D&D General Anyone ever run a campaign based on the Deryni (Book series by Katherine Kurtz)

[Jmarso]

Just curious if anyone has tried this, and if so, what sort of adventures / campaign path they used.

Loved the books back in the day, and the Deryni seemed like the near-perfect template for adding psionics to a fantasy setting. I know there were some write-ups on it back in Dragon Magazine back in the 1E/2E era as well.

So, has anyone done it?

Also, speaking to psionics in general, do you favor them as an 'overlay' to the existing classes, or do you like them as a character class of their own?

 

[Lyxen]

I read the series a loooong time ago, and don't have more fond memories than this. Still I agree that this is really psionics centered.

As for psionics, the overlay is dangerous as was demonstrated during AD&D 1, but it's more or less necessary when you want to keep some sort of balance, and really interesting when you want to play Dark Sun, the only setting published so far where it makes real sense.

But for that, you need it to be fun and reasonably balanced, which has not been the case so far, because it's really a touchy subject and it introduces potential power drifts through combos.

All in all, apart from Dark Sun, I'm really not a fan of psionics which I consider more SF in theme than fantasy, and I didn't like the Deryni well enough to change my point of view on them, so no hurry for me.

 

[Mannahnin]

Dragon #78 was heavily focused on psionics and as part of that, the Deryni. It had a Psionicist class for 1E, as well as Deryni adapted as an AD&D race, with permission from author Katherine Kurtz.

If I were to run a campaign based on the books I think it would need to focus tightly on the Deryni. Maybe to the extent of only having Deryni and non-Deryni as classes, or not being class-based at all. GURPS or something with psionics for Deryni powers would probably work well. Or maybe Savage Worlds, nowadays?

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

A character class(es) of their own.

 

[Lanefan]

I tried using the Deryni as a basis for my re-doing of the 1e psionics system. Though I still think the theory was sound, it didn't work very well in practice and so I long since scrapped it. I suspect if I made psion into its own class and used it to replace Magic-User/Wizard it'd have a better chance, but I didn't (and still don't) want to go that route.

I did, however, write up and incorporate some magic items from the series e.g. Wards Major and Wards Minor; and the psionics-nulling herb merashi (sp.?).

 

[darjr]

There is a Deryni RPG. The Deryni Adventure Game

The Deryni Adventure Game

 

[darjr]

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

 

[Rabulias]

Loved the books back in the day, and the Deryni seemed like the near-perfect template for adding psionics to a fantasy setting. I know there were some write-ups on it back in Dragon Magazine back in the 1E/2E era as well.

Dragon Magazine issue 78, just for those curious to find more about it.

 

[amethal]

There is a Deryni RPG. The Deryni Adventure Game

The Deryni Adventure Game

I have that - picked it up second hand on eBay at some point. I'm not familiar with the Deryni books themselves, but it seems to be a good introduction to the setting. I've never actually played it.

It's for FUDGE, which isn't very similar to D&D, but I don't think it would be too difficult to convert the underlying mechanics into D&D form.

 

[Tallifer]

I have not run or played in a Deryni campaign, but I was certainly heavily influenced by those books. I considered psionics an integral part of fantasy from my early youth ( which also explains how I was able to slog through so many badly written but sometimes imaginative 80s fantasy books like the pleistocene series). Of course Star Wars also played a big part.

In D&D, I loved the Unearthed Arcana 5E Mystic; and I really enjoyed my Kalashtar cleric Tanhumeth, although the microlite system we played in did not really support psionics.