Mental Worlds (Psychonauts)

There are many worlds within the world of Psychonauts. There is the real world, the physical realm, and then there are the myriad of Mental Worlds into which astral projections can infiltrate and explore. Each person has a whole Mental World within their head that is an entire other planet to explore, or a continent. Maybe an island, if they're pretty low on brainpower.

Building a Mental World

All good Mental Worlds start out with a concept based around the owner's history and personality. It is how they see the world around them, the purest form of self-expression. It is not bound by any laws or restrictions except those that are imposed by the nature of the Mental World itself.

When creating a Mental World for your character, take into account how they think. An organized mind will have a neat and orderly Mental World, for instance. Perhaps lots of filing cabinets. It could be a giant library, or a computer system, or even a five-star hotel. Consider how it connects to their life. Let's say that for our example, our Mental World's owner is a Hollywood bigshot, and it takes the form of that five-star hotel.

Each room of the hotel would contain information and memories in the form of guests and their belongings. The censors would be dressed as bellhops, or maybe even maids. The most important information would be kept in the penthouse, under security. The train of thought would be the hotel's elevators, or perhaps even limousines that go to different hotels. Multiple hotels could represent different stages of his life, starting from a one-star dump representing him starting out in his youth, before his success.

Think of Mental Worlds as puzzles, riddles to be figured out by those who trespass within them, to the nature of the owner. It is a naked display of the owner's self-image, without any of the pretence or fronts that they might put up in the real world. A narcissist might have a theme park as their Mental World, a celebration of themselves with parades in their honor, full of gushing fans attending educational rides based around the life and achievements of the self-absorbed little turd.

As Psychonauts, the players are going to be spending a lot of time inside the heads of others, and their own heads, so good Mental World design is important. Each player must outline their character's own Mental World, how it relates to them, and be sure to incorporate their Scar into the design. They hardly need to draw a detailed map of the place, broad strokes are fine, but they should at least know how to navigate their own Mental Worlds.

Constructs & Obstacles

Brainstorms

When a mind is gripped by sudden and frantic mental activity, that's a brainstorm, and it has its effects in the Mental World. It can cause a radical upheaval in the architecture as mental pathways are rerouted, sometimes altering the Mental World permanently - or at least until the next brainstorm comes along.

Sometimes a brainstorm can open up hidden parts of the psyche, sub-realms in the Mental World that the owner may have suppressed or just plain forgot about. A brainstorm is not malicious by nature, it's simply the astral interpretation of frenzied thought, but if those thoughts are unpleasant then the brainstorm will be as well.

Censors

A mental world's self-defense mechanism, censors come in many shapes and sizes, but all serve the same purpose: mercilessly subduing and ejecting improper thoughts and foreign entities. They range in size from "about a housecat" to "King Kong", depending on the mind's capacity for repression and denial. As simple mental constructs, they are broadly unintelligent, easily fooled, and generally rely on strength of numbers to accomplish anything.

Unstable minds, and minds that have been tampered with through hypnosis or other means, will have a distinct lack of censors. While this might seem it would make venturing through them much easier, it's somewhat akin to not having to worry about the cops in an active warzone.

Emotional Baggage

As every young PSI-cadet learns, everyone has emotional baggage. You learn to find the right tag to sort it out, and you think that's the end of it, a small side mission to earn points on the obstacle course. But have you ever wondered what's inside? Contained within the impenetrable, weeping shell of emotional baggage can lie secrets, mysteries, entire new areas of the Mental World to discover! All you have to do is find the key... or pick the lock.

Be warned, though a mind may appreciate you sorting out emotional baggage, it rarely likes it when people pry. Trying to open it up could attract censors, or worse. Not to mention that you never can be 100% sure exactly what might have been sealed up inside.

Inner Demons

When someone is said to be tormented by inner demons, people don't mean actual demons. Unless those people are Psychonauts inside someone's head, in which case they are actual demons. Destructive, rampaging, horrifying twisted masses of raw and unstable mental energy that will chew you up and spit you out. Literally. Might not even bother spitting you back out most of the time. These uncompromising engines of misery are designed by the subconscious to inflict suffering on the owner of the Mental World, and any astral projection that's unlucky enough to stumble across them. Not everyone has them, and those that do can sometimes keep them locked up and under control, but if one of these suckers gets loose, it's going to be hell on anyone who gets caught in its path.

No two inner demons are the same. They're tailor-made by each subconscious to be an object of fear and loathing in equal amounts. They can be any size, any shape, and some of them can even pass themselves off as normal mental constructs to get you to lower your guard. The prisons required to keep inner demons from wreaking havoc on a Mental World must be hidden away, recessed in the back of the mind, so no stray thoughts can unwittingly set them free.

Mental Cobwebs

In the lesser-used parts of someone's Mental World - and we all have them - there are mental cobwebs. Lucky for you, no spider spins these cobwebs. Can you imagine? But seriously, they just kind of accumulate from pure disuse and apathy. Being made out of ignorance, they're the strongest thing you're liable to find in a mental world. Don't go trying to push through them, instead go around them. If that's not an option, use a cobweb duster to clean them up and harvest that sweet, sweet, crystallized mental energy.

Train of Thought

How does a Psychonaut get from place to place in style? By hitching a ride on the train of thought. Don't be fooled by the name, it's not always a train. Sometimes it's a plane or a ship, a zeppelin, maybe even a space rocket. The point is, it's an abstract representation of the thought patterns of the owner of the Mental World, and thus blends in with the metaphorical architecture of the place.

It can take you to any section of a Mental World, provided you have the right ticket to nudge the train of thought onto the right track. These tickets can be ideas, concepts, memory triggers that get the thought process going in the right direction. If all else fails, you can try to hijack the train of thought. However, this can lead to massive censor incursion, a brainstorm, or a total derailment.

Trauma Button

Pushing someone's buttons is a bad idea, pushing random buttons you find is a bad idea. In a Mental World, they're one and the same, so exercise some restraint. A trauma button is like an exposed nerve, connected right to some unpleasant memory or psychological complex. Hitting it can and will cause bad things to happen. It could trigger a mood swing, start a nightmare, release an inner demon, or something far worse. What's worse? Don't try and find out.

Collective Unconscious

All the sentient minds in the world are connected by the Collective Unconscious. But before you get any great ideas about trying to swim in this endless ocean of thought, keep in mind that you'd be trying to navigate an ocean of seven billion currents.

So, rely on the strong connections you will make with teammates, tutors, friends, family, and anyone else whose mind you spend a lot of time in. These bonds will enable you to navigate your small corner of the Collective Unconscious. Straying too far off the path might be a bad idea, provided you're as fond of your sanity as the next person.

Since all minds are connected to the Collective Unconscious, be on your guard when dealing with enemy psychics. They may choose to abandon their own Mental World and jump ship to another, leading you on a merry chase across dozens of mindscapes to protect their own secrets and so forth. If you lose them, they might double back to their own mind and leave you bumbling about three brains over.