Thanks, David, I'm glad that turned out to be something that worked for you.
A lot of the excitement that I had about rejuvenating psionics in TNE came
from just have finished editing/developing the Dark Con Empathic and
Protodimension sourcebooks (You may not find my name in any those because
by then it had gotten to the point where I was editing and developing
everything we did, Gygax included, and I felt like I'd look like some kind
of narcissist and make GDW look short-handed if my name was on everything.
A lot of writers adopt multiple pen names to avoid this same problem, but
I just said "screw it" and left myself out). I felt like DC was just
finally hitting its stride as we were having to shut it down (too many
games to manage at one time, had to let something go), and even though we
had to let DC go, some of the work we had done on DC Empathic SB could be
transplanted into TNE (part of the point behind the House Rules concept),
which is where some of the new abilities came from. I didn't add more
because I was trying to be careful, I didn't want Traveller players
complaining about how TNE turned Traveller into Dark Conspiracy. Always
trying to walk a fine line.
> Dear Folks -
>
> Dave wrote:
>> I also know what you mean about the self-limiting nature of psionics. It
> got to the point where psionics had just about been written out of
> Traveller
> by neglect.
>
> One of the coolest things that TNE did was to dust off psionics and
> enhance
> them enough that they became desirable again. Not to mention making them
> more useful than in the original rules, with better explanations of how
> the
> various abilities should be handled in-game (e.g. the detailed breakdown
> of
> telepathic effects - how you used it, and what you "got back" - great
> guidance for us poor referees. ;-).
>
> A few new "Specials" were also included, although even a few more would
> have
> been even better. I've thought about allowing some Droyne-only abilities
> (e.g. "psionic invisibility", obviously stolen from Niven's _A Gift from
> Earth_) to be granted to humans as Special (TNE: Arcana) psi skills. The
> trick is to make them gimmicks (as handy and useful as "normal" skills)
> without making them over-powering. (Anyone else have other Special skills
> in
> mind? Pun intended...)
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> David "Hyphen" Jaques-Watson ..at.. Beowulf Down (Tavonni/Vilis/SM 1520)
> http://www.tip.net.au/~davidjw
> "I file things in historical order, with a hashing algorithm of gravity"
>
>
A lot of the excitement that I had about rejuvenating psionics in TNE came
from just have finished editing/developing the Dark Con Empathic and
Protodimension sourcebooks (You may not find my name in any those because
by then it had gotten to the point where I was editing and developing
everything we did, Gygax included, and I felt like I'd look like some kind
of narcissist and make GDW look short-handed if my name was on everything.
A lot of writers adopt multiple pen names to avoid this same problem, but
I just said "screw it" and left myself out). I felt like DC was just
finally hitting its stride as we were having to shut it down (too many
games to manage at one time, had to let something go), and even though we
had to let DC go, some of the work we had done on DC Empathic SB could be
transplanted into TNE (part of the point behind the House Rules concept),
which is where some of the new abilities came from. I didn't add more
because I was trying to be careful, I didn't want Traveller players
complaining about how TNE turned Traveller into Dark Conspiracy. Always
trying to walk a fine line.
> Dear Folks -
>
> Dave wrote:
>> I also know what you mean about the self-limiting nature of psionics. It
> got to the point where psionics had just about been written out of
> Traveller
> by neglect.
>
> One of the coolest things that TNE did was to dust off psionics and
> enhance
> them enough that they became desirable again. Not to mention making them
> more useful than in the original rules, with better explanations of how
> the
> various abilities should be handled in-game (e.g. the detailed breakdown
> of
> telepathic effects - how you used it, and what you "got back" - great
> guidance for us poor referees. ;-).
>
> A few new "Specials" were also included, although even a few more would
> have
> been even better. I've thought about allowing some Droyne-only abilities
> (e.g. "psionic invisibility", obviously stolen from Niven's _A Gift from
> Earth_) to be granted to humans as Special (TNE: Arcana) psi skills. The
> trick is to make them gimmicks (as handy and useful as "normal" skills)
> without making them over-powering. (Anyone else have other Special skills
> in
> mind? Pun intended...)
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> David "Hyphen" Jaques-Watson ..at.. Beowulf Down (Tavonni/Vilis/SM 1520)
> http://www.tip.net.au/~davidjw
> "I file things in historical order, with a hashing algorithm of gravity"
>
>