Telepathy
Telepathy is the ability to read minds, specifically thoughts and intentions as opposed to emotions or moods, such as what empathy would read. Some telepaths can also project their thoughts into the minds of others. Powerful telepaths are able to control the thoughts of others and force them to act or think against their will.
In more specialized cases of telepathy, the telepath might not be able to read or send thoughts, but can use these thoughts to perform specific feats, such as the ability to know when someone is in danger.
There are telepaths who are able to commune with animals and nature, often at the expense of being able to communicate telepathically with other humans.
Ways It Might Work
- Some telepaths might be able to read coherent language-based thoughts from targets.
- Others might get imagery from targets rather than language-based thoughts.
- Early warning systems or 'danger sense', so to speak, might be forms of telepathy.
- Communication either one-way (telepath to target) or two-way via telepathy is another specialty of some telepaths.
- There are some telepaths who can, as mentioned, commune with animals and nature, but it is important to note that animals and nature will not communicate the way humans do, so interpretation or the way the message gets across will need to be handled differently.
- Some telepaths may even manipulate the thoughts or senses of targets (even to the point of controlling another though this is usually reserved for people of Xavier's caliber), depending on the strength of their ability and how it works.
There are many variations on this ability, obviously, and this may not cover it all.
Dealing With Consent
As with any power, we ask that an 'out' in case of non-consent is offered. Possible ' outs' for this ability could be:
- Range - This is a good method of giving a non-consent 'out' to other players. Limit how far the power reaches or limit it to touch, skin-on-skin touch, familiarity combined with range, etc. If a player non-consents, you can simply say that they are out of range or aren't being touched, as examples.
- On/Off - By being able to turn the power on and off at will or under certain circumstances, a non-consent can be handled by simply saying that they weren't actively reading at the time.
- Concentration - How much concentration is needed may also help with a non-consent. If total concentration is necessary, it is easy enough to distract the telepath to prevent a reading from happening.
- Possibility of Failure - If there are chances that a telepath may fail at reading someone because of a target's natural blocking abilities, or the telepath's inexperience, non-consent can be handled by a failure to read the target or even incorrectly interpreting a message (depending on what the players agree to).
(These are merely suggestions on how such an ability might have a consent 'out' written directly into it.)