The Inside Scoop on Gaming

Aberrant: Year One is the first setting book for Aberrant. Filled with brief descriptions of over a dozen cities, many novas, and the cutting edge technology of 2008, the book gives a good overview of the ways in which the world of the novas is different than our world. In the end the book is fairly well done, with many plot hooks to play with, but fails to achieve the spectacular quality of setting books like Vimary or Pagan Shore.

The Art

At risk of falling into the form review category….. The art in this book is about the same as the art in all WW books. That is to say that there are a small handful of good pieces, and massive tracts of space wasting crap that make me want to gouge my eyes out. On the positive side the comic sections in the book are slightly better laid out than those in the earlier books. The comics in the book are actually starting to look like a real comic would, but I still have to wonder about their use. All too often we get comics depicting court scenes or TV programs, while the dynamic and exciting stuff is left to plain text. Shouldn't this be reversed?

The Rundown

The first section of the book is devoted to 14 cities about the world. None of the cities are given any deep treatment, they are simply given quick glosses of political, cultural, and economic high (or low) points. I actually found this method to be appropriate to this book, as the world of 2008 is not so radically different from ours that a GM could not use current maps, locations, and so forth to give life to the city. What the write ups of these cities really does is not show us the cities as a whole, but shows how they are different from our world. So rather than filling 20 pages with material about Jakarta that you could find in an atlas or newspaper, the book focuses on how Novas, Utopia, and the 9 years between now and then have changed the situations in the city. In addition the world wide spread of the cities allows the authors to show not just how specific places have changed, but the way that global politics and economics have changed as a result of the rise of novas as well.

The specific write ups of the cities are rather hit and miss. I live in L.A., and the write up of my home town made me giggle uncontrollably (and not always in a good way) as I read it. Having been involved in the politics of local police forces in the Valley I just find the idea of the Mayor of LA uniting all the police forces in the greater LA area into one force nearly farcical. The section on Lagos, however, was very well done. So inspired was it that I almost cried, "I Love Big Brother!" when I finished reading it. The way in which an intelligent, dedicated dictator is portrayed is miles beyond what is normally seen in RPG's dealing with the subject.

I also enjoyed little touches of protectionism, such as the movie industry having almost completely moved from L.A. to Mumbai. Some of the entries, however, smacked a little to heavily of authorial politics and as a result left a rather dry taste in my mouth.

The next section is on science and technology in 2008. This section was thoroughly well done, doing a very good job of projecting the possible technologies of the nova age. Almost everything included here is a technology that has already been proposed (and had initial tests run) in our world. The difficulties with actually bringing such theoretical devices to the market, however, are enormous and the book explains some of the ways in which novas have helped the process. The advent of novas did not change the whole course of science, it just accelerated it. In comparison with science in most super hero games I found this very well done and realistic. No infinity nullifiers here.

Included in the science section is a small number of weapons available to police and criminal types, including some that could do nasty things to even the all powerful nova's of the world. I was glad to see that the game did not simply present baseline authorities as letting nova's walk all over them. Here normal humans are given enough respect that they are allowed to start finding ways to take back some of the power that novas have stolen.

The final section of the book is a little blurb on optional rules for Super Science. This section was rather difficult, as the issues talked about where not sufficiently defined. After reading this section I thought that nova scientists should be allowed to make remarkable scientific leaps, but that they should not generally be able to pull Reed Richard's out of their shorts (no infinity nullifiers or unstable molecules made in a week). My friends, however, thought that it was limiting nova's too much by not allowing hyper-intelligent novas to effectively change the world. In the end I would say the every ST is going to have to read this section and decide for themselves what is "super-science" and what is simply advanced science.

The Conclusion

Year One is a good book. It shows the ways in which the nova world is different than ours, and it shows the ways in which science has grown. It will give any ST countless numbers of plot hooks and story ideas, as well as a more solid conception of the world. In the end though the inconsistent quality of the various sections, the lack of anything really world shaking or important makes this less a book that moves the line forward and more a book that simply fills in a few blanks left by the main book. It is worth it's $15 price tag, and I suppose that is the best that can be said of it.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Aberrant: Year One
Author: Jim Moore, Dean Shomshak, John R. Snead Category: game Company/Publisher: White Wolf Line: Aberrant Cost: $14.95 Page count: 112 ISBN: 1-56504-629-3 SKU: WW8502 Capsule Review by Brand Robins on 12/10/99. Genre tags: Science_fiction Superhero	Aberrant: Year One is the first setting book for Aberrant. Filled with brief descriptions of over a dozen cities, many novas, and the cutting edge technology of 2008, the book gives a good overview of the ways in which the world of the novas is different than our world. In the end the book is fairly well done, with many plot hooks to play with, but fails to achieve the spectacular quality of setting books like Vimary or Pagan Shore. *The Art* At risk of falling into the form review category….. The art in this book is about the same as the art in all WW books. That is to say that there are a small handful of good pieces, and massive tracts of space wasting crap that make me want to gouge my eyes out. On the positive side the comic sections in the book are slightly better laid out than those in the earlier books. The comics in the book are actually starting to look like a real comic would, but I still have to wonder about their use. All too often we get comics depicting court scenes or TV programs, while the dynamic and exciting stuff is left to plain text. Shouldn't this be reversed? *The Rundown* The first section of the book is devoted to 14 cities about the world. None of the cities are given any deep treatment, they are simply given quick glosses of political, cultural, and economic high (or low) points. I actually found this method to be appropriate to this book, as the world of 2008 is not so radically different from ours that a GM could not use current maps, locations, and so forth to give life to the city. What the write ups of these cities really does is not show us the cities as a whole, but shows how they are different from our world. So rather than filling 20 pages with material about Jakarta that you could find in an atlas or newspaper, the book focuses on how Novas, Utopia, and the 9 years between now and then have changed the situations in the city. In addition the world wide spread of the cities allows the authors to show not just how specific places have changed, but the way that global politics and economics have changed as a result of the rise of novas as well. The specific write ups of the cities are rather hit and miss. I live in L.A., and the write up of my home town made me giggle uncontrollably (and not always in a good way) as I read it. Having been involved in the politics of local police forces in the Valley I just find the idea of the Mayor of LA uniting all the police forces in the greater LA area into one force nearly farcical. The section on Lagos, however, was very well done. So inspired was it that I almost cried, "I Love Big Brother!" when I finished reading it. The way in which an intelligent, dedicated dictator is portrayed is miles beyond what is normally seen in RPG's dealing with the subject. I also enjoyed little touches of protectionism, such as the movie industry having almost completely moved from L.A. to Mumbai. Some of the entries, however, smacked a little to heavily of authorial politics and as a result left a rather dry taste in my mouth. The next section is on science and technology in 2008. This section was thoroughly well done, doing a very good job of projecting the possible technologies of the nova age. Almost everything included here is a technology that has already been proposed (and had initial tests run) in our world. The difficulties with actually bringing such theoretical devices to the market, however, are enormous and the book explains some of the ways in which novas have helped the process. The advent of novas did not change the whole course of science, it just accelerated it. In comparison with science in most super hero games I found this very well done and realistic. No infinity nullifiers here. Included in the science section is a small number of weapons available to police and criminal types, including some that could do nasty things to even the all powerful nova's of the world. I was glad to see that the game did not simply present baseline authorities as letting nova's walk all over them. Here normal humans are given enough respect that they are allowed to start finding ways to take back some of the power that novas have stolen. The final section of the book is a little blurb on optional rules for Super Science. This section was rather difficult, as the issues talked about where not sufficiently defined. After reading this section I thought that nova scientists should be allowed to make remarkable scientific leaps, but that they should not generally be able to pull Reed Richard's out of their shorts (no infinity nullifiers or unstable molecules made in a week). My friends, however, thought that it was limiting nova's too much by not allowing hyper-intelligent novas to effectively change the world. In the end I would say the every ST is going to have to read this section and decide for themselves what is "super-science" and what is simply advanced science. *The Conclusion* Year One is a good book. It shows the ways in which the nova world is different than ours, and it shows the ways in which science has grown. It will give any ST countless numbers of plot hooks and story ideas, as well as a more solid conception of the world. In the end though the inconsistent quality of the various sections, the lack of anything really world shaking or important makes this less a book that moves the line forward and more a book that simply fills in a few blanks left by the main book. It is worth it's $15 price tag, and I suppose that is the best that can be said of it. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 3 (Average)