Sunday, August 8, 2010

What's the "feel" of psionics in fantasy gaming?

Being submerged in different versions of psionics rules lately have reminded me of my initial reaction when I read the Psionics book for D&D3.0 back in the day.

In that book they have a sidebar, or something like it, where they discuss the relation between magic and psionics. It basically boil downs to "it's just the same, with different looks" and they of course claim "game balance" it best preserved that way. Some days I wish all power gamers who out of envy bitch and moan about not having the same power as everyone else would all disappear to Mars or Jupiter.

I think psionics should be different from magic. Why would you have a character utilize both psychic powers and magic if they are all the same? Because they ran out of spell slots but have Power Points still? Please!

  • Psionics should not be visible. Thus it has no material, verbal or somatic components.
  • Psionics should be focused on mental processes like thoughts, emotions, perception and the mental processing of physical stimuli.
  • Psionic combat should make your head explode if you loose:
  • Psionics should not replicate the basic Magic User spell list. 
  • Psionics should be alien!


Or what do you think?
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