Psions

I'm still trying to figure out if I hate or approve of the removal of Drovians. Considering Drovians weren't hunted to the ends of the earth for their pelts, but rather their services, if you ended up plotting on the wrong side of the power structure you tended to get a steaming mouthfull of shit-sandwich. Psions are incredibly more dangerous not just plot-wise, but straight up code-wise, on the other end, they're also rather rare. Typically, finding yourself on the vengeful end of a psion, then, is not a spot I've ever found myself in...

Except, once. And my c-elf ran to the guy, a Templar's aide, who was probably a psion (in hindsight), babbling incoherently, who gave me a purple tablet and told me I was being crazy and needed to destress, and everything would be alright. It never happened again. Downside is a well-connected Psion can straight up push your shit in plot-wise if you're working against them, and the odds are heavily stacked against you. Upside is, the increased possibility of psions being in Red Storm can actually be enough of a deterrent to keep some smarmy jerkoff from taking up a stool in Red Storm and using the way to report every name, sdesc, rumor, and movement they observe back to Allanak.

So in my opinion, possibly a necessary evil, and indeed, it keeps the gameworld fresh and unknowable, it's entirely possible psionicists should be even less rare and hated/feared, given the game is based off Red Sun, but imagine the train-wreck that would cause.

Honestly, unless you're working for someone who can't/won't lay off the psion in question or their resources, or working for someone who murdered the psion's mate or family or something, the ostrich defense tends to work. Stick your head in the sand, newp, does not exist. You feel something weird and not entirely unpleasant, think Well that was interesting. and go on about your business. If pressured by nosy people wanting to root out the psion, tell them they're sounding sort of paranoid and psions aren't real. There's usually no need to get in on the plot but I'm sure every once in a blue moon there's a psion whose backstory completely boils down to "Because I'm and asshole and I can".


Never seen that last bit myself, not in six or seven some odd years have I ran into a psion that was straight up griefbot 9000. And I've never actually confirmed whether any of my PCs knew a psion or not, not once. That's ok, no need to know the psion, they know YOU.

EDIT: This is assuming the psion is an outlaw with more to lose by recklessly murdering people and less to gain, not when the psion is part of the nobility/templarate. That's when the tables flip entirely.

Qoriya was state-sponsored, you missed my disclaimer there. Rogue psionicists at least have to have some restraint.

True, true. Sometimes I wish there were a skill, where, if you knew where someone was hiding, to suss them out like NPCs do... maybe give everyone varrying degrees of it and have wisdom be a major modifier, this would make track more useful (sure, it's already useful), as well as allow you to determine, reasonably, whether someone is indeed hiding. This could be further modified by terrain type and population, so say, a ranger hiding in the wilderness, or an assassin-hunter/rebel/etc. would be hard to find outdoors, whereas a straight up maxxed out burglar could not stay hidden long in your apartment.

To balance out, it could cost a decent stun cost as you continue your search, because let's face it, peeking under the bed or behind the couch takes some concentration and distracts it from other things, exposing your back and setting you up for a nice, juicy sap. This would encourage the buddy system when paranoia is of importance, which facilitates more cooperation and inclusion.

To be honest, I think bringing Drovs back in order to counter stealth would be too quick, sloppy, and contrived a patch to a problem that, honestly, a clever mundane should be able to fix on their own with a little resourcefulness.

EDIT: As it stands, the search skill already exists, and iirc Burglar is the only guild to get it, maybe some subguilds do. Since burglars are adept at hiding in some odd environments, mayhaps they should get it to 90-95, other city stealth guilds 80-90, subguilds that get it 80-90, ex-subguilds 95, rangers 75-80, and everyone else at something like low-mid jman? I mean, it makes no sense to me that you can ask someone to search the area and they can be like, gee boss, I dunno how to do that, duhr. It's not like it's hard, just start peeking behind stuff, feeling around, comb the area and try to keep track of where you've been. Then modify it in ways to make it cost stun points as you continue to search.

This would also reinforce that the best way to catch a thief, is with a thief. Don't mind the numbers, just pulling them out of my butt, probably don't need to be that high, especially if wisdom is made as heavy a modifier for success as it should be.