Telepaths Must Die!

[David Blue]

Re: Telepaths Must Die!

 

Interesting. Add a third level: people who aren't quite as upstanding and shame-free as you who' date=' having just experienced a demonstration of complete telepathic awareness of a mind, become hyperaware of their own shameful secrets.[/quote']That's logical and interesting, though I never encountered it. Like I said, a lot of the fun of this one depends on where the gamemaster wants to go with it.

 

There's also the matter of your memories - if they know everything you've done' date=' they know everything you've seen in anyone [i']else's[/i] mind... and know that everyone else you ever do this with will now know their secrets...

It could work that way, and I think that could work very well, but with the main character I did it with, it didn't work like that.

 

Imagine stepping, like Neo into the Matrix, into the spooky internal world of a quasi-human superhuman intelligence. You share nothing, except that which you choose to, or reveal by your choices. A ghostly silver light pervades all. You start in the library, where your new friend's deceased confessor (who had the easiest of times of it) will share with you anything he ever learned, and refer you to complete records, with illustrated Gothic lettering and pictures that move, of all her years and days. Nearby you hear a choir of hundreds of identical voices singing a joyful and easeful fugue: "Amen!" Kitchen smells waft by: frugal portions of thin gruel and warm pumpkin pie: yum! Out of the library tower window you look down to fields, where hordes of one person at every age so far attained toil and harvest and do minor chores and rock in cradles and practice at arms - there are you in a combat simulation for if this sharing goes badly wrong - all neat and harmonious and full of lively zeal, not human at all, in that sense. On the handles of relentlessly hissing scythes, the wide-spanning hands of the older copies are worked to the bone with gleeful labour. Beyond that: smooth-scudding silver clouds under silver skies, and rolling hills and plains of graves, graves, graves, their occupants all basking now in final rest, and ready to converse, if called upon, as to how they came to lay their burdens down, and whether it was fairly and as far as possible kindly done. Beyond and better, a shining holy lake shares its waters with frost-white mountains: all around them its welcoming waters wind in streams to peaceful ends. All is open for your inspection nothing hidden, and beauty and welcome increase the further you go. As the lion said to the children: "Further up and further in!"

 

There are a variety of common responses to this, including "Get me the Hell out of here. Now." But it clears away all the nonsense: "Are you a spy?" "Nobody but cannibals and bounty hunters comes here." "We've no lasers to waste on neophytes. And the last thing we need is another woman to protect!" and so on. For a character who spends a lot of their time getting into situations where the paranoia is thick - and paralysing suspicion is often half of what's wrong - this is a valuable ability.

 

In a shape-shifting "Thing" paranoia scenario, it would be convenient (for the player, not at all for the gamemaster), to just go: "He's OK, he's been replaced by a Thing." But short of that, it's nice to be able to show people at meeting-gazes range that you're you, and if anyone's to be shot out of suspicion it should be someone else. It's also nice to be able to hand over information without alerting anyone except the person who is picking your brains that you are doing so.

 

Some might simply want their secrets kept.

And refuse contact because they would not believe that anyone would be willing to share that much and not be leeching information or in some other way getting something in return. Of course. That's common. (shrug)

 

Some might actually get jealous of your stain-free life and hate you for it (I'm not saying that will be common' date=' it's just another threat category).[/quote'](Grin.) That one's a known "bit" too - I call it the Billy Budd effect. Unless the gamemaster is overly mean, it shouldn't come up often. But sooner or later, if the gamemaster is on the job, it probably should come up.

 

There's also a potential theological problem:

"All have sinned and fallen short."

(George Washington, will not tell a lie): "I haven't."

Normally, the answer to that would be denial, but in this case proof is at hand. This potential problem didn't come up, but I vaguely remember a science fiction story about a priest who discovered an alien planet where the aliens were obviously un-fallen. This of course is excluded by the theology of the general Fall. He therefore decided it could only be the work of the Devil, and blew it up.

I never had to deal with that one, though I was half expecting it. If you violate people's expectations about what kinds of people there are allowed to be, trouble may follow.

 

Some might see in your mind your forgiveness for the relatively minor sins of your common man (and I assume a socially-functioning telepath almost has to develop that to survive)' date=' and be put at ease.[/quote']Of course. Very much so. Which leads not only to many good roleplaying opportunities, but to moments of great confidence which sometimes sadly have to be interrupted: "What I learn from you, I will never forget or get wrong. Pray you: pause. Think."

 

On the forgiveness and healing front, I'd really love to do the precognitive from Tom Cuise and Steven Spielberg's movie Minority Report. I really like this kind of character. But of course she'd be abominable to gamemaster. If there's anything worse than telepathy it's precognition.

[pinecone]

Re: Telepaths Must Die!

 

Yeah ultimately it come down to personal outlook and experiance ...I see the same senario and see it differantly.."OK, so I've met this telepath that opens his mind to me convincing me he is totally open and good....and I'm like completely convinved that this mind controlling , memory twisting dude is the coolest ever....no point in trying to suprise him....if I'm still able to, I reach for my pistol, I'm about to test his reflexes..." Sadly if someone does'nt trust Psi's, the more convincing you are, the more paranoid they'll likely become...

[David Blue]

Re: Telepaths Must Die!

 

Exactly, pinecone. That's how it works.

 

It's a bit like being the illustrated man. You don't know what vision someone saw in you, or why, or in the reverse telepath's case what they may have made of whatever they discovered in your mind and memories. What you do know is that from time to time someone has a bad reaction to it, and immediately or when they think you're off guard they try to kill you, or otherwise do something very bad.

 

That's part of the reason the character is inefficient: The virtuous reverse telepath also needs to make assiduous efforts to be the fastest gun.