I dont have the DL books, but i hope to get them. But from what i have know, there are no Psionics in DL. But i really like Psionics sooooo, how could i integrate them into DL without too much trouble. Like how to explain how they came to be. I would also like to note, that i use the Psionics are different varient. So nothing about them tapping the ambient magic in the world.
So you're okay to use psionics. Truth to tell, I'm a psionics fan myself.
There are a few options for applying psionics in Krynn.
1. Psionics = Mysticism. This isn't exactly a true translation, but some of the Spheres of Mysticism correlate to psionics. For example, Channeling could be equated to Psychometabolism, Meditation could be equated to Clairsentience, and Mentalism could be equated to Telepathy. You may have to play with this some.
This option becomes problematic with the relationship of magic, and would interfere with the mystic class. Also, this doesn't jive so well with the Psionics are Different option.
2. Psionics are granted by the gods. Perhaps some of the gods have awakened inner potential within mortals. Majere would be a prime candidate for a psionic god in Krynn. Gilean would be good as well, and I would guess that Hiddukel may be good for the bad guys.
Which leads to...
3. Chaos/Greygem. When Chaos was destroyed, and his power infused the world (thereby amplifying ambient magic), it awoke within mortals the potential to tap into their inner power, manifesting in the form of psionics.
Summarily, this could also be applied to the passing of the Greygem, creating an offshoot within individuals. Such a person may be the only psion on Krynn.
4. Evolution. Not really a DL theme, but nothing is stopping you.
5. New position of Krynn. Maybe there was a psionic-dampening field where Krynn used to be, and that's now gone.
Anyhoo, I hope that helps you out.
Psionics would be most difficult to add to a DL game. You have to contend with four types of magic as well as psionics, which may get muddled quickly. You have to maintain world flavor. It won't be an easy road.
Ask yourself how psions will fit into Krynn. Are they divine champions? Will they have their own order? If so, how will the other orders of Krynn view them? What of dragons? Will they have psionics? Will you add gem dragons?
Anyway, good luck with this. I'm looking forward to hearing how you incorporate psionics.
You beat me to a topic I was just about to start writing on! Here I was thinking about how to breach the “hot button issue” of using psionics in a DL campaign, and you just dived in and started typing.
I will soon post on how I will use psionics in my campaign (I also use the Psionics is different option), and here is the short version:
Psionics has always existed in the world of Krynn, but it was relatively rare and unknown to the average person (of any race). The cataclysm that struck Ishtar cause changes to the world that where not as visible as the physical changes that reshaped the surface of the land. For the meteor that struck Ishtar reacted with the worlds energy and magical fields and caused a massive anti-magical pulse (AMP) field that destroyed thousands of magical creatures, items and spell casters, and it created a psionic enhancement pulse (PEP) field that increased the potential for all living sentient creatures to develop psionic powers.
With time, people of all nations came to discover psionics and reacted to this discovery in different ways. That is the subject of another post of course…. J
George
Good points you bring up there. I will think about this when I create my post of psionics in my game world.
As a DM I have the good fortune that none of my six players knows, well, practically anything about the DL setting besides the odds and ends of info I have given them. So when I told them two Saturdays ago (when I was setting down the ground rules for our new DL 3.5 campaign) that “psionics exist in my campaign” every one said “ok” and we moved on to the next game issue! How are they supposed to know that psionics don’t official exist in DL if I don’t tell them, or if they don’t start reading any of my many DL books. (Grin)
Of course, as a DM it is my job to integrate psionics into the game world in a “holistic” way so it doesn’t feel “tacked on at the last minute”. I want to add psionics as natural a thing as divine and arcane magic so my players don’t think too much about it and it just fades into the background with the other game elements.
>Ask yourself how psions will fit into Krynn. Are they divine champions? Will they >have their own order? If so, how will the other orders of Krynn view them? What of >dragons? Will they have psionics? Will you add gem dragons?
Hmm… I will need to address this in my own game…
George
Psionics are still very rare but there is an order like the WoHS to govern their use on Ansalon.
I would be interested in learning more about this in your campaign.
George
We had a psychic warrior from Taladas in our DL party for some time and it worked quite well. Psychic warriors are pretty similar to fighter-mages; nobody even realized for the first couple of season that he wasn't just some kind of fighter x/ wizard y character.
Pure psions just don't fit into my campaign stylewise and also I think they might get into trouble with the WoHS.
Cheers,
Inkubus
A friend of mine once utilized the Aes Sedai (sp?) from Wheel of Time in our DL game years ago (prior to the WoT RPG and 3e). He was going to use psionics to explain that, and I almost decided to go with that for my character. The way he implemented it was that the Aes Sedai was a new order, who possessed some strange power. Ex-KoS became the Warders.
One certain Paladian Dragonhelm died facing one such Warder. He rolled a natural 20 on Paladian, and the roll on Good Hits and Bad Misses was high. Abdomen struck, immediate death. Paladian died honorably. *sniff*
If I were to do psionics, I would probably organize a new order, shrouded in mystery. Maybe they would seek to replace the WoHS, maybe not. I had thought that it would be neat to have their HQ being made of Crystal, but the Citadel of Light sorta puts the kabosh on that. Unless one did a crystal spire of some sort.
I would also add in a small island populated by Thri-Kreen. Seems that Mantis Warriors would fit in nicely with Majere.
Not sure on Gem Dragons. That messes up a lot on Ansalon. They would either have to be totally new, or would have to live on another land mass on Krynn.
Perhaps one of the lands beyond Krynn is the only one with psionics.
*shrugs*
How would you guys implement psionics?
The Colourless Lodge operates in a similar fashion to the Orders of High Sorcery in that they govern the use of psionics on Ansalon, keep track of (and try to convert) those psionic individuals who are not members. Since psionics are rare on (my) Krynn this isn't too big a problem.
There is some contention between some Wizards about the Colourless Lodge. They feel that since psionics has its base in magic (it comes from a sliver of the Graygem) that psions and psychic warriors should fall under the domain of the Orders of Sorcery, but the Orders in general see psionics are similar but not magic and are content to allow the Colourless Lodge to monitor their own.
I have not finished reading the entire encounter but I like what I've read so far. The youth Arthes Kren would be a good addition to a DL game. He could be a very very unique individual, one of the first humans to develop Psionics.
One of the other things I'd do is make it so that Psionics are very very new. Due to the geometry of the old Krynn-space, Psionics were completely impossible to utilize. This coincides with all of the old DL information. Now that the power has been unlocked it only waits for those with the will to utilize it. Now, the Yaggol can feel their Psionic link reform and the powers which the've neglected for centuries return. A young goblin appears with blue-skin. It is whispered that he is a Goblin-Magi, the tiny counterpart to the Ogre-Magi, but he manifests abilities that are even different from those manifested by the Ogre Mages.
I like flavor text, its fun!:D Now, of course, I also wanna get the Thri-Keen working in there too!
Originally posted by Dragonhelm
If I were to do psionics, I would probably organize a new order, shrouded in mystery. Maybe they would seek to replace the WoHS, maybe not. I had thought that it would be neat to have their HQ being made of Crystal, but the Citadel of Light sorta puts the kabosh on that. Unless one did a crystal spire of some sort.
I would also add in a small island populated by Thri-Kreen. Seems that Mantis Warriors would fit in nicely with Majere.
Not sure on Gem Dragons. That messes up a lot on Ansalon. They would either have to be totally new, or would have to live on another land mass on Krynn.
Perhaps one of the lands beyond Krynn is the only one with psionics.
*shrugs*
How would you guys implement psionics?
Sorta like a "Psi-Core" in Dragonlance. Na just kidding. ;)
I would implement it in one of two ways. One, is an underground organization dedicated to Psionics that formed just after the Chaos War, created by some unknown source. Since most people would pay closer attention to the sorcerors and mystics, the psionic order would take advantage of that attention to remain hidden. One advantage they have is that psionics is NOT magic, and therefore can not be "detected" by magical means.
The other way I would implement psionics in dragonlance would be full force by way of an invasion by a force with psionic intergrated into its ranks. This force would come from either another continent or even beyond Krynn through the Ethereal Sea. I would probably use a combination of these two.
Gem Dragons would be difficult to get in to Dragonlance and maintain the balance that alot of us likes about Krynn. Maybe if you keep them rare like the Shadow Dragons and Dracolich it might work better.
SweetMeats - I took a look at ITCK last night, and I like your thoughts on incorporating the Colorless Lodge.
Originally posted by Dragonhelm
SweetMeats - I took a look at ITCK last night, and I like your thoughts on incorporating the Colorless Lodge.
Thanx. I figured that the Lodge should be similar to the Orders of High Sorcery with regards to how it operates. The Orders of High Sorcery are a good basis of how things should operate.
Psionic Organization - I think the majority of people who posted on this thread suggested an order akin to the WoHS for psionics. I think having one order per discipline would work, and not have it be divided between good and evil. How would psychic warriors fit into this? As a guardian of sorts?
Psi-Knight - Krynn is big on knightly orders. While the KoS and KoN are the largest of the orders, there are smaller ones. What would people think of an order of knights made of psychic warriors? Should this be a sister organization for the one with the psions?
Origin of Psionics in Krynn - I have various thoughts on this, but my favorite is that the power of Chaos changes a few individuals, much like what happened when he was in the Greygem, and they become psionic.
Your thoughts are most appreciated.
O-kay everyone get out your flamethrowers. Psionics have always been in DL (this is just 1 theory of many of mine). As anyone who really reads my posts and other stuff they can tell you that I have a real fascination with the Scions as well as Taladas. So here is how you introduce psionics. The scions are not called psions for no reason. As no-one has ever done a real in-depth study or explanation of the scions you could say that the scions were so powerful because they combined psionics with primal sorcery. As the scions as rare these would help explain why occurances of psionics are so rare. To make psionics even more uncommon you could say that the WoHS hunted down psions prior to the chaos war believing they were using primal sorcery and therefore the only place where psionics are even remotely heard of are Taladas. Now, being that the WoHS lost their power during the 5th age, psions are becoming more common.
Using the psionics are different rule helps explain why the scions are so powerful, as magic cannot prevent (for the most part) the use of psionics.
Watcha think. Interesting at least?
Giorgio that is a very interesting way to introduce psionics and sounds pretty cool.
Dragonhelm As far as gem dragons in my campaign, the way I see it all dragons exist in krynn. Some are just so rare as to be seen once in a millenium, once in a century.
Sweetmeats Graygem, the age old catchall for rules breaking and chaos. Always a good choice for introducing new things to DL.
1) Gem Dragons could easily exist as a creation of Sirrion and Chislev. Sirrion to craft the art of the Gem Dragon, and Chislev to imbue it with life. Actually it works very well with the current rules.
2) Thri-Kreen, now that Krynn is in a new part of space, its almost like Farscape and we need to have wierd creatures come and visit! Maye they drift through the ethereal sea in egg sacks, and these crashed on Krynn at the end of the Chaos War when Takhisis threw Krynn to the new world, and BAM! Right into a nest of the Thri-Kreen, now they are hatching in the deserts and Desolation and are making a general nuisance out of themselves.
3) Psionics have existed on Krynn: the royal house of Silvenesti used telepathy to keep in touch. THats one minor form of psionic ability, but it is a psionic ability! I'd say now that the elves are in the desert and are being threatened with extinction, these old abilities resurface and they are relearning their skills. Maybe other races develop it as well, such as humans with the tiniest elven blood in their decent. Kender could develop it but they probably don't have the concentration. Perhaps Afflicted Kender do? Just some thoughts.
4) As to an organization...... I'd say no. Psionics should be to new and rare for them to be fully organized. Local groups might work together, if they are of the same alingment, but that should be it. I'd say the elves have the most organized group if anyone does. Maybe they raise the Golden Spire, a complex for psionic learning in the desert, made out psionically inhanced sandstone...
Rosisha
Originally posted by Rosisha
3) Psionics have existed on Krynn: the royal house of Silvenesti used telepathy to keep in touch. THats one minor form of psionic ability, but it is a psionic ability! I'd say now that the elves are in the desert and are being threatened with extinction, these old abilities resurface and they are relearning their skills. Maybe other races develop it as well, such as humans with the tiniest elven blood in their decent. Kender could develop it but they probably don't have the concentration. Perhaps Afflicted Kender do? Just some thoughts.
Many spells duplicate psionic effects such as telepathy, thought-reading, telekinesis, and mental attacks. One common explanation for the rare elven telepathy (outside of it being a borrowed concept from Tolkien's elves) is that it is rudimentary Mentalism, one of the aspects of mysticism.
I know you're using this with the assumption that psionics will exist, but i thought it'd be worthwhile pointing out that current Dl magic systems have psychic abilities covered.
Cheers,
Cam
Originally posted by Cam Banks
I know you're using this with the assumption that psionics will exist, but i thought it'd be worthwhile pointing out that current Dl magic systems have psychic abilities covered.
Many spheres of Mysticism fit the bill.
Mentalism = Telepathy
Channeling + Alteration = Psychometabolism
Meditation = Clairsentience
And so on and so forth.
I've toyed around with the idea of writing an article on incorporating psionics in Krynn. Now that we have 4 types of magic, it would get more muddled in amongst everything than ever before.
Too bad there isn't a fantasy world that incorporates gem dragons, thri-kreen, psionics, etc. etc. as an integral part of the world. *sigh*
The idea is a powerful rogue wizard as weakened the plannar barrier between Krynn and another plane.
The creatures of this plane abandoned their own gods to expand their own talents. Gem dragons live here as well.
With the barrier weakened they're able to plane shift over to krynn to take a look around, finding it in their favor they decide to take it.
It's taking alot of build up, but it's going to start with rumors of shadows, to strange beings seen at night, then attacks in the open, and finally invasion with dragons.
It should be interesting since the PCs will need to convince the sides of good and evil that they have to work together to defeat this enemy.
Well thats how I'm using psionics, just my 2 cents.
As for orders of Psions on Krynn, one of my characters was the founder of the "Order of the Tempered Soul". The order is based on an idea similar to the Kai Lords of Joe Dever's Lone Wolf Series and makes use of the Lucid Cenobite (slightly modified) PrC from Bruce Cordell's Mindscapes. The order has a medieval feel and blends in nicely with the other organizations of Krynn (their ideals are similar to the priesthood of Majere with which they have established close ties in recent years)
It was good to see the option of psionics was left open to the DM in 3e (even if it requires a little bit of work).