How do you work psionics into your world?

[tedcahill2]

I'm trying to decide how I want to work psionics into an upcoming game world. I need some ideas.

In this world magic permeates all things, life is magic, souls are magic, all things are magic, magic is the building blocks used by the gods to create the world.

When they created the world the gods left behind their tool box, which is what wizards have learned to access, like cheat codes for life. Wizards are the gamesharks of the world. They have no special connection to magic, they simply know how to use it.

Dragonfire adepts, removing all the dragon fluff, were remodeled into sorcerers. Magic energies seem to pool around them, which they manipulate to produce blasts are magic power.

I removed the religious connotations of the Cleric and renamed them Invokers. As opposed to directly granting daily spells to an invoker through prayer, they instead grant invokers the ability to channel divine magic using their bodies as a conduit.

Druids have been refluffed as Wardens, though they remain largely unchanged. Their magic comes from an unrivaled connectedness with nature, and as I mentioned all things are magic, so they are channeling magic directly from the earth.

So the question is; how do psions fit in? Is mind magic just another magic? Have they unlocked something different than magic? Are psionics another manifestation a magic energy, like the way my sorcerer simply wields it naturally?

[Zaq]

Psionics is (are?) just another kind of magic. It follows slightly different rules and is accessed in slightly different ways, but it's still fundamentally magic. It's impressive to Joe and Jane Commoner, but it's no more inherently unsettling or mysterious to a worldly adventurer (or even a citizen of a big cosmopolitan city) than "typical" arcane or divine magic. (All magic is impressive when done well, of course, but the point is that psionic magic is magic.)

[Necroticplague]

In the default settings I know of, the primary difference between Psionics and most other forms of magic is internal vs. external: Magic manipulates forces outside of oneself to do something, Psionics manipulates forces within them to do things. Even those with intrinsic magic abilities simply intuitively manipulate what's around them. This is most evident in Faerun, where psionicists wave an internal Weave.

Your presented fluff still seems to allows for this: you describe all of the others as tapping into something external (even your sorcerors have energy 'around' them). Psions simply have a reservoir of energy within themselves they can unleash.

[The Vagabond]

In terms of design, if Arcane magic is the access to the gods toolkit, or the Gameshark equivilent, you could simply argue that they are using different languages to achive the same resaults.

So Wizards are using C++ to redesign the universe, while Psionics is doing the same thing with LUA.

[Flickerdart]

So the question is; how do psions fit in? Is mind magic just another magic? Have they unlocked something different than magic? Are psionics another manifestation a magic energy, like the way my sorcerer simply wields it naturally?
Psionics are split into natural/learned just as magic is.

For learned psionicists (psions, psychic warriors, ardents), the mind is a tool to access magic. They simulate the wizard's chanting and rituals inside their minds, and hone that simulation through meditation and study. The process is different (power points, different list of powers) but the results are the same (reality changes to suit their whims).

For natural psionicists (wilders) their gifted minds skip the abstraction, and go straight to making things go boom boom through some process the wilders don't consciously understand. Lacking the structure and discipline of a psion's mind, wilders cannot learn as many powers, and the effects they produce can be unpredictable and harmful.

Some things are easier (or only possible) to do within the mind, and some things are easier (or only possible) to do through ritual, so the psionic power list is different from the arcane or divine spell list.

[martixy]

In terms of design, if Arcane magic is the access to the gods toolkit, or the Gameshark equivilent, you could simply argue that they are using different languages to achive the same resaults.

So Wizards are using C++ to redesign the universe, while Psionics is doing the same thing with LUA.

There are probably not many who will appreciate that analogy here. :)

Me, I differentiate them by power source.
Arcane draws energy from the world.
Divine draws energy from the... well, divine.
Psionics draws energy from within.

They're not exactly equivalent, mechanically or otherwise, but close.

[etrpgb]

It does not.

[Segev]

Given the premise in the OP, if Arcane magic is the ability to hack the base code, whether due to actively studying it and understanding it (wizards) or innately having your own code be connected to specialized functions (sorcerers); and Divine magic is having admin privileges (clerics) or GM privileges (druids); then psionics could be akin to injecting foreign code into the system.

The psionic entity is not just reprogramming things using function calls and the language of the system, but is instead drawing on his own understanding of Machine or Assembly code and interfacing through back doors and security holes. It's a virus or malware. This doesn't necessarily mean it's harmful, but it's definitely toying with the code on a dangerous level. This is why it sometimes has really strong effects, and has such a hard time doing basic things that other kinds of magic do so easily. It's coming at it from such a low level that it doesn't require the gestures and chanting...because it's too alien for standard interface methods to work.

I'd play with the rather common tendency of Far Realm entities and aberrations to be psionic; they're out-of-context creatures, and thus their interface with the "magic" of the setting is that of an invader, using interfaces, sockets, and network access that wasn't meant to be used that way, but which can be tricked into it if you know what you're doing. The non-aberration users of psionics may be empowered by such, or they may simply be using the same techniques. They're still part of the system, but they've managed to make their own private emulated node and hack in from there on a machine language (or at least assembly) level.

TL;DR: If arcane and divine magic are working within the framework to use the code or permissions of the system through standard function calls, or even writing their own functions, then psionics is coming at it from the outside. Each psion or wilder is his own island; even if he is also part of the magical everything, he's reaching outside of it to come at it askew, from the outside. He's created his own set of coding rules and has to interface on an assembly code level from the outside. It's harder, in some ways, but it allows some unique tricks and is operating without any safety rails.

[Flickerdart]

The psionic entity is not just reprogramming things using function calls and the language of the system, but is instead drawing on his own understanding of Machine or Assembly code and interfacing through back doors and security holes. It's a virus or malware. This doesn't necessarily mean it's harmful, but it's definitely toying with the code on a dangerous level. This is why it sometimes has really strong effects, and has such a hard time doing basic things that other kinds of magic do so easily. It's coming at it from such a low level that it doesn't require the gestures and chanting...because it's too alien for standard interface methods to work.

Real Programmers can write FORTRAN programs in any language. (http://web.mit.edu/humor/Computers/real.programmers)

[Zanos]

From a programming analogy, arcane magic would actually be closer to using an API to interface with the "real" programming behind the scenes. In Faerun at least, arcane casters manipulate the weave to manipulate reality, so they're really just using the API that's maintained by another developer(Mystra) to make calls on the underlying system of reality. Unfortunately the first couple versions of the API didn't have great scalability or failover, so there were some uptime issues and the API calls from wizards/sorcerers stopped working for a bit.

Psionics is more direct in this analogy. Assembly is probably a good analogy in that you're writing directly to the "system" with no safeguards.

[Prime32]

From a programming analogy, arcane magic would actually be closer to using an API to interface with the "real" programming behind the scenes. In Faerun at least, arcane casters manipulate the weave to manipulate reality, so they're really just using the API that's maintained by another developer(Mystra) to make calls on the underlying system of reality. Unfortunately the first couple versions of the API didn't have great scalability or failover, so there were some uptime issues and the API calls from wizards/sorcerers stopped working for a bit.

Psionics is more direct in this analogy. Assembly is probably a good analogy in that you're writing directly to the "system" with no safeguards.Pretty much this, yeah.

Psionics is efficient and flexible, but you have to figure out the whole effect in your head each time, rather than relying on a script someone prepared earlier... and that severely limits how complex things can get. Also, while psions can affect other beings with their powers just fine, it's hard for them to "load programs" into them that keep running without input from the psion (like glyph of warding, magic mouth and so on).

Also, under this analogy I guess the Spellpool used by Mages of the Arcane Order is the equivalent of Github.

[pwykersotz]

For me:

Psionics is a sign something is terribly wrong. They are an aberrant power that increases in potency as disaster draws near. The Elder Evils (Pandorym and the like) cause mortals to begin manifesting Psionic talent when they draw near. Near in this case might be a matter of them being decades or centuries away, but they're closer than you'd want them. It is the power of aberrations, the power of the Far Realm. It might seem like a good thing, it might even never have any repercussions that you can fathom, but it can never, ever be trusted.

[Rerednaw]

I'm trying to decide how I want to work psionics into an upcoming game world. I need some ideas.

In this world magic ...
So the question is; how do psions fit in? Is mind magic just another magic? Have they unlocked something different than magic? Are psionics another manifestation a magic energy, like the way my sorcerer simply wields it naturally?

Actually it doesn't really matter what we think...this is YOUR world. Psionics either fits or it doesn't.

For the sake of debate if anything one could also argue that arcane and divine magic are exactly the same as psionics, only that the caster believes it comes from a different source. Only the psion realizes that true power comes from or is channeled through oneself.

That said in my world power exists in many forms and interpretations. And it is up to a given individual to decide what path they choose to wield or seize it.

[Psyren]

For me:

Psionics is a sign something is terribly wrong. They are an aberrant power that increases in potency as disaster draws near. The Elder Evils (Pandorym and the like) cause mortals to begin manifesting Psionic talent when they draw near. Near in this case might be a matter of them being decades or centuries away, but they're closer than you'd want them. It is the power of aberrations, the power of the Far Realm. It might seem like a good thing, it might even never have any repercussions that you can fathom, but it can never, ever be trusted.

This is close to 4e's fluff, which I like the most. Aberrations and the Great Old One/Outer God/Abomination entities they champion are basically provoking an immune response in reality, represented by the rise of psionic/psychic talent among the non-aberrant races in the setting.

[pwykersotz]

This is close to 4e's fluff, which I like the most. Aberrations and the Great Old One/Outer God/Abomination entities they champion are basically provoking an immune response in reality, represented by the rise of psionic/psychic talent among the non-aberrant races in the setting.

Huh...neat! I had no idea. I might have to give those books a read. I might find additional support that I can use.

[NomGarret]

Here's another idea: they are all tapping into the same magic, but each method can only reach so much of it. Picture a building. Everything Magic can do is represented by a set of coordinates within that building, but just the X and Y coordinates. If you can get to the NW corner, you can throw blasts of fire, but it doesn't matter what floor you're on. Now each source of magic lives on a different floor and the layout of each floor is different. Where divine magic has a hallway that lets them reach several places with ease, the psionic floor above them has a labyrinth of locked rooms and giant refrigerator that needs to be moved out of the way before the practitioner can reach that spot. The psionic floor has other areas, though, that are much more open than their corresponding locations on the divine, arcane, or nature floors.