Pak Protecters in GURPS

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Did they scout human space? I had the impression they stumbled on the colony ship, and basically screamed and leaped - as is typical for Kzin. Certainly when they made Telepath pick the brains of the humans, they couldn't get anything that wasn't in their minds already. However, the idea that their exhaust was a navigational hazard with lethal consequences WOULD be in the minds of the crew, much as a car driver understands that hitting people with their car is lethal, even if they don't think of the car as a weapon. Telepath was in such miserable shape I don't think he could have made the mental leap of "... therefore they could point it at us" but I feel he was negligent for not mentioning "their backwash is totally murderous, don't fly there".

As I recall (it's been a long time), the telepath was specifically looking for weapons, not "things that are dangerous". As the latter would show up obvious stuff like "don't go out the airlock in your shirtsleeves" and such, and reading the minds of non-Kzinti was clearly very hard, he was probably stuck with a very literal use of 'weapon', and thus found none.

[Tyneras]

Originally Posted by Rupert

As I recall (it's been a long time), the telepath was specifically looking for weapons, not "things that are dangerous". As the latter would show up obvious stuff like "don't go out the airlock in your shirtsleeves" and such, and reading the minds of non-Kzinti was clearly very hard, he was probably stuck with a very literal use of 'weapon', and thus found none.

It's been a long time for me as well, but I think that the person being mind-read had to think of something as a weapon in order for it to be noticed by the mind reader. The human crew were so peaceful they just didn't think about things that way.

I vaguely recall something about kitchen knives and the Kzinti being surprised they had any since they had no "weapons" but knives are obviously weapons.