Recently my party psyker has been giving off vibes that he feels I am portraying his casting of the warp too dark in my flavor text and that a simple "the room grows darker or colder" should be enough. I am loath to do this because I feel it does little to distinguish a 40k psyker from jedi or some spell caster types from other settings them, let alone set the grimdark feel of the world ... what are others' opinions on this?

My personal view is that not every use of power by a Psyker needs to carry dark and dangerous overtones of the evil that lurks in the Warp. The evil in the Warp is often very subtle and seductive, so as to draw in the good, well-intentioned people too. I'd let it come through clearly at especially appropriate times, but not all the time, as that could indeed get old. And there are plenty of other things that you can use to emphasize the grim darkness of the setting generally - everything from the conditions on a planet, the attitudes of certain people, architecture, art, etc.

With regard to the warp, I think I personally lean towards very dark overtones when I GM. I'm of the belief that touching the warp cannot feel -good- to any completely sane individual, and thus I try to make it out to feel as alien, and even perverse as possible. I tend to use imagery that suggests something wet, sentient, and utterly expansive - very much the sort of "the abyss looks back into you" sort of imagery. All that I have read regarding imperial psykers suggests that they are utterly shunned, and on the whole, very, very strange individuals who make others uncomfortable - I think there's a good reason for this. When we play, using even a mundane psychic power is an action not taken lightly, given the implications and the likelihood that there will be visible ramifications.

Then, altogether I suppose its a matter of personal taste, regarding tone. I too prefer the grim and gritty feel to my games. If your players are kvetching, clearly they are less than completely satisfied. Perhaps there's some way you can have your cake and eat it too; do you imagine they feel that their players are getting limited by the magnitude of your descriptions?

Do you like Dan Abnett's books? Contrast the above description of Psykers with Gregor Eisenhorn, Gideon Ravenor prior to the atrocity on Thracian Primaris, Patience Kys, Commodus Voke, etc. These are all potent Psykers who were also relatively normal behaving, well-adjusted people despite their deep and abiding connections to the Warp.

I think there are perfectly reasonable explanations as to why sanctioned psykers outside the Inquisition - and especially members of the Adeptus Astra Telepathica - are really odd and are shunned by most people (until they need them, of course). But that's a different discussion for a different thread.

I do not overdue the "darkness of the warp", either.

I talk to me players about the energy closing in around him & being channeled.

...unless he fails, the I start the same way and then switch to describing how this is ******; thrashing; burning him instead of doing what he wants. The dog biting the hand that pointing for him.

When describing the use of psyker powers, I usually don't side with the dark unless something's going wrong. Usually, I'm on the side of the weird. "There is the sound of a widows finger tracing the rim of a wine glass." "Your target's eye color changes to match your own as you peel the knowledge from his mind." "The colors within the room invert briefly." I'm always on the side of the warp is unpredictable rather than the warp is evil.

Those rare times that I have GMed I made the warp effects like those of a haunted house. Things at the edges of your vision, unnatural temperature variations, voices at the edge of perception, ect. If there was something attacking the players then I ramped up the "dark" aspect, but mostly I just try and creep the player characters out.

So, do you mean that Psychic Powers are so obvious, even minor ones?

What do you do about powers, that should be used covertly, such as Suggestion, for example?

In my games, Minor Powers and most Telepathic powers result in a shimmering in the air and a whisper. Also, depending on the D10 for casting, anything more than 3D10 will result in an instant phenomena, in addition to any gained due to 9s. If the Psyker is attempting to be sublte I up the casting roll by 5, then there are no instant phenomena.

I've never had any Psyker that's not a Telepath, so I'm not sure how I'd describe other casting schools. Telekine would probably result in the room trembling, maybe a cup will fall off the table etc. Pyro, everything might take on an orangeish hue for half a second or the temperature hops up momentarily. Divination...Not sure about that. Biomancer, the Psyker might twitch a little, maybe a bit of moss will spout to life in the corner of the room. Potted plants with flowers might turn to face the Psyker instead of their light source etc etc.

cyclocius said:

In the Abnett fiction the most common of these phenomena is the formation of ice rime whenever powerful psychic energies are being discharged. It doesn't always happen, but it's always memorable when it does.

Rheist said:

It is indeed, but I like to take a step away from what others have done, it's just a thing I have, I don't really like copying ideas, seems a bit repetetive to me :S But that's just me ^^

Another tidbit, if it matters: in tabletop 40k, generic Inquisitors are always Psykers. At least according to the description on their site that I found when I was looking for minis for DH, anyhow.

Hodgepodge said:

In 40k, the difference between a psyker who hasn't got any psychic powers and someone who isn't a psyker is essentially non-existent. They're given the Psyker special rule so that they're allowed to purchase psychic powers and use psyker-specific equipment like Force Weapons if they wish (because a notable number of Inquisitors are Psykers in background terms), but a character who lacks those things can be easily described as not being psychic, because in game terms. It's a matter of mechanical convenience, rather than an indication that all psykers in the background are psykers (which they aren't - there are plenty of examples of Inquisitors who aren't psychic).

Ah, gotcha. So that just represents the option to give them a Power instead of say, a Power Fist or whathaveyou.

For Dark just go Olde Schoole John Blanche art work from the 80's it works nicely for me.

2 worlds over lay each other for a moment, our characters world, and the world corrupted alal Blanche (kinda like but much better the other world in Constantine), let the character glimpse in to that, thats what dishes the Insainity &/Or Corruption

Warhammer can never be too dark.

]N[ said:

Actually I'm referring to how the powers are manifesting to his own perceptions as he is casting them - while no one else might feel more than a chill in the air or creeping up their spine (unless a 9 is rolled) the psycher himself can perceive fractions of what is happening in the warp as he draws these powers to his control ... so when he casts "spasm" he sees daemonic tendrils snake from his fingertips and ravage the inside of his target's body, feasting on veins and nerve clusters until the foe buckles and writhes in agony; when he casts a "fear aura" about himself he conjures up a shroud of horror that embodies all the most terrible things these people have ever witnessed, the memories they had thought lost behind years of repression and self denial, and beneath it all can hear the villainous laughter of demons in waiting; healing powers are agonizing, as they force the body to stitch itself together in ways it was never meant to perform, aging over wounds in seconds, stretching flesh and muscle to their limit, drying out open sores, flash fusing bones, and mercilessly setting fractures with all the subtlety and love of a battlefield surgeon.

Those are the things he can't seem to grow accustomed to.

I would say that if it is negatively effecting the players enjoyment for the game, that you need to reconsider your approach. Consider, perhaps, that you have made your point. Allow the horrors of the warp to be understand without needing to continue describing them in gory detail on every occasion.

Jack of Tears: Thank you, that really expands my view on using psychic powers!

Jack of Tears said:

I have seen beauty and now know it's gaze is terrible.

Jack of Tears said:

Perhaps what your player needs is an ideological/philosophical perspective that allows him and/or his character to believe that despite the fact that demons live in the Warp and are horrible, the power he draws from the Warp and, by extension, the things he does with that power are not intrinsically evil or corrupting. What he's allowed to know or think about this subject may be heavily influenced by who his Inquisitor is. But this could be something as simple as referencing the Edicts of Nikea where the Emperor himself proclaimed what type of activity by Psykers was allowable and what wasn't. That would allow him to disregard the uncomfortable or disconcerting sensations from the Warp by referencing the high holy word of the God-Emperor.

Alternatively, it's logical that part of Psyker training is how not to be freaked out by the sensations that Psykers may sometimes experience when they open their minds to the Immaterium to draw upon its power. One could imagine this as being like a mental callus. It's not that the otherworldly sensations aren't there, but at some point you've become used to them and they may even seem familiar to you by this point.

In all honesty, if your psyker felt like some seething mass of dark evil were trying to grasp at him everytime he used a power, it'd drive him insane, really, really fast, or he'd NEVER use his powers. The honest answer is, the warp isn't evil, and thus shouldn't be portrayed as such. The warp is Chaos (remember, Warhammer is not about Good Versus Evil, it's about Law versus Chaos), pure unadulterated Chaos. Your psyker is reaching into the maelstrom of power and drawing out some, then imposing order on it in an attempt to force it to do what he desires. As a GM, the only time I'd start giving people, even the psyker, a woogy feeling, or dark deep forbodings, is if he he started rolling phenomina, or worse, perils. If you want to give your psyker an honest impression of the flavor of the warp, it shouldn't be all of one thing or another, but a myriad number of sensations each time he touches it. Even the 4 chaos powers are not inherently evil unless taken to extremes (ducks so the local inquisitors can't see him). Remember that Slaanesh is not just the patron of excess, but of art and inspiration. Khorne is not just a good of blood and skulls, but of war in all of its forms (from glorious and honorable to seedy and backstabbing), etc, etc. The Warp is all races' (cept the necrons) hopes, dreams, fears, nightmares, emotions, etc, which means that there has to be good things in it as well.

All in considering of course, the Emperor is in it and apparently angels and saints can come about as well (psyker or otherwise).

Personally, since the Warp is the formless embodiment of pure Chaos, it's form in the Materium should be as unique as the one who draws upon it, especially if your speaking about one's intentions (for good or ill of course considering who you've aligned yourself with)

Ignayus said:

Which, given that the overwhelming majority of people all across the Imperium - a number of which may develop psychic powers at some point, and be rounded up by armed psyker-hunters, imprisoned in psychically-warded torture chambers and then 'tested' on Terra for however many years - believe without hesitation that Witches and the powers they wield are terrible, evil creatures, foul mutants capable of channelling vile energies from the dark realms beyond reality, it stands to reason that if belief shapes the manifestations of the warp, then the warp will manifest as evil things.

Rheist said:

Oh, have no doubt, I use many methods of description and occurrence to showcase just how grimdark the future of mankind is. Next session the soldiers in this part of the battalion get to witness one of their own burned (by the party's own cleric npc) for admitting to the crime of spiritual corruption - a truly moving religious experience that should get them all fired up for their next push against their heretical enemy.