Aberrant Core Rulebook Pdf
Theodora Glime
The Aberrant logo consists of two elements: the blocky outer part and a messy, scribbed inner part. This inner portion was used during initial advertising for Aberrant, as far back as 1997's Trinity release. The center of the two R's were replaced by the number 9, forming a 99, letting purchasers know the year Aberrant was supposed to come out.
When the book was put into production, due to a technical error, a character sheet was not added to this core rulebook. (You can download character sheets from EON at -post.com/downloads/aberrant/interactivesheets.html)
Aberrant came out in 1999 and the books are Trinity size, the smaller A5 graphic novel format (I think). Setting material tends to be written in first person with rules at the back of the book. The rulebook is the only one to have colour art throughout the setting section, the others have only black and white interior art. Editing errors and spelling mistakes crop up infrequently, but when they do, they are noticeable. The rulebook costs 25 or 17 and the supplements about $15 or 8-10. 24 page minibooks cost $5 or 2.99
So once this setting has been absorbed by the reader, a world very much like our own, but distorted by the immensely powerful nova influence which is by and large positive, the subtleties of the game begin to emerge. This is not a traditional superhero game where novas don costumes and fight crime and camply costumed superviallians- Utopia has already cleaned up the western crime syndicates, and the super villians don't need to commit crimes as they are using their twisted genius at Microsoft in return for stock options and company cars. The Teragen, while possessing some pro-violence members, are not themselves an illegal group, and could be considered nova philosophers whose ideas are protected under free speech statutes- kinda like the Ku Klux Klan.
So what are the players and characters to do in this perfect world? And that becomes thecentral point of the game. As superhumans the characters are almost ridiculously over qualified for any job or task. The sheer power of novas (and in comparison to other superhero games, novas start at a superman power level going up to Dr. Manhattan level after a few years)means they are both the greatest opportunity and problem the earth has faced. Instead of a simple four colour world, most of the published adventures have the characters gradually becoming aware of levels of conspiracy within the Utopia and Teragen movements. That not everything is as it appears and that the random eruption of novas seems to be an artificial phenomenon. The search for the truth behind their species origin and the hidden manipulators of humanity turns this into a game resembling the plot mysteries of the X-files or Earth Final Conflict. Finding the characters a reason for grouping together and acting is something of a problem, but is rectified slightly with the official campaign books. In certain ways this makes the game ideally suited to having a PC-driven campaign. One group, the Aberrants is even provided as ideal PC motivating material. They seek to uncover the conspiracies within Utopia and Aeon and solve the mysterious murder of a prominent Team Tomorrowite called Slider who they believe found out more than she should have.
Added to this mix is the obligatory amount of existential angst created by playing a character different from his fellow man. To be fair to White Wolf, its probably handled the best of all their games, as the super humans gradually realise their expanding powers mean they can no longer fit into normal sized lives. Apart from the hardcore Teragen, this element is never at the forefront in the initial sourcebooks and material.
Aberrant uses the simplified version of the Storyteller game engine previously used in Trinity, but with a few tweaks. For those unaware of Storyteller, the basic game mechanic is to roll a number of ten-sided dice equal to the characters relevant skill and attribute ratings. The number of d10 that equal or exceed 7 are counted as successes. You add up your successes to see how successful the action was. e.g. trying to shoot someone my police officer rolls Firearms (3) plus Dexterity (2) = 5 dice. Getting a spread of 1, 4, 6, 7, and 9, I count 2 successes- a solid but not spectacular shot.People only botch an action if all their dice come up less than 7 and one of those is a 1. Difficulties of tasks are set by the GM determining how many successes on the dice he requires for an action to be successful. (this can sometimes result in a situation being totally impossible to fully succeed at as the GM requires 4 successes and the player only has 2 dice of relevant attributes or skills. But the default level is one success)
Combat is relatively straightforward and the rules contain hundred of super-powers with no really noticeable holes. If you want to play a mesmerist who disappears into the shadows at will, you can. If you want to play a superstrong Nordic type who summons berserkers to his side, you can. If you want control over the molecules and atoms on the other side of the world, you can create a character that does that too.
Finally there is Taint. Most WW games possess a trait that measures a negative quantity in some way. Werewolf has Rage, Wraith Angst, Changeling banality. Aberrant is no different as Taint measures how inhuman the superhuman has become. At low levels it can be weird Quantum spill over effects such as having blue skin, or gold eyes. At medium levels psychological disturbances become more common, or powers become permenantly on. (such as always being aflame or something).
Taint is a funny part of the system. Taking permanent points of Taint is easy during character generation or XP progression as it lets you get new powers cheaply. However its almost impossible to gain during play, meaning the player pretty much takes as much as he or she wants. Taint ties into the later Trinity game as at ridiculous levels of Quantum and over time it can cause mutations and psychopathic behaviour. However in the Aberrant era its still too early for it to express itself. As such its an easily ditchable concept, though a useful one for providing PC's with
In sort, its a pretty competent superhero rules system and one that is quite quick to play. Its lots simpler than DC Heroes or Heroes Unlimited, and whilst more complicated than Brave New World, allows more variation and subtlety in character creation. Definitely worth getting for the super-heroic capable rules, even if you dislike the setting.
Aberrant doesn't have this at all. You can create your character with any and all of the powers, from any background and with any agenda. Whilst groups exist in the game that you might want to join, that is a matter for roleplaying in the campaign, you don't need to start out with any group. And with the possible exception of the Teragen supplement, there is nothing to gained, powers or rules wise from joining any of the groups over another!
So if White Wolf cannot produce their normal splattage, what else is left? A number of books on the various nova organisations, the usual Player handbook, a GM's screen, an area guide and some adventure books.
Project Utopia was the first book published and mainly concentrates on the history and goals of the Utopian movement. Its quite invaluable actually in fleshing out who exactly is involved with the Project, which novas belong to which sections, what powers they possess and so forth.
Of particular interest is the material on Team Tomorrow- the poster boy group of Utopia which comprises some of their most powerful novas and who are used as a quick response group for everything from disaster management to hostage situations to publicity stunts.
The other special group is the sinister Project Proteus the dark twin of Utopia that routinely murders, blackmails opponents and suppresses information. They run a nova prison in Bahrain where scientific and medical experimentation on novas take place that would shame Dr Mengele.
There are two big gaps in this book- barely anything is said about the Aeon group to whom they answer and who name the Project directors, and anything on Caestus Pax, the follicly challenged 'most powerful nova in the world' and Utopia pin-up.
Because of the long range view of the authors (who suggest a campaign of several years as the Teragen Pantheon work out their ideological struggle) and the array of interesting and colourful NPC's, this book is of almost greater use to Role-players than the munchkins who just want it for the kewl powerz of Chrysalis!
The Directive Sourcebook concerns the intergovernmental response to the nova world. Designed to counter the increasing capabilities and influence of nova-kind, this group of spies, policemen and bureaucrats exist to maintain traditional human government power. Unfortunately, while excellent as a lower powered, humans with cool techno-gadgets and legal powers style game, these guys are still horrifically out-matched by even starting novas. A prohibition on Directive agents interacting with novas also puts the kibosh on 'mixed-parties' reducing the usability of this book to either a pure Directive spy campaign or as NPC opponents.
The book has a number of 2008 era spy gadgets, a few pointless templates and uninteresting NPC's, and details and trade craft that seem to lack any accuracy when compared to real world accounts of spying.
In short, this book is of limited use as a games supplement outside two limited styles of campaign, and while containing some fun gadgets and bad spy craft, its primary problem is its poor portrayal and understanding of non-American nations.
"Year One" is a funny book. An early release it listed and explored some locations of the Aberrant world and the nova or two that lived there. Its named Year One as it describes the Aberrant world at the beginning of the era- 2008. Supposedly later 'Year' books would outline the changes novas made. So the Lagos section gave information on Nigeria's new nova-supported dictatorship, the New York bit mentioned its famous novas and chain of nova themed restaurants (Star Lords as a pastiche of the Planet Hollywood chain) and so on.It covered a variety of cities from across the world, and then some of the nova-inspired technological advances such as the rare flying cars, environmental microbes etc. Each city pretty much got one nova statted and fleshed out, giving some ready-made plot hooks for the GM.The strangeness of the book was that many of the places and cities seemed somewhat hollow, with little but surface impressions described. None of the NPC's really grabbed me, and the technology section while worthy, disappointed me with a final section on saying how powerless PC's were to changing the tech-level. You could probably do without this book, and its one that I refer to the least.
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