Psionic Telepathy
 

I am designing a race that can only communicate telepathically, but can understand all languages as if they were they were fluent in that language for listening purposes only. I was going to use the following to reflect this:

Telesend 3 [21] ---- Psionic Powers, pg. 60
Skill: Broadcast [Hard]

Cannot Speak (Mute) [-25]

How do I represent that they can understand all spoken languages?

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

The Universal modifier [B91] will allow them to telesend without worrying about language. And by using Mind Reading (universal) you can understand them too.

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

Omnilingual from Supers.

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

Ok this is what I will use:

Telesend 3 [21]

Skill: Broadcast [Hard]

Mind Reading (Universal +50%; Hearing-Based -20%; Psi -10%) [36]

Skill: Mind Reading [Hard]

Cannot Speak (Mute) [-25]

Thanks for the help =).

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

Your choice, but please do understand that these are two different effects.

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

i like it

10 characters

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

Cannot speak should have a mitagator.

Like shortsighted is offset by glasses...

Knock off 60% of mute = -10pts.

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

While this isn't an exact statement, Mitigators are meant for cases when inventory negates a Disadvantage. You can still have 'compensatory' pairs, such as Blindness + Para-RADAR.

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

Why would it need a mitigator? The species cannot speak at all =).

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

i know it is not exactly RAW but i might go as far as to say in a campaign run by me the disadvantage of mute would not be alowed in this case. My justification would be that i will not allow a player (or a race) to get points for a disadvantage that is not a disadvantage. In this case this race has traded vocal comunication (short ranged, subject to easy interference, easy to eaves drop on etc) for a superior telepathic form of comunication (longer ranged, much harder to jam or eaves drop on). The only time id allow the mute disadvantage (and at a reduced level) was if the telepathy was limited to OWN RACE in a multirace enviroment. how ever this is just my personal opinion lol but i can so see where smurf comes from with the obove lol.

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

You said it yourself - traded. The point difference was paid. Telesend is somewhat more expensive than the ability to speak, and it still has downsides, such as the difficulty of broadcasting globally - you can yell 'Help!' to a big street; you will not necessarily succeed in Telesending everybody.

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

I believe (though i am afb at the mo) you are 100% correct with regards RAW with regards the points cost of the trade.
My own gut tells me though that the inability to speak or make vocal sounds cant still be worth -25 points when you can still comunicate quite adequately at range (and at ranges verbal comunication can not begin to emulate with out serious technological assistance). As for the yelling "help" is there not a global modifier for telesend? (again i am afb at the mo).

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

Global sending is moderately difficult, end requires an expensive enhancement.

Look at it another way: would you charge more for Telesend if the user started out mute (at normal cost)?

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

No i would not i would ask for the player to buy off the mute disadvantage . However i am trying to remember a section of text in GURPS characters that concerned disadvantages that were mitigated or negated (cant remember the exact wording) by an advantage being disallowed. In my opinion this is one of those situations (and by KROM do i wish i had my books with me now lol).

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

Remember these telepaths won't be able to communicate through machinery, or even writing (unless they do take languages for writing). This is pretty relevant in regards to both the Mind Reading (Universal, Hearing-Based) vs. Omnilingual choice, and the issue of how much Mute is worth to them.

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

Does Omnilingual apply only to understanding, or also to speaking (for non-mute characters)? How much does it cost?

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

the OP did not specify a tech level but as this is a race there is every chance their technology path may be considerably different to ours. This may mean they have a machine to either boost their own sending capability (like psi boosters in UT) or carry a signal by other means in much the way the telephone does for us.
all this still comes down to is cannot speak (mute) really a disadvantage (and we are talking about a massive -25 points for it)to a telepathically enpowered race? I dont think so.

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

also it won't work right on people that have a mind sheild as well

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

The race is an amphibian one that exists in a TL 3 setting. There is nothing preventing them from learning to write, and they do have a written version of their telepathic language. The written version is only for themselves and will not mean much to any other race since there is no verbal aspect to the telepathic language.

I never really thought much about the written aspect of their language, but I am open to ideas on how this would work.

On the side of Cannot Speak, they have no capacity to make any noises at all: no vocal cords or anything like that. The only noises they can make are results of physical actions, IE walking, stomping, chewing, etc.

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

By the cp cost, I assume you're using Psionic Powers, so initially I ask, why not use Telespeak from pg. 59. To offset the need for penalties to Broadcast and Universal, add those to the build, which will raise the cost.

Mind Reading (Hearing based) would cause a small issue in my mind, how to understand other telepaths. They'd only autotranslate if they hear, which means they couldn't understand their own mute race.

Cannot Speak (Mute) specifically lists telepathy as a form of non-verbal communication that gets around Mute.

Re: Psionic Telepathy
 

Because they are not speaking to each other, so the Telesend will be fine since they can Telesend to each other.

Edit: Telespeak will work, but the broadcast lets them yell so to speak.