Aberrant RPG - Let's Talk Superscience

[Wargear]

Having read the rules in both the Aberrant: Year One and Aberrant Player's Guide, I've been generally unhappy with the official stance on how Mega-Intelligent novas impact technological development. So I'm wondering what all of you think of supergeniuses and the toys they love, and how you work with them in your games.

Just to get the ball rolling, a couple of modest examples that have show up in games of mine.

Shadowarms “Shimmer” Personal Combat Weapon (a reinforced, advanced alloy sword)

Damage +6, Max Strength: Mega 2

Shadowarms “Deadeye” 575-X (modified handgun, including onboard targeting system)

Accuracy +2, Damage: 5d10L, Rate:6, Ammunition:16, Conceal: Jacket, Range:40 yards

Shadowarms “Angelhammer” 735-X (modified shogun, hypervelocity flechette rounds)

Damage: Special, Rate:1, Ammunition 8, Conceal: Trenchcoat, Range: Special.

16d10L damage inside 5 yards. 10d10L within 10 yards. No damage outside 10 yards.

Shadowarms “Cassandra” Mk. II (portable security breech system)

When attached to an appropriate location, hacks the local security system and cuts off any alerts from being broadcast while the Cassandra system is in place. System: Rolls 7-10 dice on Intrusion and computer attempts to prevent security alerts, depending on software options.

[Courier]

The sword and the gun seem all right... I'm less sure about the shotgun. How much does a normal shotgun do?

[metaphysician]

Alot less than that. 16d10 lethal is in the same range as 20-30mm cannon, its probably too high for a kinetic weapon that doesn't have active inertial damping.

That said, I think the general idea was to keep the setting focused on novas, and not vast swathes of hypertech, since the tech would change the world in and of itself.

[HyperFocus]

On the topic of superscience, I would like to put my two cents in.

Remember, only a fraction of scientists are involved in the physical sciences and only a fraction of THEM are involved in technological application of their field of study. Nova's may come out with a few really revolutionary creations (the Zushima microbe, for instance) but for the most part nova scientists are engaged in plumbing the depths of their subject. For the majority the limit of their technological desires would be the creation of better tools to do so. Better scanning electron microscopes. Better (smaller?) particle colliders. That kinda stuff.

While I agree the limits on gadgeteering have a touch of Deus Ex Machina they also have a touch of rationality about them. Unless it explicitly builds on current (in your games timeline) technology then novatech SHOULD have limits. This isnt as bad as it sounds. The MP3 players we have now are better then the "chip readers" Abbie writers thought we'd all be listening to now back when they wrote the main book (1998?). For some really interesting nova science (not just things that go boom) grab a few recent issues of Discovery magazine and go hunting. What if your nova came up with an economical way of creating the superstrong polymer or superlight construction material that REAL WORLD scientists are working on in the laboratory today.

And don’t forget the other scientists. The mega-intelligent social scientist in WW: P1 that was attempting to influence the presidential election is a great example of how to get decent stories of mega-Int without building a BFG.

Im using my character Hyperfocus to explore this same territory (although I had a professor once who was fond of noting that "Political Science is neither"). A nova with an intuitive understanding of baseline governments, bureaucracies, doctrines, ideologies, and propaganda. Prestigious mega-intelligent talent tasked towards tracking the personalities and motivations of thousands of politicians worldwide. No one can be sure what game he's playing and that’s more disconcerting and dangerous then slow dancing with Cestus Pax.

[Story]

Originally Posted By: HyperFocus

The MP3 players we have now are better then the "chip readers" Abbie writers thought we'd all be listening to now back when they wrote the main book (1998?).

That "chip reader" in Abbie 2008 can also be a cell phone, GPS and with the Tek-cloth add-on for a keyboard and display might kick the crap out of anything on the market real world 2007 including an HDTV. One gizmo, one opnet subscription, a hundred functions. That's kind of impressive.

[HyperFocus]

Story: 'zactly what I mean. Nova engineers may have given us the rough equivlent of the iPhone in 2002 or so by developing better and smaller circutry and display. By 2008 we got all the add-ons you just mentioned plus it whitens your teeth and also makes jullian fries.

Of course, playing in '07 we've got the benefit of our experience with the consumer technology of the present day to extrapolate from for our 2008 games.

[BlueNinja]

I have tried to adapt the Adventure! rules for gadgeteering both quantum-powered innovations, and regular (but impressive) upgrades. It makes the building of gadgets quite a bit faster and simpler.

[Wargear]

Courier,

Just by way of answer, the way it wound up with that high a damage rating was the player who designed it for the game was arguing that it was the equivalent (at point blank range) of getting sprayed with a rifle at full auto. I chewed that over, considered that the character in question had designed a fairly impressive hyper-dense composite he was using for the ammunition (don't ask what it cost for a load of ammo... if he hadn't been making a killing from the stock market with financial prodigy, I probably would have made him wait six months between deliveries), and decided that I could live with having a weapon designed to kill, or at least seriously annoy, novas at point-blank range dish out that level of damage. Compared to the 30 mm cannon, it has just about zero range (800 yards compared to 5 to 10 yards) and more importantly from my perspective, it lacks a damage add. All sixteen of those damage dice are actual dice, so while it's excellent for punching through any soak short of a tank's armor, you have to roll all those dice and hope for luck on the damage.

Also worth noting, and something I should have mentioned on the entry, was I ruled you couldn't use firearms successes to increase the damage on the "Angelhammer" since it was basically a "point it in the right general direction and spray the area" weapon in concept. A house rule, but I thought it made for a nice flavor.

Now, back to the topic at hand: I used the guns and sword as examples I'd seen in my own games, but I actually think Hyperfocus has expressed the question I was starting from a lot better than I did. How does Aberrant involvement in all fields of science, from materials research to weapon design to social engineering, affect the game world in the games that you guys have played in? In what ways have you found it to make the whole structure of the game universe more interesting, and in what ways have you found it problematic?