Telepathic Humans

[EltonJ]

I was wondering if any of you have a telepathic human race in your game.

[jdale]

They aren't "human", but Shadow World has the Jhordi.

[KaBurr]

Telepathic humans would likely be MASSIVELY different from normal people.  No secrets from each other, possible hive-mind, likely totally insular.  They could be a terrible opponent if they came en masse.

[MisterK]

Telepathic humans would likely be MASSIVELY different from normal people.  No secrets from each other, possible hive-mind, likely totally insular.  They could be a terrible opponent if they came en masse.

"could" be different. Telepathy does not imply an open mind. You could argue that the first thing they would learn would be to have mental shields to protect their ego. And after that, they would be as individualistic as we are, opening only for trusted friends, and maybe not even that. They could have a culture of secret even more pronounced than we do.

Depending on the actual telepathic range, it could be a huge boon for long-range communications, however - but it could stifle technological development in that area.

And it's a coin toss whether or not they would be able to read the minds of non-telepathic people. For all we know, the thoughts of normal humans would be complete nonsensical garbage

[EltonJ]

They aren't "human", but Shadow World has the Jhordi.

Yeah, something I may look into in the future. Anyway, I was just asking for curiosity's sake.

[jdale]

It's not exactly telepathy, but in the setting I was running, elves and dwarves had the ability to communicate through their respective elements (organic matter for elves, earth and stone for dwarves).

I described the elves like this:

They can engage in distant conversations through life magic, which progress very slowly, and are accustomed to speaking with others who are not present. Many can also read emotional state without looking, so they have no particular need to look at people they are speaking to. The combination of these traits and habits often makes Elves seem distractible and unfocused to Humans, or even rude if they appear to be more interested in something other than a conversation.

So... basically... you're trying to have a conversation with an elf but they are too busy texting to give you full attention.   It's a different take on silent communication but extremely relatable!