Psionics in Exalted (revisited)

[Obsidian Soul]

I was wondering who was the one who had Neantherthals developing a psionic civilization?  I was wondering because I was thinking of introducing a psionic, pre-human civilization under the deserts of the South who come out of hiding with the disturbances created by the Autochtonians, and I wanted some help divising their rule set.


I am building them on a more advanced form of Essence Channeler, which I call Psionic Adept, an Abomination level Mutation, that caps Essence at 7 and gives them an Essence Pool of (Essence*4)+(Willpower*2)+(sum of Virtues*2).  Instead of learning Spirit Charms, I was thinking of designing them Psionic Paths.  They can learn one Psionic Path per dot in Essence, and they cannot have a Psionic Path in excess of their Essence.

 

[Jakk Bey]

I did a short story with Noetic Neaderthals, and I'm gearing up with my partner to do a novel with not only Noetic Neaderthals, but some very nasty, brutish, and psychic proto-humans.  But not in game.


I don't think that "psionic" is exactly in keeping with Exalted.  Psychic powerz yes, but that can be handled with current Gifts and such.  A whole race of what are essentially God Blooded critters, who all possess a degree of power and have greater than normal Essence.  


At this level of civilization, it doesn't matter if it's psionics or magic, it appears to be the same thing, and should be handled in the same fashion, in my book at least.  You want, borrow some of the ideas for handling psychic gifts from the WoD, but I'd avoid the whole "Psionic" thing, just because that's a whole 'nother can of worms.  I'm offended by the idea of psionics in D&D as well.  


The idea of psionic rules for a modern game...not so bad.  In a Future game or a Gamma World game, fantastic, but in more primitive societies, it's magic.  If it looks like magic, and it smells like magic, and it feels like magic, why call it anything else?  


By all means, open up a whole new set of abilities and gifts for your race of psychics, but I'd avoid adding further confusion and just make them Essence Channellers with very specific gifts and not confuse the issue.


Or you can tell me take a short leap off a long pier and mind my own damn business, but since you had to post up your idea, you get the rebuttal.  So there.  Nyah.

 

[Cthulhu_Wakes]

Or you can tell me take a short leap off a long pier and mind my own damn business, but since you had to post up your idea, you get the rebuttal.  So there.  Nyah.

How...crude Jakk *snicker* You even gave a Nyah!

 

[Fruan]

I just really don't know about psionics. I really don't.


Maybe if you could explain, simply and concretely, the difference between psionics and magic I'd feel better about it, but I really don't see any difference between the two at all.

 

[Jukashi]

Actually, psionics is canon in Exalted. In a way.


Creation is raw wyld essence shaped by belief, memory and will, right? When you use sorcery, you release essence and then shape it with will.


So, something that you could call psionics would be to use will alone, to shape the solidified essence called Creation. You'd just need a way of overcoming the willpower that's holding the world as it is, or commandeering it to do what you want (Your paths, perhaps?). You wouldn't need essence channeling at all- they'd be like willpower-only charms.


Don't call it psionics, though; it's not an Exalted-y kind of term. Call it... Shaping, perhaps.


Yess...


*bubbling with ideas*


One person only has so much willpower, so how about an artifact that stores willpower? A giant crystal or something, perhaps similar to the Eye of Autocthon? It would explain their scarcity and concentration in one area; they'd pay a "tax" of willpower, and certain people in the society would be allowed draw willpower from it- a system based on rank, or ability, or something. They'd probably have a lot of powers over the Wyld.


... This is sounding pretty good.

 

[Kajata]

I agree with Jakk.  If you it were my game, I'd be happy to make a whole new race of psionic critters and give them special powers, but they'd still have an essence pool (or maybe willpower if you REALLY didn't want to make them essence channellers) because essence is what makes Creation go round... well.... okay makes it go... flat..

 

[Solfi]

....maybe "Essence makes Creation float"? or "Essence keeps Creation afloat"?... if you think of it as a bubble of stability, floating around in the primordial ooze that is the Wyld.

 

[Kajata]

"Essence keeps Creation from dissolving into the Wyld based, primordial ooze-esque form that it once was"


Maybe a bit wordy?

 

[Solfi]

true. But I'm a wordy person.  

 

[Obsidian Soul]

I do want to avoid psionics as magic duology.  In oWoD, psionics was different than any form of magic, and I would like to keep it that way, but I do like the Will idea.  


Perhaps, to accomplish a specific goal, you would have to roll Willpower+Essence+Path (difficulty equal to the minimum Path level of the effect) and that you have to spend one Willpower (or three Essence)per level of effect.  The activation roll is reflexsive, though only one Path may be active at a time.


An example would be Telekinesis.  Duration is one turn.  Each success allows you to manipulate one object of roughly the same mass and speed.  Attacking with a telekinetic object requires a roll against the activation pool.  Level one would allow you to move 1 kg at 10m/s.  Level two would allow you to move 10 kg at 10m/s.  Level three would allow you to move 100 kg at 10m/s.  Level four would allow you to move 1 ton at 10m/s.  Level five would allow you to move 10 tons at 10m/s.  Level six would allow you to move 100 tons at 10m/s.  Level seven, the highest level, would allow you to move 1000 tons at 10m/s.  By reducing the maximum mass by one hundred fold, you can increase speed to 100m/s and by reducing the maximum mass by ten thousand fold, you can increase speed to 1000m/s.


A 1kg object moving at 10m/s does 1B, one moving at 100m/s does 2L and one moving at 1000m/s does 4A.  Double damage for every tenfold increase in mass.  At level seven, a telekinetic can do 64B, 32L or 16A damage, her choice.


Mortal could also learn these Paths, though they would be limited by their Essence to modest levels.

 

[Jukashi]

If you want to keep magic and psionics seperate, I'd suggest you really split them; make proficiency based on permanant willpower rather than Essence, and take motes out of the equation altogether.


To tell the truth, I've started to boil up some ideas on this myself. Would you mind greatly if I used the psionics idea and constructed a seperate divergent setting using my own inspirations?

 

[Solfi]

... where is that guy with the utterly brilliant signature when you need him ...

 

[Obsidian Soul]

Why would I mind?  I would suggest that, it you do make a seperate system, that you post it so that the rest of us can benefit from it.


As for having it based on Essence, it seemed to make sense at the time, but I can see your point.


Alright, alternative idea.  Each psionic path is based on one of the four Virtues.  No psionic path may exceed its associated Virtue.  To activate a Path, spend one temporary Willpower and roll Willpower+Path level against the difficulty of the effect for each action.  Psionic actions are reflexive.  The difficulty of the task may not exceed twice the Path level.  To take the Telekinesis example, to move one 1 kg at 10m/s (doing 1B damage) would be a difficulty 1 task while moving 100 kg at 1000m/s (doing 16A damage) would be a difficulty 7 task.  Telekinesis lasts for one scene or one attack.  Delibrate violence disturbs the meditative calm required to maintain control.  Telekinesis would be a Valor related Psionic Path.