[Psionic Powers] Psionic gestalts

[JulianLW]

Originally Posted by Inky

I'm not sure how the rules for psionic gestalts in Psionic Powers are supposed to work.

It seems like the rules allow for a gestalt to be maintained so long as all the members are in either physical or telepathic contact with each other.

Suppose you have 12 aliens each with Telereceive 1 (i.e. skin-to-skin contact only) and the Gestalt Familiarity perk (allowing them to form a gestalt reliably without having to roll). They hold hands and form a gestalt.

Apparently, the leader would then be able to use Telereceive at a level equal to xir own level plus half the total of the other members' levels, rounded up - so 1 + (11 x 1)/2 = 6.5 = rounded up is 7, and Telereceive 7 means xe has no range penalties at all and can use Telereceive just as effectively at any distance.

Does that then mean that, despite having only Telereceive 1 individually, they can now go and do other things - even get on a spaceship and fly away - without the gestalt ending, because they're all within range of the leader's Telereceive 7?

(This might be useful but I'm not sure http://forums.sjgames.com/showthread.php?t=141754 ).

Yes, I think this is how a Gestalt is supposed to work. But to establish a Telereceive connection with 11 fellow aliens, the leader would need to roll the Multiplicity technique at Telereceive-16, which he still might not be able to do even with the combined skill. Most of the fellow aliens would have to have a positive relative skill in Telereceive for there to be a significant bonus, and that means spending either 8 CP to raise the skill to IQ+1 or having 3 levels of Telepathy talent - or some combination that adds up to a positive relative skill. Without a positive relative skill, the leader gets no skill bonus.

So it would either be a very special group to manage an interstellar Gestalt (which seems unlikely if they all have only Telereceive 1) or a setting with extremely common telepathy.