As far as I understand, Mind Games was originally conceived by author Reid San Filippo as an issue of the zine, Crawling Under a Broken Moon.  The Crawling Under a Broken Moon zine series eventually became the Umerica campaign setting for Dungeon Crawl Classics.  As it was coming together, the author realized there was enough material for a full supplement that could bring psionic rules to a wider array of DCC games.  Thus, Mind Games.

With more than sixty pages of material, it has much of what you might expect from a DCC book of this type.  I’m reminded of some of the themed issues of Gongfarmer’s Almanac, for example.  There is a new class, the Psion, along with a system of psionic powers that is different from a Wizard’s magic or a Cleric’s devine gifts (and includes stuff like psychic duels).  The psi power descriptions and effects take up almost half the book.  Then there are a few items and artifacts, followed by a few creatures.

I picked up the Dark Sun boxed set reprint from DriveThru some time ago. I think that is what got me to snag this.  Psi powers are a big part of the Dark Sun setting, and I’ve contemplated using that world in a Dungeon Crawl Classics game.  But I also enjoy shaking things up and dropping in weird stuff to make DCC feel like more than just some Tolkien pastiche.

Even if you don’t have a Psion in your game, a couple of the artifacts and especially the critters, should be cool additions.  Though not as flashy as the Cerebear or the Braingineer, the Hive Mind is especially interesting.  The implications.  What you could do with a Hive Mind if you made it the central villain.  It could be an extremely difficult and powerful enemy.  My mind immediately went to using one as the ultimate villain of an urban game, with the Hive Mind worming its way into dominance of a city state or what have you.  Building in power from the shadows, eventually running the criminal underworld, and then the aristocracy.  It could make for a wonderfully paranoid game to face off against something so insidious. 

Your mileage may vary, depending on how weird you like your DCC and how worried you might be about anything “game breaking.”  I like it weird and I like it broken.  Not even saying that the Psion would break anything.  But if it did, I’m OK with that.  With DCC, play balance isn’t really a concern.  So, I’ll be looking forward to having a Psion in my game at some point. 

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