Magic and Psionics? Just One?

[The_Universe]

I'm working on a new campaign based in the latter half of the 19th century of an ostensibly "real" earth. Nonetheless, I'll be giving it a bit of a horror/fantasy/sci-fi twist, sort of like mixing the Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. with the X-Files.

At the moment, I'm considering allowing some type of magic and/or psionics into the game - though it will be introduced slowly, over the course of several adventures.

For magic, I'd use Grim Tales excellent Spell Burn system (to ensure that it doesn't get out of hand), and for psionics, I'd probably just use the standard stuff in D20 Modern (Agents of PSI, I believe) with a little help from the Game Mechanic's Modern Players Companion, etc.

So, what do you think? Can the two types of "FX" coexist without being silly? Should I allow one and not the other? Give me your thoughts, experiences, and ideas!

 

[Desdichado]

Have you looked at Green Ronin's Psychic Handbook? I think it's much better than the more standard Agents of PSI type psionics; it operates a bit like Star Wars Force powers, but with much more flexibiliy and many more options.

 

[The_Universe]

I've looked at it, but it didn't really grab me as being able to give me what I was looking for - I don't necessarily want either the magic or the psionics to be super flexible...Grim Tales lets me drastically limit spell lists, and the psionics in modern really don't do a whole lot of stuff (which is good).

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Well, unless you're using all of GT and only the spell system for FX, I wouldn't suggest it. It would be very penalizing to whoever was silly enough to decide to cast spells, compared to the Psi fellow.

The Modern Psi just sort of sockets onto the existing system, adding its own limiters while not using other abilities for it (I.E. not draining Con/Str/HP/etc) so it'll be fine.

--fje

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

I would think you could use Grim Tales to do both, tweaking the various parameters (spell lists, burn die, etc) to create two different but reasonably equitable systems.

 

[Aus_Snow]

There's always CoC, if that appeals at all.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Grim Tales has a sensible magic system.