Aberrant: In the Beginning - House Rules- (Suggestion Box)

[SalmonMax]

1) We already have a mechanic to represent going insane by using quantum power. Taint. Please, lets not invent a second one.

-- Second one? I thought Taint is what we were talking about.

2) There we will have to agree to disagree. I think it is a feature that fits other game styles. As I said, we already have Nature. It does the trick, and is elegant because that's all one really needs for Roleplay. Furthermore, becuase I disagree, others may well too - and changing this part of the game will really change the flavor of Aberrant. I signed up for Aberrant, not Mage, not Vampire, etc. Note that I am not speaking for others besides myself, I am not saying 'people do agree with me' I am saying 'people could possibly agree with me' and hence preserving the original nature and flavor of the game is a good thing.

-- That's fine. Basically an aesthetic choice at that point. Ya like it or ya don't. Either way, no biggy.

As I said previously. I am with you on the Empathy bit being valid. I agree, comprende, etc. What I didn't agree with earlier was the implication that a Nova can't understand humanity. Perhaps I should make my distinction between rational understanding and empathy, and also play devils advocate to your argument by showing the other side of the coin (if I can express my thoughts well enough). A being as advanced as a Nova need not be driven by emotion at all.

-- That's...my point. A nova not driven by emotion would, by definition, no longer be capable of empathy. Similarly other novas, "advanced" as they may be, may be ruled ENTIRELY by emotion...but still lack that ability to connect, or to care. The specifics of how empathy is lost is entirely up to the concept. Just as manifestations of taint in its existing form is largely up to the player involved.

Which is another element that Morality of this sort would limit Novas from expressing - essentially we don't want to force emotional overtones on all Novakind via an artificial mechanic. We don't want to limit the Nova who RATIONALLY comes up with a philosophy of fostering baselines becuase it is in his or her best interest, logically speaking. I can think of a number of reasons why Humanity should be well treated, but the best example that comes to mind is in Issac Asmiovs Robots series. In this series, the emotionless, unempathising, totally logical, machines realize that they are killing humanity by enslavement. They realize that emotions are important to humans as purely psychosocial factors (note they don't grasp emotion themselves, they just see it as yet more math expressing something in the universe ... sub-routines of human software if you will). So, they free humanity - becuase they RATIONALLY arrived at the decision it was a good idea.

-- I don't see how that scenario is impossible here. You could be someone who either doesn't have taint...or in spite of taint comes to that conclusion. Morality doesn't dictate your actions...it just gives you a general idea of what sort of behaviors are repugnant, and which are not. Just because Hannibal Lecter could wallow in the blood of everyone he meets and love it doesn't mean he DOES. It'd be stupid. So he chooses his victims more carefully.

Similarly, a high taint nova who might see nothing morally wrong with slaughtering a city of people...but he might choose not to, for very rational reasons.

Maybe this is the real root of our disagreement?

[Darklighter]

Hehe. I think our views are largely the same, save that I don't want to see a Morality stat introduced into the system.

EDIT: Oh, and a 'Morality' trait as per any other white wolf system certainly does limit your actions. It defines how you should be RPing. It even gives guidelines at every level - imposes all sorts of behaviors and limitations.

[SkyLion]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

Yeah, that's always been one of my problems with taint rules as they stand, actually.

On the one hand, taint is given as a measure of inhumanity...but to my mind, just having a flaming skull doesn't really make you inhuman. There SHOULD be a distinction between "high taint aberrated," and just, "looks funny."

I think of it as mutation. The downside of your point of view is that it takes away the possibility for the pathos involved in playing someone who's taint has made it difficult or impossible to interact with baselines...yet is still human on the inside. You are negating that whole wonderful pit mine of roleplaying potential.

[jameson (ST)]

Oddly I actually Agree with Sky here. I've a PC in another game who wouldn't be remotely the same with your version of taint.

That said I think that Max's idea has merit and would be interesting to explore in a game.

[SalmonMax]

I would argue that the condition of having high taint and "being human on the inside" is mutually contradictory. That's the whole idea of taint, is it not?

You can still play a character who's so mutated that people hate him...yet he's not tainted, or not sufficiently tainted, enough to not care.

[SkyLion]

Originally Posted By: Courier

Quote:

Even a hardcore skeptic like myself agrees that (mathematically) Chrysalis is broken and statistically almost impossible to achieve once your dice pools are higher.

Untrue... sort of. The Math works fine if you assume someone seeking Chrysalis does a powermax *every* *day*. They get a willpower point back every day so that's the most they could reasonable get.

So someone with Q1 botches one day out of 10 and gets 3.6 points of Chrysalis in a year and can go under in less than two. Q2 goes faster (one day in 9), Q3+ slower.

But that just means they have to spend a few years more working at it. I've done the Math and it doesn't get unreasonable until you hit Divis' Q level.

What this means is trying to get temp Chrysalis *can't* be an IC event. The rules support this since you can't convert temp points gained outside of your Archtype or in combat.

This *also* means that short of Chrysalis, Terats *never* get rid of Temp Taint. They're never going to take the month or whatever off to burn off temp taint because they have to max every day.

I always appreciate your math Courier but the problem IMHO is that its going to still take to long and therefore be out of reach to the PCs...several *years* IC to get to Chrysalis? Do you realize how long that will take especially in PbP form? And then have months of additional unplayable time. It's too clunky. I liked Blue Thunder's freeform system where he awarded Chrysalis points furing longer periods of downtime for those who wanted it and were roleplaying their archetypes well IC...that's my personal suggestion for the easiest way...

[SkyLion]

Originally Posted By: Darklighter

As someone previously pointed out, the main problem is going mad, becoming immoral, etc. Really, the physical changes kind of fit - and are immaterial anyway. So your skull is on fire, OK ... makes wearing hats tricky if you don't have attunement, and you are no longer one of the better kissers out there ... but hey.

What if Chrysalis is strictly a way to combat going mad by building a Nova mentality. Keep the rules exactly as they are, except add a trait called (tentative name) "Archetype"

People choose the flavor of their Archetype, a self directed mental evolution. Every dot you buy in Archetype counteracts one dot of permanent taint. Abberations are kept, except mental ones might have to change somehow (maybe the Archetype trait has Enhancements that can counteract those - like a mega Att).

Now, here is a system that plays simply - one stat. It also fits the setting ... people could choose 'Marvel', 'Monster', 'Portent' and of course other flavors could be made up too ... those three would represent the core 'Teras' thinking on how to do Chrysalis.

Just a spur of the moment idea. This way, it isn't about trying to 'stay human' or anything like that ... though that could be inspiration for more archetype flavors. Really, it is about directing your own evolution in the most important way ... shaping your own quantum consciousness.

I like it DL!

[SkyLion]

Quote:

Taint represents, in my mind, the creeping tendency of a superhuman to neglect/forget about/not care about human feelings, conditions, and/or limitations. Soon, things that seem cruel and evil to us seem perfectly rational and natural to the tainted nova. Why not enslave baselines? Who cares if one baseline lives or dies?

This is where i think you are going too far and assigning your -own- interpretation of Aberrant and Taint and attempting to lay it on us. I strongly dissagree with this perspective, for the reasons mentioned above.

[Darklighter]

I'll write up something a little more formal and put it in tomorrow. It will be a system of rules for Chrysalis and nothing else. No changes to the game system at all for those who aren't doing the process - which is what Titan was asking for IIRC ... a nice way to get rid of perm. taint.

[SalmonMax]

Well...yes, Sky. This is my suggestion. Hence, it involves my opinions.

I am not "trying to lay" anything on anyone. I'm just making a suggestion...developing an idea.

[SkyLion]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

I would argue that the condition of having high taint and "being human on the inside" is mutually contradictory. That's the whole idea of taint, is it not?

You can still play a character who's so mutated that people hate him...yet he's not tainted, or not sufficiently tainted, enough to not care.

Again, you make it impossible to play a character...for the sake of example: Erupts with Taint 9...he is now made of radioactive plutonium, a sexless permanently bodymorphed character who gives off energy arcs and has an inhuman voice and no hair. This person is perfectly sane and moral being. But now he is tortured and depressed and upset becuase he can no longer be around his wife children family friends. He must live his whole life in a containment suit no longer esperiencing touch. Such a condition *might* drive someone insane, depending on their strnegth of will and ability to adapt and find meaning in life...but it should *not* be forced on them to go insane from a mechanic. I don't want Aberrant to become like the WoD with morality constraints..it defeats the purpose of the game -to me- IMHO.

[SkyLion]

Originally Posted By: SalmonMax

Well...yes, Sky. This is my suggestion. Hence, it involves my opinions.

I am not "trying to lay" anything on anyone. I'm just making a suggestion...developing an idea.

Sorry if I used a poor choice of words. Maybe "convince" would be a better word. What I mean to say is, you are certainly entitled to your opnions and to ddevelop your ideas...but I disagree with your idea of "what taint is or should be" and am stating my opinion and preference that it -not- be developed any further here with regards to this game. It would make a great house rule for a different sort of Aberrant game but I didn't get into Aberrant to have a morality system and roleplaying rules and guidlines forced on me by a new system mechanic. That's what I play Vampire for.

[Titan]

Again, as I stated in the Table Talk thread... anyone may propose any idea they want, and it may be discussed at length. You can disagree with the idea or proposal, but please don't attack players (not that I'm seeing any of that, I'm just being thorough), or in any way attempt to shut down the conversation because you disagree. It is enough to disagree, no one has to stop talking.

[SkyLion]

Titan...what are your ideas and/or thoughts on the matter?

[Jaunt]

Originally Posted By: Prime

I dont trust you to make rules for a game.

Again I don't trust your interpretation of the setting or the rules and would greatly prefer that the mods come up with something together that they feel is equitable. I trust the mods for this game.

You don't have to trust me. Titan asked, I offered, and if it's accepted you'll just have to learn coping skills.

Originally Posted By: Dr. By-The-Book

Untrue... sort of. The Math works fine if you assume someone seeking Chrysalis does a powermax *every* *day*. They get a willpower point back every day so that's the most they could reasonable get.

*sigh* As always people failed to read and were to quick to be 'right'. I said that statistically it was almost impossible. With increased Quantum traits and Dice Pools it becomes incredibly difficult to accrue taint. That was my point, but thank you for stating the obvious anyway, it's appreciated.

[SalmonMax]

Sky, I'm cool with you disagreeing. My idea was predicated on the notion that I personally dislike the idea that right now taint has almost zero negative side to anyone who doesn't really care about socializing with baselines.

So I was and am throwing around ideas for systems that make taint a bit more onerous. Your observation that this makes high-taint concepts more difficult is completely accurate. This is intentional.

[Titan]

I do have thoughts and opinions, but for now I choose to keep them to myself. I am in a leadership position in this game, and once I state my opinions, there is a chance that anyone who had a different opinion from mine will say to themselves, 'oh, well, why bother, the ST has his mind made up already...' and I want to let everyone weigh in. No matter how vehemently I may disagree with any idea ever posted in the ItB forums, I will ALWAYS respect your right to have and express them. The only method of expression that you can ALWAYS count on me to jump on and shut down is personally attacking another player. Other than that, you guys have carte blanche.

[SkyLion]

Quote:

Sky, I'm cool with you disagreeing. My idea was predicated on the notion that I personally dislike the idea that right now taint has almost zero negative side to anyone who doesn't really care about socializing with baselines.

So I was and am throwing around ideas for systems that make taint a bit more onerous. Your observation that this makes high-taint concepts more difficult is completely accurate. This is intentional.

Its not that it makes them difficult..it changes the setting. We can keep the social penalties for baselines. If you want it to feel more realistic we can impose taint social penalties for ionteractions with non-tainted novas as well.

However, unless I specifically take a mental aberration please dont impose your ideas of morality or behavior on me...thats what mental aberrations are for.

[SkyLion]

Originally Posted By: Titan

The only method of expression that you can ALWAYS count on me to jump on and shut down is personally attacking another player. Other than that, you guys have carte blanche.

What about making snide sideways antagonistc comments to other players or giving them antagonistic pet names? What if its not a direct attack but just a player deliberatly trying to goad another?

[SalmonMax]

No one's imposing anything.

Relax.

[SkyLion]

I didnt mean to say you were imposing anything on me now. I mean to say that if we do as you are proposing and create a WoD style morality system then it -would- be imposing that on us. Which is why I am opposing the idea. For the record I dig you personally Max, and your characters, even if we disagree sometimes and argue.

[SalmonMax]

Well, if I were to be running the game, and used a system like this, then you might make that claim. But then you'd be welcome not to play.

For what it's worth, I think it's unlikely a system so far removed from the rules as written would be retrofitted to ItB, so you need waste no time worrying. It'd need a lot of refining and possibly playtesting before I'd feel comfortable endorsing it as an actual rule anyway.

That said, I think it's worth discussing. The quality of empathy is something that can be quantified without resorting to subjectivity.

This may not be the appropriate venue for it though.

[Renee Byrnes]

Taint works fine as it is.

[Stargaizer]

Quote from the rulebook: "Permanent Taint is a result of the nova's body and mind warping beyond human ken, the tragic side effect of channeling energies human beings were not designed to handle."

Ok, so, what I get from this, is that taint is caused by using too much superpowers, and that it is the slow loosing of both one's mind and body (as evidenced that at taint 10, and I quote "...he becomes an unplayable god/monster and falls under the Storyteller's control.")

So, what I would suggest is that you keep track of how/why you get taint, and that there should be a time frame, wherein which you don't use anything from the bottom half of the character sheet (anything post-eruption) and loose taint. This would only work for activateable powers, of course (not node, quantum rating or mega-attributes for example).

Just my thoughts.

[Titan]

Originally Posted By: Skylion

Originally Posted By: Titan

The only method of expression that you can ALWAYS count on me to jump on and shut down is personally attacking another player. Other than that, you guys have carte blanche.

What about making snide sideways antagonistc comments to other players or giving them antagonistic pet names? What if its not a direct attack but just a player deliberatly trying to goad another?

I have answered this in the PM that you sent me, I see no need to elaborate on it here. I'll just say this: You were rude to him, he was rude to you, in my book that's a wash. Both of you should let it go, is my advice. But, as I have said before, rudeness is ok, although discouraged, attacking another player is not. A fine line, but you can be sure that I know it when I see it.

Anybody care to have fun playing a game? I know I'm dying to.

[SkyLion]

Originally Posted By: Renee Byrnes

Taint works fine as it is.

Agreed. The question at hand is what to do with Chrysalis.

Stargaizer...your above comment actually is already spoken to in the core rules with regards to dormancy and losing *temporary* taint. Story wise in Canon, Chrysalis is the only way to remove *permanent* taint.

Other people have attempted to create other phiosophies/methods outside of Chrysalis to deal with taint.

We might also consider altering canon to allow a scinetific cure for taint to be found (In which case it still costs xp to bring it down equal to the xp cost you saved in buying dots tainted) as is happening soon ish in Fox's chronicle.

[Stargaizer]

I'd gathered that it was the way to remove temporary taint, but I think that, possibly the combination of time and xp, maybe in conjunction with something scientific (physical therapy of some sort) would remove it.

I would also suggest, that once you remove a dot of taint, that it be harder to regain said taint. Kind of like you giving your body time to heal from all the power coursing though you, and as such it gets, calloused (in a manner of speaking), or trained, and can thus handle the strain better.

[SkyLion]

Thats how its going to be in Fox's game. Once you recieve the genetic "cure" you can never buy anythng tainted again.

As a point of discussion, altering Chrysalis, as well as making Taint a surmountable problem, in conjunction with Divis Mal's abscence makes the Aberrant War only a minor possibility now. If there is a way to deal with Taint, Utopia won't get so tarnished from pushing novas to their breaking point as readily, Bahrain would be a foregone conclusion, and the Us vs. Them mentality of the Teragen is less likely.

Not saying that the Aberrant War would not happen...that depends on how we shape the world, and things like...dos Proteus conspire to sterilize Novas and is that plot discovered etc.

Im just saying that bewtween taint and Divis, in canon the War is all but inevitable (as was set up by WW to advance to Trinity). At least this way now we have a fighting chance as it were and we are no longer beholden to Trinity's canon.

All of which is awesome.

[Jaunt]

Originally Posted By: SkyLion

Agreed. The question at hand is what to do with Chrysalis.

I'll hopefully have an answer soon.

[Michael Peters]

I always liked the idea of Taint... the idea that the Quantum manipulation a Nova experiences every day would slowly start twisting the nova into something more, or less, than human.

I never really played a game where Chrysalis became a major game mechanic. I only had to deal with it once and I handled it through roleplaying and downlime. As the character used, experimented and pushed his powers, I awarded points. From what I've read here (the first serious discussion I've seen where knowlegable people are involved), Nova's with a higher Quantum have a more difficult time accumulating Chrysalis? That seems off to me. Wouldn't a Nova with greater Quantum signature be influenced more, and be able to control more, Taint energy? A painter with a broader range of colors can create greater masterpieces?

[SkyLion]

That's whats wrong with it. IMHO we would be best served to avoid clunky mechanics and die rolls alltogether and simply allow Novas who study Chrysalis (maybe its a skill?) to pay xp to remove taint. If we want the Chrysalis flavor then they keep the aberrations they have and the social penalties but arent in danger of losing their character and the Chrysalis makes it harder or impossible to gain taint in the future.

[El'Jinn Uu]

GAK... I've never wanted to actually post so up front on the Boards but, I Have played in all kinds of Abby games and I can say, the rules for Taint & Chrysilis are not broken.

1) Taint (Not the Social Pen or aberrations gained from Taint) Is Very detrimental to a nova. If you reach 10 Taint, your screwed big time, and the mechanics as to why are right there in the books!

Your Taint score destroys (point for point) your ability to make contested Will power rolls, and given you can only have 10 will max, means a 10 Taint rating puts you in harms way.

Taint also kills, in the same way, your ability to resist your "Nature". So a nova with 10 Taint will generaly always Act out their Nature "Day and Night", just like a Mad Man/Woman/It, and is just like an Exalted suffering from Limit break. The limit breaks in Exalted drove them nutz to the point of people wanting them dead... Now imagine a nova doing this All Day long, and Not just once in a while.

PC Overcoming Mental Flaws and aberrations that require willpower checks are equaly screwed at 10 Taint as, you can't. At best you can blow a point of Temp Willpower, but at this stage your ST may simply decide you have no desire to do so.

2) Chrysalis takes 1 week per 1 point of XP you spend, thus Chrysalis is NOT a fast way to anything. Having an XP reduction thrown in is good, as your both vulnerable and out of comission game-wise (which sux royal monkeyballz when your in a pbp game). Trying to kill off just 2 points of perm Taint takes you 20 Exp and 20 Weeks to do. During which time you could have garnered at the very least 40 XP if you only ever gained 1 XP per game (Equal to being in a coma ), and only played 2 games a week.

Now that's just silly to say someone is cheating the system by having XP reductions in this situation.

[El'Jinn Uu]

Social Penaltys are really a pain, especially if your a shape shifter, and Aberrations can kill you in their own ways, But Taint is what will really get you in the end.

The Teragen know this, and don't mind the social penalties nor the aberration (even liking it), but Taint is, itself, just bad for everyone.

As to fixing Chrysalis, the best I can say is, keep it as is but reduce the time per XP spent as it is hard enuff just getting there. Spending 60 XP+ your 30 max gained from Chrysalis itself, would take you 630 days to get through. You could easily gain 200 XP in that time awake and playing the game, as Juxt to being in a cocoon, vulnerable, hidding at the bottom of the marianas trench waiting for nearly 2 years to pbp again.

[Courier]

Originally Posted By: SkyLion

I always appreciate your math Courier but the problem IMHO is that its going to still take to long and therefore be out of reach to the PCs...several *years* IC to get to Chrysalis? Do you realize how long that will take especially in PbP form? And then have months of additional unplayable time. It's too clunky. I liked Blue Thunder's freeform system where he awarded Chrysalis points furing longer periods of downtime for those who wanted it and were roleplaying their archetypes well IC...that's my personal suggestion for the easiest way...

BT's free form way was *still* going to take years (and I agree with both that style and that length of time).

Unless we have significant down time none of us are getting into Chrysalis anyway. It's going to take years to research and then years more to practice (or at least it did). When did the first batch of true believers start getting out... 2003? Later? Geryon didn't go public until 2007.

Chrysalis is designed to be high risk, high effort, high reward.

It's important that if we start changing that, for example if we change how long you're under, that we change both sides of that equation.

[Dawn OOC]

,,

Originally Posted By: Michael Peters

From what I've read here (the first serious discussion I've seen where knowlegable people are involved), Nova's with a higher Quantum have a more difficult time accumulating Chrysalis? That seems off to me. Wouldn't a Nova with greater Quantum signature be influenced more, and be able to control more, Taint energy? A painter with a broader range of colors can create greater masterpieces?

Michael, there are a couple of ways to get the Temp and Perm Chrysalis points needed to enter Chrysalis itself. One of those is messing up a maxed power roll, and so the more dice you have in a given skill, the less likely you are to mess up enough to gain Taint, which you then convert to Chrysalis. Jaunt actually did the math on this a while back, somewhere. So the issue isn't having too much Quantum; it's having large dice pools. Someone like Long in 2018 (which was one of the examples Jaunt used, IIRC) had almost no chance of getting Temp Taint on a maxing roll, therefore it was nearly impossible for him to gain the Chrysalis points.

[El'Jinn Uu]

Yup, dawns dead right on this. One of my players argued with me one day that "Higher die pools will get you higher Taint". He came to this conclusion after a botched power max in which his Then ST gave him "8" Taint! I explained to him that Aberrant rules state that, unless your using a power that confers it's own taint from bad rolls (IE: Node Spark), you can only Ever get 3Max. And 3 is a worst case sinario.

Finaly getting this to be true, but still Not believing me about High QR being Less detrimental, I chose to test this theory out (as I didn't trust my own statement either).

I rolled 1000X's for each of the QR's, Quantum Rating 1, through QR 10-Yes, I rolled 10,000+times. I found that at QR one I had about a one in ten chance to gain a single point of Taint, and a 3 in ten chance of a succesful Max. One QR isn't even worth Maxing period, meaning those with just 1 QR are likely to Never grow. But your also unlikely to gain much Taint period.

Two QR gained me More a bit more and a bit more success.

Having Three QR is where things get crazy though. At three QR you have a reason to Max rolls, but I gained Taint for some reason FAR more often. I gained it about it about 30 times out of 100. I found that at 3 QR, you have an unhealthy balance of too much and too little die in your pool, and for some reason fate favored taint.

However, when I continued on to QR four I found the odds actually drop to about 20% (AIR) for Botching a roll, and by Five Die in my pool (QR5) the odds dropped to about 10%. And with 10% I could just use one of my successes to negate the Taint. At Five QR, and after 1000 rolls, I netted only 4 Temp taint!

At 6+ I gained NO more Taint (As long as I spent a few XP gained from a Max) and found the odds of such a roll dropped to almost Nothing. I did this all 5 years ago and no longer have all of the math so this is as close to my findings as I can recall.

[El'Jinn Uu]

The best way to gain Taint is to have a QR of 3, or to have a QR5 and Node Spark. Node Spark nets you Taint "FAST". If I Have NS 3+QR 5 I averaged 22 Taint out of 25 rolls! At a lower "1 Dot" in NS this drops to 17 Taint out of 25 rolls (But your also more likely to Crit botch, which would net you 5Taint instantly).

The other way Teragen gain Taint fast is by pushing their Node QP recovery Time (AKA Rapid Recovery). This is done by making a Stam (and Mega Stam) +Node Roll Vs. a difficulty equal to the amount of intended QP you want back. This is easy to intentionaly botch on, making it impossable to the math with, As you could have Node 5 (Instar 6)+10Stam, and 10Mega STAM, but choose to recover '30' QP, than your gonna fail!

All of this leads me to conclude that, unless your ignorant (Like novus in the early years), foolish, or doing it intentionally, Taint isn't all that easy to gain. BUT every one will gain it in time.

,,

As to getting rid of Taint without going into Chrysalis, well if a group of Quanta-Kinetic Psions can do it (see "Indian Syndrome"), than yes Novas with their much bigger brains can as well. The Teragen worship Taint as a "means to an end" and thus, have no interest in improving on it. But novus are gonna show up throughout time with abilitys to manipulate Taint, Not quantum or aberration, (call it Elemental Animas/Mastery Taint if you will) and one of those abilitys will likely be to remove Perm/Temp Taint, likely at the cost of perm will.

But at this time of "In The Beginning", unless someone has reason to be aware of, and interest ingetting rid of Taint, than no! It will be years before such powers develope. Only Divis seems into Chrysalis at this time, and untill Carolyn Fong shows up even Chysalis isn't perfected yet for a year or so.

[SkyLion]

Quote:

Your Taint score destroys (point for point) your ability to make contested Will power rolls, and given you can only have 10 will max, means a 10 Taint rating puts you in harms way.

Taint also kills, in the same way, your ability to resist your "Nature". So a nova with 10 Taint will generaly always Act out their Nature "Day and Night", just like a Mad Man/Woman/It, and is just like an Exalted suffering from Limit break. The limit breaks in Exalted drove them nutz to the point of people wanting them dead... Now imagine a nova doing this All Day long, and Not just once in a while.

This is partially incorrect. Taint subtracts from your willpower toresist any mental aberrations you mihgt have (and if using the Taint Resistance enhancment errata, TR can negate this effect).

It does not however penalize every willpower roll you make, nor affect the rolls you make for your darker Nature when out of temporary Willpower.

[Courier]

nor affect the rolls you make for your darker Nature when out of temporary Willpower.

Maybe it should... there's some cannon evidence for this.

[SkyLion]

As a house rule maybe, but that's not what the rules say which is what I was correcting.