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Musing on psionics in various books, movies, and TV shows ... The Vulcans, and Betazoids in Star Trek, and the Empath ("The Empath"). Also, the Telosians ("Menagerie", "The Cage"). I'm not sure what to make of the Medusan's madness effect, or whether to consider as psionic Gary and Elizabeth's...

Except, the fluff matters! The character wasn't just imbued with psionic power: The character was imbued with psionic power by a surgical procedure. There might be in-game consequences to the fluff: Scars from the surgery. Side effects, such as head-aches, occasional black outs, or tremors...

Nod. My sense is that "ESP" was taken seriously as a possible actual ability until about the middle of the 20'th century. (Does anyone have a more concrete sense of this? I'm going by memory of things read and vaguely remembered.) TomB

There seems to be a difference in that "scientific" psionics describes both the mechanism and the effects with scientific terminology. Also, psionic abilities and effects can be created and amplified by technology: Alien experiments can imbue you with a particular psionic ability. An exotic...

I’d rather prefer that psionics not be a skinning of existing classes. For me, the use of pseudoscience and the psycho babble gave psionics a distinct feel. Those also tied psionics into different literary tropes. Different abilities result. I don’t mind much if a class chassis or spell...

I prefer the 1e pseudo-science and early 20th century psychbabble lingo feel. With spell points. I don’t mind if there is overlap with some magical abilities. The campaign is was in several years ago use the 3.5E psionics (updated) and we liked it a lot. TomB

There is a simplicity in playing this way. Yet, I feel that this is the beginning of unmooring of role playing from the game. How much are players making decisions based on the imagined perceptions of their characters, and how much are they finding optimal choices in rules-space. Continuing...

The were tiger is stated as neutral, with slightly below average int and above average wisdom. Unless an unusual specimen, I would expect the weretiger to be neither greedy nor untrustworthy, but not especially loyal, either. You’ll need to work out a motivation and a personality for him. Why...

Re: Targetting. What happens if, in a dimly lit area, a Fireball is shot at a location which is in a mirror? Note the differences between the 1e and 5e spell descriptions! TomB

Is it that a spectral weapon cannot be attacked, or that attacks against one won’t do anything? Certainly, an arrow could be shot at one. Backing up a little, would a wall of force block the movement of a spiritual weapon? I can accept that the visible manifestation is akin to the dot from a...

Reading the 5e description of spiritual weapon, nothing says that it cannot be attacked or grabbed. However, it has no hit points, harness, or AC, and is described as being spectral. Ghost touch, or the equivalent would be necessary to interact with it. I’d say that it takes on a physical...

None of my cats ever had a clue. I’m pretty sure laser pointers strongly trigger a house cat‘s vision and motion detection — in an almost hard-wired way. TomB

Morris, I’m sorry to hear. I hope your illness does not worsen and that your recovery is quick. Tom Bitonti

Whoops, wrong thread. Transferring to the correct one. TomB

Well, I’m ok with their non-phone uses. The current iPhone cameras are great. I just wish they were better phones. The ergonomics are terrible and the speaker and microphone placement are lousy. And the volume upper limit is quite low. And the phone UI can use improvements. And call...

I’ve always found iphones to be decent devices … except they are terrible phones. TomB

Does this suffer from the bag o’ rats trick with cleave and attacks of opportunity from 3e? it seems to be easily convertible to an attack spell by a similar mechanic. Let out a bag of mostly harmless but angry critters and leach advantage from their attacks to power high level effects which...

Holy thread necromancy, Batman! TomB

I don’t care about labels on music or video games. In either case, I’ll get any warning that I need from reviews. I would appreciate a lot more warnings for movies and shows that have excessive violence or sexual content, especially if that content is gratuitous or simple “ugly”. I find that...

In which case, say that in the prefix. If the point of the entire book is to present the folklore in it's historical form, explain that, and include in the explanation a statement that the historical form includes a level of detail not typically present. Tell people the value of including the...