Aberrant RPG - Making some changes to Taint

[BlueNinja]

Honestly, I'm not really all that big a fan of the way Taint is implemented. I sort of like the limitation on nova powers, but the temporary/permanent method they use doesn't seem to fit the way Taint is used on actual PCs. Permanent Taint is actually far easier to acquire than temporary Taint! So, here's some changes to various Taint rules (and an addition to Dormancy) that I cooked up.

BN's changed rules for Taint acquisition and removal!

POWER MAXING

When a nova wants to max out a given power, they pay 1 Willpower, and accumulate 1 point of temporary Taint, and pay 1 QP per die, up to a maximum of their permanent Quantum score. Successes on this roll may be used in the following fashion:

1 success: Raise the power or mega-attribute by one dot, for a single action.

1 success: Double the area of a power with Area or Explosion for the turn.

1 success: Double the range of a power for the turn.

1 success: Add 1 damage level (for attack powers), or 1 auto-success (for non-attack powers), for a single action.

1 success: Add +1B/+1L soak for the turn.

2 success: Add any applicable extra to the power for a single action. (GM approval only)

A botch on this roll inflicts an extra 1 temporary Taint for each '1' showing on the dice, in addition to the point from activating the power max. Novas with the Taint Resistant merit only receive temporary Taint on a botch.

PERMANENT TAINT

High levels of Quantum or Node still inflict permanent Taint on a player. With Node, if the nova buys the Taint Resistance enhancement for Mega-Intelligence, this will reduce the permanent Taint from their node rating (including the removal of aberrations), though no faster than one point per game month (if they purchase the enhancement after the background).

Buying powers, mega-attributes, enhancements, or Quantum, as per core book page 151, cannot be done. Instead, a player can accept one point of Permanent Taint for 2 extra nova points at character creation. This can only be done at character creation. These will be permanent (barring Chrysalis, Aberration Transfer, and/or Quantum Mastery).

Buying powers, megas, enhancements, or Quantum, as Tainted with experience points, will be done in the following manner instead:

A character wishing to increase a power as Tainted will gain one point of temporary Taint, and reduce the cost by 1 experience point, up to a limit of (new power rating) points. (Example: Adam Bomb increases his Quantum Bolt from 3 to 4 dots. He can save up to 4XP on the power, by taking up to 4 temporary Taint.)

Whenever the temporary Taint track reaches ten points, it turns into one point of permanent Taint.

Social penalties of Taint are only fully applied to baselines. A nova with a social penalty has that penalty reduced by 1 point whenever dealing with other novas. If both novas have social penalties, then subtract the smaller penalty from the larger one, and then reduce it by one more point. (ex: Geryon has a social penalty of +3. When dealing with a nova with no social penalty, the penalty is only a +2. When dealing with a nova with a +1 penalty, then Geryon has a difficulty of only +1.)

TEMPORARY TAINT

Any time a power roll botches, the nova accumulates one point of temporary Taint.

When making a Rapid Recovery roll, the nova accumulates temporary Taint as per core book, page 150. This is reduced if the nova has the Taint Resistant merit.

Temporary Taint can be removed by spending one week dormed down. Remaining dormed for a week straight requires a Willpower roll, against a difficulty equal to the character's highest power or mega-attribute rating. (ie, if the character has a power or mega-attribute at three dots, but none at 4-5 dots, they have a +3 difficulty on the Willpower roll.) If the nova attempts to remain dormed for more than one week, increase the difficulty by +2 per additional week. If the nova takes at least one day to be undormed and spending quantum, increase the difficulty by only +1; the nova must be undormed for at least a week before dorming again without suffering the additional difficulty.

DORMANCY

A nova with Dormancy can either turn off their powers completely (as written, giving them dice to avoid detection), or may instead lower their base Quantum by any number of points up to their Dormancy rating. In this manner, the nova appears less powerful. If this reduces the nova's Quantum below the level needed for a power, then that power is considered unavailable. (ex: a nova with Quantum 4, Dormancy 2, and Elemental Anima. If the nova reduces his Quantum score to 2, to change his Quantum signature while being scanned, his Elemental Anima is unavailable until he ends the Dormancy.) Remaining in this partially-dormed state for a week requires a standard difficulty Willpower roll; additional weeks have a cumulative +1 difficulty for each week. (Such a tactic is good for a surprise, if the nova remains half-dormed for a long period of time, then goes up to full power when facing an opponent who has not planned for the higher power level.)

Thoughts? Comments? Questions?

[metaphysician]

Your idea increases the ease by which temporary taint can be accumulated, but ( IIRC ) decreases the ease by which temporary taint can be eliminated. Thats a recipe for taint increase, insanity, and destruction. Its also too much for canon, as under your system, Utopian novas would be going insane in as little as a month, on average.

[Alex Green]

I like what you've done in your campaign. I.e. it's easier to gain AND lose temp taint.

RE: PU novas.

The thing to remember about power maxing is on average you can only do it once per day. It takes a point of willpower and most only get it back once per day.

[BlueNinja]

Your idea increases the ease by which temporary taint can be accumulated, but ( IIRC ) decreases the ease by which temporary taint can be eliminated. Thats a recipe for taint increase, insanity, and destruction. Its also too much for canon, as under your system, Utopian novas would be going insane in as little as a month, on average.

As per the book, you only acquire temporary Taint by 1) botching a power max, or 2) failing a rapid recovery roll (which never got used once in a three-year campaign in my tabletop group). As per the book, removing temporary Taint requires one month of dorming (though without the willpower roll I added).

I put it in there for a simple reason. Power corrupts. If you have the mental ability to out-think 99% of the world's population, dropping down to even a maxed-out baseline stat will suck. If you normally look like a goddess, looking merely stunning is going to suck. Powers like this would be addicting as hell. If I had nova powers for real, I'd have to have aberrations already before I'd consider dorming down; of three novas I played, only one had dorm, and he only used it when he was trying to fool some Michaelites with quantum-scanners. The better you are, the harder it will be to live without them.

Do you think it would be better if I changed it to "number of successes" instead of "difficulty"? So that if your highest power/mega is three dots, you need three successes (rather than 4; standard +3 difficulty)? That seems equally workable. Willpower is not difficult for PCs to accumulate, and for people with the power to reshape the world, it seems almost necessary.

[BlueNinja]

RE: PU novas.

The thing to remember about power maxing is on average you can only do it once per day. It takes a point of willpower and most only get it back once per day.

You can do it once per turn, as long as you have the WP&QP to drop. (Well, it takes a full turn, so technically once every other turn.)

Or I might have read it wrong. I don't have my books anywhere near me to double-check that. ::smile

[Alex Green]

It might be per scene, but the problem is "how do you get your willpower back?"

Most reliable way is a good night's sleep, but that brings us to an average of once a day... and yes, that might mean 10 times a day with a 10 day recharge, but I don't see the point.

[metaphysician]

As per the book, you only acquire temporary Taint by 1) botching a power max, or 2) failing a rapid recovery roll (which never got used once in a three-year campaign in my tabletop group). As per the book, removing temporary Taint requires one month of dorming (though without the willpower roll I added).

I put it in there for a simple reason. Power corrupts. If you have the mental ability to out-think 99% of the world's population, dropping down to even a maxed-out baseline stat will suck. If you normally look like a goddess, looking merely stunning is going to suck. Powers like this would be addicting as hell. If I had nova powers for real, I'd have to have aberrations already before I'd consider dorming down; of three novas I played, only one had dorm, and he only used it when he was trying to fool some Michaelites with quantum-scanners. The better you are, the harder it will be to live without them.

Do you think it would be better if I changed it to "number of successes" instead of "difficulty"? So that if your highest power/mega is three dots, you need three successes (rather than 4; standard +3 difficulty)? That seems equally workable. Willpower is not difficult for PCs to accumulate, and for people with the power to reshape the world, it seems almost necessary.

On its own, that wouldn't be a huge problem. Where it becomes a sticky point is that, you make it *way* easier to accumulate tempt taint. Every single power max gives you from 1-5 tempt taint, which translates into 1-5 weeks of dormancy. Thats less raw time, yes. . . but:

1. It requires dormancy to lose temp taint at *all*, so anyone lacking it is just plain screwed

2. The difficulty scale for making those checks is harsh enough that, generally speaking, you would need to double those time figures, except for extremely low power novas with very high willpower

Losing temp taint is hard enough in the canon version, but that's okay, because you accumulate it very slowly, or not at all if you don't do stupid stuff like power maxing multiple times a day regularly. Thus, slow or even no taint loss is acceptable, as you could go years or decades without gaining a permanent point.

Under your system, power maxing is now almost as bad a permanent sacrifice as buying powers tainted ( especially if your Q4 or Q5 ), only for far less benefit. As a result, either no one does it save in "the fate of everything I hold dear rides on this one action" circumstances, or else you have novas going from newly-erupted to insane monsters in months. Seriously, I think you underestimate how harsh your new power max rules are.

[BlueNinja]

On its own, that wouldn't be a huge problem. Where it becomes a sticky point is that, you make it *way* easier to accumulate tempt taint. Every single power max gives you from 1-5 tempt taint, which translates into 1-5 weeks of dormancy.

1 Temp Taint per power max, unless you botch. You seem to be reading it as 1 Temp Taint per die rolled (to restate clearly, for a power max, you pay 1 temp WP, 1 temp Taint, and then (1 QP * dice)). Which, even for a mere Q2 nova, is already rare. Perhaps my last gaming group was an exception, but power maxing is something that seems to be uncommon anyway.

1. It requires dormancy to lose temp taint at *all*, so anyone lacking it is just plain screwed

I believe I said that you can do it without dormancy (at 1pt/month), while the core book is the same - to lose temp Taint at all, you must dorm down (or buy it off in Chrysalis).

2. The difficulty scale for making those checks is harsh enough that, generally speaking, you would need to double those time figures, except for extremely low power novas with very high willpower

I have yet to play a nova with <6 Willpower. Most of the novas in my last group had 5+, and when we ended, we had two novas with 10 (and me with 8). (Is it against the rules to pay a temp WP point to gain a success on a WP roll?)

Under your system, power maxing is now almost as bad a permanent sacrifice as buying powers tainted ( especially if your Q4 or Q5 ), only for far less benefit. As a result, either no one does it save in "the fate of everything I hold dear rides on this one action" circumstances, or else you have novas going from newly-erupted to insane monsters in months. Seriously, I think you underestimate how harsh your new power max rules are.

If you're a Q4 or Q5 nova, your chance of getting more than one point of temporary Taint from a power max is even smaller because your chance of botching is lower. ::confused It'll take you ten no-botch power maxes, under my change, to bump yourself up one point of Permanent Taint.

[BlueNinja]

It might be per scene, but the problem is "how do you get your willpower back?"

Most reliable way is a good night's sleep, but that brings us to an average of once a day... and yes, that might mean 10 times a day with a 10 day recharge, but I don't see the point.

Ah, you were thinking long-term, while I was thinking short-term. ::happy

Yes, you only get back 1 WP per night (plus whatever works for your Nature), but most novas (even most Elites) don't need to go power-maxing on a daily basis.

[metaphysician]

Ahhh, I'm sorry, I misread. 1 temp taint for each power max is far more reasonable.

If you did this, I'd still be inclined to say, benefits of a power max should be somewhat higher, as its a notable increase in the drawback. Also, Chrysalis rules would need modification, as it would otherwise be too easy to accumulate.

[BlueNinja]

Ahhh, I'm sorry, I misread. 1 temp taint for each power max is far more reasonable.

If you did this, I'd still be inclined to say, benefits of a power max should be somewhat higher, as its a notable increase in the drawback.

It is; any extra instead of just Area/Explosion, and raise dots instead of just extra dice.

Also, Chrysalis rules would need modification, as it would otherwise be too easy to accumulate.

I think I posted my changed Chrysalis rules a while ago. Basically I drop the whole Chrysalis-as-Taint mechanic and go straight to different-XP-column with mandatory aberrations.

[AnonCastillo]

Aside from the episode of Trans-D where we went to a world where quantum was out of control and we gained taint every time we used a power, I really haven't seen a whole lot of temporary taint accumulation, so I think making it easier to gain isn't much of a problem. I never really saw the point of power maxing under the core rules (admittedly I haven't read that part in long enough that I can't remember what power maxing does exactly, but I remember thinking that the cost wasn't worth the benefit). While these rules make it look like you can do a bit more for the cost, unless you have at least 4-5 quantum it seems like you're throwing away willpower and taking a temporary taint for a chance of moderately improving a power for a short time, with a smaller chance of taking more temporary taint instead.

If the die roll were a little bigger, maybe 2xQuantum is too much but maybe 1.5xQuantum, your chance of getting enough successes to significantly improve the power might be worth it. As it is, if you've got 4 quantum you'll average just under 2 successes, right? This means for 1 willpower and 1 temporary taint and 4 points of quantum you can add about 2 dots to a power (so 2 dice plus slightly increasing its effectiveness in other ways) or 2 successes/damage if you roll any successes on your base dice for a single action. That hardly seems worth it. Just the extra quantum is more than it costs to activate most powers in the first place. The defense increase (which I assume would go along with powers like force field, bodymorph, etc.) seems pretty low, +2B/+1L would be a little better imo. Under your rules I'd still be pretty hard pressed to power max, but admittedly I can't find where I put my e-books after my last format (hopefully I still have them) and I haven't played in a while, so maybe adding dots to a power is more useful in some cases than I'm giving it credit for.

Maybe it should be easier to remove temporary taint if it's easier to accumulate, but until I see a game run with these rules and see if people actually power max more or if the temp taint from botching power rolls adds up enough to be meaningful it might still not matter. Still, it looks like an improvement, bro.

[Alex Green]

In all my playing I think I've only had one character who was into power-maxing, and even he stopped cold after the ST introduced temp taint as part of the activation cost.

IMHO if you want temp taint to come into play more you have to make the pay off more consistent. I'd suggest one auto-sux on pretty much any roll. Any power, any skill, willpower, etc.

[KingOfDreams]

In the Aberrant games I have run I wanted Taint to be an integral part of the theme. As stated earlier in this post, other than buying powers Tainted, it hardly ever gets acquired in the game. I redesigned Maxing Out as well. In addition to the changes, I designed scenarios where the players were practically forced to Max Out in order to succeed or survive. Of course I also made sure they were on the path to understanding Taint and how to harness it or eliminate it. My goal was to make Maxing Out easier to use, more beneficial, and more flexible.

Maxing Out

This is the equivalent of pushing the limits of your node. You may typically only Max Out once per Scene, but the Storyteller may incur additional penalties for exceeding this limit. The nova may Max Out at any time during a turn, even if it is in response to another action, as long as it is performable by the power being used or gained. To Max Out, the nova spends one point of Willpower and must make a standard Willpower + Node roll [the storyteller may apply a difficulty to the roll if appropriate]. If successful, the nova immediately gains a point of Temporary Taint. The nova then gains a number of successes equal to her Quantum rating plus any extra successes gained from the Willpower + Node roll. These successes can be applied as per the chart below. For each success taken advantage of, the nova must spend one Quantum Pool point in addition to the number of Quantum Pool points required to fuel any power being used. Of course, you are limited to the number of Quantum Pool points you can spend in one turn by your Node rating.

# of Successes Effect Gained

One....................Add one automatic success to the dice pool for the duration of the power.

One....................Add one automatic damage success to the damage effect for the duration of the power.

Two....................Double the duration of the power. This can be applied more than once, each use doubling the duration again.

Two....................Double the range or area of effect. This can be applied more than once, each use doubling the range or area of effect again. If used on a power that has a range and an area of effect, you must apply successes to each one separately.

Two to Ten..........Increase a Mega Attribute by one dot. The success cost is equal to two times the dot number increased to. For Example, if increasing your Mega Perception to the fourth dot you must use eight successes. The duration of the increase is equal to a number of Turns equal to your Quantum + Node. Standard limitations to the maximum Mega dot you can have still apply.

Three.................Raise the power rating of the power by one dot for purposes of additional effects for the duration of the power. This extra dot is not used to increase your dice pool for the power. Your power rating cannot be raised above five dots.

Three.................Gain the use of any Extra [except Mastery] for the duration of the power.

Three.................Gain the use of any Enhancement for which you currently have at least one dot of the corresponding Mega Attribute. The duration is for the listed amount of time described in the Enhancements description or for a number of Turns equal to your Quantum + Node if duration is listed as a permanent effect.

Three to Five.......Gain the use of a new power which is rated at one dot for each five successes used. The power may only be used once per Max Out in this way. You must meet the minimum Quantum requirement to use the power. A level one power takes three successes, a level two power takes four successes, and a level three power takes five successes.

[metaphysician]

Sounds like you basically folded Node Spark into the Maxing rules. That said, even with the point of temp taint, maxing is worth it under your system.