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Aberrant RPG - Aberrant: Worldwide Phase II


Matt

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ABERRANT
WORLDWIDE PHASE II

[align:left]wwp2.jpgTime Stands Still For No Man...

It used to be easy to be a hero. Now Project Utopia is pressed on all sides and things look desperate. Nova cults spring up all over the world and organized religion eyes the world's one-time heroes suspiciously. The Golden Age is over. The question that nobody wants to ask now is: What's next?

And Very Few Novas.

Aberrant Worldwide: Phase II advances the time frame of the Aberrant world to 2015. The four scenarios included in this book allow characters in your Aberrant series to decide game history. The conflict is only just warming up. Choose your battles wisely.[/align]

Retail Price: $21.95 U.S.

Page Count: 168

Authors: Steve DiPesa, Ivan Velez Jr., Lucien Soulban, Deird're Brooks

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  • 3 months later...
wwp2.jpg

WorldWide Phase II Review

For a brief shining moment in the history of the Aeonverse (a shared universe of White Wolf's science fiction titles; Trinity, Aberrant, and the forthcoming Adventure) the world was a place of peace and prosperity. The arrival of novas on the world scene changed the planet, and under the auspices of Project Utopia and the United Nations novas became a symbol of hope and a chance to start anew. With nova aid, the ten years following the Galatea explosion saw the elimination of disease and the salvation of the environment. It seemed as though this idealization of novas and their abilities would go on forever, unhindered by the dissident murmurings of the Aberrants or the violent altercations of the Teragen. Nothing is eternal.

Long-time players have learned the shadowy secrets of the shiny utopian Aberrant world. They've learned that in this world of mega-powered players, everyone has an agenda and nothing is entirely what it appears to be. In WorldWide Phase I, the players encountered the power players of the Aberrant world and learned the secrets only those in the shadow world in 2008-2010. Now, as the timeline progresses the players work to advance their own agendas, while in the greater world of 2011-2015 the general populace of the world comes to realize just how awesome a threat novas may be; both to themselves and the world around them.

Aberrant is a saga with a more or less definitive end; in 2049 human beings will declare war on aberrants, triggering a 12 year war which will leave the world decimated. The WorldWide series of sourcebooks chronicles the fall from the utopian vision the core rulebook of the game presented to the chaos of the Aberrant War. Its an ambitious project, with potential for greatness and disaster in equal proportion. Too much emphasis on game metaplot and players will feel railroaded, while if handled well within the context of a storyteller's own series it could be an entertaining and thrilling saga. Phase I gave us more a sense of the latter, while the former is more evident in Phase II. The adventures are certainly entertaining, but throughout the book I often felt as though someone had taken my hand and was dragging me along, having me look at this and that, given definitive instructions on what to do with my players rather than any leeway to create independently. While I understand that the vision of the creators of Aberrant and their ideas for the game are canon, there wasn't the sense of independence and suggestion that was evident in Phase I. Where that book emphasized ways on which the scenarios could break down in a storyteller's own series, Phase II seemed more canon with a capital C. This is by no means an attack on the quality of the book; the writing and art are well up to par. But the tone of the overall work and the limiting of storyteller options tends to make the work seem more like an exercise in prose fiction rather than role-playing.

As an aside, I'd like to mention a problem I had with the book. While I understand the fact that not every Aberrant troupe has an equal level of experience and power, my players and I have run a steady Aberrant game session for nearly three years. Over that course of time their characters have grown from minor demigods to significant powers on the world scene to rival at least Caestus Pax. So it is a bit irritating to see stated in a scenario that NPC characters are way more powerful than your little players, that defeat is their only venue, or that they are "low-profile" and "not as visible" as the NPCs of the Aberrant campaign. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in any role-playing game, the players are the stars. They are the heroes, not Caestus Pax, Divis Mal, or any other non-player supporting character. So it's a bit off-putting for a player to be informed that their characters are second stringers, consigned to skulking in the shadows while the non-player characters are at centre stage.

Is Phase II good? Yes, as a guide to the degenerating state of nova/human relations at least. But players may find themselves frustrated with the stories as they are presented in the book, and storytellers may find themselves having to alter large portions of the book and scenarios to accommodate more powerful teams. Good? Yes. Great? No.

Rating: Collectors only.

Review courtesy of Stacy Dooks, aka Defender.

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