Aberrant: Trans-Dimensional Explorations - SuperGeek Enterprises: Exploration

[Alex Green]

I think we actually sound like a fairly well-balanced group, combat-wise.

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Do we have a brick? Paul is highly skilled at sneaking away from combat. He even has enough attune to take someone with him.

[BlueNinja]

Do we have a brick?  Paul is highly skilled at sneaking away from combat.  He even has enough attune to take someone with him.

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Nobody really has the amount of soak that I, as GM, would define as "a brick" but you should be fairly balanced in combat. Unless you're outnumbered, or facing down novas designed to lay the smackdown on you, you'll be fine. And you won't be running into those novas for a while.

[edit] and after reading your quote, just how many bricks do you need? What happens if they don't want to be build into the wall and resist with their nova powers? ::laugh [/edit]

[phoenix]

[edit] and after reading your quote, just how many bricks do you need? What happens if they don't want to be build into the wall and resist with their nova powers? laugh.gif [/edit]

::laugh Spot on, spot on.

[BlueNinja]

Since this was brought up in PM in a disagreement over rules with Nullifier, I want SPECIFIC DESCRIPTIONS from people how certain of their powers and enhancements appear when they are activated. This may or may not be cosmetic - if you have a Force Field that activates and looks similar to the shields on the Enterprise, then using objects outside of your forcefield will be difficult (though not impossible) but it will protect non-attuned items inside the forcefield that are on your person; if you have a FF that is at skin level, it will only protect the items that are attuned, meaning that some things you are carrying (ie weapons, portable gate) will be vulnerable to enemy attack while you are not. Similarly, if the novas eyes glow when using Dominate, if you Regen wounds by peeling them off like makeup, if your Disintigrate is a beam of light or a shard of metal or a barely visible ripple in the air. I want descriptions NOW so I'm not having PM arguments over the effects of your powers both on yourself and on the world around you.

What I want exactly is:

ASH - That Creepy Feeling, Analyze Weakness, Claws

BRANDT - Regeneration, Intuition

PAUL - Bodymorph (both how you appear, and how the FF in it works), Healing, Quantum Leech, Weather Manipulation, Disintigrate

ELI - Bodymorph (same as above), Tendril

PAT - Regeneration, Quantum Attunement, Mental Blast, Intuition, Forcefield, Flight (has been defined ICly), ESP

JONATHAN - Telekinesis, Boost

[Bahamut810]

Done and done

[phoenix]

Okay, I understand your motive and I'll get that to you. It'll probably be in narrative form though, so I can just copy and paste instead of writing a whole new transformation sequence.

[BlueNinja]

It'll probably be in narrative form though, so I can just copy and paste instead of writing a whole new transformation sequence.

That's fine. PM, e-mail, or post here, whatever makes you feel more comfortable.

[archer]

Mine are easy, I'll just post them here.

Regeneration is similar to the effect that Wolvie had in the X-Men films, but Brandt's wounds heal almost instantly. If you were to watch the regen in slow-mo, you could see the wounds fixing themselves, but without any method to slow down the visual, it just looks like the wound was there and then suddenly disappeared.

Intuition doesn't have a real visual effect, Brandt just suddenly appears more alert. From his perspective though, all of his senses just became hypersensitive and sped up.

[Alex Green]

Bodymorph (Appearance): Technically Paul is off the visible spectrum, i.e. invisible, so he doesn't appear as anything. Assuming you have some way of seeing him you'd see a human outline of a figure that was solid, undifferentiated, radiation. Attuned objects become part of the outline. Depending on your senses you might see a very slight burning.

Bodymorph (FF): Technically there is no such thing. Increased soak is simply a reflection of the difficulty to affect a solid mass of energy. Or put another way, he *is* a forcefield rather than having one.

Healing: The naked eye would see wounds close or new flesh spontaneously appear. X-Ray vision would see radiation energy being converted into matter, presumably this would mean a profound absence of radiation where Paul’s hands are and/or where the wounds are closing. Q-Attunement would show something similar.

Q-Leech: It’s range is touch so you probably wouldn’t see much, Paul’s pool going up and the other guy’s going down if you can sense that. If you can’t then he’d get more energetic while they get weaker. Q-Attunement or X-Ray vision would probably see energy flowing into Paul.

Weather Manip: In theory you could see L-Bolt’s come from his hands or wind wisk him upwards... but in reality he never uses the flight technique and whenever possible he has lightning come from the sky. In practice, considering the very general nature of how he tends to use this, there won’t be much in terms of obvious signs (except of course that all the techniques of WM are really obvious). The weather shifts a bit, or gets rather foggy, and people know it’s Paul because he’s told them he’s a weather manipulator or because they see him concentrating when it happens.

-EDIT-

When I think about it you might notice Personal Immunity and it's interaction with Weather Manipulation. I.e. he isn't bothered by his own powers.

[BlueNinja]

Still waiting on Eli's and Pat's.

And I almost forgot, I need a description of what Pat's Warp looks like as well.

[phoenix]

Bodymorph: Eli's most obvious nova power is the ability to transform himself into a 25-foot tall robot. In this form he is more or less identical to the Beowulf combat armor that he designed for the army but did not create due to a funding cut. Imagine a combination between a Silverfish bioVARG (Trinity Tech Manual page 63) and a Hunter from Halo (1, 2) and you've basically got it. His left arm is mounted with a projector for the thick tendril of crackling electricity (25 feet with the bodymorph), in addition to the large, slender shield like on the Hunter. His right arm is usually a gigantic cannon that fires balls of plasma.

He also has highly enhanced senses and an array of visual scanners that can be activated in either form.

[Alex Green]

Obvious is certainly the right word.

[Bahamut810]

Dude... ::drool ::w00t

That is awesome. If we do run into *major* resistance, I know we will be taken care of.

[Nullifier]

Regeneration: Pat's regeneration functions as a highly sped up version of the natural healing process. Fortunately, given his already twisted form and rough, patchy skin, the scars that are left from the few deep wounds he's taken are relatively unnoticable.

Quantum Attunement: Though there's no real outward sign of the use of this power, looking into Pat's eyes when he's using this ability gives people an almost subliminal sense that he's looking through them. To Pat, he sees more than he can consciously process, even with his nova enhanced mind. Everything glows in different, distinct colors, some which don't even really exist and vibrates and interacts on so many levels that if he allows it to, it can become overwhelming for a moment. Still, he's tested the ability in laboratory conditions, knows the exact calibrations for all the types of phenomenon he was able to test for, and he can concentrate only on salient details in stressful conditions if need be.

Mental Blast: This is an interesting case because it's changed since the trip that earned him his nickname. It manifests now as a barage of what's best described as sensory overload impulses, really just memories from inside the star, intensified and rebroadcast directly into the sensory centers of the victim's brain. It should be noted that he rarely uses this ability.

Intuition: There's no outward signs of this ability being activated by a threat, other than Pat's response. To him, however, it's as if he's suddenly afraid for no particular reason, followed by some idea of the source of that fear, however vauge that is. He's gotten used to it, so the sensation doesn't really bother him or inhibit his ability to function.

Forcefield: Pat's Forcefield manifests as an area of intensely folded space that clings to him and his eufiber like a second skin. It distorts his features and makes the rippling around him caused by use of his Flight power to appear to intensify, which is in part due to the interaction of the two powers that both bend space, and in part an optical illusion due to the distortion caused by the Forcefield.

It works by deflecting attacks outright with the bent space, dissipating them through the immense area of space folded into the forcefield, or a combination of the two, depending on the nature of the attack.

Flight: Pat's flight is visible as an area of rippling space/air around him. The rippling, however, in no way manifests as a physical sensation, it's merely a visual effect caused by warping space in a particular way in order to provide constant acceleration.

ESP: While using this power to oberve within about 100 meters, there aren't really any outward signs of it being used other than the fact that he's concentrating on something. However, any futher and Pat either closes his eyes or looks like he's staring off into space and becomes entirely non-responsive. In either case this power works through the principle of quantum interconnectedness. Quantum Attunement might notice a strange resonance effect in the area being observed, or the flow of quantum through Pat's brain altering, but otherwise there are very few indications of this being used.

Quantum Bolt: As stated ICly, Pat's bolt is a roughly spherical bubble of warped space about the size of his hand, which when it hits a target, expands and engulfs it, after which the target is torn at by the intense gravitational tide forces caused by the bent space inside the bubble.

Psychic Shield: Manifests as a mental barrier of intense light, sound, and heat, like the Mental Blast culled from memories of the inside of the star.

Warp: Pat's warps manifest as flat round holes to other places. There's no build up or rippling of space as they form, or afterwards. They just start as a tiny flat holes and grow to their full size in microseconds. Only one side of the warp in each location the warp links is visible and accessible; if you were to walk around to the non-funtional side the warp wouldn't be visible at all, as it deflects all incoming photons around the entrance, unless somone was stepping through it, in which case it could look pretty disgusting if they're stradling it or going through slowly for some reason as their insides can be seen from the backsides of the warp gates at both locations, though not very clearly, and in cross-section.

I think that's everything that needs to be player defined.

[phoenix]

Obvious is certainly the right word.

That is awesome. If we do run into *major* resistance, I know we will be taken care of.

Thank you - although from certain PM conversations with BlueNinja I'd still be frightened of his idea of "major" resistance. ::wacko ::ohmy

More seriously, I was thinking it would be an enjoyable contrast between Eli himself - an intellectual miracle worker, moderately arrogant when in his work personality, and physically insignificant - and his nova powers which, despite the versatility of cyberkinesis and enhanced perception, are by and large of a martial stripe (a fact that tends to make Eli feel a strange sense of chagrin mixed with masculine smugness). We haven't been playing for long enough for all that to come across yet, of course, I just thought I'd elaborate a little so you guys didn't assume I just built your standard tank and sent him out into the world(s). ::biggrin

[BlueNinja]

Re: Weave

A whole bunch of you have some points in Weave. As for what you can do with it in combat, this is what I told Alex:

If you want to use your weave as a "weapon" of sorts, then you can use it for extra damage dice. This, for obvious reasons, does not stack with actual weapons.

If you want to use it to block/parry, you can use it for extra defense dice. Paul is doing this by making his Eufiber closer to frictionless, so that glancing blows slide off.

If you are trying to make/hold a grapple, you can use it for extra Might dice.

Pick one per turn. Changing it, obviously, brings about a new Weave roll.

Alex: I'll try to get to your and Bahamut's combats today when I come home from lunch.

[BlueNinja]

Bodymorph: Eli's most obvious nova power is the ability to transform himself into a 25-foot tall robot.  <snip> His left arm is mounted with a projector for the thick tendril of crackling electricity (25 feet with the bodymorph), in addition to the large, slender shield like on the Hunter. 

To point out two small things - as I'm interpreting it, each point of Sizemorph Grow adds your original height/size, so two dots would turn a six foot tall person into an 18 foot tall person. Otherwise five dots gets hellaciously difficult to deal with. This would make Eli's bodymorph about 17' tall, and the tendril just under 20' (six meters) long.

Second - is the forcefield the shield on the arm? Because if so, then it will only protect you if you parry/block with it. Otherwise, it looks good.

[Alex Green]

Otherwise five dots gets hellaciously difficult to deal with.

I don't know, it might be fun to run Godzilla. ::ohmy ::scared ::devil

[archer]

I thought SM: Growth actually doubled height for each dot. So 6 feet to 12 feet to 24 feet with two dots.

So if Phoenix's character is a little over 6 feet tall, 25' with two dots sounds about right.

[BlueNinja]

I thought SM: Growth actually doubled height for each dot. So 6 feet to 12 feet to 24 feet with two dots.

So if Phoenix's character is a little over 6 feet tall, 25' with two dots sounds about right.

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Technically, it does; however, in a one-shot campaign I had a person try to run a 5-dot Growth character, and another person with 3-dot Growth. I found it to be far too ridiculous to run it the way the rules specifically state, so I am clarifying it now before Eli needs to use it ICly. He'll already be weighing somewhere around 2400 pounds. As written, a 200 lb character with 5 dots of growth will weigh over six and a half million pounds - while a Mega-strength 5 nova can only lift about 220,000 pounds. Growth is one of the many powers that IMO were not sufficiently playtested, hence my modification.

Besides, he can still hit people from 20' away with an unarmed attack, and be dealing [20] + 7d damage. Not shabby in the least.

[edit] oh, and Eli isn't over six feet. He's shorter than that. [/edit]

[Alex Green]

What Paul didn't mention just now is the big risk in sending us off to jell somewhere is bordom. The novas get bord and "make" some entertainment.

[archer]

13.2 kmph, roughly, without powers turned on.

Hey Blue, can you tell me where you got that figure from? Are you basing it off run speed or something else? Just curious. ::smile

[BlueNinja]

Hey Blue, can you tell me where you got that figure from? Are you basing it off run speed or something else? Just curious.  ::smile

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Half run speed, multiplied by twenty to give meters per minute, multiplied by sixty to get meters per hour, divided by 1000 to get kmph.

Turn on enhanced movement and hyperspeed. Then it really gets insane.

[archer]

Half run speed, multiplied by twenty to give meters per minute, multiplied by sixty to get meters per hour, divided by 1000 to get kmph.

Turn on enhanced movement and hyperspeed.  Then it really gets insane.

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::blink Yeah...using your formula, that makes powered-on speed somewhere around 276 kph. Mama mia.

[Alex Green]

Hey, it just occured to me. Is it the case that no one has any aberrations?

[Nullifier]

Certainly no visible ones, although Pat's appearance has been mistaken by many as a result of aberration.

[BlueNinja]

The only nova Paul has seen with an obvious aberration is Rieller - but that's only if you count his constant floating around as an aberration, and not the result of some power or gadget. It's also possible that while working on guns one day, Rieller forgot how to walk, and never noticed - he's got a rather one-track mind.

[BlueNinja]

Since archer will obviously be busy the next few days ::biggrin I'll just skip his melee adventures since his mega-dex will give him the advantage over Kevin anyway. So, unless Nullifier wants Pat to take part in the joys of knife fighting, I will skip to the next day tomorrow-morning-ish my time. If your characters aren't interested in the electronics stuff that Richard will be covering, you can skip it; I'm not planning to go into details either, just him taking it apart and showing those interested how it works and how to fix it.

[Alex Green]

Definately a skill to have, even if we don't have the appropriate ability. Maybe Ash can get another chance to use his Social skills on Richard to get him to accept a Psi-Link before we go over that too.

[Nullifier]

Nah.. Pat's just fine not throwing knives at targets, if it's all the same to you. ::biggrin

[Bahamut810]

Ash would take another crack at it...it could save his life someday. We dont have to RP it though. We can 'get to business' so to speak.

[Alex Green]

RE: Getting Stranded

Given the unlimited amount of time getting stranded would give us, I'd expect Pat and the rest of the Q5 club to get to Q6 and be able to buy cross time travel.

Of course I'm just assuming Pat is at Q5 since you pretty much need that for Star travel. How about it, does anyone want to fess up to owning Q5? ::laugh

Paul has at least Q4, ditto our speedster. ::rolleyes

[phoenix]

Of course I'm just assuming Pat is at Q5 since you pretty much need that for Star travel. How about it, does anyone want to fess up to owning Q5?  ::laugh

::tongue No.

[BlueNinja]

RE: Getting Stranded

Given the unlimited amount of time getting stranded would give us, I'd expect Pat and the rest of the Q5 club to get to Q6 and be able to buy cross time travel.

Of course I'm just assuming Pat is at Q5 since you pretty much need that for Star travel.  How about it, does anyone want to fess up to owning Q5? ::laugh

Paul has at least Q4, ditto our speedster. ::rolleyes

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One small downside to that - you can't take anyone with you. I know, because I looked at it for another character to have.

[Alex Green]

Attune 5 or a Powermax.

And speaking of the gate, Paul is going to spend a point of willpower for an autosucc on his (less than impressive) Engineering roll for this next part (i.e. learning how to fix the phone-home device).

[phoenix]

Really? What about with Attunement 5?

[BlueNinja]

*rolls eyes* Yes, with Attunement 5 you can. But the power itself does not have any way to take others with you, unlike Time Travel.

[Alex Green]

*rolls eyes* Yes, with Attunement 5 you can.  But the power itself does not have any way to take others with you, unlike Time Travel.

As long as we are giving people unlimited exp, what's another 20 for attune 5? ::laugh ::devil

[Nullifier]

You don't need Q5 for star travel. It just takes a /really/ long time. ::biggrin

[Alex Green]

"... and I'm a telepath so I can copy the designs from Michal's mind..."

I don't think it quite works this way unless you have that mental enhancement "perfect memory"?

Worse, 300K pages of diagrams for something that is probably a quantum gadget is a real set of problems.

1) If it is a gadget then the diagrams might not help us.

2) Just storing something like that is a problem, meaning that if it takes dozens of centuries to rebuild the technology base then by that time whatever we stored the diagrams on will have lost it's batteries.

3) Building it is likely to be impossible. If it is just us alone, rebuilding the technology base of hundreds of Mega-Int novas suggests it will take more time than the planet has before the sun explodes.

4) Assuming for a moment that it's possible for us to take a copy of the specs, and assuming we run into a civilization that can understand the specs, this almost describes a civilzation we don't want to have the specs.

5) Assuming that we have the specs doesn't get us home because getting us home requires a map. I.e. what frequency is "home" on? I seriously doubt even Mike knows that because setting up the gate on a different planet implies different settings.

6) And I'm skipping various other legal and ethical issues of giving these kinds of plans to a mentally unstable nova.