Aberrant (role-playing game)
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Created by White Wolf Game Studio in 1999, Aberrant is a superhero-based role-playing game set in 2008AD in a world where super-powered humans started appearing one day in 1998 out of the blue. The game deals with how the players' meta-human characters (called novas) fit into a mundane world when they most definitely are not mundane, as well as how the mundane populace react to the sudden emergence of novas. The original Aberrant product line was discontinued in 2002, though a d20 System version was released in 2004.
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Setting
Super powers in Aberrant come from an individual's ability to manipulate energy at the "quantum" sub-atomic level. Since individuals who can do this have an imperfect understanding of quantum mechanics, their powers always follow a specific path or are linked to a specific focus. For instance, all the powers of the nova called Anteus revolve around nature; he can teleport by stepping into a tree and out of another tree of the same type somewhere else, create new species of animals, or alter the normal course of life and death for plants and animals. All his powers follow his focus of nature. Other novas have other foci such as plasma, fire, water, shapechanging, or invulnerability.
As a nova's ability to manipulate the quantum fabric of the world grows, he begins to experience Taint, the side effects of channelling larger and larger amounts of energy. Taint is the 'non-humanness' side of quantum manipulation and at higher levels novas begin to show either physical or mental defects. These defects vary widely; a tentacle growing from one's stomach, sociopathic disorders, hair made of flames, odd skin composition (such as rubber), a power that is "always on", megalomania, or continual radiation.
Aberrant is unique among the publisher's game-lines for having no particular castes or character classes. Aside from this, it shares with many other White Wolf games a tendency to embrace "shades of gray" morality and reject the traditional superhero trope of "heroes vs. villains".
Aberrant is the prequel to Trinity and the successor to Adventure!. Trinity details the future history of the novas, over a 60-year span of time.
Factions
The metaplot revolves around the interactions between various factions: Project Utopia, an organization with altruistic ideals that promotes cooperation between Novas and humans to build a more perfect world, the Teragen, a diverse group of Novas who claim biological superiority to humans, The Aberrants, a group of Novas concerned about evidence of corruption within Project Utopia, and various smaller groups focused on more specific goals.
System
Aberrant uses a modified version of the Storyteller System. A character adds his attribute to his skill (or power as the case may be) and rolls that many 10 sided dice. Any dice that comes up higher than 6 counts as 1 success. Accomplishing different tasks require different numbers of successes to accomplish. Flying a plane may only require 1 success, but flying a 747 with a near fatal wound, all the rest of the crew dead, and no hydraulic pressure could require 5 or more successes.
The first major difference with Aberrant is that in addition to normal attributes such as Dexterity, Manipulation and Wits, novas have what are called Mega attributes. Scores in such attributes are added as dice every time a character makes a roll using the linked mundane attribute, but Mega-Attributes are much more powerful. Every success rolled using mega attribute dice count as 2 normal successes, and rolling a 10 counts as 3 successes.
Powers are treated almost exactly like skills except that they come in different levels of power. Level 1 powers are comparatively weak, while level 6 powers can do nearly anything (a famous level 6 power is 'Universe Creation'). Lower level powers are cheaper to purchase with experience, while higher level powers cost more. There are a wide range of powers from controlling any single element (fire, gravity, entropy, quantum, magnetism, etc...), to flying, to mental domination, to imperviousness, to time travel and teleportation.
External links
- White Wolf Online (http://www.white-wolf.com)