What are your opinions on the Zhodani?
the what
I like their yogurt I think.
>>98054649I agree, who? What?>>98054507You need to explain what that even is? Is that Star Trek?
Oh, it's from Traveler.I don't use Traveler, but I'm glad you made a thread directly related to a game.
I don't know traveller lore. They're all psychic right?
>>98054762They were never involved in any of my Traveller games (none of the metaplot was, even the imperium was only vaguely referenced as "the central government" that didn't really factor into anything), but my understanding is that they simply embrace psionics and most/all of their leaders are psionic. The imperium suppresses psionics with various bans and restrictions. Although even that didn't really apply in my games.
>>98054507Whatever the Tavrchedl think my opinions of the Zhodani should be, of course.
>>98054762Yeah, the vast majority of the Zhodani all have some psionic potential, and their entire society is cast-based based on psionic power, with nobles, intendants, and proles.They have little to no crime, have have generationally bred out almost all anti-social tendencies, as the Thought Police telepathically identify early offenders and put them through rigorous social programs at a young age, if necessary.
>>98054507How did they come up in your last game?
>>98057656They sadly did not.
>>98054507It genuinely bothers me how little Zhodani art there is, especially of women. Is the Zhodani ever getting a book similar to book on the Third Imperium? There's three major human species, and two of them are constantly getting attention because they constitute the Imperium as well as the Solomani Confederacy, while the Zhodani Consulate gets jack shit.
>>98058321I've never read any of the traveler books but, as an outsider, the Zhodani already sound kind of boring. What do their psychic powers bring to the table aside from ruthlessly thought policing each other?What are the rogue elements of their society like? How do they interact with non-psychic people? Does psychic power exist outside of them and their control?
>>98058328>What do their psychic powers bring to the table aside from ruthlessly thought policing each other?They aren't actually "ruthlessly thought-policing each other", though. You're imposing the "boring" interpretation based on how these things usually go. The Zhodani Consulate is largely harmonious, and is extremely open because secrecy and criminality largely do not occur to them. You assume that its society is repressive - and to a citizens of other humaniti polities, that is perfectly understandable, as telepathy constitute a violation of privacy, but within the Consulate, there is no violation because this is the norm.Even things like negotiating a wage is colored by psionics. For example, Zhodani do not approach a negotiation with thoughts of "what can I get out of this deal" but rather "what do I believe my work is truly worth" or "what do I believe I deserve for my labour and skill". Anyone reading those thoughts may still disagree and negotiate but there is no dishonesty in the process. But at the same time, Zhodani view the use of psionics in such a situation as unfair, much like reading a teacher’s mind for answers to test questions.And obviously they have all the "regular" psychic powers, but it depends on training and aptitude. Telepathy is common in the Consulate, but many know Telekinesis, Awareness (which is about knowing ones own body and do things like regeneration). Some even learn to bend space and teleport themselves, although that is rare enough to let anyone that exhibits it be most likely to end up in a special forces unit.I think the Zhodani are interesting precisely because while it isn't necessarily utopian (it's segregated and caste-based, subject to limited resources, education is essentially based on social standing which is largely based on psionic potential, etc.) it *isn't* outright dystopian, despite what Imperial propaganda would have you believe.
>>98058328>What are the rogue elements of their society like?It really depends on what you mean by "rogue elements". Crime in the Consulate is very different from crime in the Imperium or most other humaniti polities. There is very little "street crime", smuggling, outright violence or open dissent, and doesn't resemble the traditional "criminal underworld" you'd expect in what is frankly a shithole sci-fi setting in many ways. Traveller has a lot of cyberpunk-level stuff going on on a planetary scale, but that's completely absent for the Zhodani, which is a lot more "Star Trek" to the Imperium's "Star Wars" (and I guess the Solomani Sphere would be Starship Troopers in this very loose comparison).The Zhodani have little material poverty and robust social welfare, and straight-up functional re-education and retraining of criminals in a society that is intensely high-trust already and that like the post-medieval European world have been on a harmonious evolutionary trajectory for millennia. Crime is more about subversive ideological movements, unsanctioned manipulation, various forms of psionic abuse, memetic emotional pathologies, and black budget projects operating outside of government purview/social consensus.>How do they interact with non-psychic people?They generally consider non-Zhodani Humaniti violent and unpredictable outsiders that lack self-control, and that cannot be trusted. Which in their defense is completely true from their point of view.>Does psychic power exist outside of them and their control?Within the Consulate? Probably, but it would be highly criminal and likely be subject to immediate sanction in all kinds of ways. Outside of the Consulate? Absolutely. Psionics is generally illegal in the Third Imperium (depending on era) but can be sanctioned, and there are rogue Psi-Academies here and there throughout Charted Space. I do not know to what extent the Zhodani welcome "refugee" psychics, but I know they take an interest.
>>98058321Unfortunately, that’s the result of most stuff involving the Zhodani revolving around the Imperium or occasionally the Coreward Expeditions, rather than the heart of the Consulate.
>>98058321I've only skimmed it but there's a whole campaign setting with Zhodani stuff. Seems like half a dozen books from what I've downloaded.
>>98054507They can be used to make players reconsider what they think is normal behaviour.Throw the players into a Frontier War where they are Imperials fighting for the Imperium against the 'terrifying mind controlling Zhos', only to realise midway through that they are actually fighting against a usually peaceful, honest, crime and vice free race of humans that treat every shitty, dishonest criminal thing the Imperials (players) do from session to session as just a mental illness to be cured. The Zho's arn't fighting to wipe out the Imperium, they are fighting to help them from themselves.
>>98059021Yeah, I really want the Zhodani to get their own book. They're almost as big as the Third Imperium, and plenty of minor factions have gotten full books, like the fucking Sword Worlds and the Glorious Empire. But we haven't gotten anything for the Zhodani, other than in a scattershot fashion (mostly in the Fifth Frontier War books).
>>98054507I dislike psions. They are a threat to the Imperium.Every Zho should be killed or have their psionics lobotomised. In all seriousness I tend to use them in Trav games as a proxy for communist china (where the 3I is a representative of more western ideology). I tend to have the players working for on of the minor powers in either the Reach or the other borderlands so the play off between major powers becomes a major thing.
>>98054507>What are your opinions on the Zhodani?Pretty Based until Mongoose decided to Current Year "Problematic Content" from the old GDW Lore.
>>98061673What did they change?
>>98054762I didn't even know Traveller had lore so I don't even know the basic rundown. I just know it as that game whose first edition was in the 70's and had no art
The first thing we did when we started playing Traveller was to ditch the Zhodani and the lion people and the other furries and make our own setting.
>>98061673I have to also ask what they changed. My only annoyance so far is that Mongoose seems to lean more into them being space-Indians, while classic Traveller obviously depicted them as white and inspired more by Ming the Merciless than Pajeeti.>>98062204Wow, that is intensely gay. May all Bwaps shit upon your grave.
