Psionics Too Psi-Fi?

[Mishihari Lord]

It comes from the literature from which most RPGs are derived. Science fiction has psionics - frex Slan, Uncharted Stars, Julian May's stuff, the Pern books, Octavia Butler's stuff, Flinx, and on and on. Fantasy books have magic, of course. A very few books mix the two, and even fewer do it well. Andre Norton, Darkover, and the Deryni books about cover the good ones, IMO. I'm just used to seeing psionics in SF and magic in fantasy, and mixing the two gives me severe cognitive dissonance.

 

[Umbran]

As I understand the history, the term "psionics" was coined by John W Campbell (you know, perhaps the most influential editor in sci-fi history, for whom the Campbell awards are named). It is a combination of "psi" (which was a term being used by scientists investigating paranormal phenomena) and "electronics".

The idea was that "psionics" was where psychic powers became understood, and made regular and predictable like electronics - just more circuitry, this time in the brain. Psionics is what you have when the supernatural ceases to be supernatural, because it is explained by science and understood, and is then perhaps rare, but thoroughly natural.

I can see why some folks might not like that connotation in their fantasy setting.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Indeed, names are important.

Last time I used "psionics" in a fantasy campaign, it was psychic powers (from a third party source, also customised, because mechanics matter too) renamed appropriately for the setting, and the class that specialised in such things was itself renamed, to "Mystic".

Worked great. Players were happy with it, and I was happy with it.

 

[mattcolville]

I like Psionics as a way to show the players "these people are from an isolated and harsh part of the world where civilization developed differently."

In that context, I and my players typically accept psioncs. But when someone tries to treat psioncs like just another mechanic (and that's usually why; they're purely interested in the mechanic) with no thought in their character's backgrond given to explaining why this person has these powers, the other players reject it.

 

[Corathon]

Actually, a fair amount of weird fiction mixes science-fictional elements with fantasy, and that's true since the pulp days, at least. From H.P. Lovecraft's Great Old Ones (which are alien beings from outside space-time, or insane gods - take your pick) to Clark Ashton Smith's Mars stories (where horror/fantasy ambiance is layered over a nominally science fictional setting), to Saberhagen's "Empire of the East" (in which magic works, but only because of the consequences of a nuclear war).

I think the desire for "pure" fantasy comes from reading Tolkien and his imitators. Not that there's anything wrong with "pure" fantasy. I like it fine - but I like the weirder stuff, too.

 

[Desdichado]

Actually, a fair amount of weird fiction mixes science-fictional elements with fantasy, and that's true since the pulp days, at least.

I often call Weird Tales the genre that fantasy, science fiction, and horror all belonged to before they crystalized into subgenres of their own and went down different paths from each other.

In that sense, I've become a guy who's much more comfortable with "science fiction" elements in my fantasy, because I've much more embraced the paradigm of the weird tale instead of the fantasy story in it's "purer" form. Especially with regards to D&D, which I think was always much more weird tales than a lot of folks give it credit for. When I started with D&D, I was coming off of Tolkien and Lloyd Alexander, and what's the kind of traditional high fantasy background I wanted my games to be like. Honestly, I think D&D only ever superficially (at best) resembled that genre, though. It was always much more of a weird tale at heart.

To make a long story short (too late!) no, psionics isn't too science fictionish for me at all.

 

[Diamond Cross]

Well, the thing is, you realize the Iron Golem has elements of Sci-fi?

It can basically be considered a robot.

 

[Desdichado]

Well, the thing is, you realize the Iron Golem has elements of Sci-fi?

It can basically be considered a robot.

No. Bringing a statue to life has nothing to do with robots or sci-fi. Is Pinocchio a sci-fi story about a robot? Is Pygmalion?

 

[Doug McCrae]

I think William Hope Hodgson is the main progenitor of the 'looks supernatural but is really scientific' bit. The House on the Borderland, Carnacki, The Night Lands. He was a major influence on Lovecraft.

Though you could cite Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as the very first example.

 

[Set]

I grew up reading 'chick fantasy' that my mom had lying around (Andre Norton, Anne McCaffrey, Patricia McKillip, Linda Bushyager) as well as some various sci-fi/fantasy hybrid stuff like Fred Saberhagen and Roger Zelazny, and reading comic books, where mind-reading, hypnotizing people, throwing stuff around 'telekinetically,' astral projecting, etc. were the very definitions of 'magic.'

Some (Andre Norton, in particular) mixed and matched, others didn't even bother, having basic psi stuff being just generic magic, as it was for the couple of thousand years it was before the word 'psionic' was coined.

Call ESP 'the sight' or 'the third eye' and psychic domination 'glamour' or 'enchantment' and TK 'poltergeist' or 'unseen hands' or whatever and it's all magic by another name. Half of TV 'magic' is telekinetic stuff, it seems, from Willow Rosenberg pointing and stuff flying around to BBC Merlin pointing and stuff flying around to Zeddicus Z'ul Zorander pointing and stuff either flying around or bursting into flames...

The only quibble I have with psionics in D&D is that about 85% of the stuff one would do with psionics has already been shamelessly poached by the spellcasting system anyway.

When anyone does use psionics in D&D, we use psionics / magic transparency, and just flavor it as a different way to manipulate supernatural forces, rather than deal with quasi-compatibility issues, so Jean Grey becomes Dark Willow anyway.