Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - Rules and Setting - Mega-Attributes - Quick Reference

[Quantum Fire]

For quick reference, so that we can keep things in mind, and have a general idea of what anyone is capable of.. this is the base without enhancements, which can add additional shifts to this.

Mental

Mega-Perception

The superhuman awareness of a watcher isn't limited to the details of her physical surroundings. The involuntary physical responses (muscular/nervous tics, changes in respiration and/or body temperature, pheromone releases etc.) of other lifeforms can supply her with a wealth of information.

• 1 dot: Listen to 10 different musical compositions simultaneously while being able to distinguish each clearly.

• 2 dots: Perceive colors as well as the most visually acute Chromatics.

• 3 dots: Smell what baselines consider "scentless" substances with ease.

• 4 dots: Move about while fully blindfolded with no difficulty by feeling variations in the light reflected off surrounding objects on your skin.

• 5 dots: See a television image as a beam scanning over the screen if the watcher concentrates.

• 6 dots: Locate a given type of restaurant by the scent of its cuisine from across a medium-sized city.

• 7 dots: Without making any real effort distinguish differences between exact copies of anything, be it a song, photocopy or reproduction.

• 8 dots: See even the tiniest "invisible" air currents/distortions with ease.

• 9 dots: Listen to nearby conversations from the recent past by discerning the faint echoes still bouncing around. The particulars of how well this works are left to the Storyteller's discretion but influential factors include how well the nearby surfaces reflect echoes (hard & smooth works better than rough & soft) and the subsequent noise at the vicinity.

• 10 dots: You are automatically aware of anything of interest to you within the operating range of your senses that is qualitatively detectable by your available senses. Excess sensory input is no obstacle, even on the scale of sensing everything in the entire world at once.

Mega-Intelligence

Brainiacs can understand and influence complex systems (like organizations, nations & cultures), in ways that baselines barely understand. They can use this influence and control their surroundings, manipulating people and events with superhuman capability. They have reduced or totally waived training time for learning new Abilities. Brainiacs can roll Intelligence or a relevant Ability to recall some useful piece of data they have seen or heard. They can also place a hidden message within a message/document that only novas with Mega-Intelligence of their own dot rating or higher can decipher.

• 1 dot: Defeat a grandmaster of chess consistently while only vaguely paying attention.

• 2 dots: Deduce non-obvious applications for existing technological devices.

• 3 dots: Predict the actions of baseline humans without much thinking. Doing this for aliens requires an amount of thought in inverse proportion to how well the nova knows the alien species in question. The better the nova knows the aliens, less thought will be required.

• 4 dots: Distinguish between random static and nonrandom scrambling immediately on observation.

• 5 dots: Deduce non-obvious/non-official historical events from historical records and circumstantial evidence - bad data ("Garbage In, Garbage Out") & mistakes are still factors.

• 6 dots: Design working devices/technologies just from a general outline of principles - no technical details are required, as they can be extrapolated. This includes scientific knowledge that typically isn't considered to have any practical technological use. A solid base of scientific/technological knowledge is still required.

• 7 dots: Acquire a Ph.D level of knowledge in a field, from scratch, in 30 hours.

• 8 dots: Develop non-Inspired technologies that baselines will not be able to duplicate for centuries.

• 9 dots: Reinvent an entire scientific field from first principles in a month.

• 10 dots: Starting from scratch, match the collective technological development of humankind from the beginnings to the early 21st century in 94 days, given sufficient resources.

Mega-Wits

A quick-thinker has greater control over his own emotions and involuntary reactions - things like shock or surprise either don't exist for him or do not impair him. This also reduces a quick-thinker's chances of being distracted & allows him a clear-minded focus on whatever task at hand.

• 1 dot: Without having to pay attention, walk through a crowd of oncoming pedestrians without ever being jostled or touched.

• 2 dots: Read two (or more) books or viewscreens simultaneously.

• 3 dots: Non-Inspired Social Abilities can no longer affect you against your own will.

• 4 dots: Can predict/finish other people's sentences by looking at their faces.

• 5 dots: Retain your composure in the face of a credible, immediate opportunity to acquire your Heart's Desire.

• 6 dots: It is impossible to ambush you without the use of superhuman abilities.

• 7 dots: Your works of fine art are so excellent that experiencing them qualifies as a "life-changing event" for your audience.

• 8 dots: Not even knowing the difference between a "Bear" or "Bull" economy, the global stock market is still your plaything.

• 9 dots: Attempts to deceive you by omission, equivocation, or even the most subtle half-truths are as obvious as the most blatant lies told by a four-year-old.

• 10 dots: You effectively have centuries to think about your response to any situation.

Social

Mega- Appearance

Unlike attractive baselines, idols retain their superhuman beauty in everyday circumstances where the benefits of airbrushing, makeup and controlled lighting are unavailable. They have the option of using their hyper-attractiveness to influence the behavior of anyone who might be attracted to them, the results of which can range from having a judge in court rule in your favor to getting a one-night stand. Distracting people of the correct sexual orientation - to the point where said people will drop things, walk into walls and generally lose track of whatever they were doing before the idol showed up - is another favored tactic. Idols can almost always ensure that other people's attention is drawn to themselves when desired, although it can backfire spectacularly. While not quite as effective at Intimidation as a squid, an idol can also use her superhuman visage to intimidate people with great effect, provided that risking her displeasure is seen by those people as a credible threat. [NOTE: Children, Semi-Human and Non-Human may find these modified somewhat (mentally healthy adults do not find children or nova's who now look like dragons sexually attractive, no matter how much Mega-Appearance they have)

• 1 dot: Average baselines who find you attractive will always fulfill minor requests from you when possible.

• 2 dots: To see you is to be infatuated with and/or lust after you, provided they're sexually oriented towards your gender.

• 3 dots: You can always attract an impromptu entourage of admirers, provided there are people around who are sexually oriented toward and non-hostile (at the minimum) to you.

4 dots: People who find you attractive will always fulfill major requests from you, provided that they think there's any chance that they could get lucky with you.

• 5 dots: Even people of the incorrect sexual orientation will feel sexually attracted towards you.

• 6 dots: Temporarily soothe baselines suffering from psychotic episodes upon seeing your loveliness.

• 7 dots: Seeing you in person qualifies as a life-changing experience.

• 8 dots: Your amazing looks are so transcendent that even mosquitoes and other insects will avoid biting you and marring your perfection.

• 9 dots: People will engage in bidding wars into the billions of dollars for an authentic digital photo of you.

• 10 dots: People will gladly endanger their own lives - even to the point of committing suicide - if they think that you're asking it of them

Mega-Manipulation

A grifter's inherent awareness of others' attempts at manipulation and/or deception isn't limited to those focusing on herself alone. Provided that she has a working knowledge of the target's general viewpoint (whether it be only a single person or a group), the grifter can detect such attempts directed at them and counter them if she's able. A grifter is also capable of influencing other people through written and printed media, as demonstrated by Heinrich "The Newsman" Keld and Corby Carter.

• 1 dot: Polygraphs show exactly what you want them to show, entirely at your will and independent of your overt answers and their truthfulness.

• 2 dots: You can find and barter for anything the street has to offer.

• 3 dots: Take a standard baseline who hates you and wants nothing more than to spoil your plans, and get him to yell exasperatedly "Just tell us what you want, we're going to end up doing it anyway!".

• 4 dots: If you can speak to the proper people, you can diffuse any disagreement, up to and including war.

• 5 dots: In a brief amount of time you can strip all useful information from a hardened Directive agent.

• 6 dots: Such is your silver tongue that you can convince priests and nuns to give up their vows of celibacy.

• 7 dots: You can get ordinary baselines to reveal whatever information you like, without them realizing they did so.

• 8 dots: You can destroy high-exposure careers and/or support for an organization basically at will, the Storyteller has full discretion on how much time, effort and/or evidence you will need. Often a single media report is all that's needed to serve your purposes.

• 9 dots: Like the wingbeats of butterflies that can eventually create hurricanes, you can (Storyteller willing) influence events with the most trivial and unlikely of actions. (Storyteller's discretion as to how long this takes and the limits of what your machinations can affect.)

• 10 dots: The nova's player may choose at any time to have an unlikely but theoretically possible, event or sequence of events to happen, based on the nova's prior machinations coming to fruition exactly when desired. This costs one point of temporary Willpower and requires a

Manipulation roll, with a difficulty based on the unlikelihood of the events.

Mega-Charisma

Charmers have a greater ability for masking their own emotions and involuntary reactions from being noticed by other people, which allows them to deal with people whom they find personally distasteful with relative ease. It also is of immense help when performing a role that requires faking friendly and positive interactions with such people. The vast majority of people like charmers to the point where they find it hard (but not impossible) to believe bad things about them. This is useful in police investigations, courtrooms and in dealing with the media.

• 1 dot: Make non-hostile baselines treat you like a superstar by force of personality alone.

• 2 dots: Usurp a dinner reservation at a fancy restaurant from a baseline with the Influence Background.

• 3 dots: Make baselines spend a significant portion of their annual wage just to do the things you like to do or have the things you like to have. Yes, you ARE that important to them!

• 4 dots: Make baseline humans intent on killing you stop to let you talk with them first.

• 5 dots: Make professional poker players fold winning hands just to keep from upsetting you.

• 6 dots: Shake people out of manic and/or depressive states by force of personality alone.

• 7 dots: Render a baseline human willing to sacrifice his or her life for you after a single conversation.

• 8 dots: Make yourself be found innocent of even the most heinous crimes because you're so likable, despite overwhelming evidence of your guilt.

• 9 dots: Make baselines kill themselves or allow you to kill them if you ask it of them.

• 10 dots: Make world superpowers wage war in hope of gaining your favor.

Mega-Ugliness

A squid’s surreal repulsiveness grants him a shock value that is outside the context of the typical baseline’s experience. Faced with a horror of which cinematic movie monsters are but pathetic imitations most people can and do lose their self-control, which allows the squid to terrorize and/or dominate them as he pleases. Similar to an idol, the squid can also distract people with his hyper-abhorrent looks, with said people quickly losing track of whatever they were doing in their panic over seeing the squid. Likewise, a squid also retains his hideousness in everyday circumstances and can draw attention to himself with relative ease.

• 1 dot: Typical baselines break out into nervous sweat in your presence.

• 2 dots: Standard baselines automatically attempt to leave any room you’re in.

• 3 dots: People will do whatever you request, just to get you to leave.

• 4 dots: Even strong willed baselines automatically attempt to flee your presence.

• 5 dots: Cause various kinds of hysteria reactions in typical baselines who view your horrid visage.

• 6 dots: Make baselines involuntarily urinate and/or defecate out of the basic animal fear reaction upon catching sight of you.

• 7 dots: Even extremely strong willed baselines faint in your presence.

• 8 dots: Predatory and parasitic animals would rather starve to death than touch you.

• 9 dots: The extreme fear your visage provokes can cause stress-induced physical effects in baselines. Examples of such effects include the victim’s hair going white and/or falling out, premature aging and partial hysterical sensory impairment.

• 10 dots: Without physical intervention non-Inspired creatures will blind themselves rather than risk seeing you again.

[Quantum Fire]

Physical

Mega-Strength

Mega-Strength 1

• Break a metal lamppost free from its moorings.

• Smash through an average interior or wooden wall without slowing down.

• Snap thin steel cables, most steel chains and heavy gauge barbed wire with little effort.

• Twist a pistol into a paperweight as if it were soft taffy.

• Use a motorcycle as a weapon.

Mega-Strength 2

• Bend a small steel girder.

• Mash an item of metallic hardware - like a firearm - into a ball as if it were Play-Doh.

• Rip a locked bank vault door off its hinges.

• Shatter bulletproof glass as if it were blown glass.

• Uncouple subway cars by hand.

Mega-Strength 3

• Bend a large steel I-beam girder.

• Split a boulder of 1 cubic meter volume with one strike.

• Smash through a stone or brick wall without slowing down.

• Tear a sports utility vehicle in half bare-handed.

• Twist the barrel of a Main Battle Tank’s primary gun into a pretzel.

Mega-Strength 4

• Body-check a fully-loaded semi-trailer truck.

• Dropkick a rhinoceros across the Grand Canyon.

• Mash a sports car into a ball as if it were made of aluminum foil.

• Smash through a thick stone or reinforced concrete wall without slowing down.

• Use 6 to 12 meter metal cargo containers as hand held luggage.

Mega-Strength 5

• Carry around a STS Orbiter (NASA space shuttle) with ease.

• Lift an empty maglev consist (the “engine” of a maglev train).

• Smash through a bank vault wall without slowing down.

• Uproot a moai statue from Easter Island for a souvenir.

• Use a Main Battle Tank as a weapon.

Mega-Strength 6

• Club a foe with a locomotive engine.

• Deadlift even the largest blue whales.

• May act as an industrial shipping crane.

• Move a typical wooden house to a new location by hand.

• Use a 60 meter tall radio tower as a javelin.

Mega-Strength 7

• Catch a falling 747 passenger airliner without harming it or its contents.

• Install a hydro-electric generator by hand.

• Rip a conventional Cruise Ship Motor (44 MW) from its housing.

• Uproot a large single-story brick house.

• Uproot a small submersed oil pipeline station (rated at 800 meters of depth).

Mega-Strength 8

• Rip the Statue of Liberty free from its base & haul it on your shoulder.

• Uproot a full 38 meter tall water tower.

• Uproot a large submersed oil pipeline station (rated at 1,300 meters of depth).

• Use a Cyclone-class patrol ship as a weapon.

• Use a 300 meter tall radio tower as a fighting staff.

Mega-Strength 9

• Carry the London Eye observation wheel and keep it upright.

• Deadlift an Agosta 90B diesel-electric submarine.

• Rip a small bridge from its moorings.

• Uproot a heavy five-story brick building.

• Uproot the statue of Christ the Redeemer (at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Mega-Strength 10

• Mount a Wärtsilä RTA96-C (the world’s biggest internal combustion engine circa 2008) on a ship by hand.

• Move a Saturn V rocket onto the launchpad by hand.

• Steal the largest jade boulder known circa 2008 (weighing 3,000 metric tons) from its underground museum in northern Myanmar without heavy equipment.

• Uproot and carry off the Kiev TV Tower.

Mega-Dexterity

Mega-Dexterity 1

• Dodge machine gun fire at close range.

• Perfect 10 gymnastics routine.

• Run on the narrowest of supports as if it was a wide footpath.

• Shoot the wings off of a fly.

• Use a kitchen knife to julienne vegetables in midair without a cutting board.

Mega-Dexterity 2

• Climb on any surface that offers even the slightest of handholds.

• Disarm multiple opponents before they can react.

• Juggle angry badgers and not get bitten.

• May perform flips and dodges while in midair.

• Remove the swimwear or light clothing a person is wearing before he or she can notice, much less react.

Mega-Dexterity 3

• Ascend or descend buildings that are close together by bouncing between their walls.

• Ignore movement penalties caused by obstacles while moving at high speed, provided that there’s enough of a gap in the obstacle for the swift to slip through.

• Perform a perfect 10 gymnastics routine blindfolded with one hand tied behind your back.

• Remain in poses that baseline acrobats or contortionists would consider painful indefinitely.

• Use any surface - horizontal, vertical, stationary or mobile - capable of supporting the swift’s weight as a perch or pivot point.

Mega-Dexterity 4

• Catch a bullet.

• Engage in combat on a nightingale floor without making it squeak.

• Juggle old dynamite without setting it off.

• Leap onto speeding vehicles with the ease of a baseline stepping onto a moving escalator.

• Move on unstable solid surfaces as if it they were an Olympic-grade running track.

Mega-Dexterity 5

• Dive through the spinning rotor blades of a helicopter in flight without getting hit.

• Juggle mercury fulminate without setting it off.

• Move on a violently-shaking surface - like the ground during earthquakes of up to 7.0 on the Richter scale - as if it was stable and still.

• Pluck flying shrapnel out of the air within a small area - such as the interior of an average-sized restaurant - before it can damage anything nearby.

• Assemble or disassemble complex machinery without using purely mechanical tools.

Mega-Dexterity 6

• Dislocate and relocate any joint in the swift’s body without damaging it, the swift is effectively triple-jointed.

• Juggle liquid nitroglycerin without setting it off.

• Move on an extremely violently-shaking surface - like the ground during earthquakes of 7.0 on the Richter scale and higher - as if it was stable and still.

• Pluck flying shrapnel out of the air within a large area—like a small public park—before it can damage anything nearby.

• Use a blade to cut a foe’s heart out in combat and show it to him for a complete surprise before he can go into shock. It’s done so quickly that it’s bloodless and painless until the victim notices the throbbing hunk of meat the swift has in her hand.

Mega-Dexterity 7

• Dodge laser beams that have already targeted and fired at the swift.

• Escape from any physical restraint, even those that penetrate the body without causing himself any further damage.

• Juggle nitrogen tri-iodide without setting it off.

• Move fast enough to cross a laser “tripwire” without triggering it.

• Move too fast to be seen with unaided baseline human vision.

Mega-Dexterity 8

• Inflict energy damage instead of physical with close combat attacks by moving at superluminal speeds.

• Perform the most delicate of surgeries quickly enough to be unaffected by environmental factors.

• Repair the engine of a bullet train while it’s running at full speed.

• Use a blade to completely flay a victim (removal of the victim’s entire intact skin) in combat so quickly that it’s bloodless and painless until the victim notices what he’s missing.

• Walk or run along a stream of automatic gunfire or similar projectiles.

Mega-Dexterity 9

• Escape from inside a locked airtight bank vault.

• Move faster than any camera can see.

• Move faster than the speed of light without harming yourself or your surroundings.

• Novas with Mega-Perception of 3 or less have a difficulty keeping track of the swift as she moves.

• Use even the most fragile of surfaces (such as soap bubbles in midair) for climbing or pivot points.

Mega-Dexterity 10

• Escape from having the swift’s entire body encased in hardened concrete.

• Muffle the sounds produced by the swift’s body involuntary movements - heartbeat, breathing etc. - with a Stealth roll.

• Safely defuse a nuclear bomb after the trigger explosives have been set off.

• Sneak up on a foe without needing any cover by using nothing more than the foe’s blind spots, even in a region of empty space.

Mega-Stamina

Mega-Stamina 1

• Can shrug off a heavyweight boxer’s best shot.

• Can soak damage caused by disease, immune to infection via open wounds.

• Ignore the dice penalties caused by the intense heat found in large fires.

• Immune to anthrax, cancer and the common cold.

• Unaffected by extreme levels of environmental pollution.

Mega-Stamina 2

• Completely exhaust at least 16 baseline sexual partners in a single session.

• Engage in nonstop hand-to-hand combat for four hours.

• Immune to scorpion glass toxin (see Aberrant: Underworld, p. 62), ricin and most forms of nerve gas.

• Stay awake for 16 days straight.

• Unaffected by subsonic pain/nausea fields (see Aberrant: Year One, p. 108).

Mega-Stamina 3

• Immune to all forms of tear gas.

• Can shrug off the impact of a 5 story fall.

• Sprint continuously for 3 hours and 20 minutes.

• Unaffected by the extremes of atmospheric and/or liquid pressure, such as exposure to vacuum or ocean-floor water pressure.

• Unaffected by toxic cyanide compounds (i.e. hydrogen cyanide, sodium cyanide, zinc cyanide, potassium cyanide & mercury cyanide).

Mega-Stamina 4

• Can shrug off being run over by a car in a traffic accident.

• Can soak damage caused by radiation - soft radiation is considered bashing and hard radiation is considered lethal - without automatically losing Health Levels.

• Immune to HIV/AIDS, leprosy and “killer” strains of influenza.

• Recover from crippling injuries in one month.

• Unaffected by caesium, polonium and irradiated thallium poisoning.

Mega-Stamina 5

• Completely exhaust at least 224 baseline sexual partners in a single session.

• Engage in nonstop hand-to-hand combat for nine days and eight hours.

• Immune to Ebola fever, Marburg fever and Pneumatic plague.

• Immune to the effects of nanoweapons such as DeVries Nanokill (see Aberrant: Brainwaves).

• Sprint continuously for 18 hours and 40 minutes.

Mega-Stamina 6

• Can shrug off being run over by a semi-trailer truck in a traffic accident.

• Immune to bioweapons such as weaponized tularemia, Machupo virus and smallpox.

• May heal aggravated damage as lethal damage, albeit at 5 dot ratings lower than normal.

• Recover from crippling injuries in 23 days.

• Swim across the Pacific Ocean nonstop.

Mega-Stamina 7

• Can survive an ordinary terminal impact fall with only bruises to show for it.

• Immune to infectious prions, such as the ones that cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Fatal familial insomnia and Kuru.

• Keep performing some task (such as fighting) past the point of death by making a Stamina roll each turn and whenever damage is taken, with a +1 difficulty penalty per health

level of damage taken beyond “Dead”. Actual death is only delayed until the dynamo fails a Stamina roll or completes the task, and cannot be averted barring physical resurrection

of the dynamo.

• Sprint continuously for four days, 21 hours and 20 minutes.

• Stay awake for three Terran standard years, ten months and 13 days straight.

Mega-Stamina 8

• Completely exhaust at least 3,328 baseline sexual partners in a single session.

• Engage in nonstop hand-to-hand combat for 34 days and 16 hours.

• Immune to weaponized infectious prions.

• Keep performing some task (such as fighting) past the point of death by making a Stamina roll each minute and whenever damage is taken, with a +1 difficulty penalty per health level of damage taken beyond “Dead”. Actual death is only delayed until the dynamo fails a Stamina roll or completes the task, and cannot be averted barring physical resurrection of the dynamo.

• Regrow entire skin in 2 hours and 24 minutes after being flayed alive.

Mega-Stamina 9

• Can shrug off being run over by a T-95 Main Battle Tank going at full battlefield speed.

• Keep performing some task (such as fighting) past the point of death by making a Stamina roll each hour and whenever damage is taken, with a +1 difficulty penalty per health level of damage taken beyond “Dead”. Actual death is only delayed until the dynamo fails a Stamina roll or completes the task, and cannot be averted barring physical resurrection of the dynamo.

• Stay awake for 21 Terran standard years and 15 days straight.

• Sprint continuously for 26 days and 16 hours.

• Wade through molten lava without being harmed.

Mega-Stamina 10

• Completely exhaust at least 17,408 baseline sexual partners in a single session.

• Engage in nonstop hand-to-hand combat for 181 days and eight hours.

• Keep performing some task (such as fighting) past the point of death by making a Stamina roll each day and whenever damage is taken, with a +1 difficulty penalty per health level of damage taken beyond “Dead”. Actual death is only delayed until the dynamo fails a Stamina roll or completes the task, and cannot be averted barring physical resurrection of the dynamo.

• Recover from crippling injuries in 15 days.

[Quantum Fire]

A further comparison

With some thought, I figured this could be useful, as a raw comparison to natural attribute levels increased due to certain enhancements/traits, and give something of a benchmark to work with for people who have a attribute in excess of the normal five maximum.

Mega 1 Attribute 2 slightly exceeds Attribute 5 (though usual human maximum) [Note: I dislike Mega's on attributes at 2 (& disallow them with 1 dot attributes)]

Mega 1 Attribute 3 slightly exceeds Attribute 6 (which is true human maximum though it requires merits to reach this level for baselines)

Mega 1 Attribute 4 slightly exceeds Attribute 7 (Only Inspired (Daredevil/Psiad/Nova) reach these levels)

Mega 1 Attribute 5 slightly exceeds Attribute 8

Mega 1 Attribute 6 slightly exceeds Attribute 9

Mega 1 Attribute 7 slightly exceeds Attribute 10 (and is slightly below Mega 2, Attribute 4)