On Mon, 16 Nov 2015 00:32:00 +0000 (UTC), "William Ewing"
<xxxxxx@yahoo.com> wrote:

>I don't really see much point to this. It's mildly interesting as an
>outgrowth of telepathy, but nowhere near as interesting as B5's deathbed
>scans, for example. I fail to see much use for this in-game. I'd be more
>likely to want to use regular telepathy to read the subject's mind (to
>determine the contents of the safe or where the meeting was) while they
>were asleep (unable to shield effectively) and NOT dreaming (bombarding
>me with unrelated imagery / virtual environment that I have to sort
>through to focus on the concrete data I desire.

As I see it, you'd need Probe rather than Read Surface Thoughts to do
what you describe above; does a sleeping person _have_ Surface Thoughts
to Read? Also, a dreamer need not be a psion; a non-psion won't be able
to shield, dreaming or not, and under the standard rules, a psion is
automatically shielding all the time once s/he learns how, even when
sleeping.

Question at large: Should I explicitly state that a psion cannot be the
target of a dreamwalk, except voluntarily? Or should I leave it as the
default assumption based on the "always shielded" rule?

>I see no reason for dreamwalking to be a new ability, merely a
>particular use for telepathy. I also see little real game purpose to
>them. Had there been some discussion of dreamwalking therapy and
>dreamwalkers programming Manchurian Candidates, I could have seen some
>game-related purpose. That's not a knock on the effort and thought put
>into the article, just commenting that this seems like background
>flavor, not usable information, and even then, could use more discussion
>of how it affects players or campaign. 

Your comment about therapy and 'Manchurian Candidates' is definitely
well-taken (and therapy would undoubtedly be a function performed by a
Tavrchedl' dreamwalker); there's also education (but not physical
training). I'll discuss those possibilities as well in the next
revision.

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