My second published article was a bloody mess. It’s STILL full of mistakes, messed up grammar, and spelling errors. I take it out and look at it when I’m feeling that my work is “good enough” so that I go back to my current work and step up the game. The ideas are still solid to this day (in my opinion), but I could have just done so much more. Sigh. Regrets. Lots of them there. I learned a lot writing this one. I asked both Steven and PK for some pointers on how to write better – and they gave them. Steven helped me shore up a lot of grammar problems I was having – issues I’d work on later with Beth. Considering it was my second piece of non-poetry publication it wasn’t overall bad. I just wish I’d done better. Overall it took me about 50 hours to write, 19 to edit (see why?!), and about 5 hours of revision. Just about everything I wrote was published and PK had to tweak some of my builds. When I asked him for a more elaborate breakdown of why he changed the things he did he sent this this HUGE email with what was changed and why. I still reference that email sometimes when I’m unclear on some rules issue. That said, I won’t leave you with no crunch whatsoever! You know I won’t do you like that (or cut you down to size). Two things I suggested during the GURPS Psi-Tech playtest were related to my TK rules and ultimately weren’t used by David because he just didn’t have the room.
Telekinetically Buoyant Textile (TL^)
A new form of PK-Sensitive Material, Telekinetically Buoyant Textile or TBT is a miracle substance that is typically used in the creation of backpacks, load-bearing vests, etc. But can also be used for clothing, or any other mostly fabric piece of gear. When determining your encumbrance level you may subtract your TK’s Basic Lift/10 from the weight of the object before applying it against your total encumbrance, up to the total weight of the object itself. If the object is a container (such as a backpack) you may subtract up to the objects weight plus the weight of all objects carried within it, or on it. For example, if you have a small backpack made of TBS and a TK BL of 20, you may subtract up to 2 lbs. from the total weight of all items carried in the backpack and the backpack itself. This is a passive effect and requires no concentration to use. You may only gain this benefit if you are in direct contact with most of the object, i.e. wearing it; its properties are otherwise inert. In addition to the cost of the equipment price is $500 per pound of the object weight plus the maximum amount of weight it can carry (if a container). LC 4.
Sonokinetic Sound Baffler (TL^)
A Sound Baffler resembles a small cylinder that is belted mounted. The device produces a small area around the wearer that muffles sound. It does this by psychokinetically “buffering” sound waves. It has three modes, the first makes anything in the same hex as the device harder to hear, thus imposing a -2 penalty on any hearing based rolls to detect it. The second gives you 2 levels of the Silence advantage. Third the Sound Baffler can be used to create a more active sound damper, giving you DR 2 against sound-based attacks, such as ultra-tech screamers, other Sonokinesis abilities, etc. Finally there are five power settings, with each level after the first adding an additional -2 penalty, 2 levels of Silence, or 2 DR but increasing the power drain by a like amount. The first level does drain a negligible amount of power from the batteries. Optionally a Sound Baffler may be integrated fully into a suit of armor, Battlesuit, or even a suit of clothing. If integrated this is the base cost with an additional cost of $100 and 0.01 per pound of armor, Battlesuit, or clothing weight. The Sound Baffler’s four B cells can maintain the first level indefinitely, the second for 4 minutes, the third for 3 minutes, and so on. $10,000, 2 lbs. 4xB/4 min. (see above). LC 3.