Aberrant: Elites

MJ12's potential Aberrant Game.

Background

The year is 2020. N-Day happened a little more than ten years ago. Now with demigods taking roles in all walks of life, what is your calling? What are you willing to do to achieve your goals? And how far are you willing to fall in the hopes of power?

Time: ~10 AM - 2 PM Pacific on Saturdays for Team Misanthropology, 9 PM - 1 AM Pacific on Fridays for Team Asylum.

Room: irc.sorcery.net, #aberrant

Your Employer: Phoenix International

Characters

Team Misanthropology

Filled with various misanthropes! Also has an anthropologist.

Carter Luso - Nacht
Rose Sharon - QuicksilverFox85
Melissa Flint - Screwball
Esker Eaves - Ralson
Joanna Forth - FBH

Team Asylum

The place where we stick the deluded and insane. And the guys who are unfortunate enough to be stuck with them.

Michael Boddy - Norseman
Iskandar al-Rashid ibn Abdul Rahman - Dacis2
Caran Steele - Andronicus
Zach McAllister - OmegaPaladin
CITrINE - Shrike
Adrian Shore - Singh

Unassigned

Stick characters who haven't been assigned to any team here.

Junko Ishiwara - Peel

The Mad and the Dead

There are those who die because of bad luck, circumstances, or their own decisions.

Jeremy Roddick (Singh) - Attempting to rescue Fire Shadow from mental control, Jeremy set out with hypermovement to chase down the mind-controlling Nova who had done so. Coming upon her and her bodyguard, he attacked the bodyguard, who evaded his disarm attempt and hit him with a tank-scale railgun. May he rest in peace.

Defeated Major Foes

It isn't an Elites game without a body count.

The Revolutionary - Terat Primacy member. Heat visioned through a wall and then executed by Moroccans.

Sloppy Joe - Terat Primacy member. Was garroted to death by Iskandar despite being 100% force fields and acid.

The Amazing Brain-Plant - Terat Primacy member. Mind controlled entire village. Was stabbed by Fire Shadow and then heat visioned to death by Caran.

Geryon - Teragen Nova Vigilance member, with about 34 NP invested in "NOT DYING" and a whole bunch more in "hurting people". Nevertheless, defeated in combat because he refused to puss out and retreat. Had a satchel charge thrown into an open wound, was then reduced to chunks of superhuman flesh smeared all over New York City. May not actually be dead.

The Dragon- 1920s Supervillain refugee right out of the Boxer Rebellion. Fell to his doom down a bottomless pit after fighting Team Misanthropology in a secret base underneath a mountain on a tropical island. Almost certainly not actually dead. Was seen again with a whipsword in his gut, tumbling off a half-completed airship. May not be dead from this either.

Sir Eric- British guy who turned traitor to the Nazis with an aggravated damage death pistol. Killed by groin kick trying to keep the party from focusing on his girl. Is pretty certainly dead, which is a rare thing given the foes.

Notes and Miscellaneous Errata

These are from the Player's Guide or other stuff that's hard to find or can be useful.

General Combat

Unarmed damage is Strength + 2 for punches, Strength + 4 (with +1 difficulty to-hit) for kicks. Sweeps are Strength + 1 damage (+1 difficulty) and knock down targets who fail a Difficulty 4 Athletics roll.

Attacks from the side are +1 accuracy, while attacks from the rear are +2 accuracy. In close combat, if outnumbered by foes, attack and defense rolls gain +1 difficulty for each opponent after the first (maximum +4 difficulty).

Called shots are +2 difficulty for +2 damage, or +3 difficulty for +4 damage. +1 difficulty allows called shots to limbs, etc. Called shots may allow one to bypass armor.

Area attacks (i.e. grenades, powers with the Explosion extra, artillery shells) gain +2 accuracy, cannot be parried and can only be dodged if the character can get out of the blast effect.

Throwing: the range for throwing an object is (Strength + Might) x 5 meters for objects massing 1 kg or less. Each additional kg of mass reduces the throw distance by 5 meters. Characters with Mega-Strength may throw objects up to their base lifting ability (Strength + Might) x 5 meters. If the object masses less than half of the Nova's lifting ability, though, the Nova can multiply the range by his or her automatic mega-strength successes (x5 per dot of Mega-Strength).

Hyperspeed strikes: A melee attack made at hyperspeed adds +2 damage for Enhanced Movement and +1 damage per dot of Hypermovement, and is made at +1 difficulty.

Aerial strikes: A melee attack made from flight adds +1 damage per dot of Flight and is made at +1 difficulty.

Firearms

Bursts add +2 accuracy while automatic fire adds +10 accuracy, increases the difficulty of dodges by 1, and adds +2 difficulty to the shot. Bursts require 3 rounds, autofire expends the magazine.

Firearms cannot be dodged without either cover within movement distance, going prone, or Mega-Dexterity 1. Firearms can only be parried with Mega-Dexterity 4.

Cover fire is Dexterity + Firearms versus the opponent's Willpower, failure to make the roll forces the opponent to automatically dive for cover. Botching the willpower roll causes the opponent to take the attack's base damage.

Aiming: Each turn spent aiming adds +1 to accuracy, up to (Perception + Mega-Perception).

Adventure! Weapons which might be useful:

• Heavy Machine Gun-Accuracy +0, Damage 6L [4], Str. Min 4, Range 500, RoF 20, Magazine 100, Mass 75 kg, Cost **

Status Effects

Dazing/Unconsciousness: Attacks that deal more damage levels than a character's Stamina stun the victim, who loses his or her next action. If an attack deals more damage than a character's Stamina + 2, the character is knocked out for a time between five rounds and a scene. Each Mega-Stamina dot counts as 2 Stamina dots for the purpose of resisting being dazed or knocked unconscious.

Knocked down: A character knocked down must make a Dexterity + Athletics roll. A successful roll reduces the character's initative by 2 on the next turn, while a failed roll means the character spends his or her next turn climbing to a standing position. A botch deals bashing damage equal to the number of 1s rolled.

Blinding: Blinded characters have +2 difficulty to all actions. Furthermore attacks made against blind characters gain +2 accuracy.

Errata

p.62 of the Aberrant Player's Guide (since it doesn't have a nice organized index)

XP Costs

TRAIT INCREASE

• Name Cost (current rating)
• Attribute x4
• Ability x2
• Background x2
• M-Attribute x5
• Q-Power (L1) x2
• Q-Power (L2) x5
• Q-Power (L3) x7
• Willpower x1
• Quantum x8
• Q. Pool 3 XP
• Initiative x1

NEW TRAIT

• Ability 3
• Specialty* 1
• Background 2
• Enhancement 5
• M-Attribute 6
• Q-Power (L1) 3
• Q-Power (L2) 6
• Q-Power (L3) 9

• 3 Specialties max. per ability

Houserules

Chargen

Taint at chargen gives 2 Nova Points per point of Taint.

Aberrations can be taken as flaws, with minor aberrations being 1 point, medium aberrations 2, and major ones 4.

Willpower is at 2 willpower dots per NP spent. Anyone who bought WP with NP should add the additional WP back in.

Backing is disallowed-everyone's going to be part of an up-and-coming new Elite agency.

Items that require Backing to purchase MAY be purchasable with ST permission.

General House Rules

All Mega-Attributes add one flat success per rating to any roll. Mega-Attributes are not affected by Qualities-however mundane dice are. In the event you do botch a roll with a mega-attribute (no successes are rolled on the dice), halve mega-attribute bonus successes, rounded down, then subtract 1 success for every additional 1 rolled.

All rolled effect powers that don't cause direct damage (Forcefield, etc.) use fixed effect rules in the Player's Guide. Halve the amount of dice you have, and count that as the number of successes.

Qualities makes 10s count double on rolls where they would be valid instead of allowing 10s to be rerolled.

Use the Player's Guide rules to maxing out powers (2 successes on a max roll allows one to add any Extra, 1 success adds 1 level of damage, 1 dot of soak, or 1 success to the power activation roll). A successful power max roll grants (Power Rating) XP specifically for improving that power. (maximum of (Power Rating) XP earned this way per power per session.). Tentatively characters are allowed to power max Mega-Attributes, where 1 adds an Enhancement or an additional success on the next roll using that M-Att.

Equipment and Backgrounds from other WW sources may be purchasable with ST permission. Possibilities include Devices, Enhancement, Sanctum, and certain other backgrounds which might fit.

Movement speeds: Sprint is (Mega-Dexterity + Dexterity * 3) + 20 m/turn. Similarly Hypermovement also increases the multiplier for Mega-Dexterity for running and sprinting.

Dying for power: Damage taken by sacrificing Health Levels for Quantum is Aggravated.

Power House Rules

It is possible for any power with an Extra to be used without the Extra if desired.

Clone only provides up to (Clone) clones, instead of up to (Quantum + Clone) clones. It costs 3 Quantum per clone.

The "Aggravated" extra halves damage levels dealt (rounded up) but turns damage aggravated. For powers such as claws this damage is applied separately from other damage (which is turned lethal as normal). If a power has multiple modes (bashing/lethal) use the mode that deals the least damage. Aggravated extras reduce the range of powers so given to (Quantum + Power Rating) * 5 m. Quantum Bolt also halves the damage dice if used in Aggravated mode.

Impervious defenses no longer convert aggravated damage to lethal-they merely allow you to apply their Lethal soak to your Aggravated soak total. Hardbody allows you to apply your Stamina + Mega-Stamina Lethal soak to your Aggravated soak total (instead of converting all your Lethal soak into Aggravated soak).

All body modifications except (Extra Health Levels) are at half cost, rounded down because they are terrible compared to powers.

Quantum Conversion does (Stamina + Quantum Conversion) Bashing or (Stamina + Quantum Conversion/2) dice of damage, rounding down, for 1 Quantum point. Add Mega-Stamina in as damage dice instead of levels.

Sizemorph (Grow), instead of doubling size and octupuling mass for every dot of Sizemorph, it multiplies a character's height and reach by (Sizemorph rating + 1) and mass by (Sizemorph Rating * 8).

A power can only gain a Mastery if it is at either rating 4 (Mastery 1), 6 (mastery 2), or 8 (mastery 3). A mastery does not increase the area affected to km/hundreds of km/thousands of km-instead it multiplies the area by 10 (Mastery 1), 25 (Mastery 2), or 100 (Mastery 3).

Powers that boost attributes no longer cap at 5-instead they cap at (maximum normal + Quantum). Powers that boost M-Atts after boosting regular attributes only add to Mega-Attributes after boosting normal attributes to their new maximum.

The "Boost" power now rolls only Quantum, adding (Boost + 1) automatic successes to the roll, to boost the selected attribute. Everything else works normally.

Vehicle House Rules

All vehicles gain an additional amount of -0 Damage Levels equal to their Armor Adds. Furthermore Armor Adds soak levels of damage after damage is rolled, instead of reducing damage dice.

Modified and New Equipment

The Flechette Rifle has doubled range and is naturally armor piercing.

Power Armor

Evolving rapidly from load-bearing exoskeletons developed by the United States in the last years of the pre-Nova age, powered combat armors are now a common sight in hostile environments or guarding critical areas. Fielded so that a baseline hopefully might have something of a chance against a Nova, a power-suited soldier using combat drugs is not quite there but still a threat, especially when backed up with semi-autonomous robots.

Powered armor gives +8B/7L soak and adds +2 to strength as well as +2 to Might with a Penalty of 1 and a Destruction rating of 20. The armor itself masses 25 kilograms. Powered armor is unavailable outside of the black market or military issue, and costs resources ***** in the former case-although personnel in first world militaries or paramilitary organizations such as the Directive have significantly easier access to these suits.

In general powered armor has various sensor and damping functionality, including night vision and sensor cut-outs, giving it the equivalent of Sensory Shield * and reduces penalties for darkness by 1. Many suits of power armor have further electronics integrated, including Electronic Combat Sights or Aberscopes.

Combat Houserules

A Nova may move up to half their run distance without taking penalties to actions during combat. Running up to maximum run distance subtracts 1 from all pools. Sprinting while acting requires the person in question to take a multiple action.

Using the Accuracy Enhancement stacks with aim actions-the Nova gains the +3 dice from the Enhancement in addition to the bonus from aiming.

Burst-fire no longer adds 1 to difficulty.

Extreme Range: Shots from twice to up to five times the range of a weapon or Quantum Power are extreme range shots, at +4 difficulty. A power with the Extended Range Extra has long range: Line of Sight and thus will never make an Extreme Range shot at all. Homing powers suffer no difficulty penalty from extreme range.

Custom Powers and Enhancements

These are for player-designed powers and Enhancements created to fill niches that you really want filled but can't find something that does so.

Powers

Quantum Resistance
Level: 2
Quantum Minimum: 4
Range: Self
Duration: Permament
Effect: Adds +2 successes to any roll made to resist Quantum-disrupting powers such as Disrupt or Disimmunize
Description: Some of the rarest but most deadly, at least to other Nova, powers are the ones that subvert their control over their own powers, disrupting them or removing immunities to them. Quantum Resistance increases a Nova's ability to withstand these insidious effects, adding +2 successes to any roll made to resist powers such as Quantum Leech, Disrupt, Disimmunize, or Quantum Vampire that would affect their powers or Quantum points.

Blink
Level: 2 (Quantum Cost 1/use)
Quantum Minimum: 1
Range: Self
Area: N/A
Duration: Instant
Multiple Actions: Yes
Dice Pool: Dexterity + Blink
Effect: Character instantly moves a moderate distance
Description: Considered a lesser version of Teleport or a specialized version of Hypermovement, the Blink power allows a Nova to rapidly move in a short sprint. Sometimes this represents itself as "Hyper-sprinting", or just suddenly disappearing and reappearing, or more esoteric techniques such as converting into light or electricity for an instant and moving a short distance at the speed of light. When used, the character pays 1 Quantum and rolls Dexterity + Blink, adding Quantum as automatic successes. Each success gained this way allows the Nova to move up to 50 meters in any direction-with the caveat that the Nova must be able to see his destination and also be able to theoretically reach it with another movement method in his current state. If the Nova wishes to 'blink' a kilometer into the air, he must have Flight, Teleport, or Quantum Leap, for example. However if the Nova wishes to 'blink' on the top of a building, as long as the building has stairs or the Nova can climb walls, he or she could instantly appear on top of it assuming enough successes were scored. Using Blink to dodge attacks allows a Nova to dodge most area attacks as normal attacks but gives no other special bonuses. Blink is also available as a Temporal Mastery or a Spatial Mastery technique in which case replace the Dexterity + Blink roll with a Dexterity + Spatial/Temporal Mastery roll.

Enhancements

Mega-(Anything) Enhancement: Jack of all Trades
All Novas with mega-attributes are universally good, but some go a cut above and beyond, adapting to any situation easily.
System: A Nova with this Enhancement counts as having the relevant quality for any roll related to this attribute. This Enhancement is always on and costs no Quantum points to use.

Mega-(Anything) Enhancement: Prodigy
A Nova with this Enhancement is even better than normal in a specific action-a Mega-Strong Nova might be particularly good at breaking objects or doing damage in close combat, or lifting, while a Mega-Witty Nova might be exceptional in combat or a Mega-Appearance Nova particularly enchanting while on stage or in elegant dress. This Enhancement gives the relevant normal attribute a single Specialty, effectively increasing it by 1 during the relevant situation. For example, a Nova might have Strength 5, Mega-Strength 2, and Prodigy, taking the specialty "Hand to hand combat" for Strength. When he throws a punch or a kick, it deals damage as if he had Strength 6. This Enhancement is always on and costs no Quantum points to use-further more due to its nature it works even while the Nova is dormed down.

Mega-Strength Enhancement: Pack Mule
A Nova with this Enhancement can carry much heavier loads without encumbrance than fellow Mega-Strong Novas, allowing him to make much easier use of heavy weapons and equipment. Instead of gaining 100 kg of unencumbered carrying capacity, the Nova can carry up to 1/10th of his total lifting capacity without encumbrance penalties, and can divide the loss of movement from encumbrance over this limit by his or her Mega-Strength automatic successes. This Enhancement is always on and costs no Quantum points to use.

Mega-Dexterity Enhancement: Fluid
A Nova with this Enhancement is as difficult to pin down as a liquid, flowing through even coordinated barrages of enemy attacks. When acting on full defense, a Nova with this Enhancement no longer loses dice from his defense rolls as long as they involve physical actions. This Enhancement costs 1 Quantum to use for an action.

Mega-Dexterity Enhancement: Dodger
Requires: Mega-Perception or Mega-Wits
A Nova with this Enhancement reflexively dodges attacks aimed at him, if not at a very high level. A Nova with this Enhancement may always make a dodge against an attack even without declaring a dodge, but if dodging without a declared dodge, he rolls only (Mega-Dexterity + 1) dice and does not add extra successes from Mega-Dexterity instead of using Dexterity + Athletics as normal. This Enhancement is always on and does not cost Quantum points.

Mega-Stamina Enhancement: Unstoppable
Any Nova with Mega-Stamina is capable of withstanding extreme pain and injury, but one with this Enhancement is capable of going even when other lesser Novas would be left unconscious or worse. This Enhancement, when purchased, removes the wound penalty for bashing damage, and allows a Nova to function without penalty even when Incapacitated from bashing damage-his superhuman constitution ignores such injury, although it still causes damage. Bashing damage still wraps around to lethal as normal. This Enhancement may be purchased twice, and upon the second purchase the Nova ignores penalties from Lethal damage as well, which now wraps around into aggravated damage. The Nova will now only be disabled by Aggravated damage. This Enhancement is always on and takes no Quantum points.

Mega-Stamina Enhancement: Die Hard
A Nova with this Enhancement becomes tougher as he draws closer to death. When this Enhancement is activated, the Nova adds his wound penalty (before subtracting for pain tolerance and Mega-Stamina) to his bashing, lethal, and aggravated soak. Treat Incapacitated as a -6 wound penalty for the purposes of calculating additional soak. This Enhancement costs 1 Quantum and lasts for 1 scene.

Mega-Stamina Enhancement: Unkillable
Some Novas have grown more and more resistant to fatal injury, and are capable of survival, if not function, even when missing significant percentages of body-mass or otherwise fatally wounded. A Nova with this Enhancement gains an additional number of Incapacitated health levels equal to his Stamina + Mega-Stamina. This Enhancement is always on and takes no Quantum points.

Mega-Appearance Enhancement: Blurred
In some cases a Nova wishes to remain anonymous, but in an age of ubiquitious surveillance and cameras, there are few options for this. However, a Nova with this enhancement finds it easy to ignore surveillance, as although they might be spotted they cannot be recorded. This Enhancement makes it impossible to record the Nova via any means-all stored image data and voice data of him will degrade at the end of a scene, leaving only a vaguely humanoid (or more peculiar) blur and a monotone, mechanical voice. Only human (or Nova) memory can keep an impression of the Nova. This enhancement is always on, making a media career something rather difficult for a Nova with this Enhancement.

Mega-Wits Enhancement: Combat Reflexes
Many Novas are employed in occupations that make it likely that they will end up in combat situations. Similarly, those Novas tend to adapt both their bodies and minds to thrive in such a situation. A Nova with this enhancement reacts with the grace and poise of the hardest of veterans in combat, even if he or she has never fought before. This Enhancement allows a Nova to roll 2 dice for initiative and take the highest, and also allows him or her to automatically succeed rolls to act in the face of cover fire. This Enhancement is always on and takes no Quantum points. This Enhancement stacks with the Combat Veteran merit, allowing the Nova to roll 3 dice for initiative and take the highest of 3.

Mega-Wits Enhancement: Intuitive
A Nova with this Enhancement is very good at rederiving basic principles on the fly, giving him or her the ability to intuitively figure out how to accomplish any task he or she, even if he or she has never done it before or even knows it's possible. When activated, this Enhancement gives a Nova "phantom" ability levels equal to his or her Mega-Wits. These do not stack with normally bought ability levels-use the higher. This Enhancement costs 1 Quantum to use and lasts for 1 action.

Mega-Wits Enhancement: Predictive
A Nova with this Enhancement is capable of predicting, from given cues, what will happen in the very near future. These predictions get less and less accurate over time, and are generally only of acceptable accuracy for fractions of a second-but sufficient for a combat situation. A Nova with this Enhancement may use Wits + Awareness to dodge attacks instead of using Dexterity + Athletics. This Enhancement is always on and costs no Nova points. However, as a side benefit the Nova may pay 1 Quantum to add (Mega-Wits) dice to any single dodge action based on Dexterity + Athletics.

Mega-Intelligence Enhancement: Incomprehensibility
A Mega-Intelligent Nova's mind and thoughts are far faster and more complex than a baseline's-a fact that some of them have exploited to create a defense against mental attacks to some extent. A Nova with this Enhancement adds his Mega-Intelligence to his willpower when resisting powers like Dominate, Hypnosis, or Empathic Manipulation-but if the attacking Nova has Mega-Intelligence he may subtract 1 of these additional dice for every dot of Mega-Intelligence he or she has. This does not work on direct damage like Mental Blast. This Enhancement is always on and costs no Quantum points.

Regeneration
A Nova may buy Regeneration twice-the second purchase allows it to function even while Incapacitated.

NPCs

Put the NPCs up on the wiki and link them here to claim your XP. They should have full stat blocks and at least a token background. Nova NPCs should be built on 10-40 Nova Points.

Baseline NPCs can be built on just about any amount of XP but most shouldn't have any attribute or ability over 4 (unless they're Olympic-quality). As a rough guideline most workers in a field should have a 5-6 dice pool in relevant skills, with experienced personnel having a 7-9 pool in relevant skills.

Allies

Martin Collins- Screwball's Mentor
Hanna Fortin- OmegaPaladin's Mentor

Miscellaneous

Thomas Connor - Fighter pilot turned into a fighter!
Smith - Nova Cannibal
Dexter Briggs - Project Utopia agent
Conrad Basilone - Hard-Core USMC Nova, with excessive firepower
Sophie Kraft Samantha Fisher: Nova Cell
Ryan McKnight - Quantum Construct Example
Mike Holo - Nova pop star
Leo Lopez - Laser Sniper
Weatherman - Project Utopia agent

Enemies

Aurelia Lancaster - Mesmerist
Rasul Samir - rival of Screwball (1 pt)
Zombie Mecha-Skorzeny- Screwball's Mentor's Nemesis
The Dragon - Chinese Martial Arts Master dedicated to restoring the Chinese monarchy. Certainly a major threat to even a Nova.
Ludwig Baumgartner- SCIENCE!
Nightstorm- Potential T2M responder to an attack on a Pakistani nuclear missile base by 'persons unknown'.
Caestus Pax- Superman if he was a roid-raging egotist.
DeadEyes-Proteus Op
Ochre-Proteus Op
Alpha-Proteus Op
MJ12's Mook Page

NPC Creation Guidelines

Teragen NPCs: Teragen will generally be high-Taint and wallow in their Taintedness with extensive and inhuman Aberrations and obvious powers. There are a few belonging to the Casanova faction which will have lower Taint scores (sometimes even Taint 0) and generally more subtle effects.

Directive NPCs: Directive Novas will all have Taint 0 and Dormancy of at least 2 dots, often higher. They will not have extremely obvious, blatant powers. Directive Baselines work for an intelligence agency with a significant paramilitary arm. They should reflect that.

Project Utopia: The Nova in question must be able to interact with baselines and not freak them out. Otherwise regulations are fairly loose. Utopian baseline personnel are often either researchers, managers, or paramilitary.

Elites: They need to be able to viably work for pay. Note that not all Elites are combat oriented-there are Nova celebrities who will generally have powers fitting their occupation (a Nova lawyer will have Mega-Charisma and Mega-Manipulation, some Mega-Intelligence and Mega-Wits, while a Nova movie starlet will likely have Mega-Appearance, Mega-Charisma, and if she does her own stunts, some Mega-Physicals).

Government-Employed: Government employed Novas will always have powers befitting their role and need to be able to listen to baseline commanders or superiors and not freak out their coworkers.