Aberrant: Quantum Zero - Nippontai High OOC

[Prince of Boredom]

Does he have the European or US version?

[ezekiel]

European Beta version as far as I know.

[Prince of Boredom]

hmm, that sux. The US and European versions are on different servers.

[ConcreteDragon]

I am also waiting to post anything more about my Character,

until I get a few things cleared up by His Supreme Professorness ::thumbsup

[Shopping Mal]

Prince: No, it's cool, I didn't think you were making it up. I'd just never heard it before, is all. I thought Dad would have mentioned something.

Ezekiel: It's just that any rolls involving empathy and the feelings of others, outside of Empathic Manipulation, involve Wits. The logic in the power is that Novas with Natural Empath (a Mega-Wits enhancement) shouldn't get their three extra dice to figuring out the emotions of a target, despite the fact that that is the exact use of the Enhancement. Instead they default to their Perception, which in any other case has no effect on anything to do with feelings or emotions. It just seemed wrong, is all.

[ezekiel]

But the natural empath isn't perceiving emotions, he's just quicker than the rest on picking up on cues. A slight blush might go unnoticed but the witty character takes note. With empathic manipulation you don't need to interpret anything, you "see" the emotion.

[Heritage]

I don't know if it's our place, but does anyone have ideas for what sort of teachers are at the school? I think Prof asked for our help in filling out some of the NPCs through backgrounds, so I'm just going to start tossing out ideas, based on some of my favorite anime types. Take 'em or leave 'em, Prof!

1. There should to be at least one teacher/nurse/librarian/etc.-type of each gender that is young and attractive, to be the source of schoolboy and schoolgirl crushes ::wub

2. A teacher who has an insanely violent temper and possibly super-strength who periodically destroys large parts of the school ::crazy

3. A very short old bald teacher who is impossibly lecherous, and might possess super-powers or is a great martial artist, or just claims to be. Often spotted near the girl's locker room ::devil

4. The principal/headmaster might well be a near-mythical figure, never seen but frequently mentioned: "The headmaster just left, but he left this note saying how disappointed he was with you." Or he could be completely unflappable, telling the janitor to get a broom after all the windows in the school just shattered behind him ::blink

5. A robotic teacher who doesn't quite get human behavior ::robotmonkey

6. A teacher who is clearly inhuman (some sort of space alien?), but only the students seem to notice ::squid

7. A teacher who teaches some relatively innocuous subject (cooking, fashion, art) but treats it like a combat discipline: "Then you beat the eggs into submission! Show 'em who's boss!" This instructor may well be heavily armed, either with traditional weaponry, guns or weapons made from stuff used in their subject (spatula guns, pencil swords, etc.) ::m60

8. There should be many perfectly sane, normal and supportive teachers to balance things out, who may just think their fellow instructors are just eccentric or overworked.

These are all obviously fairly broad types, and I'm not sure how far you want to go in the anime direction, Prof, but I thought it might be fun to see what people came up with based on these little seeds.

[Haze]

7. A teacher who teaches some relatively innocuous subject (cooking, fashion, art) but treats it like a combat discipline: "Then you beat the eggs into submission! Show 'em who's boss!" This instructor may well be heavily armed, either with traditional weaponry, guns or weapons made from stuff used in their subject (spatula guns, pencil swords, etc.) ::m60

Rumours could well fly about him:

"I heard that once Tashimoto-san ate a live duck. Everything but the beak and the feet!" ::biggrin

[Asbjørn]

How big a dice pool do you need in the various subjects taught at school to be considered a bright student? Among the rank and file of humanity 2 dots of intelligence is the average, and 2 dots in a skill is 'adequate professinal training', so any high school kid with an academics/science/linguistics/biz/whatever dice pool of 4+ would be considered above average. But how much better are the students of Nippontai High?

Just asking so I don't mismatch my stats and character concept here...

[Heritage]

"I heard that once Tashimoto-san ate a live duck. Everything but the beak and the feet!" ::biggrin

Ooh, another fan of 10 Things I Hate About You! One of the best of the late 90s teen comedy films, if not the best.

[Shopping Mal]

Ezekiel: All I'm saying is that Captain Friendly, with 5 Wits and 5 Rapport, should have an easier time determining emotions with Empathic Manipulation than Senõr Right Bastard, 1 Wits and 0 Rapport.

Heritage: Ahh, the sweet craziness of Manga. I love those ideas, and I bet the Prof will too.

10 Things I Hate About You!! We got to watch that for English

[ezekiel]

Ezekiel: All I'm saying is that Captain Friendly, with 5 Wits and 5 Rapport, should have an easier time determining emotions with Empathic Manipulation than Senõr Right Bastard, 1 Wits and 0 Rapport.

He will have an easier time...with the rapport skill. If he only has one point of perception then maybe he just isn't perceptive and that includes empathic perception. Again, if your dice pool is worrying you, buy some perception. It's only a single nova point for 3 attribute dots after all.

Personnally I think its good that newly erupted captain friendly with 3 dots of perception and 1 dot of Empathic manipulation has a harder time determining someone's emotions than Dr. Meledy Marmelade, extremely sharp psychologist who spent her life treating trauma victims who desperately try to hide their pain (wits 5 and rapport 5)

[Shopping Mal]

Wait... you don't need the Perception roll?

If that's the case, screw it! Isaac has 4 Wits and 4 Rapport. Can I use that to determine emotion when using the power instead of Percerption + EM?

[Bahamut810]

Well...thats the 'baseline way' vs. the 'nova way'.

That sort of thing comes down to dice pool. Wits/Rapport lets you catch on to how a person is feeling by body language, tone of voice, how a person is 'holding themselves'...different things. You know people well enough to be able to tell things about them by taking in everything about them that you can.

I guess the reason to pair perc and EM is that a nova with that power can actually *see* how a person is feeling.

[ezekiel]

Wait... you don't need the Perception roll?

If that's the case, screw it! Isaac has 4 Wits and 4 Rapport. Can I use that to determine emotion when using the power instead of Percerption + EM?

::rolleyes

As Bahamut said, that'd still be the baseline way of doing things and the ST can choose to add a difficulty to your roll. (i.e. guy's a pychotic, etc)

With Empathic Manipulation you just need a single success to know the targets emotional state and against whom or what that emotion is directed. Still probably better than a rapport roll...

[phoenix]

  Ezekiel: All I'm saying is that Captain Friendly, with 5 Wits and 5 Rapport, should have an easier time determining emotions with Empathic Manipulation than Senõr Right Bastard, 1 Wits and 0 Rapport.

Not really, Mal. Well, maybe it should, that's just not how it works. Just picture two guys with the same power, discovering that someone's pissed off at something.

Senõr Bastard: They're angry? I had no idea before I used the power, but their aura is bright red! Wowsers!

Captain Friendly: I bet he's angry at me. Look at the way he's holding his coffee cup, and the way he's standing.. Oh yeah, bright red aura thing, no surprises there.

Anyway, maybe experience with guessing at people's emotions based on their body language and finding out the truth would be a great excuse for Senõr Bastard to raise his Rapport skill.

[knave]

Heritage - sounds like we should be drawing from Harry Potter as well as Manga ::biggrin

[Bahamut810]

Ill link you guys to "Kill Harry" when I get home. ::biggrin

Imagine Harry Potter meets Kill Bill...oh yea... ::laugh ::cool

-----EDIT-----

Kill Harry!

[Damanor]

A few ideas for NPCs. (Adapted and/or blatantly stolen from GURPS IOU - don't sue me, please!) Many are more suitable for silly-style play, but might be even more frightening in a serious game.

Instructors/staff:

9. A history teacher who exists outside of normal time, or at least perceives things differently. Have him or her show up for class late, teach the last half of the lecture, leave briefly, return in entirely different clothing and with much longer hair, and teach the first half of last week's lesson.

10. A martial arts instructor who is known as the deadliest person in the school - everyone is terrified of him/her, in spite of their very gentle and loving personality. The quiet, passive ones are always the scariest... ::ninja

11. The music teacher, who is a would-be novox star. Concerts (classes) are always packed.

12. The janitor, who is always there at the worst possible time, but never there when you need him.

Students:

A. The jock who turns into a werewolf during sporting events and has a secret craving for dog biscuits.

B. The campus enforcer: he's really undersized, but has Mega-Appearance enhancements that he uses to look like a behemoth.

C. A would-be spiritualist who has a smart-mouthed pet (homonculus or quantum construct). Alternatively, a nature-lover who talks to plants and gets them to talk back.

D. The mad scientist, who can create anything, and once in a while, it actually works. All the inventions are rube-goldberg style, useless, or bizarre, such as a functional solar-powered cloud generator or a high-powered, heated toothbrush.

Assorted things:

i. Escaped lab animals who hide out in the tunnels beneath the school. They could be genetically modified.

ii. The white cat that the headmaster always holds in his lap.

iii. Research companies trying to spy on what Nova High is developing in their labs - sneaking bugs, fake animals, and hidden cameras into school.

iv. A strain of plant that grows at a high rate - students can be punished with bonsai duty.

[Haze]

hmm, that sux.  The US and European versions are on different servers.

I'm in the European Beta now too - just wanted to say it rules!

[Bahamut810]

I was wondering how much XP you expect us to get per semester? I know that you cant give an exact amount. Im just the type of person who plans 100 xp ahead...I want to plan approximatly what he is going to be like when he 'graduates'.

[Asbjørn]

I think an even more important question is if we will get any xp. We are getting 10 nova points per year, after all...

[Bahamut810]

But we are starting as devided characters (so to speak). We will come up to par, sure...but im sure there will still be a learning curve ::sly

[Shopping Mal]

*pokes thread*

...Nope. It's dead. Best take it out back, and give it a bullet where it'll go quick...

Fair enough about the points on EM, by the way. I concede defeat.

[phoenix]

Prof's gone into his pre-game Chrysalis. It's more or less a tradition in these parts. ::wink ::tongue

[Bahamut810]

Dont worry...he has too much invested in these games to just give up.

[ConcreteDragon]

::blink Just look how long it took TEF to get rolling ::rolleyes ::biggrin

[Shopping Mal]

I have much to learn, it would seem.

[ProfPotts]

Sorry for the disappearance, guys - but this about sums it up:

Btw, I'm waiting for Prof's approval before posting anything on my character. I suspect he's tied up in City of Heroes right now.

Two solid weeks - work / CoH / sleep (a little) / work / CoH / etc...

... it's a sad, sad, thing, but that game has stolen my life... I've forgotten to eat a couple of times... Addiction is never pretty... ::crazy

... It starts with 'I'll just pop into Paragon City for an hour before tea', & ends in the early hours of the morning... ::lookaround

... ah well, I think I'm over the worst of it - the initial rush. Now it's gonna' take me days just to catch up on the boards here!

You guys have been doing great with this thread - brilliant ideas all round. I'm feeling a bit of pressure now to make the game good... ::wink

[ProfPotts]

Man - just glanced in my in-box & got a little frightened by the sheer volume... ::nervous

... Off to shop for comics now - steel myself for the work-load to come! ::blink ::wink

[ezekiel]

::laugh

I'm glad I was right! Some naysayers were whispering about disease, buses and cliffs... ::wink

Btw, think of my PM as a brief overview...a woefully underdeveloped overview. I didn't work it too much since I wanted your approval of where its going before hammering details and getting too attached to the character...

[ConcreteDragon]

I'm very thankful that the Prof gave me a chance in my first online trinity game (TEF). And while I was greatly looking forward to being in another Prof. Potts game, I have decided to withdraw my hat from the ring in order to let one of of our new members have the same honor that I have recieved.

If, before the game begins, there is still room, I would like to join. But I would prefer to be concidered the 'Last man chosen', if at all.

::thumbsup Cheers and good luck, all. ::smiley5

[Alex Green]

Two solid weeks - work / CoH / sleep (a little) / work / CoH / etc...  ... ah well, I think I'm over the worst of it - the initial rush.

I've been there. ::hehe

[Shopping Mal]

I want to play City of Heroes, but, no matter what it costs per month, I can't afford it ::closedeyes

Not only that, but I'm on dial-up. We're theoretically connecting our ADSL soon, but I'm not holding my breath ::smile

[ConcreteDragon]

the title of this photo:

Japanese School Girls

The Shibuya generation

Sharon: "When friends from the U.S. come to visit, the first place I take them is here, to Hachiko crossing. It's the heart of hip-ness in Tokyo, and the place where you'll experience the ultimate in sensory overload. Everything is bright and loud and dizzying-the signs, the people, the clothes. It makes Times Square seem downright sleepy."

Sharon is now at Hachiko crossing, where she describes the scenery.

Sharon: "There is the Love board in front of you, a giant screen where you can leave a message for your loved one, countless TV screens blaring out every kind of ad imaginable, thousands of people amassing like opposing armies waiting to cross the street, waiting for the light to change, and it does inspire a little bit of fear."

Junko: "When you get to Shibuya and cross this road, you feel excited, let's go shopping!"

Junko Hasegawa is a 22-year-old student and my guide to the corner. For her, Hachiko crossing inspires not fear but exhilaration. She's come with me to explain the scene, especially the most common denizen of this neighborhood, a creature known as the Shibuya girl.

Junko: "A Shibuya girl is: you dye hair light brown, and wear kind of like pink, passion pink."

Sharon: "What is the personality of a Shibuya girl?"

Junko: "First of all young, a teenager, less educated. Dumb, dumb, hmm, maybe."

Junko Hasegawa became quite amused while talking about Shibuya girls and some of their distinct characteristics.

Junko: "A tanning studio tan, white eye makeup, short skirts, mile-high platform shoes. If you don't look like a Shibuya girl here in Hachiko crossing, and I confess I don't, you're treated as a second-class citizen. No one will hand you flyers for cool clubs, certain boutiques will practically throw you out the door."

When Sharon finds herself alone again on Hachiko crossing, she runs into a group of young Shibuya girls.

Sharon: "Talking to Shibuya girls is an experience all its own. They use the Japanese equivalent of valley girl speak. Eriko Terehaka and Meiko Tanaka, two prime examples of Shibuya girls, tried to explain their fashion philosophy to me."

Japanese girls (translated): "We just choose whatever we like, whatever we think is pretty, but we also have to work very hard to keep up with the new fashions."

Japanese companies, such as a cell phone company that Sharon Moshavi ran into, can be spotted trying to take advantage of the trendy crowd.

Sharon: "This company set up a booth on the edge of Hachiko crossing, trying to convince the young and trendy its mobile phones are the hippest. You realize quickly that everything, and I mean everything, is subjected to the trendy-ness barometer: the type of cell phone you carry, the kind of bra you wear, your barrettes, the gum you chew. And it can all go out of style in seconds. For many tourists, it's a great spectacle. One of my visitors climbed onto the top of a subway entrance and spent hours photographing the frenzy and the fashions. But some of my friends have cast a more critical eye on the style on display in Hachiko crossing."

Debbie: "On the whole, I would not say that I'm impressed."

Sharon: "This is my friend Debbie, who's visiting from New York. The corner, she says, offends her Elle magazine sensibilities."

Debbie: "I don't see people put together quite as well as you might on Madison Avenue or Paris, for example. People seem to be combining older clothes they have in their closet maybe with one item that's trendy at the moment, like a pair of shoes."

Sharon: "Shoes in fact are in mid-trend as I speak. I had expected that Debbie and I would see everyone wearing 12-inch-high platform shoes. But after reaching towering heights, footwear seems to be coming down to earth. Back-less mules are in these days, albeit with a higher, thinner heel than most American women would wear to hang out and shop. And in a development that will no doubt come as a relief to podiatrists everywhere, the lowly sneaker is gaining popularity this fall."

-->SEE ALSO<--

[Mr Ben]

Well, here goes.

This is my first post on these forums (although it will not be the last) and I was wondering if there is any room left in this game?

As somebody who is enthralled by the Super Hero/Super Powered genre but who loves anime like Groo's Jungle and Tenchi I would be very interested in playing in this game, assuming that there are places left.

Um.. I do have a few questions though.

I'm sure i remembering something about the game being set in the QZ world... what does this mean? and how does this differ from the cannon Aberrant setting?

Mr Ben

[Mr Ben]

Just thought I should add the following

http://www.japan-guide.com/

It's a very useful site for getting to grips with modern day japan. Much information to be found on there that may prove useful.

[Ayre el KaBeer]

Welcome to the boards Mr Ben ::smiley5 currently we're waiting for the storyteller of this and many other games, ProfPotts to return. I seem to recall someone saying he's on holiday right now, when he get's back you should get your anwer. Also we've had a few issues on the boards that should be sorted in the next couple of days, so bear with us ::wink .

[ezekiel]

On holiday? I think he's still going through City of heroes addiction... ::rolleyes

The QZ world is prof's Quantum Zero game on this board, well worth the read though it'll take you more than one sitting to read it all, no doubt....

[Mr Ben]

I've been having a think...

Would the School Newspaper could as a School Club or would that be something that happened outside of normal club hours?

Also, if the school is going to have a school newsletter, what would it be called? Isn't the Japanese method of naming dispatches different from the western method?