Tikbalang and Psionics
Okay, so I've finally had the time to read the PHB3 thoroughly. And for the most part, psionics has been redefined from sci-fi telepathic powers to either (publicly) as "the weapon forged to fight the far realm" or (privately) as the power within oneself. This is why they've placed the monk in the psionic power source: Under this concept, the monk's ki is a natural fit.
By and large, however, we at Nosfecatu Publishing would do not want to look at psionics as not as a distinct discipline of its own nor as powers related to the Far Realm, which is not too prevalent in the Buan campaign setting. Instead, we want to look at psionic as a specific type of magic. Looked at in this way, psionics can be differentiated from arcane, since arcane has a flavor of being acquired "externally." Wizards study their power through moldy tomes. Warlocks enter bargains to fulfill their desires. Even sorcerers, who have a "natural" affinity for magic, gained this power through the intermingling of outside supernatural blood with their own mortal origins. In contrast, ardents, battleminds, monks and psions all all manifest their inner magic - natural, but requiring intense meditation and focus to manifest.
As magic, psionics' trademark abilities in my opinion are charms and illusions, something that the tikbalang have always been portrayed as being good at. It also helps that their stat abilities are well-suited for ardent and battlemind, and they can make decent monks and psions as well. So if you have tikbalang player characters that want to take on a psionic class, here is our proposal: Reflavor the psionics' power source as the tikbalangs' trademark magic. That is, when someone says "tikbalang magic," they would would be referring to psionics. Deception is natural for them as a race, and through the harvests, they taught this ability to harness such power to the other races. Thus psionics continue to exist in Kalupaan.
Oh, and by the way, we're back from our vacation. We'll probably link to our private blog once we finish writing a review of our trip.
hi! i wanted to email you but i couldn't find any contact details so this will have to do for now ;)
ReplyDeletemy name is jammi, of mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com . we're setting up a small tabletop RPG event for next month, and we're hoping to run 4-6 games. in one of the games i had been planning to run a story that takes place under spanish rule here in the philippines.
while discussing this with my partner, he talked about your blog and the player character and monsters you had available. i would LOVE to have your ideas incorporated at the event, perhaps we could work something out.
i can email you a complete outline of the event and any other details you may need. you can drop me a line at temporalhiccup(at)gmail(dot)com.
thanks!
- jammi
Oh, hello jammi!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've been reading mygirlfriendisadm.wordpress.com a lot recently (we were playing in an Eberron game until recently, too). I would love to be part of your event, and hopefully it'll be held on a weekend.
Running a game inspired by the Spanish colonnial era is interesting. The materials that we have focus on pre-colonnial times, but tikbalangs and asuangs can fit in that era just as well.
Anyway, I'll drop you an email first thing tomorrow morning. Or tonight, if I stay awake long enough. :P
PS. I apologize if my email is hard to find. >.> My Lord and Master prefers blood and fish to spam, and he wants me to make sure that he doesn't see any of the latter.
ReplyDelete