Psionicist: Phenomenon

"George Malley is an ordinary man, who is about to become ... extraordinary."

This horse is probably long-buried, but I keep coming back to the idea that Psionicists are just ordinary people, who somehow find themselves with a special gift (or curse). In the case of the character, George Malley, played by John Travolta in the movie Phenomenon, that special power is telekenesis, along with some other interesting powers.

Telekenesis, Firestarter, Precognition and Invisibility are four of the 10-12 "wild talents" that i'm thinking Psionicists might start with. I'm picking away at other ideas for talents, and am always open to suggestions.

I'm still trying to work out the way that Psionicists improve their wild talent, and gain new talents. It seems obvious (at least to me!) that gaining those talents should follow level-progression, but how to keep a Psionicist balanced against the Magic-User and Cleric (the other two "casters") but still give the Psionicist class its own "flavour", is the challenge I am currently wrestling with.

Old School Monsters: Orcus

Over at Miniaturelovers.com, you will find a very nicely painted copy (pictured here) of Reaper's Orcus figure. I much prefer the Reaper figure to the one produced by Wizards of the Coast.

I would suggest heading over to the WOTC website to compare them yourself, but they have done some sort of retooling to their website and the old miniatures galleries have been moved or lost.

For now, you'll just have to enjoy the Reaper version!

Psionicist: Firestarter

Here's another film, Firestarter, from 1984, based on the Steven King novel of the same title, about a girl who develops Psionic powers. In this case, she has the ability to start fires. The approach I am thinking of using, for the development of a Psionicist, is to come up with 10-12 "wild talents", one of which a Psionicist will start with, at first level. Precognition, Firestarter, and Invisibility are three of the wild talents that I intend to allow for first-level Psionicists.

Others?

Dungeoneer RPG: Using MTG Cards

Dungeoneer is a multi-player fantasy adventure card game, that simulates dungeon and wilderness adventuring. The author of that card game is currently working on a related RPG, using the same game mechanics. I really enjoy the game-play, environment, background and characters in Dungeoneer, and look forward to the RPG.

MTG also has some interesting characters, monsters, and environments. Just thinking out loud here. I wonder how difficult it would be to boilerplate some of the MTG cards and mechanics onto Dungeoneer.

At a minimum, it would be interesting to mine some of the ideas from MTG and house-rule them into a Dungeoneer game.

Resource Cards: Adventuring Gear Shortcut

Why have I been wasting all this time creating resource cards for basic equipment?

Here's all I ever needed, and its a "common" card, to boot!

I kid, I kid. This Magic The Gathering card is great and all, but as a resource card, it's a little too general for my tastes. I like my adventuring gear to be more specific. I'm an old-schooler, after all.

Magic The Gathering: Multi-Player Role Playing

I'm not a Magic: The Gathering fan.

I've never played the game, and it doesn't really interest me all that much. Don't get me wrong, I like competitive games, but head-to-head games, not so much. I prefer the competitive dynamics that develop during multi-player games, the shifting alliances, sudden treachery and so on.

Still, I can't help but appreciate the great artwork, and interesting characters and environments that exist in the Magic: The Gathering card game.

WOTC recently produced their new core MTG set, Magic 2010. Even though I am not a MTG player, I purchased a (relatively) complete set of those cards. All in the name of science, people! I bought them as part of my "resource cards" project. I enjoyed the artwork, and it did inspire me regarding the creation of spell resource cards.

Now WOTC has published their new set of cards: Zendikar. While I am unlikely to purchase a complete set of those cards -- I am a big "fantasy tropes" fan, and there are few cards in this set that represent those -- this card set is interesting, as it is has an "adventuring" theme.

Here is the promo text, from the WOTC webpage:

Deadly Perils, Priceless Treasures!

Enter a plane filled with deadly perils and priceless treasures. On Zendikar, mana works in ways never before experienced. This mana is Zendikar's unique treasure, one that planeswalkers from across the Multiverse risk their lives to acquire. Dare to join them.

Zendikar is a world of adventure and reward for those with the courage to brave its perils. Learn the value of allies, complete quests, set traps (and avoid them), and take advantage of landfall and kicker as you confront Zendikar's hostile environment.

If only WOTC moved MTG in the direction of multi-player role-playing game. I might reconsider my lack of enthusiasm for it.

Resource Cards: Basic Equipment

I posted earlier that I intended to have several iterations of the same items on a sheet of basic equipment resource cards, particularly those that are the common adventuring items.

This sheet of basic equipment resource cards doesn't have that, to any significant extent, but I will do that on the next sheet I do. That resource card sheet will have several backpacks, 10' poles, torches, and other common equipment, that every adventurer tends to carry.

I am having a problem with pictures of rations. Does anyone have, or know where I can find, pictures of standard and iron rations? I am thinking some pictures of bread, cheese, dried fruits and meat, in a cloth napkin, and so on.

Resource Cards: Weapons

I have been working on this sheet of weapon resource cards over the last several days. Here it is, as a work-in-progress. I am happy with about 80% of what appears on this resource card sheet, but there are a couple of images that seem a little light or grainy.

Additionally, there probably need to be more swords. I only have one bastard sword and one great sword on this sheet, while there are three maces. Since I intend to do at least one more weapon sheet, I will need to balance out the weapon selections between that and this sheet.

Magic Realm: Activities In The Realm

Magic Realm is a fantasy role-playing board-game, in which the Players compete (or cooperate) to fulfill their chosen victory conditions, by collecting gold and treasures, discovering new spells, defeating monsters and Realm inhabitants, and becoming famous or notorious.

Each Magic Realm game consists of 28 turns, which corresponds to an adventuring month. Each turn (day) a Character can do a certain number of activities.

Typically, each Character can do four activities per day. You may be capable of doing more activites each day, if you obtain certain treasures. You may also have fewer activities (for example, while cave and dungeon-delving, you only get two basic activities instead of four).

There are several types of activities you can perform each day.

Move: you can move from one board clearing to another. Each move, from one clearing to another, counts as one activity. So, you could normally only move a maximum of four times in a day.

Hide: you can attempt to hide. Hiding is important, as you need to be hidden in order to move through a clearing that is occupied by a monster, without having that monster "block" you.

Alert: You can ready your weapon or spell, in anticipation of a battle. Alerting your weapon or spell is important, as it makes it more likely you will strike with your weapon or cast your spell before your opponent.

Rest: Magic Realm Characters get fatigued and wounded. Each turn of rest allows you to recover a certain amount of your strength and wounds.

Search: Searching allows for the possibility that you will find such things as treasure hoards, secret paths, and hidden Characters.

Trade: this allows you to attempt to buy from and sell items to the Magic Realm natives. You can buy and sell or trade with other Characters without having to use a Trade activity, as long as they are in the same clearing as you.

Hire: the hire activity allows you to attempt to hire natives, to give you a better chance of fighting the monsters or other denizens, or to give you some additional treasure-seekers.

A Magic Realm game actually moves fairly quickly. This is because all Players simultaneously write down what activities they intend to participate in, prior to the beginning of that turn (day). When your turn comes up, you simply do the activities you recorded. This makes the game move along, as you do not need to consider each possible activity during the four activity phases of your turn.

Psionicist: The Dead Zone

This movie came out in 1983. Starring the incomparable Christopher Walken, and directed by (surprise, surprise!) David Cronenberg, this movie tells the story of Johnny Smith (how much more everyman of a name can that be!), who develops precognition, as a result of a terrible car accident.

I wanted to share this, as it is yet another influence on my views of the development of the Psionicist class.

Again, this supports the idea that "anyone" can be cursed with the development of a psionic ability, thus allowing for psionics to be added to a D&D campaign, without having some insurmountable dice-roll for the character to obtain psionics.