Aberrant RPG - World Wide Phase III

[Dr. Zero]

Mal can unerupt novas... wouldnt it be logical to say he could control taint?

[Sphere]

Mal can unerupt novas... wouldnt it be logical to say he could control taint?

If he could then what would he need to undergo Chrysalis for?

I reckon that Chrysalis is the closest that anyone gets to controlling taint (and, as it points out in the Teragen bookm, by the time the Aberrant War kicks off it's not enough to do any more than slow the fall of Nova-kind).

[Blue Thunder]

Check this out from Asia Ascendant, the last Trinity supplement. This is from the history of China. I've bolded the important parts.

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The Maoist dynasty collapsed in 2018. Unrestrained corporate capitalism and the economic chaos after the collapse of the Three Gorges Dam pushed an already-strained and highly corrupt system to its limits. A loose alliance of rural revolutionaries and university activists took power and set about creating a more traditional regime, better connected to Confucian benevolence and paternalism.

These new leaders formed the New Chinese Empire, or NCE, in 2022. Key power would henceforth lie in the hands of well-trained scholars who pass competitive examinations which test knowledge of everything from the Chinese literary classics to modern psychology, information theory and economics. Over all these scholars rules the Light of Wisdom, an Emperor elected by the scholars from among their ranks. The Emperor rules for a twelve-year term, and is bound by charter to a single term and to heed the advice of the scholars who appointed him.

In reaction to the commercial excesses of the previous dynasty, the NCE restricted outside trade and concentrated on building an infrastructure that would address the needs of the entire population. This isolationism proved to be a great boon — as the Aberrant War began to devastate most of the rest of the world, China went from being a world power to a quiet nation busily modernizing and biding its time. By 2030, many Chinese aberrants had departed for nations they considered to be more exciting and advanced. In 2035, the Chinese formalized this policy and excluded all aberrants. While this decision produced a few retributive attacks, China was largely spared the horrors that hit the United States and Western Europe.

2018 is pretty darn close, now that the Aberrant setting has reached 2015. If WWP3 extends into 2018, which is very likely, maybe this revolution in China could be covered. Or at least mentioned as background fluff.

[Dr. Zero]

Anyone with other ideas for WWP3 feel free to speak up... I would love to write something for it but I want to hear what people would accept as strong ideas that fit in the universe...

[Tommy Tomorrow]

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Originally posted by Dr. Zero:
Anyone with other ideas for WWP3 feel free to speak up... I would love to write something for it but I want to hear what people would accept as strong ideas that fit in the universe...

"Looking Glass."
A nova of prodigious mental development retired from Project Utopia has spent the last few years in quiet isolation conducting research into increasingly esoteric particle physics. Despite cursory surveillance by both Project Proteus and the Directive, it appeared the researcher was destined for an unremarkable retirement. Appearance can be deceiving. The nova, whose file is code named "Alice", has disappeared along with the town he/she resided in and ten miles of the surrounding New England countryside. In the center of the area that is now a shallow crater is complex interplay of quantum energies forming a sphere ten meters in diameter. In a display of cooperation unseen since the Gabriel Melchior Incident, the organizations work together to box the event knowing its only a matter of time until the news, and all hell, breaks loose.

The Directive fears a weapon, Utopia fears a backlash against novas that would undermine its increasingly precarious position, while Proteus wants the incident controlled and any technology developed along with the heads of anyone associated with it. The Teragen wants the truth before the lies spin from Utopia PR, or the monkeys begin a purge against the gods.

Two hours after the incident the quantum sphere flattens into an doorway to "somewhere else" accompanied by the momentary return of the town albeit as a shimmering mirage-like image. This phenomenon repeats at increasing longer intervals and the best mind in the world, both nova and baseline, arrive at the same conclusions:

- The phenomenon is destabilizing.

- There is a tremendous amount of energy tied up in the effect, far more than would be necessary to have simply destroyed the area.

- Calculations based on observation estimate complete breakdown of the phenomenon in a short period of time.

- No one knows what will happen when the phenomenon completely destabilizes.

The clock is ticking.

OOC observations;
"Alice" has, accidentally or deliberately, created a "pocket" reality. Unfortunately the effect is neither stable nor completely controlled. Within a short period of time it will be determined the area of effect grows slightly with each opening of the gateway with more of reality being subsumed into the "pocket". Aside from the obvious effects of the loss, the pocket universe becomes more chaotic as its structure is overloaded by the energy being added.

'Lay on.

[Blue Thunder]

Hmm, that could lead to global fear of nova-made technology if it got out. In the least, all the organizations invovled understand how dangerous even one nova-made device could be. Assuming it's tech that caused the bubble...

[Siggismund Auerbach aka Firedrake]

I like Enemy of my Enemy and Atlantis best of all.

For Enemy of my Enemy, I think it would be neat to write it up based on a particular Teragen (like Santiago), but offer 'sidebars' for other prominent defectors. Narcosis suddenly finding herself part of a knife-crazy group of psycho-killers might take her travelling party and head for safer waters. Sin-Eater likewise, offering her unique services to people who *don't* embrace Taint. Count Orzaiz would arrive like a king in exile, and would have so many agreements and back-room deals accompanying his arrival that some might feel that the information they are getting from him isn't worth the price. The Apostle would be the scariest of all, he's still a fanatic, but he's come to the conclusion that Mal isn't worthy to be the quantum god he serves (and it certainly isn't Pax!), so he's moved on to *become* that quantum god, and stay safely away from Mal, whom he now hates for 'failing him' with the same fervor he once revered the man.

The Night of Long Knives itself, which, frankly, I kinda despise as a concept, but is canon so has gotta happen, could be an interesting bit of fanfic, but probably wouldn't make a playable scenario. I'd put the newly-awakened and years-of-torture-maddened Caroline Fong at the center of the chaos, creating yet another powerbase within the increasingly fractured Pantheon (she is one of the founders, after all!).

As for Atlantis, I had actually written out a list of 'Nova homelands' that a group of Daedalus League / Protector sorts could establish, and a new Pacific island / continent was up there. In my case, said island would be formed by erupting the Hawaiian volcanos en masse, and the resultant quakes and tidal waves could have disastrous effects on coastal communities across the Pacific, and Japan in particular. But a 'quiet' appearance overnight could work as well. The press might call it Atlantis at first, but would be corrected in the first interview with one of the natives, in that they aren't in the Atlantic, so Pacifica would be more appropriate.

Looking at the synergy between Aberrant and Trinity, I'd be tempted to just ignore Trinity canon entirely, list it as a 'potential future' and source of ideas and not a straightjacket to prevent the Aberrant timeline from going anywhere. Wiping out Florida, or the Three Gorges River Dam, or the OpNet, or Heartland*, or having the 'Space Brigade' (whom I would think would be a group of Daedalan League or Protector sorts, using a specific name for their smaller group) take over the moon would be doable, but something like the Atlantis idea, which obviously conflicts with Trinity canon, would be neat-as-hell as well, and shouldn't be discouraged just because it ain't so in some other game set 'kinda-sorta' in the Aberrantverse future.

A lot of Trinity stuff is also colored by the lens of deliberate misinformation. Pax is regarded as a 'Prime Threat' but that might have *nothing* to do with his actions, and everything to do with him just being a very powerful Nova, *all* of whom are considered to have been mindless Taint-monkey monsters in the Trinity future, with the appearance of the often human-looking and often reasonable and even friendly Edenite Novas being a slap in the face to the carefully constructed lie that humanity has been fed over the last hundred years that 'Aberrant = Bad.'

The Feathered Serpent raising up Tenochtitlan, and destroying Mexico City in the process, sounds awe-inspiring, but, again, would probably make better fanfic than an adventure where the PCs can take an active role. A lot of Aberrant canon seems to work this way, unfortunately. Sit back and watch Mal and Pax spend quantum slapping each other around, you've got great seats, but you're still just a spectator...

*Heartland, the place where the Teragen faction studies Taint, and the sheriff's son 'shows potential,' is a major Trinity plot point. Wycliff detonates like a nuclear bomb at some point, contaminating the breadbasket of the United States and leading to a massive famine. Even in 2120, the area is still a 'Blight Zone,' occupied by toxic soil, mutated (and occasionally dangerous!) plants and animals, and an abnormal concentration of Aberrants, as if they are somehow drawn to the Taint energies locked up within soil and local life.

[Blue Thunder]

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The Night of Long Knives itself, which, frankly, I kinda despise as a concept, but is canon so has gotta happen, could be an interesting bit of fanfic, but probably wouldn't make a playable scenario.

The thing with the NoLK is that it isn't going to be the same in everyone's campaign; the choice of whoever is killed or survives are up to the players and Storyteller. So we have to be careful how we handle this scenario. The Methemetician could very well be the traitor, but what if he was killed in someone else's campaign? Or what if he not only survives the NoLK, but comes out on top? I like the idea of giving alternates to trade in for him. In the descriptions for the NoLK, it seems like Narcosis and The Confederate die in all three possible paths. The future doesn't bode well for them.

Hmm...perhaps Caroline Fong herself decides to betray the Teragen...? That sounds like a good possibility. She's spent much of the canon timeline so far sleeping away in her Chrysalis. Maybe when she gets out she decides the Teragen's Night of Long Knives is not something she thinks should happen, and grows disgusted with how Mal is becoming more of a dictator and not listening to others' viewpoints (like it says he does in the Night of Long Knives description). She still believes in Teras, but thinks the Teragen are focusing more on killing baselines and causing destruction then in enlightening themselves.

Or we could always make a new character. It would be easier to fit into the plot, but wouldn't have as much impact as having a known character step forward.

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Looking at the synergy between Aberrant and Trinity, I'd be tempted to just ignore Trinity canon entirely, list it as a 'potential future' and source of ideas and not a straightjacket to prevent the Aberrant timeline from going anywhere. Wiping out Florida, or the Three Gorges River Dam, or the OpNet, or Heartland*, or having the 'Space Brigade' (whom I would think would be a group of Daedalan League or Protector sorts, using a specific name for their smaller group) take over the moon would be doable, but something like the Atlantis idea, which obviously conflicts with Trinity canon, would be neat-as-hell as well, and shouldn't be discouraged just because it ain't so in some other game set 'kinda-sorta' in the Aberrantverse future.

Trinity is not the "kindasorta" future of Aberrant. There is nothing in Aberrant that conflicts with what happens in Trinity. Sure, some of it may not be explained yet, but the line was cancelled so that's to be expected. And some stuff was probably never going to be explained anyway.

The Atlantis idea is perfectly doable with the Trinity setting. We can just assume that sometime during the Aberrant War the island disappears. Maybe it gets blown up by humans or enemy novas. Maybe the creators decide to disassemble the island. Maybe a water-based nova wipes it out. Maybe the novas teleport the island away to another planet during (or before) the Exodus.

We don't have to decide what happens because it doesn't matter how the island is gone. By Trinity it will be gone, and how that happens can be explained by the ST, if he even needs to explain it. The fact that it would be gone is enough; it can be assumed that it disappears somehow.

There are plenty of things in Aberrant canon that disappear by Trinity. A lot of crap happens during, before, and after the Aberrant War that can make for an excuse to get rid of anything. The zushima macrobe is gone. The terraforming of Ethiopia is gone as well. I had always assumed that several Aeon-aligned (or independant) novas with powerful abilities set about "correcting" the world during the Aberrant War, erasing all the radical changes made by other novas.

I seriously disagree with the whole "ignore Trinity as the set future" concept. The game makers of Aberrant never did that with the other Worldwide books. Everything that has been done in Aberrant canon so far has been perfectly fine with Trinity canon. There's no reason to change that.

[Elena 'Glowbe' Alvarez de la Rosa]

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I seriously disagree with the whole "ignore Trinity as the set future" concept. The game makers of Aberrant never did that with the other Worldwide books. Everything that has been done in Aberrant canon so far has been perfectly fine with Trinity canon. There's no reason to change that.

But Trinity is just so shitty depressive to have as a set future, and the closer you get to the Aberrant War, the more rigid the whole "novas going psycho taint crazy" and stuff like that gets. Playing a game in which the players are going to be uncommon exceptions to the rule of an evil race that basically fucks the whole world up isn't very nice.

[David 'Dr. Troll' Smith]

Natural Disaster:

That Elite Precog has a vision that the collapse of the Three Gorges Dam is coming. For Utopia this is an opportunity to supply humanitarian assistance and perhaps earn enough good will to bring China into the fold. For many others this is a opportunity to profit in the chaos.

[Ptesan-Wi]

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I seriously disagree with the whole "ignore Trinity as the set future" concept. The game makers of Aberrant never did that with the other Worldwide books.

These are the same game makers that wrote enough self-contradiction into the product to choke a horse, and who dropped development of the product line while leaving one hell of a lot of huge holes in the plotline. Screw them.

[Siggismund Auerbach aka Firedrake]

I wouldn't go so far as to say 'screw 'em' since I actually kinda like the dudes (having chatted with Bates a little, worked for Baugh directly, and LARPed with Blackwelder back when he lived in the Boston area), but I do feel that Trinity, which, IMO, is a gloriously well-designed game that was unfairly abandoned, was NOT designed in such a way to make a good Aberrant game.

Blackwelder went pretty far from the Freak Legion-esque Aberrants to create the Nova setting, and I *like* that he did so, even if it creates the impression that the three devs were writing at cross-purposes sometimes, which, they kinda were...

At the end of the day, the three settings weren't really made for cross-overs, anymore than Werewolf the Apocalypse was made to slot neatly into a Vampire the Masquerade game, even if they technically shared the same World of Darkness. Each Dev focused on his own playground, and because Trinity was written first, it ended up putting Aberrant in a sticky place, where it could either be 'Freak Legion 2.0' or strike off to make an enjoyable and complex super-powered person setting in a WW vein (very *not* four-color, lots of personal choice-based storytelling potential).

I'll happily criticize choices about the implementation of the settings (the whole Pax vs. Mal fight where the PCs get to stand around holding their dicks, for instance), but I think the individual settings are stronger for their lack of concentration on what happens a century later in a different setting.

Hope. Sacrifice. Unity. The three games have different themes, each being like a different colored-set of glasses looking at the same world.

Standard disclaimer, IMO, YMMV, rhubarb.

That being said, I don't think there is any need to go out of one's way to deliberately screw with Trinity canon, say by having a Nova blow up the Moon or something... I just don't think Trinity canon needs to be a straightjacket to Aberrant actions.

[Dr. Zero]

I like the concept of a thematic game...

That means in Trinity there exists an Aberrant-esque past and an Adventure-esque past... but it doesnt mean its the same game

In Aberrant, there is an Adventure-esque Past and some kind of future... maybe Trinity or just Trinity-esque...

The idea that the games, a pulp comic re-creation, a high minded "average joe can be a god" world based on reality as we know it and a future sci fi game with space colonies and aliens and psychics, are all the same game is preposterous.

They have a similar timeline but if you went back in time in Trinity, the Adventure era you met wouldnt look like it does in the Adventure game shouting four color catch phrases. It would be thematically incongruous. Adventure is meant to be campy, Aberrant is meant to be based off of real people and Trinity is meant to be an entirely futuristic sci fi setting.

Besides, as far as canon, the writers make it abundantly clear that the canon is incredibly loose. They have given us a scenario, a series of "what ifs" that result in one direction. They constantly repeat the idea that the world is a setting, not a story. That means the moment a game starts, all bets are off. In my Aberrant games, I never assume Trinity is a sure thing.

[Dr. Zero]

Caroline Fong, Scripture, Adam (the kid from Bahrain), Max Mercer, Anna DeVries and Sophia Russeau are all great characters who need more motivation and fleshing out in the Aberrant setting... they would be great to see in WWP3.

Also, any of the surviving characters from the Adventure era could have some part to play, particular if there were an adventure built on uncovering the secrets behind the Aeon society, deeper than Proteus.

And what if someone did some research on the Hammersmith experiment? Someone could try to re-create it or the Galatea... scary if it went wrong. Perhaps thats what happened to Wycliff...

[Blue Thunder]

[Andrew Murphy]

I always find it odd that people have issues with Telluric Engery. The easiest solution (which is hinted at anyways) is that Adventure! uses Inspiration as a catch-all Trait which covers, Quantum and Psi. Daredevils - well their Inspiration trait could be luck, dtermination, or something else.

In the setting Mercer and Mal/Primoris have not seemed to figure out fully just what the Hammersmith Incident DID do but by Aberrant Mal has enough grasp to not only re-create it but to manipulate the experiment to produce 99% novas basically a wave of a LOT of Quantum with only a dash of Psi.

Something I noticed for the umpteenth time as I read through Adventure! the other night was the account of the Hammersmith accident and how Hammersmith himself was very calm and collected and disappeared shortly after saving those few people who did survive the accident. Makes me wonder if it was a red herring and if Hammersmith could have known EXACTLY what he was doing. Maybe we'll see hime again? ... Maybe he had something to do with Process 418?

I agree with Blue Thunder that these game were MEANT to be 3 points along the same timeline. That they were the Past, Present, and Future of this world. That certain little bist don't fit is due to the games being written from the perspective of the current game at hand. Abberant era had forgotten about Adventure and Aeon wiped out the records from the Aberrant era.

Heck if we were to look ahead after the Coalition 100 years what would the Trinity era be painted as? The Huang-Marr incident, the Chromatic's war, the Coalition, the disappearance and reappearance of the Teleporters. God knows how bad a picture of Psions there could potentially be.

[Siggismund Auerbach aka Firedrake]

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Caroline Fong, Scripture, Adam (the kid from Bahrain), Max Mercer, Anna DeVries and Sophia Russeau are all great characters who need more motivation and fleshing out in the Aberrant setting... they would be great to see in WWP3.

I'd definitely like to see more of Fong. She's one of the founders of the Teras philosophy, having been there even before Mal took over the club. And now she's back, after a year or more of Utopian torture at Bahrain, emerging from the longest Chrysalis anyone has ever heard of.

Sophia Rousseau is another one that interest me. She's said to be immune to telepathy, and yet she's reassuring the fledgeling Aberrants on the run from Utopia by assuring them that their telepath can verify her good intentions. She's *clearly* got an agenda, a bone to pick with Utopia and has joined / co-opted the Aberrants to further her own agenda, but what is that agenda? Why has she got such a mad-on? Did Pax stand her up on prom-night or something?

In my own wheels-within-wheels setting, Sophia Rousseau is a Sphinx, with mental powers, and a reputation for all sorts of powers that she doesn't actually have, being above all, a spider at the center of many webs.

Of course, in my own setting, Caestus Pax, as initially described on the WW boards by one of the people who wrote for the setting, is black. (She was replying to a criticism that the setting didn't have enough ethnic characters, pointing out that quite possibly the most prominent Nova in the entire setting, the poster-child for a brighter future, was an African-American. Later he turned out to be a blue-eyed blonde farmboy... Ugh.)

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Hammersmith himself was very calm and collected and disappeared shortly after saving those few people who did survive the accident. Makes me wonder if it was a red herring and if Hammersmith could have known EXACTLY what he was doing. Maybe we'll see hime again? ... Maybe he had something to do with Process 418?

Heh, now I have a picture of a blastwave transforming the world, and at the center of it, in Venezuela, and old man in a rumpled suit, hair mussed and glasses askew, stepping forth from a smoking hole in the ground, looking around owlishly, and muttering, "Hmph. Most unexpected."

[Elena 'Glowbe' Alvarez de la Rosa]

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Of course, in my own setting, Caestus Pax, as initially described on the WW boards by one of the people who wrote for the setting, is black. (She was replying to a criticism that the setting didn't have enough ethnic characters, pointing out that quite possibly the most prominent Nova in the entire setting, the poster-child for a brighter future, was an African-American. Later he turned out to be a blue-eyed blonde farmboy... Ugh.)

As a quick aside, isn't Pax described at least somewhere as black? I mean, I've always, always thought of him as black, and that impression must come from somewhere. Maybe the core book mentions it somewhere that was written before he was bleached?

[Y.T.]

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Originally posted by Jameson Bradford:
I always find it odd that people have issues with Telluric Engery. The easiest solution (which is hinted at anyways) is that Adventure! uses Inspiration as a catch-all Trait which covers, Quantum and Psi. Daredevils - well their Inspiration trait could be luck, dtermination, or something else.

I forget where but I recall that psi and quantum could be used together if the scale is small enough mases. I always thought of it this way then. The inspired were weakest because they wer using both of the power sources, meaning they could only tap in small parts.

[Siggismund Auerbach aka Firedrake]

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As a quick aside, isn't Pax described at least somewhere as black? I mean, I've always, always thought of him as black, and that impression must come from somewhere. Maybe the core book mentions it somewhere that was written before he was bleached?

Not that I recall. I just remember it from the boards, since I was involved in the thread about the lack of central ethnic characters, and was pretty soundly rebuked with the whole 'well, Pax is black, so shut up' argument. Randal Portman was also said to be of hispanic descent, which he does look to some extent on the cover, but by Worldwide 2 the artist portrays him with 'whiter' features.

I blame it on 'Micheal Jackson' syndrome. Vitigo, or whatever they call it.

[Dr. Zero]

Well... for one, Pax is white. Besides the covers of the core book and Project Utopia book, look at page 50 of the core book. The picture is the stand off between Pax and Persuer. Not that it matters but he is a country honkey. I cant believe this was even a debate.

Two... Blue Thunder states... "Exactly. The three were not made to cross. I guess that's where Aeon comes in. They snuffed out accounts of weird phenomenon after the 1940s to keep the Inspired Age a secret."

Ummmmmm... between 1940 and 1998 is only 50 years. That means 60 year olds were 10 when all that phenomenon happened. I think it goes quite beyond reason... light years, in fact... to assume a whole generation of 10 year olds would forget about a zepplin armada, a skyscraper that floated into the sky, a giant mechanical serpent that swallowed an opera star or a man who flew on mechanical wings. There are alot of 60 and 70 year olds in the Aberrant era who would have seen those things and made connections, despite how much Proteus and Aeon covered up some newspaper articles.

As far as Aberrant/Adventure/Trinity... I feel these games have different literary rules. As different as "The Shadow" in which characters behave in over the top ways and "The Untouchables" in which the characters are based on real people. Perhaps there are common threads and roots but a madman with a zepplin armada is out of a comic book and isnt meant for the history of trinity.

[Blue Thunder]

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always find it odd that people have issues with Telluric Engery. The easiest solution (which is hinted at anyways) is that Adventure! uses Inspiration as a catch-all Trait which covers, Quantum and Psi. Daredevils - well their Inspiration trait could be luck, dtermination, or something else.

But that's not all Telluric energy did. It also made dinosuars, vampires, talking apes, and a hollow Earth. Telluric energy had the power to create things that were never around, but make it seem like they had always been there.

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As a quick aside, isn't Pax described at least somewhere as black? I mean, I've always, always thought of him as black, and that impression must come from somewhere.

Albino black guy?

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There are alot of 60 and 70 year olds in the Aberrant era who would have seen those things and made connections, despite how much Proteus and Aeon covered up some newspaper articles.

That's the nature of Telluric energy. When the Hammersmith Wave hit, like I said above, it made all kinds of crazy stuff appear and gave them all histories as if they has been there all along. Talking ape tribes in Africa? They only appeared there after the Hammersmith Wave, yet no one would have recalled anything about them before the wave hit.

I thought it was generally assumed that as the effects of the wave died down, the effect slowly reversed itself. The creatures and locations made by the Hammersmith Wave begin to disappear and fade from history. The only things left would be the Inspired, who died out or lived their lives in secret. And I'm sure the Aeon Society started hunting them down too. In the Project Utopia book's Proteus chapter it shows two articles from before 1998 of events relating to novas that are snuffed out by Aeon.

Besides, if your grandfather started rambling on about Doctor Zorbo and his armada of hot air balloons that attacked his homecity as a kid, you'd start looking for a retirement home where he could live out the rest of his days with his imaginery friends.

[Tommy Tomorrow]

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Originally posted by Blue Thunder:
But that's not all Telluric energy did. It also made dinosuars, vampires, talking apes, and a hollow Earth. Telluric energy had the power to create things that were never around, but make it seem like they had always been there.

I suspect its more a matter of perspective than anything else. Telluric energy did not "create" these things so much as allow the conditions that in turn allowed these things to come into being. Using the idea that noetic energy energy (psi) is the form or container while quantum energies are the contents; the disruption of reality by the Hammersmith Incident allowed for improbable event strings to have taken place. Because the disruption was not limited by time the results were not only startling but had always been that way rather than "seeming" to be so.

The disruptions ran their course and were removed as noetic space "healed" or returned to a close approximation of the normal state. I say close approximation because the memory and records of the disruptions continued to exist even if the fantastic locales were lost.

[Dr. Zero]

"Besides, if your grandfather started rambling on about Doctor Zorbo and his armada of hot air balloons that attacked his homecity as a kid, you'd start looking for a retirement home where he could live out the rest of his days with his imaginery friends."

Yes but if MILLIONS of senior citizens had come across this (btw, that comprises a great deal of the people who run our country and world, governments tend to be peopled by 45+) then you wouldnt call them crazy. A flying zepplin armada would clearly be part of history and Proteus cannot erase living history, people who know it and talk about it and were there. Millions and millions and millions of people who saw it first hand.

The games were written in reverse order. I think that is the primary cause of the ill fitting time lines. In the case of trinity, a great deal more time and chaos happened between aberrant and trinity so I can buy not knowing history. Between the hammersmith event and the galatea is only 66 years. People remember that stuff. Too close for me to buy "Teluric energy died down so EVERYBODY forgot everything interesting that happened in a space of 15 years." Aberrant was not written as a believable future Adventure!. It was written as its own game with a potential Adventure!-esque background but ill fitting with a point for point progression. (IMHO)

Possible solutions...

Tone down Adventure, make the events generally NOT seen by the masses or discredited. You cannot discredit a flying skyscraper or a zepplin armada. Too many witnesses with stories that link. You can discret a scientist who cannot be killed by bullets because there are rational explainations and its VERY localized.

Make Aberrant less surprised by Nova sized events. "There are flying people now and there were about 70 years ago too... I wonder if its a cycle or something" Proteus' job becomes less about hiding Adventure era but can still be the same about limiting Nova exposure.

A blanket plot Deus Ex Machina "Well... everybody forgets amazing things that happen because... it invalidates the other games"

The games exist in different timelines... Adventure!s comic book style isnt the Adventure of Aberrants past. Adventure! in the future is based on Adventure! and not on Aberrant.

My two drakmas.