It's the home stretch, as we've only got a very few pages left in these rules. We're finishing off Awareness and moving on to Teleportation, so let's get to it.
There's not much left to say about the Awareness ability; it's self-only, so no using it to enhance or heal your crewmates. There is a note that combat rounds are considered to be about 15 seconds long, which is important when using countdown powers like Psionically-Enhanced Strength and Endurance. It's an awkward place to put that rule, but that's how old-school games worked.
The usual bit about experience is next, although the roll to increase the level by one is a 10+ rather than an 8+. So, this is a tougher one to improve.
Next, it's time for everyone's favorite instantaneous-movement power, Teleportation! This skill only enables the user to teleport himself; at higher levels, you get to bring your stuff along, within reason. There aren't any sub-abilities to mention here, as the only issue is how much can you teleport. The basic teleport, where you're just bringing yourself (naked) is a level 5 skill. It costs the range cost only to do this.
If you want to arrive at your destination without looking like you're streaking, you need to be level 7. Again, it's just the range cost, and if you can carry a small (less than 1 kg) weapon such as a dagger or holstered small gun, as long as it fits to the clothing, you can bring it along.
Level 9 is when you can bring more gear, but only as much weight in kg as you have strength points. So, you can't teleport with full battle dress. Although that would be a terrifying encounter, wouldn't it? A Heinlein Mobile Infantryman just pops in out of nowhere and starts blasting? Yikes.
As with Awareness, this is self only, so you can't bring someone else along or even just teleport someone else instead of yourself. You can, however, bring a small animal with you at level 9, as long as you can carry it.
One of the keys to this ability is that you have to know where you're jumping to. You can't just jump blindly, since you have no idea what's there. Unless you can see it, of course, such as teleporting from one rooftop to the next one over. Either you've been to the place before, or someone's used telepathy to put the image into your mind, or you're using the level-5 Clairvoyance ability to see it yourself. Remember, you can learn and develop more than one psionic ability.
There are some further restrictions on jumping, because teleportation is one heck of a handy device that can break a game if it's not carefully watched. If you're planetside, you're only jumping within a regional distance. Did we get 'regional' distances defined at some point? I don't think so. But I'm going to assume that it's more of a 'no further than across Texas or Ontario' kind of distance, which is still pretty far. And it's going to cost lots of PSPs to do that anyway.
Jumps at very distant range can be disorienting, confusing the teleporter for up to 2 minutes, which can be deadly if your landing zone wasn't as safe as you had expected. And at distant ranges, there's an 8+ chance that you'll trip or fall when you get there. This is why looking before you leap is necessary; the player has to describe the specific effects at the LZ and how he will avoid them, if he wants to make those really long jumps.
And that's it for this page, as we've just touched the top of page 41. More next time! In the meantime, you can still get my first science-fiction adventure, Bard Conley's Adventures Across the Solar System, which is available on Amazon in paperback or in ebook format. It's not based on Traveller, since I hadn't read through the rules yet, but it's written in the spirit of the pulps that inspired the game. Check it out, and support indie publishing as the wave of the future!
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