Divination Discipline in Ship-to-Ship combat skill rolls? I vote no.

By NewtonPulsifer, in Rogue Trader Gamemasters

Inevitably someone is going to want to to use the 'Foreshadow' psychic power in a Ship-to-Ship combat skill roll (pg. 169)? It grants the bonus "Until the end of the next turn". What do you think? Should it be usable in ship-to-ship turns (which are supposed to be about 30 minutes if I remember correctly)? Or just in combat rounds? I'm definitely leaning towards combat rounds only.

I see no reason why not. Having someone who can anticipate enemy maneuvers in the near future would be an invaluable asset. Let's hope the PCs figure that out before their opponents do.

The foreshadow power might be applied by the psychic at a critical point, rather than "for the duration" of the turn.

I'd leave this up to the GM, but remember ship-to-ship turns are a bit longer than normal combat turns.

Sounds fine by me - in fact, prescience would be an even greater asset over the distances of ship-to-ship combat since more time passes between attack and impact.

I would allow the aid of divination ONLY if there is a psyker on board one of the vessels and not both. Because if both ships had a divinator each, then their powers would cancel eachother out in terms of tactical application, because if one of the psykers anticipate that the enemy vessel will act in a certain way and tells their captain so he can make corrections, then the psyker aboard the enemy vessel will know about it and tell his/her captain about it and so on and so on.

Meaning that both the psykers will be overwhelmed by the infinite number of ways that the enemy vessel could act due to their interference, so the psykers will quickly realize that it is a futile effort.

Considering that Astropaths don't really have any of the skills useful to Ship Actions, and probably a crappy BS, I'm inclined to allow the use of psychic powers, like this one, so an Astropath PC has something useful they can do.

Varnias Tybalt said:

I would allow the aid of divination ONLY if there is a psyker on board one of the vessels and not both. Because if both ships had a divinator each, then their powers would cancel eachother out in terms of tactical application, because if one of the psykers anticipate that the enemy vessel will act in a certain way and tells their captain so he can make corrections, then the psyker aboard the enemy vessel will know about it and tell his/her captain about it and so on and so on.

Meaning that both the psykers will be overwhelmed by the infinite number of ways that the enemy vessel could act due to their interference, so the psykers will quickly realize that it is a futile effort.

Varn, did you ever see PUSH ? The "seers" in that could get things wrong all the time, and what they saw as the most likely outcome of events was not always as it was expected to be. So, personally, I would think the one with the most degrees of success would hold the advantage from round to round. Just my thoughts.

-=Brother Praetus=-

Brother Praetus said:

Varn, did you ever see PUSH ? The "seers" in that could get things wrong all the time, and what they saw as the most likely outcome of events was not always as it was expected to be. So, personally, I would think the one with the most degrees of success would hold the advantage from round to round. Just my thoughts.

-=Brother Praetus=-

No I haven't seen that one but I get your point. While there would be room for error, time (in my opinion) is not something you easily "f**k around" with. So I might agree that degrees of success would help, but if both ships have a seer, then that factor alone would incur penalties to both of their readings. (probably making it a very difficult test). Most likely resulting in both of them failing.

I'd let them use it, but not abuse it. Know what i mean? I have a couple rules-lawyers in my group.

Keep in mind someone can *buy* this ability as a Mutant, so your void master gunnery character could start with it.

NewtonPulsifer said:

Keep in mind someone can *buy* this ability as a Mutant, so your void master gunnery character could start with it.

Talkie Toaster said:

NewtonPulsifer said:

Keep in mind someone can *buy* this ability as a Mutant, so your void master gunnery character could start with it.

Not really. If they choose to be a mutant and roll Wyrdling, sure, but that's hardly a sure thing.

Yes, it is. You can (and most people will) spend XP to pick your mutation from any of the 01-75 results. Wyrdling certainly falls in that range. Tainted is the only way at present for a non-astropath to get a psyker rating.

Rolling your mutation is certainly possible, but exceedingly risky.

@Varnias

I would allow the aid of divination ONLY if there is a psyker on board one of the vessels and not both. Because if both ships had a divinator each, then their powers would cancel eachother out in terms of tactical application, because if one of the psykers anticipate that the enemy vessel will act in a certain way and tells their captain so he can make corrections, then the psyker aboard the enemy vessel will know about it and tell his/her captain about it and so on and so on.

Meaning that both the psykers will be overwhelmed by the infinite number of ways that the enemy vessel could act due to their interference, so the psykers will quickly realize that it is a futile effort.

In that case, you'd hope the Astropath has studied a little game theory and knows about something called a Nash Equilibrium and Mixed Strategies .

Cifer said:

@Varnias

I would allow the aid of divination ONLY if there is a psyker on board one of the vessels and not both. Because if both ships had a divinator each, then their powers would cancel eachother out in terms of tactical application, because if one of the psykers anticipate that the enemy vessel will act in a certain way and tells their captain so he can make corrections, then the psyker aboard the enemy vessel will know about it and tell his/her captain about it and so on and so on.

Meaning that both the psykers will be overwhelmed by the infinite number of ways that the enemy vessel could act due to their interference, so the psykers will quickly realize that it is a futile effort.

In that case, you'd hope the Astropath has studied a little game theory and knows about something called a Nash Equilibrium and Mixed Strategies .

It also assumes that psychic divination gives you all the possible outcomes, rather than simply a selection of them, and assumes perfect clarity in the reception of those outcomes.

In a confrontation between two vessels with their own diviners, the one with the more skilled and more experienced diviner has the edge, because he can see a greater number of possible futures with greater clarity and often with greater insight into longer-term consequences.