Wing & Nagisa[SMTP:wwong8@calstatela.edu] wrote:

[bulk of developmental text snipped... okay, all of it snipped. ;) ]

If you are planning on psi/magic type skilles/abilities, you may want to
try looking into the ad&d psionics handbook as well as the magic handbook.
The DM's handbook may be helpful as well. ^_^;;

I looked through my AD&D stuff (man, I haven't played for YEARS!), and was really disappointed with all the crap about psionics.  So I started up my own little world.

>From the description you emailed, I take it you are incorporating theories
of geometric energy systems... Yes, there is such a field in RL. ;)
Though it's considered part of the tabboo (sp?) of some cultures.  You
seem to like circles and spheres... But to a psionicist, triangles may be
more useful shapes as they are more elemental in nature.  Triangles can
make circles.  Lines make triangles. etc etc...  I'd suggest some books,
but they all date back to the 70's and are out of print. -_-  It was
something called "Future Science" where the psuedo sciences, including
geometric energy systems, were included, summarized, and explained.
Rather informative for both psionicists and story writers alike. ;)

I chose circles/spheres, because I like to think the universe is one big giant sphere, and following with the "Big Bang" theory, the original universe was a sphere of super-mass...  BUT,  psychers won't necessarily use spherical shapes to draw upon energy, nor will they project energy in spherical shapes.  Focuses and such aren't going to play a large part in my first story... the characters involved will be too inexperienced to know their full potential... but rest assured that circles and spheres won't be the main attraction.

As for what you have written down....  I seriously doubt that one
psionicist's sphere of protection(barrier) can stop any and all psionic
attacks.  It is also rather unlikely that Blades and other normal weapons
can penetrate such a barrier as you have stated at the end(or near the
end) of your description.  Just some thoughts...

The sphere of protection can only stop energy attacks (by diffusing concentrated waves), and then only if the defender is powerful enough to do it.  I didn't want these guys to be all powerful, so I decided that energy spheres and the physical world are quite separate.  Gravity, life, and consciousness are the 3 spheres that regularly act upon the physical world, so I thought that they could probably penetrate an energy barrier.  If a sphere of protection could stop anything, then psychers would be able to wreak havoc on the earth.  I want them to have to watch out for things like wimpy humans with knives and guns.

Oh yes... I hope this doesn't sound harsh, negative, or sharp, but you
MIGHT want to look into more... generally accepted names.  Not accepted in
this culture or this world, but in your world. Ie, create the people and
culture and see if the name still fits them. Psycher  for some reason
causes the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end... Sounds like a
parent trying to mimick a teenager's (sterotypical) language. *smiles*
Like I said before... it would help to perhaps create the culture and
people, then assign the names to skills.  *smiles*  But then again, this
is just my opinion and comment. ^_^;;

Oh, definitely!  I just used "psycher" because it kind of describes their powers.  They won't have a real name for quite some time...  questions surrounding their existence and creation will be a big part of the plot.  The story will start in the present, with everything you see around you, with current cultures etc. etc.  

Remember, this is all VERY preliminary... I haven't really decided on anything.  The names of the spheres and attacks (even the nature of the spheres and attacks) are more of a building block to base the characters on.  The technical descriptions of powers and such will have little bearing on the story, in fact.  That big paragraph is rather trivial, but I found it necessary to make some boundries before starting to write.

Thanks for the input!


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Neill Walker
walkersp@oanet.com
http://www.oanet.com/homepage/walkersp/index.htm
OAA, UAM
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