Aberrant: Trans-Dimensional Explorations - The Quick Reference Guide

[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 (see post below) 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

Fill in 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

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.

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.

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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

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.

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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.

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In case you guys hadn't noticed, the N! Newsline thread in the main directory contains several news spots specific to the Trans-D universe. They're strictly for entertainment and to help you guys better grasp the specific backstory of the major NPCs.

I'll answer any questions you have about the news stories in the OOC thread, too.

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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.

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You cannot increase your base Quantum as Tainted. You have to pay the full current*8 for it. Given that everyone should be getting at least 6XP for each episode they're in, that should not be a huge problem for any of you.

Yes, you can buy Q6 in-game, if you want to save up those XP. Any purchases of level 4 powers must be approved by me before you buy them. If you want to buy Mastery on a power, you must have five dots in the power, period.

If you are pushing a power (ie, power-maxing), you automatically gain a point of temporary taint. If you botch, you gain two temporary for every 1 rolled. Pushing a power means you sacrifice all actions (including movement and dodge) for a round, pay a single quantum, and roll a number of dice equal to your base Q score; successes treat the power or mega as that many dots higher. No, you do not temporarily gain techniques from this. Using two successes can be used to add any applicable extra, but only one per power. Mastery is never an applicable extra.

Removing temporary taint requires you to be dormed for one week per point, rather than one month as the book. If you can't dorm, then if you manage to go a full month without spending any quantum, you can remove the temporary taint. This is a nigh-impossible task.

[BlueNinja]

[attachmentid=70]

Updated version of Excel sheet, complete with notes for using it.

[Alex Green]

The following is an off-the-cuff ruling (i.e. subject to being overruled but should be considered guidance) both for the stated question and for how the Medicine Ability (at 5 dots) interacts with Healing. Note the typical baseline will have a resistance die total of 2 (i.e. a stamina of 2 & resist of zero).

Question for ST: Healing & Disease/Poison

The book says that someone with Heal can help people with disease/poison by adding to their resistance roll. Every point of quantum spent gives them another die. Question: Does it also let them make that resistance roll right away?

It will give them a temporary boost to their resistance. There's nothing actually written on it, so here's my off-the-cuff ruling - you can spend up to (power rating) quantum, and the bonus dice fade at the rate of one per (quantum + power rating) hours. You medical skills are definately up to telling who would benefit from this, and who would die/survive anyway.

Posting the my ruling on Healing was fine, Alex. However, *grabs his books and checks them* Huh. I had thought that the untrained could not use Resistance, but that's not the case. But since not everyone has the physical conditioning to ignore pain or disease symptoms, there would presumably still be the +1 difficulty for those without dots in it.

Now that's interesting. Healing thus converts the roll for an average baseline from 2 dice with a +1 diff (an average of -0.2) to 3+ with no diff (average at least 1.2). Huh, that makes a serious difference... at least for some of them.

Edited 06/30/2006: For Clarity and to add the new quotes.

[BlueNinja]

This would have been explained by Richard, so I'll re-state it for simplicity.

The gate will open for a time period of ten minutes and about 4.5 seconds. Keeping it open for the full duration (standard procedure) means that it takes just under six hours [edit]four hours and forty minutes[/edit] to fully recharge to open again.

If the ETPH is used within a few inches of a decent-sized metallic framework, the gate device 'locks' onto that location to dial in. If it's then re-activated from Home Earth, it'll return to the previous 'lock' location. If the ETPH is used away from a metallic framework, then it randomly resets the gate. Resetting the gate to a random location can also be done from Home Earth; for example, if you fled through the gate, but needed to go back to the same world in a different spot, Walter would just run a program that takes about five minutes and change the location.

So currently, until someone uses an ETPH to change the location, it'll open at your temporary gate. Richard didn't mention any way to make multiple 'lock' locations, and Brandt didn't come across it in the research he did between Overclocked and Hero Worship, so either it's not possible, it hasn't been tested, or Michal and Richard haven't even worked on it.

[BlueNinja]

Michal has only one of the interstellar mapping devices. In appearance, it's about the size of a podium - two feet wide, about three and a half feet tall, roughly oval in shape and made out of a crystalline-looking material. The top of the device is a panel covered in buttons and knobs; you guys have been shown how to activate it, lock it onto Earth/Sol, and how to rearrange the point in space as well as zoom in and out. At best definition, it can identify the alien fleet on a scale of about 1 mile = 1 inch. It never locks onto a location in space that would possess more than microgravity, so the viewpoint would be further distant from a star than it would from a planet. You know that the device can also be used to look backwards in time at a lower resolution, but not how to adjust this. There are also a number of controls that, according to Michal, either do nothing or have no determinitive effect.

Activating the mapping device and changing the coordinates to the alien fleet takes about ten minutes. Once the machine is powered up, each change of viewpoint inside a solar system takes about 5-15 seconds, and change between solar systems takes about 2 minutes at best. Michal has scanned every star system within one hundred light years of Earth, and tracked the alien fleet's apparent path backwards for about two hundred light years.. The alien's fleet current location (as of Sep-Oct 2020) is around Zeta Reticuli, where it has been for about eighteen years.

[BlueNinja]

Partial NPC listing of the SGE, subject to expansion or change:

Michal Wesson - owner and founder of SuperGeek Enterprises. Definate Mega-Int nova, with Telekinesis and Holo (Sight, Sound), as well as possible other powers. Definate geek, sarcastic sense of humor, and no-nonsense kind of guy.

Angela Michelle DuBois - doctor and medical research head at SGE. Mega-Int and Mega-Dex, along with Healing, Telekinesis, and probable other powers. Abrasive personality who is used to being obeyed and takes shit from nobody.

Rieller Many-Fires - co-head of weapons development at SGE. Mega-Dex, along with Flight, Density Decrease, and uncanny use of firearms. Quiet, soft-spoken, and often seemingly distracted.

Claire Reed - co-head of weapons development at SGE. Mega-Appearance and Mega-Dex, along with uncanny use of firearms and possible Emotional Manipulation. Loud, showy, and a definate cock-tease.

Kevin Smith - head of building security at SGE. Mega-Strength and Mega-Dex, along with Immolate, Claws, Forcefield, and probable other combat powers. Serious and dedicated. Knows nothing about the Trans-D program, and it better stay that way, so says the boss.

Athena - AI. Controls the building security measures and information control. Is unknown to most employees of the SGE.

Richard Johannsenn - head of technical research and development. Baseline immigrant from Germany, now US citizen. Responsible for upkeep of the automated probes and expanding the list of explorable worlds, as well as spaceship design.

Walter - Trans-D computer operator and records keeper. Baseline who organizes all information collected on probe-explored worlds, as well as maintenance on computer systems that run the gate.

Carmela - building liason. Baseline who keeps department heads in line, as well as organizing the maintenance for regular SGE purposes. Knows nothing of the Trans-D program either.

Archimedes (added 15 Sept 06) - experimental research. Archimedes is a scientist with some limited mental powers and a fair amount of Mega-Intelligence. After deciding he didn't want to explore, he stayed on to help conduct research on both regular programs, as well as help Richard with anything brought back through the gate.

Jennifer Raddison (added 27 Sept 06) - Trans-D mechanical maintenance and repair. Baseline who performs maintenance on the physical components of the gate system, power systems, and backup air filters. Natural blonde, usually with rainbow highlights in her hair and the attitude of a modern-day hippie.

Eli Stone (added 24 Oct 06) - experimental research. Eli also decided to forgo the exploration of other worlds, and helps Archimedes in researching the alien crystal technology brought back from the caves.

Ash Phoenix (added 12 Apr 08) - trans-d explorer. On hiatus while clearing his name of multiple grand larceny charges with the FBI and New York, Chicago, Seattle, and Pittsburg police departments.

[BlueNinja]

OK, question for the ST. Can the PCs tell when their powers have gone up?

Example: This is the first time Paul has been in a situation where that 2nd dot of Healing could come in handy. But would he have known about from when he actually used his powers on lesser things in the past? If you buy 2 more dots of Q-Bolt, can you tell before you use it?

I wrote the post assuming that the PCs can't, but I may need to recon it.

Raising a power is different than raising an Ability or Attribute, since the latter all require some time and effort put in to justify it. Powers can be boosted both through conscious effort (ie, training and practice with it) and unconscious effort (ie, developing/boosting it in response to something that has happened). Paul's healing would be a little of both; he'd probably feel more confident when going to use it, but he should be surprised at how quickly he heals.

[BlueNinja]

Since there's been some debate about what is and isn't allowed with the Shapeshifting power, here's a list:

All Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina Enhancements.

Bloodhound, EM Vision, High-End (ie X-Ray) Scan, Hyper Hearing, Ultraperipheral, and Sensory Organ Enhancements for Perception. Note that some of these will require some rather bizarre looks, like radically 'deformed' eyes and ears.

Copycat, Face of Terror, and Mr. Nobody enhancements for Appearance. Note that Copycat and Nobody cannot be used with anything that would require you to look anything other than human.

Level 1 powers: Biolum, Claws (physical only).

Level 2 powers: Armor, Bounce, Density (increase or decrease only, not both simultaneously), Flight (requires wings or similar), Invisibility, Poison (max success limited to Shapeshift dots), Sizemorph (Grow or Shrink).

Any Body Modification.

[BlueNinja]

For your reading pleasure (and some decade-old background on your friendly employer), I give you A Day in the Life of SuperGeek.

[BlueNinja]

Full List of House Rules

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.

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You cannot increase your base Quantum as Tainted. You have to pay the full current*8 for it. Given that everyone should be getting at least 6XP for each episode they're in, that should not be a huge problem for any of you.

Yes, you can buy Q6 in-game, if you want to save up those XP. Any purchases of level 4 powers must be approved by me before you buy them. If you want to buy Mastery on a power, you must have five dots in the power, period.

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If you are pushing a power (ie, power-maxing), you automatically gain a point of temporary taint. If you botch, you gain two temporary for every 1 rolled. Pushing a power means you sacrifice all actions (including movement and dodge) for a round, pay a single quantum, and roll a number of dice equal to your base Q score; successes treat the power or mega as that many dots higher. No, you do not temporarily gain techniques from this. Using two successes can be used to add any applicable extra, but only one per power. Mastery is never an applicable extra.

Removing temporary taint requires you to be dormed for one week per point, rather than one month as the book. If you can't dorm, then if you manage to go a full month without spending any quantum, you can remove the temporary taint. This is a nigh-impossible task.

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The Body Modification "Dispersed Organs" costs only 5xp each time, not 6xp (or 3xp without including the brain). All the benefits, and the +1 medical difficulty remain the same.

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Novas injected with Mox make a Resistance roll to resist the Mox, with a difficulty equal to 2*(number of doses). If the nova fails, then his quantum powers and mega-attributes are reduced by however many he failed the roll by, to a minimum of one-half effectiveness on one dot. Novas that pass the Resistance roll are fighting off the effects; however successive doses add to the previous difficulty and require a new roll. Novas with Health*2 are effectively immune from Mox.

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If Aggravated damage is reduced to ping, it inflicts Lethal damage on a rolled success.

If Lethal damage is reduced to ping, it inflicts Bashing damage on a rolled success.

If Bashing damage is reduced to ping, it inflicts Bashing damage only on a rolled 10.

[BlueNinja]

Episode 1: Fallout (996 BLD3)

Episode 2: Overclocked (474 QMT6)

Episode 3: Hero Worship (MSD -D4R)

Episode 4: Sunlight (YZU -4GZ)

Episode 5: You've Got to Be Kidding Me (9AG 439A)

Episode 6: Our Alien Overlords (YZZ DZ8N)

Episode 7: Not a Superpower (BEL 5921)

Episode 8: Fanatics 'R' Us (9BI GIB8)

Episode 9: All Aboard (BEL 5921)

Episode 10: This Old House (Home Earth)

Episode 11: Don't Forget Me (Home Earth)

Episode 12: Help Me, Obi Won Kenobi (474 QMT6)

Episode 13: Running Low (B9E BJ63)

Episode 14: Backstab! (Home Earth)

Episode 15: Chill Out, Dude (QWP GAJJ)

Episode 16: Arresting Development (Home Earth)

Episode 17: Lunch Time (85G 55CL)

Episode 18: But I'm the Evil Twin (Home Earth)

Episode 19: 404 Error, Memory Not Found (CEK FLB5)

Episode 20: I Know Something You Don't Know (886 -023)

Episode 21: Kidnapped (Home Earth)

Episode 22: Mirror, Mirror (Part 1) (AAB DFP9)

[BlueNinja]

Since there was argument over Psychic Link, here's my final ruling on it.

When one member of a Psychic Link is targetted with a mental power (such as Dominate, Telepathy, or Mental Blast) they roll their normal resistance to the power, with the difficulty against the attacker from the Psychic Link. Should they fail, then everyone in the Psychic Link with them is immediately subject to the same attack, against the original number of successes, but without the vulnerable person counting towards the penalty. If they choose to keep the Psychic Link open, the attacker may make a free roll once per turn against anyone who has not failed their defense roll, as long as the maintenance/concentration power is kept up. Breaking a Psychic Link does not end the power being used, unless the other person in the Link was the one using it.

Example 1 - Nova A has a Psychic Link to Nova B (thus granting each of them a +1 difficulty to anyone attempting to use mental powers against them). Nova A has two dots of Psychic Shield and 5 Willpower, Nova B has no Psychic Shield and 5 Willpower. Nova X makes a Mirage roll against Nova B, and scores 4 successes (lowered to 3 because of the difficulty). Nova B rolls his Willpower and gets a single success, meaning that he is now suffering from Mirage at 2 successes. Nova A must now roll his Willpower (with Psychic Shield auto-successes) to resist the original 4 Mirage successes, but the +1 difficulty does not apply (since Nova B has been compromised). If Nova A does not choose to break the Link, then Nova X may make one roll against him each turn without spending quantum (but it still counts against normal multiple-action penalties).

Example 2 - Nova A has a Psychic Link to Nova B (thus granting both of them a +1 difficulty). Nova X makes a Mental Blast roll against Nova B, scoring 7 successes (reduced by 1 from the difficulty) and then lowered by Willpower to 4. Nova B takes 4 points of Bashing damage. Nova A then makes a defense roll (also reduced by difficulty, and Psychic Shield, and Willpower) and takes 1 point of Bashing damage.

Example 3 - Nova A has a Psychic Link (with Extra Mind x2) to Nova B, Nova C, and Nova D (granting them all a +3 difficulty bonus). Nova X attacks Nova B with Dominate, scoring 7 successes, reduced to 4 from the difficulty, and then reduced to 2 from Willpower. Nova D, with only one point of Psychic Shield and 5 Willpower, must then resist the 7 successes, reduced to 5 from the difficulty (since Nova B has been compromised), reduced to 3 from his Shield, then reduced to 1 from Willpower. With two novas compromised, the difficulty drops to only +1 for both novas C and A.

Example 4 - Nova A has a Psychic Link to Nova B, Nova C, and Nova D. Nova D has a Psychic Link to Nova E. Nova E has a Psychic Link to Nova F. All novas have a +5 difficulty bonus against all mental attacks against them. If Nova X attacks Nova A, then Novas B, C, and D suffer the same attack. Nova E can roll Initiative to try and break the link with Nova D before facing the attack. Similarly, if Nova D were targetted, Nova F could attempt to break the link by rolling Initiative, while all the other novas would have to resist the power first before attempting to break free.

[BlueNinja]

PC listing (subject to change, but hopefully not that often) -

Jonathan Dearborn - Party Leader. Known powers include animal control, telekinesis, and super-human mental and social abilities.

Paul Blue, MD - Party Second in Command. Known powers include weak levels of telepathy, animal control, healing, and weather control, in addition to the ability to transform into radiation, and a medical degree.

Brandt Randall Jefferson - Speedster/Scientist. Known powers include travel in excess of Mach, super-human reflexes, and enhanced mental capacity.

Theodora Keir - Linguist. Known powers include flight, invisibility, and generation of electricity, as well as heightened intelligence and fluency in over a dozen languages (including those from alternate worlds).

Esteban Del Castillo - Party Brick. Known powers include shapeshifting, matter-rending claws, and greatly enhanced perception. Defensive capability to shrug off small arms fire. Mastery level in several martial arts.

Guo Zhenglai - Wise Old Man. Known powers include precognition, mental and emotional control, and warp gates.

The Mask - Party Procurement. Known powers include warp gates, spontaneous creation of matter, and other limited manipulations of space.

Cameron Stiles - Investigator. Known powers include slightly super-human abilities and short-range teleportation.