I'm considering planning a new sort of game using the Shadowrun rule set. Basically it's pretty much the same except that there is no magic. I'm still working on the why's and wherefores of the time line but in place of Magic there are unique people who possess psychic abilities instead. I'm planning on breaking down the spells and categorizing the spells into different types of psychic power like telepathy powers, telekinetic powers, biokinetic powers... etc. There wont be any metahumans, but the psychics will be able to play 'Adept' like characters.

I'm coming here for ideas. Would you care to assist me? Here some things that stump me so far...

Technomancers. Yes or no? Cyberkinesis doesn't seem like a bad idea... probably pretty fun too.

What to call the Magic Att? I'm trying to avoid calling it 'Psi' or something like that, those terms get used to death.

What to call the Psychic skill. I was considering calling it 'Manifesting', or even just treating each power (spell) as it's own skill that a PC must purchase from the ground up.

Ideas for which spells go where in the psychic power list. Most the Elemental Manipulation spells are filed under the 'kinesis' power with an appropriate descriptor (Pyro-, Cryo-, Electro-)

The game is meant to fun, action packed, and even a little cheesy with a slight anime/video game feel to it; it's not full blown Shadowrun (since I've yet to see how this'll all pan out). The concept is inspired by an old PS2 game called 'Galerians' I figured it might be fun for PCs to play characters that could, for a change, literally do something no one in the game could (except certain selected NPCs)

Anyways, thank you in advance.

Well, you've not actually said anything about the new game you're planning...
...But look up Aeon Trinity - scifi, original version from 10 years ago has a striking similarity to the SR 4 rules, lots of psychic powers.


Enjoy...

I just watched Push, and it sounds perfect for you (just advance it 60 years and cut down on Asian bleeders running around everywhere)

Cyberkinetics, yes. In a world without magic, tech would probably improve to compensate, and with Essence not killing magic, implants would be even more popular.

Question: would essence loss hurt psychic powers?

Fuck magic. Why not just use the mental attributes? Logic for attack, Charisma for damage, Intuition for defensive applications and Willpower for "drain" resistance. It's a possibility.

Alternatively, keep the rules exactly the same (with the exception of no magic) and just allow your characters to take the Spell Knack quality as many times as they want to, as long as each "spell" fits in the concept (telepathy, telekinesis etc. etc.)

Maybe any psychic person can learn every power, but "telepathy" and "telekinesis" and such are different skills.

Maybe you can start out only able to perform in one area, but a "metamagic" you gain when you "initiate" allows you to pick up additional areas of power.

The biggest issue I see is that these psychics will play like magicians, with externally-based abilities, instead of adepts, with internally-based abilities. Maybe make them all like mystic adepts; anyone can purchase general things like Mystic Armour or Critical Strike, but for the "sorcery" type stuff use magician rules. Alternatively, only telekinetics can make a Mystic Armour effect, but only telepathics could use Commanding Voice, etc. etc.


Very good concept. Good luck!

I wrote up rules for Psions in SR. If you want I can forward them to you to see if you like them.

I went with the "Adept" style power structure. For each point of <insert name> the Psion can get one power. This is limited like magic to Essence.

Also I had two levels of the power. For 5 pts the Psion can take powers only from one Discipline, and for 10 pts the Psion can take powers from two separate Disciplines with the majority coming from one and the rest from the other.

If you ever get the chance you dould look up how the newest version of Traveller handles Psionics (basically that systems version of Magic).
Basic Rundown of this systems Psychic rules:
You have a "Psychic Strength" Attribute which is linked to your psychic skills. There are 5(?) skills associated with Psionics: Telekinesis, Telepathy, Teleportation and I think two others...can't rmember them all right now, and there may be more than 5...and each of these skills corresponds to a different aspect of Psychic talent. Then, there are a list of powers, which each correspond to one of the skills, and you can manifest any of these powers as long as you have the skill, but must make a high enough dice roll in order for it to work. Obviously, the more difficult powers have a higher required roll. Anyone with a Psychic Strength attribute can eventually learn all of the different "schools" of psionics, but it beciomes increasingly harder to learn new skills as your old skills progress.

Personally, I liked this system for psionics. At one point, I was playing a group of psionic characters and each of us had a different Psionic aspect. One had teleportation, one had telekinesis, etc.

Page 4 of the Digital Grimoire, omae.

I thought the Psionic Tradition was frakin' stupid.

They should have gotten rid of it so they could, if they wanted to, recycle it in the future and use it like they used Otaku and technomancers.

Psionic Tradition makes sense if a person who believes in psychic powers happens to Awaken. The way it works is simply that a person's paranormal beliefs shape the manifestation of his/her magic; so, rather than being a psychic power in the sense of being purely mental, the Psionic Tradition is just a different lens to view the manipulation of Astral energies (sorcery) and entities (conjuration).

I think it still leaves room to come up with some legit psychics, if anyone ever feel the need (as Hartbaine clearly does).

Personally I'd largely scrap the magic ruleset and work on modding the Astral Combat rules instead, keep things low-key and psions limited in scope. Otherwise you might as well just keep everything as is and change the fluff.

I'd be happy to have a look at them, sure.

Thus far I've narrowed psychic power down to 4 basic areas: Biokinesis, ESP, Psychokinesis, Telepathy.

Taking a look at the spells I compliled a list that could be used for the game as far as what powers went where...

Biokinesis - Powers that heal, harm, or alter the body in some way.

Agony (Realistic, Single-Sense)
Alleviate Allergy
Antidote*
Awaken
Clean [Element] (Environmental)
Crank
[Critter] Form (Physical)*
Cure Disease*
Death Touch (Direct)*
Decrease [Attribute] (Negative)*
Decrease Reflexes (Negative)
Detox*
Diagnose (Active, Directional)
Enabler (Negative)
Fast
Gecko Crawl
Heal*
Healthy Glow
Hibernate*
Increase [Attribute]*
Increase Reflexes*
Intoxication (Negative)
Mask (Realistic, Multi-Sense)*
Mass Agony (Realistic, Single-Sense)
Mass [Sense] Removal (Realistic, Single-Sense)
Nutrition
One Less [Metatype/Species] (Direct)
Orgasm (Realistic, Single-Sense)
Orgy (Realistic, Single-Sense)
Oxygenate*
Physical Mask (Realistic, Multi-Sense)*
Prophylaxis*
Resist Pain*
[Sense] Removal (Realistic, Single-Sense)
Shapechange (Physical)*
Slaughter [Metatype/Species] (Direct)
Slay [Metatype/Species] (Direct)
Stabilize*
Sterilize (Physical)
Stim

ESP - Detection powers used gain super human sight or senses.

Analyze Device (Active, Directional)*
Analyze Truth (Active, Directional)*
Animal Sense (Active, Directional)
Borrow Sense (Active, Directional)
Catalog (Active)
Clairaudience (Passive, Directional)*
Clairvoyance (Passive, Directional)*
Combat Sense (Active, Psychic)*
Detect Enemies (Active)*
Detect Enemies, Extended (Active)*
Detect Individual (Active)*
Detect Life (Active)*
Detect Life, Extended (Active)*
Detect [Life Form] (Active)*
Detect [Life Form], Extended (Active)*
Detect [Object] (Active)*
Enhance Aim (Passive, Directional)
Eyes of the Pack (Passive, Directional)
Hawkeye (Passive, Directional)
Night Vision (Passive, Directional)
[Sense] Cryptesthesia (Passive, Directional)
Spatial Sense (Passive)
Spatial Sense, Extended (Passive)
Thermographic Vision (Passive, Directional)

Psychokinesis - Powers that shape or control energy or matter.

Acid Stream
Alter Temperature (Environmental)
Armor (Physical)
Ball Lightning
Bind (Physical)
Blast (Indirect)*
Catfall (Physical)
Clout (Indirect)*
Corrode [Object] (Indirect, Elemental)
Deflection (Physical)
Demolish [Object] (Direct)
[Element] Aura (Environmental)
[Element] Wall (Environmental)
Fireball (Indirect, Elemental)*
Firewater (Indirect, Elemental)
Flamethrower (Indirect, Elemental)*
Fling (Physical)*
Ice Sheet (Environmental)*
Ignite (Physical)*
Interference (Environmental)
Knockout (Direct)*
Levitate (Physical)*
Lightning Bolt (Indirect, Elemental)*
Light (Environmental)*
Lock (Physical)
Magic Fingers (Physical)*
Melt [Object] (Indirect, Elemental)
Net (Physical)
Napalm (Indirect, Elemental)
Physical Barrier (Environmental)*
Poltergeist (Environmental)*
Powerball (Direct)*
Powerbolt (Direct)*
Pulse (Environmental)
Punch (Indirect)*
Ram [Object] (Direct)
Reinforce (Physical)
Shadow (Environmental)*
Shatter (Direct)*
Shattershield (Direct)
Sludge [Object] (Indirect, Elemental)
Toxic Wave (Indirect, Elemental)*
Wreck [Object] (Direct)

Telepathy - Power that affect the mind to usurp control or broadcast illusions.

Alter Memory (Mental)
Area Thought Recognition (Active, Psychic)
Bugs (Realistic, Multi-Sense)
Calm Animal (Mental)
Calm Pack (Mental)
Camouflage (Realistic, Single-Sense)
Chaff (Realistic, Multi-Sense)
Chaos (Realistic, Multi-Sense)*
Chaotic World (Realistic, Multi-Sense)*
Compel Truth (Mental)
Confusion (Realistic, Multi-Sense)*
Control Actions (Mental)*
Control Animal (Mental)
Control Emotions (Mental)*
Control Pack (Mental)
Control Thoughts (Mental)*
Double Image (Realistic, Multi -Sense)
Dream (Realistic, Multi-Sense)
Entertainment (Obvious, Multi-Sense)*
Flak (Realistic, Multi-Sense)
Foreboding (Realistic, Multi-Sense)
Hot Potato (Realistic, Single-Sense)
Hush (Realistic, Single-Sense)*
Influence (Mental)*
Mass Confusion (Realistic, Multi-Sense)*
Mindlink (Active, Psychic)*
Mindnet (Active, Psychic)
Mindnet, Extended (Active, Psychic)
Mind Probe (Active, Directional)*
Mob Control (Mental)*
Mob Mind (Mental)*
Mob Mood (Mental)*
Phantasm (Realistic, Multi-Sense)*
Physical Camouflage (Realistic, Single-Sense)
Physical Double Image (Realistic, Multi -Sense)
Silence (Realistic, Single-Sense)*
Sound Barrier (Realistic, Single-Sense)
Stealth (Realistic, Single-Sense)*
Stench (Realistic, Single-Sense)
Stink (Realistic, Single-Sense)
Stunball (Direct)*
Stunbolt (Direct)*
Swarm (Realistic, Multi-Sense)
Thought Recognition (Active, Psychic/Directional)
Translate (Active, Psychic/Directional)
Trid Entertainment (Obvious, Multi-Sense)*
Trid Phantasm (Realistic, Multi-Sense)*

And then there were some stragglers where I'm not sure where they'd fit but most of them were the spells that bring something into creation from nothing or shift or warp the shape of something into something else.

Illusion
Improved Invisibility (Realistic, Single-Sense)*
Invisibility (Realistic, Single-Sense)*
Vehicle Mask (Realistic, Multi-Sense)

Manipulation
Fashion (Physical)
Fix (Physical)
Glue (Physical)
Glue Strip (Physical)
Mist (Environmental)
Petrify (Physical)*
Preserve (Physical)
Shape [Material] (Environmental)
Turn to Goo (Physical)*

I'm still tossing the ideas about in my head so there is no real plot designed for it yet, I'm trying to get the psychic power part down first since that'll be the biggest hurdle to overcome, IMO.

* = BBB Spell, everything else is from Street Magic.