Psionics in the AGE system

[Vaelorn]

If anyone is interested I've had a go at some psionic talents and specializations for AGE. Find them at:

http://vaelorn.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/the-power-of-the-mind-psionics-in-age/

They're at version 0.1 - so I'd welcome any feedback!

[shonuff]

Gave it a brief once-over, and it looks neat. It would probably fit well into a Thedas campaign, as well (with the exception of the teleportation).

[Vaelorn]

Thanks! And yeah, teleportation... I think teleportation should be in there as I'm sure most people would expect it in a set of psionic rules, but I've tried to make it very hard to do. I wouldn't blame a GM for banning it entirely though!

[Hellebore]

Looks good Vaelorn (like the title font, can you tell me what it is?).

Now this isn't a criticism of you, but rather a question about psionics in general. WHY are they different to magic? They are pretty much magic and do things magic can do, move objects, read minds etc. In fact there are many settings where magic is the mind manipulating things (Eddings' Belgariad and the Will and the Word for example).

So I was always confused about the point of differentiating magic and 'psionics' because they seemed pretty equivalent. The only reason I could see was if you had arbitrarily decided to limit magic and invented psionics to do the things it couldn't, which makes one wonder why it was done in the first place.

The other thing being that both 'magic' and 'psionics' are supernatural anyway, which is probably why I can't see the difference.

So I'm wondering if you could explain how they differ and why it's important that they do. The answer might be they don't and it isn't which is fair enough. Perhaps it's just a flavour thing where players are given the option to be psychic instead of magic. This might make enough of a conceptual difference and perhaps it's just my real world view that they're both just magic/supernatural/hokum that's not seeing the distinction.

EDIT: Miracle clerics being magic is a similar thing, although afaik D&D stated that clerics did use magic.

Hellebore

[Vaelorn]

Thanks! The font is Masoch-Dirach - I'm using it because the 3rd edition Eberron source books use it (or something similar)!

Why are psionics different form magic? Good question, and I'm not sure I really know why! They generally seem to be portrayed as having a different source: tapping "internal" mental energy rather than external "mana". In 4th ed D&D they are deliberately described as having different power sources, although the actual effect in play is pretty much the same. Of course, that accusation could be levelled at most 4e powers...

I have to admit that I've always thought of psionics as being more of a sci-fi thing than fantasy, so I'm often puzzled why it was introduced into, say, D&D back in 2nd (or 1st?) edition. Especially as the implementation is often so similar to magic. There's a definite place for it in Eberron though, as there's a lot of lore about Dal Quor, the kalashtar and so on and it definitely "feels" different from magic.

I've tried to make these rules fairly standalone, so maybe someone can use them for a sic-fi mod!

[Zapp]

Psionics is (among other things) to get away from the wizard-delving-though-ancient-libraries image.

Since it has become very popular with spellcasters that aren't ancient, wrinkled or frail (i.e. not "Gandalf"*), now we have magic users that are agile, young and/or energetic. Now we even have "spontaneous casters" with "innate abilities" (spellcasters that in no way need spellbooks, a high Library Use or Intelligence, or ingredients, or any other kind of preparation)

And that is functionally identical to psionics.

Also, psionics have found a home in "magic free" science fiction.

*) The strange thing is that the Gandalf of the books weren't nearly as old and frail as the "Magic User" archetype suggests.

[Disemvowel]

*) The strange thing is that the Gandalf of the books weren't nearly as old and frail as the "Magic User" archetype suggests.

He was a 5th level Magic-User, Plane Touched, but 5th Level.



Sorry, the Psi stuff looks good.