4 ms·
Psionics really came into its own as a mechanism with the Dark Sun world. Instead of being an oddball power which you had to luck into, and which a lot of hous
by samatman 5y ago
Psionics really came into its own as a mechanism with the Dark Sun world.
Instead of being an oddball power which you had to luck into, and which a lot of house rules just ignored, everyone had some psionic ability. There were specialized psionicists as well, but it was just a world where sentient beings (being D&D there were some racial exceptions) had psionic power.
- at_a_remove 5y agoI have ... feelings ... about psionics, both as not quite fitting the setting (let's face it, late seventies was a lot of Zener cards mixed in with the occult business) and the mechanics. To be fair, I have never looked at Dark Sun. I think psionics could be workable, in a certain light, but that's the subject of a rather half-baked and long essay series I have been kicking about for a decade as to how to "fix" many of the issues in D&D in a way that does not result in the Endless Next Edition problem.
- lakkal 5y agoDragon Magazine #78 had some good ideas on how to make AD&D psionics work better.
- da_chicken 5y agoI agree that psionics really only felt like they belonged in Dark Sun. The whole setting is more of a total conversion than any other setting. I was looking through my old books recently. The player rules for Planescape, another massively different campaign setting, was ~30 pages. Some of that was full page art, and they dedicated one page to each of the 16 factions (including non-factioned, IIRC). With all the jargon, lingo, and weirdness in Planescape, it was almost all lore changes. Under the hood, it was still the same old AD&D. In the first Dark Sun Campaign Setting box set, you get two main books: one book of lore and one book of mechanical changes. Each book is ~120 pages. There are rules for new races, new classes, new weapons, new armor, new spells, new environmental hazards, etc. The setting was 50% new lore and 50% new and changed mechanics. And DSCS didn't even have rules for psionics in it! They had a couple pages detailing the new psionic character creation rules, but it literally tells you to use the Complete Psionics Handbook! (The second Dark Sun Campaign Setting included a ~90 page psionics book that includes most of that content.)
- koolba 5y agoOh man. Dark Sun had so much new material. Psionics, half this and half that races, the endurance thing. It was just too much all at once.
- msh 5y agoDark sun was absolutely my favorite rpg setting.