Psychic alien symbiotes use human hosts on Earth to wage an eternal war across dimensions and time.
Main setting info.
A compendium of 58 Major, and 64 Minor psychic powers.
The US Governments bureau for response to psychic crime.
A domineering psychic faction vying for world dominance.
An anarchist psychic faction intent on bringing it all down.
A communal psychic faction promoting peace and harmony.
A non-psychic, paramilitary faction, bent on elimination of psychics.
The otherworldly realms beyond human comprehension.
Life in the decimated US: Big cities and small town America.
Origin & Inspiration
In 1984, Fantasy Games Unlimited (FGU) released a role-playing game called Psi-World. It wasn't a fully developed setting since it aimed for a near-future setting that could be shaped as desired. Despite FGU games being known for their complex mechanics and heavy use of math, I personally loved Psi-World. However, I never actually got around to playing it, despite jotting down some initial notes in a spiral-bound notebook, which eventually laid the foundation for Burning Synapse.
Fast forward to the early 2000s, and my involvement with Savage Worlds grew significantly. I revisited the idea of Burning Synapse, but it didn't progress much. I realized that the concept was just average, merely a gimmick involving psionic secret agents combating an alien threat. So, once again, it was put on the back burner and left to simmer. Somewhere in there, I also tried using the original Fate rules.
Then, something fortunate occurred. While reworking The Devil Is and infusing it with a darker and more occult atmosphere, I sought inspiration from sources like Alex Proyas' film Dark City (which I absolutely love!) and Arthur Edward Waite's book The Occult Sciences. Surprisingly, it was not The Devil Is that benefited from these influences, but rather Burning Synapse, which emerged forcefully from the depths of my mind, demanding attention. The original Burning Synapse had been purely scientific and straightforward, but now it gained life by embracing the esoteric and unfathomable. I incorporated elements of cosmic horror and secret armies existing beyond the confines of the Synapse Division.
Game play can revolve around government backed men in black secret agents, conspiratorial agents of clandestine organizations, dimension hoping astral explorers, or psychic slice-of-life.
The rest, as they say, is just a matter of fine-tuning the details.
