Clubbed To Death

Because i'm certain i've awakened from this dream many times before, and because I find this video clip unsettling, in a vaguely Clark Ashton Smith / 12 Monkeys / They Live! way. Time is the killer, according to the poster in the background.



And something a little more upbeat, The Shamen, from the 90's. This video remix incorporates clips from some of my favorite movies.

Additional Psionic Talents

Psionicists use the same experience table as Magic Users. So, in order to achieve 2nd Level, a Psionicist must obtain 2,500 experience points, and so on.

At each level, after first level, a Psionicist may aquire up to two additional levels of psionic talent mastery. In order to obtain each additional psionic talent, the Player rolls a d20, twice. If both rolls are less than the character's Charisma, the character obtains two new talents. If one roll is less than the character's Charisma, the character obtains one new talent. If neither roll is less than the character's Charisma, the character obtains another level in their wild talent.

Once you have determined how many new talents you have obtained, you a d10 and consult the talent table. 3rd Level Psionicists can roll on the first or second column. 5th Level Psionicists can roll on the first, second or third column, and 7th Level Psionicists can roll on any of the 4 columns. If you obtain a result, but you do not have a talent in an earlier column, you must take the earliest talent in that talent tree, that you do not yet possess.

For example, at 5th Level, the Player rolls on column 3, and gets a result of 3, "Mass Invisibility". Since her character does not have "limited invisibility" or "invisibility" she must take "limited invisibility" instead.

Psionicist Class: Draft

Psionicists

Psionicists are ordinary people who have been blessed (or cursed) with innate powers of the mind. They may have possessed this ability since birth, or may have developed their power more recently, as a result of an accident or other traumatic event. As a result, Psionicists tend to be loners, afraid of revealing their psionic abilities to others.

The prime attribute for Psionicists is Charisma. In order to play a Psionicist, a character must have a minimum Charisma score of 9. If Psionicists have a Charisma of 13+, they receive two +5% experience point bonuses (one for having a high Charisma, and another for having a 13+ in their prime attribute).

Psionicists are otherwise ordinary people. Therefore, they use a d6 for hit points.

They may use any armor, shields and weapons.

Psionicists begin with one "wild talent" at first level. After you have created your character, roll a d10 to determine what your wild talent is, by consulting the following table. However, for every point of Charisma above 9, you may eliminate one wild talent from the following table. If you roll an eliminated result, simply roll again, until you roll a wild talent that you have not already eliminated. Of course, this means that if you have a Charisma of 18, you may pick your beginning wild talent.

Wild Talents
1. Affect Normal Fires
2. Body Weaponry
3. ESP
4. Limited Invisibility
5. Precognition
6. Psionic Blast
7. Shocking Grasp
8. Suggestion
9. Telekinesis
10. Limited Teleport

Psionicist: Serenity

I missed both the Firefly TV show and the Serenity movie when they originally aired. At the time, I probably believed the critics that panned the show. I greatly regret that, as it was a wonderful fusion of the western and science fiction genres.

One of the characters is River Tam, who is gifted with telepathy, precognition, and several other abilities.

Those other abilities include some pretty spectacular combat abilities. I will have to go back to Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry, but I recall there being some physical abilities tied to psionics, in addition to the psychological ones.

Psionicist: Phenomenon

"George Malley is an ordinary man, who is about to become ... extraordinary."

This horse is probably long-buried, but I keep coming back to the idea that Psionicists are just ordinary people, who somehow find themselves with a special gift (or curse). In the case of the character, George Malley, played by John Travolta in the movie Phenomenon, that special power is telekenesis, along with some other interesting powers.

Telekenesis, Firestarter, Precognition and Invisibility are four of the 10-12 "wild talents" that i'm thinking Psionicists might start with. I'm picking away at other ideas for talents, and am always open to suggestions.

I'm still trying to work out the way that Psionicists improve their wild talent, and gain new talents. It seems obvious (at least to me!) that gaining those talents should follow level-progression, but how to keep a Psionicist balanced against the Magic-User and Cleric (the other two "casters") but still give the Psionicist class its own "flavour", is the challenge I am currently wrestling with.

Psionicist: Firestarter

Here's another film, Firestarter, from 1984, based on the Steven King novel of the same title, about a girl who develops Psionic powers. In this case, she has the ability to start fires. The approach I am thinking of using, for the development of a Psionicist, is to come up with 10-12 "wild talents", one of which a Psionicist will start with, at first level. Precognition, Firestarter, and Invisibility are three of the wild talents that I intend to allow for first-level Psionicists.

Others?

Psionicist: The Dead Zone

This movie came out in 1983. Starring the incomparable Christopher Walken, and directed by (surprise, surprise!) David Cronenberg, this movie tells the story of Johnny Smith (how much more everyman of a name can that be!), who develops precognition, as a result of a terrible car accident.

I wanted to share this, as it is yet another influence on my views of the development of the Psionicist class.

Again, this supports the idea that "anyone" can be cursed with the development of a psionic ability, thus allowing for psionics to be added to a D&D campaign, without having some insurmountable dice-roll for the character to obtain psionics.

Psionics: Alternate OD&D Approach

Over at Savage Swords of Athanor, there is a recent post regarding Psionics.

While the proposed psionics ability in that post hews closely to the original OD&D approach to psionics, I found some interesting views on what sort of psionic powers might be available to those gifted characters.

Psionics In 0e: Inspirational Reading

One of my earliest introductions to psionics was through Larry Niven's A Gift From Earth, first published in 1968, which I highly recommend.

This book heavily informs my views on RPG psionics.

It tells the story of Matthew Keller, a human miner/colonist, on a planet ruled, in perpetuity, by the descendants of the ship's crew that brought the colonists to that planet.

The story's protagonist is the stereotypical 40 year-old virgin. While not an unattractive man, the ladies always end up losing interest in him. The reason? Unbeknownst to him, he has a psionic power that allows him to become (effectively) invisible to others. His power is a little more complicated than that, but this should give you a general idea of his psionic power.

The novel tells the story of how, through the use of his psionic power, he is able to infiltrate the headquarters of the planet's rulers, and overturn the oppressive order imposed on the colonists.

My preference on the operation of psionics in a RPG setting mirrors the idea of an everyman (or woman) who has some vague idea that they are "different". That difference is the possession of latent psionic powers.

In an earlier post on psionics, one of my readers made the following remark:

"Follow me here... In a fantasy setting, I could conceive of a non intelligent, unwise, uncharismatic player or npc possessing wild and dangerous psionic ability (like a child or some hermit or crazy hillbilly). I always thought some of the most fun, interesting, and terrifying, aspects of psionic power was the unpredictability it may have in the hands of a person who doesn't really know how to handle it (think firestarter, carrie). I don't think psionics should be seen so much as an art form to be learnt (like wizardry), as an organic occurrence that a character has or not. Whether they can learn to control, direct, or fully make use of it is another question that may be determined by the balance of their intelligence, wisdom, etc."

I agree about the wild, dangerous psionic ability, although I would tie the class to an attribute, in this case, Charisma. In A Gift From Earth, Matthew Keller has a psionic talent, of which he is largely unaware, and has difficulty controlling. Through the course of the novel, the Protagonist discovers and perfects the use of this psionic talent, and discovers further applications of that talent (ie. additional psionic talents).

The Psionicist class in my 0e supplement would start as their own class, basically an everyman (woman), and would incorporate the idea of a latent psionic talent. I call this the Psionicist's "Wild Talent", and would be the psionic ability that the Psionicist starts with, at first level.

Psionicist: Prime Attribute

From Original Dungeons and Dragons: Men and Magic, published in 1974.

Intelligence is the prime requisite for magical types. Intelligence will also affect referees' decisions as to whether or not certain actions would be taken, and it allows additional languages to be spoken.

Wisdom is the prime requisite for Clerics. Wisdom rating will act much as does that for intelligence.

Charisma is a combination of appearance, personality, and so forth. It's primary function is to determine how many hirelings of unusual nature a character can attract.

Thanks for nothing, Gary. The Original Dungeons and Dragons attribute definitions are of little help in determining the appropriateness of Charisma as a prime attribute for Psionicists. In fact, the original definition of Charisma hurts the argument! It makes sense to use one, or a combination, of Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma, but how to justify Charisma as THE attribute?

Turning to the AD&D Players Handbook, Gary offers a few more scraps from the table.

Charisma: Charisma is the measure of the character's combined physical attractiveness, pursuasiveness and personal magnetism. A generally non-beautiful character can have a very high charisma due to strong measures of the other two aspects of charisma.

Better. I like the pursuasiveness and personal magnetism angles, but can those be leveraged into a justification for Charisma as the psionic attribute?

Finally, I turn to the wikipedia, which knows all.

Charisma: from the Greek word "kharisma" meaning "divine gift".

Although difficult or even impossible to define accurately (due to an abundance of wildly diverse criteria in regard to the trait), charisma is often used to describe an elusive, even undefinable personality trait that often includes the seemingly 'supernatural' or uncanny ability to lead, charm, persuade, inspire, and/or influence people. It refers especially to a quality in certain people who easily draw the attention and admiration (or even hatred if the application of such charisma is perceived to be negative) of others due to a 'magnetic' quality of personality and/or appearance. Related terms and phrases include: grace, exuberance, equanimity, mystique, positive energy, joie de vivre, extreme charm, personal magnetism, personal appeal, "electricity," and allure, among many others[1]. Usually many of these specific qualities must be present within a single individual for the person to be considered highly charismatic by the public and their peers.

Thank you wikipedia. Based on that definition of Charisma, I am far more confident using Charisma as the prime attribute for Psionicists.

Psionicist As Class In 0e

I've never liked the treatment of Psionics in D&D.

To me, it was just too complicated and too inaccessible. In OD&D, the psionics rules appeared in Supplement III: Eldritch Wizardry, published in 1976. Those rules were badly edited, with psionics rules appearing helter-skelter between descriptions of monks and druids, demons and optional combat rules. They were too complicated, with all sorts of saving throws, table lookups, psionic power recovery algorithms, and new and vague spell-like powers, attacks and defences. Psionics was also too inaccessible, with there being only a rare chance of aquiring psionics (since in OD&D you need a 15 in any one of intelligence, wisdom or charisma, and the chances of rolling a 15 or more is slim to begin with, using the traditional 3d6 method).

Several years pass, and Psionics ends up being relegated to an Appendix in the original AD&D Players Handbook, and receives scant treatment in the AD&D Dungeons Masters Guide. Little surprise then, if it ends up receiving little play at the gaming table.

That was a shame, and a missed opportunity. If Psionicist had been developed as a class, rather than a add-on to the existing classes, it might have gotten more play, and would have helped promote the earlier development of other specialist casters.

But there is a challenge in developing Psionicist as a class. What prime attribute to use? OD&D and AD&D give us at least three potential attributes: Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma. In OD&D, a 15 (or 16, in the case of AD&D) in any of those three attributes allows for the possibility of psionic aptitude.

You could allow a high score of 16 in any of those stats to permit the Player to select Psionicist as the character's class. I am philosophically opposed to this approach, because selection of any of the "standard" classes does not require a high prime attribute. I have posted earlier regarding my opposition to the specialist class, Paladin, that requires high attributes to select. I do not like the specialist class restrictions, and think all classes should be accessible to any player with at least a 9 in that classes' prime attribute: the fact that they have low stats in the prime attribute simply means they are not well-suited to that class.

In addition, Intelligence and Wisdom are not appealing to me, as a prime attribute for Psionicists in an old-school D&D system. Not because it doesn't make a certain amount of sense to attach psionic aptitude to those attributes. Rather, it is simply because they are already the prime stats for Magic Users and Clerics.

The only other stat left, of the initial three attributes, is Charisma.

D&D Ability Stats and Psionics

Several times over the last year, the topic of Psionics has come up in the OSR community.

I will make no bones about this: I am a huge critic of the 0e and AD&D approach to psionics. I think the approach to creating psionic characters, as presented by Tim Kask and Gary Gygax in 0e and AD&D, was flawed and unsound. On the other hand, I think psionics should play a more important role in D&D.

James Mal at Grognardia has posted several times regarding a reworked psionics system. He has given that a great deal of thought, and has tried to streamline and clarify the original rules. But the problem with simply re-working the psionics system is that you never deal with the fundamental flaw of psionics in D&D. Psionics in 0e and AD&D is employed as a subsystem, rather than using the tools that are already available in the core character creation rules. As such, it merely boiler-plates something that employs none of the mechanics that players are familiar with, and as a consequence, makes psionics rare and difficult to implement in the game.

The possession of psionics skills occurs rarely, and then by happenstance. Regardless of whether you use the 0e or AD&D rules for psionics, you have a (generally) very low chance of possessing psionic abilities. For example, in AD&D, in order to have the potential for psionics, you must have an Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma of at least 16. And if only one of those attributes is a 16, your chance is one in a hundred of having psionics.

Compare this to, say, a magic user. All you need to be a magic user, and use spells (many of which are similar to the psionic powers) is to have an Intelligence of 9.

In a way, 0e and AD&D try to use the existing ability stats to determine psionic potential. In 0e, if you have an Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma of at least 15, you have a 10% chance of having psionics. Period. Thus, your original ability scores do affect whether you will have psionics, but to a limited extent. The problem is, if you have psionics, your psionic ability score is completely unrelated to your standard 6 ability scores. Instead of using one of your ability scores, you roll a d100 to determine your base psionic ability. Whatever you roll on the d100 is your base psychic potential. That's right, this ability does not follow the standard 3d6 ability score determination.

I feel that psionicists should have been more accessible as a class, rather than being superimposed and boiler-plated upon the existing classes. However, doing so would necessitate a different treatment of psionic abilities, to align their use more closely with the vancian spell system that is employed for the cleric and magic-user classes.