D&D 3.5 (and Mindscarred's Pathfinder conversions) include five psionics displays. (I include them in a spoiler block for the benefit of any who wish to read them over.)
[sblock]Auditory
A bass-pitched hum issues from the manifester’s vicinity or in the vicinity of the power’s subject (manifester’s choice), eerily akin to many deep-pitched voices. The sound grows in a second from hardly noticeable to as loud as a shout strident enough to be heard within 100 feet. At the manifester’s option, the instantaneous sound can be so soft that it can be heard only within 15 feet with a successful DC 10 Listen check. Some powers describe unique auditory displays.
Material
The subject or the area is briefly slicked with a translucent, shimmering substance. The glistening substance evaporates after 1 round regardless of the power’s duration. Sophisticated psions recognize the material as ectoplasmic seepage from the Astral Plane; this substance is completely inert.
Mental
A subtle chime rings once in the minds of creatures within 15 feet of either the manifester or the subject (at the manifester’s option). At the manifester’s option, the chime can ring continuously for the power’s duration. Some powers describe unique mental displays.
Olfactory
An odd but familiar odor brings to mind a brief mental flash of a long-buried memory. The scent is difficult to pin down, and no two individuals ever describe it the same way. The odor originates from the manifester and spreads to a distance of 20 feet, then fades in less than a second (or lasts for the duration, at the manifester’s option).
Visual
The manifester’s eyes burn like points of silver fire while the power remains in effect. A rainbow-flash of light sweeps away from the manifester to a distance of 5 feet and then dissipates, unless a unique visual display is described. This is the case when the Display entry includes “see text,” which means that a visual effect is described somewhere in the text of the power.[/sblock]
(http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicPowersOverview.htm#display)
So, I was thinking that because human beings actually have more than the five "standard" senses, why not include these as optional/alternative displays?
As with the standard displays, none of these alternate displays can force a concentration check to maintain a power or spell (or raise the DC of one), nor can any display force a skill check or ability check to perform an activity that didn't ordinarily need one, nor can a display raise the DC of a skill check or ability check already needing to be made. A display might arouse a person having just dozed off for a catnap, but a display cannot by itself disturb a person in a deep sleep (so will not interrupt the eight hours' rest needed to recover power points and spells).
At the end of each alternative display are suggested substitutions. For example:
Conceal Thoughts: normally a mental display; might have a nociceptive(pain) display instead.
Offensive Precognition: normally material + visual; alternatively material + equilibrioceptive(balance)
Chronoception (sense of time)
This sense is what causes you to perceive time as somehow slowing down during moments of extreme stress. It is the reason why "time flies when you're having fun". It is also responsible for keeping your body's circadian rhythm in tune with the environmental light-dark cycle. A chronoreceptive display causes all observers within 20 feet of the manifester to feel a subjective dilation of time, as though everything were happening in slow motion. This has the indirect effect of seemingly increasing the acuity of the physical senses, even though no actual heightening of one's perception of the environment is taking place. Most chronoreceptive displays present as a perceived slowing down of time, although certain powers may cause the reverse (a series of events seemingly compressed into an instant of time despite their actual durations). In some cases a Chronoceptive display can trigger a flighty sensation of ordinary déjà vu (not the power of the same name).
Suggested Substitutions: Auditory, Mental, Visual
Equilibrioception (sense of balance)
For the duration the power manifests, the subject and other creatures within 20 feet of the manifester feel a slight twinge of vertigo, as though the horizon were being made to tilt to one side. This feeling of "tilt" causes no ill effect other than a slight conscious urge to tilt one's head to correct for the illusory change in gravity's pull. The tilting sensation is influenced by the manifester's handedness, where left-handers tend to broadcast a "left tilt", right handers a "right tilt", and ambidextrous persons left or right as they will (though there are always exceptions). The feeling of tilt is direction-independent, so that two bystanders facing west and east will still feel the horizon tilt each to their right.
Suggested Substitutions: Auditory, Mental, Visual
Gustatory (sense of taste)
Very similar to an olfactory display, the gustatory display causes the flash of a sharp and distinctive taste on the tongue of the subject and everyone within 10 feet of the manifester; the taste lasts at least 1 round and may linger for several for especially strong powers. Unlike the olfactory display, the gustatory taste is nearly always the same--it is the same metallic taste one can sometimes pick out of the air in the vicinity of an approaching lightning storm or immediately after a powerful bolt of electricity created on the ground (such as by psionics, magic, or alchemy).
Suggested Substitution: Olfactory
Henoception (sense of oneness or wholeness)
Henosis is the idea of mystical oneness or unity; all psionic creatures feel this connection with everything in a way that nonpsionic beings cannot. Certain highly religious persons may also express this sensation as a feeling of absolute certainty about a divine truth. A henoceptive display either heightens or suppresses this sensation, but the display is only perceived on a conscious level by psionic creatures and highly spiritual persons unless the manifesting power is extremely potent (and even then the display is limited to a 20-foot range). If the display is suppressive, affected individuals are subjected to a short-lived wave of emotional negativity--disconnectedness, despair, loneliness, or meaninglessness. At the other extreme, a henoceptive display of positive emotion enhances a feeling of divine fellowship, being all-in-all, one-with-the-universe, and so on. The experience of a henoceptive display varies from one creature to the next; no two are exactly alike.
Suggested Substitution: Mental, Visual
Mechanoception (pressure sense)
Part of the network of touch receptors in the skin, this sense conveys feelings of texture and pressure. A mechanoceptive display (affecting bystanders and the subject within 10 feet) will create an illusory feeling of pressure from all subjective directions, which can range from something like a "solid breeze" caressing your skin to feeling encased on all sides by an invisible compressive force similar to sleep paralysis or night terrors. The feeling of omnidirection pressure from this psionic display is illusory and cannot force suffocation checks or inhibit movement, although it might leave some persons disturbed who were half-asleep and subjected to this display, if they are susceptible to ordinary sleep paralysis already.
Suggested Substitution: Material
Nociception (pain sense)
In the midst of a manifestation, the subject and all bystanders within 20 feet of the manifester experience what is often described as "a shiver up one's spine," goosebumps, or having the hair on one's neck stand on end. A particularly powerful manifestation might produce a sensation of pins and needles, as though a part of one's body had "gone to sleep" and woken up or a blunt impact had excited the "funny bone" in an elbow.
Suggested Substitutions: Material, Mental
Proprioception (body position sense)
This psionic display plays on the body's sense of where all of its appendages are positioned relative to the body's center of mass. It is this sense allows us to (for example) touch our nose with our eyes closed, or to grasp an object that is behind us and out of our line of sight. A proprioceptive display briefly triggers in the subject and bystanders within 10 feet of the manifester the feeling of having one or more "phantom limbs" (which the person may be missing or may never have had in the first place--a truly odd feeling if one has never had a tail or a third arm!). In the case of a creature with psionic abilities, this display may also produce a sense of "feeling one's spirit form" coexistent with one's physical self on the material plane, which has been described as feeling as though one occupied two bodies in the same space at the same time.
Suggested Substitution: Mental
Thermoception (temperature sense)
The ambient temperature in the vicinity of the manifester is raised or lowered by about 5 degrees. Most temperature gradients will dissipates in 1 or just a few rounds, though particularly powerful manifestations may leave a localized "cold spot" or "warm spot" centered on where the manifester was standing, which may linger for minutes or hours. The temperature differential never deviates more than 5 degrees from the surrounding area, however. The direction of change is strongly influenced by the nature of the power manifesting: psychokinetic and psychometabolic powers will usually increase ambient temperature and create "hot spots", while clairsentient, telepathic, and metacreative powers normally decrease the ambient temperature and generate "cold spots". A thermoceptive display is not significant enough to alleviate the harmful effects of extreme heat or cold on an exposed creature.
Suggested Substitution: Material, Olfactory
With a great deal of effort, these alternate displays could be meshed in completely with the standard rules and replace some of the standard ones for certain powers, rather than act as "substitutes".
[sblock]Auditory
A bass-pitched hum issues from the manifester’s vicinity or in the vicinity of the power’s subject (manifester’s choice), eerily akin to many deep-pitched voices. The sound grows in a second from hardly noticeable to as loud as a shout strident enough to be heard within 100 feet. At the manifester’s option, the instantaneous sound can be so soft that it can be heard only within 15 feet with a successful DC 10 Listen check. Some powers describe unique auditory displays.
Material
The subject or the area is briefly slicked with a translucent, shimmering substance. The glistening substance evaporates after 1 round regardless of the power’s duration. Sophisticated psions recognize the material as ectoplasmic seepage from the Astral Plane; this substance is completely inert.
Mental
A subtle chime rings once in the minds of creatures within 15 feet of either the manifester or the subject (at the manifester’s option). At the manifester’s option, the chime can ring continuously for the power’s duration. Some powers describe unique mental displays.
Olfactory
An odd but familiar odor brings to mind a brief mental flash of a long-buried memory. The scent is difficult to pin down, and no two individuals ever describe it the same way. The odor originates from the manifester and spreads to a distance of 20 feet, then fades in less than a second (or lasts for the duration, at the manifester’s option).
Visual
The manifester’s eyes burn like points of silver fire while the power remains in effect. A rainbow-flash of light sweeps away from the manifester to a distance of 5 feet and then dissipates, unless a unique visual display is described. This is the case when the Display entry includes “see text,” which means that a visual effect is described somewhere in the text of the power.[/sblock]
(http://www.d20srd.org/srd/psionic/psionicPowersOverview.htm#display)
So, I was thinking that because human beings actually have more than the five "standard" senses, why not include these as optional/alternative displays?
As with the standard displays, none of these alternate displays can force a concentration check to maintain a power or spell (or raise the DC of one), nor can any display force a skill check or ability check to perform an activity that didn't ordinarily need one, nor can a display raise the DC of a skill check or ability check already needing to be made. A display might arouse a person having just dozed off for a catnap, but a display cannot by itself disturb a person in a deep sleep (so will not interrupt the eight hours' rest needed to recover power points and spells).
At the end of each alternative display are suggested substitutions. For example:
Conceal Thoughts: normally a mental display; might have a nociceptive(pain) display instead.
Offensive Precognition: normally material + visual; alternatively material + equilibrioceptive(balance)
Chronoception (sense of time)
This sense is what causes you to perceive time as somehow slowing down during moments of extreme stress. It is the reason why "time flies when you're having fun". It is also responsible for keeping your body's circadian rhythm in tune with the environmental light-dark cycle. A chronoreceptive display causes all observers within 20 feet of the manifester to feel a subjective dilation of time, as though everything were happening in slow motion. This has the indirect effect of seemingly increasing the acuity of the physical senses, even though no actual heightening of one's perception of the environment is taking place. Most chronoreceptive displays present as a perceived slowing down of time, although certain powers may cause the reverse (a series of events seemingly compressed into an instant of time despite their actual durations). In some cases a Chronoceptive display can trigger a flighty sensation of ordinary déjà vu (not the power of the same name).
Suggested Substitutions: Auditory, Mental, Visual
Equilibrioception (sense of balance)
For the duration the power manifests, the subject and other creatures within 20 feet of the manifester feel a slight twinge of vertigo, as though the horizon were being made to tilt to one side. This feeling of "tilt" causes no ill effect other than a slight conscious urge to tilt one's head to correct for the illusory change in gravity's pull. The tilting sensation is influenced by the manifester's handedness, where left-handers tend to broadcast a "left tilt", right handers a "right tilt", and ambidextrous persons left or right as they will (though there are always exceptions). The feeling of tilt is direction-independent, so that two bystanders facing west and east will still feel the horizon tilt each to their right.
Suggested Substitutions: Auditory, Mental, Visual
Gustatory (sense of taste)
Very similar to an olfactory display, the gustatory display causes the flash of a sharp and distinctive taste on the tongue of the subject and everyone within 10 feet of the manifester; the taste lasts at least 1 round and may linger for several for especially strong powers. Unlike the olfactory display, the gustatory taste is nearly always the same--it is the same metallic taste one can sometimes pick out of the air in the vicinity of an approaching lightning storm or immediately after a powerful bolt of electricity created on the ground (such as by psionics, magic, or alchemy).
Suggested Substitution: Olfactory
Henoception (sense of oneness or wholeness)
Henosis is the idea of mystical oneness or unity; all psionic creatures feel this connection with everything in a way that nonpsionic beings cannot. Certain highly religious persons may also express this sensation as a feeling of absolute certainty about a divine truth. A henoceptive display either heightens or suppresses this sensation, but the display is only perceived on a conscious level by psionic creatures and highly spiritual persons unless the manifesting power is extremely potent (and even then the display is limited to a 20-foot range). If the display is suppressive, affected individuals are subjected to a short-lived wave of emotional negativity--disconnectedness, despair, loneliness, or meaninglessness. At the other extreme, a henoceptive display of positive emotion enhances a feeling of divine fellowship, being all-in-all, one-with-the-universe, and so on. The experience of a henoceptive display varies from one creature to the next; no two are exactly alike.
Suggested Substitution: Mental, Visual
Mechanoception (pressure sense)
Part of the network of touch receptors in the skin, this sense conveys feelings of texture and pressure. A mechanoceptive display (affecting bystanders and the subject within 10 feet) will create an illusory feeling of pressure from all subjective directions, which can range from something like a "solid breeze" caressing your skin to feeling encased on all sides by an invisible compressive force similar to sleep paralysis or night terrors. The feeling of omnidirection pressure from this psionic display is illusory and cannot force suffocation checks or inhibit movement, although it might leave some persons disturbed who were half-asleep and subjected to this display, if they are susceptible to ordinary sleep paralysis already.
Suggested Substitution: Material
Nociception (pain sense)
In the midst of a manifestation, the subject and all bystanders within 20 feet of the manifester experience what is often described as "a shiver up one's spine," goosebumps, or having the hair on one's neck stand on end. A particularly powerful manifestation might produce a sensation of pins and needles, as though a part of one's body had "gone to sleep" and woken up or a blunt impact had excited the "funny bone" in an elbow.
Suggested Substitutions: Material, Mental
Proprioception (body position sense)
This psionic display plays on the body's sense of where all of its appendages are positioned relative to the body's center of mass. It is this sense allows us to (for example) touch our nose with our eyes closed, or to grasp an object that is behind us and out of our line of sight. A proprioceptive display briefly triggers in the subject and bystanders within 10 feet of the manifester the feeling of having one or more "phantom limbs" (which the person may be missing or may never have had in the first place--a truly odd feeling if one has never had a tail or a third arm!). In the case of a creature with psionic abilities, this display may also produce a sense of "feeling one's spirit form" coexistent with one's physical self on the material plane, which has been described as feeling as though one occupied two bodies in the same space at the same time.
Suggested Substitution: Mental
Thermoception (temperature sense)
The ambient temperature in the vicinity of the manifester is raised or lowered by about 5 degrees. Most temperature gradients will dissipates in 1 or just a few rounds, though particularly powerful manifestations may leave a localized "cold spot" or "warm spot" centered on where the manifester was standing, which may linger for minutes or hours. The temperature differential never deviates more than 5 degrees from the surrounding area, however. The direction of change is strongly influenced by the nature of the power manifesting: psychokinetic and psychometabolic powers will usually increase ambient temperature and create "hot spots", while clairsentient, telepathic, and metacreative powers normally decrease the ambient temperature and generate "cold spots". A thermoceptive display is not significant enough to alleviate the harmful effects of extreme heat or cold on an exposed creature.
Suggested Substitution: Material, Olfactory
With a great deal of effort, these alternate displays could be meshed in completely with the standard rules and replace some of the standard ones for certain powers, rather than act as "substitutes".
I would love to be able to expand on these rules. I have been thinking about a psionics oriented "Pathfinder Modern" type of campaign setting after picking up Psionics Unleashed and Psionics Expanded from Dreamscarred.
