Aberrant RPG - Off The Beaten Track.

[Sphere]

Having recently nuked the T2M: Europe building in Venice, and killed most of it's members to further a storyline in the game I run, I was wondering what changes other people have made to the "official" Aberrant world in their games. Not just the things that Players change but also any adjustments the GMs make to customise the gameworld to their liking.

Anyone's group fail on that whole Melchior situation in Phase 1 and end up playing in The Stand? ::devil

An instance of major changes in my game world is the role my Players will be having in future events. Thanks to a Taint-derranged pre-cog they know the "official" starting date of the Aberrant War, and that their group will be the ones who invade and occupy Olympus Base for the duration of the war. They also know they'll be the ones who found Eden Colony.

I always thought Space Brigade was a silly name for a group anyway ::crazy

[PowerStar]

As a Teragen group, we changed the game's time-line, severely! My character PowerStar had an epiphany: The Null Manifesto spelled it out: No Laws until there are Laws of/for & by Novas! I took my fellows (Th Revolutionaries) and worked to get the best and brightest to work on the laws first. Then I invited every Nova on earth to the New York XWF Arena for a call to ratify and adopt the new set of laws for ALL Novas (I made good with Pax by explaining that the Terats would have to obey these laws or be hypocrites, "and besides, We need someone as President of this new Nova Nation-Without-Borders, why not you, President Cestus Pax" In short I used my superior Mega-Socials (I am Marvel Archetype and 2nd Stage at the time) on Pax's need to be Top Nova, to get him to agree. It was a lot of work, but it worked. As a New Nation we raised a new Island off of the US New York Coast-just outside US National Waters. It is called Council Island. Many Novas moved into the new City we planned, and build. We moved the Pheonix Room there as well. The Council has sub-councils that meet only for short term needs(Science Council met to deal with several large E.L.E. asteroids on an impact course with Earth. When we deflected it, and the crisis over, the Sci-Council adjourned for several weeks...unpaid.) There is a high degree of civic responsability built into the Nova Governing Council. I miss that Campaign. ::smiley5

[Timeslip]

...and then, with all those goody-two-shoes Utopians gathered there around "President" Pax, we sank the island in a glorious atomic inferno! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!

Oh, er, um, don't mind me, I was merely day-dreaming. Carry on....

[Bahamut810]

Im actually suprised that the Nova's never made their own country in the actual Canon. They have the money, means, modivation and membership to do so. And its not like they could really be stopped if they wanted to.

Hell...they dont even need to invade a country for land. There is plenty of room in the pacific and atlantic oceans for large new islands. Antartica is prime to have a large dome planted there for adequite living area, im sure that there are large islands that could be bought, large plots of land could be bought within a country (that would have to succede from the country). With the versatility that nova's possess I think it could work.

[ProfPotts]

I guess that most Novas are too happy being the big fish in a small pond to go & create a new pond where they're just one of many equals... Go figure... ::rolleyes

[Bahamut810]

I wonder why they didnt make that canon? I mean...Count Orziez has plenty enough resources to buy an island. He seems the kind of person to take the Manifesto to its next logical (at least in my eyes) step and take it literally. Make your own laws, by novas, for novas.

[Alex Green]

First, it is cannon that a group of novas did take over Antartica.

Second, the Teragen is the group most likely to want to get away from baseline society. However, if they were to do so, they wouldn't have the "we hate and are oppressed by baselines" mantra to rally around. Shortly after that they would have a civil war.

[ProfPotts]

See: Trinity. ::sly

[Bahamut810]

I knew there was that independant isolationist group somewhere around there...but I didnt know that the teregen had a country set up there.

I dont know about civil war when they have the inner circle to rally behind. When Mal came back (I think at least) he could have rallied them.

But thats not here nor there...

[Alex Green]

When Mal came back (I think at least) he could have rallied them.

Mal let's people do what they want, up to and including killing other novas. Whether this is because he is just a hands off leader or because he has aberration induced insanity isn't relevant.

I don't know about civil war when they have the inner circle to rally behind.

1)The Harvesters hate all the other terats who can pass for human (not baseline mind you, just human).

2) The Apostle hates everyone who doesn't worship Mal.

3) Terik plans to kill anyone who opposes him.

4) Shrapnel and the Confederate hate anyone who isn't a white nova.

5) The Count is known for having baseline lovers and mixing with baseline society.

6) That Gravity Manipulator is a serial killer, of novas. Does anyone really expect him to stop if the Terats move to another planet or whatever?

7) Geryon's group is trained for violence if there is any political decision they don't like. Does anyone expect them to stop?

They are already one step away from a civil war, and said conflict could take a number of flavors, meaning lots of factions. The night of long knives is covered in the Teragen book.

[knave]

My impression of MAL: his bottom line is that he leads by example. Anyone who doesn't get it isn't worth his time... right now. Remember Crysalis though. _Anyone_ may Become/Evolve into someone worthwhile and he isn't out to stop that.

Remember also that evolution comes down to survival - not necessarily survival to breed in this case, but rather survival to change. Who is to say that killing someone WON'T turn you into someone better.

[Bahamut810]

Im probably being to optamistic about this. I do have to admit that there are a few teregen factions that would be very detremental to that sort of deal.

I still think ti could happen if some of the main people were more...level headed and diplomatic based people (Mathmatecian, Oraziz, heck...even Narcosis in her own way). It dosent even have to be Teregen based. Im sure Sophia Ressou would do a good job leading the way. Heck...Im sure that there are other people who would be good at leading that arent already in canon. Take the character im making for CC, a politican in baseline-hood, eruption from a near failed debate and a sinscere desire to make things better for people.

But then...like I said...im being optamistic about this.

[Sphere]

Ahh, The Protectors (as I believe they're called). A group of half a dozen or so survivalist-minded Novas plus numerous baselines. My Players spent a short time at their base before it got hit by some kind of blast from orbit (they still can't decide if it was a railgun or Pax ::smile ). Whoever it was, they were aiming for the Players, and that kind of attention makes people a teeny bit paranoid.

During the Aberrant War it's likely some groups of Novas tried to assume control of various countries. Even before hand there were Novas trying their hand at it (check Phase 2 storylines "Green and Pleasant..." and "Dominion" for details).

The concept of a Nova homeland is a nice one. However, as Novas come from diverse backgrounds and cultures I wouldn't have thought it'd be easy to get them to agree long enough to set it up. Even within the Teragen there are half a dozen opposing views on how things should be run.

Most non-Terat Novas don't seem to trust the Terats. So I think they'd need to be convinced a homeland built by the Teragen isn't going to be a cult-style "You can only come in if you join us." kind of thing.

[metaphysician]

I think everyone has mentioned all the reasons why the "nova nation" didn't ever get seriously tried on Earth in canon. The Teragen have too many internal divisions to do it, and anyone else who'd be interested would need to both have separatist inclinations *and* enough cleverness and power to resist Project Utopia/Proteus counterefforts.

As for ways the campaign got changed, well, I play, not run, but in the campaign I play in. . .

Okay, there's a huge ton of modifications, additions, and alterations, but the contemporary era setting changes all revolve around this little conceit:

-Novas are a new phenomenon, or at least they must never have been significant any time in the recent past.

-This must be true, because if they were not new, but have been around extensively and recently, then history should be radically different.

-So, how the hell did I just find the Fortress of Solitude, dating back decades before N-Day, complete with contents and records indicating a whole hell of alot of stuff?

Basically, think a contemporary Aberrant game as influenced by Planetary, with revelations about the distant past leading to an ancient Aberrant game as influenced by Exalted. Throw in idealism, time travel, and cosmic power, mix, stir, serve to PCs.

[Finbar]

1) The change we made was subtle: The PC's had to kill off Slider and frame Chiraben. In my Trinity game, the players had failed to stop a group of novas from going back in time and saving Slider, which caused a lot of problems. So...they went back, and framed Chiraben pretty solidly, including making sure that a camera had no way in hell of taking the right picture (it ended up being time-fluxed, pointing in the wrong direction, and being turned off).

2) The Protectors enclave in Antarctica doesn't count in this discussion as it was strictly a survivalist enclave with a very focused purpose...

3) What is relevant is Eden, where a nearly utopian society was set up based of noblesse oblige and hero worship...which seems to actually work. So, a nova-based society was set up...

FR

[Blue Thunder]

And who says nova nations/societies weren't set up on Earth?

Bahrain was taken over by novas, remember. Trinity never explained if they simply took it over with force, or if they set up a society. In Asia Ascendant, it says that the city of Kuala Lumpur was taken over by an Aberrant, and it's citizens made into "mechano-people" or something.

And the biggest one...Japan/Nippon. Asia Ascendant reveals that over 100 novas (!) secretly worked for Nippon after the Ultimatum, helping shape the nation into what it was in Trinity's time. They were effectively the backbone of the entire nation, and when most of them were killed (when The Colony's forces attacked them in space, and destroyed the quantum barrier keeping them out) Nippon started to suffer. As of 2123 in Trinity, Nippon's government is starting to see some internal collapse simply because the novas are gone.

And those are just the ones the books revealed. Who knows how many Indian novas set up nations of thier own within India? What about Africa? North America? Europe? Heck...the Solar System?

As for any changes I've made to continuity...nothing, really. Of course, after 2015 it's all fair game. I plan on running the Night of Long Knives a few years after the Amp Room raid. Any Terats that live and die will mostly be affected be the players.