[Campaign-Specific] Character Build: One Player's Telepath

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Ok. I've a new player (to my campaign) wanting to make a Telepath working with ISWAT in the Infinite Worlds setting. He has described to me what he wants the Telepath to be capable of, and expects me to define the character's powers. I agreed to this because he (the player) is also relatively new to GURPS.

Now comes the problem for which I seek your advice. I have come to the conclusion that I suck at building mind readers. Or GURPS does. Leaning to it being a personal issue on my part. :)

(We are using Multiplicative Modifiers from page 102 of Powers, so point optimizations are going to look funny if anyone wants to go into that kind of detail.)

So ... we have:

• MindLink (1 - 9~ million) (Long Range, +50%; One Way, +20%; Transferable, Living Minds, +150%; World Spanning, Own and Other, +100%; Psionic -10%)
  • Purpose: To form a telepathic network of minds that the character can access without having to roll for. He wants to be able to change the people involved in the network (thereby transferable), without giving them the same level of access to his mind (thereby the one-way). Starts empty. Player wanted enough potential room to connect the population of a major city.
  • Things I don't know how to build: The ability to remotely add/remove people from the network. Throw Ranged, Malediction (Long Ranged), Long Range, World Spanning and possibly Telecommunication as modifiers on the Transferable?
• Mind Reading (Multiple Contacts, +50%; Sensory, +20%, Universal, +50%; World Spanning, Own and Others, +100%; Psionic, -10%)
  • Purpose: To read minds. :) The above build is based on an assumption of mine, that it can piggy back off Telesend's range. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
  • Things I don't know how to build: Fun question! Should I build up Mind Reading's range independently, or should I figure out a way for it to piggy back off Telesend?
• Mind Probe (Invasive, +75%; Universal, +50%; Psionic, -10%)
  • Purpose: To get information from the minds of others. Piggy-backs on Mind Reading's range.
  • Things I don't know how to build: Something like No Memory, so that the people being probed don't remember being probed? Would No Signature work here?
• Mind Control (Conditioning, +50%; Long Range, +50%; Malediction, Long Distance, +200%; Ranged, +40%; Rationalization, +20%; Slow and Sure Conditioning, +80%; World Spanning, Own and Others, +100%; Psionic, -10%)
  • Purpose: To allow the character the ability to cure mental problems, plant suggestions and to outright control the minds of others if necessary.
  • Things I don't know how to build: Nothing, really. I think I got this one down. Heh.
• Telesend (Broadcast, +50%; Long Range, +50%; Sensie, +80%; Universal, +50%; World Spanning, Own and Others, +100%; Psionic, -10%)
  • Purpose: To send his thoughts, emotions and perceptions to other minds across the infinite worlds.
  • Things I don't know how to build: Something like Wishing, to let him describe what kind of mind he is looking for and then find it?

In addition, what kind of modifier should I be looking at to remove the penalty for repeated attempts for the above? To remove the penalty for multiple connections? Ideally, I'd like him to be able to time-share the perceptions of a few hundred (maybe a few thousand) people via Mind Reading, with a perception check for him to notice important bits from each person's senses and then respond with his other abilities.

Outside of throwing around a lot of Cosmic: You Can Do This mods, *grins*, that is.

Any other ideas or suggestions? The campaign doesn't have a point total as such, other than the guideline of "Keep it under 2,000 points unless you want to write me a four to six hundred page novel. A good novel. One I'd be willing to pay money for."

[sir_pudding]

Have you read GURPS Psionic Powers? You might find it useful here.

[Fnordianslip]

I think you could save yourself some trouble on this by ditching the Mindlink portion entirely. Instead, just look at adding Cosmic: No die roll required +100% to Mind Reading. Combined with the character's likely insane skill/IQ+Talent roll, this should let him read as many minds as he likes. Where Mindlink could be useful is if you want to define it as affecting a small group like the PCs, then it's handy in terms of letting the Telepath act as a communications network without having to bother with rolls. As far as communicating with a group the size of a city, the PC can already do that with broadcast telesend, so I wouldn't worry about Mindlink there either. Hope that helps out!

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

Have you read GURPS Psionic Powers? You might find it useful here.

Yes, even used some (Mind Control) modifiers from it. A lovely PDF. And while it has provided a number of ideas on how to do stuff ... my only real complaint is that it is balanced at a lower power level than my campaigns usually run at. :)

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Fnordianslip

I think you could save yourself some trouble on this by ditching the Mindlink portion entirely. Instead, just look at adding Cosmic: No die roll required +100% to Mind Reading. Combined with the character's likely insane skill/IQ+Talent roll, this should let him read as many minds as he likes. Where Mindlink could be useful is if you want to define it as affecting a small group like the PCs, then it's handy in terms of letting the Telepath act as a communications network without having to bother with rolls. As far as communicating with a group the size of a city, the PC can already do that with broadcast telesend, so I wouldn't worry about Mindlink there either. Hope that helps out!

For every contact after the first, each additional attempt at making contact is a cumulative -1 to skill. Cosmic: No Die Roll Required still requires that your total skill after any penalties is 3+. Even my campaigns don't have skill values in the thousands. :)

A large Mindlink network allows Mind Reading as well as Telesend without requiring a roll; effectively ignoring any penalties for multiple contacts.

Thank you for the suggestion though.

[munin]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

• • Things I don't know how to build: Something like Wishing, to let him describe what kind of mind he is looking for and then find it?

I'd build that as a separate Detect ability. Seekersense would be a good start for such an ability (GURPS Psionic Powers, pp. 42-43).

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by munin

I'd build that as a separate Detect ability. Seekersense would be a good start for such an ability (GURPS Psionic Powers, pp. 42-43).

So ... Detect (Living Minds) (Common) (Analyzing, +100%; Long Range, No Range Penalties, +100%; Precise, +100%; World Spanning, Own and Others, +100%; Psionic, -10%) [90]?

Modular Abilities (Cosmic Power) (One Slot) (23 Points) (Psionic, -10%; Trait Limited, Detect Only, -50%) [92] ... doesn't seem cost effective, as that is as cheap of a Detect as I can fit in there and still get what I want out of it. The broad detect costs less and allows for a greater degree of perception for less points.

Thanks for the pointer. I'll throw the broad detect in the package as well.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

In addition, what kind of modifier should I be looking at to remove the penalty for repeated attempts for the above?

Decreased Immunity (psionic powers), you'll want 3 levels (+150%) for Mind Probe/Reading.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Decreased Immunity (psionic powers), you'll want 3 levels (+150%) for Mind Probe/Reading.

Thank you.

With all these references to Psionic Powers that I've missed, I think I shall go re-read the PDF to see if it has any more examples useful in this situation.

[munin]

Check out Slotted Cosmic Power too (GURPS Psionic Powers, p. 15). It'll cut the cost of that modular Detect almost in half.