Originally Posted by kdarc (Post 1478568)

Sure! I'd love to know what other people think of it. Basic campaign sketch: ....

Originally Posted by Joe (Post 1478591)

Happily continuing the thread drift: this sounds great. If I'm getting it right, it's basically a medieval middle-east/byzantine fantasy world threatened by Lovecraftian horrors from the Astral plane. Nice!

Originally Posted by kdarc (Post 1478628)

Yup, that's the gist of it! Just add Renaissance level technology in the making, and it's getting there!



Correct, psionics existed before the arrival of the Lovecraftian horrors. The basic outline is this: Psionic powers begin to manifest around puberty, and anyone showing such talent can be "claimed" by the government and sent to a psion-academy, or by one of the organizations licensed to recruit and train psions. These organizations vary in nature, some being classic academies, some being tied to religion, others paramilitary, etc. Psions usually then follow the traditions of their given organizations, most of which doesn't concern themselves very much with day-to-day affairs of ordinary people - though some do. Psions are therefore judged very much upon what tradition they belong to, and by different people for different reasons. Some have a reputation for being stuck-up scholars, other for being benevolent healers, etc.

I hope that made sense. :)

Originally Posted by Edman (Post 1478642)

So psionics is essentially magic? Why not simply give it that name to avoid a genre clash? To me, it seems as if that's what it would look like, though a fancy word like Supernal or Spectral Sciences might work even better.

Originally Posted by kdarc (Post 1478650)

In some ways, yeah - and in retrospect, I probably might have done so. But my players and I all like the concept of psi. Plus, I wanted to check out the various GURPS supplements for it. So it's really just cause me and my group like psionics. :)

Originally Posted by Edman (Post 1478657)

As someone who has spent way too long building various magic-as-powers-systems, I can totally sympathize with wanting to look at the rules for psionics, and if the group doesn't mind it, by all means, go for it. I, as a player, would be a little baffled with psionic academies in a renaissance setting, but, other than the name, it is an awesome idea, that actually reminds me a little of the setting of my current campaign. Would you like my intro vignette by PM?

Originally Posted by kdarc (Post 1478628)

Psionic powers begin to manifest around puberty, and anyone showing such talent can be "claimed" by the government and sent to a psion-academy, or by one of the organizations licensed to recruit and train psions. These organizations vary in nature, some being classic academies, some being tied to religion, others paramilitary, etc.

Originally Posted by johndallman (Post 1478733)

Governments at this TL don't tend to have centralised administration. Could you live with:

"anyone showing such talent is normally claimed by one of the organisations with the right to recruit and train psions. These tend to be either religious orders, or sponsored by local rulers, whose organisations may be military, or academies in a classical form."

And at this point, you can use GURPS Locations: Worminghall as a outline for such an organisation, though it will need a bit of work.

Originally Posted by Edman (Post 1478642)

So psionics is essentially magic? Why not simply give it that name to avoid a genre clash?