Psionics Too Psi-Fi?

[Doug McCrae]

Note something: the terms "telekinesis" and "teleport" date back to the 1800s. "Clairvoyance" is from the 1600s. These words are centuries old, and so don't really smack of "science" - they've been used in fantasy literature for as long as the genre has existed.

Telekinesis is from 1890 so it's just over one century old. Teleportation was coined by Charles Fort in 1931.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Any technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Any sufficiently advanced technology, sure.

Arthur Clark's original statement is an entirely relative statement.

So Diamond Cross' reformulation is basically correct- any technology IS indistinguishable from magic...to somebody.

I mean, imagine a simple match. Bring a box of those back to 20,000 BC and you'll have as much Yak as the locals can bring to you, Bringer of Fire.

 

[Mallus]

They are also absent from most of the definitive works of sci-fi, so that hardly matters.

They're more common in SF. Are you disputing that?

My take is that new jargon connotes science fiction, while words centuries old typically don't.

I imagine that all depends on how and when those really old words enter the common parlance.

 

[Mallus]

Cloudkill, massmorph, glassteel, glassee, spiritwrack, passwall - some early donkeyhorsing there.

Infravision, duo-dimension, temporal stasis, disintegrate, anti-magic shell, ventriloquism, hypnotism, paralyzation, pyrotechnics, telekinesis, teleport, clairvoyance, clauraudience, ESP, dimension door, phantasmal force, polymorph self/other, Rary's mnemonic enhancer.

Wait, aren't those words first found in Spencer's The Faerie Queen??!???!

 

[Arlough]

Wizards, if you read the early articles about this, was basically choosing Psionics over [Ki, Chi, and Chakra.

They wanted a different power source with magical effects and marital flavor (training the body and mind to work together etc, etc) and they didn't want it relegated to only being East Asian.

Honestly, if anyone has a problem with the way the class functions, ask yourself if it would work for you if it was called Chakra instead of Psionic. If all the powers then work for you, change all instances of Psionic in the book to Chakra. Hell, call it Alkahestry if you want.

The flavor of anything can be changed to fit the setting. The real question should be "Are these mechanics problematic?"

 

[Umbran]

Telekinesis is from 1890 so it's just over one century old. Teleportation was coined by Charles Fort in 1931.

Hm. The sources I found had them earlier. I stand corrected.

A century, in linguistic terms, is still fine for my argument. Predating the genres in question is sufficient.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Hm. The sources I found had them earlier. I stand corrected.

I could be wrong, I'm just going by the wikipedia articles for psychokinesis (which also has telekinesis) and teleportation.

But in both cases the articles cited the guy who coined the term, Alexander Aksakof for telekinesis, Fort for teleportation. That extra level of detail made them seem quite authoritative.

 

[Uder]

Psionics have a biological psuedo-science explanation for why they work at their root. They're science fiction, regardless of the type of fantasy they show up in.

 

[Umbran]

They're more common in SF. Are you disputing that?

I think neither one of us has anything like an authoritative survey of the genres to know that. I think both genres have more than sufficient examples - and if there's few synonyms, both genres are usually going to use the same terminology.

 

[Dausuul]

Infravision, duo-dimension, temporal stasis, disintegrate, anti-magic shell, ventriloquism, hypnotism, paralyzation, pyrotechnics, telekinesis, teleport, clairvoyance, clauraudience, ESP, dimension door, phantasmal force, polymorph self/other, Rary's mnemonic enhancer

Most of these terms sound modern. The words are largely from 1800 or later. 19th century sci-fi, mostly, and some 20th. They are definitely not medieval, or even renaissance.

Your concept of "modern-sounding" stretches pretty far. "Paralysis" and "phantasm" go back to the Middle Ages. "Hypnotism" is new but "hypnotic" is attested from 1620. Or do you think every Latinate word has sci-fi associations?

Infravision, duo-dimension, ventriloquism, and ESP all got axed or renamed in 3E, and good riddance. "Polymorph" is just a Latin donkeyhorse (asinequus?). As Umbran has pointed out, there aren't really good alternatives to "teleport" and "telekinesis," and I would add "disintegrate" to that list.

Now, does that leave some stuff that could stand a rename? Of course. But if we're going to drag up and debate every thematically dubious name in D&D, we'll still be arguing here when 5E is released.