fusangite said:
I'm not a fan of psionics for the simple reason that the term damages my suspension of disbelief. The thing that the term "psionics" describes is magic. But by labeling one particular type of magic with a sci-fi term, D&D becomes less generically coherent.
... D&D presents quite enough challenges to suspending disbelief without adding this.
D&D was pretty incoherent from the start. Heck, even Chainmail didn't try for coherence. D&D's white box has
There should be no "natural laws" which are certain. Space could be passable
because it is filled with breathable air. On the other hand the stars could be tiny
lights only a few hundred miles away. Some areas of land could be gates into
other worlds, dimensions, times, or whatever. Mars is given in these rules, but
some other fantastic world or setting could be equally as possible. This function
is up to the referee...
--p24, Vol III
Extraordinary mind powers are absolutely appropriate to pseudo-medieval fantasy, IMHO.
They can't be much less coherent than the following, from Greyhawk, p.61:
A box of animal crackers which will spring to life when grasped; for example a bear
might dump a bowl of porridge on the player's head, a giant fox might demand a
bunch of grapes or else he'll attack, a lion will attack unless a thorn in his paw is
removed, and so on. At least one of the animals will give some treasure or aid of
some sort.
Rooms which emit rays or gases which cause unexpected reactions or force players entering
to do things they do not necessarily desire to do, i.e. a room which causes all
who enter to wish to attack each other, a room of greed, a geas room, a room which
causes a sex to change, a cursed room, etc.
Devices which have numbers of levers, buttons, dials or whatever; and the movement of
each will cause a different thing to happen. Typical examples of results: 1) damage to
mover; 2) change alignment; 3) become another class; 4) become a monster; 5) lose a
level; 6) teleported elsewhere; 7) release various missiles which come out or down
within a certain area; 8) open pits or slides; 9) give various treasures; 10) give a magic
item; and 11) give some bonus to experience or abilities.
There are many more possibilities.
Door which will open only for a certain class of player or to one alignment.
Doors which will open only for monsters.
Doors which will open to allow traffic into an area but not out of it.
I read accounts of medieval Sufis and folks like Roger Bacon and it sounds a *lot* more like psionics than like Vancean magic. Vancean worlds are not very medieval -- they are heavily sci-fi. (Moorcock's Elric/Count Brass stories are almost as sci-fi, but not quite.)
I love Jack Vance and everything he wrote. But he was writing a very specific critique of the modern world of 1950 with "The Dying Earth" and "Rhialto the Magnificent." (Both of those stories incorporated quite a few sci-fi elements.) Jack Vance had no problem making great stories with psionics.
I love AD&D. But AD&D does not do justice to Vance. If it did, every wizard would *not* start with magic missile -- 90% of wizards would have pet spirits to do their combat for them, just like Rhialto.
One of the reasons that Gygax and Arneson must be counted as geniuses is that they invented a completely new genre of fantasy. It has taken over the culture, and we *think* it's the way fantasy has always been, but in fact, it's a *recent* genre.
I love the idea of psionics. I hate the flavor text of 3.x, and the rules of just about every edition.
Full disclosure:
I had a lot of fun with psionics in AD&D, because I was too young to be ashamed of Monty Haul:
