Aberrant RPG - Canon Supremacy

[Brucifer]

Heres an idea that i thought of - theyre not normally any good but ....

As WW have dumped us (and by us i mean the legion of loyal AB fans) why dont we make NPrime the Canon!!!

Lets face it the Ab books only go up to Phase 2 (2015??) so after that there are no events apart from what we as gamers make.

so lets do it - Show WW and the rest of the gaming community what we can do...

[Sakurako Hino]

Dangerous, but a good idea.

But... how woud you propose to connect Aberrant with Trinity?

[Vixen]

Why should we tie Aberrant in with Trinity?

The number one problem I had with the Aberrant setting was the fact that you're playing someone with the power to change the world... and it doesn't matter what you do, since all roads lead to the post-devastation era of Trinity. It neuters the power and importance that novas have - that they should have - to tie them into continuity so slavishly. One big thing that Aberrant takes pride in - that superheroes have an effect on their world that isn't wiped out by next month's issue - is also something that, sadly, it can't really take pride in as long as it sticks hidebound to continuity.

About the only downside I could see to abandoning the inevitable path to the Trinity era, is that the game world could mutate very quickly beyond any semblance of cohesion, to the point the board ceases to be accessible to newbies and collapses under its own continuity. Seen it happen a time or two.

So thinking on both sides of the issue, I think that we should continue what we're doing - i.e. not radically changing the direction the world's going in to the point of incomprehensibility, no nova-creating plagues unleashed on the baseline genepool and whatnot - but not automatically assume that Trinity has to be the future, that all precogs and all forward-thinkers see the Aberrant War as an inevitability. To put the mystery back into where we're going, I guess.

[Sakurako Hino]

So, which direction should things go?

[ronin]

I don't see why we would need to be so far-reaching. After all, there are a lot of years of space to take up before Trinity happens and a lot of loose threads can be tied up or even further frayed by the people here. We have a window of decades to play in, I don't see why Trinity needs to enter the equation at all.

And as long as Chosen and his bash-up crew are doing such a wonderful job and taking great pains to give us a new supplement, perhaps another won't be far behind. Perhaps some enterprising young prophet of the printed page would feel compelled to write some adventures using forum characters as NPC's and other luminaries, or supplements that have characters here as templates or dramatis personae.

Just a thought. But since Aberrant isn't coming back, I like the idea of taking this arena and making it near-as-dammit real.

.ronin

[Brucifer]

{Sakurako 'Endeavor' Hino

But... how woud you propose to connect Aberrant with Trinity? }

eh? they already are. or so i thought.

{Vixen

not automatically assume that Trinity has to be the future, that all precogs and all forward-thinkers see the Aberrant War as an inevitability. To put the mystery back into where we're going, I guess.}

I think that you have to have some inevitabilities like this - without it we wouldnt have Dr. Hammersmith in the 1920s, the Galatea, the Venezuelan thing and Max Mercers linked temporal jumping thingy.

As a very famous and brilliant writer once said " the joy isnt in the end but how we got there" or summat.

Yes canon can be a pain but thats my point - if WW dont want it then lets make it ours and give people what they want - a concrete setting that they will enjoy.

The biggest thing with rpg's is that you have freedom, but the best thing is weaving your tales into the fabric of the canon universe.

Dont tell me that none of you have had very cool stories running in the background of a canon event...

...coz if you do i wont believe you.

[Sakurako Hino]

Perhaps I should elaborate...

How would you blend N! Prime into the Canon?

[ronin]

That's easy. The official storyline gives us very little between...what? 2015? And the Aberrant War. On top of that, most of the plot threads were left uncapped when the game stopped being published, which means there's still a lot of events that haven't been resolved yet. Aside from that, just because your character or anyone's character was never mentioned in a book doesn't mean that they couldn't have existed in the world. It just means they weren't mentioned in the book.

As long as it's done tastefully and done well, we should be able to play with or add on to the existing canon. As long as we don't actually change it, what's the problem with having a character who made it into the Teragen's pantheon or having a character who has a rivalry with Cestus Pax?

.ronin

[Sandy Davis]

Roin, your heart is int eh right place, but your mind seems to have taken a walk.The things about Pax, is that it is clearly shown that he is so more power than al other novas.Save Mal, that he dosen't have rivils

He has dissagrement with people but not really rivals.Liek he dislikes thron,Corben, that army guy, he has many peopel he dislikes.But Rivals would be hard to do.SNot because the power level only, but also his ego.

[Meridian]

Well not all other novas, as you mention...

Seriously, Pax doesn't have to be the 2nd most powerful nova around even in a cannon world. Utopia hints that there are other old novas around besides Mal.

Also the APG mentions that in a game that starts the PCs back in '98 that it is quite possible for a PC to 'take Pax's place as leader of T2M.' To me that says that other '98 novas have the potential to be just as powerful as Pax.

Besides rivalry is not always about equal power levels. Pax already has a rivalry with Persuer whe is not nearly in his league.

[Sandy Davis]

THe thing about Px is that Not only is a powerful nova.He is one that is almost single handedly bent on combat.He pushes himself as hard as he can.He has to be the best,IT would kill him to be anything less.He he was beaten by Malwas componded byt eh fact he was beaten so easly.

As for the back ground for being other "novas".THere may be a few, but most of them are inspired.or somethign in the middle.As for for the sayign goes.Pax is what other novas, as novas are to base lines.

As pax has a quantum of 6(7?) a high node at least 4..

Wile Pax doesn't have to be the leader of T2M in your game.In the norm Pax is so above other novas that you may as well being playing vampire in the abberant world as to fight him.

[Centipede]

I don't think anyone want to add another Pax-level nova. A rivalry doesn't need to be about who is strongest, it could just as easily be about who gets the best press. A T2M nova with M-App, Luck and a little media savy could perhaps compete with Pax.

N! is looking for new posterboys and that new kid on T2M is what they are looking for. So new kid gets a lot of the press Pax used to get, and likes it. Pax doesn't...

The only reason Pax hasn't ripped Pursuer to pieces must be that his popularity would drop. So a relatively weak nova could get away with pissing Pax off long as it is done the right way.

[David 'Dr. Troll' Smith]

Quote:

Originally posted by Centipede:
I don't think anyone want to add another Pax-level nova. A rivalry doesn't need to be about who is strongest, it could just as easily be about who gets the best press.

Sure, like Slider! Uh...

[Deeth]

Just a though here...

But isn't the timeline fairly flexible... The future, no matter how powerful the precog, is still just a possibility...though a strong possibility.

Trinity doesn't HAVE to happen, it is just 99.999% likely.

Who's to say that a powerful precog, with the resources and drive, doesn't get a group, or multiple groups together to prevent the aberrant war.... or even moves it back/forward by a decade or two...

[Jager]

Look at it from this angle: The Trinity timeline guaruntees that the Earth will be around in 100 years. It could be far, far worse.

No insane nova detonated the sun, shattered the earth, or unleashed a devastating plague.

In another game that I have heard of, a player destroyed the Antartic Ice Fields, flooding a great deal of the planet.

Think about it. The Trinity timeline is kind of hopeful, actually.

Don't look at it as if the baselines drove novas off-world, but as if the novas chose to take their struggle away from the Earth. That fits well into both Pax's and Mal's mindsets. Pax still gets to fight to save humanity and Mal gets to still see novas figuring out their own destinies. Mal is even nice enough to warn Earth that novas may one day return.

The Aberrant War could be looked at the struggle for novas to determine their own destiny as a race.

How do novas react with baseline humanity?

Novas feel that humanity should be protected and nurtured,

or completely wiped out,

or enslaved,

or they don't care one way or the other, but they have friends and family who do care or who are envolved.

Are novas really prone to violence?

It certainly seems that way. Also, novas are prone to push their powers, collect taint and aberrations (I know the rules don't support this, but that's what the designers tell us, anyway), and bring about their own instability.

Just some things to think about.

[Anomie]

Quote:

Originally posted by Deeth
Who's to say that a powerful precog, with the resources and drive, doesn't get a group, or multiple groups together to prevent the aberrant war.... or even moves it back/forward by a decade or two...

Did you sit in on any of my game sessions?
That synopses is very similar to the game my character was involved in.

Quote:

Originally posted by Centipede:
I don't think anyone want to add another Pax-level nova.

My question is about the people here that are playing imported characters from their tabletop games. After playing them long enough, they should be well above the starting level Nova, and depending on how long they played and how the experience points were accumulated they could very well be able to rival Pax or perhapes even Mal. How would you incorperate them without violating canon already established?

[Neil Preston]

1) Partial-amnesiac time travel incident. (my favorite, because it is so hokey and it allows all kinds of experiences)

2) Historical re-write, so that the character's actions fit more in-line with canon. (you don't annihalate the Antartic Ice Shield, killing half the worlds population - you destroy a glacier and killed thousands of villagers below)

3) Canon re-write, adding some key elements of the charater into the world. (Wow! So, you are the guys who stopped that tsunami that was going to wipe out Japan!)

Some initial thoughts on the matter, anyway.

[Brucifer]

Pax is just one of a number of Novas at that particular power level - Antaeus, Mal and Rousseau being among the others. But that doesnt mean that in say 10 years time there wont be more - quite the opposite in fact.

One of the most enduring pics i saw in the whole A!/Ab/Tr book line was in the AEON (sorry , just had to) main rules. The actual article escapes me but there are 3 pics all showing an Abeerant attack on a space station (i believe it was a station) and over the 3 pics a heavily tainted pax gets closer and closer (anyone, help?)

Now, in the background there are a number of other Aberrants doing there thang, most of whom have aberrations enough to make pax look normal!! Now here comes the point (thank god) - If Pax is THAT powerful without taint then how powerful is he with it, more importantly, if as you suggest Anomie there would be other PC Abs with equal power, how powerful would they be?

in essence we have to realise that the taint is a dangerous thing and only the Teragen know how to "deal" with it (guess what, they aint sharing) so i would say that PC Novas will end up as powerful as Pax, perhaps more so - as WW let us all down by canning the best game theyve made, we'll never know.

And thats the point of this topic. We no longer have to abide by any canon except what we make. Lets make it so Pax ends up a shadow of his former self and pushes himself further and further down taint street after his defeat at Mal's hands (and perhaps others *wink*)- looks awfully close to the pic in the AEON book doesnt it?

Boo

[David 'Dr. Troll' Smith]

Quote:

Originally posted by Brucifer:
...If Pax is THAT powerful without taint...

Pax's taint has been supressed by PU's media "spinning". The guy has Q=7 and node=5. That gives him at least a taint of 6.

I have to wonder if the high node doesn't explain Pax's surge in power. On the other hand, he might have erupted with more than 30 nova points.

[Meridian]

Or have erupted before '98.

[Sandy Davis]

he has all megas at least at 3, and most likely mean he has the taint thing witch means he could have taint of 3, baby!Pss I think Pax used his freebies for quantum.

Also, remeber the the Doc who teraforms has a quantum of 6, and around a taint of 5.

[David 'Dr. Troll' Smith]

Quote:

Originally posted by Sandy Davis- Miss-Fortune:
he has all megas at least at 3...

That is Mal. Pax is said to have (megas) 5 Str; 4 Stam; 5 Dex (and I think 1 Chr & 2 Per).

Considering that was WWI (i.e. before the PCG) I'd up his Str to 6 or 7.

Actually he doesn't seem have all that much. Q7. FF, Hypermove, INV:Physical, TK, Kenetic Control, and maybe Q-Bolt (all mastered). Personally I'd give him either FF or INV, but not both (the WWI didn't have mastery rules to explain why his FF is so tough).

[Sandy Davis]

Now this is the best place to beign these two things up.One I am going to have Sandy go into her first chs stag soon. Now I could do her as a marvel..But in the game she is in she is a martyr. So what I am askignw ould anyoone be offended if she went threw the chris with the same geme rules, but comes out slighly diffrent than other novas.Kinda like chis but with more draw backs and in the long run changes what she is. IE if she is still alive in around 2050, she will no longer be a nova.

And would anyone mind if I played a powerful psaid, with around 30 nova points worth of powes.I would be using the rules right out of the player guide on what power she had..SHe just would get more of them. rough idea would be two levels in magnetic mastery, some socials, and she is nto really afect by time based powers.

Would any oen be offended by either of these two things?

[Sakurako Hino]

O.O You're hitting a stage 1 chrysalis, and you're THIS powerful?!?

I hate to say this, but aren't you getting a little too big for your britches? Power like that keeps the GM in me up at night. O.O;

[Sandy Davis]

Um the power she is getign from this, the removal of her taint.And a few manor things like empathy,and depending on what her quantum is she may get up to a quantum of six. THis chartacer is on a time line of sorts.Like I said by the late 2040's she is no longer a nova.At least in the game I play her in.

[Sakurako Hino]

Huh? How's that possible you won't be a nova?

[Jager]

An alternate to Chrysalis can be a big continuity problem. It is for me. I think that taint and the struggle with taint is one of the core elements of the game. I know other people don't feel that way, but there it is.

Psiads shouldn't be able to go toe-to-toe with novas. An exceptionally powerful psiad, this early in the timeline, would alert novas and baseline humanity to the existance of psiads and should have a major effect on the game.

How would the psiad hide it's existance?

Why is the psiad so powerful?

Why hasn't Project Pandora scooped the psiad up?

Just some things to think about.

[Sandy Davis]

In the game I am playing.There are really about thrity Proxies.The 8 that were widly known of,and the rest acting as shadows.Doing things like purging taint from Eden,and nipp novas.

You may say, well I though the doyen only made 8 proxes.Your right , but int he game I play in the aliens did not make the proxies. The proxies made themsleves.They are novas who turned themselves into psions.You ask how.Well, a nova can do anything that they want.What limits them from changing what they are?

Now seeing as this game is nto going to go into the late 40's or even the late 20's when the change starts to show.

I could go on and on about how it happens,and in fact I said how it happened on the board..I will drag up the links soon.

[Jager]

Novas are limited by the fact that they must all use quantum energy to achieve their results. Psions use sub-quantum energies to achieve their results.

If a nova turned themselves into a psion, they would have to except those limitations. As far as I know, no nova has been able to manipulate sub-quantum energies.

[Meridian]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:
An alternate to Chrysalis can be a big continuity problem. It is for me. I think that taint and the struggle with taint is one of the core elements of the game. I know other people don't feel that way, but there it is.

I don't have a huge problems with an alternative to Chrysalis. I've been mulling over a "Path of Humanity" idea for some time now. My basic thought is that Chrysalis should be the best way to avoid taint while gaining power. Any other alternative might have some advantages in terms of keeping humanity, but should be a lesser process in every other way. I'll post my specific thoughts on this some other time, but suffice to say that given the existance of Eden Novas in the Trinity era who seem to lack huge amounts of taint it seems possible that there might be some other way to avoid or even remove taint.

I have a much bigger problem with the idea of a nova becoming a psiad. To me that breaks cannon in all sorts of nasty ways.

[Sandy Davis]

On one hand a nova can do anything.They can make time and space stop.They can change the fundamental rules of physics.

Two novas and psaids are the same before the erupt.Yes the same person can change into either one of them.

The thing I am talkign abot.Changing a Nova to a psaid,is deadly,in the end limits and even makes the person weaker, and is long. It would take at least 20 years. And about haf th epoepl who do it, die.

THe onle problem I have with novas, is that they can do whatever they want, but that can't do that.Seeing as people have problems witht his,then she will in this board be a marvel.No problems at all.

[Hugin]

Just a shout out here. Alternate's to Chrysalis in your TT games is fine. They're your games. But here, stating you've found alternates to Chrysalis or alterations of Chrysalis will have a very negative reaction. It's been gone over and has never really had a good end.

[Sandy Davis]

the only thing that I am changin in it that she has some time to tie up some losse ends,and she is doing it in space.Other than that she is a marvel.

[Sakurako Hino]

All I have to say Sandy, is if you think it will fly and does your character good, let slip the dogs of war.

[Brucifer]

sorry to be apin guys -but can we stay on topic?

cheers

[Sandy Davis]

Brucifer.That is on topic.I asked if I could do two things that were not exacty canon, in this board,Got mixxed anwsers.

[Anomie]

Quote:

Origanlly posted by Brucifer
there are 3 pics all showing an Abeerant attack on a space station (i believe it was a station) and over the 3 pics a heavily tainted pax gets closer and closer (anyone, help?)

Just out of curiosity, what makes you think that the Aberrant that approches the camera is Pax?

[Jager]

Okay, Brucifer, what, IYHO, qualifies as the Canon Grail? That which is immutable.

Can psiads become as powerful as novas?

Are their alternatives to Chrysalis?

What would happen when/if Proteus is exposed?

Will novas come to dominate the planet ... or destroy it?

What about the forces, like the Doyen, who show up in the Trinity timeline?

Are their limits on Quantum build-up (how quickly someone can get to Q:6+)?

What about introducing level 4+ powers?

How/why does Mal dominate other novas? Or does he?

How does the Teragen operate?

What happens to the Aberrants?

What happens to Utopia? Can they clean up their act?

What happens to the Aeon Society?

What happens to Proteus?

Sidebar: How does Thetis, a MERE human, compete with hyper-intelligent novas when the rules say the he/she with a Mega automatically defeats someone without it? A pet peeve of mine, that rule.)

How does Precognition work? What, if any, are it's flaws?

What are the cornerstones (if any) of the game? Taint, heroics, human nature, war, betrayal ...something else?

Why do Eden novas seem to have some sort of handle on taint when the Aberrant (Space-Dwelling ?) novas do not? Is it something to do with the planet? Do they have a secret cure for taint? If so, why aren't they sharing it?

Why are Aberrants (Trinity timeline) less powerful than novas? Why are the taint driven? Is it a game mechanic, or something else? Are those Aberrants even novas?

Saying that we should take over the Canon timeline is one huge order and we should all take a long look at all the things we will be taking on by doing so. There a multitude of questions we will have to find answers for before we can really move forward.

[Sakurako Hino]

I do have an answer to one of your questions. Eden novas are Second Generaton Novas. (You know, the ones hinted to in the Player's Guide.) Second Generation Novas have a WAY better handle on taint than the original Novas. That's why they don't reveal how they do it. They just... do.

[Matt]

Quote:

Originally posted by Brucifer:
There are 3 pics all showing an Abeerant attack on a space station and over the 3 pics a heavily tainted pax gets closer and closer

I never got the impression that the Aberrant was Pax. Sure, he is first mentioned on that page, but I never made that connection. They look different enough I don't think it could be proven either way. And the pic was of the Vesta Attack when the Aberrants first returned. To get an idea of what this pic is, look at the following image: pic .
It is the misc pic.