Have you run scifi campaigns without any form of psychic powers to serve as the system's 'magic'? Were players frustrated or disappointed? Did the absence of 'magic' cause unforeseen issues in the gameplay?

I have on a few occasions, Star trek being one (Pre next generations). Where it might exist but not for characters.

I find technology fills that "magic" sort of slot in the mysterious and powerful way.

My present game has it but I am running it like Babylon 5 with the primary control and training is done by the Imperium's Psy Cor. Wih being an unregistered psyche will get you killed.

I Only have one player who is a psyche and it seems to be fun since he has to balance discover versus use of it. Especially since it can be effected/detected by technology.

The StarCluster universe games have Psi powers, but the Cold Space games do not. It never seemed to matter to my players much. then again, we play a lot of straight historical games with no magic.

-clash

No, not really.

Most of my SF games have not included psychic powers as significant elements, even when they were part of the background (Traveller Third Imperium, Niven's Known Space). They're so much a part of Star Trek, Lensmen, Dune, and such, that I include them in such cases; but I basically regard them nowadays as "fantasy" like the old views of Venus and Mars.

I in general like them. There is enough SF writing that posits them as (semi) plausible in fiction, and that for me is awesome.

Of course, as always it depends on the setting.

I try to run SF towards the "harder" end of the scale, so no psi powers as such. I had some players ask about it, and I told them they had mail in their character's "junk" folder that said "Anyone can learn Psionics! Just send $89.99 to the Psionic Studies Institute for your free evaluation and starter kit! Individual psi potential may vary. Results not guaranteed. No refunds."

They decided against it.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;722879Have you run scifi campaigns without any form of psychic powers to serve as the system's 'magic'?

Yes. I prefer them that way.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;722879Were players frustrated or disappointed?

Initially, but then they adapted and found that the lack of psionics made the game more challenging and fun.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;722879Did the absence of 'magic' cause unforeseen issues in the gameplay?

Nope.

I run sf straight -- no psychic or magic at all -- pretty much all the time. No complaints.

A thought I just had on this subject - in d20 based scifi, wouldn't the absence of mind-attacking psychic effects significantly devalue the Will save? What would be a good substitute?

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;722959A thought I just had on this subject - in d20 based scifi, wouldn't the absence of mind-attacking psychic effects significantly devalue the Will save? What would be a good substitute?

I used will saves for people to push themselves into stressful situations, such as moving while under direct fire or suppression, as well as for resisting insanity and fear saves and such.  Not using psionics didn't devalue it much, IMO.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;722879Have you run scifi campaigns without any form of psychic powers to serve as the system's 'magic'? Were players frustrated or disappointed? Did the absence of 'magic' cause unforeseen issues in the gameplay?

I prefer oddly enough seem to gravitate to sci-fi space settings without psi-powers at all.

Star Frontiers in particular. Albedo to a marginally lesser degree as there was on the fringe a single rare psi-ability to make people and AIs "ignore" the user. Functional invisibility. Not a power the PCs would ever have.

At best I am ok with empathy and some telepathy, especially if there are alien races that normal communication is impossible with. Others in the grey area would be low level precog and spacial awareness powers while at the extreme end being telekinesis. Again more acceptible if the race lacks normal manipulative appendages.

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;722879Have you run scifi campaigns without any form of psychic powers to serve as the system's 'magic'? Were players frustrated or disappointed? Did the absence of 'magic' cause unforeseen issues in the gameplay?

Yes. No. No.

Most of my roleplaying game experience doesn't involve 'powers.'

My players expect psychics to be able to do anything from Star Wars, to creepy River type stuff, to X-Files / Lovecraft type material. They also expect that a character can be one of those things and not the others. As long as all three are present, they are happy. Leave one out and they will only want to play that.

Unless they're buying into a known brand--e.g. Macross--where player-accessible powers are not a thing, my experience has that players do demand that they be there.  The reason, after many frustrating years of this shit, is as simple as this: without powers, your man is nothing more than his gear and his stats, and it's the gear that matters more than the stats most of the time- and no amount of personality, relationship, etc. matters vs. whether or not you've got the right tools for the job when and where you need to use them.  (The old "knock out BA to get on the plane" dance is totally acceptable to most gamers.)

This is why RIFTS has its fucking resilient and loyal user base, and why SF always gets beaten by Fantasy in gaming: Powers Fucking Matter.