Aberrant: Quantum Zero - QZ - game mechanics

[ProfPotts]

I'm assuming that with the link someone could show Jack a spot and he could then target that spot?

Well, he can't 'see through their eyes' or anything (Psychic Link is basically a Quantum walkie-talkie in most respects), but it is good enough for the location to be classed as 'familiar' for Teleport / Warp targeting purposes, yes.

If you look at the specialties for language then yes, french, german etc. count as one family.

As does 'Norwegian' if you go by that list... ::wink

To be honest I tend to see the Linguistics Ability as removing barriers to game play, rather than creating them. While a couple of Elites who only speak English may have a hard time wandering around a non-English speaking African nation in a time of war ::unsure ::tongue ::wink , I'm not about to quibble over the more rarified points of Scandinavian linguistics...

... on the other hand, making fun of Americans who are visiting Europe for the first time is the right, nay, the duty of all right thinking European folk - so Primeval's comments are certainly within character! ::laugh

[ProfPotts]

A couple of things I forgot in the Quantum Zero: Smackdown rules blurb...

You get +1 Glory for successfully using your 'signature finisher' in a match (just +1 per match though).

An important type of Follower I forgot to mention is, of course, the 'ringside babe' or 'eye candy' - if you want to enter the arena with scantily-clad big-breasted babes hanging off your sculpted musculature, you gotta' pay for the privillage... worth a few measley Background dots I say... ::devil

Other things you can add to your character's 'Gimmick' include 'grand entrance' (does he fly down from the roof, smash through the wall, ride in on a motorbike, get wheeled in in a cage, etc., etc.), & 'theme music' (Core has 'Enter Sandman' for example).

A successful pre-match Intimidation / Style roll can net the fighter a point of Glory before the combat even starts - the more dramatic his entrance, the easier the roll (ringside babes, of course, make the roll easier too... hey, they have to have some statistical value, right? ::sly ).

[Alex Green]

The muse hit me last night and I think I have a functional XWF character. I'm still writing him up so obviously the Prof needs to OK all this but...

Introducing Richard "The Staff" Richardson. Rich brings the theme of "sexual politics" to the XWF. The name "Richard" nick-names to "Dick" (although he insists that people call him "Rich"... although many, specifically including his staff "slip up" on that subject). "The Staff" could refer to his many followers but probably doesn't. He's surrounded by big busty lasses and many of his plot hooks involve either stealing other fighters girlfriends or vise versa. He also looks like a bigger, muscled, adult version of "Richy Rich" and dresses all in gold. Lots and lots of dice of style & seduction and other social skills.

And yes, having spent all sorts of points on all this I'm expecting to fight in the silver circle. Not sure if I'll win any matches, but he should be fun to play. I'm guessing with a set up like this he needs to be a "hero".

[Heritage]

The muse hit me last night and I think I have a functional XWF character. I'm still writing him up so obviously the Prof needs to OK all this but...

Introducing Richard "The Staff" Richardson. Rich brings the theme of "sexual politics" to the XWF. The name "Richard" nick-names to "Dick" (although he insists that people call him "Rich"... although many, specifically including his staff "slip up" on that subject). "The Staff" could refer to his many followers but probably doesn't. He's surrounded by big busty lasses and many of his plot hooks involve either stealing other fighters girlfriends or vise versa. He also looks like a bigger, muscled, adult version of "Richy Rich" and dresses all in gold. Lots and lots of dice of style & seduction and other social skills.

And yes, having spent all sorts of points on all this I'm expecting to fight in the silver circle. Not sure if I'll win any matches, but he should be fun to play. I'm guessing with a set up like this he needs to be a "hero".

Okay, now I'm tempted to create a character just to kick your ass, Alex ::biggrin This guy sounds like fun; love the 'Richie Rich' bit, very WWE.

[ProfPotts]

Okay, now I'm tempted to create a character just to kick your ass...

That's the sort of attitude we need in this sport! Go get 'em, tiger! ::biggrin

I've got some absolutely brilliant XWF characters sitting in my mail box - these look great guys, I'll hopefully get time to go over them in detail at some point. Of course, in an XWF game, the more fighters we get, the better... ::wink

[SkyLion]

Muse hit me last night too...Im in

[Ayre el KaBeer]

Hey prof I can't find what she means by traditional greeting, I've been reading different japanese etiquette pages and none mention anything about visitors bathing with one female family members. ::tongue

[Alex Green]

OK, I know I'm really bad at this so I'll ask for help: What would be good theme music for "The Staff"?

[Centimane]

Right Said Fred's I'm too Sexy

[phoenix]

True Sons of Liberty's "Code Blue" ::devil

[ProfPotts]

Hey prof I can't find what she means by traditional greeting, I've been reading different japanese etiquette pages and none mention anything about visitors bathing with one female family members.

Yes... she lied... ::sly

BTW, sorry about my lack of posting this weekend: went to see FF2 (very nice, very comic book, very... Jessica Alba ::wub ), then got engrossed in playing WWE games on the ol' X-box as 'research' for the Smackdown game. To be honest I've never been much of a wrestling fan, even though the showmanship of the XWF appeals to me as an RPG setting, so I thought I better take a look at something related... I never realised that Ric Flair, mentioned in the XWF book, is a real guy! How come WW didn't get their asses sued for that one? Also... table, chair, & ladder matches? Bra & panty matches? Do they really do that stuff? The XWF is starting to seem tame by comparison! ::blink

[Alex Green]

I never realised that Ric Flair, mentioned in the XWF book, is a real guy! How come WW didn't get their asses sued for that one?

Either he didn't notice, or didn't care (he was presented in a positive light after all).

Or he might not have a choice. He really was a WW great, so saything that he was a WW great isn't a big thing. Saying that he'd be a big man in a fictional off shoot of the WW might not be that big a deal either.

[Alex Green]

I expect to be gone all of tomorrow (Monday).

[Heritage]

Yes... she lied... ::sly

BTW, sorry about my lack of posting this weekend: went to see FF2 (very nice, very comic book, very... Jessica Alba ::wub ), then got engrossed in playing WWE games on the ol' X-box as 'research' for the Smackdown game. To be honest I've never been much of a wrestling fan, even though the showmanship of the XWF appeals to me as an RPG setting, so I thought I better take a look at something related... I never realised that Ric Flair, mentioned in the XWF book, is a real guy! How come WW didn't get their asses sued for that one? Also... table, chair, & ladder matches? Bra & panty matches? Do they really do that stuff? The XWF is starting to seem tame by comparison! ::blink

From the little I know of American pro wrestling, that is all true; a friend of mine is a huge fan, and I went over to his house one night to see what all the excitement was about, and I was surprised to see some genuine blood - come to think of it, I think Ric Flair was one of the combatants! What was really interesting was to see when the choreography doesn't work right, which is when the wrestlers can actually be seriously hurt or even killed; the stunts are referred to as 'gags' (a term also used in Hollywood), and my buddy was able to point out a few screw-ups. I was also impressed by the levels of athleticism and showmanship on display, because even the fake stuff is hard to do.

[archer]

Yes... she lied... ::sly

BTW, sorry about my lack of posting this weekend: went to see FF2 (very nice, very comic book, very... Jessica Alba ::wub ), then got engrossed in playing WWE games on the ol' X-box as 'research' for the Smackdown game. To be honest I've never been much of a wrestling fan, even though the showmanship of the XWF appeals to me as an RPG setting, so I thought I better take a look at something related... I never realised that Ric Flair, mentioned in the XWF book, is a real guy! How come WW didn't get their asses sued for that one? Also... table, chair, & ladder matches? Bra & panty matches? Do they really do that stuff? The XWF is starting to seem tame by comparison! ::blink

All that stuff is part and parcel of WWF and WWE style wrestling Prof. Cage matches, prop matches(tables, chairs, ladders, etc), bra and panty matches for the women wrestlers. Tag team matches are fun to watch, as is all the smack-talk happening before, during, and after each match.

Oh yeah, Ric Flair is an old-school WWF player. You've probably seen other WWF stars in different movies over the years as well: "Macho Man" Randy Savage played the part of "Bonesaw" in the first Spiderman movie, Hulk Hogan has multiple films under his belt, Andre' the Giant was Fezzik in The Princess Bride. Just a few examples.

[SkyLion]

only in the XWF, they use cars and trucks rather than chairs and tables, the areana isnt a cage its Vitrium, and the bra and panty matches have mega appearance...

[Prince of Boredom]

BTW, sorry about my lack of posting this weekend: went to see FF2 (very nice, very comic book, very... Jessica Alba ::wub ), then got engrossed in playing WWE games on the ol' X-box as 'research' for the Smackdown game. To be honest I've never been much of a wrestling fan, even though the showmanship of the XWF appeals to me as an RPG setting, so I thought I better take a look at something related... I never realised that Ric Flair, mentioned in the XWF book, is a real guy! How come WW didn't get their asses sued for that one? Also... table, chair, & ladder matches? Bra & panty matches? Do they really do that stuff? The XWF is starting to seem tame by comparison! ::blink

I did some 'research' myself this weekend, but it was watching the Ultimate Fighting Championship, specifically UFC 72. If you haven't already, I'd recommend you try and watch a few UFC matches to get a feel for real shootfighting. The UFC has much of what the XWF has; specifically each fighter has his own theme music that plays when they come out, and almost all of them have nicknames (some I can think of off the top of my head are 'The Young Assassin', 'The Celtic Warrior', 'Shortfuse').

Anyway, I'd hope that you are leaning a bit more towards a UFC feel vs. a WWE feel, at least in the actual fighting department. I agree that the whole Nova aspect lends itself very much to the 'theatrics' of WWE, which is cool, but personally I'd like the fights to be actual real, non-scripted, fights (that's kinda how I interpret the XWF book). That said, it's very common in professional fighting to set up fights between a possible title contender and nobodies to 'pad the stats', hence the jobbers.

And as far as all of the crazy matches, I think it's because everyone in the crowd knows that it isn't real, so you have to have outlandish gimmicks to keep the crowd coming back. I'd think the XWF would need less because a) it's real and the novas powers themselves should make things 'gimmicky' enough.

From the little I know of American pro wrestling, that is all true; a friend of mine is a huge fan, and I went over to his house one night to see what all the excitement was about, and I was surprised to see some genuine blood - come to think of it, I think Ric Flair was one of the combatants! What was really interesting was to see when the choreography doesn't work right, and the wrestlers can actually be seriously hurt or even killed if their not careful; the stunts are referred to as 'gags' (a term also used in Hollywood), and my buddy was able to point out a few screw-ups. I was also impressed by the levels of athleticism and showmanship on display, because even the fake stuff is hard to do.

Funny thing, I was talking to one of the sergeants that works with me whose going through MMA (mixed martial arts) training (hopes to fight his first amateur fight in a few months) whose father (or grandfather, can't remember which) was actually a 'professional' wrestler, what the XWF book would call a 'jobber' (ie. there to lose in local fights to make the others look good). Anyway, apparently they would cut themselves with razorblades on their foreheads before the fight, and then put vaseline in it (just like boxing/MMA trainers do between rounds to stop bleeding). Then, when they were 'hit', they would rub the vaseline out and start bleeding.

[SkyLion]

ouch! did he have scars on his head?

[ProfPotts]

... I was also impressed by the levels of athleticism and showmanship on display, because even the fake stuff is hard to do.

Yeah - the first I really saw of the American-style pro-wrestling was when I was in the States a few years back & ended up watching the 'Tough Enough' reality TV show thingy with contestants training to get into the WWF (they were showing the whole thing in a day & I kinda' just vegged in front of it) - I too was impressed by the level of fitness & skill required to do what they do, even if the actual 'matches' tend to remind me of pantomimes...

Of course, in my far-flung youth, when I was but a lad, there was British Pro Wrestling on TV: ask anyone of a certain age or higher in Britain to name two wrestlers & it's a safe bet that many will still say 'Big Daddy' & 'Giant Haystacks'...

Anyway, I'd hope that you are leaning a bit more towards a UFC feel vs. a WWE feel, at least in the actual fighting department. I agree that the whole Nova aspect lends itself very much to the 'theatrics' of WWE, which is cool, but personally I'd like the fights to be actual real, non-scripted, fights (that's kinda how I interpret the XWF book). That said, it's very common in professional fighting to set up fights between a possible title contender and nobodies to 'pad the stats', hence the jobbers.

Well, I'm aiming to have 'scripted' matches mostly 'off-screen' (when a character spends XP on appropriate backgrounds - like Backing, or Influence - that indicates he's taking part in more scripted matches against jobbers), whilst the real Nova Vs Nova fights will be played-out, & un-scripted. Of course, two characters can agree to make each other look good before the match, & characters get that Honour bonus for 'jobbing' & helping their opponent's image: also the fact that it's meant to be 'entertainment' should be taken into account too - just because you design a character who can down any opponent in the first move of a match, doesn't mean you should always do so (after all, Working Joe paid hard-earned ca$h for that pay-per-view match, he wants more than 3 seconds of combat followed by an hour of interviews & other 'padding').

That said, some scripted elements are just too fun to ignore: the bits to set-up 'heat' between characters can be real, but are often scripted (e.g. The Staff stealing your girlfriend could be real, or a scripted event ::cool ). However, since following a script to the letter isn't role-playing, I'll be aiming more towards setting the scene & letting the characters 'ad-lib', even when it's all just for the cameras (e.g. the camera 'just happens' to catch two fighters arguing in the locker room, or a security camera catches amazingly perfect images of several lesser fighters ambushing an up-&-coming star in the parking lot, etc.). Playing through 'Wrestlemania 21' on the X-box was quite an inspiration! (I love that pre-owned X-box games are now practically being given away ::biggrin ).

I'd think the XWF would need less because a) it's real and the novas powers themselves should make things 'gimmicky' enough.

Yeah - the 'jobbers' in the XWF tend to be more 'gimmicky' than their Nova peers: two mitoids hitting each other is just a fight, The Polyp & The Butcher hurling cars at each other is XWF!

[Alex Green]

RE: Truth and Justice

What, no one else will step forward and volenteer for a psi-link?

[SkyLion]

I made some last minute changes to my character and am waiting for Potts to come back and approve them before posting...since, yanno its more difficult to make changes once you have officially entered play...

[Centimane]

RE: Truth and Justice

What, no one else will step forward and volenteer for a psi-link?

Sorry Alex, I kind of forgot about the offer what with all the porno titles being thrown around. The mistake has been corrected, and Lorena is officially interested in a 'quantum cell phone'.

[Centimane]

Oops. ::blush As of right now, both Kazuo and Kenshi are holding the discuss, which isn't impossible or anything, but it must look pretty awkward. ::wink

I'll go edit my post since Alex has dibs on it (Kenshi being the first one to spot it and all).

[SkyLion]

I hope I didnt scare Potts away ::unsure (I was trying to figure something out w/ my character and ended up sending him 3 PMs in a row...sorry! ::blush )

[ProfPotts]

I hope I didnt scare Potts away (I was trying to figure something out w/ my character and ended up sending him 3 PMs in a row...sorry! )

Technically that was six PMs in a row... ::rolleyes (SkyLion's character has so far taken more time on my part than all the other characters in Truth & Justice put together... Same thing happened with Nippontai High... I guess he'll get used to my ST style & rulings eventually... ::wink )

Work's been crazy this last week, & probably will be this coming week too ('cos after that I've got a couple of weeks off), but yeah - logging on to find a zillion technical questions, changes to characters, & all that stuff is a lot harder for me to get into than, you know, logging on to just play the games (after all, I'm here to have fun, just like all of us - not to try to hold down a second, unpaid, job... ::brick ). I'll get round to your character, SkyLion, & the XWF draftees as well, soon (I hope). I did manage to spend a good few hours watching WWE stuff this past week (much easier to come home from work & slump in front of the telly than it is to have to think about stuff) which I think's given me some insights into the whole style I'll be throwing at the XWF game.

BTW, for all you art types out there: Daz is now offering Bryce 5.5 (their 3D landscape building application) for free as well as Daz Studio (the two programs can work together) - I downloaded Bryce last night, but I doubt I'll have time to play with it much until I'm off work.

[SkyLion]

Well...it was 3 in one day I meant... ::blush As for why, I suppose its all those teachers who encouraged me to ask questions... ::what

,,

I did mention to Cottus that its much easier once you get past chargen to just "log on and play"....hopefully Potts you'll quit while your ahead and stop coming up with interesting games... ::wink

,,

More seriously I think I have the hang of Potts chargen...I have submissions for XWF and Tellus ready to go but didnt want to further impact your mailbox...let me know when/if its okay to send them to you Prof.

,,

And welcome back! I know all too well how work can sap ya... ::wacko

,,

Oh and your comment about the Ultimates got me thinking how T&J is geard up to be a more realiatic Ultimates/Avengers style game...not in the @$$wipe sense you mentioned above but with some of our archetypes...IE I am visualizing Herald as a very Thor Like, Phoenix is going to play a "giant man" (and I almost played a shrinker). Plus the more realistic approach to PR and such via Hunter...IMHO some of the best characterization I have yet seen...every time he opens his mouth I find myself laughing heartily out loud and his voice in my mind comes straight out of East-End set Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels... ::ultracool ::ultracool

[ProfPotts]

You can blame Knave's excellent portrayal of The Samurai in QZ: Elites for the Hunter character... Guy's 'way with words' always cracks me up. ::biggrin

[knave]

::biggrin ::wink

[SkyLion]

To be honest I am a bit intimidated to start reading the 171 page long quantum zero thread, so I only know of the samurai anecdotally...is he an east-ender cockney rhyming nova?

,,

And is it okay Potts if I send you Tellus and Smackdown characters or did you want me to wait until after we fine tune the T&A...er..T&J one...? ::laugh ::tongue ::wink ::biggrin

[knave]

To be honest I am a bit intimidated to start reading the 171 page long quantum zero thread, so I only know of the samurai anecdotally...is he an east-ender cockney rhyming nova?

'e's a 'alf kitchen tap, 'alf moroccan park-bench an' all bleedin' Bow's Auntie Nell nova.

Only fing is... 'e's bleedin' 21 - 'unter onna ovver 'and 'as seen a bit more Jimmy. ::blink

...

Ok... it's not normally QUITE that bad.

My suggestion - if you want to catch up on any of the games - just read Prof's posts. In fact, it might be worth making a digest form with just those - there can't be much more than 1 or 2 per page.

It is quite handy though as there is a fair bit of crossover between his Q:0 games - and there's quite a lot of gold in there.

[phoenix]

*nod nod* I have also been known to flip through QZ canon in my spare time, once in a blue moon. ::happy

[SkyLion]

Hey thats cool! I was going to ask if characters can ever "jump thread" crossover-style...like if our tem tommorow characters end up facing off against the QZ elities etc...

[Asbjørn]

Hey thats cool! I was going to ask if characters can ever "jump thread" crossover-style...like if our tem tommorow characters end up facing off against the QZ elities etc...

I'll be VERY surprised if something like that doesn't happen. I'm currently playing two characters in the main QZ thread, for example, my original character and the elite hitman who's currently working with one QZ character, in a shaky alliance with another, aiming to kill a third, and will most likely end up an enemy of the rest...

::cool

[Alex Green]

Yes they can, and have. Alex started on Q-zero and then became an elite. Ghost and Link started out as elites and jumped to Q-zero.

It might be interesting to meet them in bars and/or date them, or even face off in a situation. The problem with T2M characters fighting elites however can be summed up in "they'll get killed".

[SkyLion]

Hey thats pretty cool Asbjorn! Would you ever have one of your characters try and kill another one of your characters? ::tongue

,,

Regarding T2M vs. Elites...are you so sure about that Alex? The one thing I can see is that they have alot more playing time 9read xp spent) thatn the tommorowites do. On the other hand, T2M is supposed to outnumber the Elites two to one and Id bet that even at full power Lori could kick the DMDs butt! ::wink

[Asbjørn]

Hey thats pretty cool Asbjorn! Would you ever have one of your characters try and kill another one of your characters? ::tongue

Part of the fun of playing a 'shades of grey' kind of setting like QZ is that there is no clear cut good and bad side. Lines of conflict appear for all sorts of reasons, and I can easily picture situations where Blaze and Ghost might find themselves on opposite sides of some kind of battlefield. It would be a damn tricky thing to play out, though, so it's not something I'd actively try to make happen. Only time will tell...

[Heritage]

I think a fight between Slither and Gossamer would be a little more fair, mostly because I tend to avoid bricks and blasters; someone as sneaky as Slith would probably do her best to avoid or elude Gossamer, because if G-Girl got her locks on Slither, it could get ugly very fast.

And needless to say, the fight would of course be super-sexay! ::ultracool ::wub

[SkyLion]

Hey Heritage! Cottus and I were having a lil debate we thought you might illumiate upon. I say Gossamer was built with 4 tendrils and m str 4 (to "toss tanks"), Cottus says you did it with TK: MIRV or something similar...what say you?

[Heritage]

Hey Heritage! Cottus and I were having a lil debate we thought you might illumiate upon. I say Gossamer was built with 4 tendrils and m str 4 (to "toss tanks"), Cottus says you did it with TK: MIRV or something similar...what say you?

To maintain the aura of mystery (ooo-WOOO-oooo!) I shall PM you the reply...::devil

[knave]

Hmmm... Elites vs T2M....

Well - individually it might depend, but 1 on 1 I'd go with the Elites as they're not green anymore, but on the other hand the T2M bunch have a Mega Int leader whilst the Elites made a few downright strange maneuvers in Chad that threw away their advantage (going up against a mega int leader).

Canon would suggest that T2M would be ordered away from direct contact with Elites because getting their asses handed to them is bad for PR. Even the fallout from a contact they win would be a nightmare - whereas DVNTS could benefit from collateral damage given the sort of people who might want to hire Elites.