Quote by nycblkboy

What do you guys think? How did Romulans lose their psychic abilities? And are Romulans and Vulcans separate species? 

I dunno about speciation since the usual biological definition means "cannot interbreed to produce fertile offspring." We don't know about the Human-Vulcan hybrid Spock since he didn't marry or have any known children. However, this definition would indicate that Humans and Klingons aren't a separate species (as we now define the term) because K'Ehleyr, the half-Human half-Klingon mother of Alexander Rozhenko, was clearly fertile. The same goes for B'ellana Torres and her daughter Miral Paris; neither could have been anyone's mother if not. Vulcans and Romulans descended from a common ancestor so they would presumably be closer physiologically than any Human-Klingon pairing. So...let's just back away from that whole topic and wave it away with space magic time travel whatever blah. :P As for the loss of telepathy, let's try to retcon it.

*Ahem*

During the early alliance with the Klingons, the Romulan Star Empire got its hands on not only Klingon ships, but it had the Tal Shiar extract Klingon research as well. This included data on the Augment virus, which the Tal Shiar immediately began testing. Due to the differences in physiology, the virus created cranial ridges in Romulans where it destroyed them in Klingons, and the virus' genetic damage caused only minor behavioral differences but did erase the limited telepathy that Romulans had possessed. Unfortunately, the Tal Shiar's quarantine protocols were inadequate and the virus swept through the population, being much more aggressively contagious than it had been for the Klingons. This pandemic caused the Romulans in 2311 to retreat into isolation behind the Neutral Zone until encountering Captain Picard and the USS Enterprise-D on Stardate 41986.0, when their now-permanent appearance change became known to the outside for the first time.

Or not. But hey, it's as plausible as any of the other retconning that happens in Trek...

The tracking on mine says it was left on the porch two days ago, I'm starting to get concerned.  D:

UPDATE: It's all good. :)

Well, in the game Romulans have the Limited Telepathy trait, so there's that

Mine has been sent out, hope its ok

So, I asked that question in the game today. We had a very lively discussion about the topic. Memory alpha and beta tell us that Romulans were telepathic but they aren't right now. I watched just about every single Star Trek episode, except discovery, and I have never seen any psychic abilities in Romulans.

I guess the first question is really are Romulans a different species then Vulcans? In the episodes gambit, part one and two Picard and the Enterprise crew find the stone of gol which is a psionic resonator that focuses telepathic energy. The resonator was used before the Romulans and Vulcans split and before the time of awakening when Vulcans didn't control their emotions like they do today. Vulcans and the Romulans act differently but are they different species?

Memory alpha lists various conflicting explanations for why Romulans are no longer telepathic. We discussed those reasons and others but didn't come up with a good explanation. Some people thought the gene might have become dormant and/or died out. Some thought that the Romulans who left didn't have the telepathic gene at all. Even others thought it had something to do with Pon Farr. It was suggested that the act of Pon Farr might turn on the gene or create the pathways for telepathy. Since Romulans don't have Pon Far or express it differently telepathy isn't activated in their children.

What do you guys think? How did Romulans lose their psychic abilities? And are Romulans and Vulcans separate species? 

Memory Alpha on Romulans: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Romulan
Memory alpha Gambit episodes: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Gambit,_Part_I_(episode) http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Gambit,_Part_II_(episode)

Oooo, lucky!!

aaaah! Look what I got in the post today! Thank you santa :) it's sooo cool. Also gives me a figure 

aweee thats so cool @nycblkboy ! a cool gift to have fun with.

Now whos going to untangle all them fairy lights!

when you mentioned reindeer, i thought u meant he got you the one with poop in it

Wow, awesome!

Quote by Trick

I have the fastest Santa ever. When I got home from my California trip there was a package waiting for me. It smelled a bit like reindeer, but I didn't put two and two together until after I opened it up. This is an awesome gift, since my family is filled with horrible people and one of our Christmas traditions is hanging around together until the wee hours of the morning drinking and playing games together.

Thanks, @nycblkboy! You're really good at this Secret Santa thing!

No problem man, I'm glad you liked it. I have the original game and most of the expansion packs including the bigger, blacker box :) And Amazon is amazing :)

I have the fastest Santa ever. When I got home from my California trip there was a package waiting for me. It smelled a bit like reindeer, but I didn't put two and two together until after I opened it up. This is an awesome gift, since my family is filled with horrible people and one of our Christmas traditions is hanging around together until the wee hours of the morning drinking and playing games together.

Thanks, @nycblkboy! You're really good at this Secret Santa thing!


#secretsanta

Sent! When I get mine I plan to post a video of me opening :)

Done, and done! Should be delivered by Dec. 5th.

Just need to fully wrap and post it out... This was fun, even if they think it's crap

I have decided on what im sending i hope they like it.

my gift shipped Guaranteed delivery: Dec. 4, 2017 :)

We were just advised of a small oversight that we'd made in neglecting to ask for phone numbers in the Secret Santa survey.  If you're looking to ship to your secret santa giftee direct from Amazon, they require the recipient's phone number.  We didn't collect or pass those along to secret santas, so if you encounter this issue, please reach out to me via PM and I can contact your giftee on your behalf. 

Thanks for bearing with us through our growing pains given that this is our first time running a Secret Santa event for the community.  We're learning as we go and we'll make sure that we're better prepared for next year!

Apologies for any inconvenience!
Dave.

Quote by Voleron

Quote by trick

Crap! I've been traveling a lot the last couple weeks and just made it over here. Sounds like I've missed the deadline, but if those notices haven't gone out yet, throw me in there. 

Sorry for being late to the party.

@trick fill out the survey quickly before I get home from work and we’ll sneak you in!

Thanks! Just submitted it. If I happen to pull your name I'll be sure to amply reward you for your understanding. (wink wink, nudge nudge)