Fantasy AGE by Green Ronin: Anyone read/Dm'd or Played it?

[aramis erak]

I thought I remembered 3e era psionics still using power points. Am I completely confused here?

I'd have to check. But it used the same system of spell levels, class limited lists, maximum level spell attainable... and magic and psi resistance were defauled to (RAW) 100% cross effective; D&D OE and AD&D they were 0% cross effective.

It's worth noting that Rolemaster's approach to magic is grounded in D&D OE...
Channeling is drawing power from extraplanar beings
Essence is drawing power from one's immediate surroundings
Mentalism is drawing power solely from oneself.
If one has the Spacemaster box...
Psionics is very close to mentalism, but mechanically slightly different. Each has slightly different armor restrictions.

 

[aramis erak]

There have been versions of psi (though not unlimited breadth; psi's with broad-band abilities are actually pretty rare in fiction once you get outside of superheroes), but, well, it tends to overfavor the lucky and intimidate those that aren't.

Not really, at least not in mainstream accessible Sci-fi/Space Opera...
Let's see... Traveller and D&D provide the classic abilities in gaming: Teleportation, Telekinesis, Telepathy, telepathic violence, teleperception (life sense, remote viewing aka clairvoyance, remote listening/clairaudience), short term mind control, the ability to heal oneself, the ability to heal others. One that neither routinely includes, but which mainstream sci-fi does, is matter transmutation.

Let's examine a few universes...
Star Wars: Telepathy (ESB), Mind Control (ANH), Teleperception (ESB, RotJ), Speak with Dead (ESB, ANH), transform into Force Ghost (done in ANH proven by RotJ). Telekinesis (ESB), Precognition (ANH, ESB). We even get "force lightning" in RotJ. The one thing we really don't see is Teleportation, except maybe in RoS, tho that might instead be Luke as force ghost or luke using Telepresence. Unclear, the canon is, unclear.

Star Trek: S1E2 Charlie X... Telepathy (super strongly implied, teleperception (implied), mind control, matter reorganization (Perfume, de-facing a sciences gal, transforming Yeoman Lawton into an iguana), thermokinesis (melting the chesspieces), matter deletion (may simply be reorganizing into air - the phasers, a couple people.) Telepresence (Thasian manifesting as glowing face).
The Cage: telepathy. Loads and loads of it.
The Man Trap: salt extraction. No, I'm not joking.
Where No Man Has Gone Before: Telekinesis and Teleperception. A bit of matter destruction. (Instant grave.)
The one we don't see? Teleportation... well, actually, we do. In Picard, season 2. Wesley Crusher. He also can time travel, apparently. The TNG episode The Traveller implies warp manipulation.

Barbarella - The Angel flies; the intent may or may not have been autotelekinesis (a fancy word for flight by telekinetic means), but given the almost laughable lack of use of his wings, it looks onscreen like autotelekinesis.

Original BSG: I honestly can't think of any other than Count Iblis' abilities, but he's (literally) the devil.

Babylon 5: Lots of telepathy. Very limited teleperception, a little bit of telekinesis (Soul Hunter). Transcendence to angelic form (Vorlons, Elders). Autotelekinesis (Kosh).

Orson Scott Card's Enderverse: The Ansible network and the Bugger Queen both are telepathic (it's even FTL). Near the end of the cycle, we also see FTL long range teleportation.

Lois Bujold's Vorkosiverse: there are some very mild implications towards precog and telepathy, but nothing concrete... but only a few have the mind to manage a jump... and they require a neural interface implant to control the machine. And a human mind is an absolute requirement.

Anne McCaffrey's Federal Teleport and Telepath setting: we see exoteleport, telekinesis, limited telepathy, limited precognition. Exoteleport becomes even FTL. It's worth nothing that the telepathy is very limited; this is unusual in a clearly psionic setting. Novels include To Ride Pegasus, Pegasus In Flight, Pegasus in Space, The Rowan, Damia, and more.)

Anne McCaffrey's Pern: Telepathy, but not human-to-human, only Human to/from dragon, and dragon to dragon. Dragons can also teleport. And can do so across time. There are some implied clairvoyant/precog aspects of a couple characters, too... most notably Lessa. Note: it's a Sci-Fi setting, despite the appearance of being Fantasy. This becomes very clear in certain later volumes.

Cole & Bunch's Sten series: One of the team is telepathic.

Robotech: The Invid have limited telepathy, and certain ones limited clairvoyance. The Palladium version of the RPG only give telepathic communication as if speech. (Robotech RPG Book 5, Invid Invasion, Page 75). The Robotech Masters have projective telepathy, flight, limited telekinesis, read emotions, and danger sense. Their eidetic recall is, in RPG terms, treated as a psionic ability; in the show and novels, it's not noted as such, and probably isn't, but since eidesis is a psionic ability in other palladium games....

Doc Smith's Lensman: We have telepathy and teleperception near universal to Lensmen. Certain Lensmen have more..

Buck Rogers TV show. We see telepathy, telekinesis, clairvoyance. (The episode guest starring Jack Palance).

That's not "rare"... Psionic abilities are a staple of Space Opera. Sometimes augmented with technology.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Not really, at least not in mainstream accessible Sci-fi/Space Opera...

I think you misunderstood my point: broad-band psionics is uncommon on one individual. The few exceptions are individuals that are supposed to be borderline transcendents like Charlie X or Ironheart. Most of the time you see such outside of superhero settings they'll have one psionic power (usually telepathy or telekinesis). That doesn't mean the others are unknown in the setting (though sometimes its a tier thing; you'll see bottom end psions who have telepathic or empathic reception of precognitive flashes where higher end ones are projective telepaths or telekinetics. Teleporters are extremely rare, as its not even usually seen as a psionic ability).

 

[GreyLord]

I played Fantasy Age. It's a decent game. It's has a LOT in common with D20. In fact, in some ways it IS D20 but with different dice.

It also has classes and in many ways is very different than Modern Age. I prefer Fantasy Age, but that's because it is more similar to D&D than Modern Age.

I enjoy the 'stunt' system.

If given a choice I'd play D&D, but Fantasy Age does fine in a pinch. I found it easy to teach to my neices and played a campaign with them (all girl group except for me...who was the GM). They seemed to enjoy it as well.

It's a very different feel than Modern Age. I'd almost suggest almost any other game (Cyberpunk, Gurps, etc) with another system set in a modern time period with tech than Fantasy Age if you want a game more similar to Modern Age. It really feels very different to me.

If you REALLY like the core of the system though, that's when you flow from Modern Age to Fantasy Age and back. If it's the general feel, I'd say go with another system...speaking for myself.

I LIKE Fantasy Age, but I really don't think it's more of Modern Age. On the otherhand, because the CORE of the systems are the same, it should be easy to hack Fantasy Age and use Modern Age as the core system you are using. Just use equipment and monsters from Fantasy Age adapted to Modern age instead and run a fantasy game that way.

 

[R_J_K75]

It also has classes and in many ways is very different than Modern Age.

This is pretty much what I wanted to know.hanks