Do you use Psionics?

[Gothmog]

Nope, don't use them or allow them IMC. IMO, psionics have completely the wrong feel for fantasy, although they work ok in sci-fi settings. Every time I have seen psionics in a fantasy game, they end up being either far more or less powerful than magic, and end up feeling too much like a predictable force, wheras magic can screw up.

 

[AmerginLiath]

We've only had two psionic characters in our campaign, as we do DRAGONLANCE, and Krynn is a psionics-free world. One was an interloper from another world in 2e whose psionic parents arrived and died shortly after, his mother dying in childbirth and his father hunted by Seekers as an aberration is pre-War of the Lance Krynn (he was raised in a monestary as an orphan). The other was his son, born in the end of the 4th age and played in our 5th age group (our campaign's ranged from 351 AC to 38 SC, over seventy years of Krynn and three generations, plus some short stuff of earlier eras). The father eventually was drawn into the Outer Planes, to return aged and stark-raving mad. The son died in an adventure (but left a native pregnant with his future daughter the night before )...

 

[BarkingDeathSquirrel]

Nope, don't use them or allow them IMC. IMO, psionics have completely the wrong feel for fantasy, although they work ok in sci-fi settings. Every time I have seen psionics in a fantasy game, they end up being either far more or less powerful than magic, and end up feeling too much like a predictable force, wheras magic can screw up.

They don't have a "wrong" feel in fantasy. Look at the monk, that's pretty darn close to "core" psionics. But it's your game, so your opinions are still valid.

Anyway... I really can't vote... it's more of "I like psionics, but my players hate them in fantasy settings" type of deal. Anyone know how to convert the flavor to a more "self-perfection"-type deal like the monk? They will accept that.

 

[Buttercup]

Heck, several of my players have a hard enough time with the core rules that I shudder to think of throwing psionics into the mix. One of these days I'd like to run a D20 Modern game with psionics, but not right now.

 

[ForceUser]

Buttercup - love your sig

 

[pogre]

No psionics. Not part of my campaign world's flavor. The same reason I do not allow monks. Both are a lot of fun, but just out of place in my game.

 

[Psiblade]

The campaign I run has a couple of psionic PC's. Most games I have played in have had a psionic PC and encountered psionic monsters / NPCs. I have never had a problem with psionics mixing with magic. Psionics tends to have more of an Asian / Indian / Arabic feel than traditional European fantasy. I enjoy the variety.




-Psiblade

 

[nHammer]

NO!!

 

[Buttercup]

Buttercup - love your sig

Why thank you.

 

[Gothmog]

Originally posted by BarkingDeathSquirrel:

They don't have a "wrong" feel in fantasy. Look at the monk, that's pretty darn close to "core" psionics. But it's your game, so your opinions are still valid.

Actually, I hate monks for the same reason, and don't allow them either. They feel too eastern for a western medieval society game setting (which D&D very clearly is based on). I think psionics might fit better than divine or magic in an eastern game though.