Aberrant RPG - Changes Novas Bring to Society

[Blue Thunder]

OMG its 10,000?!

Jackson Creed, I want to have sex with you now (but not really). I guess you read my PM after all! *hug*

[BlueNinja]

Well then, I wannt to develop a future for Aberrant that doesn't allow for the Trinity canon.

::rolleyes ::thumbup

I really need to get my hands on Stellar Frontiers and the other books of Trinity - including the Trinity ST core rulebook (I own the Trinity d20 book, which is great on plot but butchers the ST system). I like Trinity on its own merits, I think its a great game with a lot of great potential.

Stellar Frontiers adds in a number of things that I do not believe were properly expanded upon - evidence of another alien race what used quantum technology, for starters. I do not have all of the Trinity books, either, but I think that Eden is only described in Stellar Frontiers. Someone more knowledgable than I in Trinity canon will hopefully correct me.

I really like most of the concepts of your Trans-D setting. I have read it before and it sounds so totally cool. My only problem is how you have made it so taht the official backstory of Trinity still in existence. I wish you had made it an open future. But oh well, to each his own.

Trinity is still the future only for Home Earth, not for any other universe out there. There are a number of worlds that will not have the problems with insane novas. And then there's the world where the Aberrant war has already come - and gone ...

I want to note that Adventure! doesn't count because the gap in time is so huge and so unwritten that it doesn't impact anything that happens in Adventure!.

Actually, it should (though since Adventure! was limited to one book, this is probably why it has less of an effect). During that massive time, Divis was rising in power up to Q8, including going through three Chrysalis stages and IIRC performing a number of experiments with quantum energy, including attempts to create nova eruptions in the 1970s. A fair number of the founding Aeon members are still alive and manipulating events, working to cast doubt on their own actions so that they can act in better secrecy, and building up their power and cash flow.

[Heru]

Information that humanity is not the only quantum race is extremely, extremely, intriguing. This is something that I would definitly want to know about. Can you exmplain any further about it.

Definilty adds STellar Frontiers to it.

I forgot about the trans dimensional aspect of Trans-D. Very interesting, I'll have to give it a even more indpeth read then I did before.

What I mean by Adventure! not counting is that we don't have a direct events timeline of the events that go from the Adventure! setting to the Aberrant setting. While something occurs to make Adventure! turn into Aberrant its behind the scenes and hidden, completly opposite from Aberrant turning into Trinity.

Example, there is no cut off point in Adventure! when characters need to may a random check or go insane or when Taint becomes to extreme. Not only that back Adventure! is broad enough that the other settings in the genrea don't really impact it.

But yes, I see where your coming from and totally agree, the amount of behind the scenes activity is as much between Adventure! and Aberrant as it is between Aberrant and Trinity. Divis Mal is doing a lot of planning, Eon Society and its Projects are wiping out history and rewriting the past. Its a very interesting time period to live if you are a mover or a shaker.

[Blue Thunder]

The Zeps aren't confirmed to be a qauntum-using race. It's just that they built a transportation/teleportation device that uses quantum energy, so it's likely that they know how to build other quantum devices.

The device they made doesn't use Teleport or Warp though. It turns a person's body into light, and beams it towards another one of the Zep gateway devices. According to estimations, the scientists that accidentally triggered the device aren't scheduled to reach their destination until 100-200 years, or something crazy like that.

[metaphysician]

Its also possible that it is "quantum" in the more traditional scientific sense, as opposed to "quantum" in the nova superpower sense.

[BlueNinja]

What I mean by Adventure! not counting is that we don't have a direct events timeline of the events that go from the Adventure! setting to the Aberrant setting. While something occurs to make Adventure! turn into Aberrant its behind the scenes and hidden, completly opposite from Aberrant turning into Trinity.

Example, there is no cut off point in Adventure! when characters need to may a random check or go insane or when Taint becomes to extreme. Not only that back Adventure! is broad enough that the other settings in the genrea don't really impact it.

In the back of the Adventure! book, there is a timeline, though IIRC it doesn't list most of the behind-the-scenes events that are alluded to in some of the Aberrant books.

But consider, there is most of a century between Adventure! events, and the Galatea. But there is only forty or so years between the end of the Aberrant War and the Proxies getting their psionic powers, so it's much easier to make them connected.

[BlueNinja]

The Zeps aren't confirmed to be a qauntum-using race. It's just that they built a transportation/teleportation device that uses quantum energy, so it's likely that they know how to build other quantum devices.

The device they made doesn't use Teleport or Warp though. It turns a person's body into light, and beams it towards another one of the Zep gateway devices. According to estimations, the scientists that accidentally triggered the device aren't scheduled to reach their destination until 100-200 years, or something crazy like that.

BT nailed it; sorry if I was less than clear. The evidence is that the Zep species weren't quantum-users themselves, but there's at least one example of their technology. IIRC, there's nothing about the destination that the scientists were beamed to, either.

[Heru]

Oh, thats a disappointing thing.

I guess the writers of the Trinity Universe wanted to keep the uniqueness of human Novas. Its an interesting fact that a half a dozen races have Noetic powers but that only one (humanity) has a quantum connection.

Too bad the majority of us were to stupid to see the gift that it was and decided that war and chaos and anarchy was better. Oh well,

Still, thanks for the update (all of you) on what the Zeps are. They are still an interesting race even if they do not use magi-quantum.

Honestly, though I hope that they do not use the scientific quantum as the way the word is presented in the Trinity Universe means that it represents the superpower kind. They might have tapped into it primitavely due to their technology, but whatever.

That timeline at the back of the Adventure! book is like a page long. It tells some of the most important details but it leaves a lot open. In other words its not forcing the end of the Adventure! setting on players. At least not the way Aberrant is, with them making us have no canon choice but destroy the world.

I wouldn't have minded if the Trinity setting took place hundreds of years after the Aberant setting, that way I would ahve wondered what caused the novas that ruled for over 100 years to go insane.

Oh well, it doesn't really matter - goes off to try and work on his new non-canon setting with the concept of what would it be like to have Psions that utilize the technioque powers of Aberrant along with enhancements.

[BlueNinja]

I wouldn't have minded if the Trinity setting took place hundreds of years after the Aberant setting, that way I would ahve wondered what caused the novas that ruled for over 100 years to go insane.

Well, I think it would have been better to have the Trinity play-time more than 50 years after the end of the last major war, since the Aberrant War was supposed to have ruined tens of thousands of acres of cropland, and wiped out a larger chunk of the world population than WW2. It doesn't IMV seem like enough time to pull humanity back up to space travel and colonization. So you always have the option of kicking the Trinity age back a couple of decades.

Or heck, if you don't like Taint, blame it all on Mercer. He's a time traveller, who saw the height of the nova age, the War, and the psion age of Trinity, and came up with a method to screw over the novas.</paranoia> ::sly

[Heru]

Well, I think it would have been better to have the Trinity play-time more than 50 years after the end of the last major war, since the Aberrant War was supposed to have ruined tens of thousands of acres of cropland, and wiped out a larger chunk of the world population than WW2. It doesn't IMV seem like enough time to pull humanity back up to space travel and colonization. So you always have the option of kicking the Trinity age back a couple of decades.

Or heck, if you don't like Taint, blame it all on Mercer. He's a time traveler, who saw the height of the nova age, the War, and the psion age of Trinity, and came up with a method to screw over the novas.</paranoia> ::sly

Yeah, I can agree to this. I always did feel that the return from collapse to scifi setting was to fast. And then, out of nowhere, they have biotech and interstellar colonies and whatnot. Not even the world with the novas was that fast, and so its kinda weird that once novas are gone society makes a great leap forward. Both interesting and heartening. Oh well.

I am not that paranoid, . Still, its an interesting view that maybe he saw what the world would have been like under Novas and so played around with it so that the Aberrant War occurred and whatnot. Official Trinity canon states that time travelers can effect things so its very much within his power to change the future to protect the past from even a worst chaos.

While it might sound terrible, if I knew that in the future billions would die because of the deprivations of novas, but to stop them millions would die - well, I would choose the millions to save the billions. He might have done the same.

[metaphysician]

*cough* Blaming it on Mercer is always worthwhile, regardless of what "it" is. ::biggrin

[astronomer]

Even though the world was screwed over and reeling, don't forget that China was still strong and had a space navy, and Nippon was still busily cranking out hardtech behind its isolation. There were still centers to anchor redevelopment and growth. And why is everyone picking on Mercer? Poor bastard has a lame version of time travel that only accesses maybe 4 or 5 points in history (1928, 1943, 1970's, 1998, 2122), and we don't really know how much he sees or can change. The society he founds to help mankind mutates into something really bizarre (Director Thetis, anyone?) , rewrites history to cover its mistakes, and keeps trying to pull humanity's strings. People keep thinking of him as all-powerful or really influential, when it looks like he created Frankenstein's Monster and it lurched out of control.

[Heru]

Even though the world was screwed over and reeling, don't forget that China was still strong and had a space navy, and Nippon was still busily cranking out hardtech behind its isolation. There were still centers to anchor redevelopment and growth. And why is everyone picking on Mercer? Poor bastard has a lame version of time travel that only accesses maybe 4 or 5 points in history (1928, 1943, 1970's, 1998, 2122), and we don't really know how much he sees or can change. The society he founds to help mankind mutates into something really bizarre (Director Thetis, anyone?) , rewrites history to cover its mistakes, and keeps trying to pull humanity's strings. People keep thinking of him as all-powerful or really influential, when it looks like he created Frankenstein's Monster and it lurched out of control.

Right, China is the new America in Trinity. They are the ones that everybody looks to for guidance. Not only that but they are pretty much the only national force that survived unchanged and unchallenged from before the War. Its a very nice place for them to be on.

I have to agree with you about Mercer. Canon wise he seems to be a good guy with humanity's survival on his mind and in his heart. He is not somebody who seems to be orchestrating everything from the side lines - that is Divis Mal's job.

[Alex Green]

... Poor bastard has a lame version of time travel that only accesses maybe 4 or 5 points in history (1928, 1943, 1970's, 1998, 2122)...

What's the deal with 1943 & 1970's? I didn't think anything happened then?

[metaphysician]

1943 is when Donighal tried to do Hammersmith on a universal scale. As for 1970, no clue. Well, for canon.

In Ancient Aberrant, 1970 is right around when the Seven Thunders took over the world, removed the heroes, and rewrote history so that the extraordinary events of the past never happened. . .

[Alex Green]

1943 is when Donighal tried to do Hammersmith on a universal scale. As for 1970, no clue. Well, for canon.

In Ancient Aberrant, 1970 is right around when the Seven Thunders took over the world, removed the heroes, and rewrote history so that the extraordinary events of the past never happened. . .

Seven Thunders? Ancient Aberrant? Hammersmith on a grand scale? Is this cannon?

[metaphysician]

"Hammersmith on a grand scale" for what Donighal was doing in 1943 is, well, its *our* interpretation of what was supposed to happen in that year at least. Clearly *something* happened, but the timeline is vague.

The rest is all our game specific. For example, rewriting history is a much larger undertaking, because in our timeline, Hammersmith basically triggered a full blown nova age, albeit with a bit of delay to get it going at full speed.

[Blue Thunder]

The 1970s saw a rise in the number of supernatural activity. This was in the timeline of the early Trinity books. I'm not sure if it was taken out of the softcover second release of the sourcebooks, but I do think it was taken out of the D20 timeline.

My explanation is that Mal was out there erupting people, or experimenting with some sub-Galatea energy wave in preparation for 30 years down the road.

The Zeps aren't the only Quantum-using race. The Coalition is unable to manipulate psi energy, and they can't even interbreed with psions and steal their psionic powers. They can, however, interbreed with Aberrants. In Alient Encounter 2: Invasion we learn of the Furies, which are a crossbreed between Aberrant and Coalition. They use quantum powers.

There's a planet in the same system as Erebus (the planet with the Eerebans, the one that gets trashed by the Coalition in Invasion). The entire planet itself is said to give off quantum energies. I should also point out that it's revealed in Asia Ascendant that a powerful nova was the one that actually created life on Erebus, including the Erebans, and that the same nova went rogue from the Nippon government and flew out into space never to be heard from again.

[metaphysician]

I don't think Erebus really counts, then.

[astronomer]

According to the Adventure timeline, 1943 is when Primoris breaks from Aeon. The nature of the break seems to be violent, since Crackshot (who was in love with Primoris) dies in the conflict. In the Utopia book where Director Iktome of Proteus is rambling on about Aeon rewriting history, there's a newspaper article about a paranormal event in the 70's, one of several .

[metaphysician]

I vaguely recall the book saying somewhere that Newfield had *sided* with Primoris, so if she died, we can blame that on Mercer too. ::sly

[Alex Green]

So basically... *something* happened in the 70's.

That's fine, but I think it more likely that something *almost* happened in 1943 than something did happen.

[metaphysician]

Oh, certainly. Whatever Donighal was planning, it got averted. However, a sufficient potentiality would probably still be enough for Mercer to time travel to the period.

[Alex Green]

Oh, certainly. Whatever Donighal was planning, it got averted. However, a sufficient potentiality would probably still be enough for Mercer to time travel to the period.

Max jumps to quantum disruptions doesn't he? Or maybe quantum/psi disruptions? In '43 there wasn't one.

[Blue Thunder]

He jumps to points that are "important". IMO this means that he jumps to points that are important to him. His powers take him to space-time destinations which he personally will have a greater interest in. More than likely though, he just jumped to whatever points were approriate for the writers.

Or perhaps there was some kind of telluric energy disturbance during the battle with Primoris? Nothing is truly known about the battle. But it would be cool to think that some kind of effect went off, thus giving us reason to assume all kinds of pulpy comic-booky World War 2 era craziness. Nazi ubermensch!

[metaphysician]

More likely, Donighal's attempted global empowerment released enough telluric energies in its preparation and chargeup to let Mercer through, so he could foul it up.

[astronomer]

Another thing I was wondering about: by canon default, time travelers can change the time line with difficulty. Since Mercer has the chance to change what he sees, is the canon line the best we can hope for? ::confused

[Alex Green]

Another thing I was wondering about: by canon default, time travelers can change the time line with difficulty. Since Mercer has the chance to change what he sees, is the canon line the best we can hope for? ::confused

No, just Max's best efforts.

[Blue Thunder]

You're reading the time travelling power in the APG. Max is different. He's "unstuck" in time. His powers take him to various moments of importance. It's also possible that Max can't "change" historical events. For example, when he first hops through time he meets a future version of himself...then, later on in life, the future Max meets that younger version of himself and plays his role in that meeting. Would it have been possible for Max to avoid carrying out this event? Or was it something that would be forced to happen, no matter what?

I should point out that even though Max possesses this ability, he's otherwise a normal man with no additional abilities. Were he a nova, he could very well alter the course of history with a nice Q-Bolt to some leader's head. But as a normal man, the only power he has is his position at Aeon, and even then the other members of the Aeon Council have as much power as him. His power is limited and only available to him because he's the founder of Aeon.

So can Max change history? I say no. When Max hops through time for the first time he encounters his future self, who is expecting him. This means that Max's powers exist within an already "changed" timeframe, if that makes any sense. Max has yet to become that future self, and wait for his younger self to appear, and yet as his younger self he has encountered his older self. This means that if Max were to alter history or do something to affect events, he would have felt the effects before he ever did anything; the effects of his actions in the past take place before he even does them; they exist before they are carried out, because they are a part of events. Max doesn't make alternate futures or pasts, there is only one timeline and he hops along it to various points.

IMO.

Did I make any sense? I think I confused myself.

[Alex Green]

I should point out that even though Max possesses this ability, he's otherwise a normal man with no additional abilities.

If one ignores the Daredevil enhancements, and the Temporal Manipulation.

[Heru]

He had to have some Daredevil powers in addition to Temporal Manipulation, he just had too. I mean it wouldn't be cool to have such narrow one-shot ability.

Of course, that could have been the point - despite his power he is one of the most human of the Inspired.

[Alex Green]

It isn't a one shot, it's a suite... and I think it's clear he was inspired before Hammersmith did his thing and make him super-inspired. Something about effortlessly gaining and giving away fortunes or something like that.

[Blue Thunder]

If one ignores the Daredevil enhancements, and the Temporal Manipulation.

Wait wait wait, you guys have this all wrong.

He has Chronal Awareness, which is a unique knack not available to anyone except him. He does not have Temporal Manipulation, which is a quantum power. Chronal Awareness is much more powerful than Temporal Manipulation as well, it allows him the ability to do pretty much anything with time that he sets his mind to, though he finds jumping to points of great telluric importance to be easiest, and everytime he uses the power it is a great strain for him.

He is not a daredevil either. If he was, Adventure's bio for him would say so; it specifically says that he is something else, something different than the three Inspired forms, something unique. It doesn't list any additional powers or knacks for him, though it does list Background enhancements.

All this talk of him being a daredevil is fan conjecture. Someone hypothesized that Max was an uber-Daredevil and that daredevils affected probability or time or something-or-other, and for some reason everyone in the fan community has taken it as canon and established fact. It isn't. No where in any of the books is he a daredevil, and no where does it say that daredevils affect time.

...and I think it's clear he was inspired before Hammersmith did his thing and make him super-inspired. Something about effortlessly gaining and giving away fortunes or something like that.

There's nothing to support that at all. Where are you getting this from? Max was just a kind person who gave to charity and wanted to help people. That doesn't make him Inspired.

He had to have some Daredevil powers in addition to Temporal Manipulation, he just had too. I mean it wouldn't be cool to have such narrow one-shot ability.

He can travel through time, freeze enemies in place by stopping the time around them, give himself incredible speed by increasing the time around him, and other things related to time manipulation. Who needs Daredevil Knacks when you can do all that? He can probably mimic a lot of them, and his powers would be more potent. And he's not a daredevil.

[astronomer]

It's true about the Chronal Awareness knack, but as written it acts as the temporal manipulation suite. He is unique in type, but does his knack function as nova time travel/temporal manipulation? And do any or all types of time travel follow the Aberrant canon concerning changing timeline events? If yes, than he could have (with difficulty) changed history, 'cause if you do, there's no paradox. You remember the change, but no one else will, unless they're downstream in the past at the time of change (I think ... oy). And the whole unstuck in time thing makes me edgy. Does it mean he can never be changed or is it easier to do so? Only the designers know for sure .......

[astronomer]

Oh, and I forgot. Max was top-end baseline at least before his Inspiration. He was very smart, well-educated, athletic and martial-arts trained. Not hard to believe to believe he could make a fortune or three, with new patents and stock market savvy. Edison and Tesla didn't need Inspiration, although it wouldn't surprise me. Also, he knows some useful tricks, like splitting a desktop with what sounds like the analyze weakness enhancement and waking someone up with acupressure, and has a mathematical mind that can work out all options so he's always prepared for anything (tactical or strategic prodigy?).

[Heru]

I would have to say that I believe that all those near the site of the Hammersmith Incident were normals - they were latents, but they had not manifested powers. Maybe Hammersmith himself was an Inspired, but I figure if he was it would probably be low powered one.

Max Mercer's power is narrowly focused in a single concept (time manipulation) but broadly defined in practice. This is what I meant when I said I did not want him to have a singular power. He can travel in time and change the effects around himself.

Didn't he actually appear at the UN during Divis Mal's speech, freeze time and talk to him. I don't know where I read this but I thought it occurred this way.

He has anything remotely related to time. Since time affects a lot it means that he has a lot of power. Where time has no influence he has no power.

When he first learned his power he was unstuck in time, but as I mastered it he found dozens of new abilities and gained a greater understanding of what he could do with it.

I also believe that he is truly unique in what he does, and because of that we don't truly know all the ways that Telleric energy can manifest in the world.

This makes me even more upset that they stopped the game line. It had so much potential and so many unanswered questions.

[metaphysician]

Um, Mercer was doing adventuring and such ( note the rescue of Whitley Styles ) well before Hammersmith. Yeah, there was no discernable gain in abilities post-Hammersmith except for the time tricks, but thats because he was *already* doing daredevil-type feats.

[Alex Green]

RE: Max’s powers.

Chronal Awareness allows one to use a large number of temporal tricks and other temporal manipulations other than traveling through time. This is stated outright in the CA box. Whether this is a suite power or a theme or both is beside the point. That bit about it requiring him to make an effort to use them just means he’s spending juice or something.

RE: Max being an uberDaredevil.

According to one of the developers, Max was to Daredevils what Mal was to Stalwards. Supposedly all Daredevils are probability manips and move things sideways in time. But there were mixed views on this subject among the developers, so we have nothing cannon.

RE: Max being inspired before Hammersmith.

The ability to start from scratch, create and give away large amounts of money, then start the process over again, combined with absurdly high physical, mental, and social abilities, all before Hammersmith, tends to indicate that he was inspired before hand. We have nothing that says it outright, but where there is smoke there normally is fire.

RE: Hammersmith

As far as we know, he was nothing other than a mad scientist, but his creation took the mega-Int god Divis 70 years and Quantum 8 to replicate and improve upon. I don’t know whether we want to call him strong or weak, but maybe focused is a better word. It would also appear that he was a member of the paranormal community, and fairly respected. Max was presumably inspired, Mal was presumably inspired, and both they and a number of other note worthies felt Hammersmith was worth paying attention to.

I call these people “inspired” rather than latents because they were already present, and probably dominate, on the world stage.

[Blue Thunder]

RE: Max being an uberDaredevil.

According to one of the developers, Max was to Daredevils what Mal was to Stalwards. Supposedly all Daredevils are probability manips and move things sideways in time. But there were mixed views on this subject among the developers, so we have nothing cannon.

Baugh was the one that thought Max was an uber-daredevil, but since Bates was the one that made Adventure...I'm going with his non-daredevil view. He created the character, after all.

[Alex Green]

He created the character, after all.

Yes and no. We have quotes regarding Max in the abby core book.