Psi World cover
Despite the sparsity of the rules and the limitations of the setting, the Psi World game was a great jumping-off point for a dystopian future built around psionic powers. The campaign I began developing was based on the game materials with a cyberpunk dystopian near-future setting, but centered around those with psionic abilities who, rather than merely being outcasts like hackers and rebels in such a setting, were instead forced to live on the fringes or to hide out due to their very nature.
The campaign setting I developed was initially only large strokes with the idea being that the world’s population was increasingly concentrated in urban megalopoli joined by high-speed rail links. Much like the Cursed Earth of Judge Dredd, the areas outside the urban agglomerations are sparsely habited, though, unlike that world, not quite as hostile and uninhabitable.
Bonus: A Psi World Reading List
- The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester
- Jack of Eagles by James Blish
- Psionic Menace by John Brunner (as Keith Woodcott)
- The Whole Man (AKA The Telepathist) by John Brunner
- Pstalemate by Lester Del Rey
- Mutant by Henry Kuttner
- Slan by A. E. van Vogt
- And Chaos Died by Joanna Russ
- Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg
- The Espers by Steven Souza
- More than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
- Psion by Joan Vinge (also Catspaw and Dreamfall)
- Ingathering by Zenna Henderson
- Firestarter by Stephen King
- Coils by Roger Zelazny and Fred Saberhagen
- God Loves, Man Kills (graphic novel) by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson
(original version available at archive.org)
Psi World megacities in North America
Psi World regions and rail connections
Psi World world map