Pyramid: The Best of Both Worlds: Bringing Psionic Power Levels and Skills into GURPS Fourth Edition

The Best of Both Worlds

Bringing Psionic Power Levels and Skills into GURPS Fourth Edition

by Reverend P. Kitty

With the change from "Power Groups" to the new "Talent, Abilities and Power Modifier" approach, psi has become incredibly versatile. Players and GMs can create anything they might envision, secure in the knowledge that it can be made into an ESP ability with the simple addition of a power modifier. However, a blank canvas can be rather intimidating, especially to an inexperienced player (or GM). And even many of the seasoned GURPS gamers still look to the old Third Edition Power Groups, longing for a return to the psionic dichotomy of Power and Skill.

It makes sense. The concept -- that your Power determines what you can do and your Skill determines how well you can do it -- is both logical and easy to understand. It can also be simpler for new players and GMs in a hurry. While there are many players who love sitting down and figuring out which advantages are needed and adding in all of the enhancements and limitations to create the perfect psionic ability, there are at least as many who would rather just look at a shopping list of what's available, write "Telesend, Power 4, Skill 13" on their character sheet and be done with it. Fortunately, this is still possible to do in Fourth Edition.

All it takes is a little bit of advance planning.

Forged from Raw Power . . .

While Power Groups are gone for good, it's still simple to turn . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.

Article publication date: January 20, 2006

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