Eldritch Psionics in OD&D

[strangebrew]

So I really wanted to have some straightforward psionic sub-system for OD&D, but was a bit torn on the rules as presented in Eldritch Wizardry. The powers were straightforward enough, but the various point pools and the psychic combat system was a bit too much for me. Last night I devised the attached system. It basically starts with the EW system, clarified and simplified with less psychic points. It also uses the various powers and class rules from EW. I changed psychic combat completely...it hasn't been tested much, so be warned it might be a bit intense and brutal. On the plus side, it might be intense and brutal.

Let me know what you think if you get a chance. It's a work in progress of course.

EDIT: Please ignore the typos and clumsy grammar! I will have a cleaner version in a few days.

File updated, mostly typo corrections:
OD&D Psionics.pdf (30.5 KB)

[makofan]

Determining Psychic Potential - I like it. Simple and clear, and one can ajust the rarity by rolling a d20 instead of a d10 if one wishes.

Psychic Points again is simple, but I can't see why anyone would ever not just add +5

I would like a mechanism for Pyschic characters to attack non-psychics

[strangebrew]

Thanks for checking it out, makofan!

If someone rolls very low (let's say from 3 to 6) on their initial Psychic Dice roll, it might be better to risk rolling again rather than adding 5. Adding 5 is usually the best bet, but I didn't want someone who got an unlucky roll of 3 to be penalized forever.

Honestly I didn't include a mechanism for non-psychics because I just haven't gotten around to it yet. I'll mull it over, or perhaps someone who reads it will have a recommendation.

I was also worried about psionics dominating the game too much. The way it is, you don't have to really worry about psionic combat unless one of the characters is psychic, which is pretty rare. Even if you have psychic villains roaming around (they can still use their non-combat powers against the players' characters). But I'm going to think it over.

I'm also interested in any fun suggestions for the "zero psychic points" effect table. I'm working on a list, and would like to have a d20 or d30 table.

[Red Baron]

"Your head explodes." 

Psionic powers mostly the manipulation of molecules:

Heat Metal
Liquefy Metal
Neutralize Poison
Stone Shape
Transmute Rock To Mud
Transmute Water to Lead
Warp Wood


Fits in nicely with all the supposed spoon bending and the like

[Zenopus]

For attacks vs non-psionics you could probably adapt something from Gamma World. Geoffrey has suggested this before.

All psionic creatures could have a version of the "Mental Blast" mutation. This normally does 3d6 if successful, and can be used every other turn, but you could start it at 1d6 (per turn or every other turn) for 1st level characters. They could make an attack using the Mental Attack Matrix in Gamma World (pg 20). This just requires a d20 "to-hit" roll. If you don't have the matrix, just use a base 10 "to hit". The attacker gets a +1 to hit for each point of "Mental Strength" (use Wisdom) greater than the defender's, or -1 to hit for each point that the defender is higher. This would be easy to use for PCs/NPCs but would require a Mental Strength/Wisdom score for monsters. This may be too powerful compared to missile weapons so perhaps have the attacker's mental strength drop by one for each attack made that day.

[cooper]

Perhaps bringing in Call of Cthulhu sanity checks instead of psionic combat. It seems to me that:

1) psionics in elderitch wizardry is very lovecraftian
2) psionic combat was a convoluted means of driving psionic characters insane when confronted with crazy lovecraftian monsters like Mind Flayers et al.

[Lord Cias]

If I were to include psionics I'd make a psionic character a separate race/class. But that's just me.

[cooper]

Sept 7, 2013 18:18:45 GMT -6 Lord Cias said:

If I were to include psionics I'd make a psionic character a separate race/class. But that's just me.

But the implementation in EW is a character who discovers Elderitch secrets which slowly engulf his normal powers, it's like finding and reading a necromicon, but its all mental. Quite similar to how skyrim introduced black books of power actually .

[Red Baron]

Sept 7, 2013 16:27:35 GMT -6 cooper said:

Perhaps bringing in Call of Cthulhu sanity checks instead of psionic combat. It seems to me that:

1) psionics in elderitch wizardry is very lovecraftian
2) psionic combat was a convoluted means of driving psionic characters insane when confronted with crazy lovecraftian monsters like Mind Flayers et al.

The schoolteacher in Lovecraft's Witch's Hollow is given a stone star-shaped "Elder Seal" of R'leh to protect himself from psionics.

A good, creepy miscellaneous "magic" item.

[bexley]

Psonic powers from Eldritch Wizardry are straight Siddhi's and a poor fit for the kind of Psionics as presented by your system. I would change the powers around so that they are less ascetic meditation monk.

[strangebrew]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! I don't know how to do multiple quotes so I'll just do it like this:

redbaron: Good ideas, but I think I'm going to limit the powers to the ones from EW, at least for now.

Zenopus: I read Geoffrey's thread when I was researching this all... I think I read all the threads about OD&D psionics when I was trying to make sense of the rules as written. Even then I'm not totally 100% sure I get it all. The GW summary you give might be a nice easy substitute. It would have to draw from their pool of psychic points, which are used for the EW powers.

cooper: I would like to keep it focused on using EW as much as possible... I'm not entirely sure why.. I think there is a lot of potential there which I'd like to try to make work somehow. I also personally feel that there's a bit too much Lovecraft saturation around these days, but again that's my own taste. Your post made me start to think about how psionic monsters would interact with this system....

Lord Cias: Yeah, when I played 2nd edition someone had the Psionic Handbook which presented the Psionicist as its own class. I'd personally prefer to not do that because I'd like to stick with the basis of psionics as presented in Eldritch Wizardry, like cooper said, and I also want psionics to be a relatively minor element to the game. If it were a class, then I think there'd be almost too much interest in it.

bexley: I'm not really sure I get what you're saying. I'm aware of the psionics/yogic powers connection, at least in regard to the fighting man. It's clearly stated in the rules. The system I attached is largely a rewrite of the EW rules, and uses the exact same powers and class restrictions and so on. The only real difference is the psionic combat, which wasn't really keeping with the supposed Vedantic origins in the first place (as originally presented in EW). Anyways, since the original wasn't really a good representation of yoga disciplines to begin with, real-life accuracy isn't really my main concern. I like the idea of pseudo-sadhu fighting men and holy men wandering wastelands fighting cavemen and beholders, and occasionally blowing up each others' heads via staring match.

You can easily drop the psychic combat, and you'll be left with a psionic power system very much based upon Eldritch Wizardry. One that is, in my opinion, much easier and clearer for players to understand than the original without significantly deviating, except perhaps making it a little milder in strength.