Aberrant: In the Beginning - House Rules- (Suggestion Box)

[Titan]

Any requests or suggestions for House Rules, powers not in the books, etc. should be posted here.

[Jaunt]

Jaunt (Teleport Extra)

The nova is permitted to make ‘jaunts’ at no quantum cost. Their node channels ambient quantum energies a lot more efficiently and burns them off instead of the nova’s own internal reserves.

System: For each dot in Teleport the nova may ‘jaunt’ up to 10 meters. This use of the power is free (no quantum cost) but has a few drawbacks. The nova may teleport to only familiar places (to the kitchen, back to their room, to the tool shed out back). Any situation that requires the nova to do anything but casual action negates the use of this extra (e.g. any action requiring a die roll, like combat, or catching a forward pass). Aside from that, the nova may ‘blink’ in and out of places as often as she likes.

This extra must be purchased with the first dot of the power, it may not be added later. Once added this method of travel is the only manner in which the power (with the extra) may be used. This makes the power of a role play tool than a ground shaking quantum power. This extra does not increase the level of the power from Level 2 to Level 3, so experience costs to raise it do not change (current rating x 5).

Once this extra is added, no other extras, strengths, or weaknesses may be added to the power.

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Flicker (Teleport Extra)

The nova may teleport in rapid succession. These extra teleports are rarely accurate and require intense concentration, but novas that have taken the time to master this ability are truly awe inspiring to watch. This extra is also called “Army of One” or “From The Shadows” for more combat oriented novas. This Extra must be added to the power when its first dot is purchased (your node either allows you to manipulate quantum this way or it doesn’t). Even with this extra, the nova is permitted to use Teleport normally if they choose too. This extra is not compatible with the ‘Multitasking’ enhancement, the node is already stressed by performing multiple teleports that the nova must focus on destinations and accuracy, forgoing his ability to effortlessly shrug off dice penalties.

System: This extra may be used as an offensive version of combat teleport. For each dot he character posses in Teleport they may spend one additional QP and take an extra action that turn. This differs from quickness in that each extra action suffers a cumulative –2 dice penalty (-2 for the first action, -4 for the second, -6 for the third, etc.) as well as a –2 initiative penalty. For each dot in Perception/Mega-Perception the nova possesses, the dice penalty is reduced by one, this cannot result in bonus dice. The fist opponent attacked is considered ‘Off-Balance’ (blind sided) and the nova receives a +2 to bonus to their dice rolls for that action. After this first attack the element of surprise is gone and most opponents know that the teleporter coming out from somewhere, so are more alert. Each action may be taken on a single target or separate targets whose destination must be at least 3 meters (per dot in Teleport, the better you are, the farther people can be) from the point of origin of the previous action.

Example: Jack Flack uses ‘Flicker’ to attack some thugs who are assaulting Lady Ace. He has Teleport 2 and Perception 3. He spends 4 Quantum Points (2 for Teleport, 2 for extra actions). His first attack is at -/+0 and his second attack suffers a –1 dice penalty (-2 +3 = 0, -4 +3 = -1). His first target is completely blind sided so Jack Flack gains a +2 bonus to attack rolls against him.

Example 2: Five skeet are launched into the air and Jack Flack wants to show off by plucking each of them from the sky. He now has Teleport 5, Perception 5, Mega-Perception 2. He spends 7 Quantum Points. His dice pools are now +0, +0, +0, +0, -2. He succeeds in all his ‘catch the skeet’ rolls and in five incredibly rapid blinks is now holding the five skeet and has large grin on his face. Since objects cannot be caught blind sided, the +2 bonus for his fist roll did not apply to this example.

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Mass Transit (Teleport Extra)

(Get it? MASS Transit... )

Perquisite: Minimum Attunement 1
This rare extra allows a nova to expand on his powers of attuning his quantum signature to objects permitting the nova to carry items or people along with him/her while he/she teleports. This process is taxing however and places most nova’s in a state of exhaustion since most novas can only handle bout 100kg before there is stressed beyond it’s limits.

System:The nova may spend one quantum point as well as suffer one unsoakable bashing health level of damage to attune additional 15kg. This additional weight is cumulative to any weight the nova is already permitted via their attunement background. The nova may not spend any more nova points than what is permitted by their node rating. The nova may not spend several turns ‘charging’ a massive object, if they cannot carry the entire attuned load in a single use of attunement then they cannot carry the weight.

The nova has the option (if their node rating is high enough) of spending all of their bashing health, and carrying the damage into their lethal health level as well, the damage is not applied until after the teleportation is made. Yes, if necessary, the nova may kill themselves if they attune something too large for their bodies to handle.

This extra must be taken when the power is purchased, it may not be added with XP later.

Example: Flicker has Attunement 5. We all know this. This permits her to attune 100kg. She has a node rating of 3 (I’m guessing for sake of the example.). She finds herself trapped in a crumbling building with a class of eight small children (est. @ about 20kgs each for a total of 160kg). She flares her node as the children gather around her. Flicker spends three quantum points to activate teleport plus spends additional 7 quantum points (1 to attune 100kg, and 6 to attune an additional 60kg). Her and the children teleport to safety but when they arrive at their destination Flicker collapses to the ground with a throbbing headache as waves of weariness wash over her as she suffers 6 unsoakable bashing health levels, but it was worth it. The children are safe.

Although this extra permits a large quantity of objects or people to be transported at once it should be noted that he/she may still only teleport one object. The nova could not stand on the floor and attune everything up his weight limit and then move all his furniture to his new apartment, each object upon the floor is considered separate and would require individual attunement… now, were he/she to pile a few things onto the bed… the couch… etc.

[SkyLion]

Off the cuff the Flicker one is, if not utterly broke, then seriously capable of abuse.

With any degree of Perception as you have shown you can get a sick ammount of actions at no penalty. For comparison the Fool had combat teleport which is very nasty and it doesn't compare as you will see...

It is true that their is a balance in that you are paying level 3 prices in NP and XP and the expenditure of quantum is a factor as well, just like Quickness.

I would feel better if it kept in line with the actual canon rules for multiple action penalties, and/or got rid of the perception canceling penalties considering that teleport is based on the perception attribute and most tports using characters (playes) will take it.

I dont see why this extra should be allowed to be both an amped up version of combat teport (which still takes *3* QP per jump) and a broken level version of mutitasking (with the perception penalty negation).

[Courier]

Proposed House Rules.

Healing.

1) Any use of Healing (or Regeneration) counts as a successful Medicine(First Aid) roll for preventing such things as bleeding to death.

2) If a Healer is dealing with someone with both Lethal and Bashing damage then he may choose which to address.

3) The maximum amount of juice a Healer may use to help someone on their Resistance Roll against Disease is 2q per dot of Healing (the rules say it can be done but not how much).

Elemental Anima and Mastery

1) As per the other suite packages, part of EA and/or EM is the ability (where appropriate) to sense their element at a range of [Q+Dots] x 20 meters. This ability is typically cost free.

2) As per Magnetic Mastery (page 207), very trivial uses of EA/EM may be done without cost (ST's choice but always out of combat). I.e. someone with Elemental Mastery:Fire could light a cigar without having to pay 2 quantum.

Elemental Mastery

1) EM techniques may create or *destroy* their element. For example a nova with EM:Stone could use shaping to create a hole in a stone wall even if there's no where for the stone to go.

[Titan]

A clarification of the rules on p. 154, italics marking changes:

She may apply her Mega-Attribute dots to the roll in one of three ways:

1) She may apply an additional number of Mega-Attribute dice to the roll, up to a limit of her Mega-Attribute rating. These Mega-Attribute dice are rollen in addition to the character's normal dice pool. Like other dice, Mega-Attribute dice need to roll a 7 or higher to be considered a success. However, if one of these dice scoreds a 7 or higher, the character gains not one, but two additional successes; and if a Mega-Attribute die comes up "10", the character gains threee additional successes.

2) She may subtract one from the difficulties of any rolls involving that Attribute, up to a limit of her Mega-Attribute rating. Thus, a character with Mega-Dexterity 4 attempting a Critical Athletics feat (+4 difficulty) may assign all of her Mega-dots to reducing the difficulty. Having done so, she rolls only her normal Athletics skill total, but makes the roll as though the task is of standard difficulty! This allocation cannot reduce any difficulty below standard difficulty (+0),as a success is still needed to accomplish the task, but it makes it much easier for superhuman characters to accomplish even the most heroic feats.

3) She may subtract one from the 'target number' needed to define success, up to a limit of her Mega-Attribute rating. Thus, the character with Mega-Dexterity 4 could lower the target number from 7 to 3, so that anything over a 3 counted as a success. This makes it possible for novas to accomplish some tasks with phenomenal success.

The player may designate some of her Mega-Attribute dots as extra dice, and others as difficulty redcutions, with still others assigned to reduce the 'target number'. She may also change the allocations of the dots from turn to turn and action to action. Please note, when assigning Mega-dice to rolls and combining with assigning dots to reducing 'target number', when rolling a Mega-die, the target is always 7.

[lead]

Dealing with Taint. When you lower your permanent taint, the difficulty to dealing with baselines also decreases.

[SkyLion]

I assume you mean when using Chrysalis to reduce taint yeah?

[lead]

Yes, or any other method of reducing taint that I haven't heard of.

[Fahrenheit]

It is unclear if Chrysalis is going to be available in this game. If you mean reducing Taint through the Chrysalis rules it clearly states that it's not a reduction per se, but a transcendence making you even more inhuman although you lower your taint (you keep all the aberrations and social penalties) but your mind set shifts away from humanity and focusing more on your inhuman side / ascendence to godhood.

[Renee Byrnes]

Hey!

I play Scion, which borrows heavily from the system of Mega-Attributes in Aberrant, and would like to propose a house rule lifted directly from their Epic Attributes - for each dot in an Mega-Attribute that you have, you receive one free enhancement. If this seems a little excessive to you all, please shoot it down - but I think it'll really enhance the sense of superhumanity that novas feel.

[SkyLion]

I'm in favor of this if Titan is. My reasoning is that it costs quite a bit of xp to raise your Mega Attributes...but all you get is another die to roll and another success on your average. That's really good actually but then you have to spend more xp just to be able to actually do anything cool with it, which is what the enhancements are.

[Titan]

At the risk of discouraging suggestions, consider that shot down. Don't get me wrong, I like that you guys are feeling the power, but that feels like a bit more than I want to do just now. That may change, but for the foreseeable future we will follow the traditional rules for purchacing enhancements.

Keep em coming though!

I would like to re-do Chrysalis from scratch. I hate the entire concept, and the mechanics are as elegant as wings stapled onto a turtle. We need a way to lower permanent taint. Given. But there has to be something better than Chrysalis. I don't even mind the cocoon part of it, but the rest of it sucks, IMnsHO. Anyone want to take a swing at this one?

[Jaunt]

Quote:

I would like to re-do Chrysalis from scratch. I hate the entire concept, and the mechanics are as elegant as wings stapled onto a turtle. We need a way to lower permanent taint. Given. But there has to be something better than Chrysalis. I don't even mind the cocoon part of it, but the rest of it sucks, IMnsHO. Anyone want to take a swing at this one?

I can take a shot at it. Give me the criteria you;d like for it an I'll see what I can do.

What's your vision for it? What flaws do you see that need fixing and I'll start with those.

[Katalyst]

I don't know if that's a great idea. I kinda of like the way the rules are already set. You can get enhancements for only 5 xp which is cheaper than buying your mega die. So I don't see the need to for getting a free one with each dot.

[SkyLion]

part of the problem with Chrysalis is that it doesnt solve the problem it makes it worse...you buy down your taint but rack up more aberrations and social penalties...you would have been better off staying where you were at given how difficult it is to acrue taint in the first place. Also the rolls required for converting taint to Chrysalis make it so that its going to take forever just to get anywhere with it, especially in PbP, and as others have mentioned it makes the player want to *try* and botch.

I suggest keeping things very simple and straightforward. If someone mentors you in Chrysalis you can pay xp to lower your taint, but no other xp breaks are gained from it. KISS method yanno?

[Titan]

Jaunt: I don't know, I've never really been happy with it, but because of that, I never introduced it into my games. Taint was never that big of an issue to my players, since they almost never accrued any they didn't want already. It should be hard, but not impossible, it should be discovered in-game, and it should be an actual cure for taint, instead of a shift in paradigm. In Champions, they had what was called a 'Radiation Accident' clause, where you saved up at least 50 xp and you and the GM got together and staged an event. Basically, you got all your points back from the beginning, and you re-created your character with similar or even all-new powers. Something like that would be cool, if we could justify it with Aberrant's milieu.

[SkyLion]

Secodary Mutation...

[SalmonMax]

Or even a "second eruption."

An event similar to the first, similarly transfiguring. A completely new quantum signature that overwhelms and replaces the original.

[Jaunt]

Neither Taint, nor Chrysalis were ever meant to be positive things so if I rewrite it I won't make one option any better than the next save for the obvious one that already exists: Chrysalis saves your character XP (but at a cost).

I generally don't mess with Chrysalis because people see it as an excuse to spend less XP and consistently agree that there should be no negative side effects.

Power corrupts, and Chrysalis is mean to the example of that in Aberrant.

I'll be pretty busy this week, but I'll review the rules and jot some ideas down. Even a hardcore skeptic like myself agrees that (mathematically) Chrysalis is broken and statistically almost impossible to achieve once your dice pools are higher.

I'll see what I can do.

[SalmonMax]

Hmmm

Here's a weird idea, but hear me out:

Taint is, as I understand it, a measure of the degree to which a nova has deviated from a hypothetical state called 'human,' as a result of channeling quantum energy. The more taint, the less human.

A simplification, but that is my impression of the overall Theory of Taint.

What if we invert that equation, and instead of giving novas taint, we give them a Humanity score? A sort of "morality" rating similar to that in other WW products. A measure to which a nova can empathize with other human beings AS a human being.

"Gaining taint" then inverts to "losing humanity." Aberrations then become functionally similar to Derangements, only with physical mutations available as well as psychological.

How this might impact a new vision of Chrysalis, I am not sure...

Edit - Or! Or! We could put taint on an opposed continuum from Humanity. So each point of Taint reduces the maximum possible Humanity score. If I have 3 taint, I cannot have more than 7 humanity. Taint represents an inability to connect to human beings, and thus "pushes" one's potential to connect down. Since most human beings are at 7 to begin with, this gives characters a similar "threshold" for taint as the original system...ie - you can have 3 taint without hosing yourself...but of course, taint still has RP potential, since it doesn't just mean you AREN'T high humanity, it means you CAN'T be. A normal person can look at a truly noble life and appreciate it...even if if he doesn't have the moral fortitude to imitate it. A tainted nova simply can't...understand such acts though. They seem so silly to him. So naive. So human.

This also solves the, "I have 7 taint, and a massive social penalty, but I am otherwise functional" that sometimes crops up. If you have 7 taint, you can have no MORE than 3 morality. And lets look at nWoD to get a feel for what someone with 3 morality is like, hmm? What will they feel they can do? What sort of person are they?

That's you now.

[SkyLion]

Originally Posted By: Jaunt

Neither Taint, nor Chrysalis were ever meant to be positive things so if I rewrite it I won't make one option any better than the next save for the obvious one that already exists: Chrysalis saves your character XP (but at a cost).

I generally don't mess with Chrysalis because people see it as an excuse to spend less XP and consistently agree that there should be no negative side effects.

Power corrupts, and Chrysalis is mean to the example of that in Aberrant.

I'll be pretty busy this week, but I'll review the rules and jot some ideas down. Even a hardcore skeptic like myself agrees that (mathematically) Chrysalis is broken and statistically almost impossible to achieve once your dice pools are higher.

I'll see what I can do.

I dont trust you to make rules for a game. I also think we should so away with *any* xp cost breaks and leave Chrysalis simply as a means to spend xp to lower permanent taint. If we must give it a disadvantage we can keep the mandatory aberrations in place but I see no reason to reduce taint or aberrations if one you are going to keep or even increase the social penalty...with the effort it takes to actually acrue taint players are only going to do so if they want to which takes away any *need* for Chrysalis. As isit is simply a negative thing and I believe the xp cost break is broken for most games. If you want to undergo change in a Chrysalis, save up your xp and have it be the IC story reason.

Again I don't trust your interpretation of the setting or the rules and would greatly prefer that the mods come up with something together that they feel is equitable. I trust the mods for this game.

[SkyLion]

Max: your idea has merit and potential but it does seem to overlook that some novas have high taint and only physical mutations. In these cases the social penalty comes from being radioactive, or having a flaming skull head or similar. It changes the setting if having high taint automatically affects you psychologically to the degree youare saying...that high taint automatically makes one take on a degenerative morality of character.

[SalmonMax]

Yeah, that's always been one of my problems with taint rules as they stand, actually.

On the one hand, taint is given as a measure of inhumanity...but to my mind, just having a flaming skull doesn't really make you inhuman. There SHOULD be a distinction between "high taint aberrated," and just, "looks funny."

[Courier]

Quote:

Even a hardcore skeptic like myself agrees that (mathematically) Chrysalis is broken and statistically almost impossible to achieve once your dice pools are higher.

Untrue... sort of. The Math works fine if you assume someone seeking Chrysalis does a powermax *every* *day*. They get a willpower point back every day so that's the most they could reasonable get.

So someone with Q1 botches one day out of 10 and gets 3.6 points of Chrysalis in a year and can go under in less than two. Q2 goes faster (one day in 9), Q3+ slower.

But that just means they have to spend a few years more working at it. I've done the Math and it doesn't get unreasonable until you hit Divis' Q level.

What this means is trying to get temp Chrysalis *can't* be an IC event. The rules support this since you can't convert temp points gained outside of your Archtype or in combat.

This *also* means that short of Chrysalis, Terats *never* get rid of Temp Taint. They're never going to take the month or whatever off to burn off temp taint because they have to max every day.

[Dawn OOC]

I can see the idea you're going for; as someone who is really familiar with the nWoD morality system style, it's always been a way of measuring the general moral character and I've having trouble separating that from what you're suggesting. Because I don't think you're suggesting a morality scale, since inhuman doesn't mean immoral necessarily.

That aside, it's not a bad way to track it.

[SalmonMax]

Well, that's a good point, Carver.

Just as "morality" changes in definition in product to product (Humanity in Vampire is not the same as Clarity in Changeling, despite having similar rules), so too would Aberrant's version of Morality be tailored to the setting.

I also think tracking taint and morality on separate, but interacting, continuums is useful, since taint isn't the only way to lose one's ability to understand or empathize with humanity.

[Dawn OOC]

How would they interact? Did you have any thoughts in that direction yet?

[Courier]

And BTW I think "Morality" has potential.

[SalmonMax]

Yeah. That each point of taint precludes a potential level of Humanity.

That is...imagine ten dots.

Humanity fills from left to right. Taint fills from right to left. Taint overrides Humanity. So if I have 5 Taint, I cannot have more than 5 Humanity. If I gain another Taint, I lose a Humanity point.

Then of course, you could have a mechanic for reducing taint, perhaps...which might simply free up a dot that you'd then have to buy Humanity for separately...or automatically award a dot of Humanity...

The specifics would have to be worked out, of course.

[Dawn OOC]

I think you need to choose another term than "humanity." It's very confusing to WoD players who assume you're limiting morality based on taint, which is not the way to go, I think. "Humanness" perhaps would be better.

[Guest Anonymous]

How about something clinical sounding, something that might be found in psych. Brainstorming here ... maybe Stability?

Also, my two bits on the system: I think we should avoid XP breaks of any kind. Having aberrations stick around more as 'modifications' isn't bad from a story point of view - that has a nice turning-lemons-into-lemonade flavor to it.

[Darklighter]

Sorry, that Anon post was me. My system decided to log me out just then.

[jameson (ST)]

Pathos?

[Darklighter]

Essence?

Psyche?

[Courier]

So what do we use Humanity for?

Appearing Human? Relating to Baselines? Not running amok?

[Darklighter]

As someone previously pointed out, the main problem is going mad, becoming immoral, etc. Really, the physical changes kind of fit - and are immaterial anyway. So your skull is on fire, OK ... makes wearing hats tricky if you don't have attunement, and you are no longer one of the better kissers out there ... but hey.

What if Chrysalis is strictly a way to combat going mad by building a Nova mentality. Keep the rules exactly as they are, except add a trait called (tentative name) "Archetype"

People choose the flavor of their Archetype, a self directed mental evolution. Every dot you buy in Archetype counteracts one dot of permanent taint. Abberations are kept, except mental ones might have to change somehow (maybe the Archetype trait has Enhancements that can counteract those - like a mega Att).

Now, here is a system that plays simply - one stat. It also fits the setting ... people could choose 'Marvel', 'Monster', 'Portent' and of course other flavors could be made up too ... those three would represent the core 'Teras' thinking on how to do Chrysalis.

Just a spur of the moment idea. This way, it isn't about trying to 'stay human' or anything like that ... though that could be inspiration for more archetype flavors. Really, it is about directing your own evolution in the most important way ... shaping your own quantum consciousness.

[SalmonMax]

Actually...I -am- saying morality should be limited by taint.

That is, if we define "morality" in Aberrant as "the ability to care about and empathize with humankind," which seems to me to be the antipode of taint...then taint and this morality (by whatever name) become competing forces in any nova's psyche.

Any sentient being in Aberrant would have the morality trait, which can vary between 1 to 10, as per the nWoD definitions. The 'standard' being 7. A nova can have taint...which acts as an artificial ceiling to one's potential morality (as defined above...bearing in mind that this definition is intentionally limited for game purposes). If you have taint 3, you cannot -exceed- morality 7. Higher levels of empathy are not possible for someone who's taint has differentiated them that much from baselines.

I'm open to discussion though, most definitely. None of my ideas here are complete...they are rough drafts at best! I am hoping to refine them through feedback, so keep it coming.

[Darklighter]

I always thought the crux of the issue was rather the opposite in Aberrant. Taint makes it harder for humans to understand, tolerate, etc. Nova kind.

This view makes much more sense, given that novas can be so mega social, intelligent, witty, etc. that understanding human thought isn't really all that tricky. One of those B follows A but A does not follow B kind of logical structures.

Caring about humanity, OK, I can see a point there. Still ... having taint limit morality just puts us back on the old treadmill of 'I use my quantum power and go insane'. Plus, having morality means we have to define it. Not that your functional definition is a bad one though Salmon ... if we had a Morality system, that would be a logical way to do it.

Also, I think one of the best things about Aberrant is that they abandoned the morality as a number thing that one sees in alot of other White Wolf games and let players just do what they want to do with their PCs. You already have a nature to guide actions ... let that be enough. Mind you, that works for other games ... vampire is a great game, tailored to the vampiric experience which is pretty narrow all in all, but well suited.

EDIT: Reading through my own post it sounds a bit argumentative. Just trying to make some counterpoints, not be a butt head

[SalmonMax]

Point 1) "I use my quantum power and go insane."

That's how it's -supposed- to be. Or rather, gaining taint is MEANT to be a consequence of indulging or overindulging in quantum shenanigans. Is that not the whole point? To have a mechanic to demonstrate the creeping corruption of power? If it's not, then what IS the point?

Point 2) "Plus, having morality means we have to define it."

This is a feature, not a bug. We need to define this, IMO. We need to know what taint means, and one way to do that is to know what "not-taint" means. To understand what differentiates us from humanity (at least as far as quantum stuff goes), it's nice to have a functioning definition of what 'humanity' means.

To my mind, it sums up to one word: Empathy.

Taint represents, in my mind, the creeping tendency of a superhuman to neglect/forget about/not care about human feelings, conditions, and/or limitations. Soon, things that seem cruel and evil to us seem perfectly rational and natural to the tainted nova. Why not enslave baselines? Who cares if one baseline lives or dies?

Empathy represents a person's ability to understand another person's ideas, values, conditions and feelings by imagining that those things are their own. This is not understanding on an intellectual level...but on a gut, personal level. A mega intelligent nova might say, "Ah, yes, you're upset because I remind you of your abusive father who abandoned you and your mother." But he wouldn't necessarily EMPATHIZE. Empathy says, "Damn...I'd feel awful if that happened to me...I'm really sorry."

And of course, a high taint nova probably -is- harder for baselines to understand...hence a social penalty hierarchy of some sort is probably still in order.

[Darklighter]

Counter - Counter points

1) We already have a mechanic to represent going insane by using quantum power. Taint. Please, lets not invent a second one.

2) There we will have to agree to disagree. I think it is a feature that fits other game styles. As I said, we already have Nature. It does the trick, and is elegant because that's all one really needs for Roleplay. Furthermore, becuase I disagree, others may well too - and changing this part of the game will really change the flavor of Aberrant. I signed up for Aberrant, not Mage, not Vampire, etc. Note that I am not speaking for others besides myself, I am not saying 'people do agree with me' I am saying 'people could possibly agree with me' and hence preserving the original nature and flavor of the game is a good thing.

As I said previously. I am with you on the Empathy bit being valid. I agree, comprende, etc. What I didn't agree with earlier was the implication that a Nova can't understand humanity. Perhaps I should make my distinction between rational understanding and empathy, and also play devils advocate to your argument by showing the other side of the coin (if I can express my thoughts well enough). A being as advanced as a Nova need not be driven by emotion at all. Which is another element that Morality of this sort would limit Novas from expressing - essentially we don't want to force emotional overtones on all Novakind via an artificial mechanic. We don't want to limit the Nova who RATIONALLY comes up with a philosophy of fostering baselines becuase it is in his or her best interest, logically speaking. I can think of a number of reasons why Humanity should be well treated, but the best example that comes to mind is in Issac Asmiovs Robots series. In this series, the emotionless, unempathising, totally logical, machines realize that they are killing humanity by enslavement. They realize that emotions are important to humans as purely psychosocial factors (note they don't grasp emotion themselves, they just see it as yet more math expressing something in the universe ... sub-routines of human software if you will). So, they free humanity - becuase they RATIONALLY arrived at the decision it was a good idea.

Again, I am arguing here in a completely academic sense (I hope). Not as a discourtesy to you, but only to help advance the understanding of the topic.