Aberrant RPG - New Aberrant Game - Thoughts Wanted

[Heru]

Hello all,

I know its been a while, but while my presence on this board has faded my love for Aberrant and all its brother games has not.

This coming semester I have a plan, instead of running a single semester long roleplaying game I am running three four week games. Each of these games will have a character creation session, and then three regular game sessions, with a game that is divided into three parts. The three games that I am running is a Star Wars Saga Edition game, a fantasy game using a rule base that I have not decided yet, and a superhero game that will be using the Aberrant rules.

And it is the Aberrant game that I am here to ask you all for help on. I have a preliminary campaign setting mapped out and designed. With a story that will span three sessions and go from the past, to the present to an alternate world. I would like those on this forum to read through the brief notes I have and aid me in making sure that it is the best damm game I can run.

Any thoughts, comments, ideas are all welcome.

Thank you very much,

Heru

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A SUPERHERO ADVENTURE

Phase 1

A rich and powerful and respected tycoon dies under mysterious circumstances. He just so happens to be the last member of the Dynamic Novas superhero team. The PCs are all contacted by the lawyers during the reading of the will. All of them worked with the tycoon at least once before, so when the will reads that he wishes for the group of PCs to take over as the Dynamic Novas. But he requires them to follow a trail of clues to gather x-amount (with x equaling the number of PCs) of crystal fragments. It is through being bonded to these crystals that one can actually become a member and gain access to the Dynamic Novas.

This part of the campaign has the PCs search certain parts of the tycoon's central mansion, as well as the museum that he held dear, and finally ends with an adventure on an island located in the depth of the Atlantic Ocean. After gathering the clues, finding the separated crystals, fighting the guardian of the crystal throne, the PCs become members of the Dynamic Novas. And this phase ends.

+Phase 2+

Years pass, almost a decade since the origional fight that saw the PCs becoming the new generation of the Dynamic Novas. In the time since then the team has continued to fight the fight, protecting Freedom City and the world from the ravages of the evil and the corrupt.

This phase starts on a nice March day with an explosion : Freedom City Central High School erupts in a firey blast that takes out a good chunk of the building. Thankfully, as it is the Sunday there were only two deaths - the janiter who was working to maintain the building, and a teacher who had come in on the weekend to work on a project. The fire and police departments examining the site notice a glowing ball of energy floating where the library used to be. Because of the nature of the anomoly they contact the local super hero team, the Dyamic Novas, and request assistance. After arriving at the scene of the crime, and doing some investigation, the PCs see a group of people all in black trying to escape, they give chase. This sees a car chase through the streets of the city. At one point have the Enemies duck into a building, and then have the PCs and Enemies fight it out. Some of the Enemies escape (some even seem to vanish from inescapable situations), but not before declaring that things are not as they seem.

That night reports come in of a number of breaking and enterings occuring throughout the city. These occur at libraries, museums, and schools throughout the city. If the PCs investigate have them discover that the break-ins appear in the shape of a pentagram with their tower at the center of the events. As the evening goes on the event seem to come closer to their home - which if they are at it, they realize things ar eshaking - but if they are outside fighting crime, then they notice smoke coming from the building.

At various points in the night have them fight men in all black as they try and do whatever it is they are doing. Have the PCs stop some of them, but make it so that reports come in that when they leave the area to fight another crime something occurs nearby to the point they stopped. In other words, with only incomplete clues of what is going on it is hard for them to figure out the actual way to stop it.

At this start getting bad, even more, have their comms go over with a notification that their base is being attacked. Have them quickly head back where they see the front gate blasted open, and the stone path to the door destroyed. The door itself is also broken and hanging off its hinges. When they walk insdie have them notice that a door exists near to the stairs that did not exist in years past. Going down the door they fight multiple sorts of conjured creatures. And then when they get to the very bottom they find themselves in what looks like a stone crypt with a sinister man dressed all in black near what looks like an alter. He gives his evil monalog speech about the forces of darkness being triuphant and that history will know him but forget the PCs. Then as the PCs attack he summons various creatures out of nowhere to attack the PCs. The PCs fight through them all but when they get to the center the man's sinister voice screetches a last word, they touch the golden idol, all goes white. Their lost sense before loosing consciousness is a voice saying that while most hope is lost, even a single candle can hold back the dark.

+Phase 3+

The PCs wake up on a beach somewhere, with a number towering structures behind them. It is clearly the city that they had known, but it is definitly different. First of all, it seems that while only a day has past, the documents and histories, and memories of people, indicate that the last ten years are different than what they should be. Nobody recognizes the PCs, no books written describe them, or their actions. In fact it seems that they don't exist, and never have. If they trace back events, the last thing that is clearly equal to their memories is the death of the tycoon.

At some point they are visited by a number of police, men dressed all in black with a tattoo on their face - very reminescent of the foes they fought before. Some of the people who come to arrest the PCs are the same people who were close to them in the other place, but in this place have no memory of them. Also have a person who was an enemy in the other place become an ally. A number of encounters occur of this type.

If the PCs head towards what should have been their former base of operations they discover that it no longer looks as it was. It is not a towering edifice of gothic stone, with gargoyles and darkness all around it. At no point can they get inside, it seems the security of the place makes it impenetrable. Have some sort of newspaper or remanant book floating past them, maybe with mention of the law office where they heard the will. Have them gather some clues, around their fighting of enemies, that indicate they must redo the events that made them Heroes in the first place. But this time maybe in the opposite.

So, the final part of the campaign as the PCs needing to find a way to the island in the Atlantic Ocean. Make this island look exactly the same as when they fought it the last time. Same monsters, same traps. At the very center of it - where they finished their ritual and become Heroes in the other world - they discover the grizzly and frozen remains of their own bodies, surrounded by a crystal. They have to go past their bodies, which is not as easy as it sounds, its a will check, before they can get the crystal. Thus the first part is complete. Then they have to adventure in the museum that held interest to the tycoon, as before. Finally, they use the clues they discover and find a way to get back into the mansion. Once inside the main foyer they discover the door to the tomb was sealed up, though if they ask somebody they see an elevator around the same location where the door was. They have to go to the top, before they can go all the way to the bottom. There they fight a monster who guards the tomb. And finally, in the end, they have to fight the architect of everything - the brother of the tycoon who wanted everlasting power and who murdered his brother and set up the events. After the brother is defeated the building starts to shake, the PCs need to find the pattern which unlocks the shifting stones, which allows them to transport themselves back to their own place.

They arrive in the tomb again, and when they walk up stairs and ask one of the servants it is mentioned that its the day before the origional explosion. Game ends.

[Alex Green]

Good to hear from you H.

...the PCs become members of the Dynamic Novas...

This sounds like the PCs actually *erupt* when this happens. Is that the case? This sounds a lot like "build a pc with 5 nova points (no powers)" then "if you win you get another 40".

[Heru]

Good to hear from you H.

...the PCs become members of the Dynamic Novas...

This sounds like the PCs actually *erupt* when this happens. Is that the case? This sounds a lot like "build a pc with 5 nova points (no powers)" then "if you win you get another 40".

Its either that or its they have been erupted for a little bit before hand, and then the story begins.

Thanks for the comments. By any chance do you have any thoughts on the organization and story potential of what I wrote?

[Alex Green]

I think there's a lot of story potential in all of that.

General comments: From the sounds of it, supers are *rare* in your world, rarer even than in abby. Ergo all the normal abby "real life" issues will drop on the PCs but even more so. Everyone will want a peace of them (novas are rock stars / gods / people of influence/note) and they'll get dragged into various world level issues just by their existence. Actually it sounds like a really good setting more than a series, i.e. you could run the game pretty much as long as you want.

It also sounds like the world's acceptance of supers is more on a par with DC than Marvel (why it doesn't occur to anyone to pay Storm ten's of millions to divert hurricanes and prevent Billions of dollars in damages I'll never understand... but then I also don't understand why super-criminals exist).

[Heru]

I think there's a lot of story potential in all of that.

General comments: From the sounds of it, supers are *rare* in your world, rarer even than in abby. Ergo all the normal abby "real life" issues will drop on the PCs but even more so. Everyone will want a peace of them (novas are rock stars / gods / people of influence/note) and they'll get dragged into various world level issues just by their existence. Actually it sounds like a really good setting more than a series, i.e. you could run the game pretty much as long as you want.

It also sounds like the world's acceptance of supers is more on a par with DC than Marvel (why it doesn't occur to anyone to pay Storm ten's of millions to divert hurricanes and prevent Billions of dollars in damages I'll never understand... but then I also don't understand why super-criminals exist).

Considering that this is a three-shot game I haven't really considered some of the world-wide dynamics of the super hero phenomena. One of the things I did assume is that unlike in standard Aberrant there are more novas in this world who play up the superhero stereotype, rather than the the standard business clothes. So yeah superhero teams are quite common with many cities and places around the world having at least one local team that works for that city.

It is true what you say, I mean I have the Police go to them when they can't figure something out. Which proves that they are more than just people in a funny capes - they are depended on by the people and government of the city to help protect it against evil and dangerous things.

Which is very cool. I could always run the three-shot miniarc and then if I am really interested I could always go back to it. I love Aberrant and I think its rules and the sens eof the game allows it to do more for me than many other games.

Does the general timeline of events to you seem fun. Do you have any suggesstions that could make it even better for my players as they run through the days? I want to make sure that when I play this they will get the utmost fun out of it.

Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it.

[Alex Green]

For a 3 shot... you're introducing the system, and everything else which is very good. I'd play up the "novas are rock stars" thing. I.e. mention that Storm (et all) does in fact get paid to do that kind of thing and the people love her for it. If any of the heroes want to take some time to help people, let them. As you can tell I'm not a fan of Spiderman's *angst*, but that's just me.

[Heru]

For a 3 shot... you're introducing the system, and everything else which is very good. I'd play up the "novas are rock stars" thing. I.e. mention that Storm (et all) does in fact get paid to do that kind of thing and the people love her for it. If any of the heroes want to take some time to help people, let them. As you can tell I'm not a fan of Spiderman's *angst*, but that's just me.

One of the nice benefits of me using the Aberrant system is that I have actually ran two games so far using it. And while not all of the players in the current game were in my other game, enough were that the mechanics of the game is not something that will be new to them. This is a positive which means they will be able to move from that and directly into the fun of gaming.

You ideas have been immensely helpful. And your right, though there is a time limit (three sessions) and a goa that needs to be achieved (which they are aware of, so its not like its negaitve railroading, they are expecting that these games will have goals and thye understand that its not free for all that most games we play are) they are still the main focus and if they want to randomly help somebody - if that is making them have fun - then I will definitely play that up. I will also provide some vocal information on the setting and the universe and how the novas are actually 'heroes' in that they aid their towns and communities to fight against crime. And most do it in groups rather than solo, which provides all sorts of protection.

This is so very much a four color sort of game, and the players can be Iron Man (no matter what the Aberrant Player's Guide said to the contrary).