36 replies to this topic

[Chosen]

Aberrant: The New Flesh

MUSCLE, TENDON AND BONE…
Nothing is a more vivid illustration of the superiority of Homo sapiens novus than the sculpted perfection of the nova physique. Rippling muscles and tough-as-steel skin work together with catlike grace to perform feats that leave even the finest baseline athlete in the dust. This book shows just how remarkable these New Olympians can be…and the price of perfection of the flesh.

…TRANSFORMED BEYOND PERFECTION
Aberrant: The New Flesh takes a closer look at what defines the Physical Mega-Attributes, and the effects that Mega-Physical novas can have on the world around them. Here you’ll find the cutting-edge of biotechnology, an expanded view of what combat between novas really entails, thoughts on just what it means to be faster than a speeding bullet or more powerful than a locomotive, and plenty of new Mega-Physical enhancements and aberrations. As an added bonus, Aberrant: The New Flesh also includes expanded options for combat, weapons and exotic environments so that you can fight your next battle with whatever you need, wherever you may be.

Aberrant: The New Flesh is a fan made accessory book for Aberrant the role playing game from White Wolf that shares a common universe with the Adventure! RPG and Trinity RPG game lines.

Attached Files

•  Aberrant-TheNewFlesh.pdf   2.82MB   1322 downloads

[Titan]

droooool.....

[Asche]

Wow... I mean, Wow!

Much to digest.

[Chosen]

I have added a lot of the powers, enhancements and merit and flaws to the Aberrant RPG Forum.

[Krul]

Ok, I've read over this and I'd like to weigh in with a few words, and thoughts..  what this comes down to, is something of a general assessment of the e-book.. which is awesome.. this is also a spoiler.. so:

Click to reveal..

I love Qǐ Mēng, as a alternative to the Chrysalis as a method of dealing with taint, and a different possible direction for Nova's seeking that sort of thing. [And one of three ways that exist now, if you count the method in Forceful Personalities, with the Crystal Statue].  It is optional, of course, if ST's don't want or don't like it, but really that's true for the entire book. The other stuff with regards to martial arts is also very good.

I also really like the stuff about raising Animals to near-sapience and sapience as well.  It's very nice to have a list of the animals that are easiest to do this with as well.

The advantages and disadvantages of Mega-Physical capabilities are very well covered, IMO, and I rather like them.  I also like the new aberrations & enhancements, not to mention the new body modifications.

The full explanation of the interaction of the noetic that  

The advantages and possibilities of raising Attunement and Node beyond 5 is very nice.  I really like the aspect of Node 9 that basically turns one's entire nervous system into M-R Node, and eliminates all taint, nice to see the Experance Cost in there too.  Also, Neofiber is an interesting and cool alternative to Eufiber (And uses it's own ability set, Cunning, rather then Weave)

The new abilities that are based on Quantum related backgrounds like Weave are very nice... Channeling based on node, Modulate based on Attunement, and Unify based on Dormancy.

I also like the new Nova only language, very nice, complete with the explanation of how it works.

On another level, with Bioalternation, nova grade drugs, emerging cybertech and chemical weapons, this book, more even then FP or Brainwaves, shows the upcoming issues of the Abberant War, and just how bad it can be.


Over all, on a star basis, I give this book 5 stars, and a must have in any Abberant Fan's collection.  Kudo's to the Creators of this e-book, a heartfelt thank you from me, and I expect, all other Abberant Fans.

[VileBill]

Gonna disagree with the majority it seems.

I didn't have high-expectations and I was still disappointed. Half of the book has nothing to do with the subject matter of The New Flesh and really comes across more like a Storyteller version of Shadowrun than anything even approaching Aberrant.

[Titan]

You may not be in the minority.  Many others may agree with you, but are remaining silent out of respect for the massive amount of work put in by the creators of this ebook, which is offered completely free of charge for us to use or discard at our discretion.  I think it is full of useful ideas and information.  Not every single thing is to my taste, but it certainly represents years of effort, and is much appreciated.

[astronomer]

After my quick browse-through, my initial reaction is very positive.  As a GM and a person interested in the game mechanics, I found lots o' useful info I can definitely use in a campaign.  The new enhancements were blink-worthy, the bio-tech section does look a bit like Shadowrun but fits nicely with the mentions of ultra-high nova tech and the darker aspects of what's coming (Spark Soldiers, ick), and the combat section is there for those who long for more BFG action.  I also liked the exploration of the quantum/noetic interaction, a continuation of things mentioned in TFG: Noetics and Awaiting Inspiration.  I certainly will be having fun with it for months to come <heh>.  Thanks for your hard work, guys and gals, and can ya do more?

[VileBill]

Originally Posted By: Titan

You may not be in the minority.  Many others may agree with you, but are remaining silent out of respect for the massive amount of work put in by the creators of this ebook, which is offered completely free of charge for us to use or discard at our discretion.  I think it is full of useful ideas and information.  Not every single thing is to my taste, but it certainly represents years of effort, and is much appreciated.

So unless I liked it I can't say anything? If someone wants to write something and put it out there, regardless of the amount of work that went into it, they're opening themselves open to feedback. Both negative and positive.

[Asche]

I liked it over all... I did feel however that some of it took away from the feel of Aberrant and made it campy.
But as mentioned already, I simply don't need to use those parts .

Overall however, I am very appreciative. It was of no cost although the quality and workmanship was on par with other books I've paid for.
My thanks..

[Quest]

Liking the HECK out of it!
Well worth the wait, and has a wide-spread enough set of subjects and tones for nearly any sort of game using the abby rules and system, be it dark, four color or campy.

Maybe some game modules or story ideas next?
Again, thanks to everyone who made this book possible.

Quest

[Krul]

Originally Posted By: VileBill

Originally Posted By: Titan

You may not be in the minority.  Many others may agree with you, but are remaining silent out of respect for the massive amount of work put in by the creators of this ebook, which is offered completely free of charge for us to use or discard at our discretion.  I think it is full of useful ideas and information.  Not every single thing is to my taste, but it certainly represents years of effort, and is much appreciated.

So unless I liked it I can't say anything? If someone wants to write something and put it out there, regardless of the amount of work that went into it, they're opening themselves open to feedback. Both negative and positive.

Sure, your allowed to say whatever you like, but if your in the minority, then it means your vision of the game world differs from what most folks have, and they are allowed to say whatever they like about your opinion.  Criticism works both ways, if I want to criticize your critic, I'm allowed to do so, and your allowed to say I'm full of it.  

On the other hand, and more to address your original statement:

Originally Posted By: VileBill

Gonna disagree with the majority it seems.

I didn't have high-expectations and I was still disappointed. Half of the book has nothing to do with the subject matter of The New Flesh and really comes across more like a Storyteller version of Shadowrun than anything even approaching Aberrant.

Sorry, but this is a terrible critique, you might as well say you disliked it cause you disliked it, this isn't a critique, this is an opinion.  I'd actually like to see what it was you felt was bad, and why, otherwise, it's not really worth anything to me.

Even your expectations, what you wanted from this kind of book, what you were looking for, and why this book disappointed you is better then just.. I didn't have high expectations of this book, and I was still disappointed...  As to the rest of your statement, I've seen Shadowrun done so many different ways, it means nothing to me, and really, what is Abberant supposed to come across like?

You may disagree with me, and if so, fine, your entitled to do so, but I am entitled to make my critic of your opinion.

[KJ4]

damn thing won't let me download it...I get 99% and then it says there as an error.

*cries*

[Justin OOC]

looks like alot of fun.

[Outis Odysseus]

Excellent, but I have some remarks concerning advanced techniques:
* Pressure Secret: Dim Mak requires both Healing and Paralysis Pressure Secret, but what is the last one? Paralysis/Tactile Deprivation Strike, Paralysis/Tactile Deprivation Curse, or Permanent Paralysis/Tactile Deprivation?
* Dao Qi Meng and Climbing the Mountain of Heaven: as written, you cannot progress beyond Quantum 5 because you will accumulate Taint, however, you begin to gain Taint at Quantum 5, not Quantum 6

[Sprocket]

Excellent, but I have some remarks concerning advanced techniques:
Apologies for not making things clear enough, I'll post your answers here.

* Pressure Secret: Dim Mak requires both Healing and Paralysis Pressure Secret, but what is the last one? Paralysis/Tactile Deprivation Strike, Paralysis/Tactile Deprivation Curse, or Permanent Paralysis/Tactile Deprivation?
What's needed is Paralysis/Tactile Deprivation Strike.

* Dao Qi Meng and Climbing the Mountain of Heaven: as written, you cannot progress beyond Quantum 5 because you will accumulate Taint, however, you begin to gain Taint at Quantum 5, not Quantum 6.
That's not an error, friend. We felt that we had to allow Q5 novas to learn Qi Meng simply because so many popular archetypes (such as the weather-controller) require it. Also, unless the nova in question has accumulated a lot of permanent Taint, he'll only have 1 dot of permanent Taint to get rid of from having Q5, so it's not that much to get rid of. As for CtMoH, all it does is lift the restriction on buying Q6+.

Re: More Errata-
As with everything created by ordinary folks, a few important things were mistakenly left out of the finalized PDF of Aberrant: The New Flesh. Here's what else was missing.

Credits Page: The cover art was designed and created by Jessica "JessiLaurn" Orsini.

p. 128, Thrown Weapons Table: The stats for the hatchet as a thrown weapon are as follows:
Damage: +3L, Range Multiplier: special*, Rate of Fire 1, Conceal: J, Mass: 1.5 kg, Special: N.
*: The range of a thrown hatchet is determined as per "Throwing" on p. 236 of the Aberrant core book.

p. 134, Firearms Table
-Machine Pistols, Gen. 9mm Luger: The Accuracy for this firearm is 0.
-Rifles, Gen. Target: The Range for this firearm is 150.
-Rifles, Gen. Anti-Material Rifle: The Rate of Fire for this firearm is 1.

[Outis Odysseus]

Quote:

* Dao Qi Meng and Climbing the Mountain of Heaven: as written, you cannot progress beyond Quantum 5 because you will accumulate Taint, however, you begin to gain Taint at Quantum 5, not Quantum 6.
That's not an error, friend. We felt that we had to allow Q5 novas to learn Qi Meng simply because so many popular archetypes (such as the weather-controller) require it. Also, unless the nova in question has accumulated a lot of permanent Taint, he'll only have 1 dot of permanent Taint to get rid of from having Q5, so it's not that much to get rid of. As for CtMoH, all it does is lift the restriction on buying Q6+.

All right, but what I intended to remark on is the following paragraph from Dao Qi Meng, I have bolded the relevant parts:

Quote:

If the character is a first generation nova, she automatically loses the capability to buy Quantum at 6+ and the Node Background at 3+. This can only be remedied by buying the techniques Climbing the Mountain of Heaven and Node Reconfiguration, respectively. If the character already has Quantum 5+ or Node 3+, those traits are instead “frozen” at that level until she has purged all of their associated Taint, after which Climbing the Mountain of Heaven and Node Reconfiguration may be learned.

Notice that the text first mentions Quantum 6+, then later Quantum 5+. I thought that the first mention of Quantum 6+ was a mistake, and that it should be Quantum 5+, and in consequence Climbing the Mountain of Heaven should allow buying Quantum 5+, just like for Node 3+ and Node Reconfiguration.

[Sprocket]

Notice that the text first mentions Quantum 6+, then later Quantum 5+. I thought that the first mention of Quantum 6+ was a mistake, and that it should be Quantum 5+, and in consequence Climbing the Mountain of Heaven should allow buying Quantum 5+, just like for Node 3+ and Node Reconfiguration.
>shrug< So that sentence could've been arranged a little better. Our apologies, but we never claimed to be perfect either.

[iamthedave]

I love the book, especially the new combat style rules, very interesting.

One very minor thing I noticed was the mega stamina one feat 'can shrug off a heavyweight boxer's best shot'.

Given that Mega Stamina 1 only affords +1 bashing soak, that seems very unlikely. Your average heavyweight boxer would surely be statted at 4 strength and 4 brawl, so they'd blow right through your mega stamina effortlessly, and if they hit you clean they might be rolling +5 damage dice (say if you're stamina 1 mega stamina 1 with no combat skills), and in fact could knock you out in one punch!

But again, loved the combat styles section and the feats in general are a brilliant idea to help 'realize' what the mega stats do. My current batch of players are appreciating this a lot.

[Kaerdin]

I for some reason unable to download pdf is there any alternate way to get this file?

[Tora]

Originally Posted By: VileBill

Gonna disagree with the majority it seems.

I didn't have high-expectations and I was still disappointed. Half of the book has nothing to do with the subject matter of The New Flesh and really comes across more like a Storyteller version of Shadowrun than anything even approaching Aberrant.

That's a positive for me rather than a negative.  I am biased though considering I was first exposed to rpgs by way of Shadowrun.  

To be fair though, certain locations and aspects of Aberrant ARE very cyberpunk...Japan in particular.  Given how many resources we pour into bio and cyber tech in the real world its nice to see the effect that Novas would have on those industries...

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: iamthedave

One very minor thing I noticed was the mega stamina one feat 'can shrug off a heavyweight boxer's best shot'.

Given that Mega Stamina 1 only affords +1 bashing soak, that seems very unlikely. Your average heavyweight boxer would surely be statted at 4 strength and 4 brawl, so they'd blow right through your mega stamina effortlessly, and if they hit you clean they might be rolling +5 damage dice (say if you're stamina 1 mega stamina 1 with no combat skills), and in fact could knock you out in one punch!

Yes and no.  A heavyweight's best theoretical punch, i.e. all damage dice rolling succ, would certainly nail you.

But mega-stamina counts double for avoiding being stunned, i.e. taking the punch and shrugging it off.  The +1 soak and the requirement that they do two extra health levels to affect you means in a practical sense it's not going to happen.

[iamthedave]

Ah, you meant for avoiding the daze/knock out thing. Okay that I see.

The only thing I wish for the feats list is that there were more for the different levels on the other mega stats.

Easy to extrapolate though.

[Outis Odysseus]

A question about the power Blank, its description seems to apply only against novas, or quantum-based senses.

Would it be appropriate to have an extra which applies against psi-based senses, such as Attunement or the  Clairsentience aptitude? Or is it already covered?

[Courier]

The issue of how, and whether, quantum powers interact with psi powers is deep into "ask-ST" territory.

As written Blank would work against anything which isn't a specific sense, i.e. it works against "other".  It's designed for Intuition and Precognition... but in theory although both novas and psiads can have those powers, they work differently.

IMHO it would depend on how much of a leg up the ST thinks psiads should get.

[iGod]

If it helps, I thought it was mostly good, with some stuff that I might not use, but which was kinda interesting nonetheless.

By the way: hi!

[Courier]

Hi yourself and welcome to the boards!

[iGod]

I liked the real-life examples charts about what can feasibly be done at what Mega-dot. I liked the Body Modifications and the new Quantum powers.

I didn't mind the cyber-tech and biotech, chiefly because it gives Mega-Intelligent characters something to shoot for, and it is a pretty natural reaction to the presence of novas on the planet. (And none of the animal/cloning suggestions made me roll my eyes to heaven as much as Grandfather Monkey and friends from Forceful Personalities did, so there's that.) After all, when you subtract the superhero tropes, you are left with what is essentially a science-fiction premise: What would happen if suddenly some people really had super-powers? And what if they only kept getting stronger and stronger?

I do wish, though, that there weren't so many references to the Aberrant Compendium, or that the stuff referenced could have simply been written into The New Flesh.

[iamthedave]

I was pretty horrified by Grandfather Monkey and pals. Divis Mal would have looked at their sheets and thought they were overpowered.

The feat lists I love; just wish there were more for the other mega attributes

Love the cybertech and suchlike. In mega-intelligent campaigns you need to do somethign with all that brainpower.

[Dave ST]

Originally Posted By: VileBill

Gonna disagree with the majority it seems.

I didn't have high-expectations and I was still disappointed. Half of the book has nothing to do with the subject matter of The New Flesh and really comes across more like a Storyteller version of Shadowrun than anything even approaching Aberrant.

I have to throw my hat in with Bill on this one, the entire thing barely even covered the subject material and when it finally did all it seemed like to me was a d10 version of Shadowrun 4th Edition.  I realized that people put their time and effort into this, but after reading it I just kinda had a whole 'meh' vibe about it.  I don't think it contributed all that much to the overall universe.