Aberrant RPG - Taint as theme-keeper.

[FredrikSvanberg]

When creating a character there is nothing which prevents

you from picking ten different quantum powers with one dot

in each. This may seem ok to some but to me it looks like

the player wants to be able to do everything. That's fine

if you are Superman but as we all know... you aren't

Superman.

Theme is everything to me. I have never to my knowledge

built a nova without a power theme, and I always try my

best to come up with reasons within that theme for the

powers I give the character, during character creation as

well as afterwards when I spend experience. All I get from

this is a sense of self-satisfaction from being better than

the other players at building characters around a theme.

Unfortunately, when I'm the ST, people rarely pay as much

attention to their themes as I would like them to.

In order to make people stick with a few powers which

define their theme I've decided to change the Taint rules a

bit. Basically, every new Quantum power you get gives you

one dot of Taint. Mega-attributes don't count against this

so you can get as many Megas as you want.

This should mean that most novas get 1-3 quantum powers and

stick to them. It would make suite powers really useful

since those include a lot of different effects but count as

just one power. I think it would make people really think

about what powers they get, and why, and if it's really

worth that dot of taint just to get a dot of claws for

lethal damage, or a dot of force field for insane soaking

powerz... I'm sure you know what I'm talking about.

It would also be really easy to determine what Aberrations

you should get, since they can almost always be connected

to a power.

This is just a rough idea so far but I'd still be

interested in hearing what you guys think.

[harlequin]

i agree with you, it's just more fun to have a power theme, even an array of powers that follow that theme closely... i've found trying to railroad players or change the rules on them makes them angry... generally (not always) just talking and saying hey, i would like characters built in this way gets the point across... then again, that just might be my group...

[FredrikSvanberg]

So if the game was created like this from the start it wouldn't be a problem? It's just the changing of the rules which is a bad idea in general?

[CHILL]

::steups up::

Changin the rules on players mid-game is always a very very bad idea.  No matter how good your players are........

........ but having said that, your ideas would be a very interesting way to run Aberrant say.....  20-30 years in in the games future....  the more powers you have the more taint take you...

......  interesting

[André]

Well the idee sounds a little stupid to me. What if the theme requierd no taint and say 4-5 different powers? ::smokin  ::downmal

[FredrikSvanberg]

::steups up::

Changin the rules on players mid-game is always a very very bad idea.  No matter how good your players are........

........ but having said that, your ideas would be a very interesting way to run Aberrant say.....  20-30 years in in the games future....  the more powers you have the more taint take you...

......  interesting

This wouldn't be a mid-game change, I would use this in a new game I'm planning to run someday.

Having many different powers means that your body and mind has to "stretch" in many different ways to cope with them. That's sort of my explanation for why Taint would work like this.

Mega-attributes wouldn't affect you because they are merely more efficient ways of doing natural things. Flying, shooting firebolts and manipulating time, however... is another matter.

[FredrikSvanberg]

Well the idee sounds a little stupid to me. What if the theme requierd no taint and say 4-5 different powers? ::smokin  ::downmal

If your theme requires a lot of powers you should try to fit them into a suite power. Elemental Mastery would only count as a single power but give you many different effects. Unless you can accept a few aberrations.

[Joseph]

It's easy to create a theme with multiple powers. I wrote up a gargoyle nova once (with about 40 NP, sue me   ). He had about six defferent powers, as I was hesitant to go for a suite. All of them blended well into a cohesive mix.

Ask Harle or Pimp about Voodoo sometime. Another Nova with vaious powers combined into a cohesive whole. It's easy to do.

By the way, Fred, the idea is going good. I'd like to see more of what you plan to do with this.

-Joseph

[CHILL]

André, June 04 2002,10 : 00] Well the idee sounds a little stupid to me.

Andre my friend.

Please take this in the way its intended - friendly  

....  can you be a just little careful with your responses.  I'm certain absolutely nothing was meant with the post you made, and i'm sure no offence was taken, but I try _very_ hard to make sure we are all polite to each other - even in the middle of very good threads (such as this one).

I just wanted to point that out.  Feel free to add smileys like this  ::cheesy  to 'take the edge' off your words.

I am aware that might not understand what I've said here, please email me if you want any clarification europnet@chill.uk.net

Please don't take this the wrong way?  

With that said........  back on with the show, this is a good thread.

::thumbs-up

[harlequin]

voodoo was a good character... never saw the gargolye though... that's what i meant when i said a definite theme, but with an array off powers... i'm guessing the gargoyle had armour, claws, flight... i could see the taint here too, gargoyles tend to be pretty rocky...

i love things like that, or fredrick's idea of theme... they do seem to complete it, give the game a more cinematic feel...