Telepathy and Surface Thoughts

[Killer Cyborg]

If a victim knows that a psychic is going to try to read his surface thoughts via 'Telepathy', can that victim clear his mind and think about a brick wall--resulting in the psychic not getting anything out of the attempt? How do you play this? Thanks in advance. -Jay

That would fall under the bit about allowing people a saving throw if they believe that they're being scanned, and try to prevent it.

[drewkitty ~..~]

There are some GMs that have it that if you post the thought in the chat, that thought can be read/heard by T-paths w/o having to try. Like that person is 'shouting their thoughts'.

[Damian Magecraft]

If a victim knows that a psychic is going to try to read his surface thoughts via 'Telepathy', can that victim clear his mind and think about a brick wall--resulting in the psychic not getting anything out of the attempt? How do you play this? Thanks in advance. -Jay

That would fall under the bit about allowing people a saving throw if they believe that they're being scanned, and try to prevent it.

This...
plus thinking of brick wall is not as effective as reciting a nursery rhyme over and over if you ask me...

[The Dark Elf]

If you know someone is scanning you and you have a secret you dont want them to know it is very difficult NOT to think about that particular secret as hoping that dont read it is suddenly AT the very forefront of your mind!

So it would have to be a save or maybe an ME attribute check (whatever your house rule for those is).

[BillionSix]

That's an odd thing, and put some odd ideas in my head.

Most of the time, if you are trying not to think of purple elephants, you can't help but think of purple elephants. The mind doesn't process negatives like that as well.

But in a world where telepathy is a real thing and should be defended against, it's probably possible to learn to do the mental gymnastics to distract yourself on cue and think of something else. It would be easier if you had a telepath to help train you, since he could gauge how well you are doing.
One method would be total focus on what you are currently doing, thus pushing the secret password out of your mind. Another might be the annoyingly catchy song technique, which would have the same effect, and also might allow you to get the annoying song stuck in the telepath's head as well.

Obviously, a psychic using Mind Block powers would be much more effective than this. And these techniques wouldn't require any new rules. They'd just be flavor for those O.C.C.s that some disciplined soldier or spy types have that allow them to defend against mind reading.

And of course, you can get a little mean with this. If you have one of those obnoxious characters who gets super paranoid and says "He might be reading my mind! I shift mental focus away from the secret password!!" 50 times a game session, for several months, then it would be perfectly acceptable, when it comes time, to say, "Um, well, for the past six in-game months, you have been continuously trying not to think of the password. You have to make a roll to actually remember what it is now."
That, to me would, make perfect sense. If I read your mind, and you imagined a brick wall with the password behind it, I'd see the brick wall, and the password behind it. You'd have to deliberately not think of it, shove it out of your head, in fact, temporarily "forget" the password.
You can do that a few times. If all you do is not think about it, and put it out of your mind, then you aren't really trying to remember it. Quite the opposite, in fact.

[flatline]

If a victim knows that a psychic is going to try to read his surface thoughts via 'Telepathy', can that victim clear his mind and think about a brick wall--resulting in the psychic not getting anything out of the attempt? How do you play this? Thanks in advance. -Jay

That would fall under the bit about allowing people a saving throw if they believe that they're being scanned, and try to prevent it.

This...
plus thinking of brick wall is not as effective as reciting a nursery rhyme over and over if you ask me...

Just use that Susan Vega song...doot doot do-doot doot doot doooooo-doooot....

...or something equally catchy. Even better, now it's stuck in the telepath's head!

--flatline

[flatline]

If you know someone is scanning you and you have a secret you dont want them to know it is very difficult NOT to think about that particular secret as hoping that dont read it is suddenly AT the very forefront of your mind!

It's trivial to train your mind against that behavior. It takes a little time, but anyone can do it.

Practice not actively thinking about anything when you're going to sleep. At first it's crazy hard, then you start to get it and you ruin it by thinking "hey I did it!", but eventually it becomes something you can turn on and off at will. I did this in elementary school and it had the pleasant side effect of making me a lucid dreamer (I can't prove causation, but it would be one heck of a coincidence if the two weren't related somehow since they happened at the same time).

--flatline

[glitterboy2098]

If a victim knows that a psychic is going to try to read his surface thoughts via 'Telepathy', can that victim clear his mind and think about a brick wall--resulting in the psychic not getting anything out of the attempt? How do you play this? Thanks in advance. -Jay

That would fall under the bit about allowing people a saving throw if they believe that they're being scanned, and try to prevent it.

This...
plus thinking of brick wall is not as effective as reciting a nursery rhyme over and over if you ask me...

please. memorize legal code. that will keep everyone out of your head..

[BillionSix]

What if the person being 'scanned' speaks a different language? Don't we all think in our native language? If so, is the telepath able to understand the foreign language?

Where normal people might have difficulty controlling their minds, some O.C.C.'s out there are trained for mental control and/or focus (e.g. the Battle Magus). Now, they're not inherently psychic... but definitely have more control over their minds than the average person. What about O.C.C.'s like that?

I think some aspects would be harder to read, but we don't all think in complete paragraph form like thought balloons in comics. I think that reading someone's mind would be more like getting a jumble of images, concepts and feelings, with some words attached.
If you were imagining a tractor, I would be able to tell you were thinking of a tractor, even if your word for tractor was different.
Now, if the scanned person did tend to think in words, like maybe they were a writer, or a well spoken person who always thought of the best way to phrase things, that might become slightly more difficult, not by no means impossible, since every word has a meaning attached to it.

I once came up with a concept for a purely telepathic character who never spoke and only spoke telepathically. The idea was that he had no concept of words, so he would send concepts and ideas. So he wouldn't say "Do you want the rest of that brownie?" You'd just get the thought in your head that the telepath guy wants the rest of your brownie if you don't want it.
It is actually a scary idea in some ways, since, if you don't know the telepath guy, you might not realize these thoughts are coming from outside your head.

Brian

[Mercdog]

Think of hentai tentacles. They'll probably never want to read your mind again.

[Noon]

I'm not sure about a saving roll - it seems to make a 'surface thoughts' reading power into a 'provoke the information I want to pop to the surface' power.

Maybe figure a chart to determine if an NPC has any psionic intrusion countermeasure training (professional or amateur). But not a saving throw - that just makes it into a 'tell me what I want to know' power.