Aberrant RPG - Your Thoughts on Forceful Personalities

[Ruckus]

Now that Forceful Personalities has come out, what is everyones opinion on it? Is it what we wanted complete with celebrities slathered with Taint buttered goodness or or is Grandfather Monkey haunting your nightmares?

[Hugin]

As I said in another thread I've only skimmed it so far but what I've seen is a mixed bag. I like the MegaUgliness stuff except that the aberrations for MegaUgly seem more as reasons to be MegaUgly rather than aberrations from being MegaUgly.

The enhancements with durations of days seem too powerful.

I like the exploration of Followers background.

And yeah, Grandfather Monkey and his idol are...excessive.

[Ruckus]

You are quite right about your analysis about mega Ugliness but how many of us really use Taint as described in any Aberrant book?

( though this is for another post)

My biggest compliant and i know i have more running around in my head; is that it really didn't develop mega-social to the scary proportions that they should be at. Think about it, Brainwaves should scare the hell out of any nova with no Mega-mental abilities.

In fact the e-book freed from the issues of mass marketing and business considerations should have goone more into the extreme than CoP was rumored to have been. I wanted Cults, I wanted John Lennon crazed movements and men that made you believe anything they said a la "The 25 keys to Power".

Instead I got 30 pages of character writes-ups (uninteresting ones at that) and a monkey.

Perhaps this is harsh, there are plenty of good things about it but there are also things that are ... lacking

[Ruckus]

oh yes and

NO ELECTIONS MAKES RUCKUS A VERY BORED BOY!!!!!!!!

[David 'Dr. Troll' Smith]

Quote:

Ruckus:
In fact the e-book freed from the issues of mass marketing and business considerations should have gone more into the extreme than CoP was rumored to have been.

I don't think anyone was willing to write up X-rated (or even R-rated) material for this sort of thing. If nothing else, there might be potential legal issues.

[Ruckus]

*sigh*

Despite the reputation of gamers, Dr. Troll I have no wish for superhero *porn*.

The point is that the e-book lacked both the flair and "adult" intellect( as opposed to the other adult wish i find in fact infantile)of the original core books.

Concepts introduced in the core books revolving around mega-social involved cults , religions and blind devotion.

Adult subjects for an adult series, if i wanted to play marvel supers i would have bought the set.

[David 'Dr. Troll' Smith]

Hmm. So you wanted to see much more stuff like the end of Chapter 1 (pg 29-38).

[Ruckus]

to an extentbut i would have perferred more extrapolation. Think about the shock and horror within the United States over the Death of Queen Diana. A person that had little or any political or monetary influence in the US? Think Elvis, and the blind devotion people have to him.

To go sacreligious, Think of the Pope. He is elected to the position correct?

But as soon as he emerges as the pope he is living divinity. I would have enjoyed a more thourough exploration of that among other things.

Including things like does a nova with mega attractiveness commit rape by sleeping with his or her choice of sexual partner? Its not like they really have a choice if the mega attractive nova wants to sleep with them. In certain ways the implications of Mega-Socals should be more sxpansive that those of mega-mentals or mega physicals.

[Jager]

This opens up a ton of questions, doesn't it?

[Ruckus]

Yes Jaeger it does. Unfortunately we need to discuss it rather than read about it tangibly because it was not explored in forceful personalities

[Jager]

(Psss ... Jaeger is the "bad man" inside Jager. Let's not talk about him.)

Well, it definitely unites continuity between Aberrant and Adventure (unless Underworld or Brainwaves brought it up previously).

In the canon setting this board tries to be, does it mean we can now use Adventure Background enhancements?

Are the plot hooks going to become canon?

There is now a method of avoiding taint in the game, which is rather stupifying in and of itself.

[Ruckus]

sorry about that Jager, my post colligate german popped out for a second.

I don't have Adventure so i don't know. I know the Forceful Personalities references that you can use adventure traits to gain millions of followers. To me that method is too prone to munchkinism

I actually solved the problems with followers and what not years ago establishing enhancements that allow some one to double up much on a back ground or redefining a background, for instance Resources is too paultry considering that most novas are instant celebrities. The higher levels of this back ground in my opinion needed to be higher.

[Jager]

What about a 1 to 10 scale, instead of 1 to 5? Use the standard measurements, but simply keep increasing the scale. Having any background above five would still be pretty phenomenal, and above seven would be truly awe-inspiring, even for novas.

[Ruckus]

Because of my obsessive need for order i never have liked when white wolf games decide that over five is the best way to represent really powerful things (and sell new sourcebooks).

Its nothing wrong with changing to a 1 - 10 system but for what ever reason it bothers me. its just a personality quirk (taint?)

Personally i find it somewhat silly that a nova with a resources of 1 would have the equivilent ("liquidated" mind you) of your average entry level mook (about 2,500).

Resources should mean exactly that *resources* starting with affluence and the four and five dot levels being the "Lex Luther - Bruce Wayne I have enough money to buy Guam" levels.

[Jager]

Resources 5 is $10 million liquidated. Hardly Lex, or Bruce ... its not even Bill Gates, or WalMart.

Imagine a M-Smart nova running his own trading house, or multi-national corporation ... only having a resources 5.

Imagine the loot garnered by the head of Enron ... and he destroyed his company in the process.

Now, I don't actually have a problem with novas not being rich. Some simply don't apply themselves, or don't by into the materialistic paradigm. I do agree that it is surprisingly easy for them to become rich, though.

[Ruckus]

Thats why i feel the background needed redefination. so i did

[Al]

Influence, Contacts, and Resources together can simulate the Lex Luthor/Bruce Wayne/Bill Gates billionaire. Remember folks, the 1-5 system does not portray statistical outliers. Adversarial backgrounds, merits/flaws, background enhancements, and/or changing to a 1-10 system may be necessary to flesh out characters to the level of precision desired by player or storyteller.