Psionic Listen

[Sokotra]

I hate to continue the derail concering 'wild talents' but I think it pretty much goes the same for this idea that is being discussed... in that it could be done so it wasn't EXTREMELY common, and instead somewhat rare that you would be able to catch a snippet of someone's conversation.  Thus people would not be so paranoid about using the way in public.  And in much the same manner, 'wild talents' could be given without making them extremely powerful... or at least the more powerful ones that you might have the chance of getting would not be extremely common.  It's all about balance.. and I think these sorts of things would make the game much more interesting if they were done properly.  There's always people going nuts saying "OMG NO WAY, I DONT WANT SOME RANGER COMING AFTER ME WITH A POISONED FIREBALL BOLT OF ACID ARROW FROM HIS VIBRATING GREATBOW OF STEALTH" ... come on... nobody is saying to change things that drastically and create some sort of massive unabalance in the game.  There are ways to make things like 'wild talents' work without going overboard... just as an example, you could even throw your basic 'skills' into the mix so that there might be a chance that you could get either a wild psionic talent or a random skill... just as in real life, there are certain things that make each of us individual and set us apart from everyone else... those little things that you are just good at or better at than everyone else.  Again.. done in moderation and being perhaps somewhat rare to get anything powerful, or have the skill 'top-off' at a certain level of effectiveness, or things such as that... would keep things balanced and still much more interesting.

[IntuitiveApathy]

IA just for typing midiclorians I am going to start powergaming my slay being psionic ability, prey I don't get it down.

I am -so- gonna midichlorian you to death!


On psionic wild talents: I'd love to see these appear with a small random chance for a character during its lifetime, rather than getting a random chance to have one at character creation.  That way you can avoid the stat whores who throw themselves at the nearest scrab going nuts with trying to get a wild talent.  Different races might have different random tables for talents.  (eg. Half Giants might only have a 0.03% per annum chance of getting psi_midichlorian_mind_bore)  

I don't think there were ever magical wild talents in Dark Sun, but if people are thinking about that I think that'd be a whole different ballgame altogether.

/derail

[Dalmeth]

Well, since most don't like the idea of peeking into psionic communication, I'd like to suggest the next best thing : plain disruption.  Discover a creature that emits a shrill sound which disrupts the ability of almost all listeners (not psionicists) to make psionic contact.  Make the sound carry over into adjacent areas and perhaps one more, if that isn't too much.  Doors and such would block this sound, of course.

[Agent_137]

the way is too secure.

I'm not sure common people overhearing thoughts is the answer.


wild talents would be cool, guildchanging would not.

you all of a sudden can cast a fireball. Cool. that's all you get. You aren't a krathi. you're just another commoner who happens to be able to cast a fireball, but can't really develop any other abilities.

respond to wild talents discussion here:
http://www.zalanthas.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=156140#156140

[Anonymous]

the way is too secure.

And whispering to someone standing in the middle of an empty room is not secure enough.  You could ride from Allanak, blow up your kank to make sure nobody was following you, tie buzzards to your feet and sky ski across the sea of Red Silt and land on the other side of the world in the Grey Forest to meet your contact and there would still be some damn elf pickpocket hiding in the room with you despite having no realistic place to hide and his listen up so that he hears you say the secret which will be on ever IG board the next morning.

That's why I don't think the Way should be opened up to the occasional psionic eavesdropper.  More plots/relationships go forward because of it's prevalence than would be the case if it was suddenly common enough to have a telepathic wire tap.

[Arabian Nights]

the way is too secure.

And whispering to someone standing in the middle of an empty room is not secure enough.  You could ride from Allanak, blow up your kank to make sure nobody was following you, tie buzzards to your feet and sky ski across the sea of Red Silt and land on the other side of the world in the Grey Forest to meet your contact and there would still be some damn elf pickpocket hiding in the room with you despite having no realistic place to hide and his listen up so that he hears you say the secret which will be on ever IG board the next morning.

That's why I don't think the Way should be opened up to the occasional psionic eavesdropper.  More plots/relationships go forward because of it's prevalence than would be the case if it was suddenly common enough to have a telepathic wire tap.

Exactly.
The way being as secure as it is makes up for whisper (or verbal communication at all for that matter),  being unrealistically unsecure even being locked up in a room that is just four walls, a floor and a ceiling with no furniture or anything to hide behind and someone could still codedly be hiding there and listening to your conversation.