Running a spionic game
- Thread starter The DM
- Start date
Magical scientists
Think about it, they're all hunched over in their laboratories sectioned off from the rest of the town or village in case an experiment goes wrong. Their time is spent learning new formulas, or engaging in experimentation and developing new theories and hypotheses. Their "magic" is based entirely around known and regular formula in which they combine several things and ingredients together to achieve their desired results.
Sorrowdusk
First Post
For whatever reason spionics doesnt come across as magical to me. Perhaps its all in the name, but rather than mystical it feels a touch more sci-fi or sci-fi fantasy in a sort of Dune like fashion. Wizards as 'magical scientists' sort of works for me, on the basis that arcane (secret) knowledge = power as opposed to some innate ability.
Celebrim
Legend
Magical scientists
And there we have it. Because the origin of 'psi-onics' is exactly 'the science of magic' or 'magical science'. In fact, the word originally meant 'machines that help one harness their magical energy' (note the relationship to the word 'bionics'). Psionics are themselves about envisioning magic in a modern post-scientific manner. To the extent that you can reclothe psionics in different magical traditions, you can do the very same thing to the sorcerer with (IMO) equal effectiveness.
It's very hard from most fantasy texts to draw exact conclusions about how magic works. Most of the time, magic is merely a plot device and its particulars are not explained and are difficult to systemize. Likewise, if you were to novelize most D&D adventures, assuming that you avoided alot of explicitly metagame language and unnecessary pedantry, the particulars of the system would also tend to be difficult to discover. The fact is that 'Gandalf is a 6th level Wizard' is at least a possible interpretation of his abilities, and yet Middle Earth is by no means an explicitly 'Vancian' world. 'Gandalf is a 6th level Psion' is no more or no less accurate. The important thing isn't the mechanical resolution, but the results. 'Vancian' magic manages to well emmulate alot of other forms of magic because it emmulates the story structure of magic which, in novels at least, really is usually nothing more than a plot device limited by narrative conventions. That convention is chiefly that magicians refrain - for whatever reasons of their own - from performing magic all the time.
The biggest reason for me to play a psionic character over a spellcaster is to not have to deal with spell slots, period.
Beyond that, the flavor to me IS important. A psionic character is all about tapping into his own reservoir of energy and using that to shape the world around him. Standard fluff, the wizard is about tapping into the arcane forces of the universe, while the cleric is about tapping into the power of a deity. The psion to me is how more classic fantasy "magic" should work, rather than the adaptation of Vance's slot system that has been a sacred cow of D&D forever.
Beyond that, the flavor to me IS important. A psionic character is all about tapping into his own reservoir of energy and using that to shape the world around him. Standard fluff, the wizard is about tapping into the arcane forces of the universe, while the cleric is about tapping into the power of a deity. The psion to me is how more classic fantasy "magic" should work, rather than the adaptation of Vance's slot system that has been a sacred cow of D&D forever.
Theo R Cwithin
I cast "Baconstorm!"
This. I honestly think my only real hang ups with spsioncis is the word itself. It just sounds more 'tech' or 'Victorian' or 'modern' to me, but not so 'fantasy'.
On the other hand, I do like the implementation; it feels so much more natural than spell slots, especially for spont casters.
With a bit of reflavoring (or just renaming) to match (my visions of) the setting, I do hope to give ipsoincs a whirl some time.
Sekhmet
First Post
No 6th level Wizard stands toe-to-toe with a CR20 Balor and wins by stabbing it with a sword.
Just call it mentalism... mind magic... chakra energy...
All sorts of different things you can call it if you don't like the word "psionics"
For example, in-character, my nomad calls telepaths "mind-benders" and the telepaths call nomads "transporters"
Eldritch_Lord
Adventurer
Gah, the whole "psionics = sci-fi" thing again.
Vancian magic is sci-fi. It comes from the Dying Earth series, where a post-apocalyptic Earth with a red giant for a sun is seeing a resurgence in magic, and "spells" are pseudo-intelligent creatures/programs that live in your mind after you read their code out of a book and they try to convince you to cast them all the time.
Meanwhile, the only thing making psionics seem different from regular fantasy magic is the fact that the names use more polysyllabic nomenclature. Sensitivity to psychic impressions ~ legend lore. Matter agitation ~ heat metal. restore extremity ~ regenerate. And so on and so forth. And Vancian magic is just as guilty of its "sciency-sounding names" with telekinesis, clairvoyance, polymorph, and such.
The next time you have a wizard mixing potions in a lab using the programs he's memorized, working with a psion meditating on a cushion and working magic through the power of his own self-confidence, stop and think which one seems more "tech" or "modern" and not so much "fantasy."
Vancian magic is sci-fi. It comes from the Dying Earth series, where a post-apocalyptic Earth with a red giant for a sun is seeing a resurgence in magic, and "spells" are pseudo-intelligent creatures/programs that live in your mind after you read their code out of a book and they try to convince you to cast them all the time.
Meanwhile, the only thing making psionics seem different from regular fantasy magic is the fact that the names use more polysyllabic nomenclature. Sensitivity to psychic impressions ~ legend lore. Matter agitation ~ heat metal. restore extremity ~ regenerate. And so on and so forth. And Vancian magic is just as guilty of its "sciency-sounding names" with telekinesis, clairvoyance, polymorph, and such.
The next time you have a wizard mixing potions in a lab using the programs he's memorized, working with a psion meditating on a cushion and working magic through the power of his own self-confidence, stop and think which one seems more "tech" or "modern" and not so much "fantasy."
