How essential are Psionics to a the tone and setting of a Dark Sun campaign?
I'm asking because I'm working on a semi-faithful conversion to the RuneQuest 6 system. I've tweaked/replaced some races and generally fiddled with things, but dropping Psionics seems like it could be a big damn deal. I don't have anything against it, but between Sorcery, Theism, Petty Magic, and Mysticism, it seems like adding yet another supernatural power source, especially one I have to port from another book might overcrowd an already busy magical landscape.
They're a pretty big part of the setting considering that like, 1 in 5 people are supposed to have some level of psionic power. That and being a max level psionicist is one of the requirements for becoming a dragon(dragons do not naturally exist in Darksun).
On a thematic level, if you're willing to abandon fidelity to the details of the setting but want to retain the tone of it, you need two kinds of magic. The kind that kills everything just by being used; and the kind that doesn't, but isn't as flashy or powerful.
>>46153446
I am going for a more general thematic transfer than a straight 1-to-1 translation. I had just wondered if psionics was an unassailable sacred cow of the setting, like the Mists in Raveloft. Something like what >>46153394 brings up where Psionics are required for the BBG is something I imagine I could drop without too much fuss if need be, just work it into a certain Sorcery plot device is needed instead.
I figure:
Sorcery for Defiler/Preserver magics
Animism for a sort of combined Druid/Elemental Cleric
Theism for Templars
Mysticism and Petty Magic for assorted other archetypes.
>>46153564
Not familiar with RuneQuest 6 and the distinction between Sorcery and Theism, but Templars are Defilers.
>>46153866
Theism is the equivalent to clerical magic in D&D.
>>46153360
BRP rulebook has some Psionic rules you could plunder that would work just fine with RQ.
>>46153905
That was my idea. Looking at them, they're actually really simple and not overpowered. There's not any support for a 3.5 style psion, but that's fine. I'd rather supreme magical power stay in the hands of the Sorcerer Kings.
Another idea I had was just refluffing Petty Magic as Psionics, seeing as how it's whole point is to be cheap and ubiquitous.
>>46153949
>>46153564
>>46153360
Folk Magic, I mean to say.
>>46153360
Sick, I dig Dark Sun and Rune Quest both, I reckon you could essentially just hand out runes representing psychic wild talents, but there are more cultivated types of psionicists on Athas too.
You could essentially form a psionics school as an organization with the ability to teach the powers associated with runes like movement, stasis, and the like, just refluff it appropriately, a rune is basically a power domain.
