Psychic Wars

[Nyrath]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

There was an interesting merger of psychic power with quantum mechanics in Jack Williamson's DARKER THAN YOU THINK.

 

Example: the evil protagonist and his consort have to assasinate a scientist. They know by Heisenberg's uncertanty principle that their power will be higher when the scientist is in a dangerous situation. They wait until he is driving his car along side a cliff. In their astral forms, they take the shape of savage beasts. When they feel their power at its height, they tear out the scientist's throat.

 

On the material plane, the scientist loses control of his car, goes off the cliff, and the shattered edge of the windshield cuts out his throat.

[SAVeira]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

Try the works of Julian May.

 

THE SAGA OF PLIOCENE EXILE

Volume I: The Many-Colored Land

Volume II: The Golden Torc

Volume III: The Nonborn King

Volume IV: The Adversary

 

PLIOCENE COMPANION: A reader's guide to books of the Saga of Plioncene Exile.

 

INTERVENTION

Volume I: Surveillance

Volume II: Metaconcert

 

GALACTIC MILIEU TRILOGY

Volume I: Jack the Bodiless

Volume II: Diamond Mask

Volume III: Magnificat

 

All these series are connected and share the same universe, plus some characters.

 

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

I can't believe anyone hasn't mentioned the Gil the Arm collection by Niven. Some very nice use of limited telekensis.

[Eosin]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

Thanks for all the recommendations, guys; keep 'em coming.

 

 

More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon. Easily one of my favorite science fiction novels. Thematically it fits pretty well into what I conceive going on in Psychic Wars. The novel To Marry Medusa has some good hive mind stuff.

 

Fantastic book.

 

I am really looking forward to this - Ideally, I would hope that the setting would port easily into a Starwars like game vis-a-vis a fantasy game set in space (dark themed or light themed matters not a wit to me).

[Susano]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

I can't believe anyone hasn't mentioned the Gil the Arm collection by Niven. Some very nice use of limited telekensis.

 

DOH!

 

And here is one version of Gil:

 

http://surbrook.devermore.net/adaptionsbook/gilhamilton.html

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

Psi Wars: Bodyguard of Lies 1

http://www.conspiracyx.com/htmldocuments/products/bol1.html

 

Psi Wars

http://www.qedcorp.com/pcr/pcr/psiwguid.html

 

Psi Wars

http:////www.imprint.co.uk/books/psi.html

 

Psychic Wars

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/psychic_wars/

 

Psi Ops: The Mind Gate Conspiracy

http://www.psiopsgame.com/

http://www.thesupernaturalworld.co.uk/index.php?code=02&file=psi_ops_review.php&title=Psi-Ops%20Review&cat=reviews/psi_ops

 

Psionics - Google Search

http://www.futurehorizons.net/psi.htm

 

Psionics Institute

http://www.kalyr.com/psionics.htm

 

The Psion Guild Home Page

http://www.thepsionguild.net/coverpage.html

 

Traveller Psionics

http://www.tip.net.au/~davidjw/libdata/ALPHABET/P/psionics.htm

 

PSI Factor: "Chronicles of the Paranormal"

http://www.geocities.com/dreampsi/psi_factor_en.htm

http://www.blackhatstation.com/PsiFactor/pf.htm

 

ESP (extrasensory perception)

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/default.html

http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/e/esp_extrasensory_perception.html

 

Remote Viewing

http://www.learnremoteviewing.com/?sr=1&ct=11

 

PSI Tech

http://www.psitech.net/main.htm

 

The Skeptics Dictionary

http://skepdic.com/kinesis.html

 

Psychic Ops

http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/sept11/features/5615/

 

Movie "Pyrokinesis (2000)"

http://www.tohokingdom.com/web_pages/m_reviews/anthony_r/pyrokinesis.htm

 

Unsolved Mysteries: Psychics

???

 

Police Psychics

http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/police-psychics.html

 

Telepath Wars - Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telepath_War

 

The Shop [Threat Book] (Spycraft/Shadow Force Archer) by Alderac Entertainment Group

http://www.spycraftrpg.com/rpg/products.html

 

Hmmm... more and better Links later

 

QM

[megaplayboy]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

How about a list of films that deal with espers?

Scanners et al

The Fury

Firestarter

 

There was some 60s/70s movie dealing with espers that predated Scanners, but the name escapes me...

[TheQuestionMan]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

Unsolved Mysteries: Psychics

???

 

Police Psychics

http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/police-psychics.html

 

Paranormal Movies and TV

http://www.network54.com/Forum/280812

 

ABC World of Discovery - Powers of the Russian Psychics (1992)

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/abc_world_of_discovery_powers_of_the_russian_psychics/

 

Movie - Minority Report

http://www.fandango.com/reviews_fullreview.asp?mv=39804&from=&review=la

 

Psychic Investigator

http://psychicinvestigator.com/

 

 

 

 

Strange the Boards must be having trouble. I couldn't post these huh?

 

Weird

 

QM

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

This is a GREAT genre for gaming in... one of my all time favorites. I remember way back in the day we HAD a "Psi World Hero" campaign just shortly after the FGU game came out. Like a lot of folk, we decided that the system was broken, but the setting was good. For my .02, I want to add in my voice in support of the Julian May books. Her classification of psychic powers is one of the best and most "gameable" I have ever encountered. For most campaigns, I'd actually recommend starting with the Intervention series (which is basically a modern setting), followed by the Milieu series(more the sci-fi setting).The Saga of Pilocene Exile is a bit less smooth in its writing, and is a time travel/crossworlds semi fantasy-sci-fi blend (its still wonderful, and another of my ATF's). Her classification system (nonmetas, latents, semi operant 'wild talents' and operant metapsychics) works into HERO beautifully, as do her descriptions of the disciplines of psychic powers. she breaks them down as follows...

Coercion - the ability to overwhelm anothers will (mind contol, mainly)

Redaction - healing or long term manipultion (Transforms, mostly, as well as Healing and some forms of Aid)

Farsensing - Remote viewing, seeking, and mind to mind contact (Mind scan, mind link, telepathy, some detects)

Telekenetics - pretty straightforeward TK.. strength at range (TK, flight, some defences, etc..)

Creativity - psychic extension of the more common ability to imagine something then create it. ranges from illusion spinning to actual matter transformation. Also seems to include many of the "kenesis" forms that involve particle physics as the breaking point seems to be the ability to perceive the subject. For example... setting something on fire usually involves creativity, as most Psi's would simply "imagine" the target bursting into flames. To perform tha same act with TK, one would need to be able to "see" the molecules(using deep sensing farsight) and then deliberately speed their motion with TK (This is the biggest catch all power set, and can be covered by a WIDE assortment of powers)

 

A few other disciplines are discussed, including Prolepsis (precog/retrocog) and Teleportation, but they are considered unpredictable, hard to quantify, and rare abilities.

Additionally, she discusses many techniques and technologies for enhancing the effects of meta abilities.

Its a system that lend itself VERY well to a Talent and Power skill based VPP psi system.

 

I pretty much ganked this system lock stock and barrel for my Star Hero campaign when we went into a story arc that involved actual elite trained government backed Psi's. Which also involved the introduction of a NPC, code named Fenris, who was a former elite Black ops psi who was suffering from major post traumatic stress disorder, and who had fried his neurocircutry with long term use of Psi drugs and mechanical enhancers (built into his power armor). and yes, he had a bad case of the shakes... I had waited YEARS to base a character on Veteran of the Psychic Wars (Yes Bonedaddy, I too have Fire of Unknown Origin on vinyl, and remember BOC playing at the Keystone Palo Alto as Soft White Underbelly).

To make a campaign off this sort work out, I'd probably add a global X1 1/2 vunerablity to mental powers, possibly with a "Strong willed" talent available to remove it. In our 4th ed campaign, I handled the extra power levels with Aid powers to get the appropriate OOMPH.

 

Needless to say, I'll be keeping my eyes open for this one.

[Susano]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

If you can afford it, look into buying the entire 6-volume set of AKIRA. It's far more coherent than the anime and gives a great look at different esper/psi powers. HERO wise, characters demonstrate: Telekinesis, Flight, Teleportation, Force Field, Force Wall, Healing, Regeneration, Life Support, Telepathy, Precognition, Energy Blast, Missile Deflection, and Entangle (using the landscape). I may have missed a few.

[Sketchpad]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

 

I took a trip down to the used bookstore last night and picked up Psi-Man by Peter David (David Peters, actually -- gotta love having two first and last names, surely a sign of a superior person too... haha...). Sadly it's Volume Five of the series, but I figured what the heck. So, Sketchpad, anything I need to know before diving into this?

 

Wow ... where to start on this one. Lemme try and take a stop by the used bookstore this week and see if they have any copies of v1-4 for ya

[Chuk]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

Steven Gould's novel Jumper is an example of a kid in the "real world" who learns to teleport. There's also Alan Dean Foster's Slipt, about an old guy with kind of a TK attack that wrecks things (his granddaughter (or maybe niece, I don't remember) has limited telepathy, too).

[Ghost who Walks]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

So far as how the society reacts, something like the old marvel comic DP:7 would be ideal. The theme would be normal-guy-gets-powers. Most characters would be built around a single power, easy to do if you disable power frameworks.

 

If set a couple decades in the future, the government/corporation/authorities might use robots to hunt for psionics...ones that would be mostly invulnerable to mental powers. That gets you the man vs. machine component.

 

I remember reading a newspaper article about 10 years ago where the (US) military was sending peopel to these new age places to experience Out-of-body experiences.

 

A drug which causes psionic powers, as long as you take it could be interesting.

 

I'll try to recommend some different stuff:

~The movie, Anna to the Infinite power: Interesting concept movie, deals with clones seperated at birth who are very aware of each other...and inclined towards the life they once had. Shows how a small group can perform a secret science project, over years. While the acting can be a bit off at times, something about this movie always intrigued me.

 

~Books: Deathstalker series, Simon Green: Had an interesting idea that if you wanted to create an anti-psionic device, you needed to cut up a psionics brain, put it in a box, and run electrical current to it. Hooray! You've just invented Mental Defense!

[Wanderer]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

I want to add in my voice in support of the Julian May books. Her classification of psychic powers is one of the best and most "gameable" I have ever encountered. For most campaigns, I'd actually recommend starting with the Intervention series (which is basically a modern setting), followed by the Milieu series(more the sci-fi setting).The Saga of Pilocene Exile is a bit less smooth in its writing, and is a time travel/crossworlds semi fantasy-sci-fi blend (its still wonderful, and another of my ATF's). Her classification system (nonmetas, latents, semi operant 'wild talents' and operant metapsychics) works into HERO beautifully, as do her descriptions of the disciplines of psychic powers. she breaks them down as follows...

Coercion - the ability to overwhelm anothers will (mind contol, mainly)

Redaction - healing or long term manipultion (Transforms, mostly, as well as Healing and some forms of Aid)

Farsensing - Remote viewing, seeking, and mind to mind contact (Mind scan, mind link, telepathy, some detects)

Telekenetics - pretty straightforeward TK.. strength at range (TK, flight, some defences, etc..)

Creativity - psychic extension of the more common ability to imagine something then create it. ranges from illusion spinning to actual matter transformation. Also seems to include many of the "kenesis" forms that involve particle physics as the breaking point seems to be the ability to perceive the subject. For example... setting something on fire usually involves creativity, as most Psi's would simply "imagine" the target bursting into flames. To perform tha same act with TK, one would need to be able to "see" the molecules(using deep sensing farsight) and then deliberately speed their motion with TK (This is the biggest catch all power set, and can be covered by a WIDE assortment of powers)

 

A few other disciplines are discussed, including Prolepsis (precog/retrocog) and Teleportation, but they are considered unpredictable, hard to quantify, and rare abilities.

Additionally, she discusses many techniques and technologies for enhancing the effects of meta abilities.

Its a system that lend itself VERY well to a Talent and Power skill based VPP psi system.

 

 

I pretty much ganked this system lock stock and barrel for my Star Hero campaign when we went into a story arc that involved actual elite trained government backed Psi's. Which also involved the introduction of a NPC, code named Fenris, who was a former elite Black ops psi who was suffering from major post traumatic stress disorder, and who had fried his neurocircutry with long term use of Psi drugs and mechanical enhancers (built into his power armor). and yes, he had a bad case of the shakes... I had waited YEARS to base a character on Veteran of the Psychic Wars (Yes Bonedaddy, I too have Fire of Unknown Origin on vinyl, and remember BOC playing at the Keystone Palo Alto as Soft White Underbelly).

To make a campaign off this sort work out, I'd probably add a global X1 1/2 vunerablity to mental powers, possibly with a "Strong willed" talent available to remove it. In our 4th ed campaign, I handled the extra power levels with Aid powers to get the appropriate OOMPH.

 

Needless to say, I'll be keeping my eyes open for this one.

 

I would add that the Julian May classification system for Psi powers works equally well for giving a unified origin to super or magical powers in high-powered super or high fantasy systems, since the most powerful psis in the cycle look and feel rather like cosmic supers or high fantasy magicians, routinely pulling out feats like blowing up mountainsides, cross-planet teleportations, and the like. It gives a pretty much extensive SFX set for most typical "super" feats:

 

Standard Powers

 

Cohercion ("Mental Control":Ego Attack, Mind Control, Mental Illusions)

Redaction ("Biokinesis and Psychic Surgery": Aid, Healing, EB or RKA NND, Drain, Life Support, living matter Transform)

Farsensing (Detects, Clairsentience, Mind scan, Mind Link, Telepathy)

Telekinesis ("Force Control": TK, Flight, PD EB/RKA, Entangle, Defense Powers)

Creativity ("Energy Control": inanimate matter Transform, ED EB/RKA, Defense Powers, Images, Change Environment, Flash, Darkness, Life Support, Invisibility).

Teleportation (this actually a halfway case between standard and "oddball")

 

Several other powers, such as Shape Shift (a combination of Redaction and Creativity) would be possible by combining multiple "basic" powers.

In the series, Life Support: Immortality appears to be genetically linked to really-powerful Psi potential.

 

More rare, unreliable and less understood Powers:

Luck (a subcategory of Cohercion, strange as it seems: apparently, you get probabilities in your favour by gently mind-controlling the Universe)

Prolepsis: (Precognition/Retrocognition)

Teleportation (see above)

 

The series gives a lot of insight and ideas about the genetic basis of Psis, the impact of powerful psi/superpowers on both "fantasy" and starfaring societies, the genetics and physical science bases of psi/superpowers, technological and tecnique means of enhancing psi powers, and the mindset and impact on society of very powerful superpowered individuals (and their assorted psychological flaws).

 

Due to the power level and flexibility of use psi powers get in the series, psi are best modeled by large VPPs with Limitations like Activation Roll, RSR, Concentration, Endurance Limitations, Limited related to psychological states, No Conscious Control, Side Effects, and Visible. Most powerful psis (Marc Remillard, Aiken Drum, Jack the Bodiless, Diamond Mask, Felice Landry) look rather like cosmic supers, anime martial artists, and high fantasy wizards, so I think they should be with Superheroic rules (but using NCM), with 600-800+ pts.

 

I cannot but recommend the series for anyone interested in powerful psi as a basis for "powers" in fantasy, sci-fi or modern "superhero" (if you can stomach the Theilard de Chardain-slanted Catholic preachy bias and overtones of the author, who really tries to give you the feeling that ultimate subsumation in the pacifistic, goodey-good, God-like Cosmic Mass Overmind is desirable: myself, I kept seriously rooting for Aiken Drum and Marc Remillard and their elitist or anarchist individualistic Luciferian rebellion to transcendant subsummation in the God-Mind and Marc's crusade for individual transhumanist Singularity psychic godlike Transcendance as an alternative).

[Curufea]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

Sorry to be picky, but to coerce, and coercion don't have an 'h' in them. From the Latin - coercere "to control, restrain". Although the medieval French did spell it with an 'h' - "cohercer"

 

And I should also add - I loved Aiken Drum from the Many Coloured Lands series - so much so that I designed the banner for my wargaming army to be his...

Purple with a gold "the finger"

[Cantriped]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

You could also look at the Anime s-CRY-ed, I've only seen the first 5 episodes or so, but it looks pretty good. it takes it from more of a Matter manipulation end. Essentially the psychics or "Alters" as their called in the series blow chunks out of their surrounding environment and use the accumulated matter to build, in many cases, Mecha like constructions which they then use to beat the snot out of each other. The main character in the story creates a "Powered Armor" Arm with a STR of about 50 (he uses the thing to perform almost hulk like jumps) and three "Bullets" on the same shoulder which look like spike/fin things. And every time he uses one breaks down and produces about a 6 second burst of jet propulsion velocity and a really hefty punch with that arm.

[Susano]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

Also look for DOMU, from Dark Horse comics. It's the story of a very young and a very old esper who do battle in a Tokyo apartment complex -- with highly destructive results.

 

Espers powers include: Flight, Teleportation, Telekinesis, Energy Blast, RKA, Mind Control, Telepathy, Desolidification, Mental Illusions, and others I am missing.

[AlHazred]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

Many psionic characters from fiction come from unusual settings.

 

Per Hiero (that is, "Father" Hiero) is a priest in a pair of books by Sterling E. Lanier - Hiero's Journey and The Unforsaken Hiero. I've been waiting for book three for coming on twenty years. The main character gains vast psionic powers by tangling with an evil psionic conspiracy in post-holocaust USA. While many setting elements will be wildly inappropriate, the psionics is interestingly conceived. I also think the book was one of the bases for Gamma World.

 

Aside from Gil Hamilton, Larry Niven wrote a few other books with psionic characters. One of my favorites, A Gift from Earth, concerns Matt Keller, who turns out to have the power of psionic invisibility - Niven justifies it in a convincing and interesting fashion. Another book, World of Ptaavs, concerns Larry Greenberg, a low-level telepath who manages to achieve a high power level after an accidental contact with a much more potent alien psion. Both books are highly recommended, although the technology level might be too high.

 

There was at one time a burgeoning subgenre of science fiction that dealt with psionics. Many of the books concerned themselves with a psionic underground either working with or against government agencies to fight some sort of covert war. One classic novel from this period is A.E. van Vogt's Slan. If you read no other van Vogt, read this one.

 

Another science fiction series with psionics is Alan Dean Foster's Flinx series. Phillip Lynx (Flinx for short) is an orphan with psionic powers. As the books progress, he manages to be trained in a wide variety of psionic disciplines by a couple of aliens; you get the sense that they are training him for some grand purpose which remains obscure. The Flinx books are a subset of his Humanx Commonwealth novels.

 

Finally, another author who makes extensive use of psionics is Katherine Kurtz in her Deryni novels. These are historical fantasy, about the Deryni race - nearly identical to humans, but capable of intense psionic development.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

Anime is actually a great source for Psychic inspiration.

 

Aside from the oft-mentioned Akira there is a whole host of Psychic-based anime. So much so it can almost be considered a subgenre all its own.

 

Some of the one's I've seen include:

 

Dangaio (note: Not Great Dangaio...but the original)

A classic Giant Robot Anime. The pilots of Dangaio are all Psionic and Dangaio itself feeds off their psionic energies. The characters Psychic powers are quite powerful (all of them are Telepathic and Clairsentient to varying degrees) with each one having their own special ability. Those special powers are multiplied a thousandfold when they pilot their Psionic mecha: Dangaio. Its main "Special Attack" is called the Psychic Wave!.

 

Harmageddon:

A rare and hard-to-find anime these days (though it was recently released on DVD I do believe) this movie consists of a cast of mostly teens with vast psychic potential who are gathered together to save the world from total destruction.

 

Angel Cop:

Starts off kinda Cyberpunky. By the end ESPer powers fly back and forth like bullets in a Swartzennegger movie. This one is damned good and highly recommended, even if only to show just how brutal Psychic powers can be when used unchecked...

 

Hyper Psychic Geo: Garaga:

A very cool anime film. A ship crash lands on the planet Garaga. The crew fights to stay alive and gets caught in a war between a race of Ape-men and a race of Psychic humans. Then it gets nasty.

 

Birdy the Mighty:

Birdy is a space cop sent to earth to track down interstellar drug dealers. In the process of her investigation, she nearly kills an earthling by accident. In order to save his life, she fuses his body to hers (they share the same body) until repairs to his body are complete. (they change back and forth between Birdy and Tsutomu, which makes for interesting social situations)

How is this related to Psychics? The Interstellar drug dealers I mentioned earler...remember them? It turns out that the drugs they were designing turned humans into psychotic uber-Telekinetics. The resulting battles are quite spectacular.

 

There's a bunch more. I just need to delve into the mental hardrive and remember them...

[FenrisUlf]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

Anyway' date=' in Manly Wade Wellman's book The Hanging Stones, there was a theory that werewolves changed shape by accreting ectoplasm to their normal bodies...basically shapeshifting in this manner is a psychic phenomenon. I don't know if this is a real-world theory (Wellman used a lot of historical beliefs and actual parapsychological ideas in his writing), but it may be worth stealing anyway. Depending on how well it fits with the rest of the Psi system.[/quote']

 

I believe that was a 'real' occult theory of the time. I remember something like it in a reprint of Elliot O'Donnell's book Werewolves, anyway.

 

He did the same thing in his Judge Pursuivant story 'The Hairy Ones Shall Dance', and something like that showed up in the first John story, 'Oh Ugly Bird!'.

[Mentor]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

One of the BEST songs BOC ever made Rep pour toi

Yepper from another fan.

[AlHazred]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

There was at one time a burgeoning subgenre of science fiction that dealt with psionics. Many of the books concerned themselves with a psionic underground either working with or against government agencies to fight some sort of covert war. One classic novel from this period is A.E. van Vogt's Slan. If you read no other van Vogt' date=' read this one.[/quote']I didn't give a cite - there's a good review of Slan here.

 

It occurred to me that a number of other van Vogt books also have psionic characters. He wrote a series of books about the world of Null-A (short for "Non-Aristotelian thinking"); the supermen of this setting have telepathic powers as the result of mastering the principles of General Semantics (a real-world philosophy similar to Dianetics in some ways). A good review of that used to be online; I found an archive of it here. Three books make up this series: The World of Null-A, The Players of Null-A, and Null-A 3 (sorry, no review of the last one).

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

There's a couple of movies that you could check out for ideas: first of all,

there's Dark City (Rufus Sewell's character of John Murdock is the

prototypical esper hero, and the Strangers are typical of esper villains in

both film and anime). This film has one of the better mind-war scenes of

the genre (Murdock's duel with Mr. Book near the end of the film).

 

To a lesser extent, you could also use The Shadow for ideas. Lamont

Cranston's use of telekinetic powers to defeat Shiwan Khan is a decent ex-

ample of psychic power use (the scene in the film where Cranston shatters

the mirrors in the room where Khan is hiding out, and then uses one of the

mirror shards to take out Khan's mind-control powers).

 

 

Major Tom

[Susano]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

I've never seen it, but does SCANNERS qualify?

[Enforcer84]

Re: Psychic Wars

 

Yepper from another fan.

I too concur.

Don't let these shakes go on.