A familiar presence contacts your mind.

[Mendel]

I wish that after an extended time of contact you would get the message 'A familiar presence contacts your mind'  instead of a foreign one.  I tend to tense up everytime somebody contacts me, but this might make it seem more welcome.  Not only that, but how ominous would it be if a 'Familiar presence' contacted you and you realize it's the guy who's been way-stalking you with murderplot.

[Majikal]

I've always been in favor of this, would add a lot to the psionics of the game IMO.

[Marshmellow]

I'm opposed to this idea for more than one reason, but I'll ask just one question:  why do you think we should have caller ID in our characters' heads?

[X-D]

Nobody asked for it to echo BEEP, AMOS THE TALL MUSCULAR MAN contacts you.

Only that after a certain amount of contacts/time you should learn to know the feel a little bit. Something I agree with, specially for members of the same tribe.

[Majikal]

I always figured that if you could feel, without a doubt, that moment someone's mind connected with yours then why not be able to feel the subtle differences in each others minds, perhaps even how they connect or how strong the bond is. The way someone's mind interacted with your own on that level could be very easily recognized I would think.

[Marshmellow]

I think things are fine as they are.  I think this is mostly, from the OP's suggestion at least, a way to make us the players more comfortable.  To make us the players more comfortable, we're basically giving them more and more Way abilities?  I applauded the decision to give expel to everyone because now getting expelled doesn't mean that the person you'd contacted is a mindbender.  (How to train that skill without letting everyone in the Known know that you're a mindbender under the old way?  Yuck.)  This, though... it's giving our characters a rudimentary ability to trace someone's contact back to origin?  That sounds like a mindbender skill/ability to me, so I'd say no.  Who knows?  Maybe they already can do something very similar to this, and by raising everyone's ability, you are effectively reducing how special those mindbenders really are.

[Majikal]

This, though... it's giving our characters a rudimentary ability to trace someone's contact back to origin?  That sounds like a mindbender skill/ability to me.

Not trace, but know it's not some unknown fella hopping into your brain.

It'd be like finding out that the dude calling you at least has the same area code....

[X-D]

That and it is not a psi skill at all. No more then feeling any contact is. Also, they did not give us expel, they gave us expel BACK, now, if only they would give us the other skill back as well...that would really annoy you.

[Reiteration]

I find foreign presence to be fine, it's not explicitly saying that they are a stranger as if it said "An unknown presence contacts your mind."

It just states that something that wasn't there is now there.

[lordcooper]

I'm opposed to this idea for more than one reason, but I'll ask just one question:  why do you think we should have caller ID in our characters' heads?

We do.

At least we know who it is the moment they way us a message...

[Aaron Goulet]

Personally, I am neither for or against this idea, but I am pretty sure that it would be quite difficult to implement in Arm 1; as it currently stands, the game does not keep a persistent list of people you have contacted via the Way or otherwise interacted with, unless you count logs (and even those are only persistent for a limited amount of time, I think).  As such, there would be a lot more work involved than it seems at first glance.

- Aaron Goulet, the wet blanket.

[slipshod]

I find foreign presence to be fine, it's not explicitly saying that they are a stranger as if it said "An unknown presence contacts your mind."

It just states that something that wasn't there is now there.

Agreed.

"Foreign", in that message, just means "a mental presence different from your own / an outside presence".  Even your mother's mind connecting to yours would be a "foreign" presence, just like even your most favorite familiar toy would still be a "foreign object" if a surgeon dropped it into an open incision in your body.  The term should not connote "strange and unfamiliar" when you see it.

[Aaron Goulet]

I find foreign presence to be fine, it's not explicitly saying that they are a stranger as if it said "An unknown presence contacts your mind."

It just states that something that wasn't there is now there.

Agreed.

"Foreign", in that message, just means "a mental presence different from your own / an outside presence".  Even your mother's mind connecting to yours would be a "foreign" presence, just like even your most favorite familiar toy would still be a "foreign object" if a surgeon dropped it into an open incision in your body.  The term should not connote "strange and unfamiliar" when you see it.

Your analogy made my simultaneously cringe and chuckle, though true it is.

- Aaron Goulet prefers to keep his favorite belongings out of his chest cavity.