Aberrant RPG - A request for feedback.

[Hugin]

Hey there. Guess I have enough ego to think that some of you might give enough of a crap about this to gimme a little feedback.

I've been running a TT game for about 8 months now (some of y'all, Apep, Jordan Rossi, Dr. Troll and Jack Fortune have even made cameo appearences as NPCs) and have been pretty much keeping within canon. Now, of course I've had to give it my own spin. These are some of the things I've done. If you wouldn't mind, lemme know what you think.

The Teragen is seen as having multiple generations. 1st gen are the founders. 2nd gen are the people who came to the founders. 3rd gen are the recruited. 4th gen are the troublemakers. The dipshits who think 'kewl! I'm a nova, that means I ain't human. Guess I'm a Terat. Being a Terat means being a badass.' These are the guys who cause most of the trouble and the ones folks like Agnelli and Preston point to. But, for the most point, the real Terats consider them posers.

Devries Nova Tactical Services is now Carrington Tactical Services. They've broken off and many of the stompers went off with Carrington. Anna publicly came out and appologized for having been responsible for so many nova deaths and has moved DeVryes into pretty much a non-combat related employment service. She will no longer serve as the facilitator for baselines to fight without risking each other. She has made ammends with many Terats and has pretty much declared her belief in Teras. She'll work for baselines, but it's an even exchange, she no longer encourages their belief that they're in charge.

The Terats never recruit MegaIntelligent novas. The belief is that a MegaIntelligent nova will simply come to the realization that Teras is right. That and arguing with someone that intelligent is a waste of time. They are brilliant enough to be able to convincingly support even the most thickheaded of opinions.

There are no, NO, open precogs. Nearly every single power force in the world would try to exploit them and the resulting futures from being out in the open would nearly always be frighteningly negative.

The Night of Long Knives is not because Mal is fed up with the Terats. It's because the extremists (mostly the Primacy, some of the Harvesters and the Cult of Mal) have outright declared a 'your either with us or against us' strategy and he's having to protect those of his 'children' that he feels have actually gotten it right.

The Mathmetician didn't support the Harvesters. That just seemed way too shortsighted for someone capable of seeing the future. Instead he, Caroline Fong (upon her rescue) and a few other NPCs (Prodigy included) have formed the Cassandras. This group is dedicated to manipulating the time in which the forseen war occurs. They want to have it delayed until such a point that more novas have come over to the Terat side (or at least aren't on the baseline side). They know they can't stop the war, they just want to adjust it enough to cut down on the casulties.

Oh, and Chiraben didn't kill Slider. The PC's dominated and telepathically manipulated by Psyche did it.

Lemme know what you think.

Thanks.

[Jager]

Okay. Does all this suppose that Teras is right?

Your 'crack' about the M-Int folks leads me to believe this may be the case.

In my experience, those players who emphasize their M-Int, aren't team players or joiners. They like being more behind the scenes and are caught up in their own interpretation of events.

Will all novas eventually come around to the Teras way of thinking?

Also, what about the Cult of Mal? They are the biggest 'spiritual' side of the equation and their presence is what propels the Mathmetician into supporting some of the more materialist factions (Primacy and Harvesters).

I also take from your post, that the Harvesters and Primacy are wrong in their interpretation of Teras. I am curious if this true, and why you came to this conclusion?

What happened to the Casablancas?

The Pandemonium?

The Arab network?

Nova Vigilance?

Okay, is Carrington TS in bed with Proteus, or will it soon be? Also, who got the kid?

What about the other Nova Agencies? It would seem that after Anna's declaration that some of her business would go elsewhere. Has it?

At what point and time will things like the IMF and other UN or UN-style agencies step in and place 'hidden' sanctions against 'terrorist' organizations like the Teragen?

Is the Directive as useless as written?

What has Utopia been up to while DeVries has split up and another faction(s) has joined the teragen?

Have you figure out how (or, if) novas leave Earth at the end of the war?

[Hugin]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:
Okay. Does all this suppose that Teras is right?
Your 'crack' about the M-Int folks leads me to believe this may be the case.

Nope. First of all, use a word like 'crack' and the hairs on the back of my neck go up. You wanna attack, make no bones about it so there won't be confusion. You wanna just talk, don't use that kind of language.

No, the Terats assume they are right. Since they're 'right' the supersmartie will figure that out. Their world view.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:

In my experience, those players who emphasize their M-Int, aren't team players or joiners. They like being more behind the scenes and are caught up in their own interpretation of events.
Will all novas eventually come around to the Teras way of thinking?

Well, that's what the Terats believe. They've found the truth and others will too.

As for SuperSmarties emphasizing their intelligence, we only have one of them in a group of 4 and your right. She's not much of a joiner. But she's manipulative and needy as hell, so she has reasons to hang around.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:

Also, what about the Cult of Mal? They are the biggest 'spiritual' side of the equation and their presence is what propels the Mathmetician into supporting some of the more materialist factions (Primacy and Harvesters).

In my game they've been dominated by the Apostle. Scripture, like Mal, really wants people to find the truth, while Apostle is willing to indoctrinate. That gives him some advantages when it comes to garnering support. He's also found a moderately effective (it's worked a couple times.) way of forcing eruptions. 'Creeping Paranoia' and 'Overwhelming Question' used in conjuction on a potential nova. The jist of the conversation is "Wouldn't it be just terrible if you didn't erupt. Don't you feel this overwhelming need to erupt? Maybe if you were dedicate yourself to us, maybe you can make it happen.

In my game Mathmetician responded to this by not trying to influence a group but by taking on a couple agents. Terats whom he could individually convince of his viewpoint. He uses them to try to alter events that in the long run will help things land his way.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:

I also take from your post, that the Harvesters and Primacy are wrong in their interpretation of Teras. I am curious if this true, and why you came to this conclusion?

Nope, their not 'wrong' per se. They've just, like I said, adopted an extremist attitude that doesn't allow individual growth, independence and thought. They see the war as immediate. It's right here, right now. The combat is on and you all (all novas) have to put off your urge to 'do your own thing' and get in line and fight the fight. Right now. If you don't you're against us.

Nova Vigilance is still around but Geryon and Co. are willing to allow folks more room. Just so long as their willing to defend when the chips are down. They're less controlling.

The extreme Harvesters have adopted the opinion that unless your pushing and using the Taint you're a sellout, pansy, wuss slacker. Again, like the Primacy, they've developed a focus of laserlike intensity that doesn't allow for freedom of thought. That's what is causing Mal the upset. Not that their individual views are wrong but that their urgency is robbing other Terats of their freedoms.

The Casablancas are still there. But, like the Pandaemonium they are loose enough about allowing other Terats room to grow that they aren't going to be censured.

The Arab Network I've pretty much not really focused on. It's a big game man, can't cover everything.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:

Okay, is Carrington TS in bed with Proteus, or will it soon be? Also, who got the kid?

Maybe, maybe not. My group has been willing (as characters) to simply accept that Utopia is rife with corruption. They've never investigated it enough to see that there is a conspiracy. They just assume the group as a whole sucks and is evil.

Anna got the kids (twins.) And she and the children are protected by four Elites (Totentaz, Very Bad, Incandescent and Ripsaw) who've dedicated themselves to her as 'knights' of a sort.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:

What about the other Nova Agencies? It would seem that after Anna's declaration that some of her business would go elsewhere. Has it?
At what point and time will things like the IMF and other UN or UN-style agencies step in and place 'hidden' sanctions against 'terrorist' organizations like the Teragen?

Yep, Carrington got the lions share of the warmongering biz, but Jannisaries, Spartan Consultants, and others have increased market share. However, the players have chosen to focus their attentions elsewhere so that isn't at the foreground anymore. The game started off as an Elites game and has shifted to Terat based due to player interests.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:

Is the Directive as useless as written?

Not really a focus in my game.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:

What has Utopia been up to while DeVries has split up and another faction(s) has joined the teragen?

Doing there best to restore public confidence in their infalibility after some moderately public failures (Mal pasting Pax, and a couple times when my players very cleverly outmanuevered them while Elites.) And doing a pretty good job. The AmpRoom destruction occured quite a bit differently and resulted in Pax capturing a dozen brawling novas singlehandedly, in front of the cameras of course, and giving them a stern lecture about responsibility.

They've also lost a few of their members. 4 have been murdered by Anna's protectors. Firefox quit to have a child (or at least try.) One of my own creation, The Valiant, quite because, well, he's a big jerk. Oh, and Kid Apollo quit to become The Apostle's beeyatch.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:

Have you figure out how (or, if) novas leave Earth at the end of the war?

Very likely. As far as I'm concerned, a war is an inevitability. The presence of quantum is disquieting to baselines. They feel it and it is disturbing (thus social penalties for high taint.)Also, as N News Service I've touched upon some issues that I feel would be very real. The destruction of baselines ability to entertain themselves. The loss of myths and legends. Basically, a growing sense of inferiority and resentment.

That and the game has already gone intergalactic in a way. One of the characters, Superluminal (formerly WhiteOut) has Quantum 6 (was 5 at the begining) MegaPerception 3 Boost (Perception and Wits) and Warp 2. Going intergalactic is really not that hard and he spends a good amount of time simply exploring. He already has found one habitable world.

He gave it to Anna DeVries children as a birthday present.

She named it Eden.

[Brucifer]

question: is anna devries Nova?

[MrDaniel]

Brucifer - Anna DeVries is detailed in the Elites sourcebook.

Yes, she is a Nova and one with a nasty trick up her sleeve. She has Disrupt (always a nasty surprise for PCs) but also Mental Blast with the Extra "Aggravated".

Now, I have been arguing with some of my players as to whether Aggravated Mental Blast ignores Psychic Shield or not, or just does horrendous damage (they don't know Anna has it).

Psychic Shield is only level 1 and could be bought Impervious if Mental Blast could be bought Armour-Piercing or Aggravated. Hmm.

Sorry for the deviation

[Cody]

Quote:

Originally posted by James 'Prodigy' Meehan:
She named it Eden.

Very, very, cool!

It sounds like a really great game. I like the way you seem to use the N! Newsposter articles in the game to illustrate the growing difference in the minds of novas contrasted with baselines. It seems much more believable than simply chalking it up to novas going nuts or becoming drunk with power. I have no problem believing either of those would happen but the idea that the majority would succumb that way sticks me as silly. Baselines struggling against their own diminishing sense of worth in the presence of nova accomplishments and ability is very believable.

[Jager]

[Hugin]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:
One, I knew you had some problems with ole Marcel. Glad to see he is still up and kicking.
Scripture is one of the terats I like to see more of. Since he is the Spiritualist in the organization, maybe he can gather some of those looking for a 'deeper meaning' or the like.
Marcel is the "Cult Leader" from hell. He should be one nasty bastard.

Scripture is still around, and the group for the most part is in awe of him. He and Mal, in my game at least, are currently in a watch and see mode. When Long Knives gets going, that's going to change.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:

Are his visions clear, or as he (and other precogs meddle) are the visions becoming more difficult? You might remember, I ran a whole game based on how much Precogs hate other meddling precogs. I wonder what tact you are taking.

Moderately clear. However they are not constant so he has to do and re do for the same periods for each action he takes. Thus he limits his actions to those he feels are most important, but at the same time is afraid of anything too important as it can undo his other work. His head will probably explode.

As precogs are not open in my game, the group has no experience with any other precogs to know how they feel.

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:

Extreme, but interesting. I think that Barry going through his first Chrysalis would be a hoot. I mean, does he come out saying "OH MY GOD, I've been such a fool", or is he the next incarnation of Hitler?
In the Hitler guise, I see him joining any cabal going against Mal from within the Teragen.
Maybe Mal is pruning him early?

Barry? Who?

I could always visualize Leviathan turning on Mal at some point and time. The Core Harvester (extremist) belief is opposed to what the Angelic Mal has become.
Again, Mal could be doing some early pruning, or he could be setting himself up for one hell of a civil war.
[/QB]

[Apep]

stupid blue chimps...

I think it sounds like a great game. I am so envious.

[Preston]

Barry, as in the Confederate. Co-founder of the Primacy with Sharpnel.

[Hugin]

Ah.

I only ever think of him and Shrapnel by their nova handles.

Thanks.

Oh yeah, took care of not having dealt with the Arab group.

They got nuked last night. Their little hideout is a nice shiny glass lake.

I honestly think it was outright foolish of Tarik to think that he could seed massive disease in other Novas and get away with either threatening or blackmailing them.

[David 'Dr. Troll' Smith]

Quote:

James 'Prodigy' Meehan:
I've been running a TT game for about 8 months now (some of y'all, ...Dr. Troll...have even made cameo appearences as NPCs)

Well good. Great even.

And I'm impressed by how Anna and Mal have been run. Your world seems a bit more realistic than cannon.

[Jager]

Tarik is thinking like a baseline, James. Thus, his stupid mistake.

Even 'true' terats make stupid mistakes. Some, you have corrected.

By the way, who blasted them?

[Hugin]

That would be telling.

Sorry, but players don't know yet and who knows, one of them may actually venture in here one day (I've tried.)

[Walker]

Very cool 'specialy like the idea of there being no open precogs.

Out of interest have you put in any sort of underground precog movement other than the Cassandras? (nice choice of name by the way )

[Hugin]

Well, crap.

Game just ended today. I'd been planning on about 5-6 more sessions but the bastard just blew up on me.

Literally.

The group finds out about some missing novas and gets a bug in their butt to find out what happened to them. They start using Telepathy and ESP to track them down. Then one of the psycho's maxes his Node Spark, adds 'Area' to it and Boom, everyone has 6 successes on Node Spark. Then a Q6'er add's Area and Other to his Quantum Imprint so that EVERYONE now has Qimprint 4. Then a whole lotta crazy shit happens and finally, with two Q8's now (thanks to some more Node Spark maxing of their own QImprint'ed NodeSparks)they burn though hours of roleplaying in about three minutes with godlike powers and find out it's The Apostle starting up a Soma Lab.

They open a warp and Homage (the QIMprinter) gets' all vengefull and NodeSparks to get Mental Blast-Agg-Mastery and lets fly.

He gets one success!!He can't get through DeLormier's defenses at all!! Surge is also NodeSparking so he can't do anything else. Lilya has Q-Bolted DeLormier just to find out her laughable 10L+8D bolt doesn't do squat.

What should have been three Q6'ers showing up to turn the Apostle into a grease stain ends up with all of them staring at him through a portal, waiting for him to do something! He does. Maxes his Area Dominate and say's "Kill each other."

Well, three of them laugh at his reletively low number of successes. But not SuperLuminal. He get's five net successes of Dominate on his heiney.

He then burns for quantum, maxes his Spatial Mastery with the Area and Mastery extras to add Aggravated and Armor Piercing to his Spatial Shockwave. All while they are on the 9th floor of a hotelroom in Japan looking through a Warp opening up into a ground level apartment in Paris.

End result?

Two character's dead (only the one immune to his own power and the Density Control:Decreased Lilya survived)

An agravated, armor piercing, Mastery level spatial shockwave, expanding out for about 300 degrees of a circle for 90 kilometres. 60 degrees of that went through the warp, killing DeLormier and expanding out for 90 kilometres.

Well, with two players dead and the end near anyway, group agreement on simply tossing it.

You know what? This is the second Aberrant game that has been trashed by player error once Mastery came into play. I am begining to think that you can't really reallistically play the game once that level of power comes into play. Too many breakable things around. Like Tokyo. I mean, think of it. Over 80% of Tokyo sliced through at the heighth of a 9 story building. Every building for 90 kilometres having about an inch simply removed from it, letting the upper portions fall straight down. The same happening to nearly 20% of Paris.

Jeez.

[Sakurako Hino]

Quote:

Originally posted by James 'Prodigy' Meehan:
Well, crap.

Game just ended today. I'd been planning on about 5-6 more sessions but the bastard just blew up on me.

Literally.

The group finds out about some missing novas and gets a bug in their butt to find out what happened to them. They start using Telepathy and ESP to track them down. Then one of the psycho's maxes his Node Spark, adds 'Area' to it and Boom, everyone has 6 successes on Node Spark. Then a Q6'er add's Area and Other to his Quantum Imprint so that EVERYONE now has Qimprint 4. Then a whole lotta crazy shit happens and finally, with two Q8's now (thanks to some more Node Spark maxing of their own QImprint'ed NodeSparks)they burn though hours of roleplaying in about three minutes with godlike powers and find out it's The Apostle starting up a Soma Lab.

They open a warp and Homage (the QIMprinter) gets' all vengefull and NodeSparks to get Mental Blast-Agg-Mastery and lets fly.

He gets one success!!He can't get through DeLormier's defenses at all!! Surge is also NodeSparking so he can't do anything else. Lilya has Q-Bolted DeLormier just to find out her laughable 10L+8D bolt doesn't do squat.

What should have been three Q6'ers showing up to turn the Apostle into a grease stain ends up with all of them staring at him through a portal, waiting for him to do something! He does. Maxes his Area Dominate and say's "Kill each other."

Well, three of them laugh at his reletively low number of successes. But not SuperLuminal. He get's five net successes of Dominate on his heiney.

He then burns for quantum, maxes his Spatial Mastery with the Area and Mastery extras to add Aggravated and Armor Piercing to his Spatial Shockwave. All while they are on the 9th floor of a hotelroom in Japan looking through a Warp opening up into a ground level apartment in Paris.

End result?

Two character's dead (only the one immune to his own power and the Density Control:Decreased Lilya survived)

An agravated, armor piercing, Mastery level spatial shockwave, expanding out for about 300 degrees of a circle for 90 kilometres. 60 degrees of that went through the warp, killing DeLormier and expanding out for 90 kilometres.

Well, with two players dead and the end near anyway, group agreement on simply tossing it.

You know what? This is the second Aberrant game that has been trashed by player error once Mastery came into play. I am begining to think that you can't really reallistically play the game once that level of power comes into play. Too many breakable things around. Like Tokyo. I mean, think of it. Over 80% of Tokyo sliced through at the heighth of a 9 story building. Every building for 90 kilometres having about an inch simply removed from it, letting the upper portions fall straight down. The same happening to nearly 20% of Paris.

Jeez.

Good god...
You know something, hindsight is 20/20, and I just saw what happened.
Players thinking they're all that, that almost get there, only to fail in the end. In the end, it was the power.
What does stop a person with THAT much power from using it like that?
NOTHING.

Next time, cap the Quantum levels, or ban certain powers that loused you up in this game.
Or write a pile of house rules.

[Cody]

And people wonder why so many believe war is going to be inevitable. I'm sorry to hear about the game ending that way. I'm sure it was very surprising to see it go down the way it did.

I'm only curious but how did the troupe feel about things shaking out that way? I got that everybody mutually decided to end the campaign rather than restart or make new characters but were they satisfied with the overall game? Angry at the ending? Humbled by the idea of even that much power not making you unstoppable? Endeavor has some good suggestions if everyone walked away unhappy and you really wanted to continue the game. If everyone thought it was unfortunate but had fun playing then I wouldn't go with capping or a shitload of house rules. It really depends on whether you folks had fun getting to where it ended.

And what is it about you and your games? Prague, Manhatten and now Tokyo? To quote Barry Ween;

"Fuuuuuuuuuck...."

Hellacool game from what you talked about in this thread though. Really major league awesome.

[Hugin]

Well, I had already said at the begining of the game that I was planning an end in about 5-6 weeks. The two corpses didn't think it worthwhile to pick up new characters for just that time period. One of them is running/playing in 4 or 5 games a week already and was looking forward to this game dying out. I'll probably be playing in his Mutants and Masterminds on Thursdays in a week or two.

As for house rules and such, adding a whole bunch of caps to Aberrant really doesns't seem to be in the spirit of the whole "What would you do with the power of a god" kind of thing. I just may ban Mastery though, simply because it actualy, in my experience, amps power levels beyond the ability of the player to be able to play with effectively.

It was fun, and I feel a little frustrated. But, the game lasted about 8 months, not a bad little campaign. We traveled the road from Elite to Terat, two characters died and fun was had. The funniest thing, SuperLuminal, the character so determined to stop fights whenever they broke out that once he even pushed his Teleport:Mastery as to allow him to teleport the entire population of Ibiza to Spain in order to avoid unnecessary death, this is the guy who ended up with the most kills in his folder (I stole an idea from a poster here and whenever an NPC was killed by a player, that player got their character sheet for their folder.) Weird.

[Hugin]

Quote:

Originally posted by Cody:


And what is it about you and your games? Prague, Manhatten and now Tokyo? To quote Barry Ween;

"Fuuuuuuuuuck...."

Have to respond to any quote of Barry.

You forgot France. France got muy muy messed up too. Hey, I dunno, at least I didn't nuke Mecca this time around.

[Bastian]

First off, sorry that your game exploded.

A few things:

One: The blast shouldn't travel through the warp to kill Delmorier. I recall something errated for that. For instance, you can warp to the surface of the sun, and nothing will happen ... unless you step through.

Likewise, Delmorier's Dominate could only have worked if he had the range to reach from were he was to Tokyo (since Dominate+Telepathy+Extra = No LOS)

Did you run warp differently?

Two: The problem didn't seem to be Q:6 or Mastery, it seemed to be Node Spark and layered Node Sparking. For instance, Node Spark can only give you a power of 0ne in a new power. Multiple uses of Node Spark shouldn't be able to get around this.

Three: Could the area effected QImprint merely duplicated what the original imprinter did, and not allowed a seperate power? I mean, if you imprinted a Quantum Bolt based on fire, wouldn't your bolt also be based on the same?

Four: Should the "borrowed" power have been allowed to be node spark? They are not part of that person's evolution.

Five: How did they raise their Quantum Stats? Node Spark Doesn't do that.

Hell, I guess this is just future damage control. It seemed like a really good game. Did everyone have fun?

[Apep]

I know about that mastery problem, my storyteller used to get frustrated to no end that a character had mastery on their force field. He would get so mad at it, and them come up with the strangest things to present a challenge for the character.

But you know, Apep's been mind controlled a few times and managed to decapitate some player characters before mastery was even involved. She wasn't more powerful than the other characters, just faster. So it still might have happened despite power levels. Although I think that the storyteller was just using me to get rid of some undesireable characters:). (I swear, mind control happened to her way too much for someone with mental sheild)

Sorry to hear it ended. But hey, at least you had an ending, almost all the games I play in end up in limbo somewhere with these unfinished stories.

[David 'Dr. Troll' Smith]

Quote:

Bastian:
One: The blast shouldn't travel through the warp to kill Delmorier. I recall something errated for that. For instance, you can warp to the surface of the sun, and nothing will happen ... unless you step through.
Likewise, Delmorier's Dominate could only have worked if he had the range to reach from were he was to Tokyo (since Dominate+Telepathy+Extra = No LOS)

Actually, I think you can do that. Environmental effects don't go through the warp (kind of like adaptation), but we have no reason to think that physical attacks can't be sent through. ST's call.

[Sakurako Hino]

Quote:

Originally posted by James 'Prodigy' Meehan:
Well, I had already said at the begining of the game that I was planning an end in about 5-6 weeks. The two corpses didn't think it worthwhile to pick up new characters for just that time period. One of them is running/playing in 4 or 5 games a week already and was looking forward to this game dying out. I'll probably be playing in his Mutants and Masterminds on Thursdays in a week or two.

As for house rules and such, adding a whole bunch of caps to Aberrant really doesns't seem to be in the spirit of the whole "What would you do with the power of a god" kind of thing. I just may ban Mastery though, simply because it actualy, in my experience, amps power levels beyond the ability of the player to be able to play with effectively.

It was fun, and I feel a little frustrated. But, the game lasted about 8 months, not a bad little campaign. We traveled the road from Elite to Terat, two characters died and fun was had. The funniest thing, SuperLuminal, the character so determined to stop fights whenever they broke out that once he even pushed his Teleport:Mastery as to allow him to teleport the entire population of Ibiza to Spain in order to avoid unnecessary death, this is the guy who ended up with the most kills in his folder (I stole an idea from a poster here and whenever an NPC was killed by a player, that player got their character sheet for their folder.) Weird.

Mutants and masterminds, huh?

I'm running a Silver Age Sentinels campaign.

Great group so far. No real bumps in the road. Strange, since I have bad luck being GM.

[Cryostorm]

I've just picked up Marvel's latest role playing game "Marvel Universe RPG" and it has some very interesting concepts. It's diceless but not in the Amber kind of way. Instead, each character has a pool of energy which they draw from to perform actions. Put enough effort (ie energy from your pool) into an action and it succeeds. I'm not really sure how well it will play, but it looks like it has potential.

[Cody]

Quote:

Originally posted by Apep:
He would get so mad at it, and them come up with the strangest things to present a challenge for the character.

Tell your ST to think Hypnosis. The Quantum Power not the Enhancement just 'cause it's faster but otherwise the Enhancement works just fine too. A little thought, a little patter, a touch of malicious humor and suddenly Mr/Ms Invulnerable is clucking like a chicken and pecking at the ground.

It's fun and so much more satisfying than coming up with bigger quantum blasts...

[Hugin]

Bastian,

One: Yes, in my game, warp did not allow enviromental conditions (ie. the sun, water, etc.) to move through of their own volition, but Nova effects could move through. The Domination was screamed through the warp (which was, for this character, simply a 'window' in space) thus requiring no great range.

Two: Node Spark didn't get around it. But, one dot with Mastery and Q6 is still pretty darn impressive.

Three: I'm not getting you here.

Four: Q-Imprint doesn't require for you to copy powers that are a part of your evolution. You get what someone else has, period. Also, the major damage was done by people with powers they had normal access to. SuperLuminal has Spatial Manipulation with Area and Mastery on it. He pushed that power, got 4 successes and turned those four pushed successes to Aggravated and Armor Piercing.

Five: I had allowed it (Node Spark was written before the APG. The concept of Q6+ hadn't existed at that point.) at the cost of 2 successes per increase in Quantum. In the end run, as I said before, the very temporary Q8 guys didn't actually do much with their Q8. The Q8 was based on Node Spark for Superluminal, which was based on Homage's area effect Quantum Imprint. The "Area" extra on the Quantum Imprint was based on Homage's own copied NodeSpark. That "area" extra went away in a few rounds, so everyone lost the Q Imprint and the Node Spark except for Homage.

Yeah, they had fun.

[Vixen]

I find that in my game, limiting the group to what's in the main book does wonders for keeping the game from derailing. So far, no one's broken the quantum 6 barrier and I've got everyone scared of Taint. Of course, there's nothing wrong with having NPCs with these weird kinds of powers, which leads to fear on most of the player's parts as they're not altogether sure what they're up against.

Mine's a T2M-centric game. I picked this one because it would allow me to bring in internal politics, personality clashes, idealism, the humor of being a marketing icon, as well as plenty of good ol' widescreen action where lots of things blow up. Plus, being T2M members gives them a personal stake in the Aberrant saga - it was a teammate they lost, when they lost Slider.

So far, they've defended Casablanca from a crazy nova who was conducting an experiment on widespread crystalline growth in an urban environment, investigated a biological weapons strike at the T2M-America complex, shot down robotic attack drones over San Francisco, attended a marketing meeting where a Japanese soda company wanted them to endorse Happy Fun Time Go-Go Drink, went into space to rescue the crew of the International Space Station, investigated the detonation of an EMP blast in the middle of Texas, and attended Slider's funeral. Now, the Directive's stepped in with an official investigation into Utopia and part of that is the shutdown of T2M as a disaster relief and anti-supercrime agency, so there will be less widescreen action for the foreseeable future.

House rules thus far are transplanting the Drive and Pilot skills to Wits as Adventure! does, rewriting the defense rules so that the pain of splitting a dice pool is less often necessary, and altering how temporary Taint is gained during play and how permanent Taint is gained at the start. Basically, for a point of permanent Taint, you get 2 extra nova points to spend on quantum, quantum powers, mega-atts or enhancements. Maxing a power is guaranteed to give you temporary Taint, but you gain your Quantum in autosucesses, not dice to roll to gain sucesses, and these sucesses are applied to the chart as normal. 'Dying for Power' is dropped - instead, you can regain three quantum instantly at a cost of gaining temporary Taint. Thus far, no one's used these new rules, because I have them terrified of Taint.

[Kirby1024]

Prodigy, sorry 'bout the game exploding. S'pose it happens to the best of us

At any rate, you have a point with the "What would you do with the powers of a god?" Well, the players just found out. And they realised that being a god isn't all it's cracked up to be, especially when they have the occaisional weakness.

While the game went to hell, try talking to the players about it. So many people want to be gods, and so few people are able to actually handle it. In many ways, you had a totally realistic game on your hands, and your players acted exactly how they should have. The world goes to hell eventually, and here's a golden reason why.

Frankly, I would have loved playing in a game like that. God-like powers are not for the light-hearted or weak-minded.

This is why I can't wait until I get into the Nobilis game I booked a space for next year. 'Cause I know exactly what I'd do with the powers of a god. And I know exactly how many ways the world is going to want to kill me the first time I unleash...

[Brucifer]

following on from the earlier post re: layered node spark - any powers in my game like that don tsatck - the newer one always cancels the older.

Ive found that people try to multi-Boost there STR to the tits. Im not having any of it.

Just an idea