I Want Psychic Warfare In My Campaign

 First things first: despite the title, this is ONLY going to happen IF my players are into it.

Second, it is part of wider issue of deciding after many years of feeling the exact opposite, that psychic powers CAN have a place in a fantasy campaign without totally ruining it. 

In Tales Of Argosa, various situations might call on a player to check for madness. They make a Will check and if they fail, they roll on the Madness Table. As a system, its cool, though I'd love an expanded table. I think 'Madness' seems an appropriate thing to call these afflictions/outcomes, because it isn't a word we really use any more - especially not in that context. And the system reflects actual mental illness poorly enough not to really be reflecting it at all. Which is a good thing. I don't want to make anyone at the table feel uncomfortable about any issues of their own they may have. 

Even having this theme or issue in a campaign or adventure clearly requires a conversation at the table about what players are all comfortable with.

This system seems to imply that the 'Veil' or the 'Void' has got too close to the player character's 'psyche' and somehow warped or touched it.  Altered it. In my setting, Dark Peak, it is the Dark that has done so, and those who are so touched can eventually be undone, losing their humanity and becoming Goblin Men. 

I'm going to introduce the opportunity, via play, for players to get rid of these afflictions (many of which are temporary anyway), by undergoing a process of discovering that the so-called 'Madness' is actually not madness at all, but a sensitivity to the Void , which manifests as psychic powers. In other words, the forces which have led to the unhappy situation have left the character's mind sufficiently altered that it can now do things it couldn't before. And I'd welcome anyone's perspective, who has mental health issues or knows anyone who has, on whether or not this is... okay? Does this make anything more difficult for people with real life issues? As a person who has suffered mental health issues themselves at times, I don't thing it does, but my issues are not everybody's and neither are my feelings, so. Let me know if you have personal experience about this.

Anyway, assuming there are no objections...

Players will have to quest for the solution. They have to travel, probably to the mountains. In my Dark Peak setting, this would be to  the Smoke Dark Mountains to the west, where they would seek out a monastery with a certain master, who was able to instruct in meditation, medication, exercises, etc. And the characters gains a unique ability. Whether they lose or keep the Madness is up to the player. 

In other systems, there may be a different mechanism to Unique Powers, but these are they powers I want to represent:

Telepathy

Minor Telekinesis

Detection of any one one of the following: evil intent, psychic powers, undead, or demons.

Telesenses (sensing other such powers) (all)

ESP (sensing living things, predators, allies, etc) (all)

 

This is pretty sketchy so far. I'm going to come back to it in a future post. 

 

 

 

Charging Rules For Tales Of Argosa

 

In Tales of Argosa, Charging gains a PC double movement and a +2 to hit bonus. But their opponent also gains a +2 to hit bonus, so there is little to no advantage in charging beyond covering double the distance. And while covering twice the open ground may be desirable, it isn’t the only reason historical infantry charged an enemy.

But let’s contextualise this; there is a huge difference between one combatant charging an enemy foot-soldier and a charge of massed ranks of a trained infantry unit. On the other hand, in fantasy RPGs we do want to be able to do this. It’s fun and you want to have the option of imagining your Fighter hurtling into the ogre, or a unit of orcs, and it counting for something. So what might that look like?

Historically, the main reason for an infantry charge was to disrupt enemy formations. Psychologically, its intimidating, having an enraged enemy warrior hurtling towards you with an axe. And that’s easy to achieve in most OSR games: that’s a Morale check.

If the Morale check fails, the enemy routs and either a Chase ensues, or by GM caveat, the charging force/PC gets a free attack. This might not happen if the distance between the two is too great, though. If the GM really doesn’t want the NPC(s) to rout, or if they cannot, the GM can impose a -2 to hit penalty instead to simulate being intimidated.

If the Morale check succeeds, there will be a clash. In this instance, the charging force has the advantage of momentum. This is where the attackers gain a +2 to hit bonus.

If the attacking force is a substantially superior force, I might even give them Advantage, but that is a weighty bonus. I would only give this if one side were truly superior, such as highly disciplined veterans, or monstrous humanoids with natural advantage, such as ogres. I wouldn’t give it to Skorn, as they are too undisciplined. Or I might apply it if the force ‘receiving’ the charge were untrained/new recruits that have somehow passed the morale check, perhaps due to an outstanding rallying effort by a PC Bard, or to a supernatural means that doesn’t improve their fighting ability.

Finally, if the receiving force gained a Great Success on their Morale check, then I would award them a +2 to hit bonus, possibly evening out the battle at that point. Sometimes the defenders just decide to hold the line or die!

Summary: Charging provokes a Morale Check. Failure usually results in a rout, or a -2 to hit penalty if this is impossible. If the morale Check succeeds, the Charger(s) still gets a +2 to hit bonus. If there is a substantial difference in the quality of troops, in favour of the attackers, this becomes Advantage.

Hopefully, this provides more reasons to charge. If you try it out, please let me know how it goes!