Psions in TC:Core

[Dataweaver]

Why are they there? Other than a brief mention that they exist, I mean. You've got entries in the lexicon for Aptitudes and Psi, with the former baking the eight Aptitudes and the latter clearly talking about the Psi trait, when TC:Core has no rules concerning either Aptitudes or Psi; in fact, it has no rules for Noetic-powered characters at all, beyond a brief section in Super-Science that says that Powered Super-Science is restricted to psiads, psions, or novas. So why go into any depth about them?

By contrast, TC:Core says about as much about Novas as I expected it to: it mentions that they exist in the Continuum, but says virtually nothing about what they're like except in the broadest of strokes.

[LordHeru]

Very much agree with this. I thought it was a disconnect. Psions and mentioned a lot but Novas, who are equals in importance, are not.

My thought is to either remove psion stuff in the core, beyond of the bare minimum, or add Nova stuff to the Core.

[Eldagusto]

I could see some individuals developing Psion level powers from experiments, or accidents. Perhaps a latent or Psiad like individual could have experimented on them self like a small scale like Hammersmith event. After all we know individual Novas have erupted thought history from Random Experiments without Divis Mal setting yup a world Wide Eruption.

So I’m a fan of things like someone inventing an evolution Chamber to awaken their minds potential, or someone wearing a mind enhancing Helmet developing advanced Psi. Just like I’m a Fan of someone Erupting after being bit by a Radioactive Spider or Exploding in a Gamma Bomb Test.

[Eldagusto]

Very much agree with this. I thought it was a disconnect. Psions and mentioned a lot but Novas, who are equals in importance, are not.

My thought is to either remove psion stuff in the core, beyond of the bare minimum, or add Nova stuff to the Core.

I think it was mostly because Aeon was being developed in Conjunction with the core first and Aberrant was not yet developed, and nothing was concrete.

[LordHeru]

I think it was mostly because Aeon was being developed in Conjunction with the core first and Aberrant was not yet developed, and nothing was concrete.

That makes sense. But at the same time we no sooner had when things aren't changing. They are still Nova's. They still use quantum. They still have an MR node. They have a negative thing called corruption. That's all you need to say. You don't need to say power names or character names or anything like that just very generic terms that are specific to one of the secondary core settings of the Trinity Universe.

I guess for me it's the fact that Aberrant was my very first love of the Trinity Universe games. I love Nova's more than I love Psions and so for the court to give more emphasis on them than the former it kind of makes me shake my head and go really.

[Dataweaver]

In my case, the issue is that when you look at the core book on its own, including details about Psions beyond the most generic stuff about the Trinity Continuum including psionically active character types seems out of place. The description of Psi and Aptitudes belongs in Æon, where the game systems for Psi and Aptitudes are presented.

But if Aberrant decides to handle Nova-era psiads using a variant of the game systems for Novas, with suitable Quantum Powers being reskinned as psionic in nature and not bound to the right Aptitudes structure found in Æon, and the game's power stat (presumably Quantum) being reskinned as Psi but still working more or less the same as for Novas instead of Æon's seven-level Psi trait where the first dot is present even in baselines, or Adventure decided to handle Mesmerists using the way that Talents are set up but replacing the heroic Gifts with Psychic Gifts (again, possibly without the structure of the eight Aptitudes), then the talk in TC:Core about Aptitudes and Psi is no longer relevant to the psychic characters of those eras.

My contention is that TC:Core shouldn't have mentioned Psi or Aptitides, or any of the mechanical details of either; it should have just stuck with the same “broad strokes” approach that was used to describe novas.

[Mateus Luz]

But if Aberrant decides to handle Nova-era psiads using a variant of the game systems for Novas, with suitable Quantum Powers being reskinned as psionic in nature and not bound to the right Aptitudes structure found in Æon, and the game's power stat (presumably Quantum) being reskinned as Psi but still working more or less the same as for Novas instead of Æon's seven-level Psi trait where the first dot is present even in baselines, or Adventure decided to handle Mesmerists using the way that Talents are set up but replacing the heroic Gifts with Psychic Gifts (again, possibly without the structure of the eight Aptitudes), then the talk in TC:Core about Aptitudes and Psi is no longer relevant to the psychic characters of those eras.

I hope they don’t make Psiads a variation of novas with restricted powers, I do believe they will bring something nice for us in Aeon Expantion. I hope it is better than the way it was converted from Trinity 1e on Aberrant Players Guide, it was not bad, it just locked the powers on a sequence, that is not how it should work for Psiads.

[Dataweaver]

There's a practical matter to consider: you can't assume that someone playing TC: Aberrant will own TC: Æon or any of its supplements. So inclusion of Psiads in the Nova era either requires reprinting rules for Psiads in a suitable Aberrant supplement or adapting the Nova mechanics to represent psychomorphs. The latter has the virtue of brevity, which due to the back-seat role that psychomorphs play in Aberrant may be the most appropriate to to go.

[IanWatson]

They are still Nova's. They still use quantum. They still have an MR node. They have a negative thing called corruption.

Don't make assumptions.

[Dataweaver]

Fair enough. I'll be shocked if they aren't Novas, and only slightly less so if they don't use Quantum or have a negative thing called Taint (not corruption), especially since it's already been confirmed that the psions who mess with Nova powers are called Quantakinetics (strongly implying that “Quantum” is still the term for what empowers a Nova) and that the messed-up Aberrants of the Æon era have Taint. But if Novas don't have MR Nodes, I'll still be perfectly happy.

[LordHeru]

Well I'm pretty sure if they aren't called Novas and don't have Quantum then I'm going to be really disappointed in what happened. Now, corruption or taint is not something I really care for so that's fine if that's gone. I never liked it anyway.

[Dataweaver]

If Taint goes away, I'll be disappointed: the danger/promise of becomes inhuman and/or having powers that are a missed blessing and/or an option curse strikes me as to important a part of what Aberrant is to be discarded.

The MR Nodes, on the other hand, don't strike me as bringing anything useful to the table. Don't get me wrong: they're not bad, per se; and I won't mind if they're kept. I'm just saying that I won't miss them if they go away.

[Mateus Luz]

Well, we have enought on Aeon to say that there is a MR node, there is Corruption and they are powered by Quantum, so far so good.
I hope we have a system close to the original, maybe more “base + extras” and less “power rank”. At least I really liked the way we can describe the Blast quality in Aeon, it has a few options and it’s verry interesting the way you can build basically any attack, just need to imagine what you want and what are the effects it would have, if there is this kind of options it would be nice. There are other Mutations and Qualities that I liked how it work as a catch all effect that you just add flavour, but blast really was a good example of the flexibility of the tag system.

I think Ian is just throwing some stuff around, and enjoying how this Thor meme is flexible and funny at same time... but he put a big question mark in my brain...

[Florin]

The MR Nodes, on the other hand, don't strike me as bringing anything useful to the table. Don't get me wrong: they're not bad, per se; and I won't mind if they're kept. I'm just saying that I won't miss them if they go away.

I did like the Highlander feel of using your MR node to sense other novas near you. Other than that, yeah, I don't feel like the Node background really did much. Everyone in my group just bought it up to the last dot before it gave Taint and that was that.

[macd21]

We can make assumptions about Novas that will probably turn out to be true, but we’re not the game designers. ‘Probably’ isn’t good enough. Better to say little or nothing at all about them until the Aberrant book is finalized.