The Role Aids psionics system is definitely the otherwise. Written by Nigel Findley, who was always an interesting read, this structure psionics similarly to the specialist wizards in D&D, with a character concentrating on one school: somniomancy, telepathy, pyromancy, telekenetics and empathy. Each school has unique spell-like powers which are engaged by spending from a pool of daily mental points. This is far more clear cut and comfortable in terms of vanilla D&D than the official D&D system, and I am honestly tickled at the idea of Role Aids kind of competing against D&D by feeling more D&Dish. Because it really is a competition — there is no way you can use both systems.

They both have their charms and I am hard pressed to pick a favorite. I will say there is a big tonal difference, though. The official D&D psionics feel very in step with New Age ideas. Findley’s system often feels more horrific? Bob Giarosich’s interior art often underscores this. Same with Dave Dorman’s cover, which instantly gives me vibes similar to Stephen King’s Firestarter. Its maybe too subtle for a cover piece (love the beads of sweat on his forehead) but I think it is real good.

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OK, so, psionics in 1E sucked. They were impossible to get, but promised mental powers that pretty much guaranteed the breaking of the game. Here, the idea is to preserve that mystique without the breakage and…I think it works? It is definitely wrapped in a new age vibe a la Time/Life’s Mysteries of the Unknown, but also a weird science fantasy thing, too. Just look at the (awesome) Terry Dykstra illustrations. How come I didn’t play THAT D&D? Why didn’t I want to explode things with my miiiiiiind?

The book IS dense, it is pretty much all rules for a brand new caster class — instead of schools or spheres, psionicists have disciplines that are made up of powerful sciences and less powerful devotions. There are limits on what kinds and how many powers a character can have, and they require skill checks to turn on. This results in characters with pretty narrow, but powerful, but slightly unreliable power sets. Which seems super fun? There are special psychic duel rules to gain quick advantage over other psionic opponents, which is pretty cool.

The approach to psychic powers in this book is apparently derived from Julian May’s four book Saga of the Pliocene Exile, which I never heard of before now but suddenly I am keen to read at least the first book…

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I feel like psionics are generally hard to grasp. This might be because they were poorly implemented in the original D&D rules and that cast a long shadow over other games. It might also be that while amazing mental powers sound pretty cool, in a mechanical sense they aren’t super dynamic. Two guys punching each other is always going to be zippier than two guys staring at each other while looking constipated.

The GURPS Psionics book (1991) is a little more robust. It takes the basic psionics system from the core rulebook and combines it with the material in Supers. It goes further afield, too, introducing hive minds as well as tackling ghosts and poltergeists.

My favorite chapter is Psychotronics, which looks at psionic technology – computers, dream scanners, starship drives and more. This is psionics at its pulpiest, far removed from the sort of monk-like aestheticism that usually characterized mental abilities. There’s some of that in the book, of course, and some good old hippie-ish psychedelica too. But as far as this sort of thing goes, there is way more variety than I expected. I could, dare I say it, even see myself using this book to run an entirely psi-based campaign. It’s weird enough, I think!

The art is firmly OK, hitting that vaguely clip art GURPS style. It is mostly a bit dull, mixed with some super fun illustrations, like the psychotronic suit or the brain in the jar. Good stuff.

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