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Aberrant RPG - Who ARE the good guys?

Aeon

By Aeon,
in Trinity Continuum RPG

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Senior Mal Community Regular

Senior Mal

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It depends on the game.

For Adventure the Aeon society (and inparticular the player characters) are most definitely the good guys. The characters may bend the rules occasionally but the setting is such that society is quick to forgive minor indescretions in favour of the triumphant hero who just saved the city (Even though he may have been drunk while flying his plane "Why that makes him even more corageous")

For Aberrant, there is no good guys (In organisation terms at least). Aberrant's got possibly the most grey areas when it comes to things like right and wrong, hell I think one of the games catchlines is 'What would you do with the power of a god?'

And finally Trinity. Again a lot of grey areas, but some of the psi orders I'd class as 'good' namely ISRA, the Legions and the Norca. I'd also say that the chromatics, while mislead are good (They have the right characteristics, they have a structured society, they care for their families and they have an honour system)

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Senior Mal Community Regular

Senior Mal

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This is the Aberrant forum? why am I here then?

By the way I don't run the Teragen, they just like what I say (But then again doesn't everyone?)

In game terms I feel the Teragen is not good, whichever extreme is used (either the anarchic rebels or the higher echelons who subscribe to the theory 'I'm not human') they are the bad guys.

T2M is apparently the good guys if only Utopia had been written as predominately good. Because Utopia as a whole is tainted (no pun intended) by the conspiracy theories and bad things they do to Novas, T2M gets tarred with the same brush.

That could be a major problem for Aberrant that there isn't any 'good' guys then again it is supposed to be set in our own cynical time so perhaps thats right. Plus if there were whiter than white good guys in Aberrant it would possibly be too close to Adventure.

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Heritage Veteran

Heritage

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\"There ain't no good guy. There ain't no bad buy. There's only you and me and we just disagree.\"

Well quoted, Thingmaker!

In a sense, I ranted excessively on this in the 'Game Apart' posts, but that's never stopped me from wasting people's precious time before, so I'll be a bit more specific over here.

I think Thingmaker is basically right, assuming they're not playing satanists who eat babies or something, the players define who is 'right' in there specific campaign.

I personally feel that almost all institutions are on some level innately flawed, because no matter how careful you are, if you want to change the world to reflect your vision, your probably going to have to step on some toes or even bust some heads.

I guess I'd define 'good' institutions as the ones who help the most people while hurting the fewest, so sometimes I think PU is the closest to good, at least of the major powers. But I also feel the larger an institution gets, the less concerned it is with the rights of the individual, and I think PU clearly fails in that catagory, especially with it's obsessive control of public opinion.

I think the goals of the Directive are mostly good, but intelligence agencies are by their very nature paranoid and disturbingly proactive (Sort of like "kill your enemy while he's still your friend" :Devil ), so I couldn't never trust them completely. Plus they're all nationalists...brr!

Aeon is too vague and sinister in Aberrant to properly gauge - I like to think that the Society 'strayed' during the Aberrant era, and more or less came to its senses during the War. They're always control freaks, though, even when they're at their most well-intentioned.

I think of T2M kind of like the big stars benefit held to raise money for the victems of September 11th here in the States. They always have two levels of motivation going on, one sincere and the other self-serving: "I can use my power and influence to make the world a better place - I'm doing my part" and "This is great exposure! Now people won't think I'm a selfish jerk!", both operating in parallel at the same time, each one alternately taking control. The soul and the ego in an intricate dance. (Hmm, can you tell I'm starting to get sleepy? It's damn near 3 am!! )

The Teragen are elitists, and therefore the most dangerous in my mind, though the Casablancas I think are mostly decent.

I think of the 'capital A' Aberrants as being an essentially short-lived movement, reactive to public opinion of PU and T2M. They're revolutionaires trying to expose the corruption in PU, which I think is possibly the noblest of all the goals, but after the truth is revealed, what function do they have? I see them most likely absorbed into the Teragen, radicals into one of the militant groups like NV or the Primacy, moderates into the Casablancas. A footnote in a history book that no one after the War will ever read.

I think the closest to my personal idea of 'good' would be one of the smaller, more philanthropic elite groups like the Peacekeepers (if I have their name right): not glory hounds, but still happy for any good press they can get, working on a smaller scale. If I were a nova in real life, that's probably who I'd join. In good old-fashioned D&D terms I hover somewhere just left of chaotic good, inching towards neutral just a tad.

End of excessive rambling....

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Aeon Rising Star

Aeon

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I must admit that Thingmaker and Heritage share my general opinion - on perspectives and different groups within these factions.

All the same, I am inherently distrustful of T2M because they receive an eight figure salary - hell yeah they are making the world a better place, but why do they need so much money if they are supposedly altruistic?  The Directive is cool, and my favourite faction ( but that certainly does not make them the good guys), Aeon have good intentions but that still means that the ol adage still applies to them and finally the Terragen are just rotten apples through and through in my humble opinion.

Thanks for the response guys.   :)

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Heritage Veteran

Heritage

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The next Aberrant campaign I'd like to run would be a Directive one - I'd like to read lots of Graham Greene books for fuel, and explore fun issues like the treatment of novas within the Dir, kind of like how Vulcans are treated on the somewhat cheesy "Enterprise" - needed but never fully trusted.

Also didn't 'Danger Man' explore issues of ethics in the spy game?

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needle Enthusiast

needle

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I've found the lack of "Good" guys a welcome change. It makes the Pcs making judgement calls. There are real consquences to their actions it makes them think. Abberant has always reminded me of the Screw tape Letters by C.S. Lewis. If you read it with an open mind its slanted toward the left of center but hey.. Life & Rpgs are complicated, I forget where the Quote came from but it goes something like "To become a devil one must first get rid of the evil within one's self". I've thought this apt for some of the Abbies. For all their power & evolution, they are still human. The deeds of the well intentioned can cause just as much harm as good. Then i've always found Mal more likable than Pax. :Devil

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Aeon Rising Star

Aeon

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I've found the lack of \"Good\" guys a welcome change. It makes the Pcs making judgement calls.

Yes, this certainly adds an interesting dimension to the game.  The world is not black and white, just different shades of grey.

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Soltares Newbie

Soltares

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>Aeon,

They are the people who keep overriding Justin Larrigiones attempts to get rid of Proteus and Thetis and their whole sterilization / wetworks division.

Definitely not good guys *in this setting.*

>the Teragen,

Nope.  Orzaiz is one of the few with a clue.  The rest are thugs with the same bullshit philosophical rationalizations as the average Symbionese Liberation Army terrorist.  They don't even know how badly they've been snowed.

Mal was lonely.  Mal made dolls to play with.  When Mal tires of playing with his dolls, when they begin to displease him because they don't do exactly what he wanted, Mal will throw a tantrum and toss his dolls all over the room, breaking some and leaving the rest behind when he storms out...

>Team Tomorrow

Publically, and as far as the average rank and file member knows, yes, they are heroes.  Only a few of their leaders are evil-in-drag.

Then again, is there an organization on this planet where the rank and file aren't considered generally good people and the upper management / officers / politicians aren't considered to be basically slime?

>the Directive?

Nope.  Exclusive paranoia-freaks who like to test orbital bombardment weaponry on completely random people in the middle of civil disasters (when any *sane* organization would be devoting resources to helping people), don't get to call themselves good guys.  Not even in jest.

If the incident in Ibiza is any indication of what sort of upper level thought governs their behavior, they should be burned to the ground on sight, with as much mercy as they show their randomly targeted 'test subjects.'

On a more generalized note, the game will eventually come to be about Unity.  A group that is exclusive to 'people that look normal' is obviously not going to cut it in a 'united' any more than other appearance-exclusive groups like the KKK.

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Minerva Collaborator

Minerva

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I think the players are the good guys... and the world is falling down around their ears.  Whether they are playing a 4 color superhero of T2M or a paranoid Directive agent... they are the "good" guys... hey even villans can be... sensitive.

---Minerva

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Manuel Explorer

Manuel

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And finally Trinity. Again a lot of grey areas, but some of the psi orders I'd class as 'good' namely ISRA, the Legions and the Norca. I'd also say that the chromatics, while mislead are good (They have the right characteristics, they have a structured society, they care for their families and they have an honour system)

I can see the ISRA and the Legions being "good guys" but the Norca?

They're more like self-serving bastards who's interests just happen to coincide with mankind as a whole.  I mean, ####, they're mostly funded by drug money, for pete's sake.  They are most definitely *not* the good guys.

I think Orgotek can be considered mostly good guys, even if thier public image is pretty wrecked right now.   So can the Haitian Aesculpians.

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harlequin Experienced

harlequin

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they're mostly funded by drug money, for pete's sake.
yes, but legal drugs, zero side effects drugs, medicinal drugs. they also do a lot of work with bioware. perhaps in the beginning they were more shady, but when one person has to raise the money to support an army morals seem a little less useful.

what about the legions? a lot of their money in the beginning came from fortunes nights... ie: from killing people and or harrassing people... blood money... the legions still get some of their money from there... doesn't sound very good to me either...

it really comes down to shades of grey, no matter where you look...

-harle

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President_Skroob Newbie

President_Skroob

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I'm with the people who say Aberrant has no good guys. Aberrant, I think, is less about the organizations than the people. So many of the organizations have "good" people working for them, but no good can come from an organization which has a rotten core.

Aberrant's a game for the individual, because every individual can make a difference.

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BurnerMan Apprentice

BurnerMan

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The PC´s as good guys!? Not mine, anyway.

I think the Teragen are the closest to being in my book. They want independence. Simple. Anarchy? Too easy.

With Teragen as good, I do not refer to people like Geryon, but more Divis faction. Those who wish to ascend humanity without becoming monsters or tyrants. One does not have to hate baselines or think them worthy only of extinction only because one is superior in every way. I, for one, does not wich to kill all animals. And it does not refer to the religious nuts. They are just stupid.

:xmas

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Defender Community Regular

Defender

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Trying to find good guys in Aberrant? Good luck. One of the things I so enjoy about the game world is that _everyone_ has an agenda. Sure, there are some legitmately good people who want nothing but the best for the world, but by and large everyone wants something. That's what's so great about it being such an interactive game. Do you go for your own piece of the pie, or try to wax heroic and set a higher example? And if you do, what makes _you_ so damn pure?

Let me put it another way, through a couple of my favorite quotes.

" All power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. "

" Choosing the lesser of two evils is still choosing evil. "

" With great power comes great responsibility. "

" War is the greatest of all human endeavor. "

" Truth, in matters of religion, is only that opinion which has survived. "

-Defender.

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