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Aberrant RPG - So What Would You Change


Dave ST

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For Reference: 1,2,4,7,11,16,22,29

1 dots, 1Q (2 dice) (ave 0.8+1) = 1.8
2 dots, 2Q (4 dice) (ave 1.6+2) = 3.6
3 dots, 3Q (6 dice) (ave 2.4+4) = 6.4
4 dots, 4Q (8 dice) (ave 3.2+7) = 9.2
5 dots, 5Q (10 dice)(ave 4.0+11) = 15

A Kevlar Vest is 2/3
A Flak Jacket is 4/4

Pistol: 4d
Hvy Handgun: 5d
Rifle: 8d
Grenade: 8d
30mm belt0fed vehicle machine gun: 8d[5]
Portable Anti-Tank: 10d[10]
Portable Laser: 13d[12]
FF needs to be better than Armor because it costs juice and has to be turned on.

We could just give Armor Rank + 1 soak (2,4,7,11,16)
While FF gets a power roll (see above) at normal Rank and then doubles it.
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Armor is always on, this implies it's not a rolled effect.

FF isn't always on, costs juice, etc. We should make FF cheaper or more effective to balance this.

And note this example doesn't exactly make it twice as effective. FF is rolled Rank x2, Armor is solid at +1 Rank.

FF

1 dots, 1Q (2 dice) (ave 0.8+1) = 1.8 => 3.6

2 dots, 2Q (4 dice) (ave 1.6+2) = 3.6 => 7.2

3 dots, 3Q (6 dice) (ave 2.4+4) = 6.4 => 12.8

4 dots, 4Q (8 dice) (ave 3.2+7) = 9.2 => 18.4

5 dots, 5Q (10 dice)(ave 4.0+11) = 15 => 30.0

Armor

1 dots => 2

2 dots => 4

3 dots => 7

4 dots => 11

5 dots => 16

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I picked up Scion while out here in MO visiting with Jess and Carver. Abby could work with the Epic Atts system and the knacks, but the rest of the game would need nearly a complete overhaul to balance the power out.

One of the reasons you get so many successes is to counter some of the massive PDVs and DVs you can attain. One negates the other and favors a character with more raw power or experience.

Doable, but it's be a chore.

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Hey guys, thought I’d put in my two cents here. I’ve been checking on the forum about once a day or so since my injury, and as this thread interested me, I’ve been compiling my thoughts on this issue whenever I’ve had the time and energy for it. (For those who’re interested; my back is getting better, slowly but surely, and I’m hoping to be able to get back to this site regularly sometime in the next few weeks.)

So on to the topic at hand. Regarding Telekinesis: firstly, it does allow fine manipulation (TK+Dex – provided you have the relevant skill – and every two sux equals one normal sux). However, my feeling is that both Telekinesis and Telepathy should be suite powers. They both allow multiple effects, and are generally far more flexible than other level 2 powers.

I’ve already written up a “Psychic Mastery” power (for Guo Zhenglai, over in MCoH), so I’ll just give consideration to Telekinesis here. My first thought applies to suite powers in general, and it is that I don’t understand why they have to have such high Q-mins just to take the power in the first place. Why do you have to have Q5 so that you can take a nerfed flight power based off fire (just as one example). My feeling is that a given technique within a suite power should have its own Q-min (so the flight technique, for example, might only have a Q-Min of 1 or 2, while the Storm technique might have a Q-min of 4 or 5).

Anyway, TK as a suite power: one technique would cover the basic “I move stuff around with my mind!” aspect of it; another could cover fine manipulation (Dex + TK, or TK + [Relevant Skill], or something equally simple); the Crush and Imprison techniques would admirably cover the other aspects of what TK allows you to do. Additionally, you’d have access to the Blast techniques, and the Propel technique (which gets rid of the annoying rule that – even though you can move every other batch of molecules in the universe – you can’t move the ones that constitute your own body. Huh?).

Simple, straightforward, and solves a lot of problems, IMO. Just make TK a suite technique and be done with it.

Buying Enhancements sans Mega-Atts: I don’t really see a problem with this (barring a few exceptions where the enhancement’s mechanics rely on the number of dots the PC has in the relevant Mega-Att). I’ve always thought this would make for more variety and flexibility in character design, myself.

Another thing I’ve always thought would work better (in terms of allowing for more variety) would be “Power Levels” for Mega-Atts, same as we have for Powers. So you might have an “Enhanced Att”, with XP costs of say x2 or x3, and all it does is add extra dice to the relevant Att (1 sux per 7 or above), and grants no free enhancements (and maybe you could only take as many as you had dots in the relevant Att - and they’d still cost 5xp). Then you might have a “Superior Att”, with xp costs of x3 or x4, that grants 1 sux on a 7,8, or 9, and 2 on a 10, and enhancements work like they do with the Megas (one free, 5xp per). Then, of course, you’d have Mega-Atts that would work as normal. Alternately, for a game world where the relative power level was supposed to be lower than game canon, make the “enhanced att” cost x5, and each level thereafter cost more.

I’ve read jameson’s thoughts on Mega-Atts, and they’re not half-bad, but I still like this better for whatever reason.

I’d also like to look at Mega-Strength on it’s own, since it works differently than everything else (and throws off balance in the process). Firstly, I think it should be rolled for damage, not provide auto-sux, and it should work like the other mega-dice do (2sux on 7,8, or 9, 3sux on 10). Secondly is the question of lifting and carrying. Seriously! The canon rules for this suck booty.

Here’s what I came up with a while back, based off what the book says regarding normal strength: according to the rules for Carrying Caps and Lifting (pgs. 233-234), a character with Str 5 and Might 5 can carry 100kg and dead lift 550kg. Do the math, and this works out to a baseline being able to carry a little more than 18% of what they can lift (oddly, at lower levels of Str + Might, this ratio only grows larger). So, for simplicity’s sake, and considering that mega-atts are supposed to be inherently superior to normal atts, I went with a straight 20% of Lifting Cap.

Here’s the list:

(Mega-Strength Base Carrying Capacity)

1 dot: 200 kg (20% of 1 ton, and only 2% more relative weight than a baseline can carry)

2 dots: 2000 kg (10x mega-1, compare to the lifting cap of 1 ton vs. 10 tons)

3 dots: 5000 kg (2.5x mega-2, compare to 10 tons vs. 25 tons)

4 dots: 10,000 kg (2x mega-3, compare to 25 tons vs. 50 tons)

5 dots: 20,000 kg (2x mega-4, compare to 50 tons vs. 100 tons)

This also has the really fun advantage of making the rules for how much mega-strength you need in order to use the BFG in the Elites book (according to the standard rules, you could lift the gun, but you couldn’t go anywhere with it).

Regarding the whole question of “how do I become a werewolf?”; I tend to agree with Noah Weston – Bodymorph presents the best (meaning simplest) set of mechanics for representing this kind of “static change”.

For Biologically-based “bodymorphs”, the rules I’ve always used is to allow any two Body Mods to be taken with the purchase of this power, which cannot be changed thereafter. The logic behind this is simply that each of the canon Bodymorphs grant “freebies” at purchase, with the (very rough) average of their value being about equal to 6NPs in value (and there are no canon Body Mods that cost more than 3NPs, thus no combination of two Body Mods will cost more than 6NPs).

Example 1: Bodymorph: Stone - +2 damage dice (no single Trait or Power parallels this exactly, but it’s at least 1NP worth of bonus), all attacks incur +1 diff to hit (this is almost like a variation of 1 dot of armor, or roughly 3NP – maybe only 2). So a value of roughly 4NPs received “free”.

Example 2: Bodymorph: Gas – move through air at character’s running speed (this is the mechanics for the patagia Body Mod, which is 3NP), gains +1 soak vs. physical damage (this is a very weak form of Inv: Physical, so I’d say it’s about 1NP’s worth, but this is just an arbitrary decision, as there’s nothing that really parallels this), gains the Flexibility enhancement (3NPs). This is a total of at least 6NPs worth of “freebies”, probably more.

The other canon Bodymorphs provide other bonuses, some worth as much or more, others worth less – it seems to be pretty arbitrary, really. So, we say that a bio-based “Bodymorph” gets 2 free Body Mods (again, no combination of them would be worth more than 6NPs, and most would be worth less), and then you take other Body Mods, enhancements, or powers as appropriate. Of course, to really make this kind of thing work, you’d need to create some more Body Mods (since there’s only really a few). So with the werewolf example, likely choices would be Extra Health Levels and Claws (a 1NP body mod that simply turns HtH attacks from bashing to lethal) – or maybe Claws and a Maw (a 2 or 3NP body mod that grants the character the ability to launch Bite attacks, causing Str+1 or 2 lethal damage) for the free bodymods, and maybe something like Regeneration or Sizemorph: Grow for the first dot of the power.

Seems straightforward enough to me, but others might disagree. A weakened, L2 version of Shapeshift seems like it could work pretty well, too, though – in my mind – it leaves too much room for potential abuse, or alternately that it just wouldn’t really be worth the points put into it, depending on how it was defined at the outset.

Taint: I’m of the opinion that Taint (and buying powers at half cost) should be scrapped entirely. Aberrations, on the other hand, would make really good inspiration for Flaws and Merits (cuz some of those aberrations seem more like an advantage to me), or simple quirks of your character (like having pure white-, or black-, or whatever-colored eyes – this is really more of a quirk or very minor flaw than a horrifying “aberration”).

Power Levels: What jameson said. Examples: Claws should L1 (1NP), Disorient should be L2 (2NPs), Domination – L4 (4NPs), Gravity Control – L5 (5NPs), etc, etc.

Soak: Well, I was going to add some more thoughts here, but my back’s starting to kill me again. So I’ll just post what I’ve put together over the past few days and let you guys chew on that for a while (or ignore it – your choice). I’ll try and add more ramblings to this thread sometime in the next few days.

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Originally Posted By: Dave ST
...wearing a novas skin is fucking gross... period. I have limits to what I'll do in a game wearing someone skin and calling it fashion is just crossing a damn line to me...


It's not his skin. It's his armpit hair, backhair and pubes.
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No offense taken, it's a silly conversation. wink

How about Honey then? Which end of the bee does it come out of?

Splash can make water (with EM:Water), would we have problems drinking it? Tremor can create dirt (with EM:Earth), would we have problems walking on it?

But the guy who makes Eufiber (with EM:Eufiber) gives us odd feelings? (I'm ignoring that B will probably become the Colony).

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Actually, honey comes from the bee's mouth. It's processed multiple times, by multiple bees, and transmitted orally.

As for water/earth created... We're not talking about Splash sweating the water out, or anything- it just appears. It's not excreted, and we're (hopefully) not wearing or eating dirt.

In that same vein, walking on dirt someone creates from nothing is vastly different (in my own personal opinion) from wearing "high fashion" clothing created from someone's body hair. The first is a little odd, while the second is just plain creepy. Most people, even if they care deeply about someone, would rather their partner be neatly groomed to avoid the "I think I've got something in my teeth" scenario. wink

I can see how some people might be totally okay with the idea of wearing eufiber, even if only because of the benefits it provides (one of my characters here has a suit, though admittedly not a Buendia original), but I think the point Dave was trying to underscore however many posts back was that it's supposed to be trendy, fashionable, haute couture, etc. in Abby, and it's really just flat-out ick.

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Originally Posted By: Courier
Anyone wear fur? Know where that comes from?

Anyone eat eggs? Ditto.


You just let me know when your hungry dude, I'll gladly mail you a bucket of my pubes for a snack. You can enjoy them while you're having your eggs.
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Originally Posted By: Vivi OOC
As for water/earth created... We're not talking about Splash sweating the water out, or anything- it just appears. It's not excreted, and we're (hopefully) not wearing or eating dirt.
The only hint we have that B doesn't also make it this way is a bad analogy by a Directive agent.
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Quote:
The only hint we have that B doesn't also make it this way is a bad analogy by a Directive agent.


Thus, I say he matter creates it in my games.


Kuzuo
Re: Telekinesis
I actually have used it as a suite power and I think it works out pretty well even without changes to the system. I make it lvl 3 of course, but it looks very similar to your proposal above.

Same goes for Telepathy. Surreptitious is a technique, Changing memories is a technique, regular old reading peoples thoughts is a technique.

As for taint, the main reason it exists in the first place is because of the setting not because of game balance or mechanics. In Trinity Aberrants are the big bad guys and they are warped taint monkeys, it exists to get the aberrants from Golden Age to Trinity. As a game mechanic it is pretty lame. If you are doing an Aberrant 2.0 then toss out Taint altogether.
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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't think Telepathy or Telekinesis need to be Level 3 powers and certainly not suite powers.

Taint, like aberrant, was good in thought, but sloppy in execution. I do think it needs some work.

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You can't eliminate Taint from Aberrant and have it still be Aberrant. I know some players would rather it be gone, but the theme of becoming less and less human the more powerful you become is vital to the setting. Strip it away, and you're left with just another supers-system and another supers-setting. Even if you, yourself, never reach Quantum 5 and never push your power too far, watching those you know reach that point and begin to change should influence how you view yourself and your species.

I'd hate to see a revised Aberrant lose Taint simply because many players were dissatisfied with it as a mechanic. I'd lean more towards reworking Taint than cutting it.

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I once toyed with a way to make temporary taint "Tasty". Each point bought you an extra success on any quantum roll up to your quantum score(even ones for Mega-Attributes). It can also be used for extra soak. It doesn't seem like a lot at first, but wait til you are in combat, or competeing with, another nova who is willing to push a little harder and win. Are you willing to push that hard? How badly do you want to win? After all, its only a little bit of taint.

You also get taint for raising your Quantum and buying things tainted.

I didn't find a good way to deal with Chrysalis though. Maybe doing nothing with it is fine, as Chrys is its own poison.

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Originally Posted By: Ashnod
I'd hate to see a revised Aberrant lose Taint simply because many players were dissatisfied with it as a mechanic. I'd lean more towards reworking Taint than cutting it.


Reworking is what I had in mind. Statistically it's too difficult to earn taint as it is, there's only one way to actually do it (barring a few powers) so any nova who simply shys away from that technique and those powers can effectively remain 'Taintless' by only gaining it through a high Q-Score (granted 6 Taint is nothing to laugh at, but that only when you hit Q10).

To me that's not right. If taint is something to be feared, there should be more risks that involve it.
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Well, one thing I never liked about the system was that Power Maxing took a turn. You could change that to optionally doing the Max the turn you declared it, but getting auto Temp-taint, instead of only if you botched...

Edit: Say maybe getting a point of temp taint for every die you rolled of your Quantum on the max attempt or something.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Originally Posted By: Dave ST
Originally Posted By: Courier
Anyone wear fur? Know where that comes from?

Anyone eat eggs? Ditto.


You just let me know when your hungry dude, I'll gladly mail you a bucket of my pubes for a snack. You can enjoy them while you're having your eggs.


Hah... This is %^&* hill-ar-IOus

Never knew that cha could be so funny laugh
It took me two mininutes to stop laughing... And based on my bad day, I really needed the pick me up
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As to what I'd like to see fixed...

Off hand the "Flight power" (althought it cost some QP to use) is Still 100x's better than the 'Body Mod: wings/Patagia' power, and yet they cost the same in NP to by. The Body Mod is Very slow, can Never grow (short of mastery, which I've never heard of anyone trying to combine Masterys with), is a Big target vulnerability, and can easily pose some interesting social problems.

I'd wonder if a lower 'cost to buy' for this might not be prudent... Just a thought!

Another Body Mod issue is 'Extra Limbs'. I love the flexability of this mod over, say Palladium Books (Heroes Unlimited I'm looking at YOU) which totally Gimped that ability, BUT Aberrant/Abbi-Trin went the completely opposet direction by have ZERØ restrictions on just A)How Many you can have, and B) The utter lack of natural Limitation that would be posed by having a BODY full of arms!

I do Not want to see this power get Gimped (as This game is The ONLY game to not quash my creativity) but, I feel like they Also took away some of the challenges...

I'm mean, How can I come up with creative ways to break the games rules if, they simply won't give me any limitations with which to Break!

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On another note, I DO like having a High QR, not so mcuh for the Mastery But rather for the higher Dice rolls I can get for MAXXING!

TO THE MAX: I really do luv maxxing for game effects as Nothing beats crying out your "Special Moves" or getting up your "Rage" for campy Prowreastling moves, or that DBZ (you've just killed my dog Mr. Smoochy... Now Im Really Mad!) game moments. Additionally I also like the fact that you can gain 1 XP (or PXP-Personal Experiance Point) for a power that you've max on), Once per session, which can be applied to Just That Powers future growth.

This to me really does go to the whole heart of "Pushing yourself to grow in a power" theme of the books, and Maxing can offer you so much more like; Temp one shot Extras/Stunt, Increases in range and duration, that little extra Umpff of Die rolling strength that you need at the last miniute... ETC.

I'd hope you guys never end-up gimping that die pool.

TAINT:

I know that sometime back I brought up to you guys how hard it was to gain Taint from various powers, Maxing, and pushing yourself to regain Q-Pool back faster, but I'd hope that this isn't taken to mean that TAINT will get shafted by giving too many more downsides to it, or Juxtaposed by a total Ix-nay of TAINT from the game.

As to taint, just make it "A Little bit easier" to get... You Do Not need much, just a little bit more push is what is needed. As is, the Game makers wanted it to be hard to gain it in the first place, that way it would take Many Many Years (10-20 yrs. ave) before people realized Just how bad it could get. This was done so that the problem wouldn't be so Very obvious to the Novas & Baseline Public at first... Not untill things Really started to get Bad.

As Taint goes in the game, Just having It can give you some Nasty side effects outside of the social penaltys & Aberrations normaly associated with Taint/QBD. For instance, Some Mental resistance are weakened by Any amount of taint.

Additionally you gain Temporary aberration (which should and DO get be very bad as your Per Taint increases) everytime you get even a small amount of temporary taint in one sitting (3+ Temp Taint) which lasts for 15-[sta+any Mega-Sta] days.

Suggestable Changes to Taint:

Novas/players Gain 1 Aberration per each point temp taint gained during a sitting, Lasting [15 Times Permanent taint] days [Divided by STA].

Gaining Taint. Negative side effects from gaining excessive Permanent Taint over 3 should stay as is, However, Negatives from the the total Taint Score itself should move to encompass <Weakening All Willpower related rolls and Psi-resistances>

This must come to include Mental Flaws purchased at Character creation, or conversely later on in the game. Now Taint may be seen as having a Truer Game Mechanically related deleterious effect.

Increase the Amount of taint gained during Maxing manuvers.

On a succesful Max Roll and usage of the attached power (that is being increased by the Max), have the player make a Willpower save at 1 difficulty for every 1 rolled on such Maxings. Total max Taint should Never be Higher than 1.

Botches should be handeled as standard by the book.

Maxing:

As it is in the books it is better to use a Max for everything else OTHER THAN for increasing you temp die pools (like for damage. Range, Extras, duartion-etc, are all much better off than a pathetic +1 to your Die Pool.

Suggestion: For every success spent in this way, Double the amount of Maxing Bonuse Die given to a powers Die pool starting with the first die.

Successes-

1=2

2=4

3=8

Etc...

Since 3 is the average rolled on maxes for Quantum Ratings 5-7, any Higher successes for higher Q-Rating would be Well within line of the games system (as by QR 8 Plus, your are a god!, this Also stays inline with the Doubling effects given for increasing Range and Duration via Maxing.

Maxing Soak:

Considered by the books to be "A last ditch survival mode shared by All novas, even those with out any special form of power granting soak", it is the Only effect of Maxing which should take effect right away, as armoring/soak is a Defensive effect, and in most games system, tie goes to the defender anyhow. Without this modification, ANY such soak value increase should be veiwed as Pointless since you'll likely end up taking said damage before the soak bonuse has time to take effect.

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I also like to say that I agree with Noah in regards to Body Morph. Far far to often here I hear people say that you should just "Create a new power", but when someone does, they get hammered for "Not using pre-existing powers in the book" or some such oddity. Or maybe a poster comes up with any idea for a power variant because the do not wish to go another rout. Even when they start out being forth-coming with their reasons for doing it this way, other will go ahead and outright ignore those 'dislikes' and suggestthem anyways.

Example:

Poster A) I want to create a body morph that truns me into a werewolf. I do Not wish to use w/s (weakness and strengths) as I do not like them... That is why i'm going this rout.

Poster B, C, D, AND E) Well we don't feel like that meshes with our idea of the power (even though a read of the powers Fluff text says that it Does)... How about you use some Weaknesses and Strength on this (pick a generic power) to get a similar effect...

Poster A) is now confused as w/s was specifically mentioned as a No No...

And Yet...

This is exactly what just happened. Why the nitpicking over "Which name should we call it". Body morph is Clearly the correct place for a furry/wereform trick. Yes could go other routs but Why bother if you've got to modify the crud out of them and, your Still Not getting the intended effect!

Here's another one.

I once came across an arguement over weither or not a power one poster came up with (some kind of spider webbing power) should be called an Elenemtal mastery because it had Some techniques in it. The creator of the power couldn't understand WHY this needed to be the case, that he couldn't (in their minds) simply keep the name that he'd given it. Their reasoning was that "It had Techniques, and there for any power that had them is automaticaly (and Should automatically) be classed as an Elemental Anims/Mastery power...

That was It! That was all the other two posters were arguing about! Really, I kid you not! All that arguing over a Name... Needless to say that the creater of the power was a bit confused over all of the agnst.

Personally i'd noticed quite a few powers in the book(s) which had Techniques but that weren't classed as Elemental Anima or Mastery powers. Gravity Manipulation, Magnetic Mastery, Spacial Manipulation, Bio-Manipulation, Molecular manipulation... Etc.

It all seemed to me to be a bunch of the boards local "Professionals on Everything" just trying (needlessly) to give argument to everything and anything so as to fill a pointlessness.Still, it bring up a good point in that often someone here comes up with a logical and reasonable usage of a power (one that is in line with and would Totaly be okayed by the books creators) but that it gets shot down over a trite issue like "What catagory" it should be listed under.

Now discussions and arguments ARE how we all learn here, but some of this crazyness seems based on some bizzare mind set of people, one that I'd HOPE would Never make it into any future Game Books.

None of this is intended to insult anyone, it's rather just intended to pointout that some disscussions over small issues like (The body morph werewolf hat trick) should ever even come up as an issue. The books outright have a Solid State that is listed as being made out of Circuit boards... So it's safe to assume that (since the text TOLD YOU to get creative, and that the listed from Here are Only benchmark ideas and Should not be taken to be the endall and be all of options) the wolfman jack idea is a Wounderful consept.

Kudoes Noah

I say lets all Encourage this type of thinking as IT is what we need the most of here in this discussion.

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What I would have loved would for WW to have stated flat-out without any wussiness that the game Aberrant was not mean to be Storyteller Champions. The system as presented is NOT designed to allow a player to be anything and everything they might want to be from all supers archetypes. The initial presentation of tech flat out makes Iron Man impossible and Batman even more so.

Aberrant the canon setting isn't home to mutants, magic, tech freaks, science misfits etc etc. It's home to Novas. And for those desperate few who can't stand not being super, super special, Psions. The powers presented show what Novas can do. Use those powers.

The nature of the way your beam fucks a body up doesn't make you unique, the CHARACTER you create makes you unique.

It would have save a shitload of hassle for people who WANT to play magic creatures, ironmen and such if WW had written what they obviously intended instead of pussing out and trying to have their cake and eat it too.

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Originally Posted By: Ashnod
You can't eliminate Taint from Aberrant and have it still be Aberrant. I know some players would rather it be gone, but the theme of becoming less and less human the more powerful you become is vital to the setting. Strip it away, and you're left with just another supers-system and another supers-setting. Even if you, yourself, never reach Quantum 5 and never push your power too far, watching those you know reach that point and begin to change should influence how you view yourself and your species.

I'd hate to see a revised Aberrant lose Taint simply because many players were dissatisfied with it as a mechanic. I'd lean more towards reworking Taint than cutting it.




The problem is that folks seem to not get that taint is supposed to be a BAD thing if you want to play someone who is human at heart and mind. That's how it's presented but unfortunatley there is a tendency to simply look at it as a way to have a custom look for the character.
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Originally Posted By: El'Jinn Uu
Off hand the "Flight power" (althought it cost some QP to use) is Still 100x's better than the 'Body Mod: wings/Patagia' power, and yet they cost the same in NP to by. The Body Mod is Very slow, can Never grow (short of mastery, which I've never heard of anyone trying to combine Masterys with), is a Big target vulnerability, and can easily pose some interesting social problems.
IMHO the body mod is a specialty for only a few character builds... but some of those would be 3rd gen freaks and other non-novas.

Originally Posted By: VileBill
The problem is that folks seem to not get that taint is supposed to be a BAD thing if you want to play someone who is human at heart and mind. That's how it's presented but unfortunately there is a tendency to simply look at it as a way to have a custom look for the character.
Yeah, agreed. IMHO you should just be able to buy "Bodymod: Blue Skin" or even "Bodymod: Custom Look".
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HOLY CR@P!!!

Courier dude, sorry! I just looked at that last post of mine and the way I wrote it sound like a %^&*. Maybe yawl should just glaze yer eyes over it... It's an awful bit condensending of a read... I'd hate to turn the thread into rant session of myn.

Sorry everyone.

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Originally Posted By: VileBill
What I would have loved would for WW to have stated flat-out without any wussiness that the game Aberrant was not mean to be Storyteller Champions. The system as presented is NOT designed to allow a player to be anything and everything they might want to be from all supers archetypes. The initial presentation of tech flat out makes Iron Man impossible and Batman even more so.

Aberrant the canon setting isn't home to mutants, magic, tech freaks, science misfits etc etc. It's home to Novas. And for those desperate few who can't stand not being super, super special, Psions. The powers presented show what Novas can do. Use those powers.

The nature of the way your beam fucks a body up doesn't make you unique, the CHARACTER you create makes you unique.

It would have save a shitload of hassle for people who WANT to play magic creatures, ironmen and such if WW had written what they obviously intended instead of pussing out and trying to have their cake and eat it too.

'Wow' it's Freak how yah always say what I'm thinking.
Originally Posted By: VileBill
Originally Posted By: Ashnod
You can't eliminate Taint from Aberrant and have it still be Aberrant. I know some players would rather it be gone, but the theme of becoming less and less human the more powerful you become is vital to the setting. Strip it away, and you're left with just another supers-system and another supers-setting. Even if you, yourself, never reach Quantum 5 and never push your power too far, watching those you know reach that point and begin to change should influence how you view yourself and your species.


The problem is that folks seem to not get that taint is supposed to be a BAD thing if you want to play someone who is human at heart and mind. That's how it's presented but unfortunatley there is a tendency to simply look at it as a way to have a custom look for the character.
I like that yer both on the same page about this! Buying Tainted powers Is 'Supposed to be' a reason to roll-play, as the whole idea of someone desiring More power and later (or sooner) sufering major alienation from it. The fact that it is soooo desireable to want lotsa power but cheap, is that Beautiful mistake that lead to the your pariahship.

WAY to many players of mine enjoyed the whole consept and Hated players that tried to RP the Actual desire to stay human in the ever changing worlds of their Own bodies.


THAT IS ABERRANT!
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Nows where I get to ask a question of yawl.

Healing

Level: 3

Quantum Minimum: 3 (in between 2 and 4)

Dice Pool: Wits + Healing

Range: Touch

Duration: Instant

Description: This power allows for the healing of others and ones own wounds

Multiple Actions: Yes, but at +2 difficulty to do so.

Effect: The nova spends the required [3] quantum points and heals [Wits+PR] Health levels in Bashing damage, or Half that in Lethal damage health levels. All damage is healed over a time period equal to [PR- 10] turns and may only be performed as often as once every [10 miniutes/ Quantum Rating] per individual.

Aggravated damage may be healed as well but takes three times the successes and three times longer to perform with of healing aggrivated damage Only being able to be performed as often as once per scene. Additionally to the above text, Lethal damage can not be healed untill one has acheived their second dot in this power, same goes for Aggrivated damage which requires a minimum of three dots in the power to perform. A successful power maxing role may apply 1 success to add one effective level to the power for the purpose of allowing for Lethal damage to be healed, and a second success to further heal Aggrivated damage.

EXTRAS as per normal.

Now this is taking everyones ideas, conserns, and wishes and smushing them all into one. The way the power works NOW, it takes into count a random rolled number of successes with an automatic QP loss whether or not any actual healing takes place, but its Also means that you may end up saving more energy as you grow in power. Having the automatic QP cost preset Also means getting to take the guess work outta howmuch your gonna spend (a good and bad thing), but mostly this means that both, the "Reduced cost" and "Mastery" Extras would require a hefty toll in increased levels to the power... Meaning that it will be Much harder to pull off a costless Healing, even with tricky usages of W/S, yet Still leaves the potential open to you.

The decreased down time between healings on the same individual(s) is because this power Simply doesn't need it, AND this makes the power Much more efficiant than Bio-Manipulations Healing effect. Conversely I added a Healing Rate so as to show that the power shouldn't be so quick.

This version of healing Also gives you Much More reason to buuy more dots in the power rating. Still I too would like to see this power turned into a suite power with the actual regeneration effect being more of an option, and Cure, Inflict, and Other possable Techniques' being developed.

THIS version of Healing needs a critique' so as to improve on it.

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Awww yes, but That's what made the challenge fun. But honestly I myself had alot of those same concerns, so it just worked out that others ended up bring out some more good points to think on. If I hadn't looked further into this discussion, I'dv never realzed how the power worked/didn't work.

As to the issue with cost, most of us out here just cut the Final cost to heal in half (when using the Reduced Cost Extra). If the person only healed One H-Level, it costed Him/her/it nothing and this was fine to us even if the player thought it was a cheap way to save Q-Pool as, it would be a whole scene till the Next time that they could heal a wound. Under though circumstances it could take an hour to heal 3HL, and NO way is it costless to heal Lethal (1Pool) or Agg [2Pool]damage.

We just considered it that the players nova was "Taking it slowly" and Not trying to Abuse their Quantum Conscience.

As to Bio-Manipulation, given that it's a Q6 power, do you guys really feel it should be bumped upto a level 4 power as well? No really, that an honest question in which I'm wondering if I myself should go that rout as it Is awful darn powerful, so it Should cost a lil more to buy and level.

Lastly

What I'd change:

I'd A) add a weight limit to Molecular Manipulations Main power,

and I B) agree that going from Elemental Anima to Mastery should happen automatically (or at most with a small ancillary cost attatched, like an extra).

And C) Under Weakness and Strengths I'd make it much clearer to everyone that Linked Powers and Dependant Powers are NOT the same. Thanks to not separating the paragraphs well enough, it's caused everyone I know to think that they are one in the same, even though they do work differantly. As such, many a play has abused this w/o intent, so as to drop a power down a level. The maximum that Linked powers can grant you is 4 weakness points and the maximum the Dependant Power weakness can grant you is 2 weakness points.

As to the cost of gaining a NONE level increasing extra (which generally happens when one reaches a higher Q-Rating) the cost is equal to the powers current Level.

Example: To by an extra for Quantum Bolt at Q6 would cost 2 EP because it is a level 2 power... This is assuming it's does Not have any extras or had it's level artifically altered in any way. It does not matter 'How many' dots you have in the power, the cost is always the same. At Q6 the Next extra would have a Normal cost associated with it.

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  • 5 months later...

Oooh, where to begin...

Well, Short needs to be expanded on. Let's face it, being less than 1.5 meters in height can present more challenges that equipment use and running speed.

Unless you're built like a fantasy dwarf, you're lighter, have overall less body muscle mass, etc etc. I'd make a 3 pt flaw, call it 'Small' and include melee/brawl penalties for certain actions. Sure, a good midget will wipe the floor with an average dude still, but put two people of equal training, drive and talent in the ring together and you'll see the myth of "the little guy wins" explode.

So there'd be two size related flaws. Short for the Wolverines of the world, and Small for the Warwick Davis's.

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Originally Posted By: Owns-The-Night
Well, Short needs to be expanded on. Let's face it, being less than 1.5 meters in height can present more challenges that equipment use and running speed.


Agreed, I've always felt that too.

Quote:
So there'd be two size related flaws. Short for the Wolverines of the world, and Small for the Warwick Davis's.


So like, 'short' and 'dwarf'?
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