Psionics in 5e

One of the things that bugs me (very slightly) about 5e is that WotC still haven't published rules for psionics, outside of a couple of Unearthed Arcana articles. The reason this bugs me is that two major settings (Dark Sun and, to a lesser extent, Eberron) make use of psionics in the core of the setting. Omitting the rules for psionics takes something away from those settings - they just work better with the option in place than without.

The reason this only bugs me slightly is that I'm not running either of those settings, not likely to be running them in the foreseeable future, and disinclined to make use of psionics in any other setting. Indeed, even in Eberron I'm mostly inclined not to use it unless a player asks about the possibility (my 1984/Demolished Man/John Le Carre mashup notwithstanding).

All that said, I'm also starting to come around to the opinion that the best way to handle psionics may well be to reskin the Warlock - basically, introduce one or more psionic Pacts, and then just go from there. Or, just possibly, do the same with the Sorcerer. That gives you pretty much everything you need with a minimum of fuss.

And if you insist that each player choose a different class for their character (which I'm also increasingly leaning towards as a good idea), you get to sidestep the possibility of another player also playing a Warlock and the characters feeling too samey.

Resuming the Campaign

Due to holidays and other events, the "Storm King's Thunder" campaign has been on hold for a month. Conveniently, the last session before the break saw the party reach the end of the current mini-arc, reach 8th level, and generally get to a really good break point.

We're due to resume next week, at which point it is my intention to advance the campaign timeline by several months. This has several advantages: firstly, it advances the calendar past the winter months, when travelling would have been difficult. Secondly, it allows me to clear out the remaining legacy quests, none of which were hugely interesting, and lets us jump straight to the next section of the campaign book. And, thirdly, it allows those players who have been absent for a little while to jump back into the action with a minimum of backstory to assimilate. It's pretty much a win on all counts.

For that reason, the action in the next session will pick up with the party meeting Harshnag the Grim outside of the citadel of Mirabar, and from there they can begin their journey to the Eye of the All-father.

I'm not entirely sure how much remains of the campaign. I think we're now closer to the end than to the beginning, and certainly it is now my intention not to pad out the next sections as I have the previous wanderings. However, it is also my intention to have the PCs tackle more than one of the giant chieftains - I'm not a fan of the storyline's design decision that the campaign should only use one of four chapters provided for that purpose.

I think my hope is to bring this campaign to an end by the end of this year, with a view to starting a new campaign early in 2020. However, whether that is actually practical remains to be seen. Most importantly, though, is picking the action up for a new season...

The Next Project

With the epic scan-and-shred task now done, with the digital declutter now done, and with the shelves of RPG books culled somewhat (though pretty effectively), I find myself in need of a new project.

After some consideration, I think the time has come to finally bite the bullet and tackle something that's been bugging me for a fairly long time, but that I've never quite felt motivated enough to try to fix.

It's time to look at create a 5e character sheet that's better suited to my needs.

The Threefold World

The "Ultimates Edition" of Terafa has been on hold for some months, in which time I have completed my scan-and-shred clear-out of my old RPG notes. In the course of doing that I've made two findings, concerning the evolution of the world itself.

In the most recent 'full' version of the world, I decided that there would be three major continents - Talara, Talrania, and Sarinia. However, I also came across maps of two additional continents from previous versions, one an pseudo-Africa that I drew up and very vaguely recall (and recall dropping for good reason), and another that I have no memory of.

Reflecting on this, I'm inclined to stick with the most recent vision of the "threefold world" - that is, I'll retain the three continents (as named). I do intend to make some fairly extensive modifications to these, but both the numbers and the names will remain as-is.

My Grandfather's Grandfather

A few years ago, my grandfather was persuaded to write his family story. This was largely intended as an exercise to help keep his mind sharp, but the end result made for interesting reading for a number of reasons. In the context of this post, however, it's worth noting that the earliest parts of the story contained some discussion of even earlier generations of the family history - and, notably, they began with my grandfather's grandfather.

This largely tallies with my own experiences - I have fairly extensive memories of my own grandparents, but almost no recollection of great-grandparents. I did meet both my mother's grandmother and my father's grandmother, but in both cases they died when I was still young. Similarly, it is likely that my oldest nephew will just about remember his great-grandfather, with those memories becoming much less pronounced as we step through the cousins - as they get younger, the memory they have will be less.

What I'm getting at here is that "living memory" probably extents, at the very most, to the time of my grandfather's grandfather. Allowing for very a small number of very long-lived people, that probably means about 150 years at the very most.

For that reason, when codifying the history of an RPG setting, I'm inclined to think that the multi-thousand year history is probably the wrong approach. Rather, a setting should probably include:

• About fifty years of fairly well understood recent history.
  
• A further hundred years or so of less well understood, but not totally obscure, history.
  
• A very brief sketch of known history before that. But it shouldn't be detailed, may very well be inaccurate, incomplete, and even contradictory. People probably know about the equivalent of the Roman Empire, but probably don't know much about it.
  
• A whole bunch of myths, legends, and other stories that may or may not be true, stand at odds with actual history, and that are more widely accepted than the truth - King Arthur, Atlantis, and so forth.

And, crucially, the last two items probably shouldn't have dates associated with them, or even be placed into a particular order. The past is another country. Of course, it's also worth considering how this interfaces with other, potentially very long-lived races. If an elf lives ten times as long as a human on average, does that then multiply the "50 years" and "100 years" by a factor of ten? Well, perhaps. Alternately, you could take the view (as I do) that elves are generally much less bound by time, and so don't bother with keeping detailed histories in the same way. Dwarves tend towards oral histories, and so although their histories are much longer, they are also more error prone (and, indeed, focus very much on the stories rather than the facts - hence tending towards myths and legends anyway). Besides, I quite like the notion that dwarves maintain a lot of feuds but have, very often, forgotten quite why they bear those grudges.

And, of course, it's worth considering that just because a dragon knows exactly what happened 4,000 years ago, it doesn't follow that you can just go and ask, or that the dragon would tell you!

In other words, I'm inclined to largely ignore the longer-lived races when composing the history of the setting. If nothing else, it's not like the players are going to read it anyway.