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<blockquote data-quote="Mordhau" data-source="post: 8460138" data-attributes="member: 7032137">The thing about psionics is that is comes from a time when science fiction could sort of (if only by squinting and not thinking about it too closely) present psionics as something that just might possibly plausibly exist.There was a time where it didn't seem so impossible that people might have some small latent psychic ability, that might over time whether by eugenics or evolution be developed.Now, I'm not claiming it was ever hard science, and certainly D&amp;D takes even the slightly plausible elements of psi powers and goes beyond it, but it did mean that if you presented a fantasy world that was actually a far future colony that had regressed to something vaguely medieval and had wizards who were really masters of psychic powers, you could sort of present it as slightly more grounded than pure fantasy.This doesn't work anymore, because we would just read it as pure fantasy.This doesn't mean that psionics has no place anymore, but it's probably best to see it as a type of magic that is best suited to varieties of fantasy that used to be seen as more science fiction such as planetary romance and sword and planet stories (In many ways these are dead genres, so we're basically doing pastiche or drawing influence).&nbsp; Dark Sun uses psionics because it pulls in a lot of influence from sword and planet.That's the feel psionics needs to aim for.&nbsp; It if doesn't achieve that sort of vaguely science fiction colour feel then it doesn't really work.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mordhau, post: 8460138, member: 7032137"] The thing about psionics is that is comes from a time when science fiction could sort of (if only by squinting and not thinking about it too closely) present psionics as something that just might possibly plausibly exist. There was a time where it didn't seem so impossible that people might have some small latent psychic ability, that might over time whether by eugenics or evolution be developed. Now, I'm not claiming it was ever hard science, and certainly D&D takes even the slightly plausible elements of psi powers and goes beyond it, but it did mean that if you presented a fantasy world that was actually a far future colony that had regressed to something vaguely medieval and had wizards who were really masters of psychic powers, you could sort of present it as slightly more grounded than pure fantasy. This doesn't work anymore, because we would just read it [I]as[/I] pure fantasy. This doesn't mean that psionics has no place anymore, but it's probably best to see it as a type of magic that is best suited to varieties of fantasy that used to be seen as more science fiction such as planetary romance and sword and planet stories (In many ways these are dead genres, so we're basically doing pastiche or drawing influence). Dark Sun uses psionics because it pulls in a lot of influence from sword and planet. That's the feel psionics needs to aim for. It if doesn't achieve that sort of vaguely science fiction colour feel then it doesn't really work. [/QUOTE]

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