The Grittiest of Campaign Worlds

[atemu1234]

I'm making a D20 Modern sans magic but with psionics campaign world, which starts in the year 2020. The storyline goes it was just like our world until the mid 2000s, when the Aberrants began to arrive. Now, up until then, no magic existed. Once the Aberrants (Mind Flayers mostly) began to appear, however, they brought with them psionics. Some humans have an aptitude for psionics, but most are still normal. The Mind Flayers (Using the name Illithids simply because it sounds cooler) began to reproduce (with the ear parasite things) and they are trying to summon their deity, a refluffed Cthulhu. Now, I'm debating how this would work PC-wise. The PCs have a decided lack of healing (because of no divine magic) and there are no dragons, the closest to undead you get is a homebrewed version of zombies called mindless (who become aberrations instead, but keep the d12 hit die) and there are no other races besides humans. Now, apart from that, we run the sanity variant rules as well as the taint and depravity ones. Any tips?

[John Longarrow]

Based in Furinkan High I take it?

Gotta toss in ToB.

[ArqArturo]

A good look at Delta Green would be interesting. They mostly deal in the Cthulhu Mythos, but you could have a SPAT (Special Psionics and Tactics) team to deal with aberrations.

[dascarletm]

Lack of healing will help the campaign be grittier, but you just got to keep that in mind. Allow more downtime than normal. You could home brew a certain type of psion that uses powers that act as healing spells. These would be refluffed as body adjustment esque powers.

[Larkas]

Well, DSP made the Vitalist (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/psionics-unleashed/classes/vitalist). You might want to take a look at that.

[sideswipe]

have gore filled sacrifices a staple in non abberants obtaining psionics. only the mental scaring of killing a close friend and devouring his soul and body can awaken the hidden psychic energies within.

if you want it to be a gritty more horror campaign then ideas along these lines work well.

[John Longarrow]

For a good dash of angst and suffering, have the players be students attending a college prep cram school. :xykon:

NOTE: Not considered a joke as this can easily justify a lot of crazy going on without people commenting too much.

[Adanedhel]

Most important thing to a gritty setting:

Make sure the general populace has already given uo. The Mindflayers are here to stay, and if the common populace behaves well, and does not act against the new overlords they only need to give up 80% of their daily rescources,and bar from the occasional whipping and flaying, and the human sacrifice here and there they're left alone.

And every time a PC makes clear they oppose the mind flayers, take a mental note.
Anyone who hears might keep that knowledge for themselves, but they also should realize that if someone else tells on them they are killed as conspirators, and probably their families used as parasite/zombie fuel.

Better to just coöperate witht heir dark masters, it allows them to live more or less unmolested.

For extra credit, have the ruthless mind flayers commend on the wisdom of the people, and than say that in gratitude, this is the only toll they exact from their loyal citizens.

[atemu1234]

Another couple details I left out: The government has gone world war Z on them (the book, not the movie) and restricted knowledge of the aberrants. Those that do know about it are thoroughly convinced that they are winning or are telling everyone that they are.

Edit: Even more information

The Mind Flayers are actually Mind Flayers dedicated to Thoon. Thoon is just their name for a god that is basically Cthulhu. They've used parasites to control thousands of humans. These humans are the most powerful; and like the rift in Pacific Rim it's growing, letting more and more Aberrants through. Currently these are the creatures that have spread: Illithids, Intellect Devourers, Thoon Parasites, and soon things like Mindshredders will be arriving.