A Psionics Campaign[]
This chapter explains how to bring psionics into your AD&D® games. It examines the role of psionics in a campaign, the attitudes of NPCs toward psionicists, and the relationship between psionics and magic. It offers the DM advice for handling psionic villains and monsters. Finally, you'll find out what it's like to experience psionic power.
Look What I Got![]
When something new and exciting comes along, the natural impulse is to rush back to the gaming group, toss it on the table, and let everyone rip into it with full vigor. But that's the wrong way to bring something as powerful as psionics into an existing AD&D campaign. Players are likely to react in one of two ways. First, everyone will want to play a psionicist. The whole atmosphere of the game will suddenly change - so much that players may eventually say, "This isn't like it used to be." The second reaction is that everyone will be skeptical about making a big change, so no one will want to play a psionicist. Either way, enthusiasm fizzles.
Like any new source of power, psionics should be approached with common sense and a bit of caution - especially by the DM. No matter how much experience the DM has, this material is completely new, and there's a lot of it. The DM who dives in with both feet may find himself drowning in details. If play bogs down every time a psionicist tries to do something because the DM must flip through this book, players will quickly lose interest in the class. It's best to start in the shallow end of psionics and advance slowly, rather than swamping players with the whole package at once.
An NPC psionicist is the perfect way to introduce psionics gradually. If the NPC is a hireling, a follower, or an ally, he might not even reveal his psionic powers right away - especially if he's a dual-class character. The DM can introduce as much or as little psionics as he wants, developing a feel for the powers and how they mesh with other elements of the game. A particularly sly DM might not even mention that psionics is involved, but instead let the players try to puzzle out the unexplained events around them (for example, some people currently believe that poltergeists are not troublesome spirits, but manifestations of untrained and often unconscious psychokinetic ability. An NPC with such powers could "haunt" players for along time). Once the DM is satisfied and comfortable with his psionic NPC, the class can be opened to player characters.
Of course, in some games, secrecy may not be appropriate. Many DMs allow players to help develop the campaign background, and routinely discuss the game's direction with them. If you're that kind of DM, then your players should take part in the introduction of psionics. Slow and steady is still the best approach. Let one player have a psionic character. Debrief the player after each game session; get his reactions to both the rules and the way psionics is being used in the campaign. Ask other players for their opinions, too. When you and the players feel you have the bugs worked out, the class can be opened up in general.
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