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<blockquote data-quote="Hexmage-EN" data-source="post: 7410592" data-attributes="member: 79428">I find your analysis very interesting. I'm aware that in the past there wasn't such a strong division between sci-fi and fantasy, but as a person born in 1988 that division had already been long established. The closest thing to a sci-fi/fantasy setting I was exposed to as a child was the cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian, in which sorcery returned to post-apocalyptic Earth.At some point I somehow got the idea that psychic powers were just a modern understanding of magic, divorced from spirits or rituals and linked only to the mind. Seeing psionics in Dungeons and Dragons therefore felt strange, as it felt like it was reinventing the wheel for no real benefit.I looked at the 4E take on psionics and found it marginally more interesting. For one thing, monks were warriors who used psionics to enhance their skills (despite not using the Power Point system all the other psionic classes possessed), and if I recall correctly the lore of the Dawn War setting stated that the first monks were taught by angels, who used the word &quot;ki&quot; to refer to the power of the mind influencing the body. Further, psionics was explicitly referred to as psionic magic, an attempt to tie it to fantasy (as it is understood now, at least). This psionic magic was explained as being linked to the Far Realm, whose inhabitants primarily use it instead of the other forms of magic (which in 4E were Arcane, Divine, Primal, Shadow, Elemental, and Psionic).Personally I would still rather leave Psionics as the &quot;magic&quot; system of Gamma World or some other modern/future/post-apocalyptic setting.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hexmage-EN, post: 7410592, member: 79428"] I find your analysis very interesting. I'm aware that in the past there wasn't such a strong division between sci-fi and fantasy, but as a person born in 1988 that division had already been long established. The closest thing to a sci-fi/fantasy setting I was exposed to as a child was the cartoon Thundarr the Barbarian, in which sorcery returned to post-apocalyptic Earth. At some point I somehow got the idea that psychic powers were just a modern understanding of magic, divorced from spirits or rituals and linked only to the mind. Seeing psionics in Dungeons and Dragons therefore felt strange, as it felt like it was reinventing the wheel for no real benefit. I looked at the 4E take on psionics and found it marginally more interesting. For one thing, monks were warriors who used psionics to enhance their skills (despite not using the Power Point system all the other psionic classes possessed), and if I recall correctly the lore of the Dawn War setting stated that the first monks were taught by angels, who used the word "ki" to refer to the power of the mind influencing the body. Further, psionics was explicitly referred to as psionic [I]magic[/I], an attempt to tie it to fantasy (as it is understood now, at least). This psionic magic was explained as being linked to the Far Realm, whose inhabitants primarily use it instead of the other forms of magic (which in 4E were Arcane, Divine, Primal, Shadow, Elemental, and Psionic). Personally I would still rather leave Psionics as the "magic" system of Gamma World or some other modern/future/post-apocalyptic setting. [/QUOTE]

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