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This is a very presumptive interest check b/c I will have to develop quite a bit of material to flesh out the campaign idea.
I just got Worldographer, and I've been going crazy with some of it's mapping abilities that are possible with my new gaming desktop. I've started musing about an all-psionics setting using a radically strange biome map developed Here
The basic outline is a planet slightly larger than earth and more land area, but little inhabitable territory; essentially, every continent is like Australia with a huge outback and a narrow band of habitable areas on the coast. The link above should give you some ideas about the world's biomes and major geographical features, but I'm not going to use the barbie-doll aliens.
Here are the continent maps I've been playing around with: each of these is 409 x 409 hexes, and I have larger versions that are too big to post a preview to that are 4499 x 4499 hexes, have many millions of cells, and are over 400mb in size.
*Maps aside, my current idea to populate this world is a radically all-psionic setting. This means only psionic and no-magic classes, and maybe even only psionic classes (psychic warrior instead of fighter, for instance).
*There would be no core races, only the psionic races from Dreamscarred press. There could be other non-core races, like the psionic races from Vudra, for example.
*Guns would be common and there would be a lot of material from the Technology Guide. The bestiary would also be radically different. Almost all the monsters would be drawn from Legendary Press' Alien Bestiary, the Psionic Bestiary by Dreamscarred Press, and the Dark Sun monsters. The exceptions would be things like gem dragons, which are psionic. But there would be no chromatic or metallic dragons, or most of the standard D&D monsters from the Monster Manual -- bugbears, etc. Even the standard flora and fauna of the planet would be different -- multi legged reptilian creatures instead of horses, for example. Dinosaurs and weird mammalian megafauna would replace most of the standard ecological niches of horses, dogs, cats, cattle, sheep etc.
*There are no gods, only the 'godminds' described in Dreamscarred Press' Third Dawn Campaign Guide.
This would almost be like a Scifi/Planetary Adventure setting instead of a traditional fantasy setting like Golarion.
I haven't really played around with the psionic races or classes at all but I would be very interested to see how it goes.
I like psionics. Color me interested.
Are the octopus or centaur made of Barbies from that blog post playable races? Genuine question, they are both spooky and gross in a way that intrigues me
I’ve been wondering if anyone interest in psionics. It sounds like an interesting world, and I’d like to here more about campaign ideas.
I'm definitely listening.
Are the octopus or centaur made of Barbies from that blog post playable races? Genuine question, they are both spooky and gross in a way that intrigues me
I was planning on having lots of many legged flora and fauna a la Barsoom's banth and apts -- if you want to make up something like the barbietaurs, go ahead, but I was planning on focusing on the psionic races in Dreamscarred Press (Druegar, Elan, Blue, Maenad, Ophiduan, etc.)
I’ve been wondering if anyone interest in psionics. It sounds like an interesting world, and I’d like to here more about campaign ideas.
I'm not sure if this would figure in a campaign, but one idea I have in mind is that a previous era of this world was more like a normal D&D campaign with magic and gods.
I think I'm going to borrow some ideas from Green Ronin's Mindshadow, Dark Sun, and Dreamscarred Press' Third Dawn in trying to put a setting together. This will mean it will be heavily influenced by South Asian culture in terms of naming conventions and imagery.
I was talking w/ another DM on the board, and he mentioned an idea for a campaign that would consist of an 'artifact hunt' in a wasted continent, where the artifacts would be class-based. I might imagine something similar, except the artifacts would be keyed to the major psionic classes.
I also had an idea for a scenario where someone or something is suppressing or draining psionics.
The first scenario or two I'd want to try out some classic D&D tropes like an equivalent of the Keep on the Borderlands or something similar and see how much it gets altered by running it through the divergent assumptions of this setting.
I'm open to ideas if anyone wants to suggest campaign or scenario ideas they think would be interesting with this premise.
I'm good for more "classic" kind of tropes at least initially; we can see what evolves from the stories and build up more of the world that way. I think the South Asian vibes are going to be really cool as an idea.
I'm also thinking this for races:
Anything in the Dreamscarred psionic races menagerie from Ultimate Psionics
Also the race's from Louis J Porter's Neo Exodus and Obsidian Apocalypse settings, with the caveat that anything magical is substituted/converted to psionics.
Any of the aquatic races from Alluria Press' Waves of Thought, which is psionics for Cerulean Seas.
The new races from the Aethera setting.
I was also contemplating getting rid of humans, or making them a small minority, or a race that only lives in hunter-gatherer tribes in non urban areas, as if they were the 'orcs' of this world, to increase the weirdness of the setting. Would anyone have a problem with that?
I'm open to suggestions -- if you have a specific character idea, we probably design part of the world to accommodate that. I'm probably at least going to start with a mash up of some stuff from published sources so there's something to look at in terms of fluff. For instance, I might have one coast of a major continent contain city-states modeled have the cultures of the NeoExodus campaign, Mindshadows, and Third Dawn, and maybe Vudra too, such as the city of Radripal described in Distant Shores. It's also occurred to me that some of the areas in Numenera's Ninth World could be plucked out.
I also think starting with more “classic” adventures is a good idea. I’ve been in groups with psionic characters, but I’ve never actually played one myself. It would make for an easier start.
Though I’m not familiar with all of the settings you mention, what you’re thinking about putting together sounds like a fun world. I love the Barsoom novels. Hopefully, there’s enough interest to get a group together.
I also think starting with more “classic” adventures is a good idea. I’ve been in groups with psionic characters, but I’ve never actually played one myself. It would make for an easier start.
Though I’m not familiar with all of the settings you mention, what you’re thinking about putting together sounds like a fun world. I love the Barsoom novels. Hopefully, there’s enough interest to get a group together.
I'm thinking of using something from This site to do an OSR dungeon crawl under the starting city as the first scenario. Think something inspired by Tekumel, or the Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.
That's 2 votes for an OSR scenario for the first outing -- any other thoughts. Does anyone know what race/kind of character they might want to play?
Oh man, I absolutely adore half-giants, if they're allowed. They were my 2nd favlrite race from 3.5. Class-wise, I'm thinking either psychic warrior or soulknife, I like my melee guys.
half giants are one of the Dreamscarred psionic races, so that'd be fine.
Then that is what I am going to be going with then for sure. I'm definitely interested in knowing what their culture and history is like in your world so I can make a backstory tying into it.
As I said, I think I'm going to combine some stuff from different sources to provide some basic starting fluff, though of course you're welcome to add your own suggestions as well.
This is the Dreamscarred Fluff:
Far back in their ancient history, half-giants were slaves to some form of king. Their stories vary from tribe to tribe, but their former status as slaves is one thread that is common in the lore of every half-giant tribe. As slaves, they fought their oppressors and earned their freedom. As a result, nothing is more important to half-giants than their liberty. They will fight and even kill to stay free, and few things are capable of breaking a half-giant’s will to live like slavery. Indeed, most half-giants would prefer to commit suicide rather than face incarceration or enslavement. For these reasons, most half-giants tend to be law-abiding and respectful, but they can have a tendency to solve problems by resorting to violence rather than risk being apprehended. Some myths claim that they were spawned from fire giants, while others say that they worked in volcanic forges. Regardless of the truth, half-giants are more resilient to heat, a trait that serves them well in the present, as they have a tendency to dwell in arid lands and deserts.
That sounds good to me! Just wanted to know if there was anything to be done or make different. If I have any ideas, I'll definitely run it by you.
Once you have an idea of how you want to do character creation, I'll get to it.
I’m leaning towards playing a vitalist. I hadn’t settled on a race yet, but half-giant sounds cool.
I always found the tactician interesting, but my God, so very MAD. Still, when character creation rules come together I might see what I can do with one. Otherwise, I'll look at some manner of ranged option (maybe try a marksman).
It will definitely facilitate MAD builds -- this will be on the higher power end, though I haven't decided the specifics yet.
Here's the basics of the setting I'm imagining that I can give you:
It is not widely known, but a previous age of the world possessed magic and gods. The interior of the continent was a quasi-Egyptian civilization inspired by Nithia and Dark Sun. The sorcerers-pharaohs that ruled this territory, who may also have been reptilians of some kind, possess powerful sorcery known as Blight Magic: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/184702/Blight-Magic?manufacturers_id=5 246.
This civilization fell under mysterious circumstances, along with the dark gods they venerated in their blood-soaked temples. The half-giants are a remnant of this civilization.
The interior of the continent remains a blasted waste dominated by tribal polities. The coast is verdant and tropical, and supports a number of political bodies that include all the standard psionic races of Dreamscarred Press. The culture is a blend of south asian and south-east asian cultural elements: think India, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Myanmar, etc. The city-states look like Angkor-Wat or the Delhi of Mughal Sultanate, or similar regional inspirations. There are also skyscrapers, steel construction, flying-saucer type crafts (i.e., the vimana of the Mahabharata), and other expressions of high technology. The local constabulary employs laser guns, and the city-states are connected by star-gates.
The player-characters would begin in one of these city-states, known as Chakara. I'll come up with some more info later.
I wouldn't see why you would need humans at all, or any of the standard core races. If you want a different feel getting rid of the "standard" races would help I think. I had made an Elan marksman once in a game that ultimately went nowhere. I'd probably pull him out again.
Something old school to start out would be good. I've never really played psionic creatures so it will be something new to learn.
I might get rid of humans as well -- I'm leaning towards making the previous age of the world essentially reptoid - sarrukh, yuan-ti, assathi, etc.
As I indicated above, the bestiary is also going to be radically different -- basically all the monsters are going to come from alien bestiaries or be aberrations of various sorts. No owlbears, no rust monsters, no treant etc.
My idea has developed a bit more too -- the psionic races are all going to be off planet colonizers that arrived in space ships and are only aware of the previous civilization as ruins their archaeologists are studying.
okay, what if we did 8th level to start out -- I think that's high enough to be interesting without being immediately game breaking.
I ran a 3.5 campaign for a few years that was all psionics for the PCs. Magic was "evil" and Psionics was "good" in the worldview. We had a lot of fun as they unraveled the truth about magic.
I too love the half-giant. Would you want multiples of them in your party? Brothers or guildmates, perhaps? When they start wrestling for the last drumstick, the earth will shake.
Big Yes to starting with an old-school dungeon crawl to explore the system.
multiple half giants are fine.
This is going to be beyond psionics only for characters -- no magic items, no standard monsters, no core races (including humans). It's not just that your characters don't have magic, it actually doesn't exist in this setting in any way, shape, or form.
What I read seems quite interesting. I'm going to keep caution, though, because I know you usually like to use alternate rules not quite common around, some of which I'm not very friends with, so I'll wait and see how the final recruitment end up being to submit or not.
That won't stop me from thinking about concepts and ideas meanwhile, though...
Oh, if it helps... Yeah, getting rid of all usual fantastic races would be nice for a change. Even humans. I also like the reptoid concept. Maybe reptoid races (all with common ancestors?) are native to the world, and the others came as invaders/colonists/explorers.
Build rules proposals
So, for stats, what if we did any array which you can assign how you want. What is the maximum number of stats one needs for MAD, 3?
8th level?
Background skills
I'm not sure how to do equipment b/c the prices are all wrong for my setting idea -- pcs will have ready access to high end technology items like power armor, laser guns, all terrain vehicles etc.
So, for stats, what if we did any array which you can assign how you want. What is the maximum number of stats one needs for MAD, 3?
3 would be reasonable, yeah. It also depends of course on what the array looks like. It's worth noting that starting at 8th would give two advancements, and that without magic items, the lack of +Attr items would affect a few builds.
I'm not sure how to do equipment b/c the prices are all wrong for my setting idea -- pcs will have ready access to high end technology items like power armor, laser guns, all terrain vehicles etc.
Maybe wealth doesn't matter to start, then? And it's more "choose whatever"? Or "choose 2 of these, 1 of these", etc.
There are psionic items: https://www.d20pfsrd.com/alternative-rule-systems/psionics-unleashed/equipm ent/psionic-items/. I'm not clear if they fill all the niches of the 'significant six'.
I'd rather not just make 'psionic' versions of magic items for things that don't exist -- the point of this exercise is to adapt the conditions imposed by a lack of magic, and see what that did to the world.
Well, most future settings cover the lack of magic items with tech. Actually, there were some rules for implants and tech things copying classical magic items somewhere, I remember having used them for an Iron Gods character.
But first you should decide how is the setting gonna be. In Star Wars, there are no power armours or battle mechs, for example. In Warhammer 40k, there are both, but technology is pseudo-mystical and partly lost. In Dune, AIs are completely prohibited and humans have developed special skills to substitute them
Once you decide how technology (or arcane technology) works in your setting and how available it is (power armours in 40k? Yes! Wait, you ain't no Space Marine? Sorry mate...) then we can start giving shape to it. For example, we might decide that Atribute enhancers could be shaped as boosts in power armour, nanotech, bio implants, cyber, combat drugs, etc.
Any more updates on this?
I'm working on the prospective world with another player on the forum; the psionics area will be one part of one continent. We're still very much in the planning phase.
I'm a bit late here, but I might be interested if one of my current recruitments falls through. I'm new Psionics, but I'm definitely willing to learn.
Okay, I've been thinking about the set up a bit more, and I think I've slightly changed what I have in mind in that I'm toying with the idea of allowing some of the psionics options for base classes: https://sites.google.com/site/pathfinderogc/psionics-unleashed/psionic-opti ons, or finding a way to simply 'convert' more options to psionics.
The world would be fairly similar to what was discussed above in that it would be heavily influenced by Dark Sun, Barsoom, Conan, Dune, and a number of other influences, except that instead of humans being non existent, they were almost completely destroyed in a war and essentially converted into warforged or other 'alternative forms' (think the necrons from 40k); they are mostly overtaken by their ifrit and other elemental race servitors.
The central setting would be the Golden City of Thar in the Temple States, a group of coastal city-states that, at one time, was each ruled by a god-like blight dragon (an 'advanced being' like the Athasian dragon, but also resembling the alien blight-generating dragons of the Iron Kingdoms). Until recently, Thar was ruled by the blight dragon Kaltor the Cruel, who disappeared when he attempted to devour the psionic essence of his subjects with through the means a mysterious structure known as the Inverted Pyramid.
blight dragon image: https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/029/424/892/large/john-t edrick-smaugust10.jpg?1597503597
The available races would be the psionic races from Dreamscarred Press, the Heroes of the Jade Oath 'eastern' races http://spheresofpower.wikidot.com/heroes-of-the-jade-oath, the races from Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, or really anything else that is weird like gnolls.
For build rules, I'd imagine a lot of extra feats, ability score, and hit points, but being seriously hampered by the basic lack of healing options in psionics. There's no work around -- you're more durable, but other than that you're stuck and have to simply adapt to the situation.
Thats what vigor is for lol. We don't need healing if we never take real damage.
I'll see if I can write up a brief campaign guide like they make for APs and post a proper recruitment next week
Here is the basic premise...
The intercontinental conflict known widely as the 'Final War' is the conflict which will decide the fate of the Ninth and, according to the prevalent faiths of the dark gods, Last Age of the world of Iskara.
On the eastern coast of the western continent known alternatively as Baelon or Bael-Sian, the marshaled city-states of the god-dragons, ancient wyrms who devoured the corpses of the numerous divine powers who fell in the Godswar, face westward, across the poisonous depths of the Soundless Deep the strongholds of their implaccable opponents, the so-called 'blight dragons', or draugothim, what the Baelonesian god-dragons refer to as the ''false' dragons'' of the temple states of the eastern continent of Risarim. Human sorcerers in some former life, these 'blightmasters' heeded the serpentine voice of mysterious powers from beyond the stars who gifted them a mysterious black oil with powerful mutagenic properties. The merciless conflict between these two dark alliances will determine the fate of the world.
Iskara is inspired by Dark Sun, Barsoom, Giger's Xenomorphs, Roshar from the Stormlight Archive, Dune, Scarred Lands, the Dark Crystal, Earthdawn, Mad Max, and the art work of Brom and Frank Franzetta.
Thats what vigor is for lol.
That's what Vitalists are for.
Well that’s interesting timing. :)
I was talking to a friend about one of my favourite characters from a long time ago and how much fun I had playing out his personality. The conversation really went great and got me hyped up about the character and the idea of resurrecting him so that I could live vicariously once more. So I came back here to see if I could find a place for him (it has been a while since I have last played on these boards).
First day looking and what do I find? Why nothing but a game looking specifically for Psionic characters! And as a bonus I got here right at the start of recrutment so that's hugely helpful ^_^
Midioto is an Elan Psion (Nomad) with the Speed of Thought and Fast Steps feats. These mean he gets to run around quite fast and (as a move action) teleport all over the blinking place with a series of distinctive noises. He also frequently uses his powers to hover in the air, allowing him to into existence anywhere on land or in the air as he desires, albeit he can get pretty clumsy if he does so too quickly, not like that's ever stopped him though!
Midioto is young, impulsive and absolutely bursting with eye-straining energy. He is constantly high on life and in a rush to explore the "next exciting thing." Midioto is never one to sit still and has a curiosity streak to rival 9 cats' worth of lives, which when combined with Midioto's locational abilities can lead to the occasional headache and raised eyebrow. A few times he has occasionally tried to carry multiple conversations with people on completely opposite sides of the room simultaneously. He also practically vibrates when being told to simply "shut up and sit still!" It doesn't last long...
Visually, Midioto is so infused with power that it leaves his very body awash in brighter-than-life pastel yellow.
Midioto also tends to be a collector, depending on which version of him, in one he collected power stones, gems and crystals with an almost mania-like fixation. I might try something like that again.
Midioto is an Elan Psion Nomad who basically embodies the concept of freedom in movement. He also tends to be just as freely thrifty with his Power Points, he has a lot and he rarely hoards them.
I am going to have to upscale him quite drastically so I am not yet sure how well he will take to the ramped up power levels. It should be a fun way to get reacquainted with him tho. ^_^
As for the world you are creating, it looks like a lot of fun :)
I can see the appeal and challenge in trying to make the game work without any humans or magic whatsoever and I think that's neat. So I will try my best to also make Midioto fit into that ideal.
Thats what vigor is for lol.That's what Vitalists are for.
Actually THAT’S what Meatsticks are for!
I started typing up a player's guide, but it's going to take me at least a week or so. It sounds like there's interest, but this is a sufficiently complicated world that I need to lay out enough of the fluff up front so everyone knows what they're getting into.
i'd be interested.
i'd be interested.
don't honestly know anything about psionics other than soulknife basics but still would be down to play.