A Telepathy Botch List

Well, Ryan just botched on a telepathy skill roll, and we get to talk about the possible botches. Here are some basic ideas to get the ball rolling.

Of course, we have the problems typical of all psionic skills: brain burn (a blinding headache), psionic shockwave (a damaging force radiating outward from the user), neural breakdown (loss of attributes or skill levels or even mental stability). Because this is a botch on a telepathic skill, it is possible for the target character to be the center point, and thus the one who suffers the brunt of the damage.

Other possibilities include that the minds become stuck together, melded as it were; and that the bodies swap minds. Also, the user might convey unintended information to the target.

I vaguely recall a telepathic botch in which the user accidentally created one of his skills in the target.

So, what would you put on such a botch list?

--M. J. Young

Seeing through the other's eyes, hearing through the other's ears. Why not a complete exchange of sensory data?

Uncontrollable telepathic broadcast: Everyone within 30' hears your internal monolog for X amount of time.

Uncontrollable telepathic reception: You hear everyone's thoughts within 30' for X amount of time, as gibbering noise like being in a large noisy crowd.

Wrong target: You just butt-dialed your telepathic message to someone one frequency off.

Drive yourself temporarily insane

Drive your target temporarily insane

I may have done that accidental thing with Servalan. Given her pschyic surgery or telepathy.

Botch list via Eric...
1. Mind is permanently stuck open so he hears all surface thoughts of everyone, even dogs, for the next 4+d10 hours, within three miles.
2. Delusions that you can hear the rocks talking to you. Or auditory hallucinations.
3. Paranoiad auditory hallucinations. You hear nearby people whispering their plans to murder you.
4. You create a copy of your mind in the target's mind.
5. Your telepathic talent is set on disco strobe. Sometimes it works very well for ten seconds, and then just when it gets interesting it shuts down for an hour. This condition lasts for d10 days.
6. You're generating a berserker inducing field. Anyone within twenty feet of you has to roll a Simple willpower roll to control the compulsion to attack you. Anyone within five feet must make a Difficult roll. This condition lasts for twenty plus 1d10 X10 minutes.
7. A short circuit in your brain structure. You can still use your telepathy, but each time you do, it requires a simple stamina check to avoid damage to your brain. This condition lasts for one week plus 1d10 weeks. Each failure on stamina adds one week of healing time. Second failure in a week has double the effects. The typical sign of a failure is bleeding at the nose (aka Firestarter Effect).
8. Crosswired psi skills. Try to use your telepathy, and you get uncontrolled, or partially so, TK. Try to use TK, and you might get telepathy, but at a more difficult level (-10 Sit mod to effect.) Condition lasts one day plus 1d10 days.
9. Pschyic Flare: You've generated a large signal in the psi realm. Someone or something is likely to notice. It might be aliens from a passing starship, or a mind-eating beast from the Void, or a brilliant pschyic detective on annother continent. But someone or something or perhaps multiple somethings are now Interested.
10. Something you saw in the target's brain triggered a flashback memory in your own brain. You now have to deal with the memory in some way, or it will keep repeating until you pass out from exhaustion. You're locked in your own memory.

Please roll number ten again. If you roll ten again, follow the next rule. If not, ignore.

Happy days. You're not locked in your own memory. Instead, something good happens to you. You pluck a piece of info deep from within the enemies brain that explains much, or you develop a new psi power at 1@3 level. Referee's choice, and choice as to which power.
7.
6.

10. Something you saw in the target's brain triggered a flashback memory in your own brain. You now have to deal with the memory in some way, or it will keep repeating until you pass out from exhaustion. You're locked in your own memory.

You've just described a psychotic episode. Imagine a home movie of all of your life's most embarrassing, humiliating moments flashing before your eyes, and you can't stop it. Coupled with the worst headache you can imagine, times about a thousand.

How about some botches specific to his scenario?

(*) uncontrolled clairvoyance in self and/or target and/or other (the skill he most recently taught his friend)
(*) uncontrolled tk/levitation/flight in self and/or target and/or other (the skills he is intending to teach his friend)
(*) swap psionic skills with target
(*) swap language centers with target
(*) language center short circuit in self; only language currently known is Dar Koni
(*) memory malfunction in self; forget everything that has happened in this verse
(*) memory malfunction in self; overwrite self's memories with target's
(*) memory malfunction in target; target forgets everything that has happened since you arrived in this verse
(*) memory malfunction in target; overwrite target's memories with self's
(*) re-meld minds with the worm (formerly the pillar of fire, see post on 9/29/07) that he had previously melded with accidentally
(*) swap minds with the worm (I like this one :)
(*) swap minds with nearest pillar of fire (also a fun one :)

Referee's call how permanent these effects are... :o

You could get several results out of aphasia. Even aside from the binary variables (self/other, temporary/permanent), there are lots of cool aphasias to choose from: loss of fluency (broken speech lacking function words, possibly jumbled word order), loss of sense (fluent, natural-sounding nonsense), loss of comprehension, inability to recall nouns . . .

It could be simpler just to say "character can no longer connect words and meanings, and any attempt to transmit or interpret language automatically fails" and roll a GE for the duration.

Possibly a GE could be used for kind or severity of the aphasia as well (or instead).

John,
I don't know if this will help, but my brother and I both had some (milder) of this and the Bible verse that went ...

Forgetting those things which are behind, I press forward to the prize of the high calling of Christ Jesus

...this verse helped a lot. I will try to look the verse up later to make sure I got the quote right.

All my life, especially starting when I was 16, I prayed for God to deliver me from it. It's true what they say, God works in His time. I discovered the therapy when I was 28. All natural, God made ingredients for a permanent cure, trumped man-made anti-psychotics, which at best, put a band-aid on the problem. And we should be surprised at that.....

Oh yeah, added botch, cause psychotic episode. Unbelievable pain* and screaming obscenities for hours on end, and that would be the neutral roll.

*Definition of "Unbelievable pain" It feels like you have the blades of a blender spinning inside your head. Not like your head is in a blender, like the blender is inside your head.

Check out Phillipians 3:13-14. I think thats where I may have gotten my probably mangled quote from.

O.K., the really long and packed with fun list includes:

1. Brain Burn--Ryan
2. Neural Breakdown--Ryan
3. Psionic Shockwave
4. Brain Burn--Mitzu
5. Neural Breakdown--Mitzu
6. Mind Meld
7. Mind Swap
8. Sensory Swap
9. Uncontrollable telepathic reception
10. Wrong target
11. Telepathic hallucinations
12. Telepathic hallucinatory paranoia
13. Telepathy skill disrupted--short bursts of success
14. Berserker suggestion field
15. Brain damage aggravated by continued use of telepathy
16. Crosswired psi skills
17. Telepathic flare
18. Trapped in personal memory
19. Pick up random piece of valuable information from target
20. Gain new psi skill
21. Uncontrolled clairvoyance--Ryan
22. Uncontrolled clairvoyance--Mitzu
23. Uncontrolled TK-related skill-Ryan
24. Uncontrolled TK-related skill--Mitzu
25. Swap psi skills
26. Swap language centers
27. Language center short circuit, can only use one language
28. Memory loss
29. Memory replacement from target
30. Re-meld with previously mind-melded worm
31. Swap minds with previously mind-melded worm
32. Aphasia, broken speech--Ryan
33. Aphasia, broken speech--Mitzu
34. Aphasia, nonsense--Ryan
35. Aphasia, nonsense--Mitzu

Not sure what it would mean to create a copy of your mind in the target's mind. Is that an information download, or are you creating a separate will as well, in essence fighting for control with the target?

The other aphasias seem rather complicated, although I suppose they could work in a forum game (I would have a great deal of trouble quashing all nouns from a player's vocabulary in live play).

The pillars of fire are a temporary abberation that don't appear with sufficient frequency for there to be one at present; they're also mindless, effectively.

There were several on the list that could have been expanded with reference to who got it, but if they're hit I might roll for that separately.

I think that's thirty-five entries, but I'm going to post it and then roll against the auto-numbered list--I hope.

--M. J. Young

The roll is 05, we have Neural Breakdown in Mitzu.

Neural Breakdown can impact

• Intellect
• Intuition
• Education level
• Will power
• Persuasion
• Animal magnetism
• Persuasion
• Charisma
• Sanity (as in, "In")

It can be severe or mild, temporary or permanent, but the norms are for either temporary severe or permanent mild. ("Permanent" of course means until repaired by some other means.) The GE roll I get for this is 24, As Bad As Anticipated. Houston, we've got a problem.

--M. J. Young

Sigh. I was seriously pulling for #31... :o

You give the target multiple personality disorder with the weaker personality being a copy of your own mind.

This leads to hard questions...like 'how do I kill my enemy when I am in some way killing myself?' and 'should I help my other self take over my enemies' mind?'.

Second Post.

It would be neat to have a d100 list of telepathic botches.

37. All psi skills are -20 Sit-mod for 1d10 hours.
38. "Can't hear yourself think" is a common enough complaint. Sufferer has to make an Intuition check to make simple decisions as overwhelming pschyic babble makes it hard for him to distinguish his own desires from everyone elses.
39. Activate archetype. There are archetypes buried in the human mind that guide our thought patterns on basic questions. You've just traded your balanced perspective for the perspective of an archetype. Now you are 'the Hunter' or 'The wise man'.
40. Archetypical battle. You've activated opposing archetypes in your target and your mind. The example from Roger Zelazny's 'Madwand' is Snake and Bird I think. Its a battle royale with tactics informed by your archetype, and killing fury as your guide.

Although talking about lots of options is valuable, having a d100 list is less useful than it sounds. Note that several of the botches on this list were specific to Ryan's situation--

• 21. Uncontrolled clairvoyance--Ryan and 22. Uncontrolled clairvoyance--Mitzu were both there because Ryan had just taught Mitzu clairvoyance. They have nothing to do with the telepathy but that it was used to explain clairvoyance last time it was successfully used.
• Similarly, 23. Uncontrolled TK-related skill-Ryan and 24. Uncontrolled TK-related skill--Mitzu were there because Ryan was trying to use the telepathic link to teach a fundamental telekinetic skill, and so it was situational.
• 25. Swap psi skills was almost meaningless here, because Mitzu doesn't have any that Ryan didn't teach him (unless we count languages); it would be little more than that Mitzu would lose one skill and gain another, or perhaps that their skill ability levels would swap on some skill.  If the target had no psionic skills, this would be completely meaningless.
• 26. Swap language centers only works because Ryan speaks Dar Koni and is learning Bah, and Mitzu speaks Japanese. Many characters would not have different languages, and although they might have different facility at their languages, it would probably not be significant.
• 27. Language center short circuit, can only use one language again assumes that the person affected has knowledge of more than one language.
• 30. Re-meld with previously mind-melded worm and 31. Swap minds with previously mind-melded worm are here because there was a previous botch, and it was suggested that having that previous botch connect to this one would be interesting.

Thus part of the value of custom botch lists is exactly here, that looking at the characters, their history, their circumstances, their expectations, one can select particularly appropriate items to include in the list--and avoid items that would have no meaning in this situation.

But please, feel free to continue making suggestions. It will certainly be useful to refer to a long list of potential telepathic botches for future telepathic botch lists, and there are enough telepathic skills in common use (mind reading, suggestion, invisibility, SEP) that botches are not that uncommon.

--M. J. Young

It would be cool to have a pocket-sized botch sourcebook to flip through when preparing a botch list at the table. I'd keep it in my back pocket so that every time I stood up the players would freak out.

I don't think you need any help on that.

I couldn't come up with something, but now, as it's no longer needed, I remembered something from a comic I read. The person with some psy-ability had no control over it as he was asleep. The result was that, when one of his associates came to see him after an exhausting task, they found him sleep, and all loose objects around him floating freely in the air. (I think that's TK, right?).

This leads to some new options right?
If you take the unconscious manifesting part, it could be related to any form, or not really something that you where practicing, but close. Take for example that his dreams are projected or broadcasted while he's asleep, or that his dreams get projected in the environment, or in the heads of those receiving, and the results this have. The perople around him don't know what's real or what's not. The place is full of illusionary objects.

Just a thought.

Those are really good botch ideas, Nikolaj. I might even steal that for the general psi botches in a future edition: uncontrolled psionic activity.

I also remembered another "situation specific" botch. If you botch on a telepathic skill (or indeed on almost any psionic skill) while in NagaWorld, you have a chance of accidentally contacting the Nash Far Kraal. But since Michael is in that world, I don't think I can talk much about the Nash Far Kraal here. (As far as I know, only the Architect has had direct contact with it, and even he does not know what it is or where it is.)

--M. J. Young

How about a form of mind meld wherein the subjects switch their abilities to control their bodies? That is, say person A wants to lift his arm. He tries, and and person B does it instead. All orders for body movement affect the other person, but sensory input remains the same, so that if you cause them injury, you don't feel it, they do. Wild.

I did one form of mind botch where the PC lost the ability to talk to his own body, so he couldn't breathe or move. I'd say a GE roll on how serious this is. Good= hard to control body and staggers like drunk, normal=paralyzed, bad=paralyzed and autonomic nervous system is also out (so no breathing).

And guess which one I ended up with? GE roll of bad... :o

I was able to keep myself alive a bit longer by using possession to take over my own body and make myself breathe, but it took some combined miracle working prayers to fix me up properly again... :)

I thought up another one today. Psychic Allergy. When in the vicinity or subject of psionic activity (of a certain degree or branch), you get a negative reaction. As far as I know, allergies are usually for life.

ps: I know it's not technically an allergy, but it was thinking about allergies that gave me the idea.

Interesting.

Allergies are usually immune reactions against benign foreign proteins, but the concept works outside the technical definition. I'm not quite sure how I would make such an "allergy" work in game, but I think it would be interesting to try.

--M. J. Young

You sneeze whenever a TK effect is worked nearby.

Something that would make it uncomfortable to dangerous to deadly to be the target of, to be around or to use psionics.

They could be physical reactions, like physical allergies. But they could be mental (since it's psy). Instead of blocked airways, you get blocked mental links or something. Or you can't focus (or is that psy in this game system?), ...

Another one (could also be some kind of reaction). Whenever you use psy, another personality takes over. The (allergic) reaction would be a multiple personality disorder, where the personalities are triggered by the use (or being around or being the target) of psionic activity.

Involuntary activation of an inconvenient skill is always nice, like telescopic vision when you wanted clairvoyance or something. Sorry if it was mentioned already but I didn't see it.

Here's an interesting one-an inversion in your ability to perceive certain things the way you usually do. For example, say you are talking to a woman, but every time you would realize, on any level, even subconscious, that it is a woman, your brain returns that it is a man (and vice versa). Inversions of your ability to recognize what something is can be applied to numerous different things. Another example: Whenever you see the number 9, you see 3. Every time you see 3, you see 4. Every time you see 4, you see 8. That could seriously mess you up. Any numbers you remember will bave the inversion applied. You become totally incapable of recognizing certain things in the same way you normally would. Some sort of neural repathing, I suppose.

I still stick by the idea of broadcasting your inner monolog to everyone within 30 feet.

Yes i like tbat one, but I'm trying to come up with additional interestine ones to add to the list, not endorse my favorites. My favorite would the ones dealing with the previously mind-melded worm

Activation of the wrong skill is always a nice standby.

For a telepathy botch, how about switch one random sense with the target? So that you might see, smell, and taste as yourself, but you hear what they hear and they hear what you hear instead. (Even weirder to switch your sense of touch and have fun with kinesthetic awareness.)