Help me accept psionics

[Moab2]

Hello. I need some help. As a bit of background, I am one of those narrowminded individuals who can't stomach any guns (no matter how primitive) or technology (no matter how well explained--Eberron I'm looking at you) in my fantasy. As such, psionics has always rubbed me wrong, as it seems a bit too sci-fi/superheroish for my tastes. However, I want very much to overcome my prejudice against psionics (not guns or tech though ), and was hoping some of you brilliant and persuasive people could help me. How have you reconciled psionics with an otherwise traditional fantasy setting?

I am not looking for a discussion on how the psionics system is better than the current magic/spell system. I am more or less only interested in flavor, not crunch (plus, I happen to like the Vancian system).

Thank you all very much. I promise to keep an open mind.

 

[sfedi]

I can stomach it thinking of it as an otherworldly force.
That´s why I can accept Psionics in Eberron, but hardly in FR, for example.

 

[Thanee]

Mind Flayers. Githyanki.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Three_Haligonians]

Well,

IMC, I let magic fill the role of "science". By which I mean, people understand it, it has rules, it can be explained and examined - people look to it for the answers.

Then I let psionics fill the role of, well, the unexplainable. Weird stuff happening and there is no magic present? That's that freaky psionic stuff. A man claims he can move objects with his mind, like say bending spoons, without casting telekenisis first? It has to be some kind of trick, right?

Now of course, for me - I run under the "psionics are different than magic" variant and I also make its appearance quite rare. This helps maintain the idea that magic is "mainstream" and psionics are "fringe".

Hope that helps,

J from Three Haligonians

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Considering that what D&D calls psionics encompasses almost everything I would consider appropriate for the kinds of traditional fantasy stories I'd want to run, whereas D&D magic is on a Dr. Strange level and totally inappropriate for 99% of the fantasy fiction out there - reconcile it by realizing that psionics is the traditional one.

All it really needs is to have summoning/outsider contact spells grafted into the list and it's *vastly* more appropriate.

 

[Mistwell]

Psionics to me originated with the Deryni series of books by Katherine Kurtz. The books were written in the 70s and adapted directly to D&D in a October 1983 Dragon magazine issue (#78) as being psionics, and it made perfect sense to me. In fact, I believe that was the first psionics class for D&D - all inspired by the Deryni books.

In that context, there was nothing at all sci-fi about it. It was 100% medieval fantasy.

You can read more about the Deryni novels here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deryni

They are a great read, and only recently the author started to write new novels for the line (which I have not picked up yet).

 

[Henry]

First of all, remember that most psionic words that crop up, "cata-" "meta-" "-kinesis" are not modern, they're ancient Greek. This often throws many people for a mental loop, where they see "catapsionic" or whatever and think of futuristic sci-fi terms.

Second, it helps to think of it was just another form of magic, sometimes - one where the "triggers" come from within. THinking of it in the same school as Sorcerers can help here.

 

[Merkuri]

Sfedi mentioned it, but didn't go into detail. You might want to take a look at the way Eberron handles psionics. For the most part, psionics comes from the quori, an alien extraplanar race that's trying to invade Eberron from the Realm of Dreams. They've begun doing this by shaping an entire culture where the leaders are posessed by quori spirits, and this gives them psionic abilities.

There is also a group of rebel quori spirits who don't want to enslave humanity that ran away from Dal Quor (home plane of the quori) a few hundred years ago and merged themselves with a small group of humans. Now their souls are sort of spread out between these human descendents and only exhibit themselves by strange memories, the complete lack of dreams, and psionic powers. These people who were merged with quori spirits are known as the kalashtar.

Basically, in Eberron if you have psionic powers you are either a quori, the one of the Inspired (who are posessed by quori spirits), or a kalashtar (a human merged with a quori soul).

 

[kenobi65]

*Mind Thrust!*
*Ego Whip!*
*Energy Missile!*

There, that should have softened you up. Ready to accept psionics now?

IMO, the biggest reason D&D psionics feels sci-fi is the names. There is a pseudo-scientific flavor to the names (and, psi is a traditional sci-fi device). If you changed the names, you'd fundamentally just have a point-based magic system.

And, as Moogle notes, D&D psionics may actually do a better job of modeling many fantasy-fiction magic systems than the D&D magic system does.

 

[Moab2]

Thanks everyone for chiming in. I think Kenobi has it right that the biggest problem stems from the names. I would have no problem if they just made a point-based magic alternative. I didn't balk at the warlock's new system, so it's not that i just don't like other systems. The Eberron explanation only hurts my efforts though, as it was pointed out that psionics comes from aliens (i know, extradimensional is not the same as extraterrestrial, but it feels the same to me).

I must be one of the few people who really like the Vancian system. I know it is not the most accurate reflection of fantasy literature, but i like the flavor and feel of it.

Thanks all for your help. I look forward to hearing more views.