[Dreamscarred Press] Announcing Psionics Augmented: Occult!


Product Discussion

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

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With Paizo’s announcement of Occult Adventures and its inclusion of psychic magic, many people were curious and concerned as to what that means for Dreamscarred Press. Indeed, I had the pleasure of discussing it with Erik Mona at GenCon 2014 in the minutes before the announcement was made.

We at Dreamscarred recognized early on with Pathfinder that our psionics niche was only there as long as Paizo didn’t decide to support it themselves. Paizo, on the other hand, recognized that psionics as we like it, with power points, augmenting, etc., isn’t something they’re very keen on. And there’s nothing wrong with that – everyone has their own preferences, and we’ve certainly benefited from them not wanting to touch a power point system! But with psychic magic, the medium, the kineticist, and the other character options that Occult Adventures will bring, it does pose a question as to how we’re going to handle it.

After discussing for a little while, our solution was to simply adapt to the change and keep on doing what we do best! As a result, we’re working on the design for Psionics Augmented: Occult (tentative title) which will include new options for the classes found in Occult Adventures, as well as occult options for the psionic classes found in Ultimate Psionics, and probably more things we dream up as we work on the project. We’re tentatively planning for Psionics Augmented: Occult to be a 32-page softcover release that will be available at GenCon 2015 to coincide with the release of Occult Adventures’ release on the same day.

Want to participate? You can be sure we’ll be posting material as it’s developed for playtesting feedback, and we’re always open to new ideas of what should be included in the book! Let us know your thoughts and we hope to see you at GenCon 2015 for the release of Psionics Augmented: Occult.

(cross-posted at Dreamscarred.com)


Who's going to be heading this project and will all your talented freelancers be writing material for it?

I'm pretty excited because most DSP material has top notch mechanics.

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

Right now, Andreas and I are outlining what's going to be included. The developers will depend on the final design, availability, and interest.

In other words, we haven't fully decided who will write everything up.


Jeremy, I'm glad you and Andreas are giving Occult Adventures full support.

My little city project is so complete, though, it's going to take a sourcebook for Occult Adventures support. I've been working on it for years, and I haven't been able to give Occult Adventures support until I see the final project.


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I read the playtest for OA and had almost no interest after reading it. But I liked pretty much everything you've done so far so I'll definitely be looking into this!


Will there be aegis and soulknife variants adjusted to the Occult Adventures mechanics - possibly using burn rules instead of power points?

*Soulknife simply needs replacement for their Wild Talent as far as I can tell. Plus eventual options for use of burn mechanics...


Sounds like you'd be having to make tonnes of guesses from the playtest material. Sounds abit risky. Not immensely risky since Paizo generally doesn't change too much from the playtest, but things like kineticist seem to be getting decent overhauls.

That said, an aegis who makes their armour from an element would be pretty awesome.


Other than the aether?


EltonJ wrote:

Other than the aether?

Well, with aether it'd have to be making the armour out of random objects that are around rather than just making it out of kinetic force.

Grand Lodge

I plan on using both psychic magic and psionics in my games and a product like this could be icing on the awesome cake. Honestly, I really like just about everything that DSP has to offer. Akashic Mysteries is probably the only thing that DSP has done that I really have no interest in. I was "meh" about it when the subject when the source material came out but I'll pick up the pdf just have it.

SM


Sounds good to me. Is anything Seventh Path related showing up in here?

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

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No, Seventh Path is still going to be standalone and should actually wrap up development this month.

That being said, a hardcover Psionics Augmented with Seventh Path, Mythic, Occult, Wilder, and some other things is certainly a possibility. :)


I'd still buy it, but I know the only use I'd have for the Mythic Pages would be to look at the art.

Also

SEVENTH PATH HYPPPPPEEEEEEEEE!

ATATATATATATATATATATTA
You're already bought


Jeremy Smith wrote:

No, Seventh Path is still going to be standalone and should actually wrap up development this month.

That being said, a hardcover Psionics Augmented with Seventh Path, Mythic, Occult, Wilder, and some other things is certainly a possibility. :)

Oh wow! I am getting Seventh Path sooner than expected.

And all that as a hardcover would definitely make my day. I am very interested in the themes associated with Paizo's Occult Adventures, but I feel a little skeptical about purchasing the book. I'd love to see how you modify the stuff presented in it.


What I'd like to see is how both could co-exist.

Occult Adventures subject material is 19th Century Spiritualism, New Age Occultism, and Madam Blatvasky's Theosophy mixed all together. It was certainly needed.

Psionics (2nd edition to Ultimate Psionics) is something I associate with the human potential movement. :)

I'd like to see options for both co-existing and that Dreamscarred has talked about it. However, being recently asked to throw it all away and to adopt just Occult Adventures because Ultimate Psionics was third party was as welcome as a slap in the face.

In a perfect world, we are just gamers, and Gamemasters can approve and disapprove whatever we want with out "3rd party" being stigmatized. Probably the best we can hope for is support products mixing options from both. :) 1 or 2.


I'm sorry to hear that. With Occult Adventures releasing soon, we'll be looking over the major changes and then working as fast as we can to finish it and release it so people can enjoy both. :)


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I would like to reiterate my excitement. I am unsure if I will purchase Occult Adventures, but my table is always welcome to actual psionics.


Question, have you guys done archetypes and stuff for the medium? Because it was unrecognisably reworked, and it'd be unfortunate to have lost time on them.

Publisher, Dreamscarred Press

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We were in communication with Paizo on some of the changes coming (we didn't get all the details, just some higher-level information while the book was still in editing) so some of our development was held off until we could get the final version of the rules.

As a result, we've delayed release on this so that the mechanics are right, instead of being ready to release at the same time.


That's great to hear.


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I'm proud to announce the formal start of the playtest for Psionics Augmented: Occult. Unlike some of Dreamscarred Press’ previous playtests, we’re trying a new model with this one. Rather than releasing an entire book worth of material for testing at once, we’ll be putting out smaller packets of rules over time. We hope that this “rolling playtest” will allow us to focus on, well, focused testing of new class options, abilities, and the like, and allow us to release them sooner rather than later. The end result will be that we can get the new stuff from the playtest to your table as efficiently as possible, without compromising on the quality you’ve come to expect from DSP. We will be periodically updating the playtest with new material, as well as keeping a close eye on the feedback we receive.

So, without further ado, here's what we’ve got to offer for this first set of new stuff:


  • The Gambler, a kineticist archetype focused on balancing high amounts of risk for a great reward, while delivering variable elemental damage with their kinetic blasts.

  • The Goetic, a spiritualist archetype who, rather than calling a phantom to do their bidding, binds seven otherworldly horrors into their body to make their power their own. This defense-focused archetype allows the spiritualist to transform themselves into horrific new forms to warp the battlefield and protect what is theirs. In addition, we have two more, less intensive archetypes for the spiritualist: the Athanic Channeler, a spiritualist who uses psionic powers rather than psychic spells, and the Crystalline Binder, who stores their phantom in a psicrystal and can cause it to transform into a heavily-armored creature of crystal and ectoplasm. Finally, we have the Unpattern, an archetype that can be applied to a spiritualist’s phantom, allowing it to tear reality asunder with its tattered form.

  • The Living Legend, a soulknife archetype that invokes stories of heroes and villains to gain their strength, weaving words into weaponry and creating the tools out of mental power to make their mark on the world.

  • The Ringleader, a mesmerist who’s always the life of the party, and can draw both allies and enemies into his festivities with a special collective called a carnevale.

We look forward to your feedback, and hope you enjoy the ride.


This reminds me I have yet to buy Occult Adventures.

Nice to see a psionic class getting something from the new psychic magic stuff also, I thought this book would go only one way, but it's crossing over nicely.


dot


Good to see that Occult Adventures based free stuff, when it's mixed with psionics (and chocolate and peanut butter...) ;)


I wanted to let anyone watching this thread know that it was decided that we ought to start a new thread for our playtest, findable here.

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