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I managed to buy the first copy of the Aberrant hardcover publicly available at Origins this year. As soon as the exhibitor's hall opened, I made a beeline for the White Wolf booth and bought a copy. Then the next day I got in to play a demo, and had the best game I was in at the con this year.

Aberrant uses the standard White Wolf system, specifically the version used in Trinity (to which Aberrant is a prequel), with some slight modifications. Aberrant, you see, is a superhero game, but one almost in the style of the Wild Cards novels--superpowers in a mostly realistic world. The rules are clean and neat, and character creation is set up in two stages, so that players can create their characters as baseline humans, then add superpowers, so that characters can become superpowered in game play, if that's the way the GM wants to do things.

The backstory: In 1998, the space station Galatea explodes, sending a wave of radiation over the earth and spawning the novas superpowered humans. The novas change the society of the world, creating new fashions, music, sports, television channels, scientific innovations, and new methods of warfare. The guiding force in all of this is Project Utopia, an international organization dedicated to using the powers of the novas to make life better for everyone. Project Utopia has set up multiple branches of Team Tomorrow (T2M) around the world to serve as the world's policemen in a very real sense, and also to apply nova-powered superintellects to solving social and environmental problems. On the surface, it seems like humanity is entering a golden age, but there are some flies in the ointment. The Teragen movement holds that novas are a separate species from humanity and not bound by human laws. The Directive is a shadowy multinational police force working in America, Russia, and Japan in opposition to Project Utopia. Finally, in the last several months, T2M member and the world's sweetheart Jennifer "Slider" Landers was murdered, apparently by her former teammate Andre Corbin. Corbin has since joined the fringe movement known as the Aberrants, which believes that Project Utopia murdered Landers and that it has a secret anti-nova agenda. All of this background is presented in a lengthy full-color section at the beginning of the book.

Fans of White Wolf games will probably pick up Aberrant just on the basis of brand loyalty. Fans of superhero games or science fiction games should also take a look at it. With a rich world background and easy-to-use superhero rules, this game stands well ahead of the pack.

Style: 5 (Excellent!)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Aberrant Hardcover
Author: not shown Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Game Studio Line: Aberrant Cost: $29.95 Page count: 286 ISBN: 1-56504-625-0 SKU: WW8550 Playtest Review by Kevin Mowery on 07/05/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Conspiracy	I managed to buy the first copy of the Aberrant hardcover publicly available at Origins this year. As soon as the exhibitor's hall opened, I made a beeline for the White Wolf booth and bought a copy. Then the next day I got in to play a demo, and had the best game I was in at the con this year. Aberrant uses the standard White Wolf system, specifically the version used in Trinity (to which Aberrant is a prequel), with some slight modifications. Aberrant, you see, is a superhero game, but one almost in the style of the Wild Cards novels--superpowers in a mostly realistic world. The rules are clean and neat, and character creation is set up in two stages, so that players can create their characters as baseline humans, then add superpowers, so that characters can become superpowered in game play, if that's the way the GM wants to do things. The backstory: In 1998, the space station Galatea explodes, sending a wave of radiation over the earth and spawning the novas superpowered humans. The novas change the society of the world, creating new fashions, music, sports, television channels, scientific innovations, and new methods of warfare. The guiding force in all of this is Project Utopia, an international organization dedicated to using the powers of the novas to make life better for everyone. Project Utopia has set up multiple branches of Team Tomorrow (T2M) around the world to serve as the world's policemen in a very real sense, and also to apply nova-powered superintellects to solving social and environmental problems. On the surface, it seems like humanity is entering a golden age, but there are some flies in the ointment. The Teragen movement holds that novas are a separate species from humanity and not bound by human laws. The Directive is a shadowy multinational police force working in America, Russia, and Japan in opposition to Project Utopia. Finally, in the last several months, T2M member and the world's sweetheart Jennifer "Slider" Landers was murdered, apparently by her former teammate Andre Corbin. Corbin has since joined the fringe movement known as the Aberrants, which believes that Project Utopia murdered Landers and that it has a secret anti-nova agenda. All of this background is presented in a lengthy full-color section at the beginning of the book. Fans of White Wolf games will probably pick up Aberrant just on the basis of brand loyalty. Fans of superhero games or science fiction games should also take a look at it. With a rich world background and easy-to-use superhero rules, this game stands well ahead of the pack. Style: 5 (Excellent!) Substance: 5 (Excellent!)

Aberrant Hardcover