Mind Over Matter

[IDA_Guy]

If you’re looking for a better rules set for your psionics/psychic-based d20 System campaign, you may discover what you need within Mind Over Matter. Within this book you’ll find the following:

• Rules compatible with the standard d20 System and d20 Modern.
• A new skill-based psionics system with fully described skills and complementary feats.
• Two new player character races.
• New classes, new prestige classes, new equipment, and more!

48 Pages of everything you need to fill your campaign with the well balanced psionics system!

If you want to try something different in your campaign, you may just find what you seek within Mind Over Matter.

Available at e23, RPGNow, and DriveThruRPG.
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Add an NPC to your game![/size][/font]

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

I should point out that I received a complimentary copy of Mind Over Matter for review purposes.

Mind Over Matter, from Interactive Design Adventures is a skill based psionics system for d20. Written by Steve Miller, this PDF product is essentially an alternate system of psionics, using only feats and skills. Upon reading Mind Over Matter, I found that this is one of the most clever and innovate products I have seen in quite some time.

In the introduction, Miller lays the groundwork for product. Perhaps one of the most poignant and important things he points out is what the product is not. Miller makes it clear that this product is best used in a campaign setting that has low magic or other aspects that will not downplay the psionics system in the product. Furthermore, just to be clear, Miller also makes sure the reader is well aware of the fact that this is a replacement for an existing psionics system, rather than an enhancement for current systems. Frankly, I have never been overly enthused with existing systems for psionics, which is one of the reasons why I was so impressed with Mind Over Matter. As I read it, I grew to like it more and more, visualizing how well it could work with a variety of systems. For instance, whereas Dungeons & Dragons may not be the ideal system for Mind Over Matter, there is definitely something to be said for giving it a shot with Grim Tales, D20 Call of Cthulhu, Spycraft (if a science fiction emphasis is desired), D20 Modern, or perhaps even Mutants & Masterminds (with a little bit of work). In any event, if the existing psionic systems have little luster for you, then Mind Over Matter is certainly something you might find helpful.

In Chapters 1-3, Miller explains how it works. Honestly, its pretty simple, but here is the basic overview: Rather than have a series of abilities, psionic powers work like skills. Rather than putting skill points in Acrobatics, Listen, or Spot, players have the option of placing skill points into psionics skills. Naturally, this means that characters with psionics will be not as well rounded as some of their contemporaries but that is one of the risks they assume. For those concerned about game balance, Miller does a good job of addressing it. Before some psionic abilities (skills) can be selected, certain feats much be purchased. Before certain feats can be selected, certain prerequisite feats can be selected. So, with a system built upon some prerequisites and skill point purchases, it really works out to be a fair system insofar as the cost and game balance is concerned.

What does a character get for their choice to go down the path of psionic initiate? Most psionic abilities from games and popular fiction: the ability to resist psionic abilities, empathy with humans, empathy with computers, domination, possession, astral projection, aura reading, postcognition, healing, telepathy, telekinesis, just to name a few. Honestly, the powers/skills work really well. The powers/skills really look a lot like powers from a superhero setting. Many of the abilities have DCs that the player has to meet in order to get a success (often the DC is an opposed roll with the ‘victim’ that the character is trying to have the power work against). By examining the powers carefully, it really seems to work out well and the game balance provides a challenging type of character for someone to play.

In addition to the feats and skills, Miller provides races and classes that really mesh well with the rest of the book. There are only two suggested races; Anaki and Atlanteans. Both are well researched. The Anaki are essentially an alien race not unlike ‘the grays’ in science fiction mythology and the Atlanteans are the late great advanced race of technologically advanced individuals. Both of these races are perfect for a book on psionics and provide players with an exciting opportunity to play something different, especially if the GM is running a science fiction style of game.

The classes resemble something out of a Phillip K Dick story. I really felt that Miller did a good job of conjuring up the not-too-distant future with classes like the PsiCop, Psychic Soldier, and Psikonite Elementalist. Each of these use the skills/powers in a unique way that allow the player to create something different and unique. Honestly, I would have liked to have seen a few classes for use in a fantasy setting but a clever GM can find ways to do that on their own, as the rest of the system is easily adaptable to a variety of possibilities.

Finally, Miller offers information on equipment, settings and character progression systems. The chapter on equipment is works well with the rest of the book. It provides equipment that truly enhances the classes and skills and can easily be integrated into a campaign. The kind of material one can expect is basically items that work off psionic energy and so on. These are a psionic’s tools of the trade and work part and parcel with the rest of the system.

Whereas I think the system Miller has created is brilliant in its simplicity, I have only a few complaints with it. First, as previously mentioned, I would like to have seen some classes for use in a fantasy setting or even a modern setting with low science fiction. Second, the system dos require a certain amount of trust on the part of the players and the GM. It is possible that some unscrupulous players could try and take advantage of the system and create some serious min-maxing issues. However, a vigilant GM could probably prevent this with a minimal amount of effort, especially if he has a good relationship with his players. Finally, there is a section on Action Points that is not as well fleshed out as I would have liked. Obviously, a majority of players familiar with either D20 Modern or with Spycraft will certainly not need much to fill in the blanks but for those who may not be as familiar, a more complete description would have been really helpful.

In conclusion, I was very impressed with Mind Over Matter. The psionic system is the most superior psionics system I have seen for a game, as it works while remaining uncomplicated. Miller has created a product that, if given a chance by players, will be viewed as an excellent crutch for a variety of systems needed an exciting new dimension. Hopefully Miller will consider adding to this volume, creating a few new classes and maybe even a detailed campaign setting in a future product.

I give it four and a half out of five stars.

 

[Crothian]

Mind over Matter

Once psionics got placed into the system reference document I expected to see quite a few books use that material. There has not been as many as I imagined but a few have come out. These books expand or redo what has been done in new and different ways. Psionics has always been an area that not everyone likes and some people think they can even do it better. The real challenge for these books will be to try to get the people who really have yet to embrace psionics and have them use psionics in their games.

Mind Over Matter is a new PDF by Interactive Design Adventures. They have put out a few other PDFs mostly stand ups that are alternatives for minis. The PDF is under fifty pages and does come in a rather big zip file of over fifteen megs. The PDF comes in four different version a pair of landscape and a pair of portrait formats one of each designed for printing. The art in the book is okay and it is all black and white. The layout needs some work as things are widely spaced and a conservation of space would not be a bad idea. None of the books have any book marks and for a book like this book marks would be really useful.

Mind Over Matter is a supplement that seems to want to work for d20 modern as well as d20 fantasy. I feel a more solid focus would have been better. The classes use things from d20 modern like defense bonus and reputation and at the same time have twenty levels like in the fantasy game. The classes seem a little specific for classes like Psi Cop and Psionicite Elementalist. These would have been better served as prestige or advanced classes. The actual advanced classes like the Manipulator and Psionic Entertainer do serve well as advanced classes.

There are two new races the Anaki and Atlanteans. The Anaki are what people traditaionally call greys, the classic aliens with the big head and empty black eyes that have been visiting earth since the age of the dinosaurs. The Atlanteans are equally familiar being the close humans of that lost ancient city. While both races seem sound in mechanics I would have liked to seeea little more creativity in psionic races to be presented. These two are very familiar in concept to most people and lose their wonder as new races because of it.

The psionic system here is a feat and skill based one. Most traditional psionic powers are skills and then there are feats that can augment the use of the powers and allow for greater flexibility. I do like how the system works but feel that is is not as well done as other skill based psionic classes like the Pshychics Handbook by Green Ronim

Mind Over Matter is an attempt at doing psionics a little differently in the modern game. They have some nice ideas for both abilities and classes but I feel that there are some initial problems with the classes and races to not make this a worth while book. The psionic system itself is pretty good and that alone may make it worthwhile. The appearance of the book in general is another strike against it.

 

[Joël of the FoS]

Mind Over Matter - a great option for low powered psionics

Starting note: I am a Ravenloft DM and these lenses were used when making this review:

After way too long (blame real life), here’s my review of Steve’s Mind Over Matter book (MoM), an option book for psionic in the d20 system. It is made for any setting in mind, including d20 Modern, so some parts of the book do not apply to Ravenloft ("A television? A computer? A PsiCop? Just the words sound weird to me", would say Viktor Hazan)

First, I have to say that the MoM system is very simple, compared to other psionic systems in 3rd edition. It is based on feats and skills. Simply put, first, you take the Psychic Ability feat, and this feats enables you to take psionic skills. That’s the beauty of it: just skills.

So the system is self limiting: if you take the feat and add ranks in psionic skills, you do not take ranks in other class skills. The consequence is that the MoM system is lower powered then other d20 psionic systems we know. You do not need to be psioniscist to use psionics, but the psionics skills are more subtle.

So you use the skills as often as you use other skills, like Spot or whatever. That means the skills need to be well balanced, of course. They are, for most. For example, the heal psionic skill. You can give a round of curing to everybody with you, including you. On average, you restore 3d4 hit points. For retry, the DC for the same injury is augmented by 10. So you get one round of cure, perhaps two if you’re lucky. It’s not too powerful and still useful.

The following lists the psionic skills included in the book. You’ll notice there is nothing to melt the brains of your opponents, just cool psionic powers to enhance your game. Many great roleplaying opportunities here.

• Astral Projection (should be switched to Ethereal Projection in Ravenloft, with usual limits on domain closure);
• Autohypnosis (great skill: to resist fear, memorize something, tolerate poison);
• Aura Reading (race, health, state of mind and cool new concept: aura strength; Will save to resist it);
• Clairvoyance;
• Empathy;
• Ghost Sight;
• Heal;
• Postcognition (cool skill: get impressions of events that happened in a location);
• Precognition (to see parts of the future and guide your actions);
• Probability Manipulation (influence something in your favor);
• Psychometry (know more information about a person from an object);
• Pyrokinesis (start fire at a distance);
• Spirit Channel (speak with the dead);
• Stabilize Self (when at -1 hp or lower);
• Telekinesis;
• Telepathy.

The book explains in lenght each of these skills, devoting about a third of a page to half a page to each skill.

That said, the bad points: some of the skills still do not seems to be well balanced and can quickly become overpowered.

First example: Pyrokinesis. The skill inflicts 1d6 point of fire per rank in the skill. Let’s say a 6th level rogue with 3 ranks would make 3d6 of fire damage each round. Since a skill can be used round after round, this can be devastating, unless there is a limit to it. The limit imposed to this skill is that 5% of the time, the fire is uncontrolled (as long as it’s on the target, not really a limit in this case) and if you roll “20” on your skill check, you take half of the damage you inflict. So, statistical wise, our 6th level rogue with 25 hit points could inflict up to 120d6 of fire damage before getting seriously hurt (half the damage = 1.5 d6 x 4 times to get to about one hit point x 20 times before getting a backlash). That’s much more powerful then a wiz!

Second example: Spirit Chanel. To speak with the dead, the DC is 15 and the highest limitation is +6 if the dead has been in this sorry state for more then 1,000 years, for a DC of 21. The limitation is a DC increase, unless you take a full minute of quiet meditation to clear your mind. So a very low skilled person in that ability (say rank 2), with a lot of time in his hand, could get one success every half an hour if he does only that, i.e. try the skill, clear his mind, try again and so on. So if he spend an afternoon on it, our low skilled person could ask 8+ question to a person dead a thousand year ago, which is much more powerful than a priest with a similar spell. Not to mention taking 20.

That said, the two examples are easy to solve, if you add a time limitation to these, like for example the pyrokinesis skill is limited to a few uses per day only (ex: three times the number of rank you have), and that Spirit Chanel takes one hour of meditation to establish contact with the spirit, or similar limitation you can think of.

So, even if one needs to correct a few things (in email, Steve said these limitations are needed and probably fair), the book is a great addition to the Ravenloft setting and I strongly recommend this book to anyone looking for a painless, more subtle way to introduce psionics to your campaign. I will surely add parts of it in my campaign in the next game.

It is sold at www.rpgnow.com.