Psi-resistant room or incense or something

[Eyeball]

Here is an idea: some commonly-available way of insulating a particular space to make it much harder for PCs therein to be contacted. Like burning a stick of incense that fills the air with .. something. I don't care what the mechanism is, only that it be available. Something that will give PCs a haven against being continually psi-lambasted when they're trying to get something done.

Please don't tell me about barrier, it's virtually useless at preventing contacts unless the PC has an extremely strong mind.

What do you all think?

[Brokkr]

If anything, we've gone the other direction due to overuse and stupid use.

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

I dunno. I certainly don't hate the idea. I like the idea of becoming hard or impossible to find for anyone shy of a psionist.

Brokkr, what do you mean? It's become easier these days to reach someone - was the difficulty to reach someone before being overused? I don't understand.

[lostinspace]

Just chug booze and way people wavy images constantly. They'll give up soon enough.

[mansa]

I dunno. I certainly don't hate the idea. I like the idea of becoming hard or impossible to find for anyone shy of a psionist.

Brokkr, what do you mean? It's become easier these days to reach someone - was the difficulty to reach someone before being overused? I don't understand.

I do like the idea of a temporary psi buffs or debuffs.  A poison or an incense or perfume or some spice.  Maybe a tinfoil hat? 

[John]

If anything, we've gone the other direction due to overuse and stupid use.

What do you mean?

[Veselka]

If anything, we've gone the other direction due to overuse and stupid use.

What do you mean?

I think he means they like went the other way with contact and stuff, where it used to be harder to get a hold of people/train contact, and now it's easier.

I too am into sort of material buffers against psionics...I feel like expensive incense or a type of spice would be cool and suited to the setting. A sort of side-effect of Methelinoc, mirroring Mentat abilities in Dune or something, would be pretty nifty. But necessary? Nahhhhhh, probably not. But I like it for flavor.

Hell, we could do it now even though there isn't a coded benefit, just a cultural norm.

[MeTekillot]

Methelinoc massively increasing psionic ability would be cool, because then every leader would always have a spice tube clamped jauntily between their teeth.

[only_plays_tribals]

It'd be neat in the sense that you could use it to justify your character being "gone" from the way when logged out instead of trying to play it off like you were "napping" (especially since being asleep gives it's own echo now)

[senseofeven]

Why not lower the stun cost of contact/psi and also reducing the delay? It'll become even easier like chatting, but it doesn't take too much out of you to maintain a Way conversation.

I think an alternative is that IF it would be possible to be in simultaneous contact and psi with the people who are in your mind. Let's say the max is 3 people so, first come, first serve, the fourth person would get a way notice like the person's mind is too occupied at the moment.

To give a bit of control..

Contact - only able to contact 1 person at any given time but PC can receive a max of 3 contacts from other individuals.
PSI - able to psi those 3 people who are in contact with your mind + your current contact target.

What say you?

[The7DeadlyVenomz]

Nah.

Personally, I like having to meet people in person for good, long talks. I don't want PSI to become a smart phone. I want it to remain an old 80s/90s brick phone.

[Greve]

I imagine Brokkr refers to the time when characters used to begin with novice contact and were completely inept at the Way until they'd lived for quite a while. Psionic skills are notoriously slow to raise and I seem to recall that it easily took 5-10 days played to get contact up to where it now starts. It led players to grind the skill on NPCs, or to randomly contact PCs just to raise the skill without actually having much to say. It was particularly bad before skill levels were visible and you never knew if you had mastered contact, so if you didn't succeed an attempt, you felt compelled to try two or three times just in case you'd simply failed the skill check. It was just annoying to deal with.

I've played RPIs that had no non-verbal communication and I liked it better, but those games also had more concentrated playing fields. I've often wondered what it would be like on Armageddon without the Way. On one hand, I think it would bring a lot more activity to the taverns and a general readiness to meet people instead of relying on the Way so much, but it would also make it a huge hassle to play anywhere outside Allanak. We couldn't have a world with numerous playable areas. This game is just built in a way where the Way is necessary, and making it as seamless as possible is probably for the best. But it would be nice if barrier was more effective at preventing contact. I don't see why it shouldn't be near-impenetrable against anyone without special psionics.

[Cind]

I like this idea, especially since everyone starts with decent waying now. If you've ever worked for or god forbid been an active leader, especially one involved in trading who has numerous customers, they don't get five minutes to themselves, and this can be dangerous sometimes, when you need a safe place to talk to Lord Templar Impatient.

[Aruven]

I like this idea, especially since everyone starts with decent waying now. If you've ever worked for or god forbid been an active leader, especially one involved in trading who has numerous customers, they don't get five minutes to themselves, and this can be dangerous sometimes, when you need a safe place to talk to Lord Templar Impatient.

It amazes me how players continue to allow that to happen, perpetuating the shitty interaction for a role they are familiar with though not playing in.

On the subject of mechanics in this realm, some of the answers you want are certainly IC.

I just wanted to draw a line between the OP's curious concept and the larger conversation happening about the way itself and its relevance to the game.