Passive Mind Reading

[chimchim]

Originally Posted by The Benj

I like Kromm's summary. Mind Reading with Reflexive is how I'd do Matt Parkman's power in Heroes. He hears people's thoughts, usually without meaning to, but the concentrates to get a better reading (to get rid of the -4, that is)

i always thought of Matt's inadvertant hearing of thoughts as being uncontrolled as it does not always seem to be "on". having said that i do like the reflexive idea lol.

[HeroPenguin]

Originally Posted by JAW

The disadvantageous part could be accessinility to a point or two of IQ - not when around people (exluding other trained telepaths working with you and similar..).

But how to price it (I suppose it depends much on the range of the TP and wether sleeping people count or not) and would the possibility that if you somewhat lose the TP ability you also lose the distraction count as anything more than a perk. I suppose not - unless you hawe acces to psi block drugs or something like that...

The only time I wouldn't allow a mind reader to read a sleeping person's mind is if the ability is specifically defined as only reaching conscious thoughts. The idea of a Mind Reader watching somebody's dream, or even better, EXPERIENCING a person's dream while asleep is just too cool for me to pass up willingly.

[The Wrathchild]

Just a wee recomendation:

There is a TV movie out there, Thoughtcrimes, that tells a nice little story about all of the issues bantered about here:

A woman gets caught in a psychotic hell on prom night, crushed under a million voices intruding on her mind.

Years later, she learns that she's actually not crazy ... the bad news is that it is the MIB's who do the telling.

The the struggle to control the thing begins ... life and death of course depends on it ... hers not at least!

Of course this is not a brilliant piece by the scions of moviemaking, but it had me pleasantly surprised. OK plot, OK acting, good handling of low budget ressources.

[smurf]

Passive Mind Reading is it a benefit or just annoying.

I had a similar idea but left it.

It could be written off as a quirk you just get random thoughts now and then.

[UncreativeNameMaker]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Mind Reading with Reflexive is essentially "just another sense." Although Reflexive does mean rolling dice, that angle simply makes Mind Reading work like hearing, vision, etc.: you roll dice to notice easily missed or deliberately obscured items. The only difference is that the die rolling is a Quick Contest of IQ vs. Will instead of a Per roll. As with normal senses, there would be no special reason to roll for obvious stuff, where "obvious" here means everything that a non-mind reader could glean through mundane skills like Detect Lies and Psychology. The point cost (42 points) is on par with that of a sense that can look inside things and through light cover (Para-Radar [40]), perceive things that are normally too fast to perceive (Enhanced Time Sense [45]), or give spontaneous visions of the past (Psychometry (Immersive, +100%) [40]), which seems balanced.

Looking at it that way covers what I was looking for pretty. Thanks.

[The Benj]

Originally Posted by smurf

Passive Mind Reading is it a benefit or just annoying.

I had a similar idea but left it.

It could be written off as a quirk you just get random thoughts now and then.

If it's just a benefit, add Reflexive to Mind Reading.

If it's just a drawback (with the teeny, tiny plus that you get to know when there's people around), take the Supersensitive Disadvantage.

If it's both, take both! :)