Aberrant RPG - Technological Woes

[Guest]

Well, I have been spending that last little while toying with the Player's Gude rules for Gadgeteering and I am getting more and more frustrated. Has anybody managed to put these rules into practice in their game?

[Hugin]

We did in our game, but according to some individuals I was reading the rules for success dice wrong. In some cases I was limiting myself too much.

The rules seem most successfull in those cases where you don't particularly need a lot of successes on a power to make it worthwhile, ie Density Control, Warp, etc.

For things like MegaStrength or Quantum Blast it appears to me to be pretty hamstrung. Which is good in a way, it prevents a MegaInt character from completely bypassing rules for experience and such.

[Sidious]

Chucked those rules and went with my own. I'f you want them I can post thm here. tey'e smple and easy to work into the game.

(Have I mentioned how much I like the edit feature? typos are so coming down.)

[This message has been edited by Sidious (edited 05-28-2001).]

[Guest]

Sidious, that would be great. By the way, I love the edit feature, not as great as a spellcheck feature, but I'm not going to complain.

[Jager]

I second Atwight's request. Roll out the toys.

[MegaBee]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:
I second Atwight's request. Roll out the toys.

You've got a third, here. We have at least one Gadgeteer coming on line in our campaign; alternate rules may be interesting....

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"When all hope is lost, pig-headed refusal to acknowledge reality will always save the day."
--Andy Ihnatko

[Guest]

I fully agree. Alternate rules shuld be interesting. As I see it those rules presented in PG are far to open for "power gamers" and bypassing xp. What I'm figuring on is that the gadgeteer have to buy the powers or megas (cheeper than usual) in order to be able to construct them. In addition the gadgeteer must have Quantum enough as per power and an additional power him/her self (Quantum Engineering?) which is bought as usual. It will be expensive but when the gadget is bought and payed for the gadgeteer will allwas be able to rebuild it. One thing is missing though, for baseliners to use the gadget... Quantum "battery" doen't seem plausible.

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Love & Kisses

Reaver

[Sidious]

Quantum Manipulating Devices

HIGH TECH DEVICES:

I actually use a absolute max of Q 5 for tech devices and limit the powers to level 2 only with 2 possible exceptions, them being Cyber-kinesis (kinda makes sense there), and Disintegration. I also limit maximum Mega-attributes for Power Armor to 4, and 5 for Robot Vehicles.

There is no limit on the size of the quantum pool allowed. It can be whatever size can be bought with points available.

To build said item I add up all the dots (Quantum rating included) and use that as the number of days to build the device (enhancements to Mega-ATTs add in .5 days work each enhancement). Taking a day off for each dot in mega-int the character has provided they have the specialization that would fit the situation. There is ,of course, ST variables (availability of material, etc) that can effect it.

Taint for tech items I usually reflect as the device malfunctioning or causing a debilitating side effect of prolonged use. (think of all the health troubles Tony Stark has had over the years because of the Armor.)

MYSTIC ITEMS:

Mystic items tend to be a bit more...difficult. The mystic items I do NOT limit the Quantum/Arete rating per say. The item can have as much of a Quantum/Arete rating as can be bought.

However, if the Character going to use the device has a quantum rating lower than the device, the device is used at the lowest available rating.

EX: Doc Strange has an Arete of 5, for some reason he is using his first magic pendent which has a rating of 3 (the Eye is out being cleaned or something). He may use the powers on the pendent only at level 3 because that is how much power the device is able to channel.

EX 2: Clea is 'borrowing' the Doc's Eye of Aggamotto, Her Arete rating is 3 and the Eye's rating is 5. She can only use the Eye's power at a rating of 3 (no level 3 powers) because that is all the power she can control.

This is ST option ONLY. If said magic device were to fall into a normal humans hands, then that human could use said device. Thereby wielding it’s power. (Think Thor’s hammer.)

Taint/Paradox for magic items I handle as a curse, or corruption of the individual from the object. Getting possessed by the object, going insane, mutating into demon/human hybrid is applicable.

There they are short sweet and to the point. Main requirement is that they have the necessary skills to build it and then only need to roll at ST descretion.

[The Ranger]

Could just charge people XP for making devices? Take a look at the GURPS:Supers rules for gageteering...they are pretty lose and easy to use.

[Jager]

Sidious, how do you handle massed produced items?

[Sidious]

Mass produced as in mass market power armor? or gadgets?

If it's PA I usually come up with the stats myself or another characters does.

if it's something like a laserpistol or what not it's usually a generic amount of dice damage.

hope this works for an answer, not quite sure what you meant by "mass produced" though.

[The Ranger]

I think he means if the character decides to create 600 laser pistols and arm his conrades with them...or sel them to the masses.

A question Sidious, I asked this before but I think it got deleted along the way somewhere. DO you know anyone called Kelley living in Syracuse?

[Jager]

An example of what I was talking about is something as "simmple" as a Warp Gate. It has come up in the boards a few times and it would really change the world. Even if they were to fixed points (say, New York to Paris), it would revolutionize travel and communication. How would the ST's respond to a character who wanted to make Warp Gate technology available to the masses?

[Hugin]

Have to ask this. I think I missed something in the PG, where does it mention Taint as being a result of gadgetry? That would hammer my character beaucoup.

Nice system, much more simplified and understandable but personal opinion here, I don't think that it gives enough weight to the value of high MegaInt. You have something that has a total of 16 dots and the only difference between a MegaInt 5 and a MegaInt 1 is that the five gets to shave off 4 extra days. Otherwise cool.

[Wizard]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:
An example of what I was talking about is something as "simple" as a Warp Gate.

The social side of the Abby world is already flexed by eufiber, hypercombustion, opnet and just the presence of quantum powers. Would another quantum development really change the world so very much? From an ST point of view, unless you had a vested interest in cannon, would it not amount to simply deciding on the actual possibility and then adding it to the background?

You would have the Uppy S&T section on one side, reaction from the transport industries, governmental interference/involvement, etc just to name a few. Depending on the flavor of the arc and the reality of how/where you create the gates... it's just another development. Only the mass transit side is really new. You have to assume that there is alot of smuggling, illegal information transfer, and patent theft going on in a world like ours.

Besides, the only thing I ever really found surprising is that Anibal Buendida (sic?) didn't end up in a cell in some government fascility where his eufiber was harvested daily.

[Sidious]

Ranger> that's what i thought too. if it's going to be mass produced like that then it's going to have aset range and intensity for all of them.

pt2> alot of them actually. my last name is actually that minus 1 e. It's pretty popular around here.

Jager> as a rule I don't allow level 3 powers, but honestly i wont say it's never a possibility. I actually do have warp gates in my Rifts setting game.

[Guest]

Quote:

Originally posted by James 'Prodigy' Meehan:
Have to ask this. I think I missed something in the PG, where does it mention Taint as being a result of gadgetry? That would hammer my character beaucoup.

Two different sets of rules James. In Abby year 1, characters gain taint for creating new scientific fields. Individual gadgets do generate any taint for either the device or the character.

Example; Bob has Gravity Manipulation and Mega Intelligence. He creates an anti-gravity jet pack. He generates no taint for this, however, no one else can use the pack. Later, he creates a working theory on how to develope stable contra-gravity fields. This garners him temporary taint (I believe its temporory) until he can introduce it into the general populous and they accept it as scientific fact.

At least I think thats how it works. I've only been able to read year 1 in my local gaming shop so I can't refrence those rules right now.

Interesting rules Sidious, however they are a tad too simplistic for me. I like the rules in the PG, I just feel they should be explained better and expanded upon. For instance, I think there should be guidelines for the size of the gadget. As it stands, one of my ex-players can create a disintegration ray capable of doing 8 agrivated damage that is the size of a tie tack!

As a storyteller I say, no way! But strictly following the rules, it is more than possible and doesn't even raise the difficulty!

[The Ranger]

Sidious,

Ah right...lots of Kelley's. Just wondering, went out with a girl from there a few years back, lost touch a while ago. Her brother had a love of Dark Jedi as I recall.

[Sidious]

Sorry dude, wish I could help.

[Stheno]

Actually Ranger, I think I might know who you're talking about and how to get in touch.

Need to check with the other half first.

)

[Guest]

Whew, just got married this weekend. Glad that stress is all over with. Great day though, wouldn't change it for the world. Anyways, I can now focus back here a little more.

I haven't found the rules for adding enhancements to gadgets, did I skip something or do the rules not allow for that?

[Stheno]

Congratulations Atwight!

If I recall correctly, the gadgeteering rules entirely leave out the matter of enhancements and extras in building gadgets...

This gets to be a problem when you realise that the gadgeteering rules don't distinguish between powers of different levels in terms of how many successes you need to build them into a gadget... (at least, as far as I remember they don't).

[Wizard]

Quote:

Originally posted by Stheno:
If I recall correctly, the gadgeteering rules entirely leave out the matter of enhancements and extras in building gadgets...

I've been brainstorming the gadgets sections lately (just got my very own copy of the PG) and I believe it's addressed, albeit indirectly. Extras are handled as per powers. Added extra = increased power level = increased successes required for creation.

This would change at higher Q levels as that affects the manner in which extras change power level. That particular situation could be handled with a house rule of requiring mega intellect equal to the q level to justify the change, otherwise assume default conditions of quantum range of 1-5.

As an aside, the mastery extra would be difficult to justify, although the changes (increased range, duration, decreased guantum cost, etc) would be justifiable on a one change = one extra basis.

Taking a cue from another section of the PG, enhancements can be handled by treating them as powers. In most cases you could probably use the nova point cost to set a power level to the enhancement. Its open to question whether a mega stat needs to be involved as well. I can see arguing either way depending on exactly what the concept is.

Off the top of my head, I don't recall the core book requiring a mega stat in order get enhancements although that's a common interpetation. If that were the case, however, one would think the number of enhancements would be tied to the mega stat dots.

I hope some of this rambling is useful. Let me know what you think.

[Wizard]

Atwight, congratulations. I missed the news on my first skim.

I reviewed the gadget section and wanted to add a clarification to what I wrote above. PG page 145, the last paragraph under the heading of EFFECT LEVEL;

"When building a gadget with quantum power, the gadeteer can decide which effect levels work like quantum and which work like power rating levels...."

It goes further into detail but I think this is what you're looking for. It's even more funky than I had originally thought but I'm slowly gleaning the idea that this was intended so that "effect level" could be anything from quantum to power level to ability score. The same system can work for pretty much everything although it seems a little strange if you go into from the perspective of a classic gadgeteer.

I am so looking forward to the weird science rules from Adventure.

[This message has been edited by Wizard (edited 06-05-2001).]

[Wizard]

Atwight,

Bruce B. answered a question my mate had asked about the weird science rules of Adventure and they sound tantalizingly good from what little he would say.

He did mention the rules were 'portable thru Aberrant and Trinity but that adventure affects were limited to approximately a dot and half at the Abby level. He also mentioned, be still my heart, vehicle customization rules. This may be what you're looking for though you'll still have to wait for it to see daylight.

[Guest]

Thanks for the Info Wizard, I hate waiting though.

Effects are limited to a dot and a half at aberrant level? I'm not sure I understand. Is that restricted to baseline and/or Paramorph inventors, or is that just the way the rules are going to work now?

[Wizard]

I think that the Adventure abilities translated to Aberrant are approximately 1.5 - 2 dots in effect. In other words, as currently written, the weird science rules allow you to make gadgets that accomplish what abby q-powers accomplish at low levels ergo it's a low powered game compared to abby.

The actual question posed was the compatibility of the weird science rules in abby. Whether you could import the rules into the game directly with the answer being yes but bear in mind the lower power of Adventure.

Now, whether you could tweak those rules to bring it into Abby at the full level is anyone's guess until we see the rules on paper.

I also have a response to your questions on the limbs and techniques. I wrote a couple of pages of stuff that might be vaguely useful and will send it off tonight. They finally fixed my cable modem.