daoen Posted January 14, 2005 Report Share Posted January 14, 2005 Hello all, I am a new prospective gm and am toying with the idea of creating a psionic computer for a very advanced star ship. I am trying to create most of the functions of a ship's computer with psionic abilities. I was thinking about using powers like "Mindlink" for communication between the crew, Clairvoyance for remote viewing, external and internal viewing, Telepathy for other communications and Psionic "noise" fields for jamming (electronic like warfare). I plan on building the computer like a computer character (Int, Ego, Dex and Spd) but am a little stuck on HOW to build the psionic powers. I would, also, welcome any and all suggestions on powers I could include and how to how about it. Oh, one more thing. The "ship" has a mostly seamless metallic structure, is probably going to be propelled by the "computer's" psionic ability and will make use of a probability like drive to "travel" at FTL speeds. Any suggestions on how to do this would be welcome. Or, better yet, an example of how someone has created a probability drive. Thanks!! Daoen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted January 14, 2005 Report Share Posted January 14, 2005 Re: A Psionic "Computer"? And how to build it... I believe one of the alien races in David Brin's "Uplift" setting had a client race of psions who had the power to actually warp space by "rejecting" the physical world. Perhaps something similar, with a Buddhist monk angle? If the physical world is an illusion, then distance and time are illusions and at the will of the mystic/psion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnTaber Posted January 14, 2005 Report Share Posted January 14, 2005 Re: A Psionic "Computer"? And how to build it... Hi Daoen: I'm confused by your post. You seem to clearly outline the Hero powers you want to get for the computer but then you ask how to buy them. Can you be more specific in where you are encountering problems? All sorts of drives are addressed in Star Hero and the Ultimate Vehicle book. I don't remember which but one of them has a great example of an FTL drive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daoen Posted January 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2005 Re: A Psionic "Computer"? And how to build it... I believe one of the alien races in David Brin's "Uplift" setting had a client race of psions who had the power to actually warp space by "rejecting" the physical world. Perhaps something similar' date=' with a Buddhist monk angle? If the physical world is an illusion, then distance and time are illusions and at the will of the mystic/psion.[/quote'] What a coincidence! I have just begun the series. Do you remember what book they are in? I like the idea so I think I'll meditate on it. Thanks, Daoen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daoen Posted January 14, 2005 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2005 Re: A Psionic "Computer"? And how to build it... Hi Daoen: I'm confused by your post. You seem to clearly outline the Hero powers you want to get for the computer but then you ask how to buy them. Can you be more specific in where you are encountering problems? All sorts of drives are addressed in Star Hero and the Ultimate Vehicle book. I don't remember which but one of them has a great example of an FTL drive. Sorry for the confusion. I guess that I am a little confused, also. I could simply mimic the sensor packages and various computer abilities but what I am looking for is how to make it more "psionic". Part of the thing is that I am looking to make the "flavor" (??) reflected in the powers but am a little creatively paralyzed at this point. As far as the drives go: I don't have the UV book and none of the drives in Star Hero, AW or TE are similar to what I am thinking about. They do discuss probability drives but there isn't any example. What I was leaning twords was creating an extra dimentional movement power somehow linked with Luck but can't figure out a "smooth" way to make that happen. Am I clearing it up any or simply mucking it up further? Thanks, Daoen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Champsguy Posted January 15, 2005 Report Share Posted January 15, 2005 Re: A Psionic "Computer"? And how to build it... Just keep it simple. If you want to go FTL, then just buy FTL. Call it "psionic space-warps" or something. Just buy what you want the ship to do, and don't worry about the name of the Powers that you use when you buy it. Remember, the players need not ever see the writeup for the ship. As long as you give a decent description of what the ship does, they'll never know exactly how you bought it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted January 16, 2005 Report Share Posted January 16, 2005 Re: A Psionic "Computer"? And how to build it... It is possible to buy a version of Requires a Skill Roll that relies on Luck, if that's what you want to do for your FTL. Otherwise, a straight-up Activation Roll works. A suggestion for the computer: Give it Telepathy, 0 END, and with enough Area Effect to cover the ship. That way, crew members can access the computer telepathically anywhere in the vessel. The main communications panel should be a long range (Megascale) Telepathy, possibly with Mind Scan. Maybe a Mental Awareness in the sensor suite, with enough Megascale to reach a planetary surface. If you want the weapons and defenses to be psionic as well, then EGO blasts and Mental Entangles are good. I'd personally avoid regular DEF for defenses, relying more on Images to broadcast a false image to draw fire, and a psionic Invisibility. This could be locked on by tracking missiles, but if the missileers are shooting a fake image, the missiles can't lock on to the real one anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted January 19, 2005 Report Share Posted January 19, 2005 Re: A Psionic "Computer"? And how to build it... What a coincidence! I have just begun the series. Do you remember what book they are in? I like the idea so I think I'll meditate on it. I believe it's in The Uplift War, but I could be mistaken. When I get home today, I'll check with my books and see which one it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted January 19, 2005 Report Share Posted January 19, 2005 Re: A Psionic "Computer"? And how to build it... Nope, it's in Startide Rising. And, so as not to spoil, that's all I'll say on the matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dauntless Posted January 27, 2005 Report Share Posted January 27, 2005 Re: A Psionic "Computer"? And how to build it... The brilliant physicist David Bohm came up with an alternative interpretation to Quantum Mechanics which some have dubbed "the holographic universe". Bohm's interpretation says that what we think of the real world (the classical macro world) is an explicate order that is really just something of an illusion (or as the Hindus would say, maya). There are also implicate orders to reality. In our way of thinking, we think that space and time are fundamental and therefore necessary aspects of reality...without space and time, independently existing objects can't exist. However quantum mechanics has thrown some major monkey wrenches by causing all sorts of paradoxes. Bohm's holographic interpretation does away with many of the paradoxes by saying there is no space or time....just this one big interconnected "oneness" which has the appearance of space and time. Holograms have a pretty cool property...unlike a regular picture which if you cut into two will give you a left half and a right half, a hologram when cut in two will give you two complete pictures (albeit smaller). In other words, in a hologram, every "piece" contains information for every other "piece". I say "piece" because what does it mean when there is only one "thing"? Seperation and material existence are only illusions created by our flawed perspective of the situation. BTW, this non-seperation and interconnectedness is the hallmark of eastern philosophies, and is the reason why so many of the brilliant physicists greatly respected eastern philosophies. In fact, some physicists believe in a metaphysical viewpoint that is diametrically opposed to material objectivity, the traditional ontological foundations of scientific methodology. Instead of believing that Matter/energy is the fundamental stuff of nature, they believe that consciousness is the fundamental essence of reality (again, this is precisely what Hindu jnanis and Buddhists preach). Moreover, some believe that there is in fact, only one consciousness (you can relate this to Bohm's hologram) that is shared, and that our perception that we have seperate self-consciousness is also an illusion (I analogize as the great Consciousness is a mainframe, and all us sentient beings are terminals that tap into this mainframe. It may seem like we have the processing power, but really, it's all done by the mainframe). That's why there are theories that the universe itself is conscious(ness) and self-aware. In this point of view, in a way, we sentient beings are reality's way of perceiving itself. Or as Plato said, "God is thought thinking of itself". So to get back to your question, if Bohm (or several other quantum interpretations) is right, then a psionicist could in essence simply access whatever point in space/time that he wanted, since every point in space/time is a nexus to every other point in space/time. This in turn means that time is not really a direction, but simply a point or an idea or a concept, and ditto for space. The trick here in game balancing is making psionic powers incredibly rare or expensive. Because reality is subjective rather than objective, those who have the powr to control their awareness and understanding (the psionicists) would have godlike powers. This near solipsistic viewpoint could be very unbalancing, but if you just handwave this stuff and turn it into technobable (or rather, sophistbabble) to explain how the psionics work, then you shouldn't have any problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wizard Eater Posted January 29, 2005 Report Share Posted January 29, 2005 Re: A Psionic "Computer"? And how to build it... It is possible to buy a version of Requires a Skill Roll that relies on Luck, if that's what you want to do for your FTL. Otherwise, a straight-up Activation Roll works. A suggestion for the computer: Give it Telepathy, 0 END, and with enough Area Effect to cover the ship. That way, crew members can access the computer telepathically anywhere in the vessel. The main communications panel should be a long range (Megascale) Telepathy, possibly with Mind Scan. Maybe a Mental Awareness in the sensor suite, with enough Megascale to reach a planetary surface. If you want the weapons and defenses to be psionic as well, then EGO blasts and Mental Entangles are good. I'd personally avoid regular DEF for defenses, relying more on Images to broadcast a false image to draw fire, and a psionic Invisibility. This could be locked on by tracking missiles, but if the missileers are shooting a fake image, the missiles can't lock on to the real one anyway. The whole thing doesn't have to be 'psionically themed.' Yeah, the computer can communicate thru psi, see remotely, and make cloak and make images of itself. But the "probability drive" is very unreliable and dangerous, so ordinary warp- or hyperdrive is used normally, and the psi drive is used only when speed is of the utmost importance, since it can place it AUs or LY's off position, change the inhabitants in strange ways, or destroy it alltogether. And it still needs armor like any other ship. Oh, and the creature you're thinking of is an Episiarch. Its towering monomania and solipsism give it godlike powers of psi. but its a dangerous, insane creature, kept under heavy restraint and training by the Tandu (their Uplift Patrons) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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