The Inside Scoop on Gaming

I really wanted to hate this game. The only reason I picked this bad boy up is that it was on sale for 40% off, and some of my friends asked me if I would run it. So I figured I'd give it a shot, run a session, and probably put it on the shelf to collect dust. Well, then I read it.

Part of my probelm with so many games today is that they try to shoehorn any genre into a "house" system, even if the game design was never intended to be used in that manner. in fact, there are very few companies today that actually produce original rules on a per game basis. Now granted White wolf is no different, but they leared from their past mistakes when it came to this game. Instead of simply passing off the system as the perfect superhero game, White wolf created a genre in which you could play metahumans within the confines of the storyteller system. Taking a que from such comic sagas as "Watchmen" Aberrant takes place in the not to distant future of an alternate earth, where the next step of evolution ma be at hand. these super beings or "Novas" as they are called are improved human genoms that have been given thier power due to the evolution of the MR node of the Brain, A small lump of flesh that allows metahuman powers to come forth. With world governments and huge organisationa all trying to use these beings for thier own ends and a world who see them as either gods or demons, White wolf has actually crafted a pretty interesting world that is more limiting than say your average superhero game, like Champions, but all the more interesting for it.

The system is a slightly modifeid version of the storyteller system (identical to the one they used in trinity naturally) The main difference between it and the one used in WOD is the simplification of the "Difficulty system" in Aberrant, a 7 or above is considered a success no matter what, and the Storyteller simply asks for a requisite amount of successes. so instead of Difficulty 6 and atleast 2 sucesses, its now Gimmie 2 sucesses. Another interesting change is the "Mega Attribute" concept which allows players to have the extrodinary stats seen in most comic books, this system actually fits flawlessly into the storyteller system, and makes for some rather interesting characters. Each die of mega tattribute is worth one extra success should it rate a success, also any meaga attribute you have can have "enhancements" to make the attribute more focused, In fact you may find players making supers comprised mostly of mega attributes and not even reaching the powers section.

And speaking of powers, powers in Aberrant are fueled by "Quantum" much the same way that disciplines are fuled by blood in vampire, or gifts by Gnosis in Werewolf. and most of these are your typical fare, except a few that deal direcly with the whole Quantum forces thing. This is also where making a superhero that in the same mold as Iron man for example would be a lot harder if not damned near impossible, as the system is only really built to handle quantum powered "novas" but as a stressed earlier this is the systems strength, not trying to cover the entire qamut of Superhero gaming already covered by systems better suited to it.

The books format is similar to that of Castle Falkenstein or Trinity, with the first half being color pages filled with background, (In aberrant they atek a very media coverage turn with this which works well) my only real gripe with this section (an I'll admit it's kind of minor)is that I wish they would ave had less artists doing the art for this section, as soe pivital characters looked radically different under some artists, which is a bit confusing at times. but as for the most part the art is up to the white wolf standard, and the book itself is well organised with several good indexes (they have come a long way since page (XX)!!)

One other interesting thing is that in my playtest most of the players (familiar with WOD, but not Aberrant) became enthralled with the kind of dice pools they could lay down comparing thier new novas to past WOD characters and realizing that a nova would wipe the floor with even some of the nastiest arouns the Get of Fenris has to offer. This lasted until thier first combat when they found out that thier opponents could also lay down massive damage, It was fun to wacth my players realise that even with such massive power there is always someone badder than you.

In the end, I must highly recomend this to anyone who likes a good X-men level superhero campaign, while you may be disapointed if you were hooping for the Storyteller answer to champions, the game is really well done and the genre makes the game shine.

Aberrant
Aberrant Playtest Review by Jamie Herbert on 22/05/01 Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 5 (Excellent!) Are they heros or Monsters? ou be the judge. Product: Aberrant Author: Robert Hatch & others Category: RPG Company/Publisher: White Wolf Line: Aberrant Cost: 24.95 Page count: 268 Year published: 1999 ISBN: 1-56504-626-9 SKU: ww8500 Comp copy?: no Playtest Review by Jamie Herbert on 22/05/01 Genre tags: Science Fiction Modern day Superhero	I really wanted to hate this game. The only reason I picked this bad boy up is that it was on sale for 40% off, and some of my friends asked me if I would run it. So I figured I'd give it a shot, run a session, and probably put it on the shelf to collect dust. Well, then I read it. Part of my probelm with so many games today is that they try to shoehorn any genre into a "house" system, even if the game design was never intended to be used in that manner. in fact, there are very few companies today that actually produce original rules on a per game basis. Now granted White wolf is no different, but they leared from their past mistakes when it came to this game. Instead of simply passing off the system as the perfect superhero game, White wolf created a genre in which you could play metahumans within the confines of the storyteller system. Taking a que from such comic sagas as "Watchmen" Aberrant takes place in the not to distant future of an alternate earth, where the next step of evolution ma be at hand. these super beings or "Novas" as they are called are improved human genoms that have been given thier power due to the evolution of the MR node of the Brain, A small lump of flesh that allows metahuman powers to come forth. With world governments and huge organisationa all trying to use these beings for thier own ends and a world who see them as either gods or demons, White wolf has actually crafted a pretty interesting world that is more limiting than say your average superhero game, like Champions, but all the more interesting for it. The system is a slightly modifeid version of the storyteller system (identical to the one they used in trinity naturally) The main difference between it and the one used in WOD is the simplification of the "Difficulty system" in Aberrant, a 7 or above is considered a success no matter what, and the Storyteller simply asks for a requisite amount of successes. so instead of Difficulty 6 and atleast 2 sucesses, its now Gimmie 2 sucesses. Another interesting change is the "Mega Attribute" concept which allows players to have the extrodinary stats seen in most comic books, this system actually fits flawlessly into the storyteller system, and makes for some rather interesting characters. Each die of mega tattribute is worth one extra success should it rate a success, also any meaga attribute you have can have "enhancements" to make the attribute more focused, In fact you may find players making supers comprised mostly of mega attributes and not even reaching the powers section. And speaking of powers, powers in Aberrant are fueled by "Quantum" much the same way that disciplines are fuled by blood in vampire, or gifts by Gnosis in Werewolf. and most of these are your typical fare, except a few that deal direcly with the whole Quantum forces thing. This is also where making a superhero that in the same mold as Iron man for example would be a lot harder if not damned near impossible, as the system is only really built to handle quantum powered "novas" but as a stressed earlier this is the systems strength, not trying to cover the entire qamut of Superhero gaming already covered by systems better suited to it. The books format is similar to that of Castle Falkenstein or Trinity, with the first half being color pages filled with background, (In aberrant they atek a very media coverage turn with this which works well) my only real gripe with this section (an I'll admit it's kind of minor)is that I wish they would ave had less artists doing the art for this section, as soe pivital characters looked radically different under some artists, which is a bit confusing at times. but as for the most part the art is up to the white wolf standard, and the book itself is well organised with several good indexes (they have come a long way since page (XX)!!) One other interesting thing is that in my playtest most of the players (familiar with WOD, but not Aberrant) became enthralled with the kind of dice pools they could lay down comparing thier new novas to past WOD characters and realizing that a nova would wipe the floor with even some of the nastiest arouns the Get of Fenris has to offer. This lasted until thier first combat when they found out that thier opponents could also lay down massive damage, It was fun to wacth my players realise that even with such massive power there is always someone badder than you. In the end, I must highly recomend this to anyone who likes a good X-men level superhero campaign, while you may be disapointed if you were hooping for the Storyteller answer to champions, the game is really well done and the genre makes the game shine.