Hi, I'm currently doing research for a http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=1928.
I'd like to know more about mental powers in Fallout lore. So far, I've only read about http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Psychic in Fallout 1. But since I've never played Fallout 1 (only FO2 and FO3 so far), I've no clue on how they work and look in game.

In short, I'm interested to know and understand what mental powers are possible according to Fallout lore. And if I can allow the player character in Fallout 3 to have mental powers, what do you think can balance these powers according to the lore?

I understand that Chris Avellone has http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Psychic that;

Considering he said "over-the-top", can I somehow create explanations for powers similar those found in games such as Prototype and inFamous that will fit into Fallout lore?

Another main question is whether psychic abilities in Fallout are only caused by FEV.

It's been quite awhile, so I might be remembering this wrong...

The Psykers were sort of a failed experiment (I think it did involve FEV...) Gaining psychic powers pretty much guaranteed you were also going to end up completely insane. The Psykers you encounter in Fallout 1 at the end of the game are pretty much all gibbering idiots. There's also The Master, who had psychic powers as well. (I really can't remember what effect he had, though - because the last time I played, I used the inhibitor to nullify it...)

Off-hand, I think the actual powers were pretty much limited to telepathy and the like - I'm not sure there's really much precedent for the sort of stuff you'd see in Infamous, or even stuff like Second Sight. You also have Hakunin from Fallout 2 (the old medecine man) who seems to be able to communicate with you through dreams - though it's never quite explained; and I think it's purposefully left a bit ambiguous. (As in, there might be a more rational explanation - you are a Tribal... So it's not unlikely that you might interpret any number of things as being supernatural.)

I think it depends on how far you want to stretch the "canon." If you take the "so long as it sticks to the theme of 50's pulp sci-fi" tack, then there's actually some precedent in there. (As psychic stuff wasn't actually all that uncommon in those stories.) If you're more "we need to stick with what's explicitly set out in the in-game fiction," then much of anything is going to be a "no-no."

I see. Psychic powers turn people into gibbering idiots.
That perhaps amounts to the concept of sanity. If a person uses psychic powers to much or to a certain amount, that person becomes insane. That's interesting.

Okay, so far I can establish some rules to psychic powers in Fallout:
1. They should have a 50's pulp sci-fi feel. This rule limits Chris Avellone's "over-the-top" statement.
2. They make the wielders of such powers insane.
3. Inhibitors can nullify them.

If I'm not mistaken, there is a psyker who's electrokinetic and a psyker who's pyrokinetic. Was there further explanations to those powers? I think those two powers can in some ways explain lightning shooting out of arms or combusting another person into flames.
Perhaps the explanations to those powers could be stretched a bit without sounding too ridiculous in terms of lore.