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Aberrant RPG - Testing the waters.


Wakinyan

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Someone offered me space to run my own board for a Aberrant game. I wouldn't mind running a game and just want to see who would be interested in it. So far I am thinking 100NP characters with bonus NPs given on strong background storys. I will be limiting powers and Quantum at least starting off.

It would be a Cannon based game but I dont have a idea on what type of game it would be. (ideas welcome)

,,

If any of you are interested just let me know. I don't think I can manage more than eight people, so expect me to be picky if this generates a lot of interest. I want people who can post daily with quality and cooperation.

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Ummmm, no....Superman is a comic book character from DC comics, not a Nova and not from Aberrant.

Now, if you're asking whether or not you could make a Superman clone from 100NP, I would say that depends on your interpretation of the character. I'm sure there are people who feel they could make a perfectly good 50NP Supes while others insist that at least 150NP would be required to truly capture the true Superman.

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Personally I don't see Supes done on anything short of two to three hundred Nova points. He has heated the earth from space with his heat vision. Went back in time just by flying around the earth and survived a nuke point blank. With the exception of magic nothing much can touch him. Of course this is a summation of many different takes on what superman could do but if you take his entire history of what he has done he could put Divis over his knee and spank him like the little brat he is.

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Somehow I don't think Mal would complain about being spanked by a muscle-bound superhuman. Heh.

I have too much time on my hands.

As for 100NP starting characters. Seems a bit powerful but good luck to you Totem if you can GM it. I'm curious to know how you'd be limiting powers. Personally if I had 100NP's to build my character I'd want to be able to give him some world-stomping abilities.

That said I did make up The Midnighter (from The Authority) for 100 points.

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OK, to kind of jump start this along I'll post the concept I have in mind.

The Nova known as The Mornging Star has had a post erupted career rife with controversy. He originally appeared on the scene as one of many Nova entertainers, his particular niche were opera songs remixed into dramatic modern productions, sung by his impossibly beautiful voice. His stage name The Morning Star drew plenty of controversy among religious institutions and parents, and ironically enough the XWF. The XWF had a new rising star in their Red Class of shoot fighters who was also laying claim to the Morning Star name, a title often attributed to the fallen angel Lucifer or Satan from the bible. The XWF star looked very devilish in his costume and his impressive flame wielding abilities.

In true XWF fashion, Brian Rand challenged Morning Star (who has yet to reveal his pre-erupted name) to a fight for who could claim the name. Later interviews revealed he didn't expect to be taken seriously and was already working up a case with XWF lawyers to acquire the name. To the singing world's surprise, the incredibly handsome singer accepted the challenge. They fought at the 'Samhain Bash' PPV Halloween event in Berlin Germany, and were slated as one of the top events there. The fight fast became one of the most replayed fights on the Opnet when the stunning Morning Star entered the '9 Levels of Hell' combat arena wearing only a Eufiber toga, like something out of the Roman colisseum. As yet, no one had seen Morning Star exhibit powers other than his staggering charisma, but once the battle was joined he showed an astonishing degree of power and control over light and energy, and easily trounced XWF shoot fighter Brian Rand, formally known as Morning Star. Morning Star has since been challenged two more times for rights to his name, once more by Brian Rand, who died in the ensuing battle, and an elite from an as yet unknown company, who survived and was unmasked at the end, a French Canadian named Pierre Amencez.

Morning Star's identity now preserved, he returned to his performing career, with a surprising number of new fans across the genre. He declined several offers for a permanent spot with XWF as a Black Circle contender, but did agree to perform a remix of the classic Carmina Burona, which is played at some of their PPVs and highlight shows.

Controversy with the Morning Star arose again at the annual Burning Man festival, popular among certain artists and those in the counter cultural scene. In a shocking display from a group famous for their gruesome performances, the satanic rock group Domitori and their fans, the Cult of Astaroth, claimed to actually be trying to summon a demonic entity known as Astaroth in a macabre and bloody ritual. Reports are sketchy but indicate that the core group culminated the ritual with willing and unwilling blood sacrifices, and when Astaroth failed to appear the Nova rock band Domitori turned on each other and fought. Witnesses claim that the leader of the group, Thor Gundolffsson (who changed his name to Astaroth he claims in honor of his patron) attacked the others and actually began to eat them. When two such Novas were consumed, an explosion of light appeared at the center of their bloody pentagram and Morning Star was in the center. To date there is no known instances of contact between the Nova known as Morning Star and anyone in the Cult of Astaroth and the rock band Domitori. Using his unique vocal talents he calmed the baselines and managed to get them to flee to safety and then challenged the remaining Domitori for having "Dared to summon the One and his fell power.". In the ensuing fight Astaroth inflicted some rather serious injuries on Morning Star, but was presumably killed by the laser like emissions of the Morning Star, and the other kneeled when Morning Star commanded him to, the simple minded drummer for the band, Grimskull, he is now in custody with Project Utopia and awaiting trial.

Scandal erupted in the Catholic church when it was revealed that a splinter extremist group within it known as 'Longinuous's Spear' was found out to have contracted through Devries to hire Morning Star to take out Domitori at the Burning Man festival. Morning Star is currently under investigation, but is not predicted to be in any real trouble due to the various laws that have been passed to help police rampant Novas. He is also working on his latest project and is rumored to have a tour planned, though he has spoken cryptically of various offers he's had recently.

Assuming what Regan said was correct I intend to create him along those lines. This history is available to anyone that surfs the Opnet. Let me know if this will suffice for a start.

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Quote:
Originally posted by Templar:
Is that your idea for a character? Because thats really good... If Totem is interested in allowing me to join I'll post one up too.
Yes, that's what I have so far. I also made a basic write up of his powers and abilities but that's it so far. Like I said, this history is Opnet available, he'll undoubtedly have other skeletons in the closet.
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I'm tossing concepts around, but I've so far settled on a character called Lynne 'Poppy' Hsu.

Here's her history. I have the sheet and even a picture selected, but this sums her up.

Lynne Hsu had always been pretty, and well aware of the myriad fates that could befall a pretty girl in post-handover Hong Kong. After all, her sister Tabitha had become a prostitute down at the Triad-owned Chang’s brothel, her youth eroded by hard use and constant opium smoking. Her brother Robert had worked at the opium den attached to Chang’s before pissing off the wrong tong leader and ending up face-first in the harbour. Old Chang himself had watched Lynne’s growing up with great curiosity, and the day she hit sixteen, offered a place at the brothel. She declined, but the old man wouldn’t take no for an answer. He got Tabitha to send Lynne a message to meet her at the opium den, and when the young woman showed up, told her she was working for him whether she liked or not. Lynne again declined, so Chang called out his ‘bouncers’ to give the girl a lesson she’d never forget.

Things didn’t go according to plan. Lynne tried to make a run for it, but Chang blocked her exit. Affected by the opium haze and the stress of the situation, she erupted. The men suddenly acted like they were under the effects of opium themselves, disoriented and confused, as Lynne managed to sneak outside and run home. When she told her parents what had happened, they immediately fled to the Rashoud clinic and begged Project Utopia for sanctuary. Lynne was able to talk the rep into doing it without too much difficulty, and not just because of the fact that it was one more nova for the Project. Her ability to cajole people into doing what she wanted had increased incredibly, as had all of her other attributes. Soon enough, Lynne and her parents were on their way to Singapore to be trained there; the city had its own Heaven Thunder gangs, but the tongs there couldn’t have cared less about the ones in Hong Kong, and Chang’s people had completely forgotten about the young nova – Lynne had instinctively erased everyone’s minds in the room, including her sister’s.

In Singapore, Lynne honed her abilities and took the name of ‘Poppy’ for the scent that always drifted around her. She was found to secrete an opium-like substance from her pores that could disorient, confuse or even physically harm an opponent in a varying radius of influence up to about a hundred and sixty or so metres, and to actually manipulate the drug itself. Her physical, mental and social abilities were all in the low superhuman range, she was almost immune to many kinds of drugs, environmental conditions and diseases and as a side-effect of her powers had a certain defence against sensory attacks of differing kinds.

Though she has not yet returned to Hong Kong, she has been corresponding with both Amanda Wu and Rick Tiger about the crime problems in the city. When her training and tenure with Utopia is complete, she may just decide to start dealing with the parasites in her hometown…

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This is what I came up with.... hope it's good enough, I have the sheet and stuff all worked out and ready.

Eddie "Psiwar" Nightingale

Before Eddie erupted he was a detective working for the L.A.P.D and tracking known drug pushers and arms dealers in the shadier parts of town. He learnt how to interact with the pimps and thugs well enough to avoid suspicion and gain valuable information leading to the shut down of many dealers and even more arms smugglers.

Some time in late December 2004 he was tracking a syndicate working out of L.A. and discovered that they weren't just selling weapons but human organs as well. He managed to find out through his sources that this syndicate calling themselves "The Vermilion Group" based themselves in a group of warehouses on the outskirts of the city, and Eddie decided to investigate and see if he could infiltrate and "join" the ranks of the group to give him a chance to build up enough evidence for a search warrant and a raid.... obviously he would have to hide his activities from his team and the rest of the police force so he went in alone.

Under the cover of darkness he went to the warehouses and claimed to want to join the criminals and luckily for him he was very persuading and managed to be let into the complex and led to the upper levels of their hideaway to meet with their leader. On his way he saw many small arms holding areas and ammo dumps and well as strange refrigeration units and many guards. Upon reaching the bosses office Eddie was frisked by a guard and told to go in, and that's what Eddie did... sigh in relief that he decided to leave his piece in his car when he left. Unfortunately for Eddie the boss wasn't just your average baseline scum, he was a reasonably powerful nova name "The Eye" whose main abilities revolved around his perception and lethal energy blasts.

The Eye asked various questions of Eddie and even with his natural abilities of deception he was given away by the nerves twitching in his face, Suddenly a barrier leapt up around The Eye and he shouted for his guards for backup. The fear and desperation led to Eddies eruption and a barrier of force leapt up around him as The Eye shot a deadly beam of radiation at him. Working on nothing but instinct and fear he managed to use his own powers to avoid being destroyed by The Eye and somehow managed to "turn off" a number of the evil novas abilities, most notably his force field. Firing back his own quantum energies and the now mostly defenceless nova he managed to dispatch him in a number of seconds and the took to the air and shot out of the nearby window at nearly 1,000 mph causing damage to the warehouse and blowing out windows as he shot up into the sky and disappeared into the cloud cover.

A few days later he made his way confused and scared to the nearest Rashoud clinic to learn how to control his new found abilities, he seemed to have become super humanly fast able to project powerful bolts of kinetic energy and more notable the ability to control the minds of others and even to temporally take control of their bodies by turning his own into psychic energy. His mental and even some of his physical abilities have reached superhuman states and his powers of trickery and manipulation rival most novas on the planet... the only outward sign of his becoming a nova is the pale erie green glow that seems to flow around him at all times. Still shaken by his eruption he still has not yet decided how to approach this new life with seemingly endless possibilities.

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I guess it's my turn to throw out my favorite idea so far, Brody 'Continuum' Clark. I even have a filled out sheet too.

As a young baseline, Brody spent his days sequestered in his room, reading thick books on science and space travel. He remained a loner for most of his life, connecting only with a few of his contemporaries (his intellectual equals). As he finished high school and began college, Brody's interest in science began to narrow to physics and he also gained a ravenous hunger for philosophical and metaphysical works. His diligence and intelligence made him the darling of Caltech's physics department and he graduated at the top of his class and helped him land a position as a physics Ph.D candidate at Harvard.

During the brief hiatus between his undergraduate and graduate work, Brody underwent an odd transformation. He had an epiphany of sorts regarding his knowledge of physics and philosophy, combining the two in his mind. Once at Harvard, he threw himself into his studies with a zeal and drive to prove his theory: reality exists as a single point, making the dimensions of space and time are merely an illusion. Against his advisor's warnings, Brody poured all of his efforts into his thesis and prepared to defend his radical theory. After four years of preparation and ridicule, Brody stepped onto the stage to defend his dissertation. Over the next two hours his ideas and theories were torn apart by the distinguished faculty, frustrating Brody further and further with his inability to adequately explain his theory or to show evidence of it. As the head of the department was disparaging his academic worth, Brody's anger and desire unlocked the secrets within him. He interrupted the professor and told the old man that if his words wouldn't work then he would just have to show the professor. In an instant, Brody teleported himself and the professor to low Earth orbit within a protective bubble for a few seconds and then returned the two of them to the lecture hall. Once back, Brody presented his dissertation again from the beginning with inhuman eloquence and new information. He dumbfounded the other scholars, showing unparalleled understanding of phsyics and even demonstrated his points through altering the spatial properties of himself and the room and even briefly divided up the room into three distinct time zones where time passed at highly accelerated or not at all. With the now lecture finished and his theory vindicated by his words and newfound mastery of space and time, Brody collapsed on stage and was taken to the Boston Rashoud clinic.

Gaining the nickname Continuum, Brody's mastery of space and time were cataloged at the clinic along with his new rhetoric skills. He has already shown the ability to survive in extreme environments and even manipulate gravity as an extension of his base abilities, but he and the paraphysicians at the Rashoud center agree that he has the potential to utilize his powers in even more unique and versatile ways. While his time is nearly up at the clinic, he has yet to announce where he will go when he's done, be it with Utopia, NASA, academia, or even the Daedalus League. What is certain is that his zeal for physics has not been sated by his eruption.

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My story is constantly getting refined and I will say this much it has a very specific plot at least to start with. I am going back to a old story I had in mind during my glory days of Aberrant Story telling. Since it is specific it might dash a few ideas you guys are tossing around or at least make you adjust them some. So here is a bit more clarity on the parameters of characters.

1. You will have standard Phase 1: Human step.

2. Step 2: Nova will have the following changes. You have 73 Nova points on which to build from. All characters will start with one point in each Mega Attribute (This will is basically the last 27 points up to 100. Predetermined spending)

3. Quantum limit for starting PCs will be 6. Any purchase of Mastery, purchasing or taking power to Level 4 powers must be approved.

4. The character will be an freshly erupted Nova and will have just been admitted to a Rashoud facility for test and training. During eruption there is no indication that said Nova is anymore powerful than a normal eruptee.

That's about it for now. I will continue to add more details when as I am allocated the space to start the board for the game.

Right now the working title of the story is:

Aberrant: Project Nephilim

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ARGH!!!

I always have awful luck with with character creation. Get this - I'm sitting here tossing around ideas, and come up with three good possibles: one character partially designed around a drug (this one a combat enhancer, but still), one body-snatcher, and a space/time manipulator.

This isn't the first time this kind of thing has happened, either.

Time to do some tweaking ...

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Question: What style of game are we looking at here? I'm gonna take a stab and say it doesn't sound like your basic four-color adventure, but is this cloak-and-dagger? political? exporation of the superhuman condition? some other style entirely?

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Quote:
Originally posted by Alex Craft:
Question: What style of game are we looking at here? I'm gonna take a stab and say it doesn't sound like your basic four-color adventure, but is this cloak-and-dagger? political? exporation of the superhuman condition? some other style entirely?
I guess the style I can best describe this as is something like Aberrant with the ancient origin element feel kinda like Stargate (Minus the world hopping and aliens). The game will still be cannon as in recent events but it might diverge when it comes to histoty and mythos. All of which could has been speculated on before. Add into that there is going to be definite orchestration by Sphinxes it will add a level of intrigue to the game. Don't think it won't have action though. Call me juvenile but I just can't have a good supers game unless someone gets punched through a building at some point. laugh


I will clean up my mailbox now thanks for the heads up.
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Quote:
Originally posted by Totem:
Quote:
Originally posted by Alex Craft:
Question: What style of game are we looking at here? I'm gonna take a stab and say it doesn't sound like your basic four-color adventure, but is this cloak-and-dagger? political? exporation of the superhuman condition? some other style entirely?
I guess the style I can best describe this as is something like Aberrant with the ancient origin element feel kinda like Stargate (Minus the world hopping and aliens). The game will still be cannon as in recent events but it might diverge when it comes to histoty and mythos. All of which could has been speculated on before. Add into that there is going to be definite orchestration by Sphinxes it will add a level of intrigue to the game. Don't think it won't have action though. Call me juvenile but I just can't have a good supers game unless someone gets punched through a building at some point. laugh


I will clean up my mailbox now thanks for the heads up.
Though I think having Eddie tell the bad guy to punch himself through a wall would be much more amusing :P

Meanwhile Brody puts the whole thing on slow-motion, we get lighting effects from The Morning Star, and everyone gets high from hanging out with Lynne.... sounds like fun already cool
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Well, here is my idea for the character. I have a sheet for "it" also.

The person that would be known as "Enigma", starts as an scientist investigating in the Nanotechnology field. ¿He,she?, works in a laboratory called N-Tech Inc. which got a big part of the money needed from the Comparelli-Zhukov Megasyndicate. This fact was only known to the Board of directors that run the business.

The experiment was about special nanomachines that simulate the work of viruses but used to cure cellules of many illnesses. It was an astounding success and the nanopseudocellules could even "absorb" inanimate molecules to do their bidding.

The scientist took the results to the Board and they congratulated this person for the investigation. Quickly they warned the Megasyndicate because really they were financing the lab in order to use the nanocellules as an unstoppable weapon. The plan was to modify his mobsters to be almost invulnerable.

A night that the scientist was working making the last details of the nanites, a hacker tried to enter on the lab´s net. He didn´t have success but messed up the system so badly that the net´s central server crashed.

When they reseted the system discovered with dismay that all the files about the experiment among other information was wiped out. Backups existed of course, but were in the scientist´s hands. It was a precaution taken to prevent abuse by the lab. At home there were also without the knowledge of the Directors a sample of the nanites.

Losing his patience, the Megasyndicate´s local boss ordered one of his men to recover the information and close the investigator´s career forever.

It was a real mess, the bouncer tried to enter the house discreetly but was foiled by an alarm invented by the owner. The gangster entered forcefully and saw the scientist trying to call the police. In the ensuing fight a bookcase got knocked down and some books took fire from the hearth. Next were the curtains and carpets. In mere seconds the fire had extended in the room and was seeking things to burn in the rest of the house.

Realizing the danger at last, the killer shove the other person over a burning cabinet where the nanocellules sample was. In this moment, at the same time that the first nanomachines were entering the body, Enigma erupted.

The next lucid thinking the new Nova has was a week ago. Enigma woke up in a little hamlet in the middle of a forest with the quantum-powered nanites as cellules of the body.

Enigma has discovered that his old identity is destroyed. All people thinks that the fire killed ¿him,her?.

Enigma could now be everybody, his nanocellules could arrange themselves in any pattern that the Nova could think about. But more than this, they can absorb inanimate matter in order to grow. And could take even the properties of this matter.

The confused Nova don´t know what to do. In a more usual circumstances the logical answer would be to go to a Mazarin-Rhasoud facility. But Enigma has the nagging suspicion that maybe PU would try to use him as a guinea pig. And he nows very well what ultimately happens to all guinea pigs.

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Sounds really interesting... HUGE cypher I would guess for this character, though Utopia would no doubt look really deep to uncover who this person was (might even resort to surrepitus telepathy)

Are you shooting for a Shapeshifter/Matter Chameleon type nova?

Oh, and how about putting the amnesia flaw on him... the whole "no one knows his/her past.... not even him/herself"

Just some ideas... feel free to call me a dumbass :P

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Do you support Merits/Flaws?

Also, on a finer point, how will you handle targeting for a thrown weapon? The book has Might determining distance, but is that the attack dice pool as well? Or is it Melee, Athletics, or something else?

"But no, I´m not putting the amnesia flaw on "it"."

Whew. Because my current character does have amnesia. (Still, dangerously close for comfort - I'm cursed I tell ya.) (c;

{edit: another question (:}

Do you want to impose a Taint limit? I'm currently starting with Taint 6 (for the medium level enhancement 'Amnesia' ... well, and the extra np).

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Well I havent thought about taint yet but I would like it to be low at start. Isnt there a flaw for amnesia that would work?

I will get back to you on the throw thing. Maybe Prodigy or Troll will answer it before I am back with my books.

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Wan Chiu aka Philip Kuok-koi aka David Ou

What is known:

Several weeks ago, a Chinese man in his late twenties was found comatose in a back alley of Metro Manila, Philippines. He was not alone. Scattered through the nearby alleys were numerous dead bodies - apparently the remains of astonishingly bloody battle between two local gangs. The police could find no reason for such a violent confrontation, which must have all but wiped out both groups.

The man was the only survivor, and did not appear to be associated with either side of the fight. His role in the matter is currently unknown, but he was believed to be simply an innocent bystander who miraculously avoided getting killed in the cross fire. In fact, he was found completely unharmed (aside from his comatose state).

This last was assumed to be a miracle, until he arrived at the hospital, still unconscious. There, even a cursory medical examination was sufficient to prove that he was not human, but a nova (who most likely erupted when he found himself caught in a gang war). At this point, he was turned over to the nearest Rashoud Facility.

The Facility began to run tests on him, but found that his enhanced bone/muscle density and armor-like skin rendered him largely opaque to their limited equipment. He was moved to a better facility (basically, wherever Totem wants me) to be examined with better instruments. At this point, he was still unidentified, and no one had come forward with information on him.

At the new Facility, he was scheduled for time in radiology, etc, but suddenly awoke before being examined. There only seemed to be one lingering effect from his coma - near total amnesia. He seemed to be in perfect physical condition, so the subsequent tests were limited - mostly neurological in nature. The test results were still somewhat blurred by his dense body (the doctors opted to stop short of opening up his brain pan), but they were sufficient to dispel worries of permanent brain damage.

Right now, the expectation is that - with time and proper psychiatric treatment - he will eventually regain at least parts of his memory. In the meantime, his image is being circulated through Metro Manila media outlets in the hope of finding friends or family. (This has not turned anything up so far.) Going by the name David Ou, this man is pretty much at loose ends.

David has been marked out as a fairly powerful nova, though nothing too extraordinary. He's at least mildly superhuman all across the board, with notable strength, speed, and agility as well as extraordinary mental capacities. Further, his body is markedly resilient - capable of easily withstanding small arms fire. He further has a near-total resistance to psychic intrusion - a fact discovered when a Utopian telepath attempted to unlock any intact memories.

David seems to have had extensive martial arts training, but this may actually be an artifact of eruption. It has been determined that he can speak at least three languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, and Tagalog. This last suggests that he is a native of the Philippines.

Lastly, he is already exhibiting a slight degree of aberrancy - during great physical exertion, he manifests a near-transparent illusion of a five-clawed Chinese dragon (five claws identifying it as an imperial dragon). David has no idea why he manifests this specific image.

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About the knife thing, I would say the dice pool for hitting would be Dex+Martial-Arts which sounds like it would work well with your character anyways.

I love the idea, a Bruce Lee nova....

...and a tank to hide behind!!!! :P

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