Aberrant

Aberrant

Infobox RPG
title= Aberrant


caption= "Aberrant d20" cover
designer= Rob Hatch, Andrew Bates, Ken Cliffe, Greg Fountain, Sheri M. Johnson, Chris McDonough, Ethan Skemp, Mike Tinney, Richard Thomas, Stephan Wieck, Fred Yelk
publisher= White Wolf Game Studio
date= 1999 "(1st edition)"
2004 "(d20 edition)"
genre= Superhero
system= Storyteller System "(1st edition)"
d20 System "(d20 edition)"
footnotes=

"Aberrant" is a role-playing game created by White Wolf Game Studio in 1999, set in 2008 A.D. in a world where super-powered humans started appearing one day in 1998. It is the middle setting in the greater Trinity Universe timeline, chronologically situated about 90 years after "Adventure!", White Wolf's Pulp era game, and over a century before the psionic escapades of "Trinity/Aeon". 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.

etting

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 are limited by their subconscious and usually 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 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; examples might include 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 middle game of the Trinity Universe, and is thus the prequel to "Trinity" and the sequel to "Adventure!". "Trinity" details the future history of the novas, over a 60-year span of time, while "Adventure!" covers the dawn of this setting in the 1920s.

Several books were in the works for "Aberrant" at the time of its cancellation, most notably the three "Mega-Books," each of which focused on what it might be like to have Mega-Social, Mega-Mental, or Mega-Physical Attributes, while also shedding light on some other element of the Aberrant setting. The first of these Mega-Books, called "Aberrant: Cult of Personality", took a close look at Social Mega-Attributes and also examined the rise of nova-led cults. This book was complete and waiting for art at the time of the game's cancellation. The second of the Mega-Books, called "Aberrant: Brainwaves", was going to examine Mental Mega-Attributes and provide comprehensive rules for "gadgeteers," those novas who use their vast minds to build amazing devices. The last of the Mega-Books, tentatively titled "Aberrant: Brute Force", would address the standard Physical Mega-Attributes while also providing players with background and rules for civic defenders, novas employed by cities to act as crime fighters/public relations operatives.

Factions

The metaplot revolves around the interactions between various factions, most of which employ Nova agents. Among the most important are:

*Project Utopia, an organisation with seemingly altruistic ideals that promotes cooperation between Novas and humans to build a more perfect world. Utopia has UN sanction to deal with novas. It is also linked to the Aeon Trinity organisation, which rises to greater prominence in "Trinity" and whose roots are detailed in "Adventure!"
*The Teragen, a diverse group of Novas who share a common philosophy called "Teras". A direct result of this philosophy is that the group willingly embraces its evolved status, and therefore claim biological superiority to humans. While the outside world view the Teragen as a single group it is actually a coalition of different interests united by philosophy and their enigmatic inspiration, Divis Mal. In his "Null Manifesto", he declared, essentially, that novas could only be governed by their peers, freeing its members from the obligations of human law.
*The Aberrants, a group of Novas concerned about evidence of corruption within Project Utopia. While a small faction, they are nevertheless taken very seriously by Project Utopia.
*The Directive, an intelligence organisation controlled by the governments of Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Japan and the United States.

Various smaller groups exist, most of which are focused on more specific goals. Players' characters generally belong to one of the above factions, work for a specific corporation, or hire themselves out for odd jobs, often as mercenaries or troubleshooters.

ystem

"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 as a 7 or higher counts as 1 success. Accomplishing different tasks requires 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 may be 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. Alternatively, the scores in a Mega-Attribute may be used to reduce the difficulty on a one for one basis, though never below needing one success. The player can choose each turn which way to use his Mega-Attribute, and can even split the points between the two ways. (Statistics Note: A rank of a regular attribute gives you approximately .4 of a success per roll. A rank of a Mega-Attribute used as a die gives you approximately .9 of a success per roll. Reducing the difficulty of a task is the same as subtracting 1 from the needed 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 (one 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

* [http://www.white-wolf.com/aberrant.html "Aberrant"] Official site
* [http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Aberrant "Aberrant"] at the White Wolf [http://whitewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page Wiki]


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?
Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • aberrant — aberrant, ante [ aberɑ̃, ɑ̃t ] adj. • 1842; du lat. aberrare « s éloigner, s écarter » ♦ Qui s écarte du type normal. 1 ♦ Qui s écarte de la règle, se fourvoie, est contraire à la raison. Une idée, une conduite aberrante. ⇒ absurde, insensé. 2 ♦… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Aberrant — est un jeu de rôles de super héros publié en 1998 par White Wolf. Sur les autres projets Wikimedia : « Aberrant », sur le Wiktionnaire (dictionnaire universel) Il prend place 90 ans avant les événements du jeu Trinity (où des psis… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Aberrant — Ab*er rant, a. [L. aberrans, rantis, p. pr. of aberrare. See {Aberr}.] 1. Wandering; straying from the right way. [1913 Webster] 2. (Biol.) Deviating from the ordinary or natural type; exceptional; abnormal. [1913 Webster] The more aberrant any… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • aberrant — [ab′ər ənt, ə ber′ənt] adj. [< L aberrans, prp. of aberrare, to go astray < ab , from + errare, to wander: see ERR] 1. turning away from what is right, true, etc. 2. deviating from what is normal or typical n. an aberrant person or thing… …   English World dictionary

  • aberrant — I adjective abnormal, amorphous, anomalistic, anomalous, astray, changeable, departing, deviative, devious, discursive, disordered, divergent, eccentric, errant, erratic, erroneous, excursive, indirect, irregular, nonuniform, rambling, stray,… …   Law dictionary

  • aberrant — aberrant, ante (entrée créée par le supplément) (ab èr ran, ran t ) adj. Terme didactique. Qui s écarte d un type. •   Les cas pathologiques ou aberrants ne font pas même exception ; et on ne vit jamais sans un chef, au moins temporaire, ni une… …   Dictionnaire de la Langue Française d'Émile Littré

  • aberrant — (adj.) 1798, originally in natural history, from L. aberrantem (nom. aberrans), prp. of aberrare to wander away, go astray (see ABERRATION (Cf. aberration)) …   Etymology dictionary

  • aberrant — atypical, *abnormal Analogous words: divergent, *different, disparate: *irregular, anomalous, unnatural: *exceptional: singular, peculiar, odd, *strange, eccentric Antonyms: true (to a type …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • aberrant — [adj] not normal; varying from the usual abnormal, atypical, bizarre, deviant, different, flaky*, mental*, nonstandard, odd, off base, off color, out of line*, peculiar, psycho*, strange, unusual, weird; concept 547 Ant. normal, same, true …   New thesaurus

  • aberrant — ► ADJECTIVE ▪ departing from an accepted standard or normal type. DERIVATIVES aberrance noun aberrancy noun aberrantly adverb …   English terms dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”