The Freaky Mind

I honestly don't know where psionics are going to come from, but I know how they were handled in past editions:

• Eldritch Wizardry: Psionics are able to use their mind to fight as well as doing freaky stuff, such as telekinesis, teleport, molecular adjustment and so on. Anyone with enough Intelligence can have psionic capability, but having such powers causes the character to be a little less strong than the other members of his class.
• Player's Handbook: About the same as Eldritch Wizardry, only a little more complete.
• The Complete Psionics Handbook: Psionics are members of a class – sort of mystical mind warriors who train themselves in the use of special mind powers. They have requisites in Intelligence, Wisdom and Constitution, but Intelligence is not a key characteristic: Psionics become tougher by hard training, so discipline and resistance are the prime requisites. Among the real Psionics are the so called Wild Talents, members of other classes who have limited access to psionic powers.

That said, here's how I see the problem. As a matter of fact, humans use only a small percentage of their brain capacity: this is mostly because our body is not able to feed the brain enough and avoid health risks, but this explanation is not much fun to play with, is it? So, suppose that having the ability of using a larger percentage of the brain can give a person the ability to access psionic capabilities.

In Lin Carter's Tower at the Edge of Time, the protagonist, Thane, discovers his psionic abilities while being ESP'ed by a "mind warrior". It's the stress that leads his superior mental powers to show themselves. Interestingly enough, Thane is able to use every possible psionic power right from the start – he uses a sort of Mind Blast and then Telekinesis straight afterward. Later in the story Thane uses molecular re-arrangement to turn the bars of his cell into crystal, and then Telekinesis again to fly out of the prison and save the slave he is in love with. But using these powers consumes his energy leaving him faint for hours after a couple of minutes of use. Thane is said to be an über-tough barbarian, who can kill four opponents without even sweating, so I'd say his Constitution is at least 15 or 16.

The simpler alternative to having Psionic Strength as a point system, which is pretty much too mechanical for me, is having them as daily powers, just like MUs and Cs spells. The trouble is, I don't like daily powers at all. In OD&D the quantum of time for powers is the Adventure, which one person considers to be the complete exploration of a dungeon or site and someone else considers it to merely be a game session. I prefer the second one. In Carcosa the number of times per day psionics may be used is determined by the character's level only. In my system, the number of times per Adventure psionics may be used is determined by both Constitution and the level of experience, while Intelligence only determines the probability of having psionic abilities.