Designer’s Notes: A Song of Many Worlds

Another article that started out a campaign material and then I whipped into shape to become something more publishable. Like most of the articles I pull directly from my campaigns I had very few pieces to cut because it was so concentrated. This was also the article where I fixed what I viewed as a rules gap: the inability to control or create living beings. I know, you’re thinking “Just use Possession!” And honestly, that works for some things, but it didn’t work for what I needed it for in the article: Plant Telepathy. One of the coolest games I ever came up with was a space opera with druids and magic and really scary aliens that came from a dead galaxy and wanted to turn the home galaxy of the heroes into the same thing. Yes, they were undead. Undead aliens from another galaxy with necromantic magic. It was awesome (and since it was a sci-fi setting it crashed and burned because I cannot seem to run those) and I loved it.

The article itself took only 4 hours to write (I skipped doing an outline because I already knew what I wanted), another 12 hours of revision, and 17 hours to edit. Revisions took longer than expected thanks to having to confer with Kromm and PK multiple times on introducing new modifiers to Control and Create.

For those curious about the “under the hood” of the psi techniques:

Worldsinging (Distant Song): Adds Remote (GURPS Powers, p. 48).
Worldsinging (Voice of the Gaia): Uses Abilities at Default (GURPS Powers, p. 179) to add Channeling.
Floral Speech (Lend Sentience): Adds Sapience (GURPS Powers, p. 77).
Floral Speech (Lend Sentience): Adds Affects Others (GURPS Powers, p. 107).
Plant Control (Corpse Flower): Replaces “Accessibility, Living Plants Only, -30%” with “Accessibility, Plants Only, -5%.”

Plant Control (Independent Animation): Adds Independent (GURPS Powers, p. 108).
Plant Control (Petal Mind): Adds a special blend of Cosmic (+150%) for being able to control intelligent or mobile plants, but halves the level.
Plant Control (Rapid Growth): Adds Extended Duration (p. B105).
Plant Control (Far Use ): Adds Long-Range (GURPS Powers, p. 108).
Plant Sense (Far Use ): Adds Long-Range (GURPS Powers, p. 108).
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