Psionic Institutes & Guilds

[Adventus]

This topic is for people with psionics in their campaigns.

 

What type of these do you have in your campaign?

 

In my sci -fi campaign I have the Esper Guild. They are a shadowy guild. There is not a lot known about them. Members have blocks put in to prevent them from talking about the guild and its goals. At the present time they are coming slowly out of the shadows. You can always spot them, they were black robes and usually travel in groups. It is rumored that they have their own space fleet. It is rumored that they are controlling part of the gov't

[Blue]

The Materna are a group of women only. They survive as a group through theft of youths to bolster their failing numbers. The psychic powers are learned. They are isolationists, and they were originally brought together as a sort of harem, but rebelled. They've spent the better part of a thousand years hiding from the demon that brought them together.

[Lord Liaden]

I've created two psi organizations in past campaigns:

 

The Knights of Vigilance are a government organization charged with both investigation of criminal activities and intelligence operations. The Knights are held to very high ethical standards regarding any information they unearth, to reveal that information only if it poses "a clear and present threat to the citizens or institutions of the State." The recruits to the Knights undergo extensive indoctrination and behavior modification to assure that they live up to those standards. Rogue Knights are not unknown, however, nor are those who break under the strain of ethical conflicts. And of course, as tools of the State they may be subject to orders by superiors with lower standards...

 

The Miners are criminal psis. Mostly they operate as information brokers, selling the secrets that they dig up or using them for blackmail, on their behalf or that of their clients. Clients can as easily be "legitimate" business people or government officials as other criminals. The Miners have enough "dirt" on influential individuals that they are nearly untouchable, but are smart enough to keep their operations low-profile so as not to promote widespread fear of them which might make them targets.

 

A subdivision of the Miners, known as "The Sappers," are employed to eliminate troublesome people by implanting thoughts and false memories in their minds, prompting them to make atypical decisions or mistakes. In extreme cases the Sappers may be hired to drive a particular target slowly insane.

[Stephen Mann]

Long, long ago

 

I had the Imperial Assassins. They started as a legal, but tightly controlled, murder-for-hire group. Their leader, a popular chap, got killed by agents from an enemy interstellar government. The assassins demanded to go along when Impie agents when to strike back. When they turned out to be better than the intelligence agents at getting in, doing the dirty work, and getting out, the Empire permanently hired them as mercenary security agents.

 

After a while, when psionics became prevalent, only psis could be Assassins, and psis were "strongly encouraged" by the government to work for the government (as an Assassin or something else).

 

They're a lot like Lord Liaden's Knights in that they've been subjected to extreme brainwashing to ensure their loyalty to the Empire. In return for this, they get a lot of legal power.

[Guest C_Zeree]

Something that I have in continuous build is my campaign I'm trying to pull together for "eventually"

 

It is not psi, but awoken potential. Like psi, but magic too.

Four classes (I'd like): no talent, individual powers, skills, and finally VPs. Then raitings depending on total AP power.

 

The fey, are the most gifted members of the Accord. They are the only ones to create Orders, and have had them so long they define their society.

 

The Orders are: Sword, Shield, Crown, Pauldron, and Phantasm.

 

Swods focus on martial prowess and are defenders of the state.

 

Shields focus on the physical world. They're the engineers and scientists.

 

Crowns area of expertiese is the mind. As their playground is the mind, they go through the most training, and have the most regulation on what they can and cannot do.

 

Pauldrons powers envolve living things. They are doctors, biologists, geneticists. They have strict professional requirements as well, because their techniques are also invasive.

 

Finally the order of the Phantasm catches everything else. They deal with the nebulous realms of Sight, Sound, and Space. Illusionists, entertainers, Teleporters, Clairvoients, are all members opf this Order.

 

Those gifted can have strengths in more than one area, but rarely more than that (cost too much).

 

Not everyone gets the formal training of the Orders however, and there are wilds out there. Plus those not "talented" enough to enter Orders, although they are quite powerful enough to unleash havoc upon the unawoken.

 

I am currently trying to figure out how to balance the four, but really three, levels of awoken talent.

[MisterD]

For a shadowrun campaign I have The Academy It is a 'school' that kidnaps child adepts (physical and Mental) and brainwashes then trains them. Then train them to work as companions, assistnats and bodyguards to the Mega Corp big boys.

[NuSoardGraphite]

Psionics figure heavily into my campaign setting. They are the movers and shakers in the Galaxy. Much of what goes on is manipulated by the various factions in one way or another.

 

The main Psionics guild is called P.S.I. or the Psychological Studies Institute (yes, I stole that from the old champions supplement of the same name)

They are a government funded (but independant) institute dedicated to finding and training psionically active individuals within the Federation. They are also the true force behind the government. In my campaign, all Espers must be registered with the government, and PSI controlls this as well. All registered PSI's are put through the institutes "training program" (aka brain-washing) that helps them learn to use their abilities to benefit the Federation. Unregistered Psi's are hunted with impunity. (one of the PC's in my last campaign was unregistered and paranoid as hell!)

 

The Psionic Underground is a group that opposes the Psychological Studies Institute and their aims. It also helps psionics on many planets outside the Federation (thus PSI's) influence, escape from regimes with harsh Anti-Psionics laws. (many worlds with theocratic systems of government have Anti-Psi laws in my campaign)

 

The Cabal is a clandestine group of individuals who are incredibly powerful psychics. They believe it is their destiny to rule the galaxy and for Psi's to be implemented as the ruling class. They are wealthy, influential and have infiltrated every level of the government, including P.S.I. and The Underground. (it is in their best interest to keep The Underground and P.S.I. opposed to one another)

 

There are other, smaller groups as well, but those are the important ones.

 

My system of classing psi powers was stolen from Babylon-5. Powers range from P-1 to P-10 (and higher) with P-3 being about the average. Non Psis are considered P-0 of course. To determine powerlevel, take the highest Active point power add +1 per additional power after that, then divide by 10. Thus a character with 12 powers, with his higest power at 40 Active Points (total, 52pts) is rated at P-5.