Aberrant: Trans-Dimensional Explorations - SuperGeek Enterprises: Exploration

[BlueNinja]

No, this is not War Journal: Trans-D. This game takes place starting on September 5, 2020, when you answer an advertisement placed by a nova named Michal Wesson. The world has followed most of the meta-plot; important things not covered is that Michal's company, SuperGeek Enterprises, is now the number one space power on the Earth. Six space elevators, built in different countries around the world, have helped to build a number of space stations, and found colonies on the moon and Mars; Asteroid mining has just begun in the last year, and automated harvester ships have been raiding the atmospheres of Neptune and Uranus to start up working nuclear fusion reactors. The planet Venus is on the move, its orbit being altered so that with another century gone by, it will be in an orbit complementary to Earth, and terraformed thanks to Anteus to be the genuine nova homeworld. Still, not everything is wine and roses; a terrorist group led by a nova named Mohammed Mohammed detonated an anti-matter bomb in Addis Ababa, destroying the crown jewel of Project Utopia, and leading to harsher crackdowns on novas around the world. This is the stage upon which your characters will step.

Start by building yourself a standard nova. Merits and Flaws are allowed, except for Amnesia. 15 bonus points, 30 nova points, Taint is allowed up to five points. Please keep track of what you're using to buy what; an easy way to do that with the Excel character sheet I have provided is to put all of your base stats/bonus point buys in black, all of the Nova points in blue. All nova powers and enhancements from published WW books are allowed; other powers and enhancements from fan sources (such as Forceful Personalities, and Brainwaves) must be specifically approved by me. PMs or e-mail are fine.

When choosing backgrounds, please keep in mind that the following backgrounds will likely be of limited usefulness: Allies, Contacts, Followers, Influence, Mentor. Being on alternate universes prevents you from contacting people at home - that doesn't mean they're useless, just not immediately useful for 90% of the storylines I have ready. There is also a Gadget background, rated from one to five, marking that your character has acquired some piece of rather useful nova-tech, and can be taken multiple times to cover multiple gadgets. Backing may not be higher than two dots, and only from the following groups: Teragen (min Taint 3), Aberrants, Devries (or other elite group) (min Resources 2), SuperGeek Enterprises (min M-Int 1), US Government.

Then spend 60 XP. You do not have to spend all of this 60 XP. The only limit is that you may not use this 60 XP to progress beyond five dots of Quantum, nor to buy more than one point of Quantum (Yes, buying one dot now, and saving the rest to buy one dot later is cheating). Please keep track of how you spend your XP as well; use red to go along with the above coloring. Pick out equipment consistent with your character's Resources, though getting more during the start of the game will be easy, and "store" visits can be done at other points in the game. Characters with no points in Resources are assumed to have little more than the clothes they are currently wearing. This also means you're going into an unknown environment with crap - and anything you break, you'll have to find a way to pay for. ::huh

Pick at least five questions from this Question sheet, to go along with your character's physical description, birthday, nova and baseline names. Be as detailed or as vague as you like. The less detail you put in, the more I will assume about your character, and act accordingly. You don't want this. ::biggrin If you want to include a more detailed background as well, feel free. Just remember - this is not Heritage's Trans-D. I'm aiming for a game feel similar to Stargate. I've currently designed nine worlds and have another four to flesh out, as well as three "Home Earth" storylines. Each world or storyline is an "episode" and experience will be given out at the end of each episode. Those of you who enjoy alternate history will enjoy some of them immensely, and those of you who don't will hopefully still enjoy them for different reasons.

Lastly, everyone participating is free to share your character sheets and background questions with each other, and discuss your characters as much as you wish. I'm hoping for a good mix of powers, abilities, and megas. Each world has a different focus, and while combat will be minimal (due to the slowness of turn-based combat on a forum) it will be present. You can be killed. ::ohmy

[BlueNinja]

Forgot one thing - I'm not planning on starting the actual game until after New Years. I know folks are busy over the holidays, so this gives everyone who's not checking the site on a daily basis like me, time to put together their character. Anyone who wants to hsah out character backgrounds or eruptions or things like that are welcome to do so in this time period.

[phoenix]

Cool, I'm in if you'll have me. Are there any particular powers or talents that Mr. Wesson would be looking for in particular, or does he just want as many novas as he can get?

[Bahamut810]

This looks fun! I am in!!

Anyone know what they want to play yet?

EDIT--

Anyone think I should translate Damien in? ::laugh ::wink

[BlueNinja]

Cool, I'm in if you'll have me.  Are there any particular powers or talents that Mr. Wesson would be looking for in particular, or does he just want as many novas as he can get?

←

I'm not turning down anyone at the moment.

Michal, being quite possibly the geekiest nova around, is of course a fan of Mega-Int and Mega-Wits novas. That's just a preference for his business, of course, and he's perfectly aware that different abilities are needed in a group of intrepid explorers. Still, if you're dumb (ie, less than Int 4 and no Mega-Int) expect him to talk down to you. Other NPCs (at the moment, include Rieller and Claire, co-heads of the armory; Richard, head of R&D; Michelle DuBois, medical research; Kevin Smith, headquarters defense) naturally have other predjudices and will treat everyone differently. Michal is hoping for a group with diverse talents, so that no matter what the problem, someone will be able to handle it.

Basically, write up whoever you want. As long as you aren't bending the rules, I'll take you. ::happy Brawlers, gun nuts, geeks, pretty faces, seducers and diplomats are all welcome.

Bahamut - are you giving me a challenge to see who dies first? ::laugh ::ohmy

[Bahamut810]

I'm Always up for a challenge. ::biggrin ::wink ::sly

[Alex Green]

I'm in. And (to make character creation easy), I'll retool my "force of nature" guy.

[Heritage]

I am so in! Would it be possible for me to do some version of Conduit from the seemingly-defunct Cognizant Chimera game? This is a character I've been dying to find a good home for, and this sounds like a fun game.

[Bahamut810]

I was thinking of doing a remake of Mr. Lucky for this. Im not 100% on what I am going to do (becuase I cant remember what the others can do) but Lady Luck will always be on his side.

[Nullifier]

I'm doing a re-write of Pat. Instead of a deaf, slurred-voiced dwarf, he's a really ugly, foul tempered, and often foul-smelling dwarf.

(Translation: The character wasn't weird enough as it was, so I decided to get back to basics. ::wink ::biggrin )

[Heritage]

I am so in! Would it be possible for me to do some version of Conduit from the seemingly-defunct Cognizant Chimera game? This is a character I've been dying to find a good home for, and this sounds like a fun game.

←

I occurs to me that Mr. Ninja probably has no idea who the hell Conduit is - I shall email or PM you her original sheet to give you an idea, though she may well turn out very different.

[Bahamut810]

Ok, I have decided to make a combination of Mr. Lucky and DareDevil (the Character I had from TransD).

Two questions...

1. Strength and Weaknesses? Can I use them?

2. Premonition? Can I take this?

[BlueNinja]

Two questions...

1. Strength and Weaknesses?  Can I use them?

PM/email/IM what you want for the power, and I'll tell you if it's cool.

2.  Premonition?  Can I take this?

←

Yes. Just remember though, if you don't pay for it for the scene, you don't get the warning. If your character is supposed to be Lucky ::wink you might want to take Intuition instead.

[BlueNinja]

For examples (to help people understand what I'd like your character sheets to look like, here are three examples.

In addition, please consider the following:

For the successful completion of each episode (ie, world or Home Earth storyline), the PCs will each earn 5 XP. Specifically impressive dice rolls (whether for good or ill) will earn specific PCs 1 XP, to a max of 2 XP. Voting for the trailer will earn one PC 1 XP. Especially convincing roleplaying skills and frequent participation will earn each PC between 1 and 3 XP. Therefore, for each episode, every PC has the chance to earn between 6 and 11 XP for regular participation, remaining in character, amazing dice rolls, and impressing your fellow players.

At the end of each episode, for entertainment, each player may write one “outtake” from the “filming” of the episode. Unless they are overwhelmingly amazing, no experience will be awarded for these. The “trailer” is a vote by the players, for whichever single character you feel did the best job advancing the plot. For obvious reasons, you cannot vote for yourself. I will not vote except in the case of a tie. You may abstain if you cannot decide.

NPCs will earn XP at the rate of ¼ the PCs average earned experience. This means that the NPCs will get between 1 and 3 XP for each episode. They will of course focus almost entirely on increasing their current abilities, and not gain new ones solely for the purpose of screwing with the party. Yeah, right. ::devil

There are three possible ways I can relate the dice rolls that your characters do.

The first is the one I’m the most tempted to do. I make the rolls, and tell you whether you succeeded, failed, or botched. Exactly how much you succeed or fail by can only be guessed at by the way I describe the appropriate action. For example, if you make a Biz roll, I can say, “That sounds like a pretty good idea,” ::smile or “You come up with the stunningly brilliant idea of having a nova sky-writing your advertisements over New York City,” ::biggrin or “You can expand your fashion business into LA by buying that cheap plot of land in Compton.” ::wacko I won’t detail how much damage your opponents have taken in combat, or how many successes you have on your damage rolls, you’ll have to guess from my descriptions. Which won't include smileys. ::tongue

The second is to say how many successes you have on a given roll. This isn’t total successes, but how many you have over the difficulty/opposed roll. As well, should you fail, you’ll know how many successes you failed by. This way, should you be short somewhere around 4-5 successes, your character can conceivably say “There’s no way in hell I’ll get this done!” For example, you make a Biz roll and come up with one success over the difficulty, I will put in parenthesis after the description the number over (1) or under (-5). I will detail how much damage you deal to your opponent in combat, by saying exactly how many dice you’re rolling after their soak is done (ie, four dice, or three auto-successes and seven dice).

The third is to detail exactly what the dice have rolled. For example, if you make a Biz roll, with a dice pool of 3 Wits 1 Biz 1 Mega-Wits, then I would type out that the dice came up (3,7,9) (2) (6) – a total of two successes. These numbers would be color-coded according to my dice. This is, obviously, a pain in the butt both to type and to read, especially for people whose dice pools are over ten dice. (2,2,4,5,5) (2,6,7,7) (3,8,8) I won’t list the exact numbers on each die for damage rolls, merely the total damage dealt over their soak.

No matter what method I use, “Impressive Dice Rolls” is what I define as “OMFG” moments. Such as rolling three dice and getting all ones or all zeros, or botching on a dice pool of twelve dice, or rolling that same twelve dice and having only one die come up as not being a success. The kind of roll that comes along less than once a game session.

[Alex Green]

Emailed Proposed Character.

[BlueNinja]

Everyone who e-mails, please use the_blue_ninja@yahoo.com or theblueninja@gmail.com ... my hotmail account doesn't like accepting messages from, well, anyone. ::huh

[Bahamut810]

Gmailed it to you.

[Alex Green]

OK, character resubmitted.

It's basically the same as before (i.e. force of nature) with some background (and name) changes.

Paul Blue (Doctor Natural), Low level nova healer, weather controller, pet psychic, & Vet. He's been a nova for a while and works for DeVries (not DVNTS) with a backing of zero (i.e. job shop).

[BlueNinja]

I have received both of your characters. ::smile Looks good.

[BlueNinja]

Since Alex asked, and this could be important to other people:

If you take a flaw, you may buy it off after the game has started for 2x the experience. For example, Combat Paralysis (a three point flaw) would cost 6 XP to buy off. You have to roleplay out what your character is doing to get rid of the flaw (for example, combat tactics training) first.

[Bahamut810]

Introducing...

Ash Phoenix, Luckyman and former NYPD detective.

[Nullifier]

Character e-mailed. ::biggrin

[Heritage]

I'll get you my sheet tomorrow evening (Central Standard Time) - far too sleepy to type anymore tonight.

[Nullifier]

A couple things for our glorious ST:

As Ash boards the plane and takes his seat, the first thing he notices is the ugliest, shortest man he's ever personally met. The second thing he notices is that the ugly dwarf is sitting in the first class seat right next to him.

(Have fun on the plane flight!  Unless there's something else you want/need to do in Fresno, assume that the limo is awaiting to bring you to the facility.)

Unless there's another really ugly dwarf in the group, I can't help but wonder what my flying, warping character is doing on an airplane. ::confused

Also, BlueNinja, please check your e-mail. ::biggrin

[BlueNinja]

I can't help but wonder what my flying, warping character is doing on an airplane.

Free first-class tickets? ::blush

I go under the assumption that you cannot Warp (or teleport) to somewhere you have never been. Your character has had no reason to go to rural Selma, CA - thus cannot Warp there. Making a commercial flight the best way to get there for the first time.

</plot hole>

[edit] and I'll check it when I get home from work. damn IT people, blocking Yahoo and G-mail. [/edit]

[Nullifier]

Huh? There's a section in the power description about and even an Extra for Teleporting blind safely, and Warp works so long as you know where it is you're going, you don't need to have been there before, 'cause you can see through the warp unless it's blocked somehow. ::confused His job is making maps, he's got instant computer access, and he can fly. It's not like he can't Warp or fly anywhere he wants to go, and first class tickets are cheap to a guy who could just rent a jet if he wanted. In the interest of continuity, however, we could just say he took the flight 'cause he was amused that they even thought sending a ticket was necessary. ::laugh

However, you bring up a good point. The original character sheet had ESP w/Distant Scan, but it turns out that that's relatively unnecessary for a flying warper with a number of extra and expanded senses. ::biggrin ::wink

[Bahamut810]

So to verify...the dwarf is on the flight?

[Nullifier]

Erm. Yes, the dwarf is on the plane. Repeat, the dwarf is on the plane. ::biggrin ::tongue

[phoenix]

Heh - vials.

[BlueNinja]

Phoenix - given Eli's background, do you have a problem with him being introduced as working with the space elevators?

[Alex Green]

Huh?  There's a section in the power description about and even an Extra for Teleporting blind safely, and Warp works so long as you know where it is you're going, you don't need to have been there before, 'cause you can see through the warp unless it's blocked somehow. 

Or unless you're going into a highly secure area where they'll shoot first if you pop out outside of a few "secure" areas. Or you might accidently trash very expensive equipment. Or there might be an atomic generator or something around (trans-d warp gate for example) which might toss pieces of you and the surrounding countryside all over the place. ::biggrin

[Bahamut810]

Damn Null. Dont you do anything half-way? ::laugh

[Nullifier]

Nope. ::biggrin ::tongue That's what makes me such a great roleplayer. ::ultracool

[phoenix]

Phoenix - given Eli's background, do you have a problem with him being introduced as working with the space elevators?

Nope, that works nicely.

[BlueNinja]

What only Eli would know at the moment is that Athena isn't a person, it's an AI that Michal programmed about a year after he erupted. She controls the main building, and is the one spying on Ash. After all, virtually every room in the building has security cameras and microphone pickups, both for security and to make Athena's job as building manager easily.

[Alex Green]

I guess I'm stuck until someone either goes to their rooms or the library.

[BlueNinja]

I guess I'm stuck until someone either goes to their rooms or the library.

Fortunately there's two people doing that, and another on the way. Hopefully the traffic on the 99 highway isn't too bad. ::biggrin

I am currently waiting for final characters from Heritage and Archer. Is anyone else wanting/planning to join?

[Nullifier]

O.k., first of all, my character's last name is Farrow, not Darrow. ::rolleyes Second, I'm waiting for a reply to my e-mail to see if I'm even going to be playing this character. ::unsure

[Alex Green]

I'm waiting for a reply to my e-mail to see if I'm even going to be playing this character.  ::unsure

←

Gotcha.

RE: Daedulus League

Paul is a nominal member, Backing Zero. He's spaceworthy & can fly but hasn't done much with them. In his opinion it's more of a social club than a real organization.

[Heritage]

You know what, thinking about this logically, I feel I should not play in this game. I just did the math, and here's what I came up with:

Number of online games I'm running: 2

Number of online games I'm currently playing: 2 (3 if you count Carbon Shadows, which I really need to post in....5 if Potts comes back)

Tabletop games run: 1

Played:1, with a possible second in the new year.

And seeing as I'm actually trying to work an actual epic storyline into War Jounral, this seems like the sanest course of action.

You guys have a blast! And thanks for all your help, BN - sorry to waste your time ::blush