:
Hi Chris,
The Psionics description comes straight out of the GDW Psionics rules, and the experiment is to port directly, so I'm going to. However, I'm filtering them through the Sorcerer rules -- in this case the demon ability rules. As it stands, I could simply use Hint as the ability for mind reading and clairvoyance. A much more limited version of these things, but it is a choice.
However, in Jared's Schism mini-supplement for Sorcerer (based on the works of Cronenberg, and very SCANNERS in flavor) a full spectrum of psionic-type of abilities are available. He simply came up with a list of telepathic abilities and bam -- you can read minds, you can shield against having your mind read -- and so on. I could simply port his list in. But I think I want to keep it straight up with the original Sorcerer rules as an exercise.
I have not decided which way to go! I think I'm going to simply broaden Perception to allow mind reading -- which currently has the injunction about telepathy in its description. (The Player would still have to specifically define what the ability does, just as the ability is currently written.) I'd like to hear Ron's thoughts about this.
As for the bit about Will and Stamina, those bits are quoted from the Sorcerer randomwiki compilation, and are in turn pulled from a quote from Ron on this thread: http://indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=11291.0
All Ron is talking about is the effect of the PC outward in those cases. The Will test is, as Ron puts it, when the soundtrack rises and the PC pulls his shit together despite all the pain. That's just Will.
So, to be clear: I'm not changing anything with those descriptions of Will and Stamina.
Ron Edwards:
Hello,
Clarification: my long-ago point concerned a specific form of mind control, as featured in many RPG rules and very few instances of fiction. Mind reading is no big deal - it's basically just a combination of a cell phone, an extension of sight (for scanning), intuition about others' intentions, and occasionally interrogation. As soon as it's acknowledged that blocking is possible, and nothing gained by mind reading is any surer than something gained through dialogue, then it's non-problematic.
Best, Ron
Christopher Kubasik:
Hi Ron,
That's pretty much what I figured. And the Classic Traveller Psionics has blocking as a feature and so on... So I think it's going to be easy on that front.
Thanks!
Christopher Kubasik:
So. The game character creation session is this Sunday. Very excited... and yet something is bugging me.
While the Psionics as Lore fits neatly (maybe TOO neatly) part of me isn't buying it.
There's no need for psionics. It's too easy dodge. Certainly it might not be compelling. (That all said, I kind of dig out it does all fit together.)
It seems to me that Social Standing is really the Lore I'm looking for. This touches on Ron's suggestion of Lore as "The Beyond" from upthread. But that seems too limited, since it deals with lawlessness.
We're looking for the thing that will put stress on freindship... and in the stratisfied society of the Third Imperium, we're in the same land as the class system of Britain during the Imperial Age. What I'm looking for are those moments where the desire for better station, or responsibility to freinds and family in a station, or the games of social station say, "Do this!" and your buddy over there needs you to do something else. (I'm thinking again of The Man Who Would Be King, of course... but I think this theme of status vs. freindship can move across many stories.)
Now, all this might be TOO focused. I might be pushing the players down a too narrow path and blow the whole thing up. But it's still on my mind. And I wanted to see if this post might jar some more brainstorming from the folks at home.
Thanks!
Ron Edwards:
That would be "duty," wouldn't it? Not necessarily a good fit for Lore in direct translation, but if tarted up as some kind of officialdom, that's not so bad.
On the other hand, if Humanity is friendship, then anything that threatens it will do. Arguably the friendship in The Man Who Would Be King is threatened by barbarity rather than duty, for instance. I'm not bringing that up to derail your previous thoughts, but to support them.
I have the solution. It's based on the fact that Sorcerer wasn't written to model Traveller as a game. Lore is a game mechanic, not a thing that the mechanic models. The descriptors are how the thing is expressed in the SIS. Therefore you need only consider the variety of possible descriptors. As I see it, they would include the Beyond (including both savagery and uber-alienness, or maybe you can split these apart), the Law (for the duty stuff you're talking about), and possibly Psionics if you think that might still be a good fit.
Best, Ron
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