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Trinity RPG - Nippon and Her Novas


Captether

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Hello All,

Been thinking on a Nippon Nova campaign for a home game.

Im thinking of having the PC's be latent baseline Novas undergoing training before being triggered. Normally the Zaibatsu would take more time on these characters, but with the most powerful of Nippons supers dead or crazy, Nova Operations Command is desperate.

So beginning the game, I was going to have them introduce characters, and run them through some training excercizes, and maybe get them into some trouble (rogue training bot or something). This will allow for some bonding and character development. After the forst game, they will be triggered and get their 20 Nova points etc (as in Chapter 3 in Asia Ascendant).

Any thoughts on such a campaign?

Some Merits and Flaws

Child [4pt Flaw)

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You are a child, somewhere between 8-12 years of age. This includes the 1-point flaw Short as well. Pre-adolescent children are limited to no more than 3 dots in their Physical Attributes and in their Intelligence-based Abilities.

Storytellers should note that child novas also face numerous social difficulties, such as not being taken

seriously by adults and their inability to participate in or undertake certain activities legally. Playing a

child nova should be a roleplaying challenge, not an easy method to decrease the cost of gaining

powerful abilities.

Sexy [2 point Merit]

You are one sexy mutha. You might not necessarily be that good looking, but there’s something about the way you move and act that exudes sexuality. As a result, you draw attention from the members of the opposite sex, or your own sex, with raw animal magnetism. You gain two extra dice on any Social rolls when dealing with someone who is attracted to you. If you actively attempt to direct your charms at a person, you gain three instead.

Smooth [1 point Merit]

You might come from the wrong moon or even an asteroid. You probably don’t have a clue which fork to use when eating out. But none of that matters. You present yourself with such an easy grace and carefree attitude that people forgive you most errors. They might not like you much, but they enjoy your company so thoroughly that your rougher edges are quickly forgiven and forgotten. Manipulation rolls are made with an additional two dice.

Total Bastard [2 point Merit or Flaw]

Your personality is so cold and ruthless that you really don’t care what other people do or think, aside from being able to mock them when they screw up or look bad. As a result either gain an automatic success to any social rolls involving the defacing or humiliation of others (Merit) or all social rolls dealing with strangers are made at +1 difficulty (Flaw).

Trajic [3 point Flaw]

You have trouble seeing a future version of yourself, so therefore there must not be one. As a result, you are more than willing to throw yourself straight into the depths of hell blindly and without thought of the consequence. You receive a bonus equal to your willpower rating on the initial die pool of a conflict that will more than likely kill you.

If the encounter is a standard combat, then the bonus applies to the first roll after initiative. If you perform an action prior to actual initiative (a surprise action) then the bonus applies to that action. Any other uses of this Flaw are at the discretion of the Storyteller. This flaw may not be taken with Daredevil.

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What year are you putting this in at?

And Pots started a game like this online. You could look at his background.

http://www.eononline.net/forums/index.php?showforum=73

I was going to be placing the game in 2120, as the PCs are going to be dealing with all manner of issues in the setting. From Aberaant raids and biorgs to Chromatic assaults and Coalition "scouts" into formerly Nippon controlled colony worlds. Its going to be a hot campaign if all goes well.

Thank you for that tip off concerning ProfPots campaign. Looks like a really neat one. My characters will mostly be adults, though some child novas might be allowed. The info on Japanese culture is of particular interest to me.

For this game I have been thinking on a specialized model of VARG, built for Nova use. This is made mostly to allow space travel, with encrypted communication, food and the like to novas on a mission. Possibly allowing for some shielding against Psions.

There is no adequate reason why super-intelligent Novas, with specialization in Noetic sciences might not find a way to screw with psionic powers IMHO. Perhaps a few Quantakinetics have been snapped up by the Zaibatsu over the years.

What do you think?

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Don't see why not, except that any nova-used VARG would have to be hardtech, not biotech. Trinity biotech is too deeply tied to psionics to really ever be used by a nova.

No noetic squish-tech VARGS for Novas is fine with me. Hardtech taken to extremes should be just fine.

Nova made (non-noetic) biotech VARGS might be interesting though...

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Yeah, but such would likely trigger a distinct uncomfortable parallel with the stuff the Colony uses.

Well-spotted. I envision the distressing use of tentacles upon the unfortunate pilot. Unless he/she/its into that sort of thing...

Ick.

I will stick with hardtech thankyew.

Some tech:

Activity Helmet: These helmets are either clear bubbles or be motorcycle-like helmets that follow head movement, with large transparent and nonreflective faceplates. Despite its use as a helmet, activity helmets are equipped with a HUD visor and side mounted video camera. Activity helmets are standard issue with activity suits, but may be purchased and used seperately. The whole helmet acts as a fractal antennae. [2/2,0] (head only).

Tech: Hard, Mass: 1.5, Cost: 2

Activity Suit: Standard issue for Nova agents, these suits are exceptionally tight, form fitting, and flatteringly cut. Activity Suits are reinforced with a complex weave of carbon nanotubes and advanced polymers. In addition to its use as armor, these suits are strong enough to resist long-term exposure to salt water, poisonous atmosphere, and even vacuum. Use of a sealed helmet and an oxygen supply allows the wearer to survive in open space. [2/3, 0]

Tech: [Hard], Mass: 6, Cost: Not available commercially.

VARGs

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After having looked again at the Osaka and Kami class Nihonjin VARGs, it really stuck me how much ass a Nova in these devices could kick. Still, being a tinkerer, I will offer the following modification for the heroes:

Hanya Quantum Mask: This integrated signature aids in disguising a Nova pilots Quantum signature from LANSA sensors, prying psions or aberrants. The mask reduces all such sensor rolls by three dice. Cost: 3 (not available commercially).

NEW BACKGROUND

Quantum Gadget (Device Variant)

A Quantum Gadget is a device or organism created by a Mega-Intelligent Nova, designed to create an effect identical to a quantum power or Mega-Attribute. The device can take any physical form, and can even represent a permanent transformation of an organism (not recommended for this campaign), though all such creatures gain a dot of permanent Taint per dot in this Background.

Each dot in this background indicates the number of "Nova Points" worth of powers the device holds (Max lvl 3 power), using the devices Quantum score in the dice pool as appropriate.

Because of their power, Gadgets are purchased differently than other Backgrounds. Each dot costs two Background points instead of one. A level five Gadget, then, would cost ten points. Our third-level Gadget costs six points etc.

Every Gadget has an "Quantum" of it's own, allowing the character to roll one die per point of Gadget when using the item. Most Gadgets have one point of Quantum per level. You may increase the Quantum of a Gadget by spending one additional Background point per additional point of Quantum.

Each use of a Quantum's power expends one charge from an inner reserve. This quantum energy fuels the Quantum's powers, and when it's gone the item is useless. Before this happens, a Nova may recharge it from his or her own reserve. A Quantum Gadget that recharges itself at a rate of one point per hour is considered to be one dot higher in cost.

* A weak item (Cost 2; Quantum 1, 5 charges).

** A useful Gadget (Cost 4; Quantum 2, 10 charges).

*** A significant Gadget (Cost 6; Quantum 3, 15 charges).

**** A potent Gadget (Cost 8; Quantum 4, 20 charges).

***** A powerful Quantum wielding device (Cost 10; Quantum 5, 25 charges).

Examples

Electro Harness (Lvl 1 gadget): Form-fitting harness that allows the wearer to generate small amounts of electricity (one dot in Quantum Conversion-electricity).

Force-Field Generator (Lvl 3 gadget): A belt, which when activated creates a force field around the wearer. Dice Pool- 4, Grants 3+ (2/successes) extra soak against bashing or lethal damage.

Growth Field (Lvl 3 gadget): A worn device, that when activated causes a subject to double in height and mass, granting the equivalent of Sizemorph (growth) 1. Double height and mass, +2 Strength, +1 Stamina and one extra “Bruised” health level. Equivalent of +2 to his Dexterity solely for purposes of determining how fast he can walk or run.

Cybernetic Sheath (Lvl 4 gadget): Form-fitting cybernetic armor typically worn with an Activity Suit (see above) that grants Mega Strength 1 (Crush), and an extra "Bruised" Health Level.

Warp Graft (Lvl 5 gadget-permanent): A process of turning a recipient into a wormhole-generator. This causes the baseline subject to gain a Permanent Taint of 5 with one Minor and one Medium Aberration. Creation of such grafts is considered evil.

Clone Tank (Lvl 5 gadget): A pair of chambers (resembling the teleport machines from The Fly), that can allow the user to create aclone as per the Clone Quantum power. The person must be in one chamber, and roll his Stamina, creating one clone per success and costing 1 quantum each.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Seems like a cool idea but I have a pair of questions.

The Warp Graft, what are the mechanics behind its use? And since it's a permenent level 5 gadget, does it get the recharge of one point per hour for free, or can it only be recharged from the Nova's own pool, or can it be bought as a special level 6 gadget to get the recharge?

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Seems like a cool idea but I have a pair of questions.

The Warp Graft, what are the mechanics behind its use? And since it's a permenent level 5 gadget, does it get the recharge of one point per hour for free, or can it only be recharged from the Nova's own pool, or can it be bought as a special level 6 gadget to get the recharge?

It would be very unlikely that a Nova would get the Warp Graft, as its penalty of Taint 5 would be disastrous. Its meant for Baseline toadies like the sub aberrant mutants of the Trinity setting. And yes, it would need to be recharged by a Nova, thus making the sad mutant with this graft be even more defendant on nova masters.

As for the mechanics, Warp only uses dice rolls in combat (Dex+Warp- in this case Dex+1), normally only requiring a turn spent making the warp and quantum expenditure. In the Trinity era, mutants with this graft might be made to burn a massive amount of quantum (say 10+ quantum) to jump planetary distance or even going for broke and warping out to another solar system.

I made this to be a quick way to create potent mutants. But I thought it would be appropriate here to represent Nova Tech being used by Nippon agents and scientists.

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Its meant for Baseline toadies like the sub aberrant mutants of the Trinity setting. And yes, it would need to be recharged by a Nova, thus making the sad mutant with this graft be even more defendant on nova masters.

And if he's captured by psions they can't use or recharge it.

Very clever.

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This sub-setting you've cooked up looks pretty good, Captether. From what I've read, this would provide some very intense RPing of the black ops variety. The need to maintain near-total secrecy makes for some brutal pressures to operate in. ::devil

One question: with Eden being kept a secret from the general populace (according to the Trinity Storytellers Guide wiki), would these new Nihonjin novas have any access to training from the Edenites?

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This sub-setting you've cooked up looks pretty good, Captether. From what I've read, this would provide some very intense RPing of the black ops variety. The need to maintain near-total secrecy makes for some brutal pressures to operate in. ::devil

One question: with Eden being kept a secret from the general populace (according to the Trinity Storytellers Guide wiki), would these new Nihonjin novas have any access to training from the Edenites?

Oh yeah! Unless those PCs can take orbital lasers and fight squads of VARGs, infantry and psions, they will have to keep on the down low. The pressure of holding back, especially amongst mega-physical sorts will make those "cutting loose" times all the sweeter.

Nippon will be interested in careful negotiations with Eden, but no dialogue will exist at the beginning of the campaign. Nippon Nova numbers will have become significantly depleted, with no surviving deep-space (Warp/Teleport) sorts. PC Novas with far-traveling powers will be worked very hard.

In any event, I plan to have Nova agents sent to seek contacts amongst the edenites. Perhaps in a hardtech Warp-jump ship of some kind. Enough of this squish-tech crap...

Of course, the Zaibatsu may not like the sound of Edenite god-kings ruling over baseline vassals (might give PCs ideas). Lots of roleplaying potential indeed.

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