Post/Author/DateTime	Post
jbsaff 03-29-07, 07:41 PM	I am working on a homebrew world and came across a bit of a difficulty. In my simplified setup, I have limited the cosmology to the inner planes, plus the material, ethereal, shadow, and astral. Within that framework, I am using the elemental planes to power or drive arcane magic. Divine is being driven by the positive energy or negative energy, depending on your good/evil bent. That leaves me with Psionics (I'm not currently developing for any of the variant magic systems). I'm working from the standpoint of psionic ability being the result of an inborn or awakened (i.e. Wild Talent and the like) mental connection to the power and energy of another plane. My difficulty is in deciding which of the leftover planes to use. From several Psionic power descriptions, the astral plane seems like an easy possibility, but the description of the plane seems lacking in solid power to draw from. I could just make my astral plane a bit different, but I'm hoping to avoid the law of unintended consequences causing a change to the power level of the game. Alternatively, I had considered both the shadow and ethereal planes. The shadow seems to offer some interesting options for explaining things (especially wilders). Another possibility is to describe Psionics as mentally siphoning off power from the various inner planes, without depending on any one type. Thus a Body Adjustment might draw a bit of positive energy, while an Energy Ray would draw from the plane appropriate to the energy type. It is my intent for the world to run with transparency rules. Thus Psionics does the same things in a little bit different way. I also want to complement the existing flavor of the Psionics system. The flavor is part of why I like it and I want this setting to be easy for more experienced players to step into without three hours of explanation. Any thoughts or comments would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Tempest Stormwind 03-29-07, 07:47 PM	See the Truenaming Psionics link in my sig for a good place to start. We've already covered reflavoring of the whole system to fit different worlds -- somehow, I bet that'll spark how you reflavor the world to fit the system. For the record, psionics-as-planar-magic have already been touched on -- the two most common are using the astral plane (which, under the psionic influence, reshapes itself to whatever the manifester imagines) or a "dream plane" (so a psionic power is similar to lucid dreaming, except done while conscious and impressioned from the dream world onto reality).
GuardianLurker 03-30-07, 04:04 PM	How about just using the prime material itself? In particular, "spillover" life energy? In the real world this is one of the magical theories in use; in D&D this is the same basic thought behind Dark Sun's magic system. You don't need to necessarily do "gathering" (although that could be the morning PP-replenishing ritual), or worry about "overspending" (a la Dark Sun wizard-villains), or even ley-lines, but you could if you want.