> At 05:45 PM 9/8/98 -0500, you wrote:
;-)
> (dragging this ever so briefly back on-topic, and speaking of my fave
I posted this once before, to an utter lack of response. As I have been
looking for a reason to do so, I will hearby post it again. Enjoy.
Recently, I began giving thought to the idea of using Espers in my Stargrunt
games. The way I am planning it, there will be two sorts: those
of the (barely) human "Old Empire." and those of the Terrans (us, 150+
years from now). I am not going to deal with the Imperial Thoughtcasters right
now, but I am going to design them as being very dangerous and
effective living weapons-with TK, pyrokenesis, teleportation, etc.-who
feed
off of violent emotions and death. In other words, sniper-bait.
Now the Terrans, on the other hand.... My inspiration for the Terran Espers is
a book entitled "Dream Baby", by (I think) Bruce McAllister, which details the
military use of psychics during the Vietnam War. Yes, it's fiction.... Anyway,
McAllister's view of psychic powers is that they are generally very passive
(clairvoyance, heightened reaction time, precognition), and are a survival
mechanism triggered by deep stress. Combat, in other words. An additional
source of inspiration was the very brief use of Espers by Heinlein during
"Starship Troopers", which gives us
a picture of Espers as an intelligence gathering tool--and a fragile
tool, at that.
In any case, in my view Espers will not be effective soldiers, or even
particularly effective human beings. Espers can NOT injure another living
being without sharing the pain and trauma of that injury. They won't even swat
flies, let alone shoot an enemy soldier. Many Espers are mentally deficient in
some way or another: retarded, autistic, sometimes brain damaged. Even those
who are not mentally handicapped to begin with are generally confused and
disoriented from the constant influx of sensory data that the human brain is
not really equipped to handle. Espers are deployed in the field only under
very unusual circumstances, and always with a
specific mission. Espers may be used to pinpoint or map underground
structures ("Bugs, Mr.Rico! Zillions of 'em!), to interrogate or locate
particularly important enemy officers, or perhaps to provide mental
"camouflage" against a naturally psychic race. They are not used casually,
and they are NOT expendable-there are far too few Espers to risk losing
any of them without a damned good reason.
In game terms, these are the rules that I have come up with:
Each Esper must have an assigned "Handler", with who he must be in
base-to-base contact with at all times. The Handler is treated as
though
he is carrying a wounded comrade-this represents leading the Esper
around trees, lifting him out of ditches, and occasionally tying his bootlaces
or going back to look for her lost teddy bear.
Any squad that contains an attached Esper gains an extra defense die,
ranging from d6-d10, depending on the quality of the Esper. This
represents the fact that the Esper is invariably going to hit the dirt,
screaming in terror, at least 10 seconds before the first enemy bullet is even
fired. An alert squad will usually notice this, and take advantage of the
opportunity to seek cover for themselves.
Any squad with an attached Esper will have High motivation, and an officer of
at least Veteran quality. Inexperienced soldiers will not be entrusted with
such a valuable resource.
Any other game effects of an attached Esper will be scenario dependant, and
will generally relate to whatever the assigned mission may be. "Get Mr.
Esper into base-to-base contact with the enemy commander, so he may
extract the details of the local defense network from his gray matter", for
one (simplistic) example. However, no Terran Esper will be able to have an
direct physical effect on the world with anything other than his own two
hands-no telekentically blowing up tanks, no teleporting the squad back
to Alpha Centauri, nothing. Again, the Imperial Thoughtcasters are a different
story entirely....
Generally speaking, I am not going to make much use of Espers, and, as
mentioned, they will have a specific scenario use whenever they are on the
board. For figures, I will probably use some of my Ral Partha "Vampire" figs,
as they make the best 25mm civilians that I have yet found. Plus, most of them
are already posed in "surrender mode!"
Any thoughts?
> >(dragging this ever so briefly back on-topic, and speaking of my fave
I liked your rules, but I didn't think I had much to add. I suspect the 'old
ones' with their active powers will spark more comment.
[snip some decent 'low fantasy' psi power rules]
> John Crimmins
Just for variety, I created a squad of "alien but mostly like us" ship crew
and gave their leader a psychic boon. Once each turn the leader could add the
value of 1D6 to any roll required for her squad. This boon was distributed
evenly among the required dice. For example, if she wanted to boost a combat
roll of D6 + D6 + D8, and her boon roll was a 4, she would add two to
any one die, and one to the two remaining dice. This made the ability more
powerful when used in defense or for leader actions. It was simple and helped
add a bit of flavor.
> You wrote:
> Now the Terrans, on the other hand.... My inspiration for the
It also reminds me of the usage of Sensitives in RAH's Future History
(particularly the story If This Goes On--) as being really, really
secure radios, but generally not fully functional humans. "Crowded in behind
me was a psychoperator and his crew of sensitives, eight women
and a neurotic fourteen-year-old-boy." They operated by establishing a
'channel' between them and a sensitive elsewhere, which was usually aided by
hypnotics and possibly drugs. Good rules, can't wait to see the Imperial
Thoughtcasters.:) They of course wouldn't show in my normal background, but
might make for an interesting change of pace, esp with the alien rules someone
else posted.
> At 10:21 PM 9/8/98 -0500, you wrote:
You don't need to change the Imperials to make them alien. Not at all! Here's
how I see it:
The Imperials are...old. Very old. And very, very decadent. They are not
human, (save in a curious biological sense), and do not think or act as human
beings do. The entire society has long since passed the point of mere
decadence, really, and has entered into a state of total madness. Ever known a
really bitter old man? The kind of guy who knows damned well that he is not as
strong, not as smart, and not nearly as feared or respected as he was when he
was in his prime? The kind of guy who will not admit this decline to anyone,
himself included? Give this old guy a really big shotgun, a bad case of the
DTs, and a rusty old Bowie knife, and you pretty much have the Imperium as I
see it.
The Imperium as a whole has been slowly but surely gearing themselves up for a
really spectacular racial suicide, while never conciously becoming aware of
this fact. They have passed their prime; they no longer really WANT to live.
They are just going through the motions. Old habits die
hard....
How many Imperial citizens does it take to change a lightbulb (Keeping in mind
that the lightbulb in question has been burning for over a thousand years
now)?
None. He just resigns himself to sitting in the dark for the rest of his life.
Assault weapons have become ridiculously inaccurate, forcing their users to
get right on top of their foe if they wish to succeed in shooting him.
Uniforms and personal armor is painted in garish colors and patterns, making
it EASIER for the enemy to see their target. And shoot him.
And their tanks? They are designed to MAZIMIZE the chance that an incoming
shot will be a kill. Flat sides, concave angles, exposed tracks...all combine
to make even a close miss potentially deadly. The typical Imperial grunt is
expected to be dead within six months of beginning active service.
And the Terrans? The Terrans are the loaded gun, the cyanide capsule. After
less than two decades of contact, the Terrans have already managed to
assimilate (and improve) Imperial technology, through
reverse-engineering
captured and smuggled materials. As matters currently stand, the Imperium's
only real advantage lies in their superior numbers. And the Imperium has
become very used to throwing armed bodies at problems until they go away.
And now they are ready to start throwing them at Earth.
I am in the midst of trying to write a piece of fiction to explain all of this
in a slightly more coherent fashion; success has been mixed thus far. I've
finished the first half, but the second is proving more difficult to
articulate than I had originally thought. When/if it gets finished, I
will post it on my web page.
And of course, I have plans for the Orks, Eldar, and Tyrannids, too....
> You wrote:
> Assault weapons have become ridiculously inaccurate, forcing their
> And the Terrans? The Terrans are the loaded gun, the cyanide capsule.
> I am in the midst of trying to write a piece of fiction to explain all
I look forward to reading it--have you gotten any Dirtside II rules for
this 'genre' put together?
> At 11:08 AM 9/9/98 -0500, you wrote:
> this 'genre' put together?
No, not yet. I have been planning all of this, in a strictly mental sense, for
some time now. Now that I finally have my degree, and a good job to go with
it, I have enough lesure time to sit down and start putting things togther.
In DSII, I will give the Imperial tanks disproportionatly weak armor, to
reflect the poor design of their AFVs. And, since I have a ton of plastic
Space Marines and vehicles, I can afford to field them as a vast hoarde. That
fits with my view of the Imperials as "drown them in the blood of our
righteous dead" kinda guys. (Lemminngs! In! Spaaaaace!) Beyond that, I have to
sit down and give the DSII rules a thourough reading or two in order to figure
out what I want to do.