#psionics — Public Fediverse posts

Dieser NPC wird ne Rolle spielen. 😈 (Bild von Arnie Swekel)

#dnd #pnpde #ttrpg #Psionics #Goblin #blueGoblin

Dieser NPC wird ne Rolle spielen. 😈 (Bild von Arnie Swekel)

#dnd #pnpde #ttrpg #Psionics #Goblin #blueGoblin

Dieser NPC wird ne Rolle spielen. 😈 (Bild von Arnie Swekel)

#dnd #pnpde #ttrpg #Psionics #Goblin #blueGoblin

Dieser NPC wird ne Rolle spielen. 😈 (Bild von Arnie Swekel)

#dnd #pnpde #ttrpg #Psionics #Goblin #blueGoblin

Dieser NPC wird ne Rolle spielen. 😈 (Bild von Arnie Swekel)

#dnd #pnpde #ttrpg #Psionics #Goblin #blueGoblin

This article provides limited vocabularies for spells like Speak with Dead, Commune, Speak with Plants, and Speak with Animals. Also for telepathic communication between beings who do not share a language, and more. I think these were the details that were missing from these spells/powers from the beginning. The Speak with… type spells always seemed a little too poorly defined.

"Variegated Vocabularies for Limited Languages"

https://blog.d4caltrops.com/2026/03/variegated-vocabularies-for-limited.html

#ttrpg #language #magic #psionics

The 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook Is Pretty Cool

Sometimes it’s easy to get the idea that when I talk about third edition Dungeons & Dragons, I have nothing but negativity about it, which is probably linked to the fact that I am incredibly negative about it. 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons is an impressively intricate game where criticism itself requires a fairly sophisticated engagement. It is, for the most part, and for almost all use cases, a very functional tabletop RPG with a combat system that works reasonably well, and if everyone is on the same page at keeping the game going, isn’t likely to have any meaningful faults.

For the most part, when we criticize tabletop RPGs categorically, we’re always referring to edge cases, because in almost all situations, these are games for sitting down and playing with your friends at a table where you are all more or less able to get along. That lubrication means that games that present as extremely ropey and weak or ill-suited to their task, like, say, Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, are perfectly good at running the kinds of games people are using them for because the game rules are only part of the experience. They are there as a catchment that lies underneath the interaction between players, not as the actual pipework their intentions has to flow through. When Powered by the Apocalypse does this, it’s considered to be fiction forward and groundbreaking. When people use Dungeons & Dragons to do it for 30 years, it’s considered to be a toxic poison that destroys the fandom.

C’est la vie.

Nonetheless, when I talk about the failings of 3rd edition, it is always talking about those edges, those places where the game could break comically, or where the designers were so unaware of what players were actually like that they produced material that I’m reasonably confident was never used. I don’t think anyone has ever played an Urdunir from Races of Faerun in an actual campaign. Still, there are points where 3rd edition’s structure and the way 3rd edition already worked creates a system that I think is deeply interesting and only can work because the rest of the game is around it.

I want to talk about one such example here, which is the 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons book, The Expanded Psionics Handbook. In order to talk about that, though, we need to talk about the 3rd edition Psionics Handbook.

[…]

The 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook Is Pretty Cool

Sometimes it’s easy to get the idea that when I talk about third edition Dungeons & Dragons, I have nothing but negativity about it, which is probably linked to the fact that I am incredibly negative about it. 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons is an impressively intricate game where criticism itself requires a fairly sophisticated engagement. It is, for the most part, and for almost all use cases, a very functional tabletop RPG with a combat system that works reasonably well, and if everyone is on the same page at keeping the game going, isn’t likely to have any meaningful faults.

For the most part, when we criticize tabletop RPGs categorically, we’re always referring to edge cases, because in almost all situations, these are games for sitting down and playing with your friends at a table where you are all more or less able to get along. That lubrication means that games that present as extremely ropey and weak or ill-suited to their task, like, say, Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, are perfectly good at running the kinds of games people are using them for because the game rules are only part of the experience. They are there as a catchment that lies underneath the interaction between players, not as the actual pipework their intentions has to flow through. When Powered by the Apocalypse does this, it’s considered to be fiction forward and groundbreaking. When people use Dungeons & Dragons to do it for 30 years, it’s considered to be a toxic poison that destroys the fandom.

C’est la vie.

Nonetheless, when I talk about the failings of 3rd edition, it is always talking about those edges, those places where the game could break comically, or where the designers were so unaware of what players were actually like that they produced material that I’m reasonably confident was never used. I don’t think anyone has ever played an Urdunir from Races of Faerun in an actual campaign. Still, there are points where 3rd edition’s structure and the way 3rd edition already worked creates a system that I think is deeply interesting and only can work because the rest of the game is around it.

I want to talk about one such example here, which is the 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons book, The Expanded Psionics Handbook. In order to talk about that, though, we need to talk about the 3rd edition Psionics Handbook.

[…]

The 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook Is Pretty Cool

Sometimes it’s easy to get the idea that when I talk about third edition Dungeons & Dragons, I have nothing but negativity about it, which is probably linked to the fact that I am incredibly negative about it. 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons is an impressively intricate game where criticism itself requires a fairly sophisticated engagement. It is, for the most part, and for almost all use cases, a very functional tabletop RPG with a combat system that works reasonably well, and if everyone is on the same page at keeping the game going, isn’t likely to have any meaningful faults.

For the most part, when we criticize tabletop RPGs categorically, we’re always referring to edge cases, because in almost all situations, these are games for sitting down and playing with your friends at a table where you are all more or less able to get along. That lubrication means that games that present as extremely ropey and weak or ill-suited to their task, like, say, Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, are perfectly good at running the kinds of games people are using them for because the game rules are only part of the experience. They are there as a catchment that lies underneath the interaction between players, not as the actual pipework their intentions has to flow through. When Powered by the Apocalypse does this, it’s considered to be fiction forward and groundbreaking. When people use Dungeons & Dragons to do it for 30 years, it’s considered to be a toxic poison that destroys the fandom.

C’est la vie.

Nonetheless, when I talk about the failings of 3rd edition, it is always talking about those edges, those places where the game could break comically, or where the designers were so unaware of what players were actually like that they produced material that I’m reasonably confident was never used. I don’t think anyone has ever played an Urdunir from Races of Faerun in an actual campaign. Still, there are points where 3rd edition’s structure and the way 3rd edition already worked creates a system that I think is deeply interesting and only can work because the rest of the game is around it.

I want to talk about one such example here, which is the 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons book, The Expanded Psionics Handbook. In order to talk about that, though, we need to talk about the 3rd edition Psionics Handbook.

[…]

The 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook Is Pretty Cool

Sometimes it’s easy to get the idea that when I talk about third edition Dungeons & Dragons, I have nothing but negativity about it, which is probably linked to the fact that I am incredibly negative about it. 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons is an impressively intricate game where criticism itself requires a fairly sophisticated engagement. It is, for the most part, and for almost all use cases, a very functional tabletop RPG with a combat system that works reasonably well, and if everyone is on the same page at keeping the game going, isn’t likely to have any meaningful faults.

For the most part, when we criticize tabletop RPGs categorically, we’re always referring to edge cases, because in almost all situations, these are games for sitting down and playing with your friends at a table where you are all more or less able to get along. That lubrication means that games that present as extremely ropey and weak or ill-suited to their task, like, say, Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, are perfectly good at running the kinds of games people are using them for because the game rules are only part of the experience. They are there as a catchment that lies underneath the interaction between players, not as the actual pipework their intentions has to flow through. When Powered by the Apocalypse does this, it’s considered to be fiction forward and groundbreaking. When people use Dungeons & Dragons to do it for 30 years, it’s considered to be a toxic poison that destroys the fandom.

C’est la vie.

Nonetheless, when I talk about the failings of 3rd edition, it is always talking about those edges, those places where the game could break comically, or where the designers were so unaware of what players were actually like that they produced material that I’m reasonably confident was never used. I don’t think anyone has ever played an Urdunir from Races of Faerun in an actual campaign. Still, there are points where 3rd edition’s structure and the way 3rd edition already worked creates a system that I think is deeply interesting and only can work because the rest of the game is around it.

I want to talk about one such example here, which is the 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons book, The Expanded Psionics Handbook. In order to talk about that, though, we need to talk about the 3rd edition Psionics Handbook.

[…]

The 3.5 Expanded Psionics Handbook Is Pretty Cool

Sometimes it’s easy to get the idea that when I talk about third edition Dungeons & Dragons, I have nothing but negativity about it, which is probably linked to the fact that I am incredibly negative about it. 3rd edition Dungeons & Dragons is an impressively intricate game where criticism itself requires a fairly sophisticated engagement. It is, for the most part, and for almost all use cases, a very functional tabletop RPG with a combat system that works reasonably well, and if everyone is on the same page at keeping the game going, isn’t likely to have any meaningful faults.

For the most part, when we criticize tabletop RPGs categorically, we’re always referring to edge cases, because in almost all situations, these are games for sitting down and playing with your friends at a table where you are all more or less able to get along. That lubrication means that games that present as extremely ropey and weak or ill-suited to their task, like, say, Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition, are perfectly good at running the kinds of games people are using them for because the game rules are only part of the experience. They are there as a catchment that lies underneath the interaction between players, not as the actual pipework their intentions has to flow through. When Powered by the Apocalypse does this, it’s considered to be fiction forward and groundbreaking. When people use Dungeons & Dragons to do it for 30 years, it’s considered to be a toxic poison that destroys the fandom.

C’est la vie.

Nonetheless, when I talk about the failings of 3rd edition, it is always talking about those edges, those places where the game could break comically, or where the designers were so unaware of what players were actually like that they produced material that I’m reasonably confident was never used. I don’t think anyone has ever played an Urdunir from Races of Faerun in an actual campaign. Still, there are points where 3rd edition’s structure and the way 3rd edition already worked creates a system that I think is deeply interesting and only can work because the rest of the game is around it.

I want to talk about one such example here, which is the 3.5 Dungeons & Dragons book, The Expanded Psionics Handbook. In order to talk about that, though, we need to talk about the 3rd edition Psionics Handbook.

[…]

Peinlich.

Ich habe heute gefunden, dass es für D&D 5 2014 ein Unearthed Arcana für Psionik gibt. 🤩

Ich bin ein so grosser Fan der AD&D 2nd Psioniker und... habe das verpasst, übersehen irgendwie.🫣

Habe jetzt einen Amethyst-Kobolden als Mystic Stufe 4 im DungeonMastersVault erstellt. Und will mehr. Mich da richtig einfuchsen und einen 2ten Plot für den stream am Start haben bis zum 24. Januar. 💎 Und einen Amethyst-Drachen vielleicht auch.

#psionics #gmprep #pnpde #dnd #ttrpg

Peinlich.

Ich habe heute gefunden, dass es für D&D 5 2014 ein Unearthed Arcana für Psionik gibt. 🤩

Ich bin ein so grosser Fan der AD&D 2nd Psioniker und... habe das verpasst, übersehen irgendwie.🫣

Habe jetzt einen Amethyst-Kobolden als Mystic Stufe 4 im DungeonMastersVault erstellt. Und will mehr. Mich da richtig einfuchsen und einen 2ten Plot für den stream am Start haben bis zum 24. Januar. 💎 Und einen Amethyst-Drachen vielleicht auch.

#psionics #gmprep #pnpde #dnd #ttrpg

Peinlich.

Ich habe heute gefunden, dass es für D&D 5 2014 ein Unearthed Arcana für Psionik gibt. 🤩

Ich bin ein so grosser Fan der AD&D 2nd Psioniker und... habe das verpasst, übersehen irgendwie.🫣

Habe jetzt einen Amethyst-Kobolden als Mystic Stufe 4 im DungeonMastersVault erstellt. Und will mehr. Mich da richtig einfuchsen und einen 2ten Plot für den stream am Start haben bis zum 24. Januar. 💎 Und einen Amethyst-Drachen vielleicht auch.

#psionics #gmprep #pnpde #dnd #ttrpg

Peinlich.

Ich habe heute gefunden, dass es für D&D 5 2014 ein Unearthed Arcana für Psionik gibt. 🤩

Ich bin ein so grosser Fan der AD&D 2nd Psioniker und... habe das verpasst, übersehen irgendwie.🫣

Habe jetzt einen Amethyst-Kobolden als Mystic Stufe 4 im DungeonMastersVault erstellt. Und will mehr. Mich da richtig einfuchsen und einen 2ten Plot für den stream am Start haben bis zum 24. Januar. 💎 Und einen Amethyst-Drachen vielleicht auch.

#psionics #gmprep #pnpde #dnd #ttrpg

Peinlich.

Ich habe heute gefunden, dass es für D&D 5 2014 ein Unearthed Arcana für Psionik gibt. 🤩

Ich bin ein so grosser Fan der AD&D 2nd Psioniker und... habe das verpasst, übersehen irgendwie.🫣

Habe jetzt einen Amethyst-Kobolden als Mystic Stufe 4 im DungeonMastersVault erstellt. Und will mehr. Mich da richtig einfuchsen und einen 2ten Plot für den stream am Start haben bis zum 24. Januar. 💎 Und einen Amethyst-Drachen vielleicht auch.

#psionics #gmprep #pnpde #dnd #ttrpg

1/2 Notes on #UAP Discussions : There is no data. Why is there no data ?
#Skywatcher and others have coined and touted jargon like #CE5 and #Psionics to refer essentially to the idea that #NHI are primarily #Telepaths that do not rely on spoken language…
As an #evolutionary vector for advanced intelligence this of itself is not farfetched but…
One can see some immediate problems wrt this as a first contact mode…” oh yes he definitely said that they are from “Alpha Centauri “…or maybe he said…

1/2 Notes on #UAP Discussions : There is no data. Why is there no data ?
#Skywatcher and others have coined and touted jargon like #CE5 and #Psionics to refer essentially to the idea that #NHI are primarily #Telepaths that do not rely on spoken language…
As an #evolutionary vector for advanced intelligence this of itself is not farfetched but…
One can see some immediate problems wrt this as a first contact mode…” oh yes he definitely said that they are from “Alpha Centauri “…or maybe he said…

1/2 Notes on #UAP Discussions : There is no data. Why is there no data ?
#Skywatcher and others have coined and touted jargon like #CE5 and #Psionics to refer essentially to the idea that #NHI are primarily #Telepaths that do not rely on spoken language…
As an #evolutionary vector for advanced intelligence this of itself is not farfetched but…
One can see some immediate problems wrt this as a first contact mode…” oh yes he definitely said that they are from “Alpha Centauri “…or maybe he said…

https://www.blogofholding.com/?p=8671

#ttrpg #blogospherefind #psionics

All of my work has #magic & #psionics & #bullshido; they're not normal in decent society-- but in the jianghu, they are.

Psychic abilities are the classic ESP, telepathy, and telekinesis.

Magic is D&D style. 'Rituals' and 'spells'. Magic is divided into narrow, thematic 'power sources'.

Bullshido is anime martial arts, Beowulf and Cú Chulainn, fencing manuals and forgotten scrolls.

#Cultivation is hard work and you can't master one power without training them all.

#TTRPG #AmWriting #fantasy

(One bit of witch lore I love, but can't fit into #psionics is a cinematic classic: A witch placing a curse on her executioners *while* being burned at the stake, which doesn't take effect for years. That's one that still needs to be "real" magic.)

An interesting game mechanical effect of using #psionics for #ADnD witches: If they're not dependent on magic for witchcraft, you can give the witches a wider range of character classes. Given how often witches are accused of poisoning and murder, I kind of want to make a "witch" who's actually a devil-worshipping psionic assassin!

If you don't like heritable #psionics, combine the two ideas for an extra touch of psychological horror:

Every psionic witch grows up *thinking* they inherited their powers from a parent. Upon reaching adulthood, they undergo their full diabolist initiation, and learn *all* witch children are kidnapped from non-psionic parents (which the cult justifies in the grounds that non-psionic families would have rejected or abused the kids anyway).

Sometimes, Evil wins people over by sounding logical!

Ambiguities in the #ADnD #psionics rules can give new twists to some old witchcraft #folkore, too.

Why does witchcraft run in families? Because psionics is a heritable trait. (The rules don't say it isn't!)

Why do witches steal babies? They're recruiting psionic kids for their cult. (The rules don't set a minimum age for when psionics activate, so the DM can totally put scary psionic babies in the game!)

I admit I haven't used #psionics much in my #ADnD games because it's difficult to fit into a medieval world, but I think "secret psionics" is the hook I needed. It explains a bunch of the non-wizardly occult things I want to explain, and makes psionics into a metaphor for #witchcraft.

Because I'm a cynic, I'll go one step further. Being rejected by normal people can make a group more vulnerable to being recruited by people who don't reject them, so... who tries to recruit psionic people?

"Secret psionics" is cutting multiple strings from my Gordian Knot, but one has to ask "Why are all these psionic characters hiding their powers?"

Civilized spellcasting in #ADnD takes years of study. (Magic-Users have the highest starting age of any character.) NPCs know this.

#Psionics is not learned. It just happens. When someone who hasn't spent years studying magic or religion demonstrates "magic" power, that's suspicious.

Small-town psionicists hide their power to avoid the suspicion!

Admittedly, #ADnD psionic Precognition isn't incredible, but it's *there*.

There is a tradition (mostly seen in horror films) of protagonists who visit ridiculous fortune tellers, but unexpectedly receive an accurate prediction. It's later explained by a supporting character admitting fortune-telling is bunk, but *this* fortune teller has "the Gift."

#Psionics is The Gift! Some sheepherders can really predict the future with Precognition, but pretend it's all in the bones.

I'm not done with secret #psionics yet. Let's talk about folk divinations.

Human cultures are full of absurd methods of telling the future. Stare into a fire. Stare into a crystal. Stare at a sheep's scapula. And they all have funny names, created by people who don't practice divination.

Unlike modern fortune-telling, most magic divination isn't very open ended. You don't ask a pyromancer for an open-ended reading; you ask him a question with binary outcomes like "Will we win the battle?"

Non-psionic alchemists will never be as successful as the psionic alchemists, and they'll never know why. I bet they get bitter about that.

Alternately, we could circle back to the idea of "pharmacological #psionics" -- what if the alchemical search for the Philosophers Stone is actually a search for a psionic drug that gives the user the power of Molecular Rearrangement? Maybe alchemists know more about psionics than wizards do!

Two good ideas here, and I don't know which is better.

The idea that *some* #ADnD alchemists are secretly using #psionics puts a new twist on #alchemy. All of the great alchemists of legend were actually psionicists. Wizards think #alchemy is a poor imitation of magic, but it's really a poor imitation of psionics!

99.99% of alchemists are never going to turn lead into gold, because alchemy can't do that. The successful 0.01% are just using alchemy as a cover.

So, at that point, I'm celebrating my invention -- pharmacological #psionics disguised as magic, a brilliant combination of #worldbuilding and #ruleshacking, if I say so myself -- when I notice a psionic discipline I'd completely forgotten about: Molecular Rearrangement.

Um... There are #ADnD characters who can transform lead to gold with their minds? And #GaryGygax missed an opportunity to use a fancy word like "chrysopoeia?" These are both unbelievable in different ways!

So, at that point, I'm celebrating my invention -- pharmacological #psionics disguised as magic, a brilliant combination of #worldbuilding and #ruleshacking, if I say so myself -- when I notice a psionic discipline I'd completely forgotten about: Molecular Rearrangement.

Um... There are #ADnD characters who can transform lead to gold with their minds? And #GaryGygax missed an opportunity to use a fancy word like "chrysopoeia?" These are both unbelievable in different ways!

So, at that point, I'm celebrating my invention -- pharmacological #psionics disguised as magic, a brilliant combination of #worldbuilding and #ruleshacking, if I say so myself -- when I notice a psionic discipline I'd completely forgotten about: Molecular Rearrangement.

Um... There are #ADnD characters who can transform lead to gold with their minds? And #GaryGygax missed an opportunity to use a fancy word like "chrysopoeia?" These are both unbelievable in different ways!

So, at that point, I'm celebrating my invention -- pharmacological #psionics disguised as magic, a brilliant combination of #worldbuilding and #ruleshacking, if I say so myself -- when I notice a psionic discipline I'd completely forgotten about: Molecular Rearrangement.

Um... There are #ADnD characters who can transform lead to gold with their minds? And #GaryGygax missed an opportunity to use a fancy word like "chrysopoeia?" These are both unbelievable in different ways!

Seriously, I heard explosions in my ears, it was that big a revelation. Psychoactive mushrooms don't make #ADnD characters temporarily magical, they make characters temporarily psionic! Psychic powers from drugs, just like New Agers say!

#Psionics are already a power outside the spellcasting system. None of the metamagic spells affect psionics. I barely need to invent new rules!

The best part? Shamans and PCs don't need to understand any of this! Everyone can still *think* it's magic!

The persistence and the degree of the type of parasocial relationships occultists form is insane! Seriously, at any given time, I have about 20 random occultists seriously thinking that we have a relationship or that I am thinking anything about them merely because they bumped into me on Discord or Reddit or something. It is seriously terrifying and horrifying how quickly a random encounter gets spun into a paranoid delusion.

There is one person I know from psionics communities who won’t leave me alone on Reddit or Discord because she is convinced that she is telepathically connected to me, that I am putting thoughts in her head, and that I am angry at her because she chooses to be independent. The more you try to convince these people that they are delusional and the more evidence they gather for themselves, the deeper they fly into their schizophrenic, parasocial delusions. I’m not talking about that insane schizophrenic woman from DKMU. I am talking about someone from 15 years ago that I knew in psionics communities named Kira. I’m noticing that the truly unhinged ones hang out on Discord. Their delusions literally last for years and years.

I am literally watching said person on Discord describe how I pissed off gods they worked with, and that, apparently, they are causing me low self-esteem from a sock account. The terrifying thing is they don’t realize it’s projection. For some reason, they lack insight into their own emotions, so they are projecting their neuroticism onto me and saying I am feeling what they feel about themselves. It also tactically implies that they feel things like low self-esteem are put into their head.

The confusing thing is that this person says they are an atheist but believes these deities are real. Somehow, because they work with them as equals – which is insane to me, because there is an intrinsic power dynamic. The idea that people believe they are equal to beings that they believe can create cosmos doesn’t make sense to me. I’m an atheist, so the whole thing is nonsense to me.

The belief that others are implanting thoughts into your mind is a common delusion associated with schizophrenia, giving rise to the trope of tin-foil hats. This person is evidently very mentally ill.

#anarchism #anarchists #anarchy #animistic #atheism #Athiest #chaosMagic #chaosMagick #conspiracyTheories #conspiracyTheory #cults #Discord #DKMU #energyWork #magick #Mastodon #mentalHealth #mentalIllness #neuroticism #occult #occultism #occultists #pagan #paganism #paranormal #parasocial #psionics #psychic #Reddit #schizophrenia #schizophrenic #Theism #Threads #Twitter #witch #witchcraft