Aberrant RPG - Request for clarification on Nova Infertility...

[Conner McKay]

I'm new to the Canon Aberrant Background, so i was hoping for clarification, either brief or verbose, on Nova infertility. Are they natually less-likely to reproduce and being driven to serility, or is it due to external manipulation alone?

[Dawn OOC]

My understanding, by canon, is that they are super-fertile (or at least their perfected bodies are optimally prepped for bebies ) and it is the external 'mickey' that renders them infertile.

[Justin OOC]

I'd say it tends more towards them being sterile in in Canon due to external forces, depending on when the game is set there could be factors actively and covertly steriizing novas. Or it could have all come out in the open, and more slip through the cracks.

[Conner McKay]

"My understanding, by canon, is that they are super-fertile (or at least their perfected bodies are optimally prepped for bebies ) and it is the external 'mickey' that renders them infertile."

... but as far i can tell, they only insuate that PP is the 'Most likely' culprit?

[Dawn OOC]

More like WW didn't want to say exactly what was causing it. They stated enough that you could draw that conclusion, but left it up to the ST to change at will.

[Justin OOC]

pretty much. Supposedly SLider had the proof for it all, and that's why she was slain.

[Conner McKay]

THAT is why WW erks me sometimes... "Malkav Forbid we say anything clearly"

[Conner McKay]

TY for the clarification, btw

[Krul]

If you want some more complete clarification, and to make use of some fan added material, that makes sense, and fits with the setting, look for the pdf file A Breed Apart.

[Courier]

As with many things, there is conflicting information from difference sources. A Breed Apart is a stab at unifying it, but ultimately the ST should decide. One option is that all novas default to sterile, just because they're novas. Another is that they're super fertile unless something else is going on.

[Mr Fox]

Alternately, they could be just like anyone else. I know a friend that can't sneeze in the same room with his wive without her getting pregnant, but I have other friends who have tried for years and nothing. Luck of the draw.

[Justin OOC]

I know people like that too...

[Titan]

I am people like that. Sigh.

[Ashnod]

Originally Posted By: Conner McKay

"My understanding, by canon, is that they are super-fertile (or at least their perfected bodies are optimally prepped for bebies ) and it is the external 'mickey' that renders them infertile."

... but as far i can tell, they only insuate that PP is the 'Most likely' culprit?

That's pretty much straight out in the Project Utopia book on 51 and it defines the mechanism by which Proteus does it. It's confirmed later by things such as the character description of Antaeus, who is all too aware of their "painfully obvious sterilization program," etc.

That is the canon answer. But with all things, how much you want to include of this in a game you run is up to you.

[Courier]

Yes. Ashnod is correct about cannon... and this is a case where IMHO cannon makes little sense. One of the blurbs in the main book says that as of 2008 (10 years into things) there's been an official birth count of zero.

So some India syndrome nova who has been out of view for years and has his own harem... either doesn't exist, doesn't make it into the general news, or was sterilized before he could get set up. And we have the same issue for other really odd cases, including novas who don't know that they're novas.

And even assuming Antaeus is a high mega-int, the rest of the world hasn't figured out the "painfully obvious" program because cannon also says PU is publically the good guys.

:Sigh:

[Mr Fox]

Zero 'OFFICIAL' birth count. That doesn't mean there haven't been any, just none that are officially known. There could be births that were hidden. Or at least that is how I've always run things.

Of course another way to look at it is that in the early stages there were relatively few novas so it was very easy to get to them all and sterilize them. Maybe Utopia had someone on payroll that could find novas. It took years for the population to build up to the point where it would be hard for Proteus to find and hit them all, but again, if they had someone working for them that could find novas then it would have been possible.

Another possibility is that Max might have given them a list of all known novas from the future and Proteus could have watched for them.

I'm not saying that is canon or that it should be, just that the possibility is there. I still think it's kinda weak the way they pushed the sterilization thing in canon rather than just detailing 2nd and 3rd gen novas and what that would mean rather than just implying what it might mean.