Aberrant RPG - Out of curiosity, and learning from it...

[Sakurako Hino]

Just how much do you storytellers add to your world that you run? Do you play it by book? Make up your own world and have at it? Or do you add bits and peices here and there? Just curious, since I'm a fledgling storyteller myself.

[Kirby1024]

In general, I follow Canon fairly closely, but I add tremendous amounts inside the Canon to my world. In general, It's just expansion on what's been shown (for example, I've fleshed out Project Pandorra a bit, and done some stuff with Utopia as well).

I don't tend to ST Aberrant though, I'm not a particularly good ST. I've got a higher rating in my Intuitive Facet than I do my Reflective Facet, but I much prefer it when my players "ST with me", by fleshing out what I'm doing. The problem being is that often I don't get that, and we get really shallow games.

[Liam VanGilder]

The first Aberrant campaign I ran ended being so non canon you'd have been lucky to be able to see it through a telescope. Everything seemed to be the same as the Main Book 2008 on the surface, but the real history of things was wildly different. Still, most of what I put in or altered was based on a different interpretation of one part or another of the Aeoniverse canon, just changed to some degree.

The second campaign I'm running now started off as pretty much 100% canon. The only things I did was to add in a few things that weren't mentioned or defined in the canon. However, after four years of game time I'm now at the point where trying to run the rest of the Worldwide adventures is requiring some radical reinterpration of them. The fact is, I can't imagine how to keep a game set in canon without clamping down on the player's freedom of choice. In a game where the characters have so much potential for personal power then keeping to a pre-written plot just isn't something I could manage.

[T-dev]

I'm weird in this, & so many other, regards. I am basically following cannon down the line; however my campaign has a lot going on in it that is not cannon. The cannonical timeline just fits within my uber-cannon.

[T-dev]

Yeah, I know I mispelled canon

[Liam VanGilder]

I was trying to do that but I have too much of a penchant for the dramatic to stick to it. Whenever I see a chance for the players to get involved in the great events of the day I try to lure them into it.

The other problem is that with the amount of xp the characters have had by now they are powerful enough that one catastrophic mistake can change the world. Being player characters these events aren't entirely few and far between.

[Jordan]

To me, canon is only a series of events which set the tone for the game and give readers insight into what the developers were thinking when they designed the world, it's not the meat of the game.

The game I am in isn't really canon, but doesn't really break canon either. I hardly ever interact with canon events but Jordan is familiar with many canon characters and institutes on a variety of levels.

The main thing to remember is that once a game starts, "canon" has already been disrupted by the mere fact that the new characters now exist within the "canon" world. Funny how that works huh?

[Jager]

I don't consider myself a slave to canon, but as a ST, I tend to follow the overarching belief that the Aberrant War is coming. It is the nature of the species, so to speak. The combination of taint and the fact that greater power leads to greater disassocitation from humanity is a big thing in the games I have run.

[Walker]

I agree with Jordan that the canon metaplot thingy is, or at least can be used as the backdrop of the series. As ST I haven't changed very much at all from the canon version in terms of background. The series is quite young at the moment but so far no ones gone and done anything too stoopid or earth shattering that would effect the plot.

If they did something stoopid or earth shattering then I wouldn't try to stop them.

In more general terms, if you try and stop players doing stuff they know their charcters can/would do then they get bored, coz they know that whatever they do its not having any effect. There is nothing wrong with trying to stear the players in the direction you want them to go, but if they decide to do something else then improvise the plot around what they do. Maybe re-introduce the thread in a slightly different way a bit later on or find another way for them to get the information needed for the next bit of the story. A recent example in my own game was that, when the players didn't take the job to go after the bad guys, I had the mentor of one of the players take the contract. Needless to say when he fell foul of the bad guys the player was out for blood and dragged everyone else along.

At other times though I just throw my plot out the window and improvise a new story about what their characters are interested in. I'd do the same for the canon version of events too.

If the players are more interested in something other than your plot or canon, I say let them go for it. It's amazing what ideas they come up with that can make the story more enjoyable. If you remember you're telling a story with the players, not at them you won't go wrong.

[Sakurako Hino]

Oh man... This is alot to digest. I'm getting opinions from ALL OVER the spectrum here. Looks like nothing beats good old experience as a Storyteller, GM, or whatever you're called when you run a campaign.

This young Padawan appreciates the advice of the council. But feels that the Padawan's training is yet to be completed...

Not that it's a bad thing! It's more fun that way.

[ 09-03-2002: Message edited by: Endeavor ]

[T-dev]

You know it's funny, my PCs tend to follow the canon too. What I mean is that they've done a couple of things that fed right into the canonical material. What's really weird to think about is that in the adventure books so many possible outcomes are presented that it begs the question. Which canon are you talking about? I definitely am following the big issues of the canon, like the Aberrant War.

[Sakurako Hino]

From what I gather, the "canon" that is agreed by the consensus here is that all the events leading up to the Aberrant War eventually give rise to the Trinity storyline. One of those factors is the Teragen becoming the inflaming factor in the said war. They single handedly start it by going after baseline humanity. And destroying anything in their way.

[Apep]

You really should read the Teragen book.

[Sakurako Hino]

I would if I could get my hands on it. Being in Minnesota, unless it's DnD, GURPS, World of Darkness, or RIFTS, you just can't find it. And the game shop I used to go to to find said material has turned against roleplayers all together. I'd tell you what they've been doing, but I'd risk having lawyers knocking on my door. (I know that one of the workers there lurks from time to time on the boards of various RPG's. Especially superhero ones.)