Game: Mindscapes: A Psion’s Guide
Publisher: Malhavoc Press
Series: d20
Reviewer: Wyrdmaster
Review Dated: 6th, March 2003
Reviewer’s Rating: 6/10 [ On the ball ]
Total Score: 15
Average Score: 7.50
The name Bruce R Cordell appears on Wizards of the Coast’s Psionics Handbook and so it’s especially nice to see him as the author of a Malhavoc Press’ psionic supplement. That’s a good meeting of minds, heh. As it happens Cordell and Malhavoc have already collaborated to produce a previous psionic PDF in the from of If Thoughts Could Kill and it shows that I’m not the only one to succumb to the temptation to play word games with psionic, just that these people are better at it.
You will need the Psionics Handbook to use Mindscapes but you won’t need If Thoughts Could Kill. That’s the theory. Mindscapes spends so long helping GMs convert rules and characters from If Thoughts Could Kill to the alternative rules in this particular classbook that if, like me, you don’t have the latter book it’ll begin to get on your nerves. Nevertheless, it’s better that Mindscapes does make this effort, does risk getting on people’s nerves because it would be worse if it didn’t. Effort. That’s the important word there. It’s the big problem from Mindscapes. If you’re up and running with psionics or even if you just want to use other sources then it’ll take a lot of effort to ensure that everything is Mindscape friendly. In some respects Malhavoc are a victim of their own success, Monte Cook in particular has done so well with seamless and effortless patches that we all take them for granted now.
Mindscapes makes a good start. Unzip the download and you’ll have one PDF and a text file. The text file doesn’t open particularly well in Notepad, open it in WordPad and you’ll get to the genuinely useful printing instructions that come as standard with Malhavoc ebooks these days. Mindscapes prints well. It makes only occasional use of sidebars, keeps its graphics printer friendly and does away with shaded comment boxes in favour of paragraphed asides that use less ink. The contents page is detailed, containing page references to almost every entity in the book. A solid contents page at the start of a PDF is really helpful because it means we can jump straight to the page that interests us. The page numbers are for the printed version though and so you’ll need to add one to every reference before having Acrobat reader jump there. The bookmarks are good, complete and nicely stacked. Using the bookmarks doesn’t cause the PDF to shrink to an unreadable size.
A Mindscape is a temporary psionic realm created when two or more psionics get close to one another. Exactly when the mindscape occurs is explained again and again to make sure it is clear. But it isn’t, each explanation changes it ever so slightly. At first we’re told it is an instinctive response and then on the same page we’re told that at least one psion must consciously desire a mindscape contact. So much for instincts, it’s a conscious decision now.
I like the mindscape idea though. I like the general implementation. Mindscapes have terrain; they can be anything from a desert through to a sea and it’ll be a contest to see which Psion manages to set the terrain first. Different terrains favour different powers and abilities. A forest terrain provides +2 on Dexterity check modes, for example, and the cavern +2 on Charisma check modes. For this to work there needs to be a shuffle of the rules. A side comment sets out the stark facts, “Characters with levels of psion or psychic warrior (for any other class that grants standard psionic combat modes) lose knowledge of those modes completely. If they wish to know the power-equivalent of those modes (see Chapter Four; Powers), they must learn those powers normally, such as when they discover new powers as part of level advancement. In place of the old system, all psionic characters use mindscape psionic combat system.” Got it? Monsters are different; they get to keep their offensive modes but loose their defensive ones.
We see a reprinted table for the variant Psion introduced in If Thoughts Could Kill that copes with Mindscapes’ tinkering. We are told that the feat Resculpt Mind is devil born and hereby banned – but it’s been worked into the new rules fairly. There’s a side note for other translations. There’s a summary table showing the Attack Mode progression for classes like the Metamind, Soulknife, Colorless Adept and other prestige classes from various supplements. The Psychic Warrior gets a mention too.
See. It’s a heck of a lot of effort. The upside is that this system is better; if you’ve got the time then it’s worth the effort.
Mindscapes is called a classbook in its introduction. It is. There are twelve new prestige classes including such delights as the Chakra Savant, Lucid Cenobite and Psychic Chirugeon as well as high fantasy, flavour setters, like the Crystal Proselyte – who swaps parts of his body for crystals and crystal limbs over time and the Chronorebel – who learns how to travel back in time. Oh. I know. Time travel. Nightmare and plot wonder all wrapped together in one bundle. The Chronorebel gets fatally slapped down if he causes a change in the time stream and we’re left to wonder how he can do anything at all if this is true. We also get to wonder at the rarity of the 11 level prestige class Voce Warrior and the Skotono Voce (sp) ability. Targets must save Fortitude at DC 10 + damage dealt or die. Take that Godzilla! Take that Elminster! Despite Chronorebels and Skotono Voce – perhaps even because of them – I quite like the prestige classes here. They’re a mixed bunch and I enjoy having that choice. Another plus in all these prestige classes is that they’re blessed with a good layout, there’s never any awkward bits where the advancement table comes before or too long after the prestige class’s text.
The world is now full of fantasy d20 feats but there are some under still some corners that could do with padding. Fantasy psionics just happen to be such a corner and so the twenty plus feats in Mindscapes should be welcome. They’re best suited to Mindscape’s particular style but are as balanced and game friendly as feats come.
There are over ten pages of new powers. We need to remember that characters and monsters who loose modes in the mindscape system must now re-learn these as powers. Don’t be put off by this though; there are more than enough powers in Mindscapes to make the download worthwhile for GMs in desperate search of powers for the game. The download finishes with a couple pages of psionic items.
Mindscapes conjures up a bit of a limbo for itself. It calls itself a classbook and that’s true because it has plenty of new psionic classes in it. Really, Mindscapes seems more concerned with – as the title suggests – the mindscapes. I think most people will see it as that book with the alternative psionic combat rules in than a classbook. There are other alternative psionic combat rules available (alternative alternatives!) and they don’t require so much effort to bring into the game. On the GameWyrd scale of 1-10 a classbook with good classes in it and some new powers scores 5/10. Mindscapes doesn’t trip over or screw up and so doesn’t dip on that scale. The alternative psionic combat rules are enough to add another point – 6/10. That’s a passing grade.
