The Inside Scoop on Gaming

This guide can be considered the 3rd in the "expansion" series of books for the Alternity line with Tangents being a tangential fourth (heh). In the same manner as Dataware expands on the computer section of the PHB and Starships does for the starship building section in the GMG, Mindwalking is intended to do the same for the psionic section of the PHB.

It starts off badly when I noticed the font size. The font size is definitely larger than the one used in either "Dataware", "Starships" or "Tangents". So you're not getting the same word count as in any of these products.

Art, for me, can enhance a product, and this product has art by Jon Foster who in my opinion is the best B&W artist in the industry.

Chapter 1: Introduction

As the heading indicates, this introduces us to the product. The actual introduction is somewhat interesting. The psionics in the real world table is a very nice touch along with the "Suggested Reading (and viewing)" but I was disappointed in the "Psionics in Alternity" section.

Frankly, it doesn't really say anything that isn't mentioned in either the PHB or the relevant campaign book (Dark*Matter or Stardrive).

All in all, this section did not need to be this big (5 pages) since it real does feel like padding. I would have preferred the one-page introduction as found in Tangents or the small blurb as seen in Dataware.

Chapter 2: Revised Rules

This in its entirety is a HUGE disappointment as the method by which the revised rules are presented is by _EXACTLY_ writing chapter 14 in the PHB over.

Let me start at the beginning of this chapter where it repeats word for word chapter 14 up to the "Using Mental Abilities" section in the PHB. The only difference is that it describes a new achievement benefit, which is increasing Psionic energy points. Why couldn't just this have started chapter 2 and not the entire page waster? Extended duration gets a new table, which while it makes a lot more attractive to increase your ranking in a skill seems to get pre-empted by almost all of the psionic skills that do have "Extended Duration" since they have in their actual description, a method by which a psion can extend that power.

A paragraph is added about "Visual Range" but there is nothing about whether or not one can use mental skills over the television (something which has been talked about in the past). We still are going to have people asking this question and instead of saying "Look in Mindwalking", WOTC are going to have to repeat themselves. I hope we see an errata on this topic on the website. A minor nit for sure, but still a nit.

Psionic skill descriptions. Oh what a shame. I was stunned by the manner in which updates to psionics skills were presented. Unlike Dataware and Starships which had all new equipment and a table that listed all of the equipment, "Mindwalking" repeats word for word the description in the PHB. For example, Pyrokinetics has the exact same description as in the PHB.

The majority of the "revised" rules are new rank benefits. Instead of repeating the actual description from the PHB, I would have preferred the following manner.

Psionic Skill: Description: Same as PHB, plus the following.; Duration: Same as PHB/ new listing; New Benefits: None or a listing of the new benefits.

The worst example is "Morph". The only new benefit morph gets is that "Morph" now allows a psionic to resemble a specific person (+2 step penalty to awareness checks) when they get the rank benefit of completely hiding their identity (+4 step penalty to awareness). Morph takes up a column and a half yet the only difference between the old morph (PHB) and the new morph description is the 4 lines?!?!?!

Only 1 psionic skill from the PHB gets a totally new description (Bioweapon). 1 PHB psionic skill is totally unchanged (Pyrokinetics) and the rest get new rank benefits where the description of the rank benefits might be as short as the one in Morph to as long as Battle Mind (3 times as long as the actual description of Battle Mind itself).

Actual new skills under the old Broad skills (excluding Bioweapon) total 9 with a new broad skill under WILL, Psychoportation which has 6 new specific skills.

As well, there are Alien-only skills, 8 in total (3 for the Fraal) which can be learned by a human if they spend the appropriate culture and language skills.

Here's something I don't understand though. Dark*Matter has two new skills, but they aren't listed in the table yet the table has Dimension Walk from "Tangents" listed. The strange thing is that Dark*Matter has modifications to the PHB skills which are the same as the one in Mindwalking.

The next section after this is a small talk about "Designing new psionic skills". There are also a couple of new non-psionic skills.

Here was my favorite section: New perks and flaws. About 21 in all split 13 flaws/ 8 perks.

Mental combat: 6 columns of information that is really only 2 columns of new information (adjucating mental traps such as illusions). At first, I thought this was going to be a system to resolving astral combat but it isn't. Basically everything written is self-obvious from just reading the psionic chapter in the PHB.

Chapter 3: Psionic Campaigns

It didn't get off to a good start when the heading listed psionic champions.

It classifies Psionic Consciousness (higher the PC, the greater the knowledge of psionics) in the same manner as progress level.

Here's where I have to shake my head. Campaign Recommendations. I don't see any reason why one links acceptance of psionics and treatment of psionics with knowledge of psionics. For example, Bhruu of the S*D world until recently had no knowledge of psionics but from their racial listing, they would have no trouble accepting psionic creatures and treating them fairly. Another example: How would one rate Voidcorp? By the listing given for PC level, voidcorp is PC 5 (Commercialization and Exploitation) but they don't treat psionic individuals any different than normal citizens. Simply use the person's abilities to the best of their abilities.

Campaign Tone: Again, the same mistake is made here. While it isn't outright stated, there is a leaning towards having the "Superheroic" campaign being more accepting of psionics. I don't see why. There are 3 types of campaigns given, Realistic, Heroic and Superheroic with careers and organizations given for each type. This is better than the method presented in Dataware where a style of campaign was more or less dictated

However, there are 2 new skills listed here. Why would these be listed here and not out in front? Sure, they are in the Superheroic campaign, but Telepath-Mind Block seems suited for any type of campaign. Same goes for Crowd control.

Chapter 4: Gamemaster Tools

Psionic Equipment : Very nice, a good section all round.

Supporting Cast: Limited use.

Creatures: I like this. Very wicked to spring these on a party that is doing some exploring.

Other manifestations: Thought Forms!!, Psionic Vampires, Yippee..I like these, especially the method of creating them.

Psionic Phenomena and Artifacts: Nice but portable gates is something more along the lines of FX in my mind, of course the same can be said for Apportation.

Customizing the Campaign Model: Scaling down and Powering up. Let's put it bluntly. These are things any GM should have no problem with on their own but it is still nice to get official rules. I of course am instituting the Optional Rule listed in there at the end. I really like the concept of pushing one's power.

Troubleshooting Psionics : A good two page summary for those who have never run a psionic campaign and want to try it.

All in all, I must say given the price that Canadians have to pay (CDN $28), I can't recommend it. Americans though, should pick up this product if they are really interested in running a psionic campaign. In my mind, the revised rulings really increase the power of mindwalkers. While in Star*Drive, many were asking how mindwalkers function given their paltry skills, this gets rectified. A fraal can now have a maximum of 33 psionic energy points and be able to regain all those points in only 2 hours.

If the PHB is good enough for you or you limit your campaign to only Talents, I can't recommend this for Americans either.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Mindwalking: A Guide to Psionics
Author: JD Wiker Category: game Company/Publisher: WOTC Line: Alternity Cost: 18.95 Page count: 96 ISBN: 0-7869-1384-3 SKU: TSR11384 Capsule Review by Allister Huggins on 11/06/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Modern_day Far_Future Space	This guide can be considered the 3rd in the "expansion" series of books for the Alternity line with Tangents being a tangential fourth (heh). In the same manner as Dataware expands on the computer section of the PHB and Starships does for the starship building section in the GMG, Mindwalking is intended to do the same for the psionic section of the PHB. It starts off badly when I noticed the font size. The font size is definitely larger than the one used in either "Dataware", "Starships" or "Tangents". So you're not getting the same word count as in any of these products. Art, for me, can enhance a product, and this product has art by Jon Foster who in my opinion is the best B&W artist in the industry. Chapter 1: Introduction As the heading indicates, this introduces us to the product. The actual introduction is somewhat interesting. The psionics in the real world table is a very nice touch along with the "Suggested Reading (and viewing)" but I was disappointed in the "Psionics in Alternity" section. Frankly, it doesn't really say anything that isn't mentioned in either the PHB or the relevant campaign book (DarkMatter or Stardrive). All in all, this section did not need to be this big (5 pages) since it real does feel like padding. I would have preferred the one-page introduction as found in Tangents or the small blurb as seen in Dataware. Chapter 2: Revised Rules This in its entirety is a HUGE disappointment as the method by which the revised rules are presented is by _EXACTLY_ writing chapter 14 in the PHB over. Let me start at the beginning of this chapter where it repeats word for word chapter 14 up to the "Using Mental Abilities" section in the PHB. The only difference is that it describes a new achievement benefit, which is increasing Psionic energy points. Why couldn't just this have started chapter 2 and not the entire page waster? Extended duration gets a new table, which while it makes a lot more attractive to increase your ranking in a skill seems to get pre-empted by almost all of the psionic skills that do have "Extended Duration" since they have in their actual description, a method by which a psion can extend that power. A paragraph is added about "Visual Range" but there is nothing about whether or not one can use mental skills over the television (something which has been talked about in the past). We still are going to have people asking this question and instead of saying "Look in Mindwalking", WOTC are going to have to repeat themselves. I hope we see an errata on this topic on the website. A minor nit for sure, but still a nit. Psionic skill descriptions. Oh what a shame. I was stunned by the manner in which updates to psionics skills were presented. Unlike Dataware and Starships which had all new equipment and a table that listed all of the equipment, "Mindwalking" repeats word for word the description in the PHB. For example, Pyrokinetics has the exact same description as in the PHB. The majority of the "revised" rules are new rank benefits. Instead of repeating the actual description from the PHB, I would have preferred the following manner. Psionic Skill Description: Same as PHB, plus the following. Duration: Same as PHB/ new listing New Benefits: None or a listing of the new benefits. The worst example is "Morph". The only new benefit morph gets is that "Morph" now allows a psionic to resemble a specific person (+2 step penalty to awareness checks) when they get the rank benefit of completely hiding their identity (+4 step penalty to awareness). Morph takes up a column and a half yet the only difference between the old morph (PHB) and the new morph description is the 4 lines?!?!?! Only 1 psionic skill from the PHB gets a totally new description (Bioweapon). 1 PHB psionic skill is totally unchanged (Pyrokinetics) and the rest get new rank benefits where the description of the rank benefits might be as short as the one in Morph to as long as Battle Mind (3 times as long as the actual description of Battle Mind itself). Actual new skills under the old Broad skills (excluding Bioweapon) total 9 with a new broad skill under WILL, Psychoportation which has 6 new specific skills. As well, there are Alien-only skills, 8 in total (3 for the Fraal) which can be learned by a human if they spend the appropriate culture and language skills. Here's something I don't understand though. DarkMatter has two new skills, but they aren't listed in the table yet the table has Dimension Walk from "Tangents" listed. The strange thing is that DarkMatter has modifications to the PHB skills which are the same as the one in Mindwalking. The next section after this is a small talk about "Designing new psionic skills". There are also a couple of new non-psionic skills. Here was my favorite section: New perks and flaws. About 21 in all split 13 flaws/ 8 perks. Mental combat: 6 columns of information that is really only 2 columns of new information (adjucating mental traps such as illusions). At first, I thought this was going to be a system to resolving astral combat but it isn't. Basically everything written is self-obvious from just reading the psionic chapter in the PHB. Chapter 3: Psionic Campaigns It didn't get off to a good start when the heading listed psionic champions. It classifies Psionic Consciousness (higher the PC, the greater the knowledge of psionics) in the same manner as progress level. Here's where I have to shake my head. Campaign Recommendations. I don't see any reason why one links acceptance of psionics and treatment of psionics with knowledge of psionics. For example, Bhruu of the SD world until recently had no knowledge of psionics but from their racial listing, they would have no trouble accepting psionic creatures and treating them fairly. Another example: How would one rate Voidcorp? By the listing given for PC level, voidcorp is PC 5 (Commercialization and Exploitation) but they don't treat psionic individuals any different than normal citizens. Simply use the person's abilities to the best of their abilities. Campaign Tone: Again, the same mistake is made here. While it isn't outright stated, there is a leaning towards having the "Superheroic" campaign being more accepting of psionics. I don't see why. There are 3 types of campaigns given, Realistic, Heroic and Superheroic with careers and organizations given for each type. This is better than the method presented in Dataware where a style of campaign was more or less dictated However, there are 2 new skills listed here. Why would these be listed here and not out in front? Sure, they are in the Superheroic campaign, but Telepath-Mind Block seems suited for any type of campaign. Same goes for Crowd control. Chapter 4: Gamemaster Tools Psionic Equipment : Very nice, a good section all round. Supporting Cast: Limited use. Creatures: I like this. Very wicked to spring these on a party that is doing some exploring. Other manifestations: Thought Forms!!, Psionic Vampires, Yippee..I like these, especially the method of creating them. Psionic Phenomena and Artifacts: Nice but portable gates is something more along the lines of FX in my mind, of course the same can be said for Apportation. Customizing the Campaign Model: Scaling down and Powering up. Let's put it bluntly. These are things any GM should have no problem with on their own but it is still nice to get official rules. I of course am instituting the Optional Rule listed in there at the end. I really like the concept of pushing one's power. Troubleshooting Psionics : A good two page summary for those who have never run a psionic campaign and want to try it. All in all, I must say given the price that Canadians have to pay (CDN $28), I can't recommend it. Americans though, should pick up this product if they are really interested in running a psionic campaign. In my mind, the revised rulings really increase the power of mindwalkers. While in Star*Drive, many were asking how mindwalkers function given their paltry skills, this gets rectified. A fraal can now have a maximum of 33 psionic energy points and be able to regain all those points in only 2 hours. If the PHB is good enough for you or you limit your campaign to only Talents, I can't recommend this for Americans either. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 2 (Sparse)

Mindwalking: A Guide to Psionics