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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 7609771" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>While I in no way begrudge folks who want them their psionic classes, for me it always seemed the problem with psionics - and the reason game designers kept resorting to novel mechanics for it - is that it's not really that different, in fluff, from magic. A lot of what people who believed in magic would have called magic, is what we'd today call a 'psychic power' (or a temporal lobe seizure, as the case may be). If anything, some you might be wishing for psionics for something that feels /more/ like real/traditional magic than D&D fireball & lightning SFX. The difference is context, "psionics" was coined for science fiction, it brought psychic powers/magic into the realm of the science-sounding 'electronics' or 'cryonics' or 'bionics' or psychotronics (brace yourself & google it) or whateveronics that were buzzing mid-century, the way "dot-com" did at the turn of the millennium.</p><p></p><p>For that matter, arguably, Sorcerers & Warlocks are mainly differentiated from Wizards by the mechanics, because the fluff distinctions among them aren't as robust as they might be. (Though, I suppose history really says the opposite: the Sorcerer was introduced as a vehicle for spontaneous casting, and the Warlock for at-will casting. The fluff was just making excuses. ::shrug:<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>#mindmagic.com</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 7609771, member: 996"] While I in no way begrudge folks who want them their psionic classes, for me it always seemed the problem with psionics - and the reason game designers kept resorting to novel mechanics for it - is that it's not really that different, in fluff, from magic. A lot of what people who believed in magic would have called magic, is what we'd today call a 'psychic power' (or a temporal lobe seizure, as the case may be). If anything, some you might be wishing for psionics for something that feels /more/ like real/traditional magic than D&D fireball & lightning SFX. The difference is context, "psionics" was coined for science fiction, it brought psychic powers/magic into the realm of the science-sounding 'electronics' or 'cryonics' or 'bionics' or psychotronics (brace yourself & google it) or whateveronics that were buzzing mid-century, the way "dot-com" did at the turn of the millennium. For that matter, arguably, Sorcerers & Warlocks are mainly differentiated from Wizards by the mechanics, because the fluff distinctions among them aren't as robust as they might be. (Though, I suppose history really says the opposite: the Sorcerer was introduced as a vehicle for spontaneous casting, and the Warlock for at-will casting. The fluff was just making excuses. ::shrug::) #mindmagic.com [/QUOTE]
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