Aberrant RPG - Archetypes

[Ammonites]

While I know there are no pre-assigned classes in Aberrant, I find myself being drawn to the "Brick/Tank" type builds. Something about tossing cars and laughing off bullets is appealing to me I guess.

Question is, does anyone else find themselves drawn to a certain build/archetype?

[SkyLion]

I like to combine archetypes. Like a flying brick/energy projecter. Or mega strength and mega brains.Nice thing about the forums is you can play in more than one game simultaneousl;y and get all your druthers in... ::smile

[Blue Thunder]

I prefer the low-powered types that must rely on wits, ingenuity, and general scrappiness. I don't have a preference in terms of "powered" types though. I focus more on the character's personality and behavior. The powers are secondary to me in Aberrant, though I usually tie them into the person's personality.

[metaphysician]

I haven't played Aberrant often enough to have an established preference in archetype. However, if you stretch things to include all supers games. . . I tend to favor characters who have either "speedsters" ( defined in the very loose sense of 'high mobility, hard to hit' ), 'brains', or usually, both. The only super I've ever played without significant brains was Jack Frost ( think Spider-man with Iceman's powerset and no buzzard luck ). And the closest I've ever played to a non-fast guy is Diomedes, a non-powered skill guy.

[astronomer]

I like the brainy energy projector type: enjoys research, investigation, building stuff, but can reluctantly blow your head off if necessary (much rather buy you a beer, honest!).

[metaphysician]

Ah, another aspect of my character preferences: my PCs tend to be the low angst, cheery party members. Even Hermes fits that description, and he knows he can look forward to the nigh-inevitable destruction of everything. Some people just can't angst. ::cool

[Ammonites]

>>I focus more on the character's personality and behavior. The powers are secondary to me in Aberrant, >>though I usually tie them into the person's personality.

I agree that personality and behavior should be primary when creating a character to play. I was just thinking how the powers would be nice to have while I was sitting at a stoplight yesterday at work. Density Control Increase + Armor, who cares if a car runs into me! ::biggrin

[BlueNinja]

Given all of the PCs and NPCs I've written up, so far my favorites are:

Michal Wesson, the supergeek and inventor

Mohammed Marid, the hedonist shapeshifter

The two characters had very little in common. Michal was a naively confindant teenager (19 at the start of the campaign) whose intelligence made him de facto leader of the group, and whose actual powers (TK and Holo) received much less use than I expected. Mohammed was a quiet, self-effacing nova everywhere but at a party, who used his Shapeshifting almost constantly and whose other powers and megas were also used often.

Most of the time, I think of a weird power combination. So then I stop and think of what kind of baseline would end up with those powers from their eruption, and try to turn it into a well-rounded PC.

[Chuckg]

In superhero games, I usually tend to end up running the super-skilled polymath type(*), or the brick, or both. Or my character in Ancient Aberrant, Aral von Darien, who's both a supergenius polymath /and/ an agile brick. (My temporary character, Jebe Khan, isn't quite as much of a genius, and much more stealth-oriented, but still fits the profile.)

Personality-wise, I end up all over the map -- Jebe is young & brash with overtones of morally conflicted, Aral von Darien was an inflexible icon of honor and his own entire zip codes' worth of brooding, Dr. Pain was an ex-pro-wrestler-turned-superhuman-brick with a heart of gold gone superhero (but with /style/!), and Starguard(**) was pure 150% lawful-good innocence.

(*) Not a scientific genius, though. More like Batman.

(**) Who was a break from my usual pattern of superpowers, in that she was a supermage/flying energy blaster type. (Not an Aberrant game, Champions.)

[Hyper-Focus]

With the exception of a speedster I created for a NPrime game I generally don't create physical characters. Its probably leftover resentments from my early (pre-teen) roleplaying days where we thought AD&D was the only game in town. Combat bored me to the point of distraction, and I had to resist the urge to start jabbing my DM with a sharpened No.2 pencil screaming "HOW DO YOU LIKE IT NOW, MR. TEN FOOT BY TEN FOOT STONE CORRIDOR!!!"

Of course, back then my DM was also my older brother...so maybe that had something to do with it.

Most of my characters are the "More Human than Human" types (lotsa mega-attributes and enhancements). I have a particular weakness for Mega mentals and mega socials. As far as I can tell, Aberrant was the first and perhaps the only game to try to tackle the less physical aspects of superhumanity. When I do for actual powers they tend to be on less flashy end as well. The various mind reading/control powers are good as are the precognition and intuition. Entropy control, temporal and spatial minipulation, cyberkenisis, and a few others are also popular. I'd rather use my powers to move the plot forward than decide what my my bloody buggery soak roll is. I have never, ever, given a PC of mine Quantum Bolt. Combat is simply the aspect of roleplaying that interests me in the least. Besides, having QB is all well and good....but only a mega-int w/ tactical prodigy can tell you where it'll do the most good.

[Blue Thunder]

Hyper-Focus, marry me.

[Centimane]

I don't know what sort of Archetype this would qualify for, but I like characters that function extremely well. Mostly I mean that in regards to their personalities, but also to whatever abilities and powers they have as well. I like high-powered and low-powered characters of any type, but only if I can make them, and then play them, as believable characters that function smoothly and naturally. I also like to play characters that are exceptional, or just an exception, in some sense (and no, being a nova doesn't count in this case).

Thus, I play a 116 year old Chinese Taoist former grandmaster in Tai Chi who didn't erupt until he was 104 while living in a monastery in Tibet, and who's powers are all mega-social and psychic on the one end of the spectrum. And Kazuo, a teenage Japanese thug with almost no morals to speak of, and who hasn't erupted and therefore has no powers at all, on the other. My favorite parts of both of these characters are their personalities, and I considered their powers to be more of an incidental factor while creating them (in Kazuo's case I didn't really have to worry about his powers anyway).

For specific personality types, I don't have much of a preference, but I do try to stick with what I know I can role play effectively. Mischievous tricksters, hardened killers, pillars of honor and virtue, spiritual gurus, cynical hedonists, naive visionaries; they're all fair game as far as I'm concerned. However, I always try to introduce some area of conflict, darker nature, or self-doubt into any character, regardless of what sort of personality I've given them. Real people never, ever have everything figured out, and so no matter how much they might seem to embody some particular theme or ideal, there's always something lurking inside them that drives them, twists them, keeps them awake at night, or motivates them to do better.

This is the kind of thing that interests me the most in a character. What they're good at, what they're bad at, what scares them, makes them question themselves or their beleifs, or inspires them and makes them push themselves to be better than they are. Personal journeys are real interesting to me and, as a role player, they're also the only part of the larger story that I have any direct control over, so I try and make the most out of them.

[Alex Green]

Powerwise it varies depending on what the system and world encourages. Open rules I lean towards Q5... but have to admit some of my more successful characters have been Q3 or Q1. On of the big repeating patterns of my character design has been low taint. It's very rare for me to buy things tainted. Partly that's because I consider taint to be a resource, partly it's because the social penalities are so harsh.

[PowerStar]

These days,mostly I prefer Flying Mega-Social types. However, in every game I play in, I try to make sure that my PC has at least ONE Power/Skill/ Background/ Enhancement that ONLY he knows of (at least at first)! This has saved the neck of more of my PC's than I can count.

[Alex Green]

Hidden ace up your sleeve...