| From: | The Powerhouse <P.C.Steele@*********.AC.UK> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Musings on Psionics |
| Date: | Thu, 14 Jul 1994 15:37:33 +0100 |
the Psionic debate came around. However it seems to be that there are two
ways of approaching the subject which keep the game balanced and within FASA's
guidelines for character creation.
Treat Psi's as magicians with different names. Works like a dream, all their
abilities are equivalent to spells, replace sorcery with a mind focusing skill.
Initiation would give meta-psi powers which could be used to enhace psi powers
psi skills etc <btw you have to use the gradual initiation rules for this>.
The other alternative and the one I prefer if I decided to include this in a
campaign of mine is to go down the skill based path as someone suggested. This
to me is much more in line with the psi's that I'm familiar from popular fiction
and TV. Essentially something like a PSI from Babylon 5.
Here's a few ideas of how I would do it. <N.B. I haven't worked out everything
fully yet so there will be a few ... gaps :) >
First, get rid of the idea of creating a new character creation letter, some
of us like the fact that metas need an A and magic users <human> need an A. Now
get rid of the idea of 3 classes, you can always introduce a 3rd class at a
later stage if you really want to but try and keep the game balanced if you
can, so I'd allow only full or adept psi's.
PSI's chose the same option as a magician would do, I know everybody wants
something different from a magician but the two should balance out. Wierd
variants are up for individiual GM's to come up with if they so wish.
Decide how the powers will work, I favor skill based as these make more sense
and are much more sensible. But that requires a large number of skills, to
keep things balanced I'd make skill cost equal to a concentration which can
accept specialisations. Ie general skill at concentration cost of telekinesis,
specialisation <at normal cost of specialisation> in melee combat.
Now you need some way to limit the power and make more power essentially
available. This is easily done by converting the magic rating into a psi
rating. As psi power increases drain can be more easily resisted, more
abilities become available etc..
Now I know you are all shaking your heads out there as most of you seem to
have some super munchkin psi-god that will be capable of everything in mind.
But as an example I'll try and demonstrate the sort of thing I have in mind.
Consider Bert the grade 3 psi student. His psi rating is 6 + 3 <he has no
cyber and never suffered any burnout>
He has a skill in psi-mind <a made up psi skill which includes telepathy,
thought control, emotion control, read thoughts and other such appropiate
abilities> of 6. He wishes to read the surface thoughts of the Johnson he is
meeting and is close to the person. The GM decides how hard this would be
this would involve things such as the subjects willpower, wether he was actively
trying to hide his thoughts <could be skill based>, wether he has any magical
protection etc... A system could be devised whereby the TN's can be worked
out but I'm still musing the whole idea before I start to do some maths. <As
a guide a quick conversion to the similar spell could be made to provide
guidelines>
The player would treat his skill as a pool and add his grade to the pool. The
GM would make a resistance test for the Johnson using a the number of dice
that Bert took from his skill as a TN <note: do not include grade dice in this
calculation>. What Bert leaves behind he gets to resist drain which would
have a drain code that would depend on the difficulty of the task at hand <GM's
call> and his total psi-power 6+3. In fact drain may not even have to be
resistable if the force <for want of a better word> is less than say 1/2 the
total psi's power.
Well there you can see a very basic but workable psi system. I decided I'd
change some things even as I wrote this, for example I'd not have the skills
with a conentration cost as previous suggested, I'd make it a full skill as
teh amount of things possible with each skill should be large and they are
effectively the psi's spells.
Other things, I'd make it so that psi's had astral perception but not
projection. Projection is more the realm of the mage/shaman as it invloves
dealing with spirits etc something that I wouldn't allow a psi to summon. I'd
also make it that psi's have double essence loss for anything that affects the
brain as all their power is based in there and if you cut bits out then surely
you'll lose that power <N.B. things like dermal plating and wires would still
be ok, but smartguns, eyes, datajacks etc would cause a big time headache>.
Or even outlaw cyberware that affects the brain, any headware and you lose your
powers.
As to what skills the psi should have or should be able to learn well I think
someone made a list of potential abilities. I'd use something akin to this
and then create concentrations, specialisations etc as I saw fit.
What do you all think to this approach, it's still in it's raw stage but if
you really want to go down the psi route I seriously think that skill based
powers are the way to go. Psi's may seem more powerful than the normal mage
but when you consider that they will probably suffer much more from drain, at
least for anything that is highpowered or unless a high graded psi, than a
normal mage and that they cannot project or summon elements/spirits I think it
averages out.
Phill.
--
Phillip Steele - Email address P.C.Steele@***.ac.uk | Fighting against
Department Of Electrical & Electronic Engineering | Political Correctness !
University Of Newcastle Upon Tyne, England |
Land of the mad Geordies | The Powerhouse
