[Psionic Powers] Wild Talents for a Psionic Village?

[Jürgen Hubert]

For my next game, I plan to run a GURPS Dark Sun campaign (see my conversion thread for rules details). As the setting has a very strong focus on psionic powers, I wanted to use the full rules from the GURPS Psionic Powers. However, since none of the players have played GURPS in a long time (and some never), I didn't want to force the players to read through the entire supplement (after all, digesting the Basic Set is more than enough work!). Instead, I plan to give each character one free level in a psionic talent, and 10 free character points to be put into a psionic power. These powers can be chosen of a list of pre-defined "wild talent" packages.

After some plotting and planning in this thread over at RPGNet, I came up with the following background: The PCs start out in a small village of about 250 people in the foothills of the Ringing Mountains. As the area is pretty much as dry as the rest of the world, the village can maintain agriculture only with the help of a qanat irrigation system (which involves digging really long tunnels into mountains - read it up, it's an awesome feat of engineering for early cultures!).

Unknown to the people in the village, the whole region is used as a grand social experiment by a secretive, powerful psionic organization called the Order who want to breed better psions and thus subtly arrange marriages. As a result, everyone in the village has developed psionic powers, which is unusually high even for Athas (normally, only about 10% of the general population manage that - which the PCs might wonder about once they travel a bit). At the same time, this also explains why there are no resident "psionic masters" in the village - potent psions eventually leave the village to be tested and eventually recruited by the Order!


So here is my challenge: Can you come up with psionic powers that would (a) cost no more than 10 character points with the appropriate modifiers (and ideally, exactly 10 character points, not counting the relevant psionic skill) and (b) be especially appropriate and useful for such a village setting? Though I don't insist on the latter - there are bound to be a few "malcontents" who develop their own powers which aren't useful for ordinary village folks...

Be creative! I want to show the players what is possible with the psionics rules in particular, and the GURPS rules in general!

[munin]

GURPS Psis has a lot of 25-point packages, which is a good point level to get a diversity of packages. Here are a few 10-point packages that seem useful in a village setting (I included skills because that's sort of important, and it makes it easier to round it off to 10 points):

Curer: Cure Disease 1 [6] + Cure (H) IQ [4], or
tabCure Disease 1 [6] + Resistant to Disease +3 (Psychic Healing, -10%) [3] + Cure (H) IQ-2 [1].

Fetch: TK Grab (Short Ranged) 2 [8] + TK Grab (H) IQ-1 [2].

Deflect: PK Shield 2 [8] + PK Shield (H) IQ-1 [2].

Fast Learner: Borrow Skill 1 [7] + Borrow Skill (H) IQ-1 [2] + Deep Study [1].

Reader: Emotion Sense 2 [9] + Emotion Sense (H) IQ-2 [1].

Sender: Telesend 1 [9] + Telesend (H) IQ-2 [1].

Tough Vitals: Damage Control 1 [8] + Damage Control (H) HT-1 [2].

[munin]

Some more 10-point packages (not necessarily "village" abilities):

Para-Invisibility 1 [5] + Para-Invisibility (H) IQ [4] + Nonthreatening [1].

Psionic Shield 3 [6] + Psionic Shield (H) Will [4].

Psychic Armor 1 [8] + Psychic Armor (H) Will-1 [2].

Screaming 1 [9] + Screaming (H) Will-2 [1].

Photorefraction 1 [5] + Photorefraction (H) IQ [4] + Light Amplification [1].

Infravision (Ergokinesis, -10%) [9]. 9 points.

Signature Sniffer 2 [9] + Psi Sense (H) Per-2 [1].

Awareness 1 [9] + Awareness (H) Per-2 [1].

Visions (Dreams) [5] + Visions (H) IQ [4]. 9 points.

Visions (Second Sight) [5] + Visions (H) IQ [4]. 9 points.

Psi Sense 1 [8] + Psi Sense (H) Per-1 [2].

Psidar 1 [9] + Psidar (H) Per-2 [1].

Seekersense 1 [7] + Seekersense (H) Per-1 [2] + Dowsing [1].

Spirit Communication 1 [8] + Spirit Communication (H) IQ-1 [2].

Common Sense (ESP, -10%) [9]. 9 points.

Life Extension 1 [9] + Life Extension (H) IQ-2 [1].

TK Bullet 1 [5] + Flat Edge (TK Bullet) (H) TK Bullet [3] + TK Bullet (H) IQ-1 [2].

Super Jump 1 [Psychokinesis, -10%) [9] + Jumping (E) DX [1].

Temperature Tolerance 10 (Psychokinesis, -10%) [9] + Umbrella [1].

Aspect 2 [8] + Aspect (H) Will-1 [2].

Mind Clouding 1 [6] + Mind Clouding (H) IQ [4].

Mind Shield 2 [8] + Mind Shield (H) Will-1 [2].

Telepathy Sense 2 [7] + Telepathy Sense (H) Per-1 [2]. 9 points.

Innerportation 1 [9] + Innerportation (H) Will-2 [1].

Portersense 2 [7] + Portersense (H) Per-1 [2]. 9 points.

[PK]

Originally Posted by munin

GURPS Psis has a lot of 25-point packages, which is a good point level to get a diversity of packages.

This is what I'd recommend as well. I don't know if you're married to the 10-point idea, Jurgen, but I'd suggest going with 25 points instead.

For one thing, "I just got a 10-point psi ability" is barely even a noticeable thing on a 250-point character. Look at the sample abilities munin is proposing. They're all good and reasonable, but they're all really weak. There's just not a lot going on there. Plus, if you were to go with 25 points, you could save tons of work by just using the existing packages in Psis. They're designed not only to be useful and nifty, but to exploit as much synergy as possible -- when a package includes multiple abilities, it does so because they work together really well.

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

This is what I'd recommend as well. I don't know if you're married to the 10-point idea, Jurgen, but I'd suggest going with 25 points instead.

Also, IIRC DnD had Dark Sun characters starting out at level 3, not 1, it was a harsh place and only the strong survived. I would think 25-pt packages would work quiet well in the setting itself. Just my two cents.

Ghostdancer

[Jürgen Hubert]

Actually, I intend to start the characters with 100 point characters + plus one free psionic talent and 10 free points for a psionic power - so even a minor talent should be noticeable. Half of the players haven't played GURPS in a long, long time, and the other half never, so I want to start at low point values and limit the available options at character creation so that they won't get overwhelmed.

Yes, that means that they will be pretty weak when faced with typical challenges of the environment. But on the other hand, they have the functioning support base of a village, which should help - at least, until they are ready to leave it...

[Gef]

Originally Posted by munin

I included skills because that's sort of important, and it makes it easier to round it off to 10 points

I'm with munin on this; if you want equivalent packages, include the skills to top off to the 10pt total, but don't forget about psionic perks, too.

As for the 25 points or 10, I like 10 for the possibility to make a character not defined by his wild talent, but I like 25 if the whole point is to drag the characters kicking and screaming into a psionic conspiracy. That said, 10 is fine for random villagers.

GEF

[Jürgen Hubert]

I've bought GURPS Psis after all, and decided to go with the 25 point packages, as they are very, very convenient.

Yes, that will make the characters more potent and the campaign more psi-focused, but the village is ultimately controlled by a psionic conspiracy, even if nobody there realizes it...

[Christopher R. Rice]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

I've bought GURPS Psis after all, and decided to go with the 25 point packages, as they are very, very convenient.

Yes, that will make the characters more potent and the campaign more psi-focused, but the village is ultimately controlled by a psionic conspiracy, even if nobody there realizes it...

I think that you will find it to be better than you think. 25 points of psionic powers is useful, but unless you pick ones with Temperature Tolerance or to help you regen...its not going to be that useful. My current game of psis has variant point totals but the highest point psi, around 3,000 points just got her tail handed to her by some normie's in battlesuits with ETC M-16's. If she didn't have the Steal Life ability at a high level it would have been over several times. High Point Total ≠ Combat Efficiency (though it can). Athas is the place where you won't decently starting point totals, so 125 pt characters really is a good way to go. Heck you could even given 50 points out and say "25 must be spent on a psi package, 25 on whatever" so those wanting psi will have it, while those who want to be better fighters, rangers, etc. will have the points to beef up their characters.

I have found that most players do not want a low point character...but thats just from my experience. YMMV.

Ghostdancer

[Kuroshima]

Well, now that the Psi issue of Pyramid is out, I can finally recommend you my article, Random Psionic Tables, that will help you create NPCs (and you could use it for PCs that don't want to go through the Psionic Powers and Psis to pick their powers)