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Telepathy in B5 is comprised of several parts: Your P rating, a Skill, Powers, Perks, and maybe some Disads.

The Psi Scale

This represents a character's maximum psi potential - the "P" rating by Psi Corps' scale. For game purposes, all races will be measured using the P Scale. The maximum P rating attainable by a character is set during character creation. Your P rating is measured by the maximum value your Telepath Multipower pool can be; it may not be increased later through experience. The actual P rating of a character at any given time is based on the points in the Telepath Multipower pool (see below). Your current P rating is equal to the Multipower Pool divided by 10. You should note your Psi Rating (i.e. your maximum) as a 0 point Disad.

For example, Michael Nixon, the Commercial Telepath in the sample characters section, is a P5. His Multipower Pool is 50 points. That is as high as it can ever go. Earlier in his career, while rated a P5, he was only as trained as a P3, so his MP Pool was only 30 points.

Source: B5 Security Manual

Player characters should not go above the P6-9 level, unless playing a Psi Corps/Psi Cops campaign.

The Skill: Psionics

This Power Skill governs the use of all telepathy related powers. Any power or ability must require the Psionics skill. Psionics is based on EGO; Base Skill Roll = 9 + (EGO/5). Point cost is 3/2; 3 points for base skill, +2 points for every +1 to the skill. As with other Requires Skill Roll uses, there is a -1 per 10 active points penalty.

The Powers: Telepathy

In B5, telepath powers are not limited to just Telepathy. Most Mental powers and possibly any power based on ECV can be considered telepath powers. To represent telepathy as seen in B5, there are three base 'powers.'

First is Mental Defense. All telepaths have Mental Defense, equal to their P rating. So, a P5 would have 5 points of EGO defense (plus their EGO/5), a P12 would have 12 points of Mental Defense. Characters can have no more mental defense than their P rating (not including +EGO/5), and should not have less than their P rating.

Second is the Accidental Surface Scan Sense. This is built as a Detect surface thoughts and emotions, 360° arc of perception, with range. No Conscious Control (-1) represents the telepath's ability to use it when they wish, but the results are up to the GM. It also represents the notion that a telepath may accidentally pick up thoughts in their immediate vicinity. Range is limited to two times the telepath's P rating - a P5 is limited to 10 inches (20 meters) - see below for more details.

The third 'power' is the Telepath Multipower. All telepath powers not mentioned above must be a slot in this multipower. The value of the multipower pool is equal to 10 x P rating. A P5 has a 50 point pool, a P12 120 points. Required limitations on the pool and all powers are:

• Concentration, 1/2 DCV, entire time (-1/2)
• Requires Skill Roll (Psionics) (-1/2)

Other possible limitations on telepath powers include:

• Range Limited to 2x P Rating (-1/2): This should be a standard limitation to represent the relatively short range telepathy powers seem to exhibit, although there have been some instances of much longer range. GM's should consider not including this limitation as a Caution Sign. The value of this limitation includes the -1/4 Normal Range for mental powers, as well as the -1/4 Limited Range limitation.
• Skin Contact Required (-1): Required for Deep Scans by lower rated telepaths. Psi Cops, and possibly P10-P11's, do not require this limitation.
• Surface Thoughts Only (-1/4): Generally only for Surface Scans.
• Read Only (-1/2): Generally all telepathy related powers should have this limitation. Only very high P ratings or specially trained telepaths should have the ability to send or implant thoughts.
• Extra Time-Full Phase (-1/2)
• Increased END: Good for any power, especially powers which cause damage.

Possible Advantages for telepath powers:

• Area of Effect: Consider this a Caution Sign advantage for B5.
• Invisible Power Effect vs. Mental Sense (+1/4): Represents the fact that most 'normals' are not aware that they are the target of telepathic powers. Mainly applicable to Surface Scans, Accidental Scans, Mind Scans, etc. Does not apply to Deep Scans or any power that could cause damage to the target.
• Cumulative (+1/2), 2x max effect (+1/4): Represents a telepath's ability to scan over time, such as for deep scans that can take a while to tunnel deep enough to get the info you are looking for. GMs should not allow more than 2x maximum effect.
• Range (+1/2) and Increased Max Range (+1/4): While most telepath powers should be limited to line of sight, with or without limited range, some telepaths have been able to effect targets at great distances. One particular example was during the Shadow Wars when telepaths aboard the Army of Light ships were mentally distracting the Shadow vessel operators. Those were well trained telepaths, so Range should be limited to P6 and above.

Advantages and Limitations which are not appropriate for telepaths:

• Armor Piercing
• Auto fire
• Penetrating
• Reduced END
• No END reserves; must use natural END
• MegaScale/MegaArea

The following is an example P5 character's telepath powers. The four slots in the multipower should be considered the standard set of powers for any telepath - adjust the dice to correspond to the value of the power pool. See the sample character for the full work up.

Humans

Human Telepaths fall into three categories: telepaths who are part of Psi Corps, telepaths taking the Sleepers (drugs to suppress their telepathic abilities), and blips: rogue telepaths who don't want to take the sleepers and who don't want to join the Corps.

For Psi Corps telepaths, follow the guidelines above for creating telepaths. Psi Corps must choose one of the following Fringe Benefits:

• Licensed Telepath: Fringe Benefit: Psi Corps Commercial Telepath (3 points)
• Licensed Telepath: Fringe Benefit: Psi Corps Military Telepath (5 points)
• Licensed Telepath: Fringe Benefit: Psi Corps Psi Cop (8 points)

Psi Corps have the following Disads:

• Psi Corps Badge and Gloves: (Easily Concealed; Always Noticed and Causes Major Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) (10 points)
• Psi Corps Telepath Code of Conduct: (Very Common, Strong) (20 points)
• The Corps is Mother, the Corps is Father: Loyalty to Psi Corps (Very Common, Strong) (20 points)
• Social Limitation: Member of Psi Corps (Frequently, Major) (15 points)

Rogue telepaths also follow the above rules for creating their powers, but have the following disads (they do not take one of the Fringe Benefits above):

• Hunted: Psi Corps 8- (Mo Pow, NCI, Harshly Punish) (20 points)
• Rogue Telepath: (Occasionally, Severe, Not Limiting In Some Cultures) (10 points)

Telepaths on sleepers essentially build their characters with the above guidelines, but are on constant medication to suppress their telepathic abilities. Long term use of the drug has a degenerative effect, both physically and psychologically. The drug administered to sleepers works as follows:

As Dr. Franklin discovered, a variant of the sleeper drug can be used to temporarily suppress a telepath's abilities:

Each drug is administered in doses, each subject (victim) being given enough doses to render them telepathically impotent. The drug takes about three hours to take effect, and lasts for several hours to about one week, depending on the variant of the drug.

Minbari:

Minbari telepaths, as mentioned during the show, are revered in Minbari society. Players who choose to play Minbari telepaths should:

• Follow the above general guidelines
• Be members of the Religious Caste, either by birth or by changing Castes (10 point social limitation-see package deals)
• Have a "Serves the good of Society" psycho disad (15 points)
• Have the Perk Money to represent Minbari society's support for telepaths and their mission to help others. The telepaths themselves may not have large sums of money, but "...society provides them all that they need, so they may carry out their mission..." (5 points)

Centauri:

Centauri telepaths should follow the above general guidelines for construction. Players who choose to play Centauri telepaths should:

• Follow the above general guidelines
• Be members of the Telepath Guild (Social Limitation, frequent, major; 15 points)

The Emperor's Own: These are a group of four telepaths trained virtually from birth to be the personal telepaths of the Emperor. When the Emperor travels, two telepaths accompany him at all times while the other two remain on Centauri to stay in contact with the Royal Court. Aside from the standard telepath guidelines noted above, they each have the following power (not purchased as a multipower slot):

Centauri have two additional abilities: the Gift of Prophesy (for Centauri women), and the Death Dream.

Prophets are considered gifted and blessed individuals, but not true telepaths. Telepaths rarely exhibit this gift. In game terms, Centauri are either telepaths or prophets, not both. The Gift of Prophesy is not required to be built using the above multipower guidelines - it is treated as a 10 point Talent, built as follows:

Many Centauri can for tell their own deaths, in the form of a dream. The Death Dream can be considered a blessing or a curse. Have you had your vision yet? If so, can you interpret it well enough to effect your outlook on life? Does it keep you up at night? Is your death peaceful or violent? So, depending on how player and GM wish to view it, Death Dream is either a 10 point psycho disad (Death Dream, common, moderate), or you could have it take the form of other Limitations like Overconfident or Reckless. Other ways to reflect your vision of the future would be to take Luck, Combat Luck, or other advantageous Talent to reflect your manifest destiny.

Narn:

The Narn have no telepaths. That gene was wiped out by the Shadows long ago. There are efforts on several fronts to re-introduce the telepath gene into Narn biology, but nothing has come of it yet (that anyone knows about).

This is worth a 10 point Physical Limitation on the racial package deal for Narns.

Vorlons:

Vorlons, and Vorlon altered aliens (including humans) are generally exempt from all the above rules (which means they should be restricted to NPC's). They must still build their powers into a multipower, but are not limited to mental/telepath related powers. They are also generally not restricted to the core or optional limitations - we've seen Lyta Alexander do extraordinary things.

Class of Minds:

Do not use the Class of Minds rules for telepaths except for computers and very alien aliens. Therefore, a Human can effect a Narn, Centauri, or Minbari (etc.), but not a Vorlon or Shadow. Vorlons can effect almost anyone. To effect computers, players must purchase powers specifically to effect that class of mind. Since we don't see this much, if at all in B5, consider this a Stop Sign power. Use the optional rule on 5E pg 79 when dealing with alien Class of Minds:

"...a character can use his Mental Powers against a class of minds it can't normally affect at -3 to all ECV Attack Rolls and -10 to all Effect Rolls (except for Ego Attack, which only suffer a -5)."

Telekinesis:

Telekinesis in B5 is very rare, at least for humans. "Only one in every thousand humans has telepathic abilities. Only one in every ten thousand telepaths has telekinetic abilities. And half of them are clinically insane." -- Jason Ironheart to Talia Winters in "Mind War." Therefore, all TK abilities -- including the power Telekinesis and any power with a TK special effect -- should be considered Stop Sign powers by the GM. Some possible ways to balance TK powers is to limit the strength or effectiveness of TK abilities, or to have the player have a significant psychological or physical limitation (possibly as high as half the value of the multipower pool) to represent the unbalancing nature of TK abilities.

Latent Telepaths

Latent telepaths are either very weak telepaths who have not been detected during testing -- meaning they are generally very weak teeps; weaker than even a P1; or are young telepaths who have not yet manifested their abilities.

To create the first kind of latent telepath, you should purchase either the Accidental Surface Scan power or just 1d6-2d6 of the Surface Scan power, possibly with a high activation roll, and possibly with only a single or few close minds (Susan Ivanova's connection to her mother is a prime example). A point or two of Mental Defense with an activation roll is also appropriate.

Unmanifested telepaths who will manifest during the game should set aside some of the points required to build the basic telepath (points for the Mental Defense, Accidental Surface Scan, and possibly enough points to have a P1 multipower) during character creation. Their 0 point disad should still list their maximum P potential though. During game play, when experience is awarded, 1-2 points should be set aside for the balance of points required to become an active telepath. Once they have accumulated enough points, their powers become active. They will then have a choice to make -- especially if they are Human: join the race's telepath community, or go Rogue.

Special Thanks

I have to pass on my thanks to all the folks of Herodom over at the Hero forums for helping put these rules together. Thanks!