| 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 |
