Aberrant: 2011 - Help Me Understand This

[Dave ST]

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Catalyst is scarred along her back and the back and inside of her legs. her back is covered in polygons formed in to a fibonacci pattern going to 55.

Scarred along her back, in the forms of polygons with each polygon ordered via liber abaci going 1 - 55? Is that what you mean?

I'm lost on that.

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her legs are covered in a fractal.

Fractal what? Fractal patterned scars?

I can't make heads or tails of this update to the character.

Originally Posted By: Hero's Sheet

Elemental Mastery -5 (Weak Nuclear Forces) (-5 Dice Pool, -5 Duration)

Weak Nuclear Forces? Is anyone aware of what can be acomplished with such a broad catagory? Does any do their homework before accepting these characters?

Have fun Hero, you got quite a bit of godhood out of that deal. Grats.

[Hero]

The character went through an extensive review process. I am aware of what he can do, and its no more godhood than experience points will allow, so you need not worry on that account. Besides, if you read the fiction I've written, you'll see just how god-like he's not. He is kind of goofy.

[Dave ST]

Originally Posted By: Hero

The character went through an extensive review process.

I'm aware of that process, it's lacking.

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I am aware of what he can do, and its no more godhood than experience points will allow

Famous excuse and fall back line. Seriously, 'Weak Nuclear Forces' is a gamut of powers wrapped into one. It's almost like saying 'All Chemicals' or 'All Solid Matter'. Experiance has nothing to do with what that kid is capable of, he came out of the gate capable of quite a bit.

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so you need not worry on that account.

I don't worry. I don't play in 2009.

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Besides, if you read the fiction I've written, you'll see just how god-like he's not. He is kind of goofy.

Can't say I have. Prolly won't, characters like Hero I tend to pretend don't exist. Nothing personal, I just think "Weak Nuclear Forces" (considering the examples they list off were seperate weak nuclear forces themselves, as it stands the character is capable of generating any weak nuclear force) is not what thay had in mind when they said "projects her Q consciousness into a particular element" but it also says "Whatever the stoytell will allow."

Congrats dude, IMO you pulled one over on The Collective.

[Hero]

I wish you would reconsider playing in 2009. I feel you have characters that are worthwhile, but that's your call.

Likewise, I wish you hadn't prejudged Hero. I think he's going to be a lot of fun to to write for and be around. To me, its about the role-playing.

[Catalyst]

Dave, if you are not going to play in the field, why should you care what we do?

If we decide that Troy can get mastery level 5..Who are you to complain? You took your ball and went home. You also took you right to judge, bitch or whine about the way we play. If you want to tell us how to play, at very bloody least play with us.

As for Catalyst, her legs are covered in scares that form a fractal pattern. Her back is has a fibonacci pattern of scares that starts in the middle of her back with one, and spirals out to 55. The closer the scares to the center of her back the more complex they are. In the out edge they are but dots.

I explained the scars because others may wish to know.

[Dave ST]

Originally Posted By: Catalyst

Dave, if you are not going to play in the field, why should you care what we do?

You're absolutely right. You'll also notice (well, most likely you won’t, you are pretty thick most times) I was not getting on Troy's case about it. His character has the capability to generate any weak nuclear force (which could be heat, cold, electricity, light, or its absent, etc) and he bought it all with only a single power. It's like 12-13 Elemental Masteries all for the price of one. Frankly it's genius, I was congratulating him on putting that past the Directors. -5 Dice is no biggie once he gets higher Mega-Atts since he'll still be able to generate 15-20 possible successes with his stats maxed. In time Hero will be quite the powerhouse. One power will encompass nearly every Q-power in the book. There are 75 powers (level 3 and below) and each of those powers is bred from one or more of the following four fundamental forces of the universe: Strong Nuclear Forces, Electromagnetism, Gravity, and Weak Nuclear Forces. He controls one of an entire broad field of quantum energies with a single quantum power, the very thing that makes nova powers possible.

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If we decide that Troy can get mastery level 5..Who are you to complain? You took your ball and went home. You also took you right to judge, bitch or whine about the way we play. If you want to tell us how to play, at very bloody least play with us.

I still have three legally playable characters in 2009 from what I've been told. Two of which have been idle long enough that their entire story lines are ruined and hardly worth continuing, so chances are they won’t be.

I am still an eligible player in 2009, I just see it a complete waste of time at this point. However that eligibility gives me the right to inquire about the goings on of the characters.

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As for Catalyst, her legs are covered in scares that form a fractal pattern. Her back is has a fibonacci pattern of scares that starts in the middle of her back with one, and spirals out to 55. The closer the scares to the center of her back the more complex they are. In the out edge they are but dots.

I'm not sure why someone would scare his or her back and legs. How did she do that?? Did she sneak up on herself from behind and scream 'BOO!' really loud?

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I explained the scars because others may wish to know.

Yeah, people prolly would have liked to know... like about 9 months ago when Cat started appearing in fictions. So... did you just forget to mention these scars. Or did you just think it up on the fly and decide to give to the character because you saw the pattern on a wall mural or something I liked how it looked?

[Hero]

Originally Posted By: Dave OOC

You're absolutely right. You'll also notice (well, most likely you won’t, you are pretty thick most times) I was not getting on Troy's case about it. His character has the capability to generate any weak nuclear force (which could be heat, cold, electricity, light, or its absent, etc) and he bought it all with only a single power. It's like 12-13 Elemental Masteries all for the price of one. Frankly it's genius, I was congratulating him on putting that past the Directors. -5 Dice is no biggie once he gets higher Mega-Atts since he'll still be able to generate 15-20 possible successes with his stats maxed. In time Hero will be quite the powerhouse. One power will encompass nearly every Q-power in the book. There are 75 powers (level 3 and below) and each of those powers is bred from one or more of the following four fundamental forces of the universe: Strong Nuclear Forces, Electromagnetism, Gravity, and Weak Nuclear Forces. He controls one of an entire broad field of quantum energies with a single quantum power, the very thing that makes nova powers possible.

Two things:
- I'm not Troy. I'm James/Ravenshire.
- The above was not my intention at all; not when creating him and not now that you've pointed it out to me. Most of his techniques will have a TK flair.

[Warren Verona]

Originally Posted By: Hero

Two things:
- I'm not Troy. I'm James/Ravenshire.
- The above was not my intention at all; not when creating him and not now that you've pointed it out to me. Most of his techniques will have a TK flair.

1. My bad.
2. Then what was wrong with TK?

[Hero]

I was trying to keep it elemental. I'll think about asking the Moderators about changing it.

[Charlotte]

Only change it if you want to, James. Odds are that people will get snitty if you change a character after approval as well, so you'll get kicked from both sides.

I earnestly don't see what the issue is here. The differences between Elemental Mastery in various areas of focus is mostly academic. If I hit someone with 8 levels of damage from my Blast technique for Elemental Mastery: Weak Nuclear Forces, that is effectively the same as 8 levels of damage from the Blast technique of Elemental Mastery: Fire, or Elemental Mastery: Confetti. There are differences but they fall under the heading of special effects, and are no more abusive than saying your Quantum Bolt is 'bioenergy,' and therefore not subject to the issues that a Quantum Bolt based on Fire would be (such as effectiveness against fireproof materials, or requiring oxygen to be used.).

Yes, abuses can come along through the magic of Enhance/Diminish and a stack of comics by Grant Morrison highlighting the inventive use of super-powers. That's true of just about any special effect. Try Diminishing the flow of electricity in an area and watch everyone's central nervous systems shut off. That's no argument against banning Elemental Anima/Mastery in Electricity.

Striving for a perfectly balanced superhero system is like trying to grab smoke. Even the Aberrant devs have admitted that not all powers are balanced and that not all special effects are created equal, and there are maddeningly vague areas even in fairly well defined powers which means they are open to interpretation. This is not a question of "putting one over" on the Moderators, since if they wanted to they could squish misbehaving characters like grapes, approved sheets or no approved sheets. It is merely that how Dave has chosen to interpret the power is not how Hero has chosen to, nor how the Moderators have clearly chosen to. That's life. If everyone agreed, it would be mighty pointless.

[Courier]

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Try Diminishing the flow of electricity in an area and watch everyone's central nervous systems shut off.

If someone wants to buy an area stun attack defined as that I'd have no problems. But "Decrease" doesn't appear to be designed to do direct damage in such an indirect way. Similarly, if you use "Decrease Water" and drop it down to 0%, don't expect to turn people to dust, if that's what you want to do, buy "Disin".


RE: Weak Nuclear Forces
I'm not sure there is such a thing as such. Obviously a "EM" power that could apply Increase/Decrease and that +4 soak per succ tech vs. everything would be broken. Also obviously a "Mastery" power that steals every below the belt technique from every Mastery-ish power is also broken.

But right now we don't know that this is what has happened.

AFAICT, these are possibilities.
1) He's limited to creating "Weak Nuclear Forces" himself aka "Green Lantern Green Energy" or whatever. I.e. for game purposes this isn't an effect "found" in nature in a normal sense.
2) This is another name for "radiation control".
3) As WNF are found in every type of mater (by definition, the weak force is rather poorly named), he can effect pretty near everything (I'm assuming this isn't the case).
4) Something else.

As I recall the weak force was what keeps neutrons and other particles from turning into each other. Presumably this is a shoe in for Molecular Mastery and not a "EM" replacement for it (see above).

RE: (-5 Dice Pool, -5 Duration)
This is a real killer of weaknesses for an elemental power. If you had "reduced X" on a technique that didn't have "X", presumably that technique simply can't be accessed. Otherwise it wouldn't be much of a weakness, much less a -10.

Consulting the book...: I think he's eliminated Movement/Propel, Lethal Blast/Bolt, Shield/Wall, Sphere, Crush, & Shield as usable techniques (either no duration or no die pool). His Storm will be nasty (10 levels of damage, probably lethal). His Increase/Decrease presumably still works as does Shaping, Imprison, etc.

Conclusion: This is probably a weak character rather than a strong one, but look out if he gets the experience to buy off those weaknesses.

[Charlotte]

Also relevant: two of the aforementioned "fundamental forces" - gravity and electromagnetism - also are covered by power suites. And those suites are Q4. It's no big leap for me to buy the notion of a Q5 suite cover one of the two remaining forces.

[Seph OOC]

[Warren Verona]

Originally Posted By: Hero

I was trying to keep it elemental. I'll think about asking the Moderators about changing it.

I agree with Mikey. Only change it if you want to dude. As the thread title said "Help me understand this." That's all. It seems to me like there is a very limited understanding of what weak nuclear forces are and what they are capable of and I'm no tabout to explain it, there's no point. The characte ris made and your happy with it (as well as everyone else) so go with it. I was just a bit suprised that such a broad catagory was permited.

Have fun with it James.

As for all the rules. Guys, it's pointless to quantify how to make Aberrant make sense scientifically since over 50 of the core powers aren't even even in the realm of quantum sciences. I won't even start the Gravity Manipulation debate again.

It's a game. State effect, roll dice, describe. Why complicate it?

[Catalyst]

Originally Posted By: Dave OOC

Originally Posted By: Catalyst

Dave, if you are not going to play in the field, why should you care what we do?

Quote:

If we decide that Troy can get mastery level 5..Who are you to complain? You took your ball and went home. You also took you right to judge, bitch or whine about the way we play. If you want to tell us how to play, at very bloody least play with us.

I still have three legally playable characters in 2009 from what I've been told. Two of which have been idle long enough that their entire story lines are ruined and hardly worth continuing, so chances are they won%u2019t be.

I am still an eligible player in 2009, I just see it a complete waste of time at this point. However that eligibility gives me the right to inquire about the goings on of the characters.

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As for Catalyst, her legs are covered in scares that form a fractal pattern. Her back is has a fibonacci pattern of scares that starts in the middle of her back with one, and spirals out to 55. The closer the scares to the center of her back the more complex they are. In the out edge they are but dots.

I'm not sure why someone would scare his or her back and legs. How did she do that?? Did she sneak up on herself from behind and scream 'BOO!' really loud?

Quote:

I explained the scars because others may wish to know.

Yeah, people prolly would have liked to know... like about 9 months ago when Cat started appearing in fictions. So... did you just forget to mention these scars. Or did you just think it up on the fly and decide to give to the character because you saw the pattern on a wall mural or something I liked how it looked?

Let's see. You could play but you don't. When you play again I will care what you have to say. Until you play again you are not part of the game.

Let's see as I recall I talked about the scars in the story if Liberteen, Car and Troy..The only story I did not talk about it much was when she was made of water.

As for her background, hum...You ever talked to someone who has been sexually assaulted? Yea..They love talking about those fun times. She was raped, and frankly, not a damn one of you really has any reason to know the details behind how it happened or how bad it was. Simple facts are that she was raped by a nova who I have brought up in the past, and will bring up in the future again. If you do not know who I am talking about, well that is your fault. Until a time comes when a character has the resources and reasons to tracks Cat's past I do not see a damned reason to tell the whole world her past.

[Dave ST]

Originally Posted By: Catalyst

Until a time comes when a character has the resources and reasons to tracks Cat's past I do not see a damned reason to tell the whole world her past.

Fair enough.