Adventures in Psi World

The introductory adventures in the twenty page The Psi World Adventure book were addressed in an earlier post. Fantasy Games Unlimited also published three adventure/ supplement books for Psi World: The Hammer Shall Strike, Underground Railroad, and Cause for War. Hammer and Railroad are still available, either through RPGNow or directly from FGU. Alas, your humble host neither owns nor has access to Cause for War. As such, he will be unable to comment at length on that product.

The Hammer Shall Strike was written by the creators of Psi World, “Dell Carr & Cheron,” and it sports a cover by the very talented Bill Willingham. Interior sketches were done by William H. Keith Jr., whose artistic talent does not approach Willingham's level. Few artists could compare well against Willingham, but Keith's efforts appear markedly amateurish.  Aside from introducing new psionic talents, Hammer includes two adventures.  In 'Transition,' the player characters search for teenagers who have begun to exhibit psionic powers.  The PCs must reach the teenagers before an opposing group does.  (One scene takes place in a fast food restaurant “owned and operated by Wendy McDonald, a thin redhead...”  Get it?  Hahaha!  Inane adventure module humor.)  In 'The Hammer Shall Strike,' PCs must infiltrate a cult in order to investigate sinister rumors.  Both adventures build upon the setting that the authors introduced in The Psi World Adventure and both adventures accommodate either a psionic or non-psionic party.  The authors provide ample ways to involve various types of player characters.

William Keith is responsible for all of the art in Underground Railroad.  He and his brother, J. Andrew Keith, co-wrote the book (Andrew wrote the fist two adventures in this module while William wrote the third).  The copyright owner is listed as Marischal Adventures; a company established by the Keith brothers.  Both brothers have numerous writing credits – fiction as well as RPG material (especially for GDW).  It is perhaps for the best that William Keith has focused on writing more than illustrating.  William Keith is also responsible for all of the art in Cause for War, but his brother has sole writing credit for that product.

Underground Railroad (and, evidently, Cause for War) takes place in a setting distinct from that which the Carrs established.  (Your humble host is given to understand that Cause for War can act as a continuation of a campaign that begins with Underground Railroad.)   In the Keith brothers setting, psionics came about via the Great Plague:

The origin of the Great Plague is a mystery. Some theorize that it was a bacteriological weapon which was released accidentally and ran out of control; others claim an extra-terrestrial origin, pointing to the fact that the Soviet Mars Mission of 1998 returned only a few weeks before the first cases were reported in Eastern Europe. No one can be certain of the origins of the disease - but none can doubt the effects.

By the time it had run its course, the Great Plague had killed over 40% of the world's population. There was no cure - a person who caught the disease lived or died according to natural resistance, and luck. Most people died. Only a handful who contracted it lived.

Those who did frequently exhibited an unusual side-effect – the development of strong psionic powers...

Anyway, civilization collapsed, persecution against psionics became common, and “large nations gave way to smaller, more loosely structured states.” What used to be the United States now consists of about twenty independent nations.

Like Wikipedia says, the historical Underground Railroad “was a network of secret routes and safe houses.”  Whereas in history,  the Underground Railroad was used by escaping slaves, the underground railroad in this Psi World module is used by psis to escape the fascist regime of the Central States Confederacy (just in case the analogy wasn't obvious before).  They try to escape to the psionic tolerant (but militarily weaker) Free State.  Unlike the Carr setting, there is no provision for the player characters to be anything other than psionic.

The border between the Confederacy and the Free State reaches across what used to be lower Wisconsin.  The psionic underground railroad is situated in the “Hunter's Lake” area of the Confederacy, just south of the Free State border.  So, there's a lake area in southern Wisconsin that represents oppression.  Ah, so there's more than one analogy at work here!  Your humble host supposes that the Keith brothers were attempting to make a statement about a certain Lake Geneva company and its overbearing influence on the role-playing game market in the early years of the hobby.  For the sake of comparison, here are maps of “Hunter's Lake” and Lake Geneva.  Scale is approximate.

Hunter's Lake:

Lake Geneva:

© 2012, Yahoo!

Minor Disciplines in Psi World

This illustration doesn't have anything to do with Minor disciplines,

but neither do any of the remaining illustrations in the rule book.

Compared to the Major disciplines, the Minor disciplines in Psi World are 'minor' in terms of power and versatility; however, I consider them to be more interesting. During character generation (as indicated in this post), a player of a psionic character may forgo a Major discipline in order to either (1) choose two Minor Disciplines or (2) randomly determine 1d2+1 Minor disciplines. The rule book lists eighteen Minor disciplines and – for random determination – a player roles a d20; a result of 19 indicates an “additional roll on the Minor table” and a result of 20 indicates a roll “on the Major table.”

So, if a player chooses to roll on the Major table, there is a 7% chance of also obtaining at least one Minor discipline. With two rolls on the Minor table, there is a 10% of obtaining at least one Major discipline. (This 10% includes the 0.25% chance of getting two Major disciplines by rolling on the Minor table.) The Hammer Shall Strike adventure/supplement includes ten new Minor disciplines. For random determination, one of the suggestions Hammer provides is to number the new Minor disciplines 21 – 30 and roll a d30. Naturally, this reduces the chances of also gaining a Major discipline to about 6.5% (given two rolls).  (I am certain that I have enriched everyone's life by providing this information.  No need to thank me.)

Most of the Minor disciplines are 'powers' that require power points to activate and maintain – Astral Projection, Invisibility, Lie Detector, et al. Some Minor disciplines represent permanent abilities that require the character to reduce his or her PSI attribute score by one-fourth. Among these disciplines are: Direction Sense, Perfect Balance, Photographic Memory, Phonographic Memory, Genius, and Forgotten.  Genius adds:  2d6 to the character's INT attribute, 1d10 to initial number of skill points, and 10% to skill improvement rolls.  The character also gains a 'lightning calculator' ability.  'Forgotten' is my favorite discipline: 

A person will completely forget this Psionic character after an amount of time equal to the time spent with him/her, or after 8 hours of sleep.

That would be a challenge to role-play; it's like a converse Memento.

Other noteworthy Minor disciplines include:  Mind Melder (“Acts as a central channel through which other Psis may combine abilities”), Psi Amplifier (“the ability to double one effect of another's psionic ability”), and Null Psi (“may create an area in which psionic activity cannot be detected” and also “may create an area where all psionic abilities...are negated”).

A character with the Poltergeist discipline can spend five points to have a random effect transpire for 2 - 4 turns.  “If the table gives a result that is impossible, use No. 2, roll again, or whatever you want.”

1.  Knocking/Tapping on walls, furniture, etc.
2.  Objects flying around (usually small)
3.  Windows being broken
4.  Glassware breaking (flying to the floor)
5.  Stones falling from the air (possibility of 1d3 damage)
6.  Lights and other electrical switches toggle off/on
7.  Small fires start (size of a candle flame) & chance of igniting flammables
8.  Random gusts of wind (indoors); Dust devils (outdoors)

Another interesting Minor discipline is Time Shifter:

The psionic may travel in time.  The cost is 5 points per day traveled, plus 5 points per hour stayed.  The past is fixed, and may not be changed.  The future is not fixed, and the psionic must state which of the infinite number of possibilities are being checked...

What happens when a character encounters him or herself and possibly other characters in a scene that's already played out?  Or is the GM supposed to arrange things so something like this doesn't happen?  When traveling to the future, a single possibility is to be chosen.  The example given in the rule book has a character stating, “In exactly 3 minutes I will shoot the guard and wound him.  What happens?”  The trouble here is that there are an infinite number of possibilities that might occur once the guard is wounded.  The guard might defend himself (or herself), bite down on a poison capsule, call for help, run away to the left, run away to the right, play dead, beg for mercy, or even activate his (or her) Null Psi discipline sending the Time Shifter back.  Sure, the Time Shifter talent could be used to help a party succeed in an adventure but, as a game master, I would be tempted to engineer a self-fulfilling prophecy in the same vein as the conclusion of Bradbury's The Illustrated Man.

On the last page of the rule book – an afterthought it seems – there is a boxed section of text detailing a power called 'The Force Shield.' Interestingly, the same text box also appears in Hammer – at the end of the 'New Talents' section. In Hammer, however, The Force Shield is included in the table of contents, distinct from 'New Minor Disciplines.' The title page of Hammer has a summary of the contents which announces “the definition of The Force Shield.”

Basically, The Force Shield allows a psionic character to use power points to cancel “physical damage on a point-for-point basis.” It seems odd that any psionic character could create a Force Shield, but given the way it is presented – and the lack of clarifying information in the rules – it is reasonable to assume that this is the authors' intent.

Major Disciplines in Psi World

Psi World presents two methods for determining a character's psionic disciplines. Under the 'design' method, “The player may select either one Major or two Minor disciplines of his/her choice.” This is method is ideal when attempting to create a psionically balanced party; however, the 'random roll' method allows “hopes of gaining additional abilities.” With the 'random roll' method, the player chooses to roll once on the Major discipline table or roll two or three times (1d2+1) on the Minor discipline table.

The rule book describes seven Major disciplines: Precog, Telepath, Teleport, Telekinetic, Self-Aware, Healer, and Empath. The Major discipline table gives a 13% chance for each discipline. There is also a 7% chance of obtaining a “Roll 1 Major and 1 Minor” result and a 2% chance of obtaining a “Roll 2 Majors” result.

Extra-Sensory Perception would have been a better name than “Precog” since that discipline includes such talents as clairvoyance, detect life, and 360° vision. The “Precog” augury ability is interesting; it “allows the precog to ask any question to which a one word answer may be given...[that] will be accurate and truthful.”  No equivocation, no chance for error. Contrast the 'cosmic awareness' power from Villains & Vigilantes or the 'augury' spell in D&D; in these instances a player cannot be absolutely certain of accuracy – there is some wiggle room for the game master.  In Psi World, the referee may need to think quickly in order to provide a viable answer and not spoil the adventure.  Wimpy referees may need to apply some sort of limiting house rule to make their lives easier.

The Teleport discipline is largely self-explanatory.  “No two objects may occupy or attempt to occupy the same space.”  However, one of the Teleport abilities is 'out of phase,' which allows a psi “to shift the physical substance of his/her body...into a non-material state” and move through obstacles.  Stealth is difficult in conjunction with teleportation because the displacement of air causes “a loud popping sound.”

Telekinesis is misspelled 'Telekenisis' on page 17.  I listed some of the abilities of the discipline in the last paragraph of this earlier post.

Self-Awareness is a 'mind over matter' discipline that includes abilities such as feign death, resist pain, heal self, etc.  One quirky ability is 'alter mass,' allowing a psi to raise or lower his or her mass, but not weight.  The description of the ability says its power cost is “one point per each inch the character becomes taller/shorter.”  However, the Self-Awareness table on page 18 says the cost is one point per five pounds.

Healer is another self-explanatory discipline; however, within the discipline, the healing abilities have reverse versions, such as 'cure disease' and 'cause disease' as well as 'restore' (i.e., regeneration) and 'wither.'  A Healer can “restore a slain character to life” at a cost of forty power points (plus ten points for every day since death).  Characters resurrected more than a day after their demise lose all post-starting power points they had accumulated, lose a point of Endurance, and each skill has a chance of reduced effectiveness “due to memory loss.”  'Return Life' doesn't work on characters who have been dead for more than five days.

The Telepath discipline includes abilities one might expect:  locate mind, communication, and mind probe.  Also included are mental attack, mind shield, illusion, and mind transfer.  Most of these abilities allow a target to resist with a successful WIL AST (Will Attribute Saving Throw).  The 'nightmare' ability is interesting and formidable – the target's subconscious is unlocked, “bringing to the surface all the hidden fears, aggressions, and secrets.”  With a failed saving throw, the target is “in shock and unable to act for 1d10 minutes.”  With a second failed saving throw, the target becomes insane; either permanently or until after a long-term application of psychiatric treatment.  For the edification of my cherished readers, I reproduce the insanity table from page 17.

Actually, many gamers I have encountered could be categorized among this range of behaviors. 

Abilities in the Empath discipline involve detecting, establishing, and intensifying emotions.  An Empath can heal others by assuming their injuries; the Empath can also transfer his or her own injuries to others.  Additionally, an Empath can instill a catatonic state in a target via 'emotional overload.'

The Hammer Shall Strike adventure/supplement provides details about an eighth Major discipline:  Animalism.  With this discipline, a psi can detect animals as well as heal them, communicate telepathically with them, and 'suggest' behavior.  There is no provision for including Animalism in the 'random roll' method of determining abilities.

The Basics of Psionics

According to page 14 of the Psi World rule book, “The decision to be psionic or normal is left totally up to the player.” Absent some necessity of a particular campaign, why would anyone choose not to be psionic in a game that focuses primarily on psionics? That's like going to a nice seafood restaurant and ordering a cheeseburger.

Psionic powers are divided into major disciplines and minor disciplines. The Hammer Shall Strike adventure/supplement introduces the concept of marginal talents, otherwise known as 'Spot-on-the-Wall' psi. The main rule book says:

The vast majority of NPC Psionics in most compaigns [sic] have extremely limited or marginal psionic abilities, such as causing water to boil (one cupful at a time) or creating a ball of colored light. Player characters are considered to be part of the upper 10% of the psionic community as far as powers are concerned.

Hammer supplies more details regarding marginal talents; providing more examples and actual rules. Page 6 of Hammer says, “Nearly ninety percent of the people technically classed as 'Psionic' are of the [Spot-on-the-Wall] type.” This is a slight but unimportant difference from the figure suggested in the rule book.  Hammer further states that psionic individuals with marginal talents rarely use their abilities (or don't use them at all) due to their lack of usefulness.  Essentially, they live their lives as 'Norms,' not subject to the governmental restrictions placed upon more capable Psis.  Close associates may not even know such a person is psionic; however, the government knows and “their identity cards do carry the notation 'Class III Psionic'.”  Presumably, 'Class I' refers to Psis with major disciplines and 'Class II' refers to Psis with minor disciplines.

Most powers require an expenditure of 'power points.'  The amount of power points that a character starts with is equal to twice her PSI attribute score; this is really the only purpose of the PSI attribute (except for increasing the chance of gaining additional power points).  So, a beginning psionic character can have as little as four or as many as forty power points; the average amount being twenty-two power points.  Power points are recovered only via sleep.  A full eight hours of sleep is required to regain 100% of a character's expended amount of power points.  Lesser amounts of sleep provide fewer power points; for instance, “7 hours 45 minutes” of sleep grants only 75% recovery.  Napping won't help; a character needs at least three hours of sleep to recover 25% of used power points.

Abuses of power are checked by the finite amount of power points any given character has at his disposal.  As an example, 'personal teleport' costs 20 points per use; the average beginning Psi will be able to accomplish this once per day.

Characters are able to acquire additional power points.  A character may attempt to gain more power points whenever she “has used 250 power points in game situations.”  So, if the average beginning character has about twenty power points, an attempt to gain more power points can be made after approximately two 'game situation' weeks – assuming the character uses most of her power points daily and she consistently gets eight hours of sleep.

Attempting to increase power points works similarly to improving a skill.  The PSI attribute score is added to 100 and the current amount of power points is subtracted.  The result is the % chance of an increase.  If successful, the character can gain as little as one point and as many as ten with five being the saddle point on the probability distribution.

Each major discipline represents a suite of abilities.  For instance, some of the abilities included with 'telekinesis' are:  Move Object, Levitate, Heat, Cold, and TK Light.  A character with a major discipline has access to all the abilities in the discipline to the extent he can afford their cost in power point expenditure.  The rules allow characters to develop new variations of abilities within their major discipline (and within the bounds of game balance).  For instance, a character with telekinesis might want to develop a 'walk on water' ability.  Experimenting and learning to control the ability requires 30+3d10 days of practice, minus the average of the character's PSI and INT attributes.  Such practice precludes any adventuring on the character's part.  After the requisite period of practice, the character has a % chance equal to the average of PSI and INT to 'master' the new ability and use it during play.

Combat in Psi World

The 'Combat' chapter in Psi World consists of seven pages; about two-and-a-half of which are dedicated to tables and details regarding weapons and accessories (including, inexplicably, ranges for communications equipment).  Of the remaining four-and-a-half pages, one page is consumed by mostly repetitive outlines for unarmed combat procedures.  The idea of presenting attack resolution rules in the form of an outline is a good one; however, several repetitions of that outline with minor variations is boring and unnecessary.  The rules explain how to conduct a combat throw.  After a successful throw, the attacker may attempt to pin or choke the target.  The 'unarmed attacks' section concludes with how to conduct a normal strike.  Readers would have been better served with an explanation of normal strikes first and foremost, followed by throws, pins, and chokes as special cases.  If desired, complete outlines for each attack 'form' could have been printed on the GM screen (included with the base set) or the blank back cover of the rule book.

Psi World uses a skill-based system and it makes allowances for untrained attacks.  I find the rules for untrained attacks more irksome than the rules for determination of hit points.  Untrained 'skill levels' are determined by doubling the average of two attributes.  'Doubling the average' is pointless!  Just use the sum of the two attributes.  Dang.

Characters have a total number of hit points.  Each of seven hit locations of the body (i.e., head, chest, abdomen, two arms, two legs) has a set number of hit points as well as a percentage of the character's total hit points.  For instance, a leg has 4 hit points plus 10% of total hit points and the abdomen has 6 hit points plus 25% of total hit points.  Damage from a wound is subtracted from both the hit location hit points and the total hit points.

A character who loses all of his or her 'total' hit points is unconscious and can only be revived through “professional medical attention.”  If the 'total' number of hit points is negative, the character will die unless medical attention is received within a number of rounds equal to his or her Endurance score.  (1 round = 10 seconds)  When all of the hit points for a given hit location are depleted, that hit location is disabled; the effects vary based upon the specific hit location (e.g., a disabled leg halves the character's movement rate).  Disabling effects are described on page 4 (in the character generation section) as well as on page 26 (in the combat section).  In both places, a character loses consciousness when all hit points in the head hit location are lost; however, the duration of unconsciousness differs.  On page 4, unconsciousness lasts for one hour plus an additional hour for each hit point taken over the hit location total.  On page 26, unconsciousness lasts for 3d20 turns.  (1 turn = 1 minute)  Page 26 also explains that whenever a hit location is disabled, the character must succeed with a 'shock resistance' roll or suffer unconsciousness for 3d20 turns.  The durations are cumulative, so – according to page 26 – a character with a disabling head injury and who fails a shock resistance roll will be unconscious for 6d20 turns.  I would recommend the page 4 rules, forgoing shock resistance rolls for disabling head injuries.

A target's defense score is applied to an attacker's chance to hit.  Therefore, it is beneficial to have a negative defense score.  (Characters with an extraordinarily low Intelligence or Agility could wind up with a positive defense score.)  Armor is presented as a negative number that supplements defense score.  (Armor does not affect 'throw' attacks.)  In addition, armor provides a percentage chance that damage will be halved, assuming the armor covers the applicable hit location.  For instance, a motorcycle helmet provides “-5 on defense.”  So the chance of success of an attack against a person wearing a motorcycle helmet is reduced by five (assuming the attacker is not specifically aiming at a hit location other than the head).  If the attack is nonetheless successful and the head is determined to be the afflicted hit location, there is a 20% chance that damage from the attack will be halved.

Encumbrance is not an issue in Psi World and, as far as I can tell, there are no rules for falling or drowning.

Character Generation and Improvement in Psi World

A rare example of reverse-polarity Kirby dots.

Characters in Psi World are largely defined by six attributes: Strength, Agility, Dexterity, Endurance, Intelligence, and Will. Characters with psionics also have Psionic Power as an attribute. The starting values for each attribute range from two to twenty. The rules provide two methods for determining attributes: random and design. With the random method, players roll 2d10 six (or seven) times in order. With the 'design' method, players roll 2d10 six (or seven) times and assign the six (or seven) resulting numbers to the attributes as desired. So, in effect, the methods are 'random' and 'slightly less random.' Would a point allocation option be too onerous, if only for a player character whose attribute profile as rolled indicates a sub-average individual? In the second scenario in the adventure book, player characters as supposed to be “members of the Psionic Protection Agency (PPA).” When creating these characters, “[d]ue to the academics entrance requirements,” attribute values are determined by rolling 1d12+8. (Why not 2d6+8?)

Psi World uses percentile dice to resolve the success of various actions. Percentile 'attribute saving throws' are determined by multiplying the appropriate attribute value by four. There is no attribute saving throw for psionic power.  If a character rolls an attribute saving throw (other than Intelligence) and the unmodified result is less than or equal to half of the value of the attribute at issue, there is a chance to improve said attribute by one point.  The % 'chance of improvement' equals twenty-five minus the current attribute value.  Characters also receive a 'chance of improvement' by training a number of game weeks equal to the attribute's current value.  This method cannot be used to improve Intelligence or Psionic Power.  Attributes cannot be improved past a value of twenty-five and, according to an optional rule, characters with attributes over twenty must spend time practicing those attributes else their value will decline.

Characters receive modifiers based on their attribute values. For instance, 'initiative factor' is the average of Agility and Will. (In a given round, each character adds 1d6 to 'initiative factor' to determine the order of action.) Two modifiers, 'defense bonus' and 'bonus to hit,' mirror one another. Agility and Intelligence contribute to both. The bonus (or penalty) given by Agility is larger than that given by a comparable rating of Intelligence. The average of Dexterity and Intelligence is used to determine the damage bonus for projectile weapons while the average of Strength and Agility is used to determine the damage bonus for 'hand-held' weapons. The average of Will and Endurance is used to establish both 'shock resistance' and 'heal rate.'

What I find especially irksome is the method for determining hit points. The average of Strength and Will is added to Endurance. Half of this sum is the number of d3 rolled to determine base hit points. Base hit points are modified by low or high values of Strength, Will, or Endurance (attributes already present in the initial formula). The end result may not be favorable; according to page 4...

Note that any character with zero or less hit points after modification is considered to have died at birth. Roll a new character, and better luck next time.

How sad is that? Not even in Traveller can your character die at birth. Given that more than one d3 is rolled, the average of the combined total will be two. Why not just have Endurance plus the average of Strength and Will equal base hit points? For variation you could add a d6 or a d10 or something. Say goodbye to pesky stillbirths!

There are five 'tables' of skills: General, Technical, Military, Spacer, and Academic/Advanced. Characters can 'buy' skills from the General table and one other table determined by an 'educational background' roll. (Characters with a 'spacer' background have a “25% chance of one advanced education skill.”) The 'educational background' roll is modified by intelligence; non-psis receive an additional bonus. The skills in a given table are distinct from skills in other tables; however, there are approximations. For instance, First Aid is a General skill, Emergency Medical Technician is a Technical skill, and Nurse and Physician are Academic/ Advanced skills. Computer Programming must be purchased separately for each computer language. The computer languages in Psi World are: UBL (Universal Business Language), PRIMARY (simple beginning language), SILANG (Scientific Language), MILCODE (Military Code Language), and MECHLANG (Machine code, a 'family' of five groups; each group counts as a separate skill). Computer Repair must also be purchased separately for each group. The five Psi World computer groups are: (1) mini-computer and hand computer, (2) Mark I to Mark II, (3) Mark III to Mark IV, (4) Mark V to Mark VI, and (5) “special systems.” The rules do not specify what the different 'Marks' mean.

Player characters receive 4d10 points to acquire skills.  (For every five of these points, the character's starting age increases by one year.)  Skills are either 'non-level' or 'level.'  Non-level skills cost one point each – it is a matter of “either you have it or you don't” (example: Swimming).  For level skills, one point spent equates to a value of ten (example: by spending five points on Streetwise, the character gains 'Streetwise 50').

Through training, a character can learn new skills or improve the value of current skills.  Learning a new skill requires attending classes; the number of necessary classes is based on the skill's 'Level of Difficulty' (measured as 1, 2, or 3).  A LoD 1 skill can be learned in as few as twelve classes while a LoD 3 skill could take as many as eighty classes.  Improving a skill via training requires a number of classes based on the current skill value; the higher the value, the more classes are necessary.  Improvement, however, is not automatic.  After the required number of classes, there is a % chance equal to one hundred plus half of Intelligence minus current skill value.  If successful, a character increases the skill's value by 1, 3, 5, 7, or 10 by rolling 2d6 and consulting a table.  If a skill is successfully used in the course of an adventure, there is a % of improvement equivalent to that gained by training but with a bonus equal to the number of successful uses.

Skills can be 'mastered.'  Every time during an adventure when a character succeeds in a roll associated with a non-level skill, there is a 5% cumulative chance of mastering that skill.  For level skills, when a character achieves a value of 90, he or she can train others in that skill; a skill value of at least 100 allows a chance of “creative research or tackeling [sic] really tough problems.”

The Future Ain't What It Used To Be

As indicated in previous posts, there are generally two types of Psi World campaign; the fist type featuring psis oppressed by normal society and the other type where normal society is threatened by terrorist and criminal psis. Other than the presence of individuals having psionic powers, “background 'chrome' has been kept to a minimum,” the adventure book tells us, “to allow the GM the most design freedom possible.” While kept to a minimum, the standard background intended by the authors indicates a near future setting with technology...

...that is slightly more advanced than the present-day technologies. Regular shuttles service both space stations and lunar bases. The near planets and asteroids have been visited by manned probes. Giant solar collectors beam energy back from space to power an active society in which both software and hardware technologies are well advanced.

Evidently, the authors felt this “background information,” presented in the first paragraph of the introduction, to be a necessary component of any Psi World campaign.

Given that Psi World was published nearly thirty years ago, “the not too distant future” is now. We cannot chide the authors for an inaccurate prediction of the future, but it is interesting to see what the future might have held from the perspective of the 'old school' era. Even so, in those far gone days the extent of space exploration and settlement posited by Psi World seemed to me – a mere lad at the time – somewhat optimistic. Ah, but the shuttles – those were a different matter. When Psi World was written, the age of the Space Shuttle was just beginning. It was an exciting time, full of promise. Shuttle launches were a big deal; important enough that schools would forgo the usual lesson plan in order to watch them on television. Perhaps we can forgive some degree of optimism. Alas, the fruit borne by such optimism has been scant. The shuttle program has been retired without a successor, we have no lunar bases and only two modest space stations.

Anyway, in the authors' campaign, there are “space platforms...orbiting factories and...the lunar research station.” It should be remembered that these advances occurred despite a period of pronounced political upheaval. These space settlements do not have a direct influence on the campaign, but they do serve as a refuge for the “lobos.” The punishment for severe or repeated psionic crimes is a 'psionic lobotomy,' which leaves the recipient without any psionic abilities but which has no effect on the recipient otherwise. Such recipients are lobos, disdained by both normals and psis. Because of their status as pariahs, lobos tend to “migrate” to the space settlements. Realistically, I don't think that people with criminal backgrounds would be permitted in such positions, but it creates an interesting situation in the authors' campaign. Given that psionic abilities are hereditary, it is likely that lobos will produce psionic offspring which may lead to an eventual concentration of psionic individuals among the space settlements.

Other than space technology, the only 'futuristic' advances present in the Psi World rules concern weapons, specifically a couple of items which seem to have come from the Star Frontiers armory. “Tangle weapons” fire pellets that expand and “form a strong webbing which will cover an area of five feet by five feet and is extremely sticky.” Mag-Jet weapons fire gyro-jet projectiles accelerated by strong magnetic fields. There are also gyro-jet needlers, but no tasers.

With regard to the equipment list, “all prices are listed in US dollars and that all prices are roughly those one would expect to find for those items in the current day.” According to this site, $1.00 in 1984 had the same buying power as $2.23 does in 2012. Let's look at some Psi World (i.e., 1980's) prices with this in mind.

Candy Bar	$0.50
Cigarettes, pack	$1.50
New Car, Average	$10,000.00
Gasoline, gallon	$2.00
Home Computer (64K)	$300.00+
Hand-held Computer (16K)	$200.00
LCD Watch	$20.00

Check out the memory on those computers!  That was considered 'well advanced hardware technology.'  Also, I like how they specify that the watch is LCD.  Of course, there's no mention of mobile phones – back in the day, only doctors and drug dealers had those.  Why would it be any different in the future?

The Where and When of Psi World

The setting of Psi World is an amorphous thing. The rulebook's fifth (and last) chapter – titled “The World” – provides setting information. The chapter begins, “It must be remembered that Psi World takes place in our own world, the Earth, in the not too distant future.” However, according to the book's introduction, “The game is set in a world (maybe Earth, maybe not)...” It is perhaps more accurate to say that Psi World represents a projection of what “our own world” might be, given the advent of psionic powers. Even so, the authors' campaign world was an alternate reality having nations different from our Earth. According to the first page of The Psi World Adventure...

The authors' playtest world is based firmly on modern-day Earth. Most of the people, societies, places, and events are derived from existing prototypes.

I think that 'analogs' is a more appropriate term than 'prototypes' in this context. Regardless, the authors' “playtest world” was was not Earth but it closely resembled Earth. 

Psi World does not postulate an exact year for its setting, that “is left to the Gamemaster.”  This represents a good try to avoid becoming dated.  (Make no mistake, Psi World is dated, but for reasons other than naming a particular year in its timeline.)  “The World” chapter explains that any given Psi World campaign should be set “in the next ten to fifty years.”

When describing their “playtest world,” the authors speak in terms of generations. Specifically, in the adventure book they say, “Three generations ago...” Actually, it should be two generations previous because the introductory scenarios transpire during 'the Third Generation.' Anyway, two generations prior to the current generation, 'the Bad Years' occurred. A small segment of the population developed psionic powers; these people became known as psis. Many became criminals or established themselves as petty rulers. “The world suffered a series of major sociological and political upheavals...” Eventually, people without psionics began to confront the 'Psionic Menace.' This was 'the Second Generation' (sometimes referred to as 'the Death of the Innocents'). Psis were egregiously persecuted. “Tens of thousands of psis or suspected psis died or were lobotomized...” With the onset of 'the Third Generation,' the government has stabilized. 'Normal' people discriminate against psis to such an extent that psis are segregated into ghettos.

Prior to 'the First Generation,' the authors' parallel Earth was loosely divided into three political factions: (1) the People's Confederacy (roughly analogous to Communist China) and its satellite nations, (2) the United Commonwealths (analogous to the U.S.), and (3) an association of “neutral nations” (similar to the European Common Market of the 80's). The People's Confederacy collapsed during 'the Bad Years' and has never re-unified. Although there is strong anti-psi sentiment in the United Commonwealths, many psis attempt to immigrate there “to escape the torture and murder in the world's divided and less-advanced nations.”

As hinted in an earlier post, Psi World allows for two types of campaign (or, as stated on the last page of the rulebook, “two basic types of worlds”).  In one type of campaign...

...ostracized and outnumbered Psis fight for survival against a paranoid and totalitarian government.

In the other type of campaign...

...valiant government agents battle cunning and vicious psionic revolutionaries and criminals...

Interestingly, the background setting that the authors provide accommodates both types of campaigns without any modification; the difference is subjective interpretation.  The adventure book contains two scenarios, one for psionic characters “or strongly in favor of the psionic position” and the other for characters who are “members of the Psionic Protection Agency” (the federal 'psi-police'). Both scenarios take place in Bishop County, which is in the “developing” commonwealth of New Arlin.  Bishop County includes Enclave, one of a few experimental communities – built “[t]hrough the use of funds donated by rich liberals” – where psis and normals co-exist in peace and harmony, working together to build a better society.  Neither of the scenarios actually takes place in Enclave, but psionic player characters for the first scenario are presumed to be Enclave residents.

The so-called “target” of the psi scenario is a safe house for the terrorist Psionic Freedom Organization; in essence, 'good psis' (the player characters) confront 'bad psis.'  The antagonist in the police scenario is a psi who is gaining control of an organized crime syndicate.  It seems there is good reason for normal people to be wary of psis.  (Even Enclave has a hidden agenda.)  While the United Commonwealths is not quite “paranoid and totalitarian,” other nations in the “playtest world” seem to fit that description.  In the U.C., the government poses less of a threat to psis than do certain extremist elements of society.  The League of Human Genetic Purity is an underground organization that is thoroughly intolerant of psionic society.  At clandestine League meetings, members wear hoods and frequently engage in “the burning of a large wooden trident (a stylized representation of ψ, the Greek letter Psi).”  How's that for heavy-handed analogy?

Psi World assumes two campaign types; either (1) psis persecuted by normal society or (2) “valiant government agents” who fight against a genuine psionic menace.  What about a third type?  What if a 'psionic elite' took control of the government?  The normals would be ruthlessly exploited by the 'privileged class' of psis.  The player characters would be part of the resistance movement.  In deference to the publication date of Psi World (1984), we can imagine the setting in Orwellian terms; the Thought Police would really be thought police.  Of course, who wants to play a game about psionic powers and not have characters with those powers?

Role Playing Game of Psionic Powers

A multi-sided game system in which the players may choose to belong

to either side in a sociological and genetic clash of power.

                                                        -- From the Introduction

Science fiction fans and RPG enthusiasts are doubtless familiar with the word psionic.  The word ultimately derives from psi (ψ), a term for 'psychic phenomena' which apparently was first used by Robert Thouless (What? No thoul?) in a paper published in 1942.  The -onics (as in 'electronics') came from science fiction writer/editor John W. Campbell, Jr. in the early 50's.  Campbell applied the term "psionic" to a 'Hieronymus machine,' a pseudoscientific gadget.  Unlike Hieronymus, Campbell believed that in order to generate the effects of the machine, a person didn't need the actual machine, just a symbolic representation of it.  Powers of the mind would do the actual work.  Personally, I think a better word would have been 'psitropic,' but there's nothing I can do about it.

Psi World was published as a boxed set in 1984 by Fantasy Games Unlimited. (This was back in the day when publishing a role-playing game as a boxed set was standard practice, not a 'retro-novelty.') Included in the box were: a 32-page rulebook, a 20-page adventure book, a Game Master's screen, a master character sheet, and dice (2d10 and 2d6). Evidently, box sets are still available from the publisher, as are two of the three supplements. Otherwise, PDF scans are available from RPGNow.

The game was designed by Delbert and Cheron Carr (or, as they are credited, Del Carr & Cheron). Prior to Psi World, they both worked on some of the early Role Aids books from Mayfair; after Psi World, they lack any RPG credits.

Art was provided by 'Bain Sidhe Studio.' Among the studio's members were Bill Willingham and Matt Wagner. Willingham's art is, of course, familiar to aficionados of 'old school' role-playing games. Both Willingham and Wagner would go on to achieve remarkable success in the comics industry. (By the time of the publication of Psi World, Wagner's signature characters, Grendel and Mage, had both seen print, but his fame was still accruing.) Other listed members of the studio were Bill Cucinotta and Rich Rankin, whose accomplishments in the comics industry have not managed to rival that of their onetime colleagues.

Psi World may not have been the original name chosen for the game.  In Section 1A (Scenarios and Design Ideas) of the adventure book, we find the following sentence:

It is the wish of the Authors that players and referees should have FUN in their quest to fulfill fantasies and live out dreams in all potential worlds of Psi Wars.

So, the working title for the game may have been Psi Wars.  Psi World is certainly more appropriate; Psi Wars sounds like...well, a war game.

I find the above quote interesting for a couple of reasons.  First, the word 'authors' is capitalized while the words 'players' and 'referees' are not.  In the dedication, the Carrs seem to be more humble; 'authors' is not capitalized.  Also,  the term Gamemaster (thus capitalized) is more often used in the rules as opposed to 'referee.'  'Game Master' (as two words) seems to appear only on the back of the box. The other reason I find the sentence interesting is that it emphasizes the concept that games should be fun.  Nearly every game contains this exhortation in some form or other and, sadly, it is often overlooked or misconstrued.  Enjoyment is the entire purpose, not some ancillary effect.  Sometimes, it seems to your humble host that certain prominent entities within the OSR do not truly appreciate this or, perhaps, they have forgotten it.  I'm sorry...was I ranting again?  Let us move on.

Psi World is described thusly on RPGGeek:

Heavily influenced by such classic science fiction as Van Vogt's Slan and Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep [sic], the PCs are Psis in a world where they are hunted by an oppressive government. Alternatively, the game allows the players to take on the rolls of the hunters, as well.

Upon reading this description, your humble host thought that it must apply to an edition of Psi World with which he was not familiar.  Alas, there is only one edition of Psi World; the breadth of knowledge of the person writing the description seems to have been inadequate to do justice to the game.  I cannot discount A. E. van Vogt’s Slan as an influence – it is a science fiction classic – but I would hesitate to say that Psi World was heavily influenced by it.  More direct influences certainly include motion pictures such as Scanners and The Fury as well as various works by Stephen King.  Otherwise, there is definitely a PKD vibe at work in Psi World, but it emanates from works other than 'Androids.'

Additionally, the RPGGeek description states that player characters are Psis "hunted by an oppressive government" or they "take on the rolls of the hunters."  This is the 'multi-sided' aspect referenced in the introductory quote; however, the implication in the RPGGeek description is that the government is oppressive regardless.  This is simply not the case and I hope to show this as I continue my analysis of the game.