Psionics are still on the table. The next significant effect of Psionic Strength Rating is the Maximum Activity Level. Basically, unless you've got the minimum amount of psi-strength for that activity, you can't do it. And this applies even if you boost your score with psi-drugs and such; it's your base score that determines whether or not you can do it.
The third aspect of PSR is Available Strength Points, which is just how much strength you expend actually using a specific power. Unlike Maximum Activity Level, this can be boosted artificially, and these points do regenerate over time through resting.
Next is Aging and Deterioration. Remember how the initial roll for your score is affected by your age? Well, that continues to apply as you get older. Every four years, your score drops by one. Also, you total up your strength, endurance, dexterity, and intelligence; if the total is lower than your PSR, your PSR is lowered to match that total. Yikes. Aging will suck, then.
Oh, but if you're trained by the Psionics Institute, you don't have to worry about age reductions. So this would apply to 'wild' psis who never train; they slowly burn themselves out over time. So there aren't going to be many (or any) senior citizens with psionic ability, unless they were actually trained by the Psionics Institute. And if you take too many psi-drugs, you'll hurt your scores, too.
That's an interesting plot point that could make for a fun campaign. Sure, the Psi-Institute ensures that people don't lose their powers as they age...or is it a more nefarious idea? Maybe the Psi-Institute secretly hunts down wild psionicists, and if they don't join the Psi-Institute, they are mentally poisoned or weakened so as to gradually lose their psionic ability. After all, it wouldn't do to have just anyone using these abilities, would it? History is full of examples of 'elites' deciding that they are the best-suited for running everything, and they don't like competition. Imagine what a collection of people who can literally read minds would think of non-psis.
Alright, speaking of training, that's the next section. It's expensive, costing 100,000 Cr. It takes four months train, but really strong psis (PSR 9+) can apply for a scholarship. And of course, they're mind-readers, so don't try to fool them. This scholarship entails giving the Psi-Institute 95% of your everything you own, and then they'll waive the remainder. Wow. This is looking more like a psionic scam every paragraph.
There are six categories of psionic talents, but it's highly unlikely that any character will be able to use them all. Training will allow for finding out which ones the character is good at. Each of the six talents gets a 2D roll, in whatever order the player wants. The first roll gets a -1, the second a -2, the third a -3, and the rest get -5. Each talent has its own target number to see if the character can use it, modified appropriately according to the order of rolls. So, if you want to acquire a specific one (teleportation is the example used here), then roll that one first to maximize your odds.
So, the training allows you to use your talent(s) at level 1; experience and hard work will allow you to improve and use greater power levels. Training also helps you hide what you can do, so the common plebes don't know about your powers. Once you're done with training, though, that's it; you're on your own, and the Institute can't help you.
I just know there's going to have to be one planet in the Hub that is run by psions; the nobility is going to be exclusively psi, and the law levels for the commoners are going to be really, really strict. After all, if nobody is allowed to use a hand-weapon, mind-weapons become all the more effective at controlling the populace and keeping the peace.
Will this be a benevolent psionic dictatorship? Well, it will certainly look that way, but there just might be a seedy underbelly that needs to be exposed and destroyed...except that the people being exposed can literally read minds, making it difficult to fool or expose them.
Yeah, that should be a fun planet.
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