Aberrant 2.0 Rules Alterations

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Botching

  • Botches: A character botches a roll if it fails with a margin of failure higher than the character's Ability rating in that roll + 1. Count each '1' rolled as +1 to the margin of failure. Therefore, if a character has an ability rating of 1, he botches with an adjusted MoF of 3 or greater, while a character with an ability rating of 5 will only botch rolls if his adjusted MoF is 6 or higher. Mega-Attributes do not reduce the botch chance of dramatic failure, save for adding more successes and therefore reducing the number of failed rolls and the chance for high MoFs.
  • Botching Rolls without an Ability: Some rolls may not have an ability or Quantum power governing them (i.e. Node detection, certain Enhancements which require a roll of their associated attribute and only that attribute, so on). In that case, a character botches if he rolls no successes and at least one 1-Mega-Attributes do not insulate against botching with their requisite Enhancements.

Bonuses

  • Bonus Cap: A character may gain bonus dice from various sources, such as Mega-Attribute Enhancements or body modifications. Although powerful, at some point your character has to do things for himself. No amount of Mega-Attribute enhancements or cybernetic/biological modification can turn a Charisma 1 boor into a social dynamo. A character is limited to a maximum of (Attribute + 2) bonus dice from any number of sources. Heavy augmentation can make the incompetent competent and the masters superhuman, but cannot take an incompetent and elevate him to heroic ability.

Hazards

  • Falling Damage: Falling damage is now 1 bashing die/2 meters (round down), up to 25B damage from a fall. Fall damage is lethal if the damage equals or exceeds the character's (Stamina + Athletics). So a character with Stamina 5 and Athletics 5 considers fall damage lethal only from falls of 20 meters or more, but an old granny with Stamina 1 and Athletics 0 considers all fall damage lethal. Remember that each dot of Mega-Stamina counts as 2 dots of Stamina.
  • Hard Radiation: Hard Radiation's damage is aggravated at high levels, causing permanent damage which baselines cannot heal without extensive medical aid.

Physical Actions

Lifting

A character may lift a certain amount normally, given his Str + Might. The first ten dots of Strength + Might add 30 kg to a character's lifting capacity per dot (so a character with Str + Might 1 can lift 30 kg, while one with 2 can lift 60, and one with 3 can lift 90 up to Str + Might 10 which allows the lift of 300kg). Strength + Might scores above 10 add 50 kg per dot to lifting capacity.

Lifting weights above your lifting capacity requires a Str + Might roll, difficulty +1 for every dot of Str + Might the character falls short in.

A character with Mega-Strength multiplies the character's "normal" lifting capacity by 10/100/250/500/1000 per dot at M-Str 1-5 respectively. Mega-Strength scores beyond 5 multiply lifting capacity by an additional 10 per dot.

Example: A character with Strength 4, Might 2, and Mega-Strength 2 has a mundane lifting capacity of 180 kg, which is multiplied by 100, for a total of 18,000 kg.

Encumbrance

Unencumbered: A character is unencumbered if he carries up to 2 kg per dot of Str + Might. This has no negative effects. Generally this state requires a character to travel extremely light.

Light Encumbrance: Light Encumbrance occurs when the character is carrying more than that, up to 5 kg per dot of Str + Might (so a character with Strength + Might 4 can carry up to 20 kg without light encumbrance). A lightly encumbered character merely adds +1 difficulty for all rolls involving long-term physical endurance and reduces her Dexterity by 1 for the purposes of movement. The dexterity penalty may not reduce Walking speeds to lower than 3 m/s.

Moderate Encumbrance: A character is moderately encumbered if he carries up to 10 kg per dot of Str + Might, adding +1 difficulty to all physical actions involving movement or endurance, and subtract 1 from Dexterity for effective movement speeds. The dexterity penalty may not reduce Walking speeds to lower than 3 m/s.

Heavy Encumbrance: Characters carrying 15 kg per dot of Str + Might (or fully half of their lifting capacity) are heavily encumbered, and suffer +2 difficulty to all physical actions involving movement or endurance, -2 to dexterity for movement, and +1 difficulty to all other physical actions. The dexterity penalty may not reduce Walking speeds to lower than 3 m/s.

Extreme Encumbrance: Finally, a character with 20 kg per dot of Str + Might is extremely encumbered, adding +3 difficulty to all actions involving movement or endurance and -3 to dexterity for movement, as well as +2 difficulty for all other physical actions due to stress and fatigue. The dexterity penalty may not reduce Walking speeds to lower than 3 m/s.

Encumbrance Beyond This: Each additional 5 kg per dot of Str + Might that the character carries adds another +1 difficulty to all actions and -1 to Dexterity for movement. A character may be reduced to 1 m/turn movement at this rate, which means the character is overburdened to the point that he can barely crawl. A character may not attempt to carry more than his lifting capacity.

Mega-Strength and Encumbrance: Each dot of Mega-Strength multiplies the character's encumbrance thresholds by the same amount it multiplies the character's lifting thresholds. So a character with Strength + Might 4 and Mega-Strength 1 is unencumbered with 80 kg of stuff, lightly encumbered with 200 kg of stuff, moderately encumbered with 400 kg of equipment, and so on.

Movement

  • Walking: Walking speed for a character is now (Dexterity + 3) meters/round before any bonuses are factored in. Most people can swim at their Walking speed.
  • Running: Running speed for a character is now (5 + Dexterity * 2) meters/round. In broken terrain, most people's top speed is their running speed.
  • Sprinting: Sprinting speed for a character is now (15 + Athletics + [Dexterity * 3]) meters/round.
  • Jumping: Jumping is still a (Str + Might) roll with 0.5 meter vertical or 2m horizontal height per success. This is assuming a modicum of technique for jumps in less cinematic games, parkour wall-rebounds and such. People with low Athletics in particularly gritty games should have their jump heights and distances halved.

Equipment

  • Vehicles: Vehicles now have altered stats, as listed in the expansion. There are no longer armor adds for vehicles, which should be noted. Note that vehicles do not take "ping" damage from attacks that lack damage adds. You can trash a car with bare hands, but you better be Charles Atlas or a Nova before you try it.
  • Weapons: Weapons have errata and a few new additions. Both vehicle and weapon errata are listed in the expansion.
  • Resources: The cost of an item establishes the rough "budget range" of an item rather than its precise cost. A Resources 4 car might cost a hundred thousand dollars, yet a Resources 4 set of clothing might only cost a thousand or so. It is possible to liquidate money to buy objects above one's price range. In that case, roll resources. For every success rolled, add +1 to effective resources for the purposes of a single purchase-if successful, you are now a proud owner of the desired item. This can only be attempted once per month and for particularly expensive items (Russian surplus air superiority fighters, new homes, illegal nuclear weapons) the ST reserves the right to permanently reduce resources by 1 or more points after a purchase.

Backgrounds

Revised Background: Mentor

The Mentor background gives you a teacher, who will allow you to purchase certain attributes, abilities, or powers at a XP discount. On the other hand, a Mentor often will require you to learn other things that you don't want to. You have to learn to sweep the floor very well and proper etiquette before your martial arts sifu teaches you how to punch better, so on and so forth. For every block of 15 XP spent on attributes, abilities, or powers the Mentor is willing to teach, a Mentor gives a discount equal to their Mentor rating. So for example if a character buys Charisma 4 (12 XP), Manipulation 3 (8 XP) and Mental Blast 3 (10 XP) from a mentor of rating 3, the character saves 6 XP on costs. Generally, the more expensive the desired power learned the more additional "stuff" needs to be learned, and higher level mentors are often more demanding than lower level ones.

Revised Background: Follower

The Follower background gives you loyal retainers, armed soldiers, lab techs, or various other forms of personnel. In general, each dot of Followers gives you some level of loyal people who are willing to do things for you. Followers come in one of three flavors-Physical, Mental, and Social, which provides their intended competence. In other areas they tend to be incapable of significant assistance (although they should be able to handle themselves in that area). You can, in fact, mix and match. Unlike Allies, Followers are always on-call and as long as they get their paychecks and a modicum of respect, will follow the character without hesitation as long as the task is reasonable..
Admirers: The weakest and most incapable form of follower, people who are in your fan club are generally not particularly useful although some of them might be cute. Their dice pools tend to be somewhere around 3d-fortunately they don't tend to have any worthwhile specialties. Generally attributes are 2s, with perhaps one or two at 3 and possibly one or two at 1. Each dot of Followers grants you ten admirers-although they aren't particularly useful for most purposes, you can trust them to do everyday things like mow the lawn or wash your clothes or clean your mansion.
Regulars: These people want to make a career out of the field in question. Reservist soldiers, college students majoring in a field, door-to-door salesmen, whatever they are, their attributes tend to be a mix of 2s and 3s in their primary role and their dice pools are generally 5d in that role. Each dot of Followers grants you four regulars.
Specialists: Specialists have made a living out of their job and do quite well. With a 7d dice pool in their purview and an average Attribute rating of 3 in their primary role (physical, mental, or social), they are competent in their field and useful for those purposes. Each dot of Followers can grant a character 2 Specialists.
Experts: The most capable form of follower is the Expert, who takes many forms. Experts tend to have a host of attributes at 3 and 4 and a host of abilities as well, throwing 9d dice pools at problems in their purview (attribute 4, ability 4, specialty 1). Whether experienced engineers and scientists, special forces commandos, or professional hostage negotiators, they are assumed to have an Attribute rating of 4 in their role when it matters. Each dot of Followers can grant a character 1 Expert.

New Background: Sanctum

The Sanctum background gives the character in question some sort of safehouse, hidden base, or similar. The background's rating gives the Sanctum an effective Cipher rating, adding to the difficulty of finding it, and also allows for ever more unrealistic Sancta from safehouses in the middle of a major city at low ratings to strange extradimensional realms at higher ones. The background gives a number of points equal to its (rating + 2) to be spent on Size, Inhabitants, Defenses, and Accessibility.
  • Size: Size is the size and scope of your Sanctum. Size 0 is a small town house, while Size 1 is a mansion, Size 2 is a tiny island (maybe a square kilometer), and Size 3 is a larger (but still small) island approximately ten times the size. Larger sanctums give more space for experiments, guests, and inhabitants, increasing their numbers. Increasing Size beyond 3 increases size by a factor of ten per increase.
  • Inhabitants: At Inhabitants 0, your Sanctum has maybe a butler or two. Inhabitants 1 grants you competent workers and guards, Inhabitants 2 gets you more seasoned personnel, and at Inhabitants 3 you get particularly elite personnel, equal to experts in their field or special forces ninjas or whatever. Inhabitants 4+ grants you inhuman personnel, allowing you to give them an effective Enhancements rating (chosen with the Sanctum, cannot be changed later) equal to (Inhabitants - 3). Space elves, green-skinned amazons, whatever you want.
  • Defenses: Defenses 0 means you have a burglar alarm, and Defenses 1 gets you reinforced doors, windows, and locks. The more points in Defenses, the more traps and other protective methods you get, from minefields to automated sentry guns to laser traps and poison gas rooms.
  • Accessibility: Accessibility 0 means you actually have to get there by normal means. Increasing Accessibility reduces the difficulty of getting to the Sanctum from anywhere in the galaxy.
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