Aberrant is a role-playing game created by White Wolf Game Studio in 1999, set in 2008 in a realistic world where super-powered humans started appearing one day in 1998. Super-intelligent "novas" have advanced technology to the equivalent of the 2030s with Neuralink, MHD engines and exotic bioweapons, but fusion is still forever 5 years away. Nova Vtubers rule the fiberoptic internet and nova mercenaries wage proxy wars in Africa, but in the background, humanity is slowly losing patience with them...What could possibly go wrong?
>>93793630a bearant is an 8HD creature with two swipes & a bite attack which can latch on and maul for two additional attacks each round.
>>93793630Is 1e or 2e better, both in terms of setting and mechanics?
>>93795512the one made by white wolf
>>93795512What exactly are the differences?
>>93800345Ones ritten by game designersThe others an onyx path hatchetjob
>>93793630Aberrant is a smart superhero game filled with deep emotions, created by a company known for its supernatural themes and unique gaming style. It’s an unusual mix, but it works well! I have been playing and collecting Aberrant for the past year, and I’ve really enjoyed it. Sadly, it seems Aberrant hasn’t been as successful as White Wolf hoped, and it has now been moved to OP, similar to what happened with the scifi shitpile. It’s disappointing, but since most of the important core supplements are already out, it’s manageable. Here's hoping they dont try to "fix" it with any digitard "updates".
is it more in line with something like Exalted or Vampire? I run super super mechanics lite roleplay heavy games for my group and this seems like an interesting setting.I have debated running them a SWAT game set in something like Worm using Delta Green but playing as lads with powers could also be fun.
>>93801074Power level wise, it's more Exalted. But where exalted tends to have a lot of powers that are discrete moves and operate ontologically and results-oriented (are you attacked? You dodge, you just do. You can automatically move outside the range of the attack / to where the attacker is, even if they're in orbit. No, you can't jump into orbit unless you're attacked by someone up there, that's a different power) Aberrant is more bottom-up (you're super tanky, anti-tank missiles just don't do anything to you. It doesn't matter how that amount of force is delivered to your body, you're just too durable, they need to hit you harder or use poison or something).Setting wise, it's more vampire, but really it's pretty different from either.You could almost think of it as an alternative to Exalted if you don't like anime or street fighter, you like Worm or other western supers deconstructions.
>>93793630The new edition sucks, it completely undercuts the original. For instance, ABERRANT no longer refers to the good guys (and, by default, the PCs!) It refers to a hardline Teragen group, the faction similar to the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and lead by gay Magneto! More, the football player (in this iteration) is working for the very conspiracy he was battling in the original. Oh, and there's a vast amount of bullshit that wasn't in the original: Totenaz, a ruthless killer, no longer erupts from his thot girlfriend's confession that she was gleefully and remorselessly cheating on him. No, now he erupts when his girlfriend dies in the crossfire between battling superhumans.Now, Aberrant had a lot of problems. One problem was that it was (I'm not joking) written by a closeted gay man with issues , and his issues carried over to his writing. But the core concept, of a shining setting that was going to plunge right into hell because of very human fears and attempts to destroy what they couldn't control, was rather unique.Also, they killed off The Fireman, an iconic character who was the first known Nova in-universe. (Another huge shame, because the first scenario for Aberrant was the PCs serving as aides for his presidential campaign)!
>>93803487Also, Slider was never murdered, and Andre Corbin (while pretending to be a layabout and hell-raiser) is the leader of a 'dirty dozen' arm of Project Utopia called 'Team2Nite'.The Nova, Vladimir Sierka - who prevented Russia from backsliding into authoritarian poverty - is now super-Putin.My guess is that the original setting was uncomfortably close to the QAnon / 'truthers' type, but the setting is now way less nuanced and interesting. I don't know who was behind this creative decision, but it's hugely disappointing.I can't understand why you'd want to resurrect this setting if you just stripped out everything that made it unique. Now it's a very, very generic superhero triumphalism setting, which just sucks the life out of it.
>>93803487Closeted? Blackwelder was really open about being gay, wasn't he?And also about seeing divis mal as his gay self-insert.And who he felt the gameline was really about - I think the words "The game is called "aberrant," not "aberrants" because it's about just one" or something similar was thrown around.
>>93803541Yeah he was a huge faggotEvery gay character was written as incredibly powerful or somehow infallible, like Ironskin Andy and his husband, gay Ryu from Street Fighter.
>>93803526How's the rules for second edition? I already know I prefer the fluff for first, but being a white wolf game the crunch is... questionable at best. Have they actually improved it?
>>93800493What's wrong with Onyx Path?
>>93806979Dubious writing and incompetent management that kind of hates their audience.
>>93793630>What could possibly go wrong?like all white wolf games it was a thinly-veiled metaphor for adolescence
>>93807554By writing do you mean the setting or the actual mechanics, and what are some specific examples?
>>93806979It's a game company where most of the writers are in their 40's and 50's, but have the mindset of edgy teenage social outcasts from the mid- 90's that don't understand the real world but think they're smarter than everyone around them.I'm allowed to say that because that's exactly what I was in the mid-90's.But yeah, that's what shows in their writing, and it's been that way since the 1990's when they started making games. All they've done since then is desperately try to appeal to the 'current thing' so they can be the 'how do you do, fellow kids' meme. If you want the image of a White Wolf/Onyx Path writer: picture some balding middle-aged dude wearing clothes from Hot Topic with the 'hot takes' on social issues that align with Insane Clown Posse, taking his heart medicine and complaining about 'posers'.
>>93806979Alternatively, another response from me (the guy talking about 90's reject writers):There's this weird clash between what the game presents to you in a toolkit, versus what they say you SHOULD be doing. >Here's a whole bunch of fun, awesome, cool shit that you could technically do>But if you do that you're playing the game wrongOh, you want to play Hunter: The Reckoning? Well, if you're playing someone who's had military training in the past, you're doing it wrong. You need to be some chickenshit loser with severe emotional problems and noodle-arms, because that's the most ideal person to be a hunter of supernatural monsters. And by 'hunt' we mean 'lose and run away', because it's horror, and that means you have to roleplay being scared. Rawr.
>>93808257>like all white wolf games it was a thinly-veiled metaphor for adolescenceRun that by me again please?
>>93800557This shit movie lol I forgot about it. The miner guy lol
>>93808257>>93814977Well, it's not the most unsettling 'thinly-veiled metaphor' from White Wolf/Onyx Path. I'd like to refer you to 'Beast: The Primordial'.If you know, you know.
>>93814977There are two wolfs in you, one is White, and the other is a Get of Fenris.(here's a hint, it involves gay sex)
>>93815036It does knotI mean it does not
>>93815031>I'd like to refer you to 'Beast: The Primordial'.What about it, and how does it compare to Aberrant?
>>93818568Honest question, are you a fucking bot?
>>93800345Ignore these dumb niggers. Here's a more neutral overview:Original Aberrant>Older edition with 90's art (soulful)>Cynical tone with Nova genocide plots, UN conspiracies and so on>Imagine Watchmen meets Kingdom Come>Metaplot>Aberrants are a group of Novas trying to expose corruption within Project Utopia>Rules are kind of janky, basically original Scion system with a bunch of mechanics for powersTrinity Continuum: Aberrant>Newer, more cartoonish art (not soulless, but definitely not soulful)>Tone is a lot more optimistic to fit with the general themes of the Trinity Continuum line: no genocide plots>no Metaplot, but core book has a "setting secrets" chapter if the ST wants to introduce an overarching plot>Aberrants are an extremist post-human faction of Novas (think Brotherhood of Evil Mutants)>Kingdom Come meets Overwatch>Uses the Storypath system which is a streamlined version of CofD's Storytelling system>Powers less janky, but still has jankBoth editions deal with post-humanism, the hubris of power, and the nature of celebrity in a mass media age.I've run TC: Aberrant about three times now and I fully enjoy it. That doesn't mean 1e should be ignored, because it has some cool themes TC:A doesn't.
>>93807554You say this, but they've managed to release several decent game lines while NuWW/Paradox/Renegade/whatever the fuck they're calling themselves these days struggles to release anything beyond VtM.
do we have a trove for this? the only white wolves ones i found only have wodg/cofd stuff
>>93818972You seem to have experience, so you could answer my question >>93803969?I'm curious if I would enjoy running a game in the old setting with the new rules as a base. I'm not really familiar with storypath, could you give a rundown of the differences and what they bring to the table for Aberrant?
>>93793630Does anyone here have any tips for a newfag at this game please?
>>93793630I was slightly surprised by Aberrant's PDF when I found the primary villain in the lore shares my name. It's a largely rare one in the USA so that stood out to me. I don't remember much else of it outside of that.
>>93822978My experience is with 1st edition:Mega attributes are good buys, not too pricey, no usage cost, first dot gets you a free minor power and getting a few more can make a huge difference in your effectiveness - you're getting Exalted-level numbers of successes in a system where nobody else is doing that.Actual powers can be very powerful but are also a fair bit of investment to get and often to use, so put thought into what you want. I've generally been a fan of level 3 powers that are very versatile because they let you copy or shift around powers or because they have multiple applications, but just a pile of quantum bolt can make a big difference at times.Eufiber and Node, as well as directly buying up your battery size, can be pretty valuable if you have spendy powers. Also, there's a skill in one of the sourcebooks that lets you use your eufiber suit as a shapechanging multitool.If you aren't trying to stealth, consider getting heavy equipment that normies can't use so that you can hit in your weight class.
>>93823051Thanks, what about 2d edition, any major changes there, ore are you not familiar with that?
>>93811844HTR never got a 20th edition so that would be from 1e, which is a WW book.
>>93819071I think that Da Archive has something for it... maybe. If not, I'm sorry, and the share thread is your best bet
>>93803969>>93822412In my experience, the rules are a lot better. The powers are easier to use and understand, and you have a lot of room for how you skin them in the narrative. Quantum Attack, for example, can be built in different ways based on how you want it to work. In one of my campaigns, one guy had the power to control glass and had a Quantum Attack technique that worked very differently from the guy who had rocket punches built into his suit of Q-Tech armor. But both used the same power. Quantum Abilities are very versatile and easy to build (usually).I also like how the Technique edge works (edges are the new name for merits). It essentially lets you have alternate uses for what is the same power in the fiction. Think like how Magneto can use his powers of magnetism to manipulate metal objects, but he can also use it to attack foes with magnetic objects, and he can also even form a magnetic shield around himself.Now the rules can still be janky. The Nova Tech rules are poorly-worded and the examples they give don't work out according to the rules. Also, certain powers, like Elemental Mastery don't make sense at first, until you realize they're supposed to be used with the Technique edge.Certain Mega-Attributes seem to give strange benefits. Like Mega-Stamina give a character resistance to environmental effects, but doesn't make you tougher or have more health (there are edges and power that do that instead, although they often have Mega-Stamina as a prerequisite).No matter what edition you use, make sure you teach your players how Maxing Out their powers work, and remind them they can do it.
>>93832887I should probably also explain the Story Path rules, which 2e uses. I think it's a huge improvement as a core rule system. If you know WW, you know how the basics work: count up your dots, roll that many d10s. Novas succeed on 7, 8, 9, and 10, with 10s exploding. Story Path treats successes as a "currency". To succeed at your task, spend successes equal to the difficulty. If you have and successes left over, you can spend them on stunts, which are bonus effects available based on the kind of roll you're making.The ST can also add complications to a roll, which are bad things that can happen even if you succeed at a task. You can spend enough successes on a task's difficulty to complete it, but if you don't (or can't) buy off the complication, something will happen to drive up the stakes. For example, your character is trying to hack into a secured network to access a secret archive. The difficulty to do so might be difficulty 3. If you roll three successes you do it. But the ST might also add a complication of 2, to represent the server's admins tracing you. If you only rolled three success, you still succeed at your main task, but the bad guys have your IP address and will act on that. But if you roll five successes, you beat difficulty 3 and can also buy off the complication to avoid getting doxxed.It's a fun system.
>>93818972>>Rules are kind of janky, basically original Scion system with a bunch of mechanics for powersWere the super attributes as busted?
>>93832972Honestly? They can be, but I haven't played enough Scion to compare.
Talking about Aberrant, what are your thoughts about the new settings? Like aegis?
>>93833001NTA, but do you have friends that play Scion?
>>93793630Have you recreated any of your favorite heroes/villains through this system? And do you have any advice on doing so?
>>93793630I haven't played either edition of Aberrant, but I remember reading a lot of Aberrant 1E material way back when, before deciding that I probably wasn't going to run it. I remember 1E being sort of peak White Wolf in both good and bad, with interesting fluff, janky mechanics and books with atrocious layouts. I also remember there being a book with high-level powers that were obviously designed without any real consideration for how they'd work in an actual game. I mean, they were cool as hell, just obviously something that was also written to just be cool as hell rather than useable. In particular I remember there being a power called Universe Creation which let you, obviously, create a new universe.
>>93833025What new settings? I have no idea what you’re talking about.
