Psionics and thermodynamics

[Darklim]

(I should've posted in some presentation subcategory beforehand. Oh well.)

Hi all, I was pondering something about psionics, but I shall give you further details and some backstory before asking my question.

So basically I'm going to launch my first GURPS campagin in one year, and I am the GM (btw, any idea where I could play GURPS as a PC in France? I'd really like to test the system as a PC before GMing it). The only thing I knew about my campaign was SPAAAAAAAACE, but apart from that, I had no idea what I was going to do; therefore, I asked for my players to tell me what kinds of characters they want, so they'd have a base to build on, and then proceed in spending points and crying when they realize that 125 points, and up to -75 in disadvantages, mean that they're not heroes straight from the beginning.

So far, I ended up with a dual-flaming-katanas-wielding ninja, an ex-space-marine mercenary. The third PC is going to make a manipulative bastard who happens to be the pilot of their ship, and the problems begin with the fourth. Do any of you know "To Aru Majutsu No Index"? Well he does. He spent far too much time thinking about what could be the best esper power, and he ended up with the conclusion that being able to control both temperature and pressure would be incredibly powerful. The final goal of his character will be to be able to control pretty much anything about a gas or a fluid (pressure, temperature - and thus volume), with endless applications: hyperpressurized projectiles and explosions, solidifying/liquefying/vaporizing pretty much anything, etc... Thing is, there is no "Pressure control" advantage that'd at least open the way to such tremendous power. Yet, I swore to not refrain the player's ambitions and let them do exactly what they want, then proceed to build my campaign on that.

So am I supposed to dig for every pressure-related advantages and magic (e.g. walk on air, walk on liquid, the whole air magic and water magic, maybe even weather control), and just write "PSIONIC ORIGINS" on it for him to buy them, even though psionic powers are not supposed to fail (while magic spells can - and will at some point)? Or did I miss something?

tl;dr: In what measure can psionics mess with thermodynamics?

[Walrus]

You probably need to read GURPS Powers. Psionic Powers is valuable but not necessary for one character.

In GURPS you write abilities on Character Sheet based on their effects while their actual origin might be no more than Power Modifier (see Powers, sometimes it's just +0% special effect) so if you can explain how does your power allows you to manipulate objects, pay the advanatge price and go on.

I can certainly see that micro-scale TK which forces molecules to move faster or slower and provide a lot of different effects.

[Refplace]

Temperature Control is already in Basic.
Animate TK liquids only also, or maybe in Powers.
Psionics goes over the rules in Powers and builds a set of sample powers using the Power Stunt and Defaults For Everyone )I think thats the rule) which will give you what you want.
With that base he can then start building specific powers and have a path to follow for the more powerful or difficult to build ones you can manage later.

[Darklim]

So you people answer in the next hour. Wow. Sorry for my late answer, then.

I read through Powers, it was exactly what I was looking for, and now I feel stupid for not adding 1 and 1. Many thanks to both of you!

[whswhs]

There is an explicit writeup of Pressure Control in GURPS Supers.

Bill Stoddard

[Darklim]

There is. Sorry to bother all of you, then.