Aberrant RPG - How do you play Abberant

[Pax's_Pimp]

Ladies and Gentlemen step right up and answer a quick question and you just might catch a glimpse into the minds of other gamers...

So how do you play Abberant? Do you write Aeon Society as being the wayward child of Max Mercer's Dream or is it more the shining example of all that is good in humanity. Are they as open as writen in Adventure or more clock and dagger like Abberant canon?

I personally like to go somewhere in between. I remove some people with in Aeon and write in others. But what is your opinion?

-Paxs Pimp

[ezekiel]

Depends on who's looking. Aeon does what it thinks is best for humanity...

Depending on the campaign I'm running they can do that with or without caring about individual nova's rights...I ask my players first if they want a four-color or dark campaign which will obviously change my take on how Aeon does what they think is best...

[Paradise]

Aeon is like the court system..in my world, they waigh out the rights of the people vrs the right of the preson.Withc not sya they are evil,but not say they are good,after all the needs fo the few sometime are more inportant than the needs of the many.Sometimes.

[Aeon]

Its a corrupt organisation full of people who want to do the right thing in my opinion.

[knave]

the road to hell is paved with best intentions...

[VictorHFrost KSC]

as is the road to cream cheese, but for entirely different reasons.....

jake

[knave]

rofl  ::smiley1  ::smiley1  ::smiley1  ::devilangel  ::devilangel  ::devilangel  ::devilangel

[Heritage]

In the first game I ran, Aeon wasn't an issue, but I felt they were like well-intentioned control freaks who occasioanlly crossed the line. In my current Aberrant War campaign, I actually plan on using them in a somewhat better light, somewhat ashamed of Proteus and now working very hard to be the good guys, and trying to keep the keep the world from ending up a cinder. But I think that good or bad they're always sneaky and subtle.

[Sphere]

Mwoo ha haa! As a newly registered member it is my right...NO....MY DESTINY!!! to resurrect dead threads and send them lumbering towards the top like lobotomised monkeys.

Ahem...

Anyway, to answer the question. In the game I'm currently running for my group, Project Utopia is a well-meaning organisation which is hampered by politics and the recent revelations about Proteus. They've lost a whole lot of their autonomy now and can only enter UN countries if granted access. They're the closest thing the world has to superheroes, but no-one completely trusts them anymore.

Meanwhile, Proteus has retreated completely underground after the revelations about Bahrain. They're hiding in the shadows and desperately trying to contain the growing population of Novas.

See, I never saw Proteus as being the bad guys. Merciless and utterly unethical certainly, but not necessarily evil. Because, let's face it, we know that it is the fate of the majority of Nova-kind to succumb to Taint and lose themselves in their powers. Proteus is trying to save the planet by any means necessary. Which might just be the only way to do it.

It's what I like about Aberrant. There is no black-and-white, only a whole load of shades of grey.

[Timeslip]

In most of the Aberrant games I have been in, the players have gone the independent route, with feelings about Project Utopia and T2M ranging from "they're OK, but I'd rather not join" to "what a bunch of jack-booted thugs."

[Alex Green]

See, I never saw Proteus as being the bad guys. Merciless and utterly unethical certainly, but not necessarily evil.

That's "the end justifies the means" arguement. ::tongue

And that does make them "evil". Whether or not they and their actions were neccessary, or whether they were the bad guys is a different subject.

[Sphere]

My Players went the independant route too. They don't trust Utopia or the Terats, and they really don't like the Directive. In fact, now that I think about it, the only people they tend to get along with as a group are the Aberrants.

Regarding Proteus. In this situation, where you've got definite proof that Novas are slowly but surely succumbing to Taint, and considering the raw power that just one Nova could focus on a populated area if they felt the need. Perhaps Thetis and her minions felt that the ends did justify the means. ::crazy

Let's face it, if it wasn't for the Proteus sterilisation program, there's a chance the Aberrant War would have been exponentially more destructive. Earth could have been destroyed all together.

Of course I can only say this having a mighty GM universe-sized view of the metaplot. Hindsight is a wonderful thing. To anyone on the ground Proteus looks like the worst people in the world, and it doesn't matter what they think might happen it doesn't excuse what they've been doing. Which is pretty much the direction my Players have gone in. ::rolleyes

[Nullifier]

I'm going to have to disagree with you about Proteus preventing more damage than they caused. By isolating high-taint novas from each other and the rest of the population, and by steralizing novas, they effectively wiped out any chance they had from saving a majority of novas from going insane from taint.

If the high-taint novas were more prevalent, they and the rest of the nova population probably would have figured out what the Teragen know about what taint really is and how they can control it. Also, second-generation novas are more taint-resistant and if there had been more of them sooner, they would have sped up the process considerably. Finally, by their heinous actions Proteus caused the rift between baselines and novas to become irrepairable, and may indeed have been the primary cause of the Aberrant war.

I'm not saying that they didn't think what they were doing was right, but I think they serve as an example of just how easy it is for good intentions to lead not only to egregious actions, but disasterous consequences as well. The harder they tried to prevent disaster, the more they urged the eventual holocaust along.

[Sphere]

Hmm, I agree with some of that. If more Novas had been aware of the risks of Taint it's possible so many wouldn't have gone psycho later on. Still, that would require sitting back and letting a load of high-Taint (and therefore psychologically disturbed) Novas wander the planet. Not as easy to control as if they're locked up in Bahrain.

Plus, the Terat's don't necessarily have all of the answers regarding Taint. Chrysalis can reduce the mental effects of it eventually. However you still accrue aberrations whilst channelling Taint into Chrysalis. Just as likely to get those pesky mental aberrations as you are to get the physical ones.

It's not like the Teragen are poster-children for stability and ethical growth. Epoch, Lash, and most of the Primacy spring to mind as groups with a less than decent attitude to their fellow sentients.

I think the big problem with Proteus was that, by trying to save the world the way they did, they destroyed Utopia's credibility. Utopia may well have been able to unite baselines and Novas if everyone hadn't thought of them as footsoldiers of the New World Order.

[Nullifier]

Hmm, I agree with some of that. If more Novas had been aware of the risks of Taint it's possible so many wouldn't have gone psycho later on. Still, that would require sitting back and letting a load of high-Taint (and therefore psychologically disturbed) Novas wander the planet. Not as easy to control as if they're locked up in Bahrain.

Oh, yeah, lock 'em up where they can become even more deranged and tainted until they're total losses. Good plan. ::rolleyes

Plus, the Terat's don't necessarily have all of the answers regarding Taint. Chrysalis can reduce the mental effects of it eventually. However you still accrue aberrations whilst channelling Taint into Chrysalis. Just as likely to get those pesky mental aberrations as you are to get the physical ones.

Incorrect. Aberrations gained from permanent Chrysalis are basically deliberately self-inflicted by the nova, and completely under that nova's control. Basically, the nova chooses which direction his or her evolution will take, and noone would choose to go crazy. This means no more random aberrations, and certainly no more mental aberrations.

It's not like the Teragen are poster-children for stability and ethical growth. Epoch, Lash, and most of the Primacy spring to mind as groups with a less than decent attitude to their fellow sentients.

I think the big problem with Proteus was that, by trying to save the world the way they did, they destroyed Utopia's credibility. Utopia may well have been able to unite baselines and Novas if everyone hadn't thought of them as footsoldiers of the New World Order.

I never said the Teragen were the poster-children for good behaviour, just that their understanding of what Taint really is is in a broader sense the key to long-term survivability for novas. In fact, what I was refering to is the probability of the nova population at large coming to a similar understanding on their own, untainted by the Teragen's philosophy and internal divisions, not to mention their status as maginal fanatics, which always attracts unsavoury sorts. However, such a thing is unlikely while high-taint novas are either captured or recuited by Proteus, or run into the arms of the Harvesters to escape Proteus, and novas are steralized by them wholsale preventing a second, taint resistant, generation. That's the big problem with Proteus. I mean, if their methodolgy and mindset hadn't been so baseline fear-reflex oriented, they might have been able to solve the mystery of Taint themselves. Sure, their actions damaged Utopia's credibility, futhering the rift between baselines and novas, but the harm they did to the fledgling nova community's mental, physical, and spiritual development did far more to bring about the war than the badwill they generated.

[Sphere]

Actually if they're heavily tranquilised and mox'd to the eyeballs then there's less chance of them degenerating (in out-of-game terms you can't accure temp Taint from botches whilst on mox). ::tongue

Bascially the Nova chooses which direction his or her evolution will take and noone would choose to go crazy.

Well, no-one human certainly. However someone following a transhumanist philosophy could indeed believe that what baselines called paranoid schizophrenia is simply a new non-human mode of thought.

I'll admit it's been a while since I read the stuff on Chrysalis, but I'm pretty certain there is no mention of Terats being able to choose the aberrations they develop. It's only when you finally enter actual Chrysalis that you can switch mental aberrations for physical/quantum ones. Which takes quite a while if we go by the amount of time it would take a PC to get there. (Being able to do it whenever pretty much makes the Q-Power Chimeric Aberration pointless).

Then again, aberration development is something of a variable between playing groups. I, for instance, allow my Players to choose aberrations they develop during character creation. After that however, I decide what they get as their Taint increases ::devil .

Teras requires the Novas to embrace the changes that Taint brings. The very point of it is to become something more than the "mere" human you were. It may be good for Nova-kind, but it's not necessarily going to be good for the billions of baselines who have to share the planet. From one point of view (ie theirs ::wink) Proteus is protecting the needs of the many rather than the needs of the few.

(Aha! Knew I could get a Wrath of Khan line in somewhere ::thumbsup )

The only evidence I've seen that 2nd generation Novas are taint-resistent is the case of Adam and his sister. Even then it's only a supposition that faracytes scattered throughout the body provide greater protection from Taint. Has anything been officially said on this?

Still, there's an opinion on various boards that Mal was the product of a union between two pre-Galatea Novas which would explain his utter lack of Taint.

I'm prepared to bow to public opinion on that one.

[Nullifier]

Actually if they're heavily tranquilised and mox'd to the eyeballs then there's less chance of them degenerating (in out-of-game terms you can't accure temp Taint from botches whilst on mox). 

No, but you can buy powers Tainted, and most do at an increasing rate as they become more and more unstable and angry at their confinement.

I'll admit it's been a while since I read the stuff on Chrysalis, but I'm pretty certain there is no mention of Terats being able to choose the aberrations they develop. It's only when you finally enter actual Chrysalis that you can switch mental aberrations for physical/quantum ones. Which takes quite a while if we go by the amount of time it would take a PC to get there. (Being able to do it whenever pretty much makes the Q-Power Chimeric Aberration pointless).

From the Teragen book, p.120, last paragraph:

A nova gains an aberration for each point of Chrysalis after the third and suffers a +1 difficulty when dealing socially with baselines once she reaches Chrysalis 4 and for every two points thereafter. The only difference, is that the player instead of the Storyteller chooses which aberration results from Chrysalis.

I think that speaks for itself.

Teras requires the Novas to embrace the changes that Taint brings. The very point of it is to become something more than the "mere" human you were. It may be good for Nova-kind, but it's not necessarily going to be good for the billions of baselines who have to share the planet. From one point of view (ie theirs ) Proteus is protecting the needs of the many rather than the needs of the few.

Sure, the kind of mindset and actions necessary to embrace the Taint rather than reject it may be detremental to baselines in the short run. However, in the long run more lives on both side would have been saved by it. From this whole perspective, Proteus was actually protecting the needs of the few, i.e. the short-term victims of the beginning of the novas' evolution, rather than the needs of the many who would die later as a result of the war caused by their short-sighted actions.

The only evidence I've seen that 2nd generation Novas are taint-resistent is the case of Adam and his sister. Even then it's only a supposition that faracytes scattered throughout the body provide greater protection from Taint. Has anything been officially said on this?

From p.68 of the APG, in the section labeled Taint Permutations:

*Very Low Taint: Only in the most extreme cases (maxing a Level 4 power several times in the space of an hour, for example) can a nova accrue Taint. This is consistent with a game using second generation novas (the offspring of two nova parents) whose bodies are more adept at channeling quantum energy and who, therefore, do not gain Taint easily.

I think there are other references to that, but I can't remember where they are off the top of my head. Anyways, I think that's sufficent for our purposes.

Still, there's an opinion on various boards that Mal was the product of a union between two pre-Galatea Novas which would explain his utter lack of Taint.

I'm prepared to bow to public opinion on that one.

Um. Divis Mal is Michael Donighal a.k.a Dr. Primoris. He got his powers from the Hammersmith Incident, which he was present for. That's a metaplot fact, and although it's only alluded to in the books, there are enough allusions and pointers to that fact for me to be confident of its veracity. Also, you should know that it's likely that he was the one who caused the Galatea explosion 'cause he was lonely and wanted to create a race of equals, and that his presence is responsible for the large amount of eruptions which continue to occur.

Anyhow, hope that clears some things up. ::bigsmile

[Sphere]

RE Chrysalis. ::blush Got me there sport.

RE Divis Mal. Yep, knew that. The theory (unofficial, on message boards as I said) was that Michael Donighal was the latent offspring of a union between two of the rare Novas that cropped up every now and again through history, and that the Z-Wave caused by the Hammersmith Experiment was the catalyst for his eruption. He was obviously more than your average Inspired, even then.

However, in the long run more lives would have been saved by it.

I think anyone living within the blast radius of devout Terat Calvin Wycoff might disagree with you. That particular act of evolution rendered a big ol' chunk of the US into a barren, Taint-contaminated wasteland. Yay, the healing power of Teras ::wink

Or, for that matter the population of Mexico City after the Feathered Serpent's "Bring Back Tenochtitlan" party.

I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this'n. Otherwise it'll spiral eternally. You've made some valid points though.

My final shot (now I'm back from work and have my books in front of me).

From Teragen, p99.

The unavoidable process of Taint - even with the Teragen's Chrysalis - leads Novas at large away from baseline humanity.

So Chrysalis isn't the answer, or maybe it's only part of the answer.

What were once the most radical expressions of Teragen philosophy become the movement's mainstream and the vanguard of generalized Nova feeling.

Sounds like more and more Novas do flock to the Terat's banner as time goes on.

Calls for extermination (of baselines) grow louder, with Divis Mal and his cohorts at the burning centre.

Seems the continuing radicalisation of the Teragen is as much to blame for kicking off the war as Utopia's dirty secrets.

My point here is that neither Proteus nor the Directive nor even the Terats see the fire on the horizon. They're all looking at the short-term. As I said back up the thread, I see Proteus as an organisation that's trying to save the world. As far as they're concerned anything they have to do to achieve that end is acceptable.

So not clean-cut faceless Black Hats as far as I'm concerned. You disagree. But I'll leave the last word to you.

(This was fun, want to weigh in one I'm about to resurrect about Cross-Time Travel. Heh ::devil ).

[Alex Green]

My point here is that neither Proteus nor the Directive nor even the Terats see the fire on the horizon. They're all looking at the short-term. As I said back up the thread, I see Proteus as an organisation that's trying to save the world. As far as they're concerned anything they have to do to achieve that end is acceptable.

Oh, they all see the fire, or at least the potential for it.

PU tried to prevent it by giving the Novas a productive outlet for their power.

The Terats didn't see it as a bad thing.

Proteus did their thing.

And the Directive did theirs.

The problem with PU & Proteus is that they are in effect the same group and they are trying to deal with the problem in ways that are not compatable over the long term.

You can be friends with the Novas, or try to enslave & sterilize them, but trying to do both will cause problems. This is where the "end justifies the means" argument falls apart and proves counter effective.

After PU gets tainted by Proteus when things come out, the Teragen and Devries are the big nova groups remaining as alternatives.

And I suspect that Proteus knew a lot less about the future than we do, and thus their acts are much less justifiable.

[Nullifier]

I think anyone living within the blast radius of devout Terat Calvin Wycoff might disagree with you. That particular act of evolution rendered a big ol' chunk of the US into a barren, Taint-contaminated wasteland. Yay, the healing power of Teras 

Or, for that matter the population of Mexico City after the Feathered Serpent's "Bring Back Tenochtitlan" party.

Both of those incidents occured after the war had already been joined in full, were acts of deperation on the part of the novas involved, and have little bearing on what an understanding of Taint would have brought novas if they had had a chance to come to it earlier.

From Teragen, p99.

So Chrysalis isn't the answer, or maybe it's only part of the answer.

Just because they aren't human-like doesn't mean they're insane, or cruel, or violent, or even dangerous. Different, yes, but not necessarily incompatible.

Sounds like more and more Novas do flock to the Terat's banner as time goes on.

Seems the continuing radicalisation of the Teragen is as much to blame for kicking off the war as Utopia's dirty secrets.

Sure, after Proteus's manipulations are brought to light, and it becomes clear the the sentiment behind Proteus represents the response of baseline humanity to novas in general, i.e. sterilization, torture, control, extermination. By reacting that way, they sowed the seeds that led to the growing radicalisation of the Teragen and the nova community in general. They didn't get that way because they wanted to be that from the start, they were pushed into it. The baselines, with Protues at the vanguard, had pursued a policy a sterilization, control, and extermination with regards to novas from the very start. It's unsurprising that novas would eventually begin to feel that they should treat the baselines the same way.

My point here is that neither Proteus nor the Directive nor even the Terats see the fire on the horizon. They're all looking at the short-term. As I said back up the thread, I see Proteus as an organisation that's trying to save the world. As far as they're concerned anything they have to do to achieve that end is acceptable.

Actually, Alex is right. The Teragen, some of them anyway, do see the coming war. The Mathematician certainly knows it's coming, so do Orzaiz, Scripture, and Mal, and it's not like any of them have been quiet about it. In fact, the Teragen at large is pretty much convinced a war is all but inevitible, and they're not wrong.

Let's be clear about something: Proteus isn't trying to save the world, they're trying to control, steralize, and exterminate the nova population, in order to 'protect' the baseline humanity from destruction or enslavement by said population. They have no proof that the novas would do what they fear they would, but they pursue their agenda of destruction against the novas anyhow. If they were really trying to 'save the wolrd' they would have tried to help the novas rather than what they did which is attempt to commit xenocide. Novas are part of the world, and any attempt to 'save the world' must categorically include saving them.

I don't care how scared they were of what the advent of novas might mean to baseline humanity. That's no excuse for pursuing an agenda whose goal is the wholesale extermination and enslavement of a species from the very start. They could have given Utopia and the novas themselves time, seen what was happening, and helped with the problems caused. Instead they chose to give in to their fear and take actions which could have no other result besides alienating and angering the entire nova community when they came to light, which they inevitably would. There's no way they couldn't have forseen the results of those actions, or the fact that they'd eventually come to light, given historical examples. Calling them people with good intentions who are merely misguided is to ignore the fact that their actions from the very start are monsterous and undermine any hope of a peaceful conclusion. In the end, Proteus isn't about good people with decent goals who are forced astray by circumstances, it's about the fear and hatred of the unknown which festers in the human unconscious given form. That's all evil ever is, monsterous actions which stem from fear and hate. Proteus is evil given form, personified, and let loose on a brand new species of humans who are unable, at first, to defend themselves from it.

So yeah, I guess if you still think they're just misguided good guys out to save the world any way they can, we're going to have to agree to disagree, because I'll never believe that.

[Sphere]

Heh, I know I said I'd leave the last word to you. But there's a couple of things need clarification in what you've written.

Firstly at no point have I said I think of Proteus as the good guys. I have pointed out that they believe they are the good guys, and that I consider writing them off as moustache twirling villains in big black hats to be a waste of a good resource of storytelling material. What I love about the Aberrant world is the lack of definition, the so-called "grey" areas of morality it covers.

The baselines, with Proteus at their vanguard, had pursued a policy of sterilisation, experimentation, and extermination from the start.

Umm, no. In fact it's made very clear in Phase 1 that no-one in baseline civilisation as a whole knows about Proteus activities. In fact when the revelations about what's going on at Bahrain come out the world reacts with shock, horror, and condemnation. It's incorrect to paint ALL baselines as a rowdy mob out of that old X-Men cartoon.

were acts of desperation on behalf of the Novas involved.

State your sources on that one. Okay, I could accept Wycoff going (heh) nova as an act of desperation. But Feathered Serpent tried to raise an ancient Aztec city from beneath the present location of Mexico City. How was this an act of desperation? Where does it describe this as such?

in order to "protect" the baseline community

Which was my point.

they have no proof

Well yes they do. They have proof that some Novas erupt with hideous levels of Taint and represent a threat to themselves and the general public. They have seen Novas such as the Newsman, Impaler, the sphinx from Green and Pleasant Land, and numerous others act in such a way as to endanger huge swaths of population. Each one has power enough to change the world on a whim, and baselines get caught in the middle. They have evidence enough to justify (from their perspective) what they do.

I just want to re-iterate that I do not believe Proteus to be a fantastic model of how people should behave. That is neither my ethical nor my political viewpoint. What I am saying is that they should not be wasted as a 2-dimensional Big Bad. Any more than the Teragen should be written off as the League of Super-Villains.

[Nullifier]

I understand your viewpoint, I just can't agree with it. Proteus had no proof of malfeasance when they started strealizing and experimenting upon novas. There's no moral ambiguity in what they're doing, and they have to know that. I don't think they should be painted as faceless black hats, nor do I think that all of them understand just how abhorrent and evil the actions of Proteus are. Still, to claim that they believe they're the 'good guys' is going to far. They know what they're doing is wrong, but they justify it to themselves anyhow. Sure, the baselines reacted all shocked when it was revealed what was going on at Bahrain, but it's not like they routed out and stoped Proteus afterwards. Nope, they just went on with their lives, and maybe thought a bit less of Utopia for the incident. There were no broad-based inititives to protect the rights of novas, nor were there any arrests made. The baselines just sat by and let the memory of the atrocities fade, like they always do.

Listen, I'm all for the moral ambiguity inherent in Aberrant, but Proteus isn't where you're going to find it, except perhaps in the minds of the people in the orginization, who have to somehow justify their heinious actions to themselves. They may be able to convince themselves that it's all for some greater good, but in their hearts they have to know what they're doing is just plain wrong, whatever their rationalization for doing it anyway.

[Sphere]

That's fair enough.

So what about the Directive? Any positive thoughts about them? They, at least, considered the option of a diplomatic solution to the Teragen. Hence the ceasefire agreement discussed in the Teragen book. Plus, they're fairly open in their assessment of Novas as a bunch of irresponsible yahoos with too much power.

More ethical? Or just as bad?

[Nullifier]

Oh, I'd say the Directive is a much more respectable agency than Proteus. Their attitude and actions towards novas are at least straightforwards. They don't drag novas away in the middle of the night to secret testing facilities where they're vivisected. They do police the novas in the world, stop the ones who are abusing their powers to manipulate and terrorize the baseline populace, that sort of thing. If anything, they're more the 'good guys' than any of the other orginizations. That's why the Teragen are willing to deal with them. They're not really a threat to novas as a species, only to individuals who break major laws. Plus, they're wise to Utopia and Proteus, and are ethical enough to take exception to them.

So, all around I'd have to say that I approve of the Directive as much as I can approve of any police. ::thumbsup

As a side note, I really don't like police or even the idea of police, let alone intelligence agencies. As a social anarchist I believe in personal responsibility and complete freedom of action and thought, and police don't encourage that sort of thing. Still, until our species starts evolving socially again(hasn't happened since the dawn of civilization), we're pretty much stuck with them for the time being.

[metaphysician]

In the campaign I play, well, we don't play in the standard game era.

However, from what we've seen in play, and what we've heard from our GM OOC, the Aeon Society, and Mercer in particular, are amongst the worst of the bad guys. Basically, they are the Four with better PR.

Or rather, Maxwell Mercer is Randall Dowling with better PR and more self-delusions. The rest of the Society, circa the Adventure era, are idealists out to help the world, who are misguided about Mercer's ultimate goals. Basically, the ultimate goal Mercer has in mind for the Society is to protect humanity, by preventing the extraordinary from influencing humanity to the greatest degree possible. Naturally, Mercer himself has the wisdom and perspective to see that this is for the best, and that he won't abuse his own extraordinary powers and resources, of course. . .

Circa the Aberrant era, the Aeon Society is at best a front organization for the Seven Thunders, a conspiracy that has wiped all the ( quite extensive ) traces of superhuman influence from known history, of which Mercer is almost certainly one of the members, probably the founder.

[Sprocket]

Re: The Directive as "good guys"-

I've always seen these guys (both in play and from reading the books) as being one of the darker shades of grey to be found in Aberrant. Considering that so many of their people are prejudiced against novas to begin with (as seen in Aberrant: The Directive pp. 16-19), it looked that they'd already painted all novas as threats to be dealt with sooner or later. I also got the sense that these wannabe James Bonds/Emma Peels really resented how novas had apparently stolen their former position as the Uber-badasses (above the law, licensed to kill, the elite masters of the lumpen, etc.) of the planet.

Also, their use of that orbital kinetic railgun in AB:WW2 to rain indiscriminate destruction down on Ibiza was highly unethical too. The collateral damage caused by that thing was easily as bad as (if not worse) than that caused by the (equally guilty) rioting novas.

[Anon]

Generally, when I run an Aberrant game, I either run it non-cannon (i.e. - Aeon Society/Project Utopia never existed), in a situation where they would have no impact on the story (i.e. - outerspace/otherworld's campaign) or modifiy the existing cannon (i.e. - Project Utopia once existed as a part of the Aeon Society, but either became completely intergrated under U.N. control or was dropped in favor of a totally U.N. controlled Nova force). I have yet to run a game that sticks with the cannon.

[metaphysician]

Re: the railgun, I disagree. Yes, the thing could potentially cause as much damage as rioting novas, but its usage in fact did not. It was targetted on novas who were actively rioting in places that were already decimated, so the risk of collateral casualties was low.

Now, if they switched the thing on to autofire mode, and tried to turn Ibiza into a crater, *that* would be excessive.

[Alex Green]

It was targetted on novas who were actively rioting in places that were already decimated, so the risk of collateral casualties was low.

The amount of force was very excessive and it was used inside city limits. Thus, odds are there were collateral losses. The operator was less than impressive as well, if he'd decided to "try it out" on a building there was nothing to stop him. And if the gadget were taken from him, wasn't it going to nail that location? Say he gets stopped by a police checkpoint with a large group of people and has to hand it over...

Eventually people will decide that one city, one abby, one nuke => Acceptable Trade. That day may not be here but it looks like it's coming.

[metaphysician]

The force was extreme, yes, but I'd argue not excessive. Against a combat-oriented nova, 50 L is probably in the "one hit kill" range, but not far into it. As for the rest, well, yes, there are issues with the deployment. OTOH, they didn't just use it randomly. They pulled it out in a situations of mass uncontrolled nova rioting.

As for the issue of "city as acceptable loss," even absent irrational hatred, there are times when its justified. If Gabriel Melchior had any more defensive ability than he did, and given his threat to unleash apocalyptic death plagues, if he were sitting in a city at the time, nuclear firepower would be a justified option. Not necessarily the first, mind, but it'd be an option. The orbital railgun is, if anything, an improvement, as it allows delivering nuclear level firepower much more precisely.

[Sprocket]

One more thing to note about the Ibiza orbital railgun incident. As Spain is not a member nation of the Directive, the Spanish gov't. likely wasn't consulted or even informed that their premiere tourist city would be used as a testing ground for orbital weaponry. I strongly suspect that the Directive would've received some serious backlash if they'd used their orbital railgun in Atlanta, Dover, Hamburg, or Kyoto.*

*They might be able to get away with such a stunt on Russian soil, however.

[metaphysician]

Probably depend on whether the appropriate NCA formally authorized it.