Psionics: Telescan for lock

[Henchman99942]

In the Psionic Powers book under the Psionic Ability, 'Telescan', it says...

"For all power levels, success gives you a 'lock' on the subject, allowing you to use further telepathic abilities on him at no penalty."

Does this refer to and include range penalties? Doesn't this effectively eliminate the need for higher levels of Psionic Abilities which, for the most part, only increase range? Once you are 'locked' on a subject, don't those Psionic Abilities with the restriction of 'Contact Agent' work at ANY range now? or are they still restricted to the range at which the Telescan was conducted in the first place? Or am I reading this wrong?

[roguebfl]

once you're locked on with telescan all other psionic abilities are considered to be at range touch regardless of true range.

[PK]

Originally Posted by roguebfl

once you're locked on with telescan all other psionic abilities are considered to be at range touch regardless of true range.

Whoops, I hope that isn't how everyone is interpreting it. What it actually means is that you don't suffer any penalties for not being able to see the target. You still have to soak range penalties and you can't use Touch-ranged attacks from a distance. It would probably have been clearer if "...at no penalty" were instead "...as if you had direct line of sight to him."

Sorry that didn't get caught in playtesting! In my defense, this was one of my first GURPS books. :)

[Henchman99942]

Okay Dokay. As per my reading, it certainly seemed to be JUST A BIT system breaky. (JUST A BIT)

I am doing a Cyberpunk campaign. I have not used 4E Psi rules as of yet, so I am not as familiar. I want to try to limit them to some degree. I liked how movies like "Push" and the TV series "Babylon 5" deal with Psi.

[roguebfl]

Originally Posted by PK

Whoops, I hope that isn't how everyone is interpreting it. What it actually means is that you don't suffer any penalties for not being able to see the target. You still have to soak range penalties and you can't use Touch-ranged attacks from a distance. It would probably have been clearer if "...at no penalty" were instead "...as if you had direct line of sight to him."

Sorry that didn't get caught in playtesting! In my defense, this was one of my first GURPS books. :)

Umm it also based on

Originally Posted by Kromm

Do remember that Telesend is a subset of Telecommunication. The Telecommunication limitation on Mind Reading is meant to be a not-so-subtle way of saying, "Works only on people on whom you're using Telesend." It's certainly the case that Telesend is supposed to let you follow up with further mental abilities; it's a kind of "touch," you could say.

[PK]

Right, but he was asking about Telescan, not Telesend.

Telesend counts as "mental touch." Detect (which is what Telescan is based on) does not.