Aberrant (game)

Created by White Wolf in 1999, Aberrant is a superhero-based role-playing game set in 2008AD in a world where supers started appearing one day in 1998 out of the blue. The game deals with the how the characters (supers called novas) fit into a mundane world when they most definitely are not mundane, as well as how the mundane populace react to there suddenly being super-powered people.

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 allways follow a specific path or are linked to a specific focus. For instance all the nova Anteus's powers revolve around nature; he can teleport by stepping into a tree and exiting another tree of the same type anywhere, he can create new species of animals, he can cause plants and animals to grow faster, die instantly, or to mutate. All his powers though follow his focus of nature. Other novas have other foci; plasma, fire, water, shapechanging, imperviousness,etc...

As a nova grows to more powerful in his ability to manipulate quantum they begin to experience the side effects of channelling larger and larger amounts, namely Taint. Taint is the 'non-humanness' side of quantum manipulation and at higher levels novas begin to show either physical or mental defects. These defects range as widely as a tentacle growing from one's stomach, sociopathic disorders, hair made of flames, odd skin composition (skin made of rubber for instance), a power you can't turn off, megalomania, or giving off radiation all the time.

Unlike other games by White Wolf there are no splats that limit one's abilities in Aberrant, though there are four major factions. This game definitely is NOT a four color supers game, each faction has areas of grey that challenge the morals of the characters.

Aberrant is also the prequal to Trinity[?] and the successor to Adventure , thus by reading Trinity you find out what happens to novas over the course of the next 60 years.

System Aberrant uses a modified version of the d10 system that all White Wolf games use. 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 adition to normal attributes, novas have what are called Mega attributes that are the same as mundane attributes (dex, manipulation, wits, etc...). These dice are added 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 low level powers, 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.

Recent Game History A new lead producer named Bruce Baugh (sp?) has been put in charge of all games in the Aeoniverse (Trinity, Aberrant, and Adventure!), but there has not been a new release for Aberrant in over a year (as of Jan 2002), and this has recently fueled rumors that the game may be on the way to being cancelled.