The Manual of the Psi

The Manual of the Psi is a source book devoted to giving you, the intrepid user of the Universal Heroes rules, the means of producing a psionic character for use in the game. A psi-active character is one who has awakened one or more of the special abilities inherent to all sentient minds, and can usually gain such activation through intense study, meditation, occasional freak happenstance, or even their intense beliefs.

The Basic Idea: this is the heart of the psionics system in the Universal Heroes rules, the core notions that everything builds around. The idea is to explain the difference between a psi-active character and other adventuring types, and to lay the groundwork for the rest of the concepts to come. It's a relatively short portion of the Manual of the Psi, but possibly the most important one.

Psionic Awakening: one aspect where a psi differs from other characters is how he masters his super human abilities. A psi's peculiar talents can come about as the result of special training to achieve that effect, due to an intense, burning belief so powerful that it literally reshapes one's mind, or even random happenstance or exposure to the psi powers of others.

Character Generation: here you will find all the rules you need to build your own psi character, whether heroic, villainous, or somewhere in between. Directions for both random (dice-based) and systematic (point-based) character generation are provided, allowing players the option of building a spontaneous or more controlled creation for use in the Universal Heroes game.

Roleplay: having generated your psi-active character, the next question is what do you do with him? The roleplay portion of the Manual of the Psi is provided to offer hints as to how players can distinguish psionic characters from others, as well as what makes them tick. Also included are divergent character advancement rules, which also help to showcase the differences between psis and other character types.

Comprehensive Power List: this is the 'meat' of the Manual of the Psi, in that it occupies the vast majority of the real estate in this reference. The Powers roster of the Manual describes all 335 psionic abilities in detail, no matter what discipline they belong to. Some of these appear in other portions of the Universal Heroes rules, but others are unique to the Manual itself.

Accessories:

Empathic Power Collection: the page linked to here is a summary of the thirty seven empathic powers available to players, drawn forth from the comprehensive list of psi powers and listed here for your convenience. This document includes a bit of mood text to explain what this discipline is useful for compared to the others, as well as what each tier of powers is about.

Metapsi Power Collection: this document is a collection of all forty five metapsi powers, culled from the comprehensive power list and organized in one place for ease of use. As is the case with the other eight documents like this, the metapsi reference includes a minor expansion on the notion behind metapsi abilities, and how each 'tier' of powers works, after a fashion.

Psikinetic Power Collection: the text subsequent to clicking this link describes the forty seven known powers of a psikinetic bent, all drawn from the overall psionics power listing for your general convenience. This collection of psikinetics also includes a minor expansion on the idea behind this discipline of power, and what it's useful for in the course of game play.

Psimantic Power Collection: the psimantic power collection warehouses all thirty three psychoturgical powers in one solitary location, in the event that you want to peruse them without the abilities from the other eight disciplines interrupting your train of thought. Also includes the 'idea' behind mind over magic abilities as well, in case you were wondering what the point was.

Psimotive Power Collection: in order to get a better handle on the psimotive discipline of power, as well as its thirty seven known abilities, this document is just what you need. Separated from the others for greater emphasis, the powers of the psimotive discipline are also complemented with an explanation of both what they're about and what they're useful for.

Psipathic Power Collection: this document is a collection of all forty six psipathic powers, drawn from the comprehensive power list and organized in this fashion for ease of use. As with the other documents of this type, this reference also includes a minor expansion on the idea behind psipathy, and tries to explain each tier of powers in a general sense.

Superpsi Power Collection: herein lies all thirty seven known superpsionics, assembled for your convenience on one singular document - without all the hundreds of non-superpsionics breaking up their flow any. Also included is a generalized description of the discipline as a whole, so that you can get a better idea what it's all about - if that's at all necessary, of course.

Technopsi Power Collection: to date, there are thirty three known technopsionic powers. These abilities are geared towards working with artificial items, objects in the environment that are produced thanks to the knowledge sentient beings possess. They're all listed here for ease of use, along with a somewhat longer summary of what this discipline of power is all about.

Theonic Power Collection: theonics is the principle of mind over mortality - the practice of combating, controlling and ultimately becoming a divine entity, if desired. This collection of powers showcases all thirty four of theonic abilities, while at the same time filtering out those from the other eight disciplines... in order to retain a focus on the path to godhood.

Updates: this document showcases the many changes I have perpetrated on the Manual of the Psi to create this new version of my oldest rules guide (well, oldest save for the quirks thing, maybe). I have provided this reference in the event that you don't like everything I've done with the new version of the Manual, and wish to 'pick and choose' bits from the old and the new for your own game.

The Manual of the Psi - Version 3: this link will take you back to the 'original' Manual of the Psi - well, the original one that made it online, at any rate. It's been available since 1998 after all, so I figure if you prefer that to the current work, I'll be leaving it alive in perpetuity (as long as this site is still live, at any rate). The hope is that you'll like Version 4 better, but just in case...