Psionics: Do you use 'em or did you lose 'em

[mhacdebhandia]

I'm fine with psionics, especially from the Expanded Psionics Handbook which just gets it working right.

Like at least one other poster, I have no attachment whatsoever to standard fantasy, so it doesn't bother me to have tattooed crystal-waving types around.

 

[Ferret]

I would have voted Like but don't use 'em.

 

[Dakkareth]

Play one. Love 'em.

 

[Brennin Magalus]

Well, except for the forehead thing...I'm forced to disagree...In D&D they have pointy ears.

Replicators rearrange energy and matter into desired patterns- which is what happens in biological, chemical and nuclear reactions. Its not a question of could this be done, but HOW it could be done in a controlled fashion. According to the big brains out there, energy and matter are interchangeable-its a question of changing states.

I have seen nothing to suggest that we will ever have "replicators" (or transporter beams, for that matter).

Warp drive/hyperspace etc., in some form of another has been theorized not only by sci-fi guys, but also by serious theoriticians. Usually theories about warp drive (and its close buddies teleportation and time travel) involve hypermassive bodies like black holes or neutron stars...but others have described it as a possibility with string theory.

Reality? No...at least not yet. But possible according to some serious thinkers.

Serious thinkers (and loons) thought the moon was inhabited in the 19th century.

That "not yet" as compared to "never have never will" is crucial. Its not a bright line test- after all much of the tech we use today would be considered impossible to someone 200 years ago- but it still points at a qualitative difference.

Just because someone can dream up something that is remotely scientific does not mean it will come to pass, so the distinction you are arguing for is useless.

With that in mind, I really can't rule out psionics/psychic abilities as somehow "inappropriate" to a fantasy setting.

I can and I do.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Brennnin

"Teleportation" at a quantum level has been witnessed in laboratory settings. As the scientists quickly pointed out, that doesn't mean jack as far as practical teleportation- but they also said it couldn't be ruled out. That is, what they observed at a quantum level may not be replicable at a macro scale, but that it also isn't ruled out.

Remember E=M(cxc)? Energy and Mass are interchangeable. The fusion processes and byproducts that happen in the heart of a star indicate that you can start of with a simple atom-Hydrogen- and muck with it until it becomes whatever you want- Helium, Iron, high-energy plasma, etc. We just don't know how to control the process...without blowing something up.

Just because someone can dream up something that is remotely scientific does not mean it will come to pass, so the distinction you are arguing for is useless

I think there is a definite qualitative difference between something that is remotely possible as opposed to something that has been proven to be impossible or to never have happened. The possibility that humankind will invent some kind of FTL is remote. The possibility that a human ever fought a flying firebreathing dragon is ZERO.

That said- I have no problem with your not liking Psionics- I don't use that as my criterion for enjoying a campaign. If I did, I'd have given up on this hobby YEARS ago.

Its just that with my PERSONAL love of them, as opposed to the psi-hate I keep running into, I was puzzled as to the REAL state of the hobby. In other words, was I in the minority or the majority?

I believe I have my answer- I'm just having a 28year long streak of bad luck!

 

[WayneLigon]

I have to reply: Other

I never liked the psionics rules in D&D for 1E and 2E. They were poorly done, poorly thought out, unbalanced (in some cases hideously so), and generally meant that anyone who had them was either a minor god or caused the rest of the party to die because every mind flayer in the world would go through us trying to get to his tasty tasty brains.

I've never in 25+ years known of only a bare handfull of GM's that would even let someone play a psionic and not a single one of them did it more than once.

I have no idea what the new rules are like. I got the original book, never used it, then they changed the rules on psionics once more and so that meant I'd never buy the second book. I have a couple of the Monte Book psionics books because I got them cheap but I've never really read deeply in them. Just picked up Blue Rose in print the other day and I might well use it's psionics-like magic system at some point in the future.

 

[Jackelope King]

I love psionics enough that I'm running a game right now which exclusively uses psionics. I've also used them alongside traditional magic as a mysterious, alien force which worked very well. Love 'em and I love seeing the little bit of support for psionics WotC has been putting out. I wish there was more, but I'm happy enough to make due.

 

[helium3]

I don't particularly enjoy the "standard" version of medieval magical fantasy. Even if you take out the magical aspect, what most mainstream D&D players consider "medieval" is really a 20th century outlook on the world covered with a thin veneer of Hollywood medieval trappings. Thus, arguments against various magic systems and classes because they don't fit into a "medieval fantasy" setting don't hold a lot of water for me. As a DM, I enjoy picking and choosing various aspects of the game system and tying those disparate aspects into a unified world that is very different from anything I've created before.

 

[Zander]

As it bugs me when anyone claims that they're not. There's not a shred of scientific evidence to suggest that there's any reality to psychic powers, so by definition they are fantasy.

No, by definition they're fiction. Fantasy is its own genre within the broader category of fiction, just as horror, crime, historical fiction, SF etc are. Fantasy and fiction are not synonymous.

It proves absolutely nothing to point out that some sci-fi author in the 50s coined the term. I already knew that, but didn't bring it up because it was irrelevent.

It is relevant.

A few years ago, there was a protracted debate in Realms of Fantasy magazine about what is fantasy and what is SF (a debate you're no doubt already aware of). The editor concluded that SF is the fiction of ideas while fantasy is the fiction of imagery. The ideas that are fictionalised in SF are normally scientific or technological. As such, they have fictional scientific/technological rationales (which can be termed "pseudo-scientific/pseudo-technological"). Campbell provided just such a pseudo-scientific rationale for mental powers rooting them in SF.

When you unstop the the pseudo-scientific/technological bottle, the fiction of ideas replaces the fiction of imagery. Once one thing has a pseudo-scientific basis, why not another? Very soon, everything within a fictional world can be explained pseudo-scientifically and elements that require relatively simple pseudo or even real science and technology become possible. In a world where matter can be manipulated by the electric activity of the brain, there's no reason not to have more mundane science and technology such as telegraphs or even bicycles.

I don't know about you but in my game worlds paladins in shiny armour come to the rescue on horses, not bikes. YMMV.

 

[megamania]

Psionics are just fine for me the DM and for players to use.