Alternate Psionic Rules

[Spinward Scout]

Hey everybody!

Been working on alternate Psionics rules today. Based off of T20. Four Main Disciplines that everyone gets trained in (doesn't mean you are good at it, just that you are trained in it), and a Rare Talents category. Going to be a mix of Traveller Psi rules, the D&D Psionics Handbook rules and Epic Level handbook rules, Marvel Super Heroes rules, and Star Wars d20 Force rules. Trying to balance it so that you can't have uber-characters running around, but also to have the chance that you can make that 1-out-of-a-gazillion uber-character (probably as an NPC, tho). This is what I've got so far today:

PSYCHIC ASSESSMENT
Psychic Ability Score (just like other abilities)
Power Points
Rare Talents

PSYCHIC TRAINING
Four Main Disciplines
Feats

FEATS
Genetic Heir (+1d4 power points and +2 to Rare Talent Roll)
Hallmark Talent (+4 to a single Talent)
Limited Mental Signature
Mimic Mind
Prodigious Mentor (+1 to any Talent check)
Psychic Crystal (can store 1d10 power points in a crystal)
Psychic Foundation (+4 to skill points)
Rapid Recharge (doubles the rate that points rengenerate)

Eidetic Memory
Lightning Deduction

DISCIPLINES

PSYCHIC TALENTS
Psychic Awareness
Psychic Blast
Psychic Guard

MENTAL TALENTS
Mind Linkage
Mind Probe
Telepathy

PERCEPTION TALENTS
Clairvoyance
Life Sense
Seeker Sense

METABOLIC TALENTS
Enhance Ability
Hibernation
Regeneration

RARE TALENTS
In addition to the four main Psychic Disciplines, the character may manifest a Rare Talent. Roll 1d20, add the Psychic Modifier, and consult the table below.

0-12 No Rare Talent
13-18 One Rare Talent
19-24 Two Rare Talents
25+ Three Rare Talents

RARE TALENTS (roll 1d20)
1 AnaPsychic
2 Cryokinesis
3 Cybercognition
4 Direction Sense
5 Dominate Minds
6 Drain Power
7 Empathic Assault
8 Environmental Adaptation
9 Foreboding
10 Healing
11 Interphasic
12 Invisibility
13 Memory Revision
14 Mirage
15 Morphosis
16 Peril Intuition
17 Psychometry
18 Pyrokinesis
19 Telekinesis
20 Teleportation

PSYCHIC RANGES
0 Touching -
1 Close 1 m
2 Short 5 m
3 Medium 50 m
4 Long 250 m
5 Very Long 500 m
6 Distant 5 km
7 Very Distant 50 km
8 Regional 500 km
9 Continental 5,000 km
10 Planetary 50,000 km
11 Far Orbit 500,000 km
12 Extreme Orbit 5,000,000 km
13 Interplanetary 1 AU
14 System 100 AU
15 SubStellar 10,000 AU
20 Stellar 10 light-years
30 Interstellar 1000 light-years
40 SubGalactic 10,000 light-years
50 Galactic 100,000 light-years
100 InterGalactic 1,000,000,000 light-years

PSYCHIC STAGES PSYCHIC POINTS
Latent Class 0-5
Alpha Class (A) 6-10
Beta Class (B) 11-15
Chi Class (C) 16-20
Delta Class (D) 21-25
Epsilon Class (E) 26-30
Zeta Class (Z) 30+

If anyone wants to work on this with me, let me know. I'll be posting different parts of this as I finish them.

Later,

Scout

 

[Straybow]

Ahhh, finally found it! Falkayn's links includes a d20 psionics pdf that is interesting. Way overpowered, but what does one expect for d20??

 

[Spinward Scout]

Hi!

I was just looking through Mutants and Masterminds (d20) and most or all of the Talents I have listed are in that book as powers (makes sense since I got some of them from Marvel Super Heroes). I think I'm going to try to build these Alternate Psychic Rules with those rules.

What I'm going to probably end up making is:

Latent Psychic (either a feat or a template)
Psychic Training (definitely a feat)
Master Psychic (Prestige Class)

Thanks for the link, too! I like that one.

Later,

Scout

 

[clementk]

You may also want to look at Guardians of Order's Anime d20 SRD. Freely available and is the core of their Anime d20 book. Point-based and covers the basic Psionic powers either directly or through generic attributes. There is also a pdf version (link points directly to the pdf file).

I don't have Mutants & Masterminds (yet; it is sounding more and more like a must buy and I like Green Ronin) so can't compare the two.

Casey

 

[Spinward Scout]

Cool - thanks for the info!

Here's what I've come up with so far for generating a Psychic Ability Score:

PSYCHE ABILITY SCORE

Racial Base: The Racial Base is an indication of how strong a particular race is. Some Races are stronger or weaker than others are. The following is a list of examples of Racial Bases:

Ithklur 2d6-4
Hiver 2d6-3
Vargr 2d6-2
Llellewyloly 2d6-2
Aslan 2d6-1
k'Kree 2d6-1
Orangutan 2d6-1
Humaniti 2d6
Muan Gwi (Vegan) 2d6+1
Chirper 2d6+1
Dolphin 2d6+1
Zhodani 2d6+2
Droyne 2d6+3

Genetic Modifier: The Genetic Modifier is the way the character's parent's genetic make-up affects the character. To determine the Parent Index, add parents PSY, divide by two, apply number to Psychic Ranking table, or if the parent's PSY is unknown, roll 2d6:

2-5 Parent Index is Zero Class -2
6 Parent Index is Latent Class -1
7 Parent Index is Zeta Class 0
8 Parent Index is Epsilon Class +1
9 Parent Index is Delta Class +2
10 Parent Index is Chi Class +3
11 Parent Index is Beta Class +4
12 Parent Index is Alpha Class +5


Age Modifier: An untrained character is subject to gradual relentless deterioration of his PSY. To determine the modifier for age, first determine the characters age then apply to the following:
00 - 04 Infant +3
05 - 11 Child +2
12 - 21 Young Adult +1
22 - 40 Adult +0
41 - 64 Middle Aged -1
65 - 90 Senior -2
91 - 99+ Ancient -3
A trained individual is not subject to reductions through normal aging.

Random Mutation: Due to background radiation, the effects of entropy, and with the increasing strength of the Mind of the Universe, there is an increase in the strength of Psychics. Roll 2d6 to determine the extent of mutation:
2 -3
3 -2
4-5 -1
6-8 +0
9 +1
10 +2
11 +3
12 +4

Psyche Ability Score: Add the Racial Base, the Genetic Modifier, the Age Modifier, and the Random Mutation modifier to get the Psyche (PSY) Ability Score. The Maximum a Human (Humaniti) could start with is 24 if all modifiers were maxed out.

PSYCHIC STAGES PSYCHE POINTS (PSY)
Zero Class 0
Latent Class 1-5
Zeta Class 6-10
Epsilon Class 11-15
Delta Class 16-20
Chi Class 21-25
Beta Class 26-30 (Master)
Alpha Class 30+ (Prodigy)


All talents will be based around : Range, Duration, and Weight.

Later,

Scout
(All numbers, scores, and ideas subject to change.)

 

[Straybow]

Psst: alpha, beta, gamma, delta&#133

 

[Spinward Scout]

Oh - I always thought it was like our alphabet. Changing that now...

Thanks!

Scout

 

[Spinward Scout]

Hi Everybody!

My adjusted Psychic Ranges, thanks to Space.com, and megaconverter.com. These are different from the radio and weapons ranges. The numbers along the left-hand edge are the Psyche points required to do something at that range. Each iteration is just doubled from the number before it(i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc...). I think I figured out how many Psyche points it's going to take to freeze the sun. Let's see: 45 range points, 101 weight points, 25 temperature points, +1 point for Talent use - that's 172 Psyche points, and the maximum a human can have without feats and extras is 24, hmmmm... Maybe with a Mental Gestalt or Mind Linkage I could do it! hehehe But seriously, tho, even if you had those points, the DC to succeed is the number of points it takes to accomplish it. Well, if it's any consolation, it'll take about 7 temperature points, 19 weight points, +1 point for Talent use to freeze a human solid at Touching range(that's 27 points). I really gotta get this system worked up so people can try it out. I think those of you who were afraid of a system that would make a Psychic a munchkin character will like this system.

This is sweet - it's all coming together,

Scout
P.S. Can anyone tell me how I can get tabs to work on this board?

PSYCHIC RANGES
0 Touching
1 1 centimeter
2 2 cm
3 4 cm
4 8 cm
5 16 cm
6 .25 meters
7 .5 meters
8 1 meter
9 2.5 m
10 5 m
11 10 m
12 20 m
13 40 m
14 80 m
15 160 m
16 .25 kilometers
17 .5 kilometers
18 1 kilometer
19 2.5 km
20 5 km
21 10 km
28 1000 km
29 2500 km
30 5000 km
31 10000 km
32 20000 km
33 40000 km
34 .25 light-seconds
35 .5 light-seconds
36 one light-second - distance from Terra to Luna (Terra’s moon)
37 2.5 light-seconds
38 5 light-seconds
39 10 light-seconds
40 20 light-seconds
44 distance from Terra to Mars-Solar Orbit
45 1 astronomical unit - distance from Terra to Sol
47 distance from Terra to Jupiter-Solar Orbit
58 distance from Sol to Oort Cloud
61 1 light year
63 1 parsec
65 6 parsecs
66 1 subsector
68 1 sector
73 Across the Imperium
75 Across Charted Space
78 distance to the Magellanic Clouds
82 distance to the Andromeda Galaxy
95 distance to farthest Galaxy
96 edge of the known universe

 

[Spinward Scout]

My Psychic Time Index with help from About.com and Space.com. The numbers along the left-hand edge are the Psyche points required to do something at that range. Each iteration is just doubled from the number before it(i.e. 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, etc...).

Later,

Scout

PSYCHIC TIME INDEX
0 Instantaneous
1 free action
2 move action
3 attack action
4 full-round action (1 round = 6 seconds)
5 10 seconds
6 30 seconds
7 1 minute
8 2 minutes
9 4 minutes
10 8 minutes
11 one-quarter hour
12 half hour
13 1 hour
14 2 hours
15 4 hours
16 8 hours
17 16 hours
18 1 day
19 2 days
20 1 week
21 2 weeks
22 3 weeks
23 1 month
24 one season
25 6 months
26 1 year
27 2 years
28 4 years
29 8 years
30 1 decade
31 quarter of a century
32 half of a century
33 1 century
34 one-quarter millennia
35 one-half millennia
36 1 millennia
37 2 millennium
38 4 millenium
39 8 millenium
40 16 millenium
46 1 Epoch
58 age of the earth
59 age of the sun
60 age of the universe

 

[Straybow]

I think an exponential scale is too generous for the extremes. Even accounting for

There really needs to be 2 separate range types: touch ranges and sight ranges.

Sight ranges exponential out to 1 km, then linear. Bonus for closer than 1 meter may be given by GM (maybe -1 cost and difficulty at ½m, -2 for touching).

+0 at 1 meter
+1 at 2m
+2 at 4m
+3 at 8m
…
+9 at 512m (½km)
additional +1 times range in km
+10 at 1km
+11 at 2km
+12 at 3km
+19 at 10km
+109 at 100km

This creates a soft range limit at 1 km, which can be exceeded with diminishing returns. Telepathy or teleportation between surface and orbit can only be possible with a range multiplier of some sort.

Touch ranges work differently: exponential close in, then by distance squared.

+0 at skin touch
+1 at touch through light clothing
+2 at 1½cm
+3 at 3cm
+4 at 6cm
+5 at 12cm
+6 at 25cm
+7 at 50m
Additional +1 times (range in m)²
+8 at 1 meter
+11 at 2m
+16 at 3m
+23 at 4m

So the "candle punch" falls off in cost effectiveness very quickly.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Well, the exponential range isn't a problem when character creation doesn't let you have the points to use it. I mean, it's 36 range points just to do something from here to the moon. That's a lotta points. Points that almost no character will have unless they buy a ton of feats and have the Master Psychic Prestige Class. Certain powers will have double or even triple the cost for the range, tho - just because of the nature of the power (like Dominate Mind). What do you mean by "candle punch"? Plus I really don't want to bother with two different range systems. I do think that I'm going to change the Racial Base from 2d6 to 3d6 and see how it turns out. Otherwise, you might only get characters that can use Telepathy for pillow talk or Someone that can telekinetically lift their cat a few inches off the ground. That Racial Base is going to be my variable to adjust and see how things work out, I think.

Later,

Scout

 

[Straybow]

Ah, sorry I missed this response. "Candle punch" gets its name from a cheesy special effect: the monk jabs with his fist and a candle snuffs out a meter or so away. The force of his fist is psionically transmitted a short distance.

As for "two different range systems" it is only slightly different from range multipliers or cost add-ons. Each psychic function will have some modification to whatever base system you use. This one is double the range cost, that one triple, the other is half or a tenth. But at this skill level the range multiplier drops to…

Having touch vs sight might even be more consistent overall. In most cases it will be intuitive which powers are touch-based and which sight ranged.

This gets into my pet peeve of gaming: SIS. Small Integer Syndrome is the tendency to build a system that uses small integers for convenience. The resulting granularity winds up being far less convenient.

Looking at almost any range scaling system the costs get high very quickly… if we are thinking in terms of small integers like a 3d6 generated character stat for base psionic power. It may be necessary to multiply psi+int by some factor (maybe 10 would be enough, maybe not) in order to have a workable system.

PS: Great ranges also inherently invoke time penalties. Anything on the same (non-gas giant scale) planet will seem instantaneous. At one light-second there will be a one second time factor: a free action cost.

Want to teleport to the Luna? Where Luna is now is not the same as where you perceive it to be, and perhaps the teleportation is speed-of-light limited as well so that you arrive a second or so after you initiate teleport (but I would lean towards some instantaneous interdimensional mechanism IMTU).

You don't have to get out your hand comp and look up the orbital vector to "lead" your target, but in order for your mind to "connect" to the destination the cost related to speed of light delay comes into play.

On the other hand, clairevoyance might not invoke a time cost. For example, if you were using it essentially like a telescope, you simply see with the incorporated light delay. If you want instantaneous feedback, such as detecting a jump signature when a ship arrives, then you could bridge the distance and time adding the time cost.

That's my tuppence for now (I'm probably up to 42¢ at this point).

 

[Spinward Scout]

Yeah - I think it all depends on a "Jump Space" type of thing. I wouldn't think the speed of light would come into effect at all since J-6 ships travel at over 18 light years in a week (I don't even feel like trying to determine how many light-seconds per second that is). You'd probably get a misjump from hell if you tried it without a lot of practice or some mental justifier. It's already been put in canon sources that the Teleport psionic power goes through jump-space. I'm not going to deviate from that.

Even if you did have the points to burn, the DC required is equal to the points you need to use the talent (with ALL modifiers) in the system I'm working on. It's 36 range points to Luna. And I haven't even added in the weight points yet. Average body mass is a 19 on my chart. Add them together and that's a 56 point/56 DC roll Talent use (including 1 point just for using the Talent). Maximum PSY score at the start of the game without feats is 30 PSY. Without some kind of mental gestalt, a Teleport to Luna just isn't happening unless you had a minimum PSY score of 82 (adding the PSY modifier of +36 to a maximum d20 roll). This system WILL NOT work long distance without some kind of Mink Linkage or MetaConcert. That's why I like it so much. I'm looking for playablity more than heavy hitters. I still have to have canon sources like the Zhodani to justify. I have to figure out some reason why the Zhodani have never used a Mental Gestalt. Racial or cultural blind-spot or something. But I want the Gestalt ability in there somewhere. Anyways, even if I halved the cost for personal body mass for Teleport or even negated it, it's still a long and hard (and nearly impossible) haul to the moon. The more ranks you add to the Talent (same as skill points), the better it looks, but it's still not that easy.

Anyways, that's just the way I see it,

Scout
P.S. Teleporting to another star system would be very cost prohibitive. Not to mention that the Clairvoyance cost to visualize it would burn more points. The Teleport power says that you have to be able to visualize your destination.

 

[Straybow]

Well, I'm speaking in psi generalities without regards to Traveller canon.

I don't think the system as presented can work. Costs are too high compared to the points available. Given +8 cost/DM at 1 meter, unless you regularly have a range multipliers of 10 to 1000 your average psion (rated well below your maximum of 30) will be restricted to very close range.

"I've got teleport! Let's see, my psi is 23, 1 pt to activate, mass cost is 18; well, looks like I can teleport 4 cm… if I'm at full strength."

I have two ideas for limiting Gestalt. You want Gestalt to be useful, but not all-powerful (as simply adding up group psi would do). One psion is exercising the power the group wishes to amplify, this person is the Primary. Gestalt will add logarithmicly to the Primary's psi.

First, make something like blood typing. Something that has nothing to do with the specific abilities of the psion permits homogenous links to magnify power, but heterogenous links diminish power. Some psions will be able to detect psi activity, and the auras they "see" are colored. So let's say the colors are the gestalt types purple, blue, green, orange. Some common, at least one is rare.

Second, add in a complexity cost. For n people in the link, total cost to establish the link is n·log2 rounded down. Each must pay log base 2 of n to participate. Any leftover cost points (since log2 might not be an integer) are distributed among the participants as evenly as possible (no psion should pay more than 1 point above any other psion in the group).

Total psi power for all in the group, take the log base 2 (so total is expressed 2^m). Add m (rounded down) to the psi of the Primary, and reduce the DM the same amount. The Primary pays the basic cost to activate the power. The range/time/mass costs are distributed just as the link cost (no psion paying more than 1 above any other).

 

[Spinward Scout]

Oooooh - I gotta try that Gestalt out. Thanks! As for the Teleport, I'm still tweeking the ideas. And thank you for those ideas. Yeah, things don't look all that good at lower PSY scores, but I'm going to augment that with feats. But it also works a lot with real life this way. People bending spoons and such from a few inches away or holding the object. And don't forget for the DC you could add in ranks if you are trained.

I guess I should get working on the rest of this so you know what I'm talking about. At this point, I have Latent Psychic as a feat. This allows you to select a number of bonus Talents equal to your PSY modifer. Allows you (and only you) to use those Talents as equivalent to Untrained skills with your PSY modifier as your ability modifier (haven't decided if I'm going to keep that part yet or not). I have a few feats that add to your PSY score and number of Talents you can select. I also am working on a PsyCrystal concept to allow you access to more points and focus bonus to your roll. Ahhh - my brain is fried. I've been working on this while simultaneously getting my CDL-A license. Luckily today is the last day of class. Tomorrow I play D&D with friends in Chicago - must kill things! I think I'll take Sunday to work on this more...

Later,

Scout

 

[Straybow]

Well, I'd have no problem with average PSY scores being useless except for resisting psi influences or attacks. In a milieu with psi technology it would be used when the character has access to psi devices, but average PSY would still have no natural skills, feats, talents, etc.

I suppose with T20 there is some degree of choosing scores as opposed to rolling them up, and that's what you mean that you "have Latent Psychic as a feat." Such a feat should only be available in character creation. If you don't have at least Latent initially, a PSY of 18 still would do you no good except in resisting influence/attack. And again, a milieu with psi tech could perhaps surgically/pharmacologically initiate psi powers.

 

[Spinward Scout]

I'm looking at two untrained Talents that anyone with the Latent Psychic feat will be able to use. Mind Shield and Psychic Awareness. No one else would have a PSY score - WILL would be used in place of that. I wanted to have the feat only available at character creation, but sometimes, just sometimes, a shock or something will jar some abilities loose. That's when you can choose the feat outside of character creation. Trying to look at everything here, but I know I'm going to need to cut little things I want.

Later,

Scout

 

[Straybow]

Ah, I didn't know T20 had a stat for WILLpower. I am not thoroughly familiar with D20 on one hand nor TNE, T4 etc on the other, so I don't have a good starting point.

In that case, why have separate PSY at all? Combine INT and WILL in some way (average might do, or take the higher, or INT + WILL - x, etc). You already have most other factors (genetics in particular) handled by feats.

As I see it, psionics can be latent powers of the brain, in which case the energies available are exceedingly limited. Bending spoons and reading minds in card games would be the limit. Or psionics can be latent powers of the soul, in which case the energies available are poorly defined in a naturalistic milieu. The last option is that psionics are derived from external entities, either gods or some odd contrivance a la Lucas' metadumbians. I think Star Wars worked better with the Force as mystical power of the souls of all lifeforms.

Making psi work seamlessly with either the naturalistic world or with the magical is not something I've seen successfully implemented.

I never liked the way AD&D handle psionics, which became an ubermagic of sorts. Psionic attacks against the non-psionic were unstoppable, psionic effects could not be dispelled or countered by ordinary mortals, etc.

In Traveller jump drive has the 100D limit, but psi teleportation can take place between points on a planet surface (distance ½D). Traveller jump drive takes 1 week ± 10% regardless of distance, psi teleportation is effectively instantaneous.

 

[Falkayn]

Originally posted by Straybow:
Ah, I didn't know T20 had a stat for WILLpower. I am not thoroughly familiar with D20 on one hand nor TNE, T4 etc on the other, so I don't have a good starting point.

T20 doesn't have a WILL stat, but it does have a Willpower saving throw, which is typically used to resist mental effects (like someone trying to control your mind).