Product Review
aberration: n. departure from normal
type or accepted standard; deviation from biological
type; distortion
Aberrant is set in the year 2008.
Earth is very much the same as it is now except for
one important difference: superheroes live amongst us.
However, unlike many other superhero stories in which
humans separate themselves from the superheroes and
sometimes even fear them, the mutants in Aberrant are
generally accepted into the world and are looked upon
as celebrities.
So, how did these superheroes come
to be? In 1998 a research satellite exploded in orbit
around the Earth, it dumped a load of radioactive material
into a jet stream that fired towards Earth. This immediately
increased radiation levels worldwide. Within one day
the first Homo sapiens novas or “nova” erupted.
(That is to dramatically change from human to super-human).
Over the next month novas appeared on an almost daily
basis. By 2008 about 6000 novas are walking (or flying!)
the earth.
Although novas tend to be independent
in their actions, many have allegiances to various organisations
around the globe. Most of these, such as Project Utopia,
help utilise the super humans to make the world a better
place, while others strive to make the novas a species
of there own who do not recognise human laws. A new
group has recently arisen which believes that Project
Utopia has some hidden agenda for the novas, maybe even
to kill them off all together.
So the scene is set, we have a kind
of X-Men stroke X-Files scenario, but what is the book
like to read?
This is the first RPG that I have
bought with the intent to read through and to run as
a GM. I chose it because I know White Wolf to be good
publishers and also because at first glance the rules
seemed to be fairly easy to grasp. The best way to explain
the book is to run through it a chapter at a time.
Setting:
This hardback edition of the core rules book starts
with a 96 page colour introduction to the Aberrant world.
This is set out in a series of short articles, which
run through all of the important events that may be
relevant to any scenario that the GM sets. Some of the
articles are laid out as if they are being read from
a web page, while others are extracts from inter-department
memos or television programmes.
The whole section is very easy to
read through and contains a lot of information that
makes your brain tick away, constantly thinking up different
scenarios that could be set for the players, especially
conspiracy scenarios.
Possibly the most useful part of this
chapter for newbies to the book, is the timeline on
pages 9 to 13. This lists every important event related
to the Aberrant world and gives an immediate background
to the whole story.
My only problem with this section
is that WW have mixed up information that everyone would
find useful and is pretty much essential reading, with
information such as top secret memos that are very sensitive
and should not be read by most player characters. If
players end up reading something that their character
should never know, it could ruin the whole scenario
of a future game for themselves and the rest of the
group.
Introduction:
This is the pretty standard chapter that introduces
the reader to role-playing and also gives a very brief
insight into the game’s world. It does contain
a nice glossary that lists terms used in the rest of
the book, which any newbies will find useful.
Chapter 1: Systems
The systems chapter gives the very simple rules by which
matters of chance are resolved in Aberrant. All you
will need for the systems adopted by Aberrant, is a
fair minded GM and a handful of D10’s.
Chapter 2: Character
This runs you through the all important process of creating
your characters. It does this by breaking it down into
two phases: The Human Phase (your character before he
erupted into a nova) and the Nova Phase (you guessed
it, your character post-eruption). Each phase is then
split into a number of steps, this all makes it very
easy to skim read the chapter and quickly fill out your
character sheet, which will be discussed later on. The
chapter also contains a cheat sheet, which is one page
on which the character generation process is listed.
This means that once you have read the chapter once
you can flick straight to this page every time you make
a new character and refresh your memory to make sure
you are spending the right amount of points in each
area etc.
Chapter 3: Traits
Traits cover all of you character’s strengths
and weaknesses, this is a reference chapter for your
character’s generation process. One of the most
important factors of this book is that the traits you
choose are not dependant on your social standing or
career path. Many RPG’s will first have you choose
a character type and then restrict you to a list of
skills that you can choose from. This is not the case
in Aberrant, giving the player the freedom to create
a truly super being of godlike proportions in any way
that he sees fit. Therefore, it is very important that
the player is sensible during this process, he must
bear in mind that the aim is to create a character that
is interesting and enjoyable to play rather than simply
making a big heap of muscle that can stamp on everything
in it’s way! Responsibility also lies on the player
to bear his character’s background in mind when
choosing traits. For example you are unlikely to find
a scientist that can run the 100m in 10 seconds are
you? (Prior to erupting that is).
Chapter 4: Mega-Attributes & Enhancements
This chapter deals with the attributes that go beyond
those of normal humans, the super-human powers that
novas hold. As with chapter three this is very much
a reference chapter for use during the second phase
of character generation. As expected, full details of
every attribute are given. Some of the powers are really
amazing. An example of a mega-attribute is Mega-Strong.
Two dots in a strength attribute for a normal human
would indicate that he can lift an average amount (about
45kg), but for a nova two dots would mean that he could
lift an amazing 10,000kg (10 tonnes). It the player’s
vehicle brakes down on the way home, he could simply
lift it up and carry it home!
Chapter 5: Quantum Powers
While the mega-attributes in chapter four are human
abilities taken to super levels, quantum powers are
the true super-human abilities. To own such traits are
the reason that people play super-hero games, I expect
that most people who buy this book go straight to this
chapter to check out what powers they will be able to
posses. Such traits are Bioluminescence (enabling a
nova to emit enough light to blind other characters)
and of course Flight. The list of available powers is
huge.
Chapter 6: Drama
This is where WW expand on the basic rules they set
back in chapter one. They run through pretty much every
action that any player could want to do and give the
GM tips on how various difficulty levels will affect
the dice rolls required. Because of the huge variations
of powers that the characters will posses, the combat
rules are not as easy to remember as simply how to punch
or shoot someone. For this reason you will never memorise
all of rules given here and these pages will need to
be book marked for reference during game sessions.
Chapter 7: Storytelling
This chapter is designed to give the GM a helping hand.
It tells the person running the game how to design and
develop stories the players will really want to play.
It helps the GM understand how the different situations
that arise in games can be used to move the story along.
This chapter also gives you some information on running
campaigns and offers some advice on connecting your
adventures.
Appendix
The appendix holds all the details and specifications
for objects found in the Aberrant world, as with chapter
six this shall be a chapter used for reference in games.
It also gives character details for people that may
occur in your games such as gang members or police officers.
Also three sample nova characters are given.
Conclusion:
This book is almost worth buying for the story alone.
It has a novel approach to the way in which super-humans
are accepted into the world. But apart from that the
rules are very easy to grasp for beginners, even though
there are so many powers to contend with, the book is
laid out reasonably well which makes them easy to look
up mid-game.
Above all, this is a game that the
players will enjoy. They have the freedom to perform
any feat imaginable and really let go of reality yet
stay in a believable world. The characters start the
game with power levels equivalent to Superman’s,
and grow to be god-like. But any game that simply has
these novas running around aimlessly and battering people
with road signs would have a somewhat limited playability
time, this again is where Aberrant has recognised a
problem that other super-hero games have not. They have
written in this superb conspiracy plot and added some
fine sub-books. Buy this game and you will not be let
down, but be warned: quite a lot of work needs to go
into planning stories for the game sessions, otherwise
players will end it feeling a great sense of disappointment.
Reviewed By Ed Jeavons |
