Barf Forth Apocalyptica
powered by the apocalypse => Dungeon World => Topic started by: MrPrim on July 05, 2012, 08:46:03 PM
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I'm going to keep trying to post until it lets me!
This is my first try at making a new class... I'm mostly just musing out some thoughts at this point, this is a very early tentative idea and I'm sort of flailing around. Also, I did NOT expect this post to go through, this is my third attempt to post it.
So, if you all don’t mind, I think I’m going to give my first attempt at a Dungeon World Hack a try, here. Now, I’ve seen lots of people mention that they’d like to make a Hack of the Psion, but no completed DW Psions yet, so, with that in mind, I’m gonna try and work on something here.
So, the first question about the Psion is “What is important about the Psion?”, “What part of this class is indispensable?” When Sage and Adam asked that question about the Druid, they came to the conclusion that, while Druids have always been spellcasters, spellcasting was always a vestigial trait and shapeshifting was the real Core of Druidism. So, while Druids can gain access to spells if they want to, all Druids can change their shape. Spells are not necessary.
We can’t say that about Psions. Psions are spellcasters; that’s their niche. What has always separated them from Wizards, in Fantasy Gaming, has been a different spell-usage mechanic. They’ve always been differently flavored Wizards with power points. So, with that in mind, we can’t get rid of their Spellcasting power without making them just plain not a Psion. But we have to make them more than just Wizards with crystals, or they’re boring and unnecessary, and I’d hate to add something unnecessary to Dungeon World.
So, the first Basic Move I’m considering is a Spellcasting move that works differently from the Cleric and Wizard. To emulate the classic Psion’s Power Points, the Psion I’m imagining uses Hold much more liberally than the other classes, collecting it and pooling it from multiple Moves to achieve his effects.
The idea I have here is that some Moves will add more Hold to the pool, letting you go longer in battle without having to “Charge up”. Additionally, I’m thinking some Powers/Moves will allow you to expend more than 1 Hold to Augment their power and increase their Effects in some ways.
This is just a brainstorm, something I couldn’t get out of my head while I was lying in bed this morning trying to go back to sleep. Anyone have any thoughts?
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Look
Choose one for each:
Empty Eyes, Glowing Eyes, or Intense Eyes
Bald Head, Weird Head, or Wild Hair
Fine Clothes, Flowing Robes, or Tattered Rags
Strong Body, Tattooed Body, or Wasted Body
Stats
Assign these scores to your stats:
17 (+2), 15 (+1), 13 (+1), 11 (+0), 9 (+0), 8 (-1)
You start with 4+Constitution HP.
Your base damage is d4.
Gear
Your Load is 5+Str.
Bonds
Fill in the name of one of your companions in at least one.
_____________ doesn't trust me.
_____________ is a lesser mind who cannot possibly understand me.
I see potential inside _____________ that they cannot see.
When I dream about _____________, the things I see worry me.
Basic Moves
Meditate
When you spend uninterrupted time (an hour or so) in a a state of deep relaxation, ????
Manifest Psi
The Psion calls on his reserve of personal power to influence the world. Roll+INT. On a 10+, take 3 Hold. On a 7-9, take 1 Hold and select one of the following:
• You are unharmed
• You are undistracted
• You are unnoticed
You can spend 1 Hold to manifest a Psionic Power that you know.
Psionic Powers
Psions are masters of the will, bending reality with simple intent. Psions start play with the following three powers:
???
Discern Metarealities
When you make a Discern Realities Move, you may add the following two questions to the list that you may ask:
• What is happening here that I cannot sense?
• What here should I know about?
Advanced Moves
Autohypnosis - No need to spend rations.
Mind Trick
The Psion knows what lurks in the minds of men. When in sight of another character (PC or NPC), Roll+CHA. On a 10+ you may ask the GM one of the following:
- What would give me leverage over this character?
- What wouldn't this character want me to know?
- What does this character know about me?
On a 7-9, choose two:
- The GM can ask you one of those three questions.
- The target becomes aware of your mental intrusion.
- You are unable to use Mind Trick again until you Meditate.
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Cool idea!
Is it a human only playbook?
Make you bonds personal, give more hooks for reasons why and how to resolve them.
_____________ doesn't trust me because my powers frighten/manipulate/cause jealousy in them. I'll make them trust me
_____________ is a lesser mind who cannot possibly understand my destiny. When I show them, they will bow down before me and despair / love / worship me.
I see latent potential for inside _____________ . I will make them recognise it.
I like the moves so far! A niche that was begging to be filled. Your take on the spell casting move is sublime yet iconic. :)
I'd suggest that Discern Metarealities is a great move idea, but instead of more questions, how about extra sensory clarification?
When you use your ESP and Discern Realities, you may also clarify the reality with an additional:What Why Where or Who?
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The first note I'd like to say is that it looks cool so far! :)
The second note is that, to avoid confusion, I would call the hold for psions something different, maybe "Focus". This makes it so that whenever you say "Focus" it's clear that you mean the psion's special hold which is shared between moves and not some other (or any kind of) hold. This is especially important because hold cannot generally be transferred between moves.
Mind Trick's 7-9 looks harsh.
Here are some suggestion or ideas for the moves!
When you spend uninterrupted time (an hour or so) in a a state of deep relaxation, roll+int. On a 10+, choose two. On a 7-9, choose one. On a miss, you're visited by strange and disturbing visions.
- Hold 2 focus
- Ask the GM for a portent of something to come
- Take +1-forward
Manifest Psi
When you call on your reserve of personal power and focus your will, roll+int. On a 10+, hold 3 focus. On a 7-9, hold 1 focus for each of the following you select:
• You are harmed
• You are distracted
• You are noticed
You can spend 1 focus to manifest a Psionic Power that you know.
Autohypnosis: When you meditate while you make camp, you don't need to consume rations.
New Ideas for advancements:
Psychic Fist: Your mental focus turns your fists into deadly iron. As long as you have focus, your unarmed attacks work as weapons (hand).
Force Feedback (Requires: Psychic Fist): When you inflict damage unarmed, hold 1 focus.
Psychic Tricks: As long as you have focus, you can cast the wizard cantrips (use the wizard's cast a spell move). If you'd forget a spell, instead lose 1 focus.
Sudden Manifestation: When you manifest a power, you can spend an additional focus to do so instantly, quick as an eyeblink.
Battlemind: When you're focused and you aid your allies in battle, spend 1 focus to give them +1-damage forward.
Just some ideas, I hope some are helpful!
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Noofy>
- I hadn't given Races any sort of thought, yet. The classic Psion approach to Races is to just create new Races that use Psionics, rather than backward integrate Psionics into the existing Fantasy races. It wouldn't be too hard to add a whole new Race to the game that way, just stick "Githzerai" or "Kalashtar" in that section and you've got instant World-Building.
Without adding a whole new Race, I was thinking Humans and Dwarves. Dwarves already have some Psionic baggage from Dark Sun and some relationship with Crystals(!!!).
Once I get things manhandled a bit better, I'll give this another look. Since I'm still not 100% sure what this Class DOES it's hard to make Racial Moves.
- I really like those Bonds. They add the extra Oomph I think I was looking for. I will say that I typed the original Bonds up on my iPad... and that always puts me in a terse and rather unpleasant mood. I should not try creating things on it... but my desktop isn't downstairs where Netflix and my wife and my dogs are :'(. Such a conundrum! :D
- Yeah, I got frustrated with Discern Metarealities when I went to add questions, wrote "What happened here?" and "What is going to happen here?", and then I checked the Basic Moves and saw that those questions are ALREADY IN THERE :D So I slapped something different together and moved on... That needs to be looked back into... maybe I'm overcomplicating it.
Antisinecurist>
- You know... I was avoiding doing that just because I was afraid to OVERHACK the game and add a NEW KIND OF HOLD in. But you're right, that's the most elegant way to avoid confusion. Psionic Hold is now Focus. Focus can be shared between different moves.
Now, one thing I need to avoid is having players just keep using Focus Moves to CHARGE UP before entering the Dungeon and end up with an inexhaustible power point pool. I also need a way to make the +1 Focus Move not a "feat tax", something every Psion wants because it gives them more spells. I figure the base Manifest Psi power will have a clause that says "Anytime you use this, any held Focus dissappears."
On the other hand, we don't want the Psions to have a super-easy time of it. While they should be able to spend multiple Focus to boost a single power, I don't want them being able to make one Manifest Psi roll and then be able to use seven Powers, making the Wizard look like an idiot because he has to roll every single time he uses a Spell. One-to-three Powers per roll sounds reasonable, more than that might make the other casters feel overshadowed and psionic manifestation seem too "easy" and "undangerous" and "inside quotation marks".
- Mind Trick is sort of a problem at this moment. I wrote it, originally, as a Basic Move, but then it got sort of unwieldy and overspecialized. So I moved it down to the Advanced Moves -- but I'm not sure if that's really where I want to put it.
- I like your Move rewrites. There's some meat on those bones! I worry about having Meditate give Focus, too, but having it be sort of a Swiss Army Knife, multiuse Move seems very interesting and appropriate.
- Oooh, new Moves! :D
- Psychic Fist - I like it, but I think it might be weak. Since Psions have a d4 combat, just making your fists a weapon probably needs some more Oomph... like an extra d4 or d6 or something like that. On the other hand, I was going to write something almost identical except I was going to call it Soulknife :D
- Force Feedback - And this would be a perfect upgrade for Soulknife, too!
- Psychic Tricks - I like this alot. Definitely. And now that we have a Focus mechanic, the words "As long as you have Focus" totally makes sense. You've just added a new mechanic to the Psion's repetoire ;)
- Sudden Manifestation - This one, I feel like, needs a little more mechanical definition, but is definitely one to come back to.
- Battlemind - I LIKE this. I like it alot.
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Thoughts:
Psychic Fist/Soulblade - As long as you have Focus, your unarmed attacks work as weapons (hand). When making a Hack and Slash Move with your Psychic Fists/Soulblade, on a hit you may spend one Focus to ignore armor, in addition to the other rules for Hack and Slash.
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Thoughts:
Psychic Fist/Soulblade - As long as you have Focus, your unarmed attacks work as weapons (hand). When making a Hack and Slash Move with your Psychic Fists/Soulblade, on a hit you may spend one Focus to ignore armor, in addition to the other rules for Hack and Slash.
That's pretty powerful... perhaps instead of full on "ignore armour" something like "gains piercing equal to your level -1" or such...
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Thoughts:
Psychic Fist/Soulblade - As long as you have Focus, your unarmed attacks work as weapons (hand). When making a Hack and Slash Move with your Psychic Fists/Soulblade, on a hit you may spend one Focus to ignore armor, in addition to the other rules for Hack and Slash.
That's pretty powerful... perhaps instead of full on "ignore armour" something like "gains piercing equal to your level -1" or such...
Not *too* powerful! Remember, it costs a focus, which isn't super-common, plus their damage is only d4!
MrPrim: You can avoid, to an extent, the "charge up" problem by making most of the stuff that gives focus tied to a move. This means if they say charge up more than once they run the risk of getting a hard move! So it's actually quite risky. You can also say you can only use the core "charging" move when you have 0 focus. (Actually, on re-reading, your version works out almost the same, where you lose all focus first!)
For meditating, if you don't want to grant focus, maybe...
When you spend uninterrupted time (an hour or so) in a a state of deep relaxation, roll+int. On a 10+, choose two. On a 7-9, choose one. On a miss, you're visited by strange and disturbing visions.
- Remove a mental debility (stunned or confused)
- Ask the GM for a portent of something to come
- The next time you spout lore or discern realities, remind him to tell you what visions you saw of it
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- Yeah, I got frustrated with Discern Metarealities when I went to add questions, wrote "What happened here?" and "What is going to happen here?", and then I checked the Basic Moves and saw that those questions are ALREADY IN THERE :D So I slapped something different together and moved on... That needs to be looked back into... maybe I'm overcomplicating it.
What about these? (Provided by John Harper's Eye of Chaos)
What does your character think of __, truthfully?
What or whom does your character value highly?
How might I get your character to __?
To what or whom is your character beholden?
What are your character’s ambitions, intentions, dreams?
What or whom does your character greatly fear?
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More psionic move ideas. Use, manipulate, or reject as you will.
Hypnotic Suggestion - when you plant a suggestion in a weak-willed mind, roll +Cha. On a hit, they act on the suggestion as long as it isn't inherently dangerous or abhorrent (to them). On a 10+, pick one:
- They keep acting on it for a while
- They don't realize they've been manipulated
- They act on it even if it's dangerous or abhorrent
Social Chameleon - when you have focus, you can make others perceive you as someone else. Everyone else sees you as the same person. While you maintain your guise, you are -1 ongoing.
Psionic Doppelganger (requires Social Chameleon) - when you use Social Chameleon to disguise yourself as a specific person and meet someone that person knows, roll +Wis. On a 7-9, ask one. On a 10+, ask three.
- What they call me?
- What do I call them?
- How did I meet them?
- What do they expect of me?
- How did we last part ways?
Psychokinesis - expend Focus to use your mind as a weapon (close, reach, near, forceful). When make a move using your mind as a weapon, making it rolling +Int. (or +Cha?)
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Dang, I was feeling all amped to get more work in on this today... and then I read the Battlemind :D
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I think you should keep working! It would be really cool to see a "Dungeon World Splatbook" of focus users, such as the Battlemind (more fighty), the Psion (more casty), the Soulknife (a blend of traditional soulknife with an assassin edge) and so on that all gain and use focus in various ways. In this way, your psion can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Sage's Battlemind and create a cool new thing!
- Alex
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The existence of the Battlemind does solve one problem I've been having. The Psion's Move set was starting to fill up with straight-up Combat -- mind-over-body martial arts-style Moves. With someone else (not just SOMEONE else, one of the big someones) having done something so similar but with a martial twist, I can get away with dropping all of that "punching-through boards" nonsense (with a Multiclass Move or two, to bring it back in if you really want to) and get back to "I use my mind to strangle the universe" combat moves and other, more esoteric, things.
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Here is a lightening-fast draft of the Soulknife (my spy/assassin counterpart to your Psion and Sage's Battlemind)...
Look
Stats
6+constitution HP
d6 damage
Gear
Bonds
Races
Moves
Cloud: You can cloud the senses of men and cloak yourself in psychic fog. Spend 1 focus to hold 3. You can spend your hold to make someone ignore you who'd otherwise notice you, or make someone lose track of you if they're already aware of you.
Dedicated: When you perform the trainings and exercises given to you by your order (which takes about an hour), hold 2 focus.
Psychic Thrust: When you cut at an undefended or unaware target with your soulblade, roll+dex. On a 10+, deal your damage and choose one. On a 7-9, the GM will choose one.
- the target loses 5 or 10 minutes of his memory (you choose which span of time he forgets)
- the target loses one of his senses (sight, taste, sound, feeling, hearing) for a moment or two
- the target is stunned and dazed until something shakes them out of it (a loud noise, attack, or physical jostling, maybe)
- you can ask them any one question; they must answer truthfully
Soulblade: As long as you have focus, you can generate a dagger-like blade of psychic energy (hand, precise, ignores armor).
Adv Moves
Arcane Awareness: When you hack and slash against a spellcaster, ask the GM what spells they have prepared. He'll tell you one or two.
Augment Strike: When you hack and slash with your soulblade, on a 10+, you may open yourself to your enemy's attack and choose one option from psychic thrust.
Autoantitoxin: Whenever you would suffer from a poison, you may spend 1-focus and ignore it's effects.
Focused Dodge: While you have focus, you have +1-armor.
Forceful Will: When you catch someone's gaze and focus your mind against them, spend 1-focus and roll+cha. On a 10+, choose two options from psychic thrust. On a 7-9, choose one.
Mindspy: When you observe someone and they're unaware of you, ask 1+1 per focus spent.
- What is their most valuable possession?
- I want them to do ____. What's the best way to get them to do it?
- What do they know about ____?
- What's their weak point right now?
- I want ____ from them. How's the best way to get it?
Night Eyes: As long as you're focused, you can see perfectly even in total darkness.
Serpent Soul: When you consume a poison and survive, note down it's name. Whenever you deal damage with your soulblade, you may spend 1-focus to inflict that poison upon your enemy.
Shadow Cloak: When you're in partial or total darkness or shadow, you can spend 1-focus and pull the shadows around you. No one can see you until you leave the darkness or otherwise make your presence known.
(6-10)
Arcane Theft (Requires: Arcane Awareness): When you hack and slash a spellcaster using your soulblade, on a 12+, choose one of their prepared spells and they forget it. Once during the next day, you can spend 1-focus to cast that spell.
Implant: When you lay hands on a target unaware of you or unable to stop you, you can spend 1-focus to implant a behavior (something they must or must not do) in their mind. Whenever they act contrary to this behavior, you gain 1-hold over them. Spend your hold to inflict 1d6 damage against them at any distance and ignoring armor or to choose and inflict a psychic thrust option against them. Once you've spent 3-hold on them from a given behavior, they're free of it.
Soulblade Parry (Requires: Focused Dodge): While you have your soulblade manifested, you have +1-armor. When you'd suffer damage from a weapon attack, you may spend 1-focus to parry the attack with your soulblade and ignore the damage.
Steal Shape: Whenever you touch or strike a defenseless humanoid target with your soulblade, write down their name. At any time, you can spend 1-focus to assume their form. At any time you can return to your own body.
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That's super neat!
And your super fast class ONCE AGAIN spurs me on to write something!
But not now ;)
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Modified the Starting Moves and added some Racial Moves.
Look
Choose one for each:
Empty Eyes, Glowing Eyes, or Intense Eyes
Bald Head, Weird Head, or Wild Hair
Fine Clothes, Flowing Robes, or Tattered Rags
Strong Body, Tattooed Body, or Wasted Body
Stats
Assign these scores to your stats:
17 (+2), 15 (+1), 13 (+1), 11 (+0), 9 (+0), 8 (-1)
You start with 4+Constitution HP.
Your base damage is d4.
Gear
Your Load is 5+Str.
Bonds
Fill in the name of one of your companions in at least one.
_____________ doesn't trust me because my powers frighten/manipulate/cause jealousy in them. I'll make them trust me.
_____________ is a lesser mind who cannot possibly understand my destiny. When I show them, they will bow down before me and despair / love / worship me.
I see latent potential for inside _____________ . I will make them recognise it.
When I dream about _____________, the things I see worry me.
Starting Moves
Choose a racial move:
Dwarf
Your people were made to craft and share a brothership with the Made that other races can’t begin to understand. When you Speak to Minds, you may communicate with manufactured items as if they were people. Exceptionally boring, single-minded, object-like people, but people none-the-less.
Human
Your Mind vibrates on the frequency of the city and village, the hum of a group. When you spend one hour in or around a grouping of more than ten people, the GM will tell you the group’s zeitgeist, what thought unites that group’s majority.
Kalashtar (Non-OGL :D)
Your mind is a doorway to the realms of Unending Nightmare, from where your other half originates. When you stare into a mortal’s eyes for ten seconds without blinking, ask the GM what one thing they are most afraid of. That greatest fear is what they see in your eyes.
You start with these Moves:
Manifest Psionic Focus
When you call on your reserve of personal power and focus your will, Roll+INT. When you use this power, lose all Focus. On a 10+, gain 3 focus. On a 7-9, gain 1 focus for each of the following you select:
• You are harmed
• You are distracted
• You are noticed
You may spend 1 focus to manifest a Psionic Power that you know. You may not have more than 3 Focus at any time.
Psionic Powers
Your mind is a muscle. Through force of will and mental exercise, you can do things most men simply cannot do. You start play knowing 2 first level psionic powers. Whenever you level up, you learn a new power of your level or lower. You must already know a power’s prerequisite before learning it.
Speak to Minds
When have Focus remaining, you may communicate via thought with any sentient, living creature within Near range. You and the targeted creature can converse as if speaking aloud, using only your minds. This Move transcends language, allowing creatures who do not share a tongue to communicate easily.
See Secrets
Your mind is an antenna tuned to eldritch frequencies. When you first meet a new person, enter a new location, or touch a new object, ask the GM to tell you one secret about that person, place, or thing. The GM is free to say that something does not have any secrets; not everything has to be a big mystery.
Advanced Moves
Psionic Powers[/i]
((The way I imagine these working is like a “Feat Tree”. The different trees will be things like Telekinesis, Telepathy, Ectoplasmic Projection, Biofeedback, Clairvoyance, etc. Each Psion can choose between being a Generalist or specializing in 2-3 powers all the way up until the end.))
To be Continued....
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Well done Mr.Prim! Would someone have the knack of formatting like the other playbooks? So cool :) Thank you for working on this!
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Once I'm a little further along, I'll do this up in playbook form.
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Looks great, Prim! I'm eager to see some of the powers you have planned and learn more about that sub-system. :)
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Alright, here are some Advanced Moves:
2-5
Create Psicrystal ("I'm my own best friend!" - Barf, Spaceballs)
Spend 1 Focus to create a psicrystal. A psicrystal is a crystallized aspect of your own mind, a palm-sized shard of glowing crystal that contains some facet of your own intellect and personality. The psicrystal can telepathically communicate with you, but cannot otherwise move or act without spending Focus. While touching the Psicrystal, you may spend Focus to grant the psicrystal an equal amount of Focus. The psicrystal can spend Focus at one-for-one to use the following Moves:
- Broadcast: The psicrystal can telepathically communicate with any thinking being as if using Speak to Minds.
- Grant Insight: The psicrystal can grant you a +1 when you Spout Lore, as its gragment of your unconscious mind helps guide you to something you know, but have trouble remembering. This effect is instantaneous, to gain another +1, your psicrystal must spend another Focus.
- Hover: The psicrystal floats under its own power.
- Shared Senses: The psicrystal can send you what it sees.
Each power lasts until the psicrystal spends another Focus. A psicrystal cannot contain more than 3 Focus and once you imbue the Focus into the psicrystal, you cannot retrieve it. You may only have one psicrystal at any time.
Danger Sense
When using Defy Danger, you may Roll+Focus instead of any other stat.
Metaconcert
You may unite your party in a psychic communion, allowing them to plan and move as one. Spend one Focus to allow all members of the party within Near range of you to communicate with each other as if using Speak to Minds. Additionally, all members of the Metaconcert take +1 Ongoing on any Aid/Hinder action which affects another member of the Metaconcert. This link persists until you end it. Take -1 Ongoing to any INT, WIS, or CHA rolls while the Metaconcert is active.
Synesthesia
While you have Focus, you may use any of your senses as a replacement for another sense. You can See with your skin, Smell with your ears, or Taste with your eyes. You are effectively immune to blinding, deafening, or other sensory deprivation unless all five of your senses are neutralized.
Thoughtcaster
The range of your Speak to Minds Move extends to Far.
6-10
Psicrystal Resevoir
Requires: Create Psicrystal
You may draw Focus back out of a psicrystal, one-for-one, with a touch and an act of will. This does not allow you to have more than your maximum amount of Focus at any on time.
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Looks great, Prim! I'm eager to see some of the powers you have planned and learn more about that sub-system. :)
I'm glad you're eager, because I'm not at all sure what I'm doing! :D
Just doing them like Spells seems to be the easiest/most boring way.
Doing them in a tiered fashion seems limiting... and limiting.
What I want is for each "Bottom Tier" Power to have several options. TK lets you make a shield or lift small objects. And then buying upgrades/augments/new Powers, you increase the potency and variety of your options. A low level Psychokineticist can pick up rocks and swords and pelt his foes with them... A high level one can pick up a catapult, float in a field of force, or play a lute with only his mind.
The problem I reach is, these are starting just to seem like new Move trees and not "Psionic Powers". In fact, figuring out how to split up "Moves" and "Powers" is something I've been grappling with this whole time. It's not cool for the other classes if Psions get cool Moves AND Powers which are just basically extra Moves.
I DO have a cool name for a Biofeedback, upper level power: Phantom Limb - a target you touch replaces any severed, amputated appendage, with one created out of psychic force.
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Perhaps instead of getting more automatically, you need to spend an advance to get more powers (1 advance = 2 or 3 powers?). This solves the "moves and more moves" issue then.
Perhaps each power is (generally, some could be different) a list of options you can invoke (fictional moves, like a druid shapeshifting). Then, for example, you can do this:
Telekinesis: When you invoke telekinesis, hold 3. Spend your hold to:
- levitate an object you could hold in one hand
- violently throw an object you're levitating
- manipulate a simple object (push open a door, knock something over, etc)
Advanced Telekinesis: When you use telekinesis, you can levitate anything up to the size of a person and you can manipulate items of moderate complexity (example).
Greater Telekinesis (Replaces: Advanced Telekinesis): When you use telekinesis, you can levitate anything up to the size of a huge creature and manipulate even complex items at a distance (for example, a musical instrument).
This is just an example building upon your thoughts so far! :)
- AD
Edit: Oh, plus, Phantom Limb is super sweet!
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An interesting idea. Lemme try something similar:
Shaping: When you manifest Shaping, Hold 3. Spend your Hold to:
- Create a piece of gear that you can hold with one hand.
- Create a gallon of unformed ectoplasm
- Create an astral construct
All items created by Shaping are easily seen to be unreal, composed of psychic energy made manifest. Shaping cannot create consumable items, such as rations, potions, or books. You may only have your level in shaped items, ectoplasm, or creatures at any given time.
Ectoplasm is an otherworldly fluid made of raw thought that has the general consistency of saliva. Ectoplasm evaporates in minutes.
An astral construct is a Hireling with no Cost, a Loyalty of 0, and 1 point in a single Skill. An astral construct that rolls 6- on a loyalty test vanishes. An astral construct that rolls 7-9 on a loyalty test completes your last order and then vanishes.
Advanced Construct: You may spend extra Hold when creating an astral construct. For each excess point of Hold spent, your Astral Construct gains 2 Skill points which can be split between its Loyalty, Primary Skill, and any Secondary Skills.
Greater Construct: Requires Advanced Construct. (Will be like Summon Monster, a starting with a base and adding abilities based on how much Hold you spend)
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See, I like this! You might be on a track now...
What can you use ectoplasm for?
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See, I like this! You might be on a track now...
What can you use ectoplasm for?
I have no idea! :D
I needed a third option for Shaping, and creation of ectoplasm is a classic Psion ability.... But I have like 0 uses in mind at this moment for inert ectoplasm besides practical jokes.
It can't be super useful. Afterall, a Psion can make a nearly infinite supply of it easily. But it should be able to DO something....
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What can you use ectoplasm for?
Please tell me you can bathe in it and then be able to hit a ghost or that its like having a gallon of Buckyballs.
Maybe Ecto is used like a clay to build BIG stuff and is then activated and it crystalizes?
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Please tell me you can bathe in it and then be able to hit a ghost or that its like having a gallon of Buckyballs.
That's actually a good idea! Ectoplasm can touch immaterial things, allowing you to dip your weapons and hands in it and be able to hit such things as if they were material. This makes a Shaping-capable Psion vital when ghost-busting.
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I mean, if it's slippery or sticky those are useful properties in some situations but not exactly *powerful*. Good for trap-making and some other things, though. Can you create ectoplasm inside of other things (IE people, and make them drown)? That'd be nuts.
Edit: Oh, plus, the fey _totally_ use it for currency, right? Except in the fey lands it doesn't evaporate all quick-like.
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I mean, if it's slippery or sticky those are useful properties in some situations but not exactly *powerful*. Good for trap-making and some other things, though. Can you create ectoplasm inside of other things (IE people, and make them drown)? That'd be nuts.
Edit: Oh, plus, the fey _totally_ use it for currency, right? Except in the fey lands it doesn't evaporate all quick-like.
You know, that's not a bad idea. I was avoiding making it slippery/sticky because I didn't want to add ANOTHER layer of mechanics... and then, just now, I remembered THIS IS DUNGEON WORLD! "Ectoplasm is extremely slippery" is all the mechanics I really need.
And, of course the fey use it for currency! :D
Now we're cooking with gas.
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It gives so many options for a clever player. Some players might be "Oh, it's slippery? Meh, not too useful.". But of course it can be used:
- To move something heavy more easily
- As a trap
- To slip into tight places
- To maybe open stuck doors
- Etc
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Telepathy: When you manifest Telepathy, Hold 3. Spend your Hold to:
- Read someone’s surface thoughts.
- Influence a sentient being’s emotions.
- Confuse a monster.
When you read someone’s surface thoughts, ask the GM “What is he thinking right now?” The GM will tell you.
When you influence a sentient being’s emotions, you can push them into a certain state of mind. This is not a total and unbreakable effect – an enraged swordsman cannot be made to suddenly feel happy and relaxed not can a jovial man be thrown into the throes of suicidal depression in an instant.
When you confuse a monster, roll 1d6 and consult the list below.
- 1: The monster uses a Move on a target of the GMs choosing.
- 2: The monster deals its damage to you or an ally.
- 3: The monster is dazed and does nothing for a few seconds.
- 4: The monster deals its damage to itself or another enemy.
- 5: The monster uses a Move on a target of your choosing.
- 6: The monster flees the battle.
Psychic Bolt: When you manifest Telepathy, add the following to your list of options.
- Unleash a psychic bolt. Deal 1d6 Stun damage to an enemy.
Psychic bolts ignore armor, and are most efficacious against sentient beings. Non-sentient beings have an effective armor of 2 against psychic bolts.
Psychic Barrage When you unleash a psychic bolt, you may spend one extra hold to hit every enemy in range.
Control a Monster: You may spend extra Hold when confusing a monster. For every extra point of Hold you spend, you may make one selection from the list in addition to rolling one random selection.
Advanced Influence: Make a statement about the world. This statement may be true or not. (“I am your friend”, “Your sword is a snake”, and “These are not the droids you’re looking for”, are all classic examples). Your target now believes that statement. The target will not act suicidally (“You can fly!” “I jump off the… WAIT A MINUTE!”), nor will they continue to believe something that is patently not true (“I am your friend!” “Oh hey buddy I… WHY DID YOU STAB ME?! WE ARE NOT FRIENDS ANYMORE!”)
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Note: I think I'm going to give all Psionic Powers a Range of Near unless otherwise mentioned, with an Advanced Move to pump them up to Far.
Clairsentience: When you manifest Clairsentience Hold 3. Spend your Hold to:
- Enhance one of your senses
- Share another person’s senses
- Get another chance.
When you enhance a sense, its distance, clarity, and power are increased by a factor of 10, giving you the eyes of a hawk, the ears of an owl, the nose of a bloodhound, the tongue of a snake, or the touch of a… mole? Mole’s are good at touching, right? Sure, we’ll go with that. This sensory burst lasts for only a few moments.
When you share another person’s senses, you can sense what a person in range can sense. Your target can feel you watching from inside his mind, but can only sense what you do if you allow them to. Unlike many manifested powers, you may share senses over a period of time. Take -1 Ongoing on all rolls as long as while your senses are linked.
When you get another chance, peer into the future and make a different choice than the one you were going to make. You may reroll one roll that resulted in a 6-. You must take the second roll, you only get one other chance. Take -1 Forward, as your mind grapples with what is and what could have been.
Astral Projection:
When you manifest Clairsentience, add the following to your list of options.
- Leave your body behind.
When you leave your body behind, your consciousness abandons its physical prison and walks free, like a ghost. While you’ve left your body behind, you are intangible and transparent but not invisible. You cannot be heard by anyone who is not tuned to ethereal frequencies. Your body remains behind, connected to your astral form by an ethereal silver cord, an empty meat sack, still alive, waiting for your return. All rolls are at a -1 Ongoing while you maintain the concentration needed to remain a spirit.
As an astral projection, you can perform purely mental actions, like Spout Lore, but you cannot exert any physical force on the real world. You may not use psychic powers or moves relying on Focus while you’ve left your body behind. You can move through walls and other obstructions. You can interact physically with any magic or material which can interact with ghosts or other immaterial beings. Your astral body must remain within range of your body at all times. If your body is threatened or injured, you may Defy Danger using Wis, to attempt to notice the danger and return, instantly, to your body. If your body dies, so do you.
Astral Adept Requires Astral Projection
You may manifest psionic powers and non-physical Focus-based moves while astral projecting.
Astral Traveller: Requires Astral Adept
When astral projecting, you may travel further afield. You may travel anywhere within a radius of 1 mile per level.
Additionally, you can spend 1 Hold at any time while astral projecting to leave the mundane world behind and travel into the Astral Plane, the realm of pure mind. The Astral Plane is a strange place, full of wild thoughts and connections to the psychic realms that penetrate and intertwine with all thinking beings. It is also a dangerous place: astral bodies act as if completely physical on the astral plane, your ghostly intangibility will not protect you from the strange and terrible hunters of the Silver Sea. Once you’ve left the physical world, you are no longer bound by rules of distance – you may travel as far a field as you wish while travelling through the land of thought. But this is a mixed blessing, you can no longer Defy Danger to instantly return to your body or Detect Danger to it; you must trek back along, following your silver cord back to yourself.
Astral Guide: Requires Astral Traveller
When you leave your body behind, you may spend 1 Hold to bring up to your level in other willing people along. All members of your astral expedition must be touching in order to abandon the corporeal. While other characters can use Moves and powers while astral projecting, the effects of those powers are ethereal. An ethereal magic missile can only affect intangible foes; an ethereal domination spell cannot find purchase on beings still tied to the world. If you choose to travel into the Astral Plane, you may bring none, some, or all of your expedition with you. Without your assistance, people without Astral Traveller cannot enter the Astral Plane.
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A new power modifier plus a new power (just rough drafts). :)
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Pyrokinesis: When you use telekinesis, you can spend 1 hold to shape or direct flames.
Shaping: When you use this power, hold 3. Spend your hold to:
- reshape as much of a existing natural, unliving material as you could hold in your hands into something of the same mass
- assume an animal form for a few moments
- change a small item or portion of a larger item into a similiar material (skin into scales, stone into metal, grass into leaves). Inanimate items stay changed permanently, while animate items and living things maintain the change as long as you concentrate, plus a few moments
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So, I whipped this up today. I don't have InDesign or the fancy fonts, so I made this the long way... in Word.
The first one has no picture, the second one has some art, but adding the art made the whole thing get converted a few times and it lost some crispness. I'll try and fix that once I have page two....
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23527099/ThePsion.pdf
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23527099/ThePsionwArt.pdf
The picture on that second one is really old, but its the only piece of Psion appropriate art I had... I only wish I'd made Kobolds psionic. This picture I did years ago would have been perfect....
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v35/Primus/CarrnGul.gif
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I'm so much interested in this playbook, as I let one of my players choose this playbook. I think there is not so much left. If it had Gear, I think this would be full-fledged. The one power move at first level and chose anything (new power or not) at additional levels seems to work fine. Though, my player is urging me to make Psychometabolism / Biofeedback available. Can we manage Gear and Biofeedback soon?
I'm dumb to Gear right now, but I tell what I have in mind for Biofeedback right now. I think the hardest thing is to balance this between the D&D magicky feel where psionics produce lots of obvious effects and the more sci-fi, real-world thing when psionics is just good self-discipline and self-control.
I sadly don't know the Battlemind or the Psion's advanced moves yet. We should evade stepping on the advanced moves at least.
I will soon come up with the move when I read all of the advanced moves.
A basic AW newbie question: what about the individual uses, spending of the holds? Can they require a roll? If I throw a cart at some charging orks (using some highly buffed Telekinesis), what happens? Can this trigger a move? Or do all these hold expenditures work on the basis of GM fiat?
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Hey czipeter!
Antisinecurist and I actually did a lot of work on this Playbook before I got a new job and lost track of the whole project. Here's my most recent version, it's VERY updated from the last posted one:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xaXoOsIBk5yqydBDYa02RCowBvB7_FWT00Fl-Bx90xE/edit
Now, as for whether spending your Hold should require a roll, generally, the answer would be "No". You've already MADE your roll back when you used your Manifest Psionic Focus move. Now, some powers allow you to do things that require rolls, for instance, attack with a psionic weapon of some kind, but, generally, Psionic Powers should be similar to a Druid's shapeshift moves or a monster's moves -- you spend Hold and they just happen -- the fiction is affected as described.
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Wow, you have done a huge thing, dear sirs! Thank you very much!
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Heh, yeah. We sunk quite a bit of time into it. We worked up a few classes, the start of a few Advanced Classes, two new psionic Monster Settings, a dozen-or-so of new monsters, and a few dozen psionic items. I should really go back to that....
If you use anything from the Psion Playbook, please let me know how it goes. I'd love to hear your experiences/problems.
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2 questions and 1 observation:
- What does "you are harmed" mean under Manifest psionic focus? Does this harm come from an outer source (monster, trap, etc.) or can it be some self-inflicted bodily stress? If yes, how much is it?
- What is the Damage of the Psion? It's playbook says d6, but also an advanced move "improves" it to d6 when they have focus left.
- The psionic power moves usually come without a roll. This means that after you got your foci, you don't risk anything directly when using them up. Am I right? It's a bit hard to accustom myself to, but that's all.
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- Psion damage should start at d4. d6 is a typo. My bad.
- "You are harmed" is for the GM to decide. In my mind, I imagine the "basic" manifestation would be the Psion taking serious mental stress -- manifesting as nosebleeds, headaches, etc -- with the option to have other damaging effects as the story allows. A good baseline damage would be the Psion's class damage, again, with the potential to scale up as needed.
- the answer is yes. Manifesting powers is "safe" with the caveat that you have already put yourself at risk by rolling for focus. It didn't seem very fair to give Psions two failure chances, one for the focus, one for the power... And this way they're quite different, mechanically, from other casters.
Now, honestly, I have yet to Playtest any of this (my players are out of the fantasy mood). It's all theoretical. And it's quite possible that none of this plays as I want it to.
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One more thing: I don't know where to look for the special items amongst the Gear options. My player is really interested in those things, but he doesn't want me just make up stuff based on the names.
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From an unfinished section of the doc:
Gear (Non-Artifact)
Ground Urdoroot [dangerous, 3-uses, 1-weight]: This herbal formula can greatly enhance the imbiber’s focus. One use provides +1-focus (even above the users maximum), but there’s a chance they’ll suffer from it. Roll 3d6; if the result is greater than their constitution, they take 1d6 damage and a mental debility of the GM’s choice.
Fine Incense: When this incense burns, the minds of anyone who can smell it begin to wander and they lose 1-focus (if they had any). Anyone who relaxes and opens their minds while in the haze of this incense gains +1 to spout lore or parley, but takes -1 to all other rolls.
Psion’s Mandala [3-uses, 1-weight]: This finely crafted talisman contains many maze-like patterns that help focus the mind. When someone rolls to gain focus, they may study a new portion of the pattern and spend 1-use. If they do, they take +1 to the roll.
Purified Urdoroot [dangerous, applied]: When purified with bizarre rituals, ground urdoroot becomes intensely dangerous to those with focus. A person with focus instantly loses their focus and takes 1d6 damage; non-focused targets are unaffected, beyond perhaps a slight headache.