Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I can kill you with my brain

Psionics.  I have hated them since I first allowed them into my games.  Back when I was running 2nd edition, I let a few players bring in some psionic characters, and promptly nailed them with the

I don't remember the form exactly, it may have been as simple as "Rocks fall, X and Y die.  No Save.  Give me those sheets."

Now, admittedly, I never owned the Psionics handbook, and I was playing with a bunch of high school power gamers, so I'm sure that has tinged my feelings on the subject just a little bit. 

When 3.0 rolled around and they released the new psionics handbook I threw down the hammer in all of my games, and just told my players (different from my 2e players) not even to ask.  Psionics does not exist in my universe.  Period.  End of sentence. 

I haven't played enough of 4e to have made a decision about it, but because of the way the game is structured, I'd be far more inclined to allow it.

When I started playing D&D with the Rules Cyclopedia Psionics wasn't even a blip on the radar.  

So what would I want to see in a psionics system for RC D&D (or any other system for that matter)?  I'd want a system that doesn't just roll over the rest of the game world and isn't any more complicated than anything else in the system.  If I can figure out weapon mastery and mass combat, then I should be able to figure out psionics. 

Now, I have no interest in creating such a system, but if a player wanted to bring in a psionics character, that's what I'd be looking for.  There are several bloggers out there who are working on such a system, and I wish them luck, and I hope they keep this post in mind as they do it. 

1 comment:

  1. I have an esper class for Mentzer/RC(although, like most all of my work, it only covers the Basic box). I don't consider that it "rolls over the game world" but it's still being tweaked and needs playtesting.

    But, yeh, psionics doesn't have to mean steamrolling --

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