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hal · 08-24-2017, 06:53 AM

From my perspective, 4E was ushered in not only to fix some of the game mechanics, but also deal with the issue of pricing abilities higher because people thought some advantages and/or powers were too cheaply priced. Psionics is a perfect example where the cost of old abilities under 3e rules became more costly under 4e rules. My experience with 4e has been such that if all players get the same number of build points, those who take "mundanes" have a lot of points left over to pay for wealth, status, disease resistance, luck, etc because Psi abilities are so much higher. It's sort of a catch 22 situation if you want magic, psionics, etc in the same campaign.

My advice would be to try GURPS CLASSIC PSIONICS and see if it meets your needs. If it does, great. If it doesn't, then it's back to the drawing board, assuming you don't like the 4e version. Frankly? Some things or powers are, in my players minds, too expensive for what they do, that my players won't buy them.

An interesting experiment would be to build a 100 point character in 3e, and price that character under 4e and see how close the 4e version is to 150 points. Both 100 and 150 are suggested base costs for character design for 3e and 4e respectively. Might be interesting to see it side by side.

08-24-2017, 06:53 AM	#36
hal Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Buffalo, New York	Re: Alternative Psionics From my perspective, 4E was ushered in not only to fix some of the game mechanics, but also deal with the issue of pricing abilities higher because people thought some advantages and/or powers were too cheaply priced. Psionics is a perfect example where the cost of old abilities under 3e rules became more costly under 4e rules. My experience with 4e has been such that if all players get the same number of build points, those who take "mundanes" have a lot of points left over to pay for wealth, status, disease resistance, luck, etc because Psi abilities are so much higher. It's sort of a catch 22 situation if you want magic, psionics, etc in the same campaign. My advice would be to try GURPS CLASSIC PSIONICS and see if it meets your needs. If it does, great. If it doesn't, then it's back to the drawing board, assuming you don't like the 4e version. Frankly? Some things or powers are, in my players minds, too expensive for what they do, that my players won't buy them. An interesting experiment would be to build a 100 point character in 3e, and price that character under 4e and see how close the 4e version is to 150 points. Both 100 and 150 are suggested base costs for character design for 3e and 4e respectively. Might be interesting to see it side by side.