D&D 5E Psionics in a sci-fi D&D

[Parmandur]

For my point of view, Jedi are more like Space Monks with OP Monk weapons.

Jedi ultimately have very few abilities. Remember you won't some powers from a Jedi.

Again, the questions if Psionics is supposed to replace or stand along with Magic? And whether Psionic is as limitless as Spells?

Depends on which h Extended Universe novels you read.

 

[Minigiant]

Depends on which h Extended Universe novels you read.

Disney killed those

 

[SkidAce]

Because it is scifi. Also, they're just different names for the same thing to begin with so having both would be thematically confused.

People keep repeating this. Maybe for you they are.

For me they are not the same. Different themes, tropes, stories, etc. One is magic, one is either science (depending how you view the unknown) or pseudo-science.

 

[SkidAce]

I'd expect any D&D-based scifi that contains psionics to be at least as fantasy than Star Wars. Neither D&D or psionics are fit for hard scifi.

That's cool, we all get here somehow. Personally the seventies are my childhood, so not so bad at all. Still one has to think about in Battlestar Galactica, they face down the devil at one point, or Mr Rourke in Fantasy Island, he also banishes evil? So yeah, everyone believed in the psi stuff and that is cool, though I don't think I have read anything after around 1990 that purports to be serious sci-fi that includes it. Nothing I saw in the Expanse, Revelation Space, or even the Culture, which is Space Opera deluxe for the most part. It has pretty much been binned as magic, and in that case, esp if the game has no magic either, then I'd just use those rules, waste not, want not.

You know thats fair, I lived the 70s and basically accepted there was magic and potentially mental abilities.

Sadly to this day, for all that most say they are the same, I have seen evidence of neither.

Kinda bummed.

 

[SkidAce]

Magic is typically supernatural, eg like from a god or something. Psi isn't really that, except it is fantasy anyways, so close enough. There is absolutely no science in psi, none.

We could say there is no science in all the scifi stories that exceed the speed of light somehow, but that would be no fun.

 

[dragoner]

We could say there is no science in all the scifi stories that exceed the speed of light somehow, but that would be no fun.

Sure, and if you want to have psi, that is totally cool, you should do so. I often find limits can make the setting interesting, such as fantasy with no gunpowder or steam, etc., and conversely I have run a campaign in Steampunk Byzantium, which was cool too.

 

[Minigiant]

If I were to say my preference, especially for aSciF setting, is to create a whole host of psionic disciplines (telepath, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, electrokinesis, cyberkinesis, metacreativity, shard creativity, ecto creativity, etc etc)

and each one gets its own powers.

Part of what make SciFi SciFi to me is each science is made fictional on their own. Every science is upgraded by the crazy own its own. The fictional science that makes a Psyker doesn't make a Space Marine or a Tech Priest. You can combine them but its combining 2 different things.

That's why I don't like Psionics as Spells in SciFi. The spell to make yourself a Space Marine is in the same pathways as the spell that make you shoot lightning. Even when psions and psykers have multiple powers the number is few. You get Telekinesis and Clairsentience and either Lightning and Vampiric powers or Healing and Light powers.

 

[Redwizard007]

Yes. But we would expect this to work differently to normal animate dead. For one we would to expect the caster to have to continue to concentrate to maintain the telekinetic affect.

And that's leaving aside whether this is really a telekinetic effect that makes sense. Why would I telekinetically animate a whole skeleton rather than just say a sword?

Off the cuff answer? Because I can visualize the skeleton moving easier than I can visualize making good strikes with a floating sword. The fact that the skeleton is requiring more complex movements is irrelevant because I believe it will be easier.

 

[Scars Unseen]

If I were to say my preference, especially for aSciF setting, is to create a whole host of psionic disciplines (telepath, telekinesis, pyrokinesis, electrokinesis, cyberkinesis, metacreativity, shard creativity, ecto creativity, etc etc)

and each one gets its own powers.

Part of what make SciFi SciFi to me is each science is made fictional on their own. Every science is upgraded by the crazy own its own. The fictional science that makes a Psyker doesn't make a Space Marine or a Tech Priest. You can combine them but its combining 2 different things.

That's why I don't like Psionics as Spells in SciFi. The spell to make yourself a Space Marine is in the same pathways as the spell that make you shoot lightning. Even when psions and psykers have multiple powers the number is few. You get Telekinesis and Clairsentience and either Lightning and Vampiric powers or Healing and Light powers.

Yeah, if there's one thing I would want to avoid in a psionics mechanic it's the existence of a generalist. A pyrokinetic is not a telekinetic is not a telepath is not a biokinetic, and so on.

 

[Faolyn]

(Not interested in “D&D doesn’t fit sci-fi” responses)

Assuming you accept the premise, would you prefer psionics to be magic reskinned or a totally new system?

New system. I did like the psionics die they tested in the UA.