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Post by Anti-Steve on Sept 27, 2014 18:56:27 GMT
Psionics? One pet peeve I have with fantasy games, and D&D in particular, is when science/sci-fi terms are used to describe things in a "medieval" fantasy setting. A good litmus test for this is to consider what Farmer Maggot (or whoever) would call an attack by a psionic creature. For example, say Maggot saw Farmer Cotton get zonked by a mind flayer (it could happen  ) and the sheriff asked him what happened. What would he say? I realize it has to be called something, but there are certainly more appropriate terms than "psionics" or "demi-plane" or even "dimension." In the latter case, I always have characters refer to it as a land or realm. So, how do you guys handle that situation? Is it even a consideration? If you feel like I do, I'm interested in what you think about it. |
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Post by Admin on Sept 27, 2014 18:58:47 GMT
Personally, I think that the common folk would simply ascribe it to "magic".
Good question...
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Post by Lord Huthor on Sept 27, 2014 19:17:06 GMT
Yeah, I always handle it the same as Pres.
Common folk have enough trouble understanding magic at is: try to explain psionics to them, they'd probably just think of it as another branch - like divination, or invocation.
Grasping it's something totally removed from magic would be a bit beyond them.
Which is probably for the best.
They get magic on a basic level, know there are ways to defend against it.
Reveal to them there's a whole other thing out there that can do similar inexplicable things, and all the usual wards, dispels, and anti's- don't apply......
They'd burn everything that looked even remotely psionic.
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Post by Anti-Steve on Sept 27, 2014 20:42:02 GMT
Actually, in the superior DragonQuest rpg, psionics is considered one of a number of colleges of magic, the College of the Sorceries of the Mind, which apparently has a basis in an old Robert E. Howard story (not sure if it's a Conan story, though.)
I guess it does make sense that the common folk would just consider everything weird as "magic," but I was thinking more specifically, I guess. Using telekinesis to move an object might be called...what? I guess it would just be "magic" or "witchcraft" or "the devil" or whatever by the hoi polloi, but what about people that are educated, but not knowledgeable of magic?
I guess I can accept wizards using "scientific" terms to describe other dimensions and the like, since they'd need to be able to codify all that shit for teaching purposes and spell creation, but that kinda thing just takes the magic out of it for me. So, help a nigga out. Gimme some ideas.
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Post by Lord Huthor on Sept 27, 2014 20:51:24 GMT
Yeah....
Shit, that's pretty hard once you cut out sci-fi terms.
I guess if you're looking for common terminology, look at the root of what psionic beings are doing.
You could have it referred to as something like: 'focusing'- Farmer Maggot: "Then that Mind Flayer just focused that poor fellow into oblivion!'
or maybe more educated people might refer to it as 'gating' - due to the mental expanding aspect of psionics.
If you want to take something from folklore, you could reference use of the third eye...
Yeah. I'm tapped.
Pretty hard question.
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Post by distortedhumor on Sept 28, 2014 2:48:27 GMT
I made mind flayers into magic users more then once. Still keep the brain eating.
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Post by Malcadon on Sept 28, 2014 2:54:15 GMT
Psionics? One pet peeve I have with fantasy games, and D&D in particular, is when science/sci-fi terms are used to describe things in a "medieval" fantasy setting. A good litmus test for this is to consider what Farmer Maggot (or whoever) would call an attack by a psionic creature. For example, say Maggot saw Farmer Cotton get zonked by a mind flayer (it could happen ) and the sheriff asked him what happened. What would he say? Although, if you run a setting that is not modeled on "medieval" Europe, you could have it so that most people have a basic understanding of the cosmos and types of energies. That is, cultures like ancient China or Egypt, where there was a good amount of literacy and scientific curiosity, one could just rename "magic", "psionics", etc. around it. In the case of psionics, it could be grouped into one of a number of spirit energy types, and named accordingly. For example, Divine power represents the favors of deities to faithful mortals, Cosmic energy requires one to learn complex terms and gestures to effectively execute cheat codes in the form of magic spells, and human Essence can be generated by one's soul, and channeled into psychic ability and ki energy. Hell, You could easily forgo all the fancy Greek/Latin terms in place of hard "Anglish" translations to represent the way other cultures speck. Basically, its like calling a Necromancer a "Death-Master" or the like. In the case of energy types, in could be Bestowed Energy (cleric power), Outer Energy (magic) and Inner Energy (psychic). Grouping all those game-based powers into a chart can be as every bit elaborate and yet, nicely organized as the Great Wheel. |
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Post by Anti-Steve on Sept 28, 2014 3:24:38 GMT
With only one or two exceptions (lost worlds being one) I'd never run a fantasy game that wasn't based, at least in part, on medieval Europe. Having said that, those are some pretty good suggestion, Mal. And I'd forgotten that I kinda did that, myself, when I reworked the kobold into the radioactive kobolde. Obviously, I couldn't say they were radioactive, so I came up with elemental force, which I think works pretty well. "Watch out for koboldes- they emanate an elemental force that can kill a man in minutes." I suppose descriptors from psychic phenomena might be a good place to look for more learned observations on hoodoo and hexation.  |
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) and the sheriff asked him what happened. What would he say?
