Zero Buzz on 5E...Is It Dead Out The Gate?

DSMatticus · Post by **DSMatticus** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 2:48 am

If he becomes a regular, he could have the mods change his name to "Exactly Several Points to Make." It's both an inside joke and a stand-alone gag. Hurrah!

TiaC · Post by **TiaC** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 2:56 am

Kaelik wrote:Except that now he is forever trapped. He has a username, so if he wants to post, he can. But if he ever does about anything else at all at any point, he immediately loses like 95% of the username's coolness.

I was assuming he would show up in other threads and repeat random snatches of linguistic discussion about the word "psionic" like a Pokemon.

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 2:58 am

Exactly One Point to Make wrote:And it's modern use that's important here.

And by 'modern use' I take it you mean you mean

someone at my table in the 80's

I have never in my life encountered "psi" as referring to a person with psionic abilities. "Psion", sure, but "psi" as a noun in my experience has only ever referred to psionics. MW gives me a single relevant noun usage, which is to the set of phenomena as a whole. Synonymous with "psionics". In nearly the same way as if it were an abbreviation. Gosh.

Has anyone else here had experience that leads to the sentence "she's a psi" being remotely valid? Because I sure haven't, and my dictionary lookup isn't gonna be relevant because we can only care about 'modern usage', which is apparently indistinguishable from anecdotes.

Orca · Post by **Orca** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:10 am

momothefiddler wrote:Has anyone else here had experience that leads to the sentence "she's a psi" being remotely valid? Because I sure haven't, and my dictionary lookup isn't gonna be relevant because we can only care about 'modern usage', which is apparently indistinguishable from anecdotes.

If you want anecdotes - I've heard it used so. I wouldn't call it correct, but a lot of RL speech isn't correct.

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:16 am

I feel like I've read psi being used like that, maybe in the Federation Of The Hub series, but only as an in-setting slang term.

momothefiddler · Post by **momothefiddler** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:49 am

Orca wrote:If you want anecdotes - I've heard it used so. I wouldn't call it correct, but a lot of RL speech isn't correct.

name_here wrote:I feel like I've read psi being used like that, maybe in the Federation Of The Hub series, but only as an in-setting slang term.

Very well. I'm incorrect; psi is a valid term for users of psionic powers and, by extension, for various other aspects such as the power source as a whole.

"What is Psi?" works.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 3:59 am

Psi seems to be commonly used in Sci Fi, and thus has very strong sci fi connotations, which otherwise uses the term psychic rather than psionic (generally speaking). Given that, I would suggest that it's better to stick to Psionic(s) or Psionic Powers for a fantasy game.

Sakuya Izayoi · Post by **Sakuya Izayoi** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 4:04 am

Earthbound got me hooked on the idea of Psi as a self-contained term. At that age I was only vaguely aware of D&D Psionicists, mostly so I could figure out how the mechanics on that cute little evil platypus skeleton worked.

Username17 · Post by **Username17** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 6:28 am

momo wrote:Has anyone else here had experience that leads to the sentence "she's a psi" being remotely valid? Because I sure haven't, and my dictionary lookup isn't gonna be relevant because we can only care about 'modern usage', which is apparently indistinguishable from anecdotes.

I would say "She has psi." in the same way that I would say "She has magic." and not "She's a magic."

-Username17

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 7:31 am

I think such constructions were used in Babylon 5, since psychics, or rather, telepaths, were basically all registered by Psi Corps. It's been a long time, but I'm reasonably certain that they were colloquially called psis individually.

Ice9 · Post by **Ice9** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 8:34 am

I've never heard of "psi" being a thing other than an abbreviation, FWIW. Not that "psionic" is all that common either - "psychic" would be the one that shows up the most.

"What are psychic abilities?"
"She's a psychic." / "She has psychic abilities."
And so forth. Could be "powers" instead of "abilities", for that matter.

erik · Post by **erik** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 11:22 am

TiaC wrote:
Kaelik wrote:Except that now he is forever trapped. He has a username, so if he wants to post, he can. But if he ever does about anything else at all at any point, he immediately loses like 95% of the username's coolness.
I was assuming he would show up in other threads and repeat random snatches of linguistic discussion about the word "psionic" like a Pokemon.

I was thinking something along those line and if I may be so bold as to suggest an avatar...

Prak wrote:I think such constructions were used in Babylon 5, since psychics, or rather, telepaths, were basically all registered by Psi Corps. It's been a long time, but I'm reasonably certain that they were colloquially called psis individually.

Nah. They had Psi Corps, and a Psi scale where they labeled telepaths by P-ratings for how strong they were (P1, P2, etc.). Individually they were called telepaths or referred to by their P-rating.

Prak · Post by **Prak** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 11:28 am

Like I said, it's been a very long time, so I wasn't sure. But the fact that they were referred to as just telepaths sounds about right.

Ferret · Post by **Ferret** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 12:32 pm

My table(s) have always used "psion" and 'psychic" relatively interchangeably to refer to characters with Psionic abilities - thinking about it, I'd bet it's largely due to the pop culture influence of late 80s and early 90s XMEN comics, since they so heavily featured Professor X and Jean Grey in their arguably most powerful incarnations ever. They were always referred to as "psionic" individuals, IIRC.

Exactly One Point to Make · Wed Jul 08, 2015 10:54 pm

I don't have a copy on-hand, but I think GURPS Psionics, First Ed. (the one that had a world background with an organization called the Phoenix Project) used psis-as-people.* That's in the 90's, though, not the 80's. I have no texts at hand, at the moment, to note the behavior of myself and my peers back 'inna day.

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, which has authority because it's on the web and written with a sober font, uses the term "Psi Powers."
http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/psi_powers

Alan Dean Foster's Humanx also used the term "psi," and I think it referred to people as psis, but I cannot possibly remember that for sure, and since GURPS did a version of that universe, there's a risk of misremembering on my part. His first Humanx novel dates to 1972, and the main(ish) character was a psi.

Anecdotally, I, personally, never ever used "psion" or even heard that used until D&D made that a thing, and I never heard that term used outside of D&D. Doesn't mean it wasn't in use, though outside that, though.

*It also had cute slang that caught on with absolutely no one ever:
teek = someone with telekinesis
freak = psi, someone with non-latent psionic powers
geek = someone with no powers
teek the geek = hurt a non-psi with psionic powers

DSMatticus wrote:If he becomes a regular, he could have the mods change his name to "Exactly Several Points to Make." It's both an inside joke and a stand-alone gag. Hurrah!

I acknowledge the username's limitations and suffer them gladly for the sake of a barely-noticeable joke. Indeed, this account shall likely walk into the sunset, its work complete.

DSMatticus · Post by **DSMatticus** » Wed Jul 08, 2015 11:47 pm

Google search results:
"He's a psi": 10,200
"He's a psion": 14,300
"He's a psionic": 15,400
"He's a psychic": 148,000

"He's psi": 464
"He's psionic": 630
"He's psychic": 17,400

"He has psi": 103,000
"he has psi" -"powers": 70,200
"He has psi powers": 10,800
"He has psionic powers": 28,300
"He has psychic powers" 43,000

Psi looks a lot like a catch all for everything under the sun, provided all the things under that sun have something to do with psychic powers.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 6:58 am

psyker, psion, psychic, newtype, psychic to refer to users of psychic powers is what I'm familiar with. psi would be an abbreviation to refer to the power itself or "psi points" to describe game mechanics.

Psycom would be a neat abbreviation for a psychic commando or psychic command organization. I'm surprised 'psy-co' isn't an abbreviation in RIFTS for psychic commandos. It sure sounds better than Crazy to me.

Occluded Sun · Post by **Occluded Sun** » Thu Jul 09, 2015 3:34 pm

Babylon 5 had telepaths, or 'teeps' for short. There were technically telekinetics in the setting, but most of them were insane to the point of being institutionalized, so it rarely came up.

'Psi' is occasionally an informal or slang term for a psychic. It's used to refer to people as as well as the skill, much like 'psychic' itself is.

martian_bob · Post by **martian_bob** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 5:29 pm

Star Trek TOS used "Esper", a backformation from ESP. I think Final Fantasy might have appropriated the term too?

To control for gender differences in the Google searches...

"She's a psychic": 98,100 vs. 148,000
"She has psi": 51,100 vs. 103,000
"She has psi" -"powers": 28,100 vs. 70,200
"She has psychic powers" 11,600 vs. 43,000
"She has psionic powers": 17,600 vs. 28,300
"She's psychic": 113,000 vs. 17,400
"She's a psionic": 13,500 vs. 15,400
"She's a psion": 3,950 vs. 14,300
"She's a psi": 8,710 vs. 10,200
"She's psionic": 283 vs. 630
"She's psi": 357 vs. 464

I haven't run a regression, but it looks like there's a strong gender component to just that one outlier.

OgreBattle · Post by **OgreBattle** » Fri Jul 10, 2015 9:58 pm

Final fantasy has since replaced esper with eidolon in remakes

Shrapnel · Post by **Shrapnel** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 1:10 am

martian_bob wrote:Star Trek TOS used "Esper"

Wait, they did? I'm not saying they didn't, I just don't remember it. I thought they used "telepath" and the like?

name_here · Post by **name_here** » Sat Jul 11, 2015 2:06 am

Esper seems to be the common name in Japanese fiction, but I don't see it much in English media. The first episode of Star Trek did use ESP as the term, but I don't recall them actually using Esper.

Orion · Post by **Orion** » Sun Jul 12, 2015 9:01 am

I'm pretty sure Final Fantasy Espers are unrelated. I always assumed that "esper" was chosen because it vaguely sounds like "spirit" and sounds quite a lot like "esprit." The Japanese release calls then"genjuu;" if they meant to reference ESP they would probably have done so in the original as well as the translation.

Leress · Post by **Leress** » Sun Jul 12, 2015 10:38 am

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esper_(fiction)

Esper was used in the second pilot episode of the Original Series of Star Trek called "Where no man has gone before"

Hiram McDaniels · Post by **Hiram McDaniels** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 5:04 am

I just read the Mystic class UA article, and I noticed that all of the saves against psionic effects are INT based...which makes perfect sense because the game needs more INT saves and they have to go somewhere, right? right?