Mind-Bending Game Design

Psionics in Fantasy RPGs

So, Blades of Power: Synth & Sorcery Roleplaying is firmly funded and has already started unlocking stretch goals. If you haven’t backed and wanna jump in on the action, I’d greatly appreciate it. Well, naturally, this has taken me from conceptualizing potential supplements to actually writing them. I knew from even before the Core Book being completed that I wanted to do a supplement called Champions of Ultimos. Ultimos is the default campaign setting that’s detailed briefly in the Core Rulebook and a place I wanted to expand on in a future supplement. But I didn’t want to to be just a campaign setting. I wanted a kinda Quest Master-focused campaign setting and a selection of player options. A portion of those options are five new classes. Two of those new classes are the Mind Knight and Esper - yes, psychic characters.

No, I’m not putting Jedi in Blades of Power. Don’t ask.

Psionics fit into a game like Blades of Power in a way that I think doesn’t work for straight up, traditional D&D. I think in all the official D&D campaign settings, the only one where it ever really worked was Dark Sun - and that setting was foundationally built around psionics. But, because Blades has that touch of the synth and touch of the sci-fi, psionics fits in perfectly. There’s only one problem:

Writing psionics sucks.

I don’t want to just write a set of re-skinned spells and call the psionics. But at the same time, it needs to fit into both the game and the existing magic system of the game while being distinct. It can’t feel bolted on, nor can it just be a “slots and spells” system like divine and arcane magic.

My instinct is to give both the Mind Knight and the Esper a limited number of specific abilities that are activated with a successful Saving Throw and draw upon a pool of points. Make the save. Spend a point. Activate the ability. Fail the save, you still lose the point and the power doesn’t activate. But then I’m still going to need a list of Psychic abilities. It feels both distinct enough from and familiar enough with traditional spellcasting to serve as a sister system. Unfortunately, it still leaves me with the need to have a list of psychic powers and I’m not sure I want to add the number of pages that’s going to take to full off in a manner robust enough to compete with traditional spellcasters like Crusaders, Wizards, and Elves.

Then you get into the line between what is a magic spell and what is a psychic ability. Charm Person, Confusion, Detect Thoughts and a handful of other spells clearly have that psychic vibe to them, but they’re still magic spells. How do they interact with psychic abilities or operate differently from them - if at all? I tell ya, it’s a real can of worms.

OMG. Psychic rules give me a headache.

I’m sure I’ll puzzle it out, and in the mean time, Champions of Ultimos will include a ton of other content too. I’m planning on rules for animal companions and vehicles, some non-psychic classes, probably some new gear, and the gazetteer of the world of Ultimos. But as it currently stands, I’m wracking my brain on psychic abilities - pun intended.

In the mean time, if you haven’t already backed Blades of Power: Synth & Sorcery Roleplaying on Kickstarter, head over and become a part of the B/X-based, 80s cartoon action adventure. Join the adventure! Be a hero! Save the day!