Psionic Powers as Sorcery Limitations

Moneval · 01-04-2018, 08:12 PM

Hi All,

I'm working on a setting now where most spells are cast in a slower, more ritual manner a la RPM or Path/Book. However, I am trying to build a rare group of casters who can use magic directly, albeit in a much more limited scope (typically only affecting the caster or 1-2 opponents).

I considered using psionics from the Basic Set at first to model this, as I think it is a good fit, but it has been suggested to me that Sorcery is an excellent magic-as-powers system and after looking at it I must agree.

My question is this: On p.4 of Sorcery it talks about limitations for sorcery based on school of magic, with a higher percentage reduction based on how many schools are excluded. I'm curious what the community thinks a fair limitation amount would be for single "psionic powers" (ex: PK Spells only, Telepathy Spells Only, etc.).

I may be looking at this wrong. What I really want to accomplish is a take on sorcery where spells feel somewhat psychic (or Force-like), but there is room for improvisation.

Thanks in advance!

Kelly Pedersen · 01-04-2018, 08:43 PM

Sorcery is indeed not a bad system to model psionics - it's got enough powers to cover a wide range of powers, and building more is simply a matter of applying the right modifiers to advantages.

For the question about limiting it to a single power, I'd probably use the values in Sorcery for Limited Colleges - most powers would probably be either similar to one college (-40%) or two colleges (-30%).

On the general topic of adapting Sorcery to model psionics, I'd suggest taking a look at alternative rituals (as presented in the box on p. 7 of Sorcery). Basically, instead of always paying 1 FP, a sorcerer could instead do any two out of the three of 1) pay 1 FP, 2) make large, obvious gestures, or 3) speak loud, easily-hearable words. The trick here is that those aren't the only "rituals" that can possibly exist, and changing the ritual options out can go a long way towards making sorcery feel more "psionic". I would recommend always keeping the 1 FP as one of the ritual options (it's pretty important to the whole economy of the Sorcery system), but the other two can be changed out for basically any two limitations that are -10% each. For example, to make Sorcery feel a bit more like psionics as presented in Dungeon Fantasy, you could make one of the "ritual" options actually be Attracts Threats (from Power-Ups 8: Limitations, p. 11) - basically, after each use of an ability with that limitation, the GM rolls 3d, and if the result is 9 or less, something dangerous appears, drawn by the psi's use of power Man Was Not Meant to Know.

Or, for a more "classic sci-fi" psionics feel, make the three "ritual" options 1) pay 1 FP, 2) strain your brain, requiring an HT roll which, if you fail, causes Moderate Pain for minutes equal to your margin of failure (Backlash, Resistible, Moderate Pain), or 3) your ability is influenced by your subconscious, activating on its own in moments of stress or fright, but never in a manner that will make it directly physically dangerous to you (this is Uncontrollable at the -10% level).

So, a "psionic" sorcerer, when using Mind Reading, would have to choose to do two of the three above things - they could either spend 1 FP and strain themselves, potentially dealing with a headache, spend 1 FP and deal with a Mind Reading ability that might turn on at an inopportune moment, targeting someone they didn't mean to mind read, or, if they were low on FP, choose to deal with a potential headache and a potentially-uncontrolled ability.

The trick here is to pick limitations that are worth -10% each, and can legitimately be applied to basically all abilities.

For more examples of how to tweak Sorcery, I'd suggest checking out Pyramid #3/105, "Cinematic Magic". It's got two articles in particular relevant to this: "Super-Sorcery" (by me), and "Chi Sorcery" (by Christopher Rice). The first one deals with adapting Sorcery to superheroes, and includes some more discussion about the idea of alternate rituals, with several suggestions for more. The other converts Sorcery into a chi-powered martial arts system - it's not exactly what you're talking about, but it's definitely an excellent example of how to adapt Sorcery to different power assumptions.

01-04-2018, 08:12 PM	#1
Moneval Join Date: Mar 2016	Psionic Powers as Sorcery Limitations Hi All, I'm working on a setting now where most spells are cast in a slower, more ritual manner a la RPM or Path/Book. However, I am trying to build a rare group of casters who can use magic directly, albeit in a much more limited scope (typically only affecting the caster or 1-2 opponents). I considered using psionics from the Basic Set at first to model this, as I think it is a good fit, but it has been suggested to me that Sorcery is an excellent magic-as-powers system and after looking at it I must agree. My question is this: On p.4 of Sorcery it talks about limitations for sorcery based on school of magic, with a higher percentage reduction based on how many schools are excluded. I'm curious what the community thinks a fair limitation amount would be for single "psionic powers" (ex: PK Spells only, Telepathy Spells Only, etc.). I may be looking at this wrong. What I really want to accomplish is a take on sorcery where spells feel somewhat psychic (or Force-like), but there is room for improvisation. Thanks in advance!

01-04-2018, 08:43 PM	#2
Kelly Pedersen Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada	Re: Psionic Powers as Sorcery Limitations Sorcery is indeed not a bad system to model psionics - it's got enough powers to cover a wide range of powers, and building more is simply a matter of applying the right modifiers to advantages. For the question about limiting it to a single power, I'd probably use the values in Sorcery for Limited Colleges - most powers would probably be either similar to one college (-40%) or two colleges (-30%). On the general topic of adapting Sorcery to model psionics, I'd suggest taking a look at alternative rituals (as presented in the box on p. 7 of Sorcery). Basically, instead of always paying 1 FP, a sorcerer could instead do any two out of the three of 1) pay 1 FP, 2) make large, obvious gestures, or 3) speak loud, easily-hearable words. The trick here is that those aren't the only "rituals" that can possibly exist, and changing the ritual options out can go a long way towards making sorcery feel more "psionic". I would recommend always keeping the 1 FP as one of the ritual options (it's pretty important to the whole economy of the Sorcery system), but the other two can be changed out for basically any two limitations that are -10% each. For example, to make Sorcery feel a bit more like psionics as presented in Dungeon Fantasy, you could make one of the "ritual" options actually be Attracts Threats (from Power-Ups 8: Limitations, p. 11) - basically, after each use of an ability with that limitation, the GM rolls 3d, and if the result is 9 or less, something dangerous appears, drawn by the psi's use of power Man Was Not Meant to Know. Or, for a more "classic sci-fi" psionics feel, make the three "ritual" options 1) pay 1 FP, 2) strain your brain, requiring an HT roll which, if you fail, causes Moderate Pain for minutes equal to your margin of failure (Backlash, Resistible, Moderate Pain), or 3) your ability is influenced by your subconscious, activating on its own in moments of stress or fright, but never in a manner that will make it directly physically dangerous to you (this is Uncontrollable at the -10% level). So, a "psionic" sorcerer, when using Mind Reading, would have to choose to do two of the three above things - they could either spend 1 FP and strain themselves, potentially dealing with a headache, spend 1 FP and deal with a Mind Reading ability that might turn on at an inopportune moment, targeting someone they didn't mean to mind read, or, if they were low on FP, choose to deal with a potential headache and a potentially-uncontrolled ability. The trick here is to pick limitations that are worth -10% each, and can legitimately be applied to basically all abilities. For more examples of how to tweak Sorcery, I'd suggest checking out Pyramid #3/105, "Cinematic Magic". It's got two articles in particular relevant to this: "Super-Sorcery" (by me), and "Chi Sorcery" (by Christopher Rice). The first one deals with adapting Sorcery to superheroes, and includes some more discussion about the idea of alternate rituals, with several suggestions for more. The other converts Sorcery into a chi-powered martial arts system - it's not exactly what you're talking about, but it's definitely an excellent example of how to adapt Sorcery to different power assumptions.