Flesh is but fleeting
Wealth and title, doomed to fade
The mind, immortal— Some brain in a jar
Psychic abilities have a gift for transcending genre in a way that few superhuman capabilities do. Magic gets lumped in with fantasy and horror. Amazing feats of
chi are most at home in heroic action stories. Genuine super-powers
define a genre. People touched by superscience dwell mostly in futuristic sci-fi. Yet psionics have managed to coexist with wizardry in hack 'n' slash fantasy, catalyze an entire subgenre of horror, lurk behind tales of modern-day conspiracy, carve out a niche in otherwise "hard" science fiction, and turn up in everything from romance novels to superhero comics.
Given that
GURPS, too, is a genre chameleon, it's only fitting that
Pyramid has come up with
Pyramid #3/69: Psionics II (a sequel to
Pyramid #3/29: Psionics). And true to form, its articles offer many different takes on powers of the mind:
- A Little Bit Psychic starts things off gently. Gamers are most familiar with flashy mind blasts and with psi powers as super-powers, yet a lot of fiction involving the psychic is more understated – it's about detectives with uncanny hunches, "sensitives" who feel something horrific lurking nearby, and Gypsy fortune-tellers. Kromm's extensive perks, low-cost abilities, and advice make it a snap to game out the subtler kind of story.
- Most people think of psi as a purely mental discipline, but when psychic warriors fuse Mind and Body, the results are impressive. Christopher Rice backs up three detailed GURPS Martial Arts styles with two new Psychokinetic abilities (Psi-Shield and Psi-Sword), over a dozen special perks, and a variety of related techniques to "martial up" existing abilities.
- Where there's psi, there are ruthless conspiracies like The Overmind Institute abusing it for power. In this month's Eidetic Memory, David Pulver goes into great detail on this organization (introduced in GURPS Classic: Psionics' Phoenix Project setting): everything from its internal structure (with a full character template) through the countless front companies it hides behind (with details on 10 of these) to its secret programs (current and defunct).
- After a foreboding "dream conversation" with an ancient pharaoh spirit, a wealthy engineer walks away from his old life to found the Next Nubia Now movement. In the California desert, he builds The Pyramid Farm, a colony intended as a paradise for the psychically gifted. Is there a darker side? A horrific conspiracy? Of course not! That's just your human paranoia getting to you. Er, I mean "paranoia" – obviously, we're all human here. Move along.
- In what might be a record for the shortest time to support a new GURPS release, PK empowers GURPS Horror: The Madness Dossier with Expanded Psi for Sandmen. The new taisher lens trades in simple psychic advantages for full GURPS Psionic Powers-style abilities with power levels, skills, and techniques – and optional pre-applied limitations for campaigns in which psi is especially tricky. Whether you crave new ESP abilities or just more detail on what See Invisible (Irruptors) covers, everyone loyal to History A is going to want this.
- And you don't have to be a fixer to make our usual features likely to appear, including a Random Thought Table that challenges some of the fundamental assumptions about psi, and Odds and Ends that help you add just a dash of psi to your games . . . and also make sure you're still safely grounded in History A after reading that last article.